On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Rockets were fired into Israel, Hamas fighters and fighters from other Hamas-affiliated organizations invaded Israeli villages and kibbutzim. Approximately 1,200 Israeli civilians and security forces were killed, and approximately 240 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip. As horrific as this act was, questions arose in the wake of this attack that were not adequately answered by the Israeli government. Why was the border facility not guarded in such a way as to make it impossible to penetrate the border fence, even though there was information that a Hamas attack was imminent?
The answer given was not at all satisfactory: Yes, they knew about the plans, but they considered their implementation too demanding for Hamas. Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier testified before the Knesset that “on the morning of the Hamas attack, his unit was prohibited from conducting routine patrols at the point where Hamas attacked.” This statement confirms the allegations that the Netanyahu government knew about the attack plans and deliberately allowed the attack. The question remains why the Israeli government allowed the attack.
In this context, we recall the Oslo Accords, which were signed in Washington on September 28, 1995 and granted, among other things, Palestine the right to independently dispose of its natural resources. Four years later, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) signed a contract with British Gas, a British energy company. British Gas was to discover whether there were gas and oil deposits off the coast of the Gaza Strip. British Gas discovered rich gas deposits, and the Palestinian Authority agreed to British Gas’s proposal to build an infrastructure for extracting and processing the gas and to begin construction of a gas pipeline, primarily to Europe.
However, since the pipelines would pass through Israeli-controlled territory, the Israeli government opposed the plan, proposing instead to supply gas to Israel at a price cheaper than the usual market price. The Israeli government wanted to export the gas itself to Europe. In 1996, a religious alliance won the elections in Israel, and Netanyahu became prime minister (1996-1999). It was now clear that this alliance would never accept a “rich” Palestinian state. They wanted to profit from the gas fields themselves, and therefore, a proposal was made to supply gas to Israel at a price well below the usual international market price.
In 2007, under US pressure, elections were held in the Gaza Strip. The winner of the elections, Hamas, rejected Israel’s right to exist, and thus Israel had good reason to reject a two-state solution. There were repeated violent clashes between Hamas and the Israeli army. Netanyahu, who became prime minister again in December 2022,
formed a government coalition consisting of nationalist parties with a religious orientation, knowing Hamas’s plans. If he allowed Hamas to attack, he would have the legitimacy (Israel’s right to exist) to take action against Hamas by any means, and he seemed confident that the majority of Israeli citizens would agree with him.
In order to ultimately ensure Israel’s security, according to the current position of the Israeli government, the entire Gaza Strip must be occupied. But is it really only in the interest of security? No.
In June 2023, Mena-Watch, a Viennese website dedicated to the Middle East and Israel, wrote that Israel wants to hold talks with the Palestinian Authority and Egypt “to begin planning for the development of the gas field off the Gaza Strip.” Hamas, which is the democratically legitimate representative of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, refused to participate in talks with the Israelis and argued that the development of the gas field was exclusively a matter for the Palestinian population living in the Gaza Strip. He argued that only the people of Gaza are the rightful owners of the gas fields off their coast. At this point, at the latest, the Netanyahu government realized that Hamas had to be eliminated if it wanted to benefit from the development of the gas field. It was necessary to first allow Hamas to attack so that the Jewish state could react with all its might.
The attack served the Israeli government as a justification for the purge of Hamas. One might not want to believe all this and even consider the Israeli soldier’s statement in the Knesset as a false spread on social media. But the fact, which is barely reported by the mainstream media, that is not disputed, is this:
On October 29, 2023, [Hamas’ attack on Israel took place on October 7, 2023], the Israeli government issued licenses to six Israeli and international companies to explore for natural gas off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
This proves that the Israeli government had already planned to occupy all of Gaza. For Netanyahu, the motto is: Only when the Palestinians have disappeared can “Greater Israel” flourish.
