The ongoing situation in Gaza is enough to make everyone cry and tear apart the heart of every human who has a tinge of humanity and sensitivity towards human sufferings. A few days earlier, someone had written on Facebook that, ‘For the problem of Gaza, we are moved when we think as a human being even not as a Muslim.’ The sights of hundreds of children injured, crying with fear and their hands and faces stained with their own blood or with the blood of their relatives who came under a bomb are so moving and shocking that for this, there is no need of any logic or reasoning. No political motive, no military tactic, no act of revenge and no scale of right or wrong would justify the sufferings faced by the children of Gaza. It must be noted here that large number of scenes in which a father or brother is busy in collecting the flesh or bones of his son or brother are not shown on media due to their extreme impact on the minds of viewers and as is the code of conduct of the media to avoid showing much violent and terrorizing scenes.

Both the sides are giving their own opinions and here I am not in position to take any side. In this war, Israel is the strong side and nobody dares to talk against it. Those who did, they are facing their circumstances. A reporter from CNN was relocated and a British member of parliament is facing the worst criticism of his life after both of them said what they saw and felt without any bigotry and bias. In Islamic countries, there is general perception that the Western media is owned and controlled by Jews so they will never dare to show something that should be against the benefits and objectives of Israel and almost same thing is happening on major new sources of the world like CNN, BBC, Sky News and others. Whenever there is any report or discussion about Gaza and the Middle East conflict, Israel is shown to be the victim and Palestinians are held responsible for all their sufferings. The style of reporting is very professional and skilled, the comments of experts are very nicely crafted that one starts thinking and believing in the way they want the people to think and believe. It is the reason why, when there were large number of demonstrations in support of Palestinians and against Israel, there were also present some demonstrations in support of Israel. But however hard we try, it is almost impossible to show people something which is not present on the ground. Other day, when Israeli Finance Minister was being interviewed, I really liked the question of the TV host who asked, ‘Mr. Minister, you are standing there in a half-sleeves shirt without any fear but our reporters, who are present in Gaza tell that they are not safe from the pieces of rubble, shrapnel and metal pieces even in their masks and protective covering due to the intensive shelling of bombs by Israeli warplanes and tanks.’ However, due to the extraordinary support from media and their intimidating style, the minister rebuked the TV host for such a comment.

With all these facts in the mind, the role of Hamas should also be analyzed in this battle. It may be to the disappointment of many in our country and the Muslim world if I didn’t support Hamas or criticized it because we have a generally accepted perception that Hamas is a liberation force busy in the holy war or ‘Jihad’ against the atrocities and occupation of Israel and with an aim of liberating ‘Al-Quds’ from the occupation of Israel. Hamas may be the group of volunteers sacrificing their lives for a noble cause but their present strategy is harming Palestinians and also defaming their cause more than ever. If Israel has occupied the Arab lands, killed hundreds and thousands of Muslims since its inception, imprisoned and tortured large number of Palestinians and did so many other atrocities to the Arabs of the region and yet Arabs and Palestinians were never able to do anything against them, it is due to a fact that they are strong, both economically and from the military point of view. The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) are considered one of the strongest forces of the world, having all the latest weapons and technology and even the nuclear bomb, it is like banging your head against the wall if you keep doing acts that can do no harm to Israel but to your own people. Due to extreme military strength of Israel, it has never been possible to all the Muslim powers of the region together to inflict any harm to Israel (as was noticed in the six days conflict of 1967 when Israel fought and defeated five Muslim nations of the region) let alone Hamas should do anything against it. In such circumstances, firing rockets on the Israeli soil is absolutely meaningless. In these twenty days, Hamas might have fired thousands of rockets on Israel but they have done no harm except to injure a couple of people and destroy a couple of houses. It is because, Israel has been provided by the United States with a latest Missile Defense Shield which doesn't let the missiles land on the Jewish land. Now, these missile attacks have become the sole reason for Israel to win international support and also launch and continue its airstrikes and land offensive into Gaza. As was mentioned, these missiles have done no considerable harm to Israel but they have definitely given them a reason to devastate a city and kill almost thousand people. In the media, Israel keeps on saying that we have no problem with Palestinians and if Hamas could stop firing rockets on us, we would also stop our airstrikes. In the beginning, when Israel had not started its land offensive, the ceasefire could have been achieved if Hamas had only agreed to stop its rocket attacks.

But with all these facts, there is another fact that Israel as a nation is very united, they are working hard in the field of science and technology, their army is the best army in the region, their economy is also among the best economies of Asia and as a nation, they believe in hard work. On the other hand, Palestinians are still divided into Shia and Sunni factions (as affirmed by the fights between Hamas and Al-Fatah), their economy is very weak, the nation is mentally divided on how to handle the Israel (some believe in peaceful coexistence and development while others believe in military struggle), they have no organized army, and their economic situations are meager. In such circumstances, the only way remains behind is to start a ‘Jihad’ within their own borders. Here, it would be very unfortunate if the definition of Jihad is narrowed only to military struggle. This Jihad should be aimed to strengthen their economy, bring social and national unity, work on education and advancement in the fields of science and technology and bring perfection in their own characters and thoughts. This can only happen if they adopt the policy of ‘no conflict’ with anyone because war and conflict brings only destruction and takes the nations backward. When they will be strong enough, no one will dare to say or do anything against them, no would dare to snatch their lands or shed their blood. This formula is applicable not only to the Muslims of Gaza but at all those places where Muslims are suffering of their own hands and blaming US and other powers of the world for these.