Hamas has hurt both Israel and Palestine

The weekend terrorist attack that Hamas carried out on Israel from the restive Palestinian enclave of Gaza represents the worst breach in Israeli defences since the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The Jewish state’s costly failure to anticipate that assault by a coalition of Arab states has been replicated in the inability of its intelligence apparatus to detect and deter Hamas’ preparations for a combined offensive by air, land and sea whose magnitude and sophistication could not have been achieved overnight. The barbaric attack, which has claimed at least 1,200 lives in Israel, witnessed babies being butchered, entire families being slaughtered and women being raped and paraded like primitive war trophies. Dozens have been taken hostage, to be used cynically as bargaining chips in future negotiations – or killed. This bloodthirsty incursion into Israel’s territorial integrity must be condemned unequivocally. Singapore has condemned the attack strongly. This is the time for all countries to take terrorism seriously.

The attack’s unfolding repercussions need to be considered in the best interests of peace in the Middle East. Israel has responded with a fearsome counter-offensive that includes air strikes on suspected Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip amid the complete blockade of the enclave, where two million Palestinians live. As Palestinian civilian casualties – now more than 900 – increase, it is only natural that global sympathies will shift from the undeserved sufferings of Israelis to those of innocent Palestinians who are paying the price for Hamas’ criminal acts carried out in their stolen name. While Israel’s punitive response is eminently understandable, its strategic goal should be to regain deterrent advantage over Hamas. This will not be easy given that the terrorist group has consolidated and entrenched its presence during its rule over Gaza since 2007, but Hamas must be neutralised militarily.