On Saturday, October 7th, Israel was suddenly attacked by a Palestinian army led by Hamas, a political-military group in Gaza, a region of southern Israel that borders Egypt.
Click here to read: 2023 Israel-Hamas War
Please leave and comments or questions below.
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
Thank you, Fr. Dave, for a clear and cogent explanation.
What is the motive behind the settlement of Jews in the West Bank area?
After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank but never annexed it as part of Israel. They only managed it for their security and safety. However, there are several right wing groups in Israel that believe the entire West Bank should belong to Israel, and so they seek to achieve “facts on the ground” by establishing Jewish settlements there. The problem is that the government of Israel is a Parliamentary System, meaning that the Prime Minister often must include far right parties into his government. This system often and unfortunately allows these kinds of settlements to happen. I think the best solution would be that if the West Bank is ever declared to be a Palestinian State then those Jewish settlements would now be a part of a Palestine State! Of course, the Jewish settlers there would be given the option of moving back to Israel.
Father, thank you for your clarity regarding the Israel Palestinian war. It has been heartbreaking hearing about the atrocities being committed.
Praying for Israel and for peace. However, keeping in mind this has certainly turned the worlds attention away from Ukraine. Another tragic on-going war for which, we pray, an end.
Thank you again and Blessings to you.
I am glad you found the article helpful!
I am not comfortable with the civilian population of Gaza being able to evacuate prior to increased Israel military action.
I am confident that Egypt will open its long closed border with Gaza and allow Gazans to evacuate there. The US government has been in close consultation with Egypt about this as well. Of course, Egypt will make sure that no Hamas soldiers cross into their territory. From day one, Israel has urged all Gazans to evacuate. Israel for many years during the last five Hamas conflicts developed what is called “The Knock Knock Bomb.” This is a small bomb dropped on a Gaza building that lets everyone inside know it is targeted for destruction, and that the residents must evacuate now. Later the building is completely destroyed. This is an amazing humanitarian effort not seen in any other conflict. Gazans have been given every chance to evacuate.
Very Sad situation where Hamas invades and slaughters civilians and families with a vengeance I can’t understand. This pulls Palestinians into a conflict they really have little power over. Leaders in other countries filled with hate of Israel ready to jump in and invade along with them.
Jesus was preaching love your neighbor but Hamas follows a far different path littered with the bodies of innocent people.
I pray some semblance of Peace will stir these peoples conscience to cease and desist in this inhuman endeavor.
I like your clear and complete explanation of the History of this Conflict.. better than News explains it. Thanks for the clarification. Tom
As always Fr. Dave’s concise statement on the history and current status of the issue is both informative and accurate. For those unfamiliar with the recent history of the region, his piece is a Godsend!
Thank you!
So whats the Popes and official Catholic stance on this war? Why is the Pope not condemning the attack on Gods People? What if the Vatican was attacked?
Make no mistake, these attacks are on Israel because of our Faith in the and only true God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Its not about Land.
The Vatican almost never comments on wars because it always hopes and aspires to be a mediator of peace between the warring factions. This is what they hope to do in the Ukraine war and the Vatican delegation has fortunately made some progress with Russia on reuniting children abducted by Russia with their Ukrainian families.
Thank you for the very informative article, “Israel – Hamas War”. I hope Israel does totally eliminate Hamas. After this is done I also hope they have a change in their own government that doesn’t include Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Golda Meir, who was the Prime Minister of Israel during the surprise attack of the 1973 Yom Kippur War lost her position precisely because she was in charge and did not see the Egyptian attack coming. I think the same fate awaits Netanyahu after the Hamas War is over.
Thank you Fr. Dave for your excellent and concise article on the current Israeli-Hamas war. I went on your tour of the Holy Land in 2008 and recently read three superb books on the history of the region. They are: (1) Archaeology of the Bible by Jean-Pierre Isbouts, (2) Jerusalem’s Temple Mount from Solomon to the Golden Dome by Hershel Shanks, and (3) In the Footsteps of Jesus, a Chronicle of his Life and the Origins of Christianity by Jean-Pierre Isbouts. The first is an excellent history of the entire region of the middle east, a portion of which is current day Israel. It’s incredible how many times that region has changed hands by various conquerors and wars and several resulted in complete destruction of major parts of Israel and the deportation of the people. This book helps you to understand the setting, the history, the importance to the various regimes and peoples, and the smoldering attitudes that still exist today. The second deals just with the Temple Mount and the importance of that small plot of land to the various competing factions. It was incredible to me how little detail of exactly where parts of the 1st and 2nd Temples were. What is clear from that book is the importance that real estate has to the Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The third book is all about Jesus and how Christianity got started and how it was almost extinguished multiple times. It was very educational for me, especially the role played by Paul in spreading Christianity and getting it to prosper over such a wide region.
Having said this, I must add that I was a U.S. Army officer and Army Ranger for twenty years and am a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point so I may look at the current conflict somewhat differently than many of your other readers. My view is that the recent attack by Hamas had nothing to do with gaining territory for a two-state solution and it had nothing to do with improving the lot in life for the majority of the Palestinian people. It was pure and simple a terrorist attack with the goal of killing as many Jewish people as it could. These terrorists were sponsored, funded, trained, and encouraged by the terrorist regime in Iran. I have a lot of experience with these types of terrorists through my Army connections and one thing is clear. Groups like ISIS and HAMAS can not be rehabilitated. Look at the nine terrorists who executed the deadly flights in 911. They lived among us for several years. They were treated with kindness and experienced our way of life, yet they had no problem killing people that had nothing to do with their beliefs or religion. The same with ISIS. No, these people can not be rehabilitated and they should be shown no mercy. They must either be locked up for ever or killed. Israel has no choice but to go in and clear out the whole Hamas organization and infrastructure and either kill or incarcerate all of the Hamas participants. That’s hard to do, however, because now many of the soldiers have donned civilian clothes and will try to escape among the fleeing Palestinian population. They will continue to use those people and the hostages as human shields and they will put many booby traps in the rubble along the way. It will be a bloody mess and very difficult to execute. My biggest concern is that we have a very weak and wishy washy administration here in the U.S. right now and I think they will almost immediately call for restraint and a cease fire which will allow the leadership of Hamas to survive to commit the same atrocities again in the future. Hopefully, the Israelis will have the courage and conviction to ignore these pleas and will be able to finish the job of annihilating Hamas. Thank you again for your very informative article.
Thank you for your kind words about my article, but let me also thank you for your excellent and very comprehensive response. You said many things, and I happen to agree with all of them! You also chose excellent resources and authors to learn about the area. I have read many of Hershel Shanks’ books. While I have not read any Jean Pierre Isbout’s books, I have seen many of his excellent video documentaries. May I also recommend any book by Bernard Lewis as well. I consider him the top expert of all. BTW, he speaks Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Armenian, Turkish, and Farsi, the language of Iran. You are certainly right in that Hamas is not interested in co-existence with Israel, but only the death of every single Israeli. Hard to negotiate peace with that position! I agree that the sometimes ambiguous nature of recent US government decisions have led to this crisis, however, I think the most recent US decisions this last week have been helpful by ensuring strong political and military support for Israel. What is very significant to notice is that not a single Arab nation has come to the aid of Hamas or the Palestinian people there. Arab nations know that Hamas is a hindrance to Middle East peace and prosperity.
Thank you and bless you Fr. Dave for explaining this heartbreaking situation to us with such expertise. It is a very insightful article and thread for those of us who had limited knowledge of the situation. Praying for God’s will to be done.
I am very glad you found the article helpful. Knowing what is going on and why helps a lot.
Excellent article on a deeply troubling situation. End result status is so unknown and frightening.
We can only hop for the best, and the least amount of innocent casulties.
I just reread this article. Thanks again.
What do you think of all the crazy anti-Semitism protests and seemingly support for Hamas?
The protests have been organized by well funded anti-Semitic groups supported by Iran. The planning began before the October 7th attack. They are taking advantage of naïve students who are very uneducated about Middle East issues. They also have taken advantage of sympathetic Marxist oriented professors at many of our larger Universities. Very sad.