[runarberg]

I’ve heard some people describe this as the inevitable outcome of enabling Israel’s apartheid practices. That Israel has been using harsher and harsher policies against Palestinians over the years, dehumanizing them in the process, electing ever more right wing extremists into their government, etc. That Israel is functionally becoming a fascist ethno-state as a logical conclusion of practicing apartheid, and the international order not raising an issue. Starving an entire population of “the others” is simply something that fascist ethno-states do.

> It's interesting to me what the Hamas government thought was going to happen when they decided to attack Israel.

My theory is that they thought Israel would retaliate as they did, but then the International order would kick in, order a ceasefire and they could negotiate a deal using the hostages as leverage. I don’t think they thought that the international response would be as lackluster as we have seen (even the Bush admin did not veto a ceasefire resolution in 2008 like the Biden admin has done now 3 times).

We have to keep in mind that most (all?) Hamas members have family members who are starving and suffering. I very much doubt that they want that to continue.