It has been a year since the Israel-Hamas war broke out after the terrorist attacks of October 7. Thousands of civilians have been killed on both sides since the outbreak of this conflict. The number is expected to rise with the recent outbreak of conflict in Southern Lebanon. While the Holy Land has been wrought with conflict since Israel’s founding, the current conflict in Gaza is the deadliest thus far. The Associated Press reports that between October 2023 and August 2024, about 40,005 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis have been killed. The vast majority of Palestinian deaths have been women and children. This conflict has also been deadly to journalists and aid workers: 113 journalists, 284 aid workers, and over 500 health workers have been killed in Gaza. Approximately 86% of Gaza’s prewar population has been displaced, and around 1% of Israel’s population has been displaced from border communities. The civilian toll in Gaza has triggered widespread condemnation from the international community and calls for a humanitarian ceasefire. According to the BBC, Great Britain and Canada have halted some or all of their weapons shipments to Israel. The U.S. has continued shipping weapons to Israel, but the Washington Post reports that the Biden administration has given Israel 30 days to increase humanitarian aid going into Gaza or risk being cut off.

“We are very worried about escalatory behavior, about inflamed tensions,” said former U.K foreign secretary David Cameron to the BBC. “I’m absolutely clear, if we have to act, we will act. I’m in discussions with G7 partners, particularly European partners, on that. I’m not announcing further sanctions today but that is kept under close review.”

The international community has not done enough regarding Israeli leadership’s indiscriminate killings of civilians, journalists, and aid workers. Condemning Israel’s actions without any concrete ways of making this disapproval more tangible is not enough to deter Netanyahu and his administration from continuing its slaughter of civilians. There must be more international pressure placed on Israel to stop blocking humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza and from targeting civilians. According to the World Food Programme, important lifelines that allowed food into Northern Gaza have been cut off by Israeli bombings. The situation in the south is equally dire, and the risk of famine grows ever-present as food becomes increasingly scarce. Attempts have been made to deliver aid by air-dropping parcels or through a temporary port, but these attempts have caused more harm than good; aid falling from the sky has injured many and caused chaos as hundreds of people ran towards the few parcels to try and grab something. The temporary port shut down shortly after opening, having delivered very little aid into Gaza. Israel has forbidden international journalists from entering the enclave, and it is thanks to local journalists on the ground that the world is being made aware of the atrocities happening in Gaza. Hospitals, schools, and refugee camps are bombed and raided under the pretext of destroying Hamas control centers. The only ones who are burned, shot, and blown to pieces in the end, however, are civilians. Israel has had little to no success in killing Hamas operatives and terrorists. While the U.S.’s threat to cut off Israel if they don’t allow more humanitarian aid is commendable, it is not enough. Israel has faced no consequences for targeting civilians and workers and cutting off access to essentials. This must change, or civilians will continue to suffer. Likewise, Hamas’ actions are completely reprehensible. Their continued rocket launches into Israeli territory put Israeli civilians at risk and only escalate Israel’s disproportionately harsh response in Gaza, which worsens conditions for civilians. These so-called freedom fighters continue to provoke Israel and then hide behind the civilians and hostages. They too are responsible for all the lives lost in Gaza, not just the 1,200 Israelis that died on October 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims he will not stop until Hamas is destroyed, and the recent assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a step towards achieving this goal. However, this endeavor is folly. Netanyahu is not facing just a terrorist cell, but an idea and ideas are much more difficult to destroy. After news of Sinwar’s death broke out, Twitter was flooded with people lamenting his death, calling him a hero of Palestine, a freedom fighter, and a sign of resistance. The same man who orchestrated the October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people and caused the current war in Gaza is being called a great hero and a freedom fighter. This is the challenge and absurdity behind Netanyahu’s desire to destroy Hamas. Every bomb he drops in Gaza and every civilian killed by his orders leads a new generation of Palestinians into Hamas’ ranks. The idea that Hamas is fighting for a free Palestine and to destroy Israel will become very appealing to the thousands of children in Gaza who have watched their families die in Israeli bombings. Netanyahu is no closer to his goal of destroying Hamas than he was at the beginning of the war. He has only guaranteed more fighters for Hamas’ ranks and a conflict that could go on for many more decades. The entire conflict in the Holy Land has arisen from the incessant desire to create an exclusively Jewish ethnostate through the displacement and oppression of Palestinians and non-Jewish people living in the Holy Land. This is unachievable, as there will always be those who don’t quite fit the identity Israel considers desirable or part of the group. If Israel seeks to be an exclusively Jewish state, then what happens to non-practicing Jews? Converts? Black Jews? Arab Jews? Palestinian Jews? Why must a Jewish homeland be built through the displacement and oppression of Palestinians and non-Jews who live there? This doesn’t have to be the case. A state in the Holy Land must be cultivated with peace and unity in mind, not with conflict and division. For this purpose, a two-state solution is inadequate. Two separate states would only serve to reinforce an us-versus-them mindset, and this would not settle tensions in the Holy Land. A future Israel or the State of Palestine must be one in which Jews and Palestinians live peacefully side by side without demonizing the other. This will not be achieved by reinforcing this idea of a Jewish-only homeland or a Palestinian-only homeland. This idea excludes, oppresses, and divides. The Holy Land is home to all Jews, Muslims, and Christians. It is not the home of only one group or only one religion and claiming such isn’t conducive to peace. This future Israel or State of Palestine is one in which the grievances of the past are addressed, admitted to, and eventually forgiven. It would be a long and painful process, but a necessary one to ensure long-standing peace in the Middle East. It is up to moderates on both sides to leave extremists and hardliners aside and come together to reach a long-term solution to this conflict and bring two groups of people together to coexist in their homes, regardless of identity and religion.