Before Israel declared war on Gaza, Gaza was little more than one huge refugee camp with a population of about 2.3 million and about the size of Delaware.

Gaza was never self-sufficient and greatly relied on an influx of money from other Arab states, the United States, Iran, etc. Gaza in effect was and still is a beggar territory almost totally reliant upon foreign aid and some humanitarian aid from UNICEF.

Since June of 2007, Hamas, the terrorist organization, has ruled over Gaza with an iron fist and its constitution calls for the destruction of Israel as a nation. To say that Hamas is a virulently anti-Semitic terrorist organization is an understatement.

With Israel cutting off food, electricity, and fuel, Gaza is currently in crisis mode and it doesn’t seem like things will be getting any better in the near future. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas as a political and physical entity but it won’t be that easy to do in reality. Hamas’s virulent ideology and rule will not be easy to replace even if Israel physically takes over Gaza. Just as the United States had trouble replacing the ruling Sunni politicians of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Israel will have trouble replacing Hamas since it will probably blend in with the population of Gaza and remain dormant until the situation stabilizes. Then it will, through assassinations and other terrorist activities try to take over political power again.

Israel may not be able to totally destroy Hamas and there may be a global push for a cease-fire once the humanitarian crisis peaks and Gazan civilians begin to die by the thousands.

Israel’s intelligence network may be quite good. Eventually, once it takes over or floods all the underground tunnels, takes out clusters of Hamas commanders and soldiers, and destroys rocket sites and ammo or munitions dumps, it may finally be ready for systematic apartment-by-apartment assault on Hamas. How long combing for Hamas soldiers in the city will take is anyone’s guess but it seems that it may take months and not weeks once the commitment to assault with troops is made.

Yet to be resolved is the determination of Hamas to defend Gaza to its last soldier with a rifle. Whatever the consequences for Gaza, there will continue to be a massive propaganda war to curry favor with other nations while the war lasts and beyond.

Already there are protests in many cities in the world sympathetic to Hamas or more specifically what Hamas frames as the Palestinian cause. The atrocities on Israeli citizens will soon fade into the distance and be replaced by claimed or manufactured atrocities on the Gazan population advertised worldwide on news media sympathetic to Gaza. Who will win the propaganda war in the long run is anyone’s guess but from now on the emphasis will mostly be on Gazan civilians dying against the “bully” Israel.

It is still too early to make any predictions about how the war will proceed and end.

The many unknowns or unanswered questions are the effectiveness of Hamas soldiers, the effectiveness of Israeli soldiers, the state of Gazan civilians, the resolve of the Israeli government, the potential involvement of Iran’s Hezbollah, and perhaps most important of all the worldwide opinion on the ongoing war.

Israel, which has struggled to survive militarily since its founding in 1948, still has Iran as its biggest enemy to date. If Israel is not surgical enough in its aggressive military actions then it will be forever blamed for a massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Whatever happens, it seems that Gaza will be pulling on the heartstrings of Muslim and non-Muslim nations for economic aid on into the foreseeable bleak future.

Image: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0