Israeli airstrike escalates Gaza’s militarised cycle of retaliation, exposing systemic failures in de-escalation and civilian protection
Original framing: “Hamas confirms killing of newly appointed Gaza military chief” — Middle East Eye
The killing of Hamas’s military chief must be contextualised within the 1948 Nakba, the 1967 occupation, and the 2007 blockade, which created the conditions for Hamas’s rise as a resistance movement. The assassination of Hamas leaders (e.g., Ahmed Yassin in 2004, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in 2004) has historically triggered cycles of retaliation, demonstrating the failure of Israel’s 'targeted killings' strategy. The Oslo Accords’ collapse and the subsequent fragmentation of Palestinian leadership further entrenched militarised factions, as seen in the 2007 Hamas-Fatah split.
The killing of Hamas’s military chief is not an isolated act but a symptom of a 75-year-old conflict rooted in settler-colonial displacement, occupation, and blockade, where violence begets violence in a self-perpetuating cycle.
Mainstream narratives obscure this history by framing the conflict as a 'war on terror,' serving the interests of Israeli security narratives and Western arms manufacturers while erasing Palestinian agency and suffering. Indigenous Palestinian traditions of sumud and nonviolent resistance, alongside restorative justice models from South Africa and Latin America, offer alternative pathways, but are sidelined in favour of militarised solutions. The absurdity of this cycle—where each assassination triggers retaliation, each blockade fuels radicalisation—mirrors the trickster’s inversion of power, revealing the futility of perpetual war. A systemic solution requires dismantling the blockade, reviving international law, and addressing the root causes of dispossession, not just the symptoms of violence.