Middle East crisis — explained
NPR npr.org by Aya Batrawy August 16, 2024 Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting from London

DOHA, Qatar — A Hamas leader says they will give up governing Gaza but won’t lay down arms

• A far-right government had taken power in Israel

Extracts:
Hamas is willing to concede on governing the Gaza Strip after the war but will not lay down arms against Israel, one of the group’s leaders says

Basem Naim, a leader in Hamas’ politburo, met with NPR in Qatar for a wide-ranging interview about the war with Israel, prospects for a cease-fire deal and how the Palestinian group now views its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel

Palestinian militants used parachutes, speed boats and explosives to infiltrate Israel’s border in the attack.
Naim says Hamas was surprised by how quickly Israel’s defenses crumbled

Israel says around 1,200 people were killed that day. Another 250 people, including soldiers, were taken hostage


We were living in a prison. And we have tried to knock the doors of this prison.”

Israel published body cam video footage that Hamas militants filmed during the operation. Scenes show hundreds of bodies at a music festival, the blood of people killed in their homes and terrified Israelis being dragged off to captivity

Israel’s punishing retaliation upends life in Gaza

Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel’s military retaliation — now in its 11th month — has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, with thousands more unaccounted for. It says entire families have been buried under the rubble of Israeli airstrikes

Israel says its military operations have been precise and targeted at Hamas. It blames Hamas for operating in civilian areas

Gaza’s Health Ministry count does not distinguish between militants and civilians killed, but has identified most as women and children. The ministry has identified nearly 11,000 children among the dead.

"They are creating walls of blood, walls of aggression, which I am sure the next generation will not be ready to compromise on anything,” Naim says

“It is a matter of time. When is the next round [of fighting] unless they give us our genuine rights as Palestinians,” he says

Some internally displaced civilians in Gaza have expressed anger not only at Israel for its offensive but at Hamas’ leaders for not protecting them against Israel’s retaliation

Naim says Palestinians have tried all means, peaceful and armed, to achieve an independent state

Before the October 7 attack, Jewish settlements were expanding alongside what Palestinians saw as growing encroachment in East Jerusalem, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war

Arab governments, including the United Arab Emirates that has close ties with Israel, had been condemning lethal Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, which had reached their highest levels in almost 20 years

Naim says an entire generation of Palestinians was losing everything “No vision, no horizon … no scenario that this will end soon.”