By G. Dunkel
May 23, 2025

Israel is currently fighting an active war with Hamas in Gaza. According to the Gazan Ministry of Health, over 53,000 Gazans — including large numbers of children — have died since this war began 19 months ago.  Over 121,398 injuries have been reported between Oct. 7, 2023 to May 18, 2025. The British medical journal the Lancet estimated in February 2025 that deaths due to traumatic injuries in Gaza were over 70,000.

As casualties mount from a combination of the Israeli blockade of food and water and increasingly violent and targeted bombing attacks throughout Gaza, these figures are expected to be well over 100,000 or more.

The number of Israeli deaths is estimated at 1,706 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This figure includes the Israeli casualties from October 7, 2023.

Israel also has less intense armed conflicts than the one in Gaza with most of its neighbors in West Asia mainly involving air raids and missile strikes.

Israel is the only country in West Asia with nuclear weapons.

Their military supplies appear to be unlimited. When it runs out of 2,000 pound bombs or artillery shells or whatever, it gives a call, and usually sooner rather than later what it needs comes off the ship. Generally from the United States, but the imperialist European countries — France, Germany, the Netherlands — also participate in supporting Israel, certainly politically but also militarily.

The Arab states like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the armed movements like Ansar Allah (generally called Houthis), Hamas and Hezbollah don’t have F-16s and F-18s. They also lack billion dollar aircraft carriers, like ones the United States has, to guard their coasts.

But Ansar Allah managed to hit Israel’s main international Ben Gurion Airport with a missile on May 4, using a hypersonic ballistic missile with stealth technology and a range of over 1,300 miles. Despite Israeli efforts to intercept the missile using their Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and the Arrow missile defense systems provided by the U.S., the missile landed near the main terminal of the airport, causing a large crater and some damage. Flights going into Ben Gurion had to be diverted for most of the day.

A video on YouTube includes the Ansar Allah statement on this attack in English, and CNN reported the story. Ansar Allah also hit Ben Gurion with another missile about a week later.

Ansar Allah, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad have all used conventional missiles and drones to break through Israel’s air defenses. While these attacks have not resulted in considerable infrastructure damage, they have disrupted normal living, forcing people to go to air raid shelters. In several areas, both in the north and south of territory occupied by Israel, the frequency of rockets fired by Palestinian forces have created significant population displacements.

In the West Bank, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, engages in a variety of attacks, bombings, car assaults, shootings and knife attacks as well as training recruits in weapons and explosives. These attacks have been stepped up in response to an increase in settler violence.

Israeli public opinion favors ceasefire

A Jerusalem Post report on May 9 contradicts the widespread notion that public opinion opposes a peace deal. According to the post: “Many respondents said they believed a political solution would enhance personal safety, strengthen the economy and increase long-term stability, even as doubts persist over its feasibility.”

The general feeling among all the Palestinian groups that have said anything is that resistance to Israeli aggression has to continue and that they are calling for international solidarity.

It is critical that pro-Palestinian activists everywhere take this call seriously, making support for the resistance a primary slogan.