On Thursday, November 24, the whole of America stopped to celebrate Thanksgiving, and thankfully, missiles of mass destruction stopped falling on the Gaza strip as part of a 4-day ceasefire with negotiations to release Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, writes Ruta Mave.

On October 7 the world was appalled by the massacre of 1200 Israelis as they slept within their kibbutz community established in 1951. Brutal atrocities were captured on the body cams of the 1000 Hamas extremist soldiers who staged a multi-pronged attack on innocent civilians. It shocked people globally to their core and understandably all supported Israel at this devastating time. That was over 50 days ago.

In retaliation, Israel unleashed extreme military measures including bombing civilian infrastructures like hospitals killing 14,532 Palestinians, about 6000 were children. Ten times more than those killed in the kibbutz. Punishments are meant to be proportional to the crime, it was intended to prevent excessive revenge.

Leviticus 24:19-21 states a man who injures another as he has done so it shall be done to him – fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. God’s teaching was meant to limit violence, not encourage it. The true intent God has for his people is that do not take revenge at all. Do not treat evil with evil but rather with love. Rom 12:17-19.

Unfortunately, this rarely happens. Instead, people are accumulating anger against others who violated them and later they take revenge in a larger response. This also seems to be happening in Dublin, Ireland.

Israel’s retaliation bombing of Palestinian occupied Gaza has once again shaken the world to its core. There were calls for a ceasefire and the sole purpose was to protect the innocent civilians. Israel’s punishment now seems greater than the Hamas crime.

Israel says their justification for the bombing of hospitals and schools is because Hamas have intricated tunnel systems hiding their command posts below these buildings.

If true, why didn’t they send in their elite Israeli soldiers to storm the tunnels rather than choose to bomb hospitals full of innocent injured women and children? Is it propaganda – information of a biased or misleading nature used to promote a political cause or point of view? The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. Despite this very complex situation that has existed for years, how can we ignore these are human beings, children and babies being killed and dying.

Palestine used to be called Canaan. Human habitation was there before 10,000 BCE. During Jesus time it was called the Holy land, it has been home to a diverse population of Arabs, Jews and Christians all with religious ties to the city of Jerusalem. 1995 Bethlehem became part of Palestine.

Judaism teaches Jesus of Nazareth was not the Messiah or the son of God. They don’t believe in the trinity of father son and holy spirit. Judaism emphasises the oneness of God who has established a special agreement with them. They are the chosen ones.

There appears no significant Israeli ideology, policy or plan to exterminate the Palestinian population. Unlike the holocaust which was the deliberate systematic calculated extermination of European Jewry. Israel’s policies based on defending its population can be scrutinised and criticised but they are not the same actions of the Nazis and the Holocaust.

Prior to October 7 massacre from 2008 until September 2023 there were 6407 Palestinians killed mostly from missiles while 308 Israelis died.

On December 20, 2021 a shooting policy approved the Israeli army to defend itself. January 2022 five Palestinian civilians were killed; February - six; March - eighteen; April another eighteen killed including eight unarmed children and two women without posing any threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers. Mandates from the Israeli Prime Minister gave authorisation for Israel’s army and security to wage an unrelenting war to defeat terrorism, translates into excessive force being practiced against the Palestinians.

In May, they stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque violently attacking worshippers inside, injuring 150 and arresting 400. It was noted that this unjustified attack on the worshippers reflected the recklessness and an apparent desire for escalation of decision makers in Israel, creating severe repercussions on the stability in Jerusalem and throughout the Palestinian territories.

In 2023 by August about 200 Palestinians and 30 Israelis were killed in near daily violence. Added to this has been an unabated expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, demolition of Palestinian homes and infrastructure including a school on August 17 by Israeli forces within areas that are under Palestinian control. Naturally, Palestinians fear for their future state.

The political horizon to form a peace-process two-state solution has stagnated.

To avoid more violence, decisions need to move swiftly towards meeting the legitimate aspirations of both Palestinians and Israelis.

To avoid more deaths, we must remember all humans have a right to live – their life.