R Krishna Das
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) continued to attack the alleged military hideouts of Hamas in Gaza in the wee hours of today with heavy bombardment even as the strike had rifted apart the Arab states.
For the first time, the Arab states remained a divided house to take sides in the fresh clash between the two foes, Israel and Palestine that had been at war for long.
“Overnight, we struck terror targets in Gaza City: rocket launch sites aimed at Tel Aviv and across Israel, 65 terror targets in the Hamas ‘Metro’ tunnel system, a Hamas Anti-Tank Missile squad. Hamas proves again that it deliberately places military targets in civilian areas,” IDF said in a tweet.
The aggressive stand of Israel to protect its people from the militant attack had surprised the international community amidst efforts for a cease fire. But the twist comes from Arab states. The new diplomatic equation formulated by the then US President Donald Trump in the Middle East had brought the change.
While Muslim majority states that include Turkey and Iran had blamed Israel of incitement at the al-Aqsa mosque and committing atrocities in Gaza, the others look the other way. The UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan that had normalised ties with Israel are in a fix to keep a balance between new diplomatic relationships and its own citizens who have been vocal against Israel.
International affairs observers felt that divergent reactions to the fresh round of fighting between Israel and Palestine had put some regional powers in a difficult position with their own populations. Many Arab states observe that breaking new alliance with Israel would not be good for the future plans and also countering its opponents in the Muslim group that included Iran, Turkey and the others.
Many Arab countries could have spoken in favour of Gaza and its people without referring to the militant group Hamas. But they preferred to remain mum.
