The Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, were a series of coordinated attacks carried out by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) from the Gaza Strip in areas bordering Israel on October 7, 2023. The attacks marked the beginning of the war between Israel and the Gaza Strip that continues to this day.
Operation al-Aqsa Flood was a significant turning point in the Palestinian struggle, marking the most fundamental change in the philosophy of resistance since the First Intifada (1987). The Palestinians, who for many decades thought that they would end the occupation and establish an independent state thanks to the support of the Arab world, realized by the mid-1970s that the Arabs would not take the necessary steps in this regard.
The leadership of the Palestinian resistance realized that the only path to progress depended on their own will and initiative, and launched a massive uprising against Israel with the power of its people. The First Intifada, therefore, led to a significant paradigm shift in the Palestinian resistance. Rather than waiting for a move from the international community or the Arab world, the local struggle against the occupying Zionist regime, albeit with limited means, could enable Palestine to make gains toward independence.
This new strategy also allowed the Palestinian resistance to institutionalize and build a strong identity. Moreover, the establishment of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) at the beginning of the First Intifada signaled that not only a methodological but also an ideological transformation would take place in the Palestinian resistance. As a matter of fact, in the following years, Hamas’ conception of the political order, the methods it used, the discourse it produced, and its clear stance against the Israeli occupation resulted in this movement finding a response throughout Palestine and becoming one of the most powerful actors in Palestinian political life
Hamas’ determined strategy over the years and the combat experience of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades allowed for the launch of an operation against Israel from Gaza. The operation, which began on the morning of October 7, marked a paradigm shift in the aftermath of the First Intifada. The Gazan resistance elements, led by the Qassam Brigades, shifted from a defensive model of resistance against Israeli attacks to an offensive strategy of multi-pronged infiltration. In addition, establishing a “joint operation center” of 12 different resistance groups to fight against the occupation forces in a coordinated manner was also noteworthy in uniting all Palestinian groups against the common enemy
As the first hours of Operation al-Aqsa Flood sent shockwaves through the Israeli side, the first signs of psychological damage also surfaced. For years, the Israeli state has created a convincing myth about the effectiveness and competence of its intelligence units. The undermining of the general belief that any action posing a threat to Israel inside or outside Palestine would be detected in advance and necessary measures would be taken constituted the first leg of psychological damage that started on October 7.
In addition to the failure of the potent intelligence myth after the operation, another myth that collapsed was related to the Iron Dome air defense system. The Iron Dome, widely regarded as one of the most potent air defense systems in the world, failed to fully defend Israel from thousands of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades missiles. This meant that even points far from Gaza could now threatened by the resistance. The failure of the system it had built has caused more damage than ever to Israel’s state machinery and society. In addition, the neutralization of a large number of army officers and the capture of hundreds of prisoners in the first hours of the operation shows how Operation al-Aqsa Flood dismantled the Israeli security apparatus.
The operation Al-Aqsa Flood and its subsequent local, regional and global repercussions, restored the Palestinian cause to its pivotal position on the Arab, regional and international levels, placing it in a central position amongst the general public as a liberation struggle against colonialism and uprooting racism. This provides an exceptional historical opportunity to reestablish the Palestinian cause on the international level as liberation struggle, facing the most unjust racist colonial aims in modern and contemporary history. This significant issue places a heavy load on not only the liberation activists, but also all the vigorous social actors around the world, especially in the Arab region, who bear the responsibility to take action. Those people are obliged to pursue all possible means to support the Palestinian cause and keep pace with the global solidarity with this cause at various political, diplomatic, legal, media, cultural and intellectual levels.
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Operation al-Aqsa Flood: A Rupture in the History of the Palestinian Resistance and Its Implications
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Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Aftermath: Towards a Global Action for Liberation of Palestine
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Imagine what it would be like to be some human hunter's prey animal. You sprint, they follow. You hide, they follow. You attack, they somehow hurt you back while you're biting on their strange long arm with a sharp point but they feel no pain and keep hurting you with that strange long arm. Days and nights may pass. They follow. Sometimes the pointy arms that hurt you fly at you like a bird. You start hurting bad, start slowing down, you escape and hide. But they follow.
All the other animals could ever accomplish at most was killing each other.
We humans killed the planet.
We're honestly rather terrifying.
I keep thinking about the Fermi Paradox, the question of why we've not yet detected intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. I think about the possibility that it simply takes awhile in a universe's history for it to happen. Maybe a few rounds of heavy star formation and supernovae spreading elements heavier than lithium in mass quantities are needed for life to be able to start. Maybe we're alone because we're the first spacefaring intelligence in the universe. At first that may sound like some revival of geocentricism, but some intelligent species has to be the first to be spacefaring, and maybe by pure dumb coincidence we are them.
In the future history of the universe, assuming we humans don't drive ourselves into extinction, younger intelligent species may reach the stars that humans visited long before and gaze on our wondrous technology a billion years more advanced than theirs - like an ape gazes at a Monolith. There is no way to explain to the ape what the Monolith is and does. Future younger spacefaring intelligences may look at our works with the same futile but earnest desire to understand our Godlike minds and purposes.
But we may not have left, and we may not be benevolent. We might not be the Progenitors. We could be the Shadows.