The Israeli Ambassador to Ghana Shlomit Sufa has described Hamas as a terrorist organisation that is killing people. She said there was a need to defeat the Harmas in order to protect lives. “Israel is at war with Hamas, Hamas is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel on October 7, attacked us viciously and indiscriminately killing some 1400 people, innocent civilians who were just living their lives in the vicinity of Gaza. The terrorists killed those people in the most brutal and inhumane way you can imagine.
“They took back to Gaza with the 240 people as hostages and our goal is to destroy Harams in this war and release our hostages,” she said on the Hot Issue with Kemmini Amanor on TV3 Sunday, November 12. The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel on Saturday, with hundreds of gunmen infiltrating communities near the Gaza Strip.
At least 1,300 Israelis have been killed, while dozens of soldiers and civilians, including women and children, are being held in Gaza as hostages. More than 1,300 Palestinians have also been killed in numerous air strikes on Gaza that Israel’s military is carrying out in response, and Israel has imposed a total blockade on the territory, denying it food, fuel and other essentials.
It is also massing its forces along the Gaza border and Palestinians are bracing themselves for a ground operation which could cost many more deaths. Britain took control of the area known as Palestine after the ruler of that part of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, was defeated in World War One.
The land was inhabited by a Jewish minority and Arab majority, as well as other, smaller ethnic groups. Tensions between the two peoples grew when the international community gave the UK the task of establishing a “national home” in Palestine for Jewish people.
This stemmed from the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a pledge made by then Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Britain’s Jewish community. The declaration was enshrined in the British mandate over Palestine and endorsed by the newly-created League of Nations – the forerunner of the United Nations – in 1922.
To Jews, Palestine was their ancestral home, but Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and opposed the move. Between the 1920s and 1940s, the number of Jews arriving there grew, with many fleeing from persecution in Europe, especially the Nazi Holocaust in World War Two. Violence between Jews and Arabs, and against British rule, also increased.
In 1947, the UN voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem becoming an international city. That plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by the Arab side and never implemented. In 1948, unable to solve the problem, Britain withdrew and Jewish leaders declared the creation of the State of Israel. It was intended to serve as a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution, as well as a national homeland for Jews. Fighting between Jewish and Arab militias had been intensifying for months, and the day after Israel declared statehood, five Arab countries attacked.
By: Laud Nartey
