The story so far: The Biden administration on October 20 sought emergency assistance from the U.S. Congress amounting to $14.3 billion in aid to Israel amid the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza Strip. In an address to the nation, U.S. President Joe Biden declared his support for Israel [and Ukraine as well, against Russia] and said that the urgent funding for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, as well as humanitarian aid and border management is a “smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations.”

President Biden’s address came after his quick trip to Israel where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and voiced his support for the country after an attack by Hamas militants on October 7.

“I understand. Many Americans understand,” Mr. Biden said as he wrapped up his stay in Tel Aviv, likening the October 7 Hamas assault to the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people. “You can’t look at what has happened here… and not scream out for justice,” he said. 

President Biden was also scheduled to meet Arab leaders but Jordan called off the planned after the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that at least 500 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike at the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza city on October 17. The Israeli military said it had no involvement and pinned the blame on a misfired Palestinian rocket.

U.S. foreign aid for Israel

The U.S. has historically maintained a supportive view of Israel. It was the first country to recognise Israel as a sovereign nation in 1948. Since then, it has backed the West Asian country in international forums, mediated discussions in the geopolitically troubled region, and provided financial assistance.

A report published by the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) in March 2023 says that Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. The U.S. has provided Israel with $158 billion (not adjusted for inflation) in bilateral assistance and missile defence funding till date.

Although the U.S. provided economic assistance to Israel from 1971 to 2007, almost all current U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance. 

The two governments signed a 10-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2016, which covers years 2019 through 2028. U.S. pledged to provide Israel with $38 billion in military aid ($33 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants plus $5 billion in missile defence appropriations), subject to congressional allocation.

For the 2023 financial year, the U.S. Congress authorised $520 million for joint U.S.-Israel defence programmes, which includes $500 million for missile defence, under the James M. Inhofe National Defence Authorisation Act for the year. According to the terms of the MoU, the U.S. Congress approved $3.8 billion for Israel under foreign military financing and missile defence in the FY2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, and added another $98.58 million in funding for other cooperative defence and non-defence programmes, the CRS report said. 

The U.S. also provides financial aid for Israel’s Iron dome, the sophisticated air defence system designed to intercept short-range rockets fired from up to 70km away. The U.S. began financially supporting Israel’s development of Iron Dome in 2011.

Wartime assistance to Israel

Out of President Biden’s $14.3 billion proposed aid to Israel, over $4 billion has been allocated to defence-related activities in Israel, including equipment and military education and training. Another $801 million, if approved, will go towards procuring ammunition, improving ammunition plants and equipment.

In compliance with its support for Israel’s Iron Dome, President Biden’s proposal includes $4 billion for procuring enhanced system capabilities for both Iron Dome and David’s Sling, and another $1.2 billion for research and development of the Iron Beam defence system capabilities.

The proposal also allocates $3.5 billion towards refugee assistance from the war in both Ukraine and Israel, and another $5.7 billion to meet humanitarian needs stemming from the war in Ukraine, the situation in Gaza, and the regional and global impacts of those crises.

Where does Jerusalem stand in Israel-U.S. relations?

In 2017, former U.S. President Donald Trump reversed decades of policy by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He called his decision “long overdue,” despite warnings that the move could deepen the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Israel views Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while the Palestinian Authority, the provisional government in the West Bank, sees the eastern half of the city as the capital of their future state.

The U.S. Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, calling on the United States to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognising it as Israel’s capital. But Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, kept postponing the move, six months at a time.

The U.S. now operates an embassy in Jerusalem; it was opened in May 2018 under former President Trump.

UNSC support

The U.S.’s support to Israel reflects in its stand at international forums, like the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). On Wednesday, the U.S. vetoed a UNSC resolution that called for humanitarian access to Gaza Strip and a pause in the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas militants. Twelve members voted in favour of the draft text framed by Brazil, while Russia and Britain abstained.

Russia also attempted to bring in a similar resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Monday but it failed to pass.

Over the years, the U.S. has blocked multiple UNSC resolutions concerning the situation in West Asia, “including the Palestinian question,” hence maintaining its position as one of the strongest allies of the country.

What U.S. interests does Israel serve?

Israel’s technical advancements have solidified its position as one of the most sophisticated weapons manufacturers in the world. According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Israel was the tenth-largest weapons exporter between 2018 and 2022. Although the U.S. tops the list, it still depends on Israel for the manufacture of parts of its weapons, including the F-35— among the most advanced fighter jets in the world. Israeli companies make F-35 wing sets (Israel Aerospace Industries) and helmets (Elbit Systems), a CRS report said.

Israel also holds considerable power in West Asia, the shatterbelt region in which U.S has recorded immense interest. Soon after Israel was formed in 1948, Arab nations like Egypt, Jordan, and Syria attacked the newly-formed territory in the first Arab-Israeli war. However, over the years, the geopolitics of the area changed drastically, and while other countries lagged across economic and sociopolitical sectors, Israel established itself as one of the leaders of the geopolitically tense region.

Israel crushed Egypt and Syria in the six-day war of 1967, making further territorial gains and establishing itself as an eminent military power in the region. As the influence of Arab countries waned over the years and the U.S. made inroads in the region through either diplomatic efforts or invasions, Israel remained its steadfast ally through it all, cementing the relationship between the two countries.

Palestinians inspect the damage after overnight Israeli strikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 22, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Since the beginning of Israeli strikes following Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7, over 4,700 people have died in the Gaza Strip, according to reports from the territory’s leaders. Of these, close to 1,800 were children, says the Palestinian health ministry. Israeli strikes on Gaza have also left about 16,000 people injured.

The Gaza Strip, a financially strained Palestinian territory, has been under Israeli blockade since 2007. It is been under the governance of Hamas, which has engaged in war with Israel five times in the last 15 years. The Gaza Strip was occupied by Israel during the 1967 war and returned to Palestine fully in 2005. As Gaza shares its border with Israel in the north and east, Egypt in the south, and the Mediterranean Sea in the west, its entries and exits are heavily controlled. In 2007, Israel imposed an air, land, and sea blockade on Gaza. This means that except the Rafah entrance on the Egyptian border, every other point is controlled by Israel.

Due to such intense scrutiny on the movement of men and goods combined with years of bombardment, Gaza has not seen meaningful development in recent decades. The latest war with Israel is the fifth in the last 15 years, with the other four recorded in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. Each time, air strikes from Israel have flattened buildings and killed civilians. This has led to an increase in poverty levels.

The GDP per capita of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022 was $5,722 (Chart 1A). This was less than that of India ($7,096) and just above the GDP per capita of Pakistan ($5,452). Israel’s GDP per capita was seven times higher at $44,272.

Chart 1A | The chart shows GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2017 international $).

Chart appears incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode

Chart 1B | The chart shows the percentage of persons under the poverty line.

The death toll in Gaza has already reached record levels. With over 4,700 casualties and counting, Hamas’ fifth war with Israel has become the deadliest so far. The seven-week conflict in July-August 2014 killed about 2,250 Palestinians. While many children have died in the conflict, fertility levels in the region were among the highest in 2021 with 3.5 total births per woman. For comparison, India’s fertility rate was 2.08 (Chart 2A).

Chart 2A | The chart shows the fertility rate (the number of births per woman) as of 2021.

The population density of the Gaza Strip is 6,019 (Chart 2B), making it one of the densest places in the world. Only four other places are more densely populated than Gaza — Macao, Monaco, Singapore, and Hong Kong. 

Chart 2B | The chart shows population density (people per sq. km of land area).

With a huge population, most of them children, the burden on adults to provide for them is very high. However, due to the poor presence of industry, Gaza suffers from chronic unemployment. More worryingly, only a small share of the population is even looking for jobs. The labour force participation rate (percentage of the total population aged 15+ who were employed or looking for work) in the West Bank and Gaza in 2021 was 43%. If only the Gaza Strip is considered, it was even lower at 35%. These figures were among the lowest in the world. And of them, only a small fraction was employed. In the West Bank and Gaza, the unemployment rate was 26% in 2021. In Gaza, it was 45% (Chart 3A).

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Chart 3A | The chart shows unemployment as a share of the total labour force.

Chart 3B | The chart shows the labour force participation rate.

While over 16,000 people are injured in Gaza, the region only has 13 hospital beds per 10,000 population (Chart 4A), among the lowest in the world. It hints at the possibility of the death toll increasing much further given that the wounded may not get adequate treatment.

Chart 4A | The chart shows the number of hospital beds per 10,000 people. 

Chart 4B | The chart shows the number of doctors per 10,000 people.

Chart 5 | The chart shows the daily water consumption in litres per capita per day.
With inputs from AP, AFP and Reuters. This is the first of a three-part Data Point series on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Source: World Bank, World Health Statistics 2023, Atlas of Sustainable Development 2023 and Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics

Also read | Israel-Gaza war: Thousand dead, thousands displaced | Data

Listen to our podcast | How Turkey’s economic and political trajectory compares to India | Data Point podcast

Watch | What does the Hamas attack mean for Israel, Palestine and West Asia?

The unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which killed some 1,200 Israelis, has exposed chinks in Israel’s security model, brought the Palestine issue back to the fore of West Asia’s geopolitical cauldron and triggered a massive military response from Israel.

Will West Asia be the same ever again?

Read more:  What is Hamas, the Palestinian militant group? 

 What are Israel’s options after the Hamas attack? | Analysis 

Presentation and script: Sonikka Loganathan

Guest: Stanly Johny

“We have decided to put an end to all of the occupation’s crimes. The time is over for them [Israel] to [continue to] act without accountability,” said Mohammad Deif, the secretive commander of al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, on October 7. His audio statement was telecast on TV after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack that caught Israel by surprise. “Thus, we announce the ‘al-Aqsa Flood’ operation, and in the first strike within 20 minutes, more than 5,000 rockets were launched,” he said. The rest is history. Hamas carried out its largest attack on Israel from Gaza, killing at least 900 people and leaving the bloodiest blow to Israel in decades. In response, Israel has declared war on the outfit, killed over 500 Gazans in air strike and is preparing for a major ground offensive. The Palestine issue is back to the fore of the West Asian cauldron.

Click here for more updates on Israel-Hamas war day 4

Ever since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, there were several conflicts between Israel and the group, in which thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis were killed. But this time, given the magnitude of Israel’s losses, it is going to be different. What is unfolding now is the most serious conflict between the two sides ever since Hamas was born. It is an irony that Hamas, whose founding members were encouraged by Israel in the 1970s and 1980s against Yasser Arafat’s secular national movement, has turned out to be Israel’s biggest rival in the Palestinian territories.

Editorial |Original sin: on the attack on Israel and the occupation of Palestine

The roots

The roots of Hamas go back to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, established by Egyptian Islamist Hasan al-Banna in 1928, made a presence in the British-ruled Palestine in the 1930s. In 1935, Banna sent his brother Abd al-Rahman al-Banna to Palestine to build contacts. Its focus had been on reorienting Muslim society, while the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), founded in 1964, championed the Palestinian nationalist sentiments. After Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and Gaza Strip from Egypt in 1967, the PLO, vowing to liberate the whole of Palestine, would start a guerilla war against Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood would still stay away from politics, but their leadership was increasingly critical of the PLO’s secular nationalism.

The Brotherhood’s approach was that time for “jihad” had not come yet and they should first rebuild a stronger, pious Islamic society — they called it “the upbringing of an Islamic generation”. During this time, Israel established contacts with the Brotherhood leadership in the occupied territories. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the physically challenged, half-blind cleric of the Brotherhood, established al-Mujamma’ al-Islam (The Islamic Centre) in 1973. Israel recognised the Centre first as a charity and then as an association. This allowed Yassin to raise funds, build mosques and set up educational institutions, including the Islamic University of Gaza. But the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran would change the landscape of Islamist politics across West Asia. Islamist organisations, having witnessed the political success of the Mullahs in Iran, started becoming politically more ambitious and active. The 1980s saw repeated clashes between the left-wing supporters of the PLO and the Islamists in the occupied territories.

The rise

Hamas was established after the first intifada broke out in 1987. On December 8, 1987, several Palestinians were killed in a traffic incident in Gaza, involving an Israeli driver, leading to a wave of protests. This incident led to an explosion of pent-up anger of the Palestinians, who, despite the PLO’s fighting and activism, were not seeing any end to the occupation. The occupied territories were swept by a mass uprising. The PLO called on its supporters to join the intifada. The Brotherhood also found it an opportunity to enter the struggle against the occupation. On December 14, the Brotherhood, under the leadership of Yassin, issued a leaflet, asking Palestinians to stand up to the Israeli occupation. In January, they issued another leaflet under the name Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (the Islamic Resistance Movement) — in short, Hamas, which means “zeal” in Arabic. In 1989, Hamas launched its first attack, abducting and killing two Israeli soldiers. Israel cracked down on the group, arresting Yassin and jailing him for life.

Unlike the PLO, which was modelled around the leftist guerilla national movements in the third world, Hamas had a completely different vision. The charter it issued on August 19, 1988 was studded with anti-Semitic remarks. According to the charter, Palestine is “an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day”; “there is no solution to the Palestine problem except jihad” and all peace initiatives are a “waste of time and acts of absurdity”. When the PLO moved to join peace efforts seeking a solution to the Palestinian issue, Hamas hardened its position. It opposed the Oslo agreement, which allowed the formation of the Palestinian Authority with limited powers within the occupied territories. When the PLO recognised Israel, Hamas rejected the two-state solution and vowed to liberate the whole of Palestine “from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea”. It has built an organisation with several branches — the social wing is involved in Islamic education and charity works, while Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing, is in charge of military planning and weapons acquisitions. It also has a political bureau. In October 1994, a year after the Oslo Accord was signed, Hamas carried out its first suicide attack, killing 22 in Tel Aviv.

The evolution

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Hamas conducted several suicide attacks, targeting Israelis. In 2000, when the second intifada broke out, Hamas was in the driving seat. Hamas supporters fought pitched street battles with Israeli troops, who used brute force to crush the protests. Israel had also taken a policy of targeted assassinations. In March 2004, Israel killed Sheikh Yassin with a helicopter-fired missile in Gaza city. Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Yassin’s successor, was killed in April 2004. Khaled Meshal, another top leader survived an attempt on his life by Mossad in Jordan. Hamas continued to remain defiant, targeting Israeli troops and settlers. In 2005, faced with Hamas’s violent resistance, Israel unilaterally decided to pull out of Gaza.

Hamas’s violent tactics and Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians in return seemed to have helped the Islamists gain popularity. In the 2006 legislative elections in the Palestinian territory, Hamas won 74 out of the 132 seats, while the Fatah party, the PLO’s backbone, got only 45 seats. In its election manifesto, Hamas showed, for the first time, signs of moderation. It dropped the call for the destruction of Israel, which was mentioned in the 1988 charter, and said its first priority was to change the situation for Palestinians. Hamas formed the government, but faced opposition from Israel and most international powers. Like Israel, the U.S. and several European countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation. As tensions rose between Fatah and Hamas in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the Hamas government and declared a state of emergency. This led to violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas. Fatah ousted Hamas from the West Bank and Hamas ousted the former from Gaza in 2007. Since then, Hamas is the government in Gaza. Following Hamas’s capture of Gaza, Israel has imposed a blockade on the strip, which practically turned the territory into an open prison.

The tactics

While Hamas never gave up its right to armed resistance, the organisation signalled changes in its outlook over the years. It still refuses to recognise Israel but has offered hudna (a lasting ceasefire) if Israel returned to the 1967 border. In 2017, it adopted a new charter from which the anti-Semitic remarks of the original charter were expunged. The new document stated Hamas is not seeking war with the Jewish people — only with Zionism that drives the occupation of Palestine. “Hamas advocates the liberation of all of Palestine but is ready to support the state on 1967 borders without recognising Israel or ceding any rights,” it said. The new charter also doesn’t have a mention of the group’s parent organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood. But Saturday’s attack, which indiscriminately targeted both Israeli troops and civilians, suggests that Hamas has returned to its original tactics—fight the Israelis using any means available to them.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy the enemy. Israeli retaliation would “reverberate” across West Asia, he thunders. But Israel will have to factor in two realities when it sets the goals of its anti-Hamas military operation. Hamas may not have the capability to push Israel back to the 1967 border. But the Islamist group has emerged as the main pillar of Palestine’s political landscape, which in the past had largely been driven by secular nationalism. A solution to the Israel-Palestine problem cannot be reached without taking Hamas into consideration — unless Hamas is totally destroyed. Two, it survives. Over the years, Hamas has lost most of its founding leaders, it has been categorised as a terrorist outfit and faced Israeli attacks frequently. Every time it bombs Gaza, Israel vows to destroy Hamas’s militant infrastructure. But Hamas survives, to fight another day. This is Mr. Netanyahu’s biggest test this time.

At the recently-concluded G20 summit, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the launch of a new trade corridor connecting India to the Middle East and Europe through land and sea routes. The ‘India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor’ is part of a Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. After the announcement, several videos of the proposed corridor are going viral on social media. These animated clips show how goods will be transported to Middle East and Europe, benefiting the traders here. Analysts say it will be a direct challenge to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The route of the corridor

The animated video shows a ship leaving India’s western port and heading towards Gulf of Oman. It docks in Dubai and then the cargo takes a rail route to move across Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, again taking the sea route from Haifa to reach Europe.

Proposed India-Middle East-Europe trade corridor explained in this video. pic.twitter.com/ndshkZOji0

— Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh (@subnut) September 11, 2023

After touching Cyprus, it reaches Greece. The animation then shows a truck that takes the cargo via land route to Serbia and Croatia in southeastern Europe.

The cargo then enters Austria and ends the journey in Germany. Text overlay on the video shows the cargo covering a distance of 8,158 kilometres.

Significance of the mega corridor

The corridor will not only bring India and Europe close, but also enable cheaper and faster business. The route significant because it’s an alternate to China’s BRI and won’t force participating countries to fall into the debt trap of China.

It will also revolutionise trade, energy and communication through water and railway networks. 

The corridor will be built in two parts – the first one (eastern corridor) will connect India and West Asia. The second part will connect West Asia with Europe.

This proposed corridor will also make it easier for companies to transport their containers from Mumbai to Europe. Currently, they have to go through the Suez Canal, which is longer. This corridor will being down the dependency of Suez Canal.

A rail route from Haifa Dubai to Haifa will be constructed for the corridor.

Experts say it will boost the existing business by 40 per cent.

How will this corridor benefit India?

India will be at the centre of the corridor connecting it to Europe and the Middle East. It will not only improve infrastructure and communication, but also generate new employment opportunities and create new supply chains.

This corridor is a major step towards helping India become a developed country by 2047.