The critical fallout of the West Asian War

Tanuj Goswami

(tanujuri03@gmail.com)

The Israel-Hamas War has entered its fifth month, and yet no sign of de-escalation of hostilities appears on the ground. On the other hand, the gory effects of the war are beginning to surface in a menacing way. The major part of the Gaza Strip is now under Israeli control, and war is still continuing in the border town of Rafa, which is densely populated by a large number of displaced Palestinians suffering from fear, loss of livelihoods, acute shortages of food staff, water, medical aid, etc.

In its effort to flush out the Hamas terrorists in Rafa City, the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) as of now seems to desist from pummeling the area militarily, apprehending the unnecessary loss of lives and sufferings of people that have already crossed limits in South Gaza, drawing flak from many quarters. However, the message of the PM, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, is very clear: he is committed to smashing the Hamas terror elements once and for all for the security of Israel. 

After Israel’s serious protest with concrete evidence against many employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNWRA) office having been directly involved in brutal terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, the UN has decided to close down the agency. The Agency, mainly funded by the US Government and many European Nations and also by some Arabian States, was meant to provide relief, rehabilitation, housing, livelihood support, and arrangements for microfinances to the displaced millions of Palestinian refugees.

The irrefutable charges lodged by Israel at the UN against the UNWRA personnel for turning the agency’s premises into a terrorist’s hub with heavy stockpiles of war weapons, and its sequel being the closure decision by  the UN, have blocked a major channel of funding for an uncertain period. The US and many other donors have meanwhile terminated their relationship with the agency. The fallout of this decision will be clearer when the war ends, and how the world body deals with this peculiar situation, no one knows for sure.

The latest report from Israel discloses the ill effects of the war on its own economy, which is more worrisome. Israel’s war engagement for a continued period of more than five months is taking its heavy toll in terms of a severe downslide of the country’s GDP to 19.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023. All sectors of this startup nation are facing the heat, and the sizeable revenue from agriculture, tourism, construction activities, etc. has petered significantly, directly hitting thousands of Israeli employees. A vibrant nation of roaring trade, commerce, and business combined with superior technological and innovative skills is tottering, and it is a matter of deep concern for the nations of both the north and south of the globe that have historical and traditional relationships with Israel.

Again, all kinds of investment in Israel have considerably plummeted; many businesses have closed down, and many companies have relocated to other nations. Furthermore, the return of huge numbers of foreign construction and agricultural workers to their respective countries has badly impacted the Israeli economy. 

In the meantime, on the northern border of Israel with Lebanon, many thousand Israelis had to be evacuated and relocated to far-away, safer areas like hotels, apartments, and public institutions.

The Israel-Lebanon border has been heavily amassed with the dreaded Hezbollah terrorists, armed with thousands of highly sophisticated precision guided missiles and drones loaded with lethal explosives, with the capacity to target, directly hit, and destroy numerous strategic locations of Israel, namely human settlement areas, airports, army depots, power generation centres, water pumping stations, etc., that make the situation dicey. Most of such military hardware equipment is being supplied by Iran and Syria, the two hostile nations of the Middle East, to annihilate Israel, the only US ally in the Middle East.

The sudden, horrifying Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, compelled the Israeli Authority to close down all the entry points to Israeli territories with maximum care and precaution initiated for public safety. As a result, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), a Palestinian-administered region where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live and are used to working regularly in the neighbouring Israeli towns and cities, have to face strict norms of entry and other estrictions. This has resulted in dwindling production, diminishing exports of Israeli goods and services, a drop in income, and thus seriously impacting the country’s interconnected economy.

The crisis in West Asia threatens to turn to the worst on the northern border of Israel. Meanwhile, the Hezbollah keeps firing an uninterrupted barrage of missiles targeting many strategic locations in Israel, but luckily the Israeli Iron Dome has successfully neutralised the missiles in the air. In response, the IDF has pinpointed the targets deep inside Lebanon and destroyed Hezbollah’s ammunition depots and missile launch sites. 

The humanitarian crisis that erupted in the Gaza Strip is beyond description; the displacement of Gazans and the killings of more than 30,000 people with death and destruction all around wouldn’t have happened had the Hamas not made the folly of attacking, killing, raping, and burning hundreds of innocent Israeli men, women, and children with inhuman brutality. The cost of war has been very heavy for both sides till now.

Another most dangerous aspect of West Asia has been the Iran-backed proxy war fought by the Houthi terrorists of Yemen, which has been attacking and disrupting the vital international shipping route through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in a show of solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip.

In the meantime, the USA, the UK, and their allies have pounded with air and naval strikes a number of times on Houthi strongholds and destroyed missile and drone attacks. The shipping route through the Red Sea still poses a serious risk to international trade, and its repercussions have been palpable in many countries. A bad sign of the ongoing situation slipping out of hand is emanating.

The intensifying war in the Middle East, launched by some non-state actors propped by some theocratic states termed the axis of evil, has no place in the civilised world, and the world community needs to shun them thoroughly for the sake of world peace and prosperity.