Day after day, the blood of innocents spills in Gaza, while a dark cloud of hatred and division casts a growing shadow over the world.

The only way to halt the catastrophic chain of events unfolding in the besieged enclave is to cease hostilities immediately. Members of the international community must set aside their differences and unite once more to bring an end to the bloodshed.

MOUNTING CONCERNS

Four weeks have passed since Hamas, the Islamic group based in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, staged a series of attacks against Israel.

In a reprisal against the bloodshed that claimed around 1,400 lives, Israel’s military launched intense airstrikes and a ground offensive in Gaza, aiming to obliterate what it deems to be a terrorist organization. However, international agencies have cast doubt on Israel’s claims about the aim of the military offensive.

The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 9,000, according to a local U.N. agency, which said 70 percent of the victims were women and children. It condemned Israel’s military operations as indiscriminate “collective punishment” without distinguishing civilians from combatants.

Another U.N. body has said Israel’s airstrikes on a densely populated refugee camp could “amount to war crimes.”

Ignoring these warnings, Israel has expanded and intensified its military operations in Gaza.

Hamas is expected to counter the Israeli campaign by resorting to guerrilla warfare and moving within a labyrinthine network of tunnels it has built beneath residential areas. In urban warfare, targeting solely military facilities and militants is exceedingly difficult, and civilian casualties are bound to rise sharply.

Israel has called on 1.1 million residents in northern Gaza to move south for safety, yet airstrikes have not spared the south either. Shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine in the blockaded Gaza are severe, and there is no predicting the amount of humanitarian aid reaching victims in the coming weeks. The humanitarian crisis will only keep getting worse.

Is international humanitarian law being upheld? Are Israel’s military operations beyond what can be considered to be self-defense? The Jewish state should not forget that even countries that support Israel’s right to self-defense, including the United States and nations in Europe, are closely monitoring the situation with these questions in mind.

STALLED INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Since the establishment of Israel as a “Jewish state” in 1948, the Palestinian land has experienced periods when there were glimmers of hope for reconciliation and peace despite its war-torn history.

Such was the period following the Oslo Accord 30 years ago, which laid out a vision for a two-state solution where Palestine would gain independence and co-exist with Israel.

An international framework was created to support the agreement through four-way cooperation among the United Nations, Russia, the United States, and the European Union.

Yet, as Jewish settlements expanded into the areas designated for a Palestinian state, the agreement was gradually and effectively nullified. Gaza has been left behind in economic development, with strict restrictions imposed on the flow of people and goods into and out of the territory, which is likened to an “open-air prison.”

Global solidarity for peace-building in the region has weakened, giving rise to new divisions. In recent years, the United States has shifted its diplomatic focus to its increasingly hostile rivalry with China. Then came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.N. Security Council, responsible for “the maintenance of international peace and security,” became paralyzed as it is the stage for diplomatic tussles between the U.S.-Europe alliance and the China-Russia camp.

Washington criticizes Russia’s unlawful aggression against Ukraine while continuing to defend Israel’s attacks against Gaza under the pretext of self-defense. Moscow, while ignoring international criticisms of its own attacks on Ukrainian civilians, has proposed a resolution calling for the protection of civilians in Gaza. Both exhibit a self-serving double standard.

The U.N. General Assembly has adopted a nonbinding resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire, but Israel rejected it. The international community has not just failed to address the underlying causes of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, allowing outrageous acts to continue. It has also been unable to make any effective responses to the ongoing crisis.

The lessons from the rise of extremist terrorist organizations following America’s post-9/11 war on terror, which led to enormous casualties on both sides, must now be recalled and relearned.

Even if Israel achieves a military victory against Hamas, the anger and despair of the Palestinian people will not dissipate. It should also be recognized that even if Hamas is destroyed, the conditions for similar groups to emerge will remain.

CRISIS SPREADING BEYOND BORDERS

The conflict has already begun to spread from Gaza to the global stage.

In the West Bank, armed clashes have intensified, with casualties surpassing 100, fueling fears of a mass uprising.

Sporadic attacks against Israel have also come from Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamist political party and militant group based in neighboring Lebanon, as well as Syrian militant groups and others.

All these organizations attacking Israel, including Hamas, are backed by the Jewish nation’s main adversary, Iran. The potential for the conflict to spill over into the broader Middle East is alarmingly real. Iran must exercise restraint, and other nations must intensify diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict from widening in scope and dimensions.

In an era where images of violence and destruction go viral instantly via social media, the psychological impact on people worldwide cannot be ignored. Pro-Israel demonstrations and protests against the nation’s attacks against Gaza are spreading across Europe and America.

Particularly alarming is the spread of ethnic and religious hostility and hatred based on prejudice in the forms of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. In the United States, a Palestinian child was stabbed to death, and incidents inciting the murder of Jewish people have occurred. There is a legitimate fear of an increase in terror and hate crimes globally.

The crisis in Gaza is sure to become a new destabilizing factor for the international order. Even countries far removed from the Middle East cannot afford to remain unaffected. Japan, like other countries, has a responsibility to contribute wisdom toward a resolution.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 4