On October 7, 2023, a militant group called Hamas launched an assault on southern Israel; Gunmen killed more than 1,400 people, injured about 3,300, and took about 200 as hostages according to CNN. This took Israel by surprise and caused them to declare war on October 8. Retaliations from Israel have been fierce with an air, ground, and sea campaign. This has caused a catastrophic humanitarian disaster in Israel and Palestine with both launching rockets at each other daily.
On October 13, the Israeli army ordered 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate the area before they started their ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stating in a televised address “Get out of there now.” Many of them left for Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Israel had designated many “safe routes” in which Palestinians could flee to the Sinai Peninsula. Many of said “safe routes” were bombed killing hundreds of fleeing people. This caused some debates between Israel and Palestine with both claiming it was the other one who fired the rockets. It also worried and scared Palestinians who were going to use these “safe routes” to evacuate and slowed down evacuation routes.
Palestinians fleeing their country into others has put both Egypt and Jordan into a dilemma with Egypt opening its borders for limited evacuations and Jordan’s King, Abdullah Ⅱ, stating that “No Refugees in Jordan, No Refugees in Egypt” with both countries not wanting to open their borders to Palestinian refugees fully. A staff member at Champaign Central High School commented “Most countries are hesitant to let Palestinians in because they may be afraid of the consequences of retaliation from Israel.” Egypt and Jordan don’t want to give Israel a motive for them to go to war. They are afraid that Israel will permanently expel Palestinian refugees with Jordan already having the highest number of refugees.
In the past 10 years, less than 600 Palestinians have entered the U.S. under the Refugee Admission Program. This has split many in the U.S. mainly Democrats and Republicans. Republicans in Congress want to ban entry to Palestinians even though it’s almost impossible for them to enter the country. Many democrats urged U.S. President, Joe Biden, to grant temporary protected status to Palestinians like tourists, students, and workers who are already in the U.S. so that they don’t go back to the Gaza Strip when their visas expire.
The biggest receiver of U.S. aid is Israel with Israel having received $300 Billion since the 1940s on November 2nd the U.S. House of Representatives approved a 14.5 Billion dollar military aid package for Israel. All of this has caused an uprising of anti semitism in the U.S. with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) stating that “ADL center on extremism indicated that reported incidents of harassment, vandalism, and assault increased by 388%.” This is mostly seen in school or school campuses.
The Israeli-Hamas War so far has caused countless amounts of gruesome events since it started. People around the world can only hope and watch for the horrors to stop.