Editor, The Beacon:

The surprise attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, left 1,200 Israelis dead and 240 taken hostage. In response, the Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 30,000 Palestinians to date, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Israeli retribution has been fierce and indiscriminate. The overwhelming majority of Palestinians killed or wounded have been civilians, primarily women and children.

The Israeli response to the Hamas attack has been to wage war on all Palestinians, regardless of their support, opposition or ambivalence to Hamas. For the IDF, any distinction between Hamas and Palestinians is lost. They are treated the same.

The bombings in Gaza, the targeting of medical facilities, the deprivation of food and water to the civilian population are all designed to not just destroy Hamas, but to destroy the Palestinians as a people. This is genocide on a calibrated scale.

The Biden administration’s complicity in this famine and destruction is shameful. The irony is that although tactically Hamas has lost, given the scale of destruction in Gaza, strategically, they have won. The survivors of the Israeli revenge operation will become the new recruits for a future Hamas.

When you lose your family and home to bombings, starvation and disease, you have the recipe for future retribution. Palestine, more recently named Israel, has seen enough of that in its long history.

Chuck Oakwood

DeLand