--- title: Hamas provoked this round, and Israel had no choice but to respond description: Hamas provoked this round, and Israel had no choice but to respond canonical: https://time.com/3028043/in-gaza-a-just-but-bloody-war/ author: Joe Klein article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-24T10:12:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:50.768Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Hamas provoked this round, and Israel had no choice but to respond og:description: Hamas provoked this round, and Israel had no choice but to respond og:url: https://time.com/3028043/in-gaza-a-just-but-bloody-war/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1923b8532aa15fd1/69869cfd55a8596549a81eb5/roa140716589.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: roa140716589 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hamas provoked this round, and Israel had no choice but to respond twitter:description: Hamas provoked this round, and Israel had no choice but to respond twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1923b8532aa15fd1/69869cfd55a8596549a81eb5/roa140716589.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # In Gaza, a Just but Bloody War > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=80aeb0e2-70d1-4844-88dc-e1c0da1fc58f&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: From Ceasefire to Ground Invasion: One Day In the Life of Israel and Gaza Residents [Watch (HLS stream): From Ceasefire to Ground Invasion: One Day In the Life of Israel and Gaza Residents](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nxtmNoqL.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2014-07-18. TIME asked residents of Gaza and Israel to chronicle their lives on Thursday - the day Israel's forces started a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory._ by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Jul 24, 2014 10:12 AM UTC  Relatives of four boys from the Bakr family, mourning at their funeral in Gaza City, July 16, 2014. Relatives of four boys from the Bakr family, mourning at their funeral in Gaza City, July 16, 2014. Alessio Romenzi by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Jul 24, 2014 10:12 AM UTC _Clarification appended July 27, 2014_ Ori Nir is a man of Peace. He was born and raised in Jerusalem, spent many years as a prominent journalist for Ha’aretz, Israel’s finest newspaper, and is now the spokesman for Americans for Peace Now. He is not shy about disagreeing with the Israeli government, especially when it comes to the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the general bellicosity of Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime. But he hasn’t protested the current Israeli incursion into Gaza. “It is a just war,” he told me, “carried out with a great deal of care.” This may seem surprising to people who don’t follow the Middle East as closely as Nir does, and you might rightly ask, Why is this incursion different from all other Israeli incursions? Because Hamas, which was in an existential jam this spring, needed a new strategy. It had lost its prime ally in the region when the Egyptian army overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood. (Hamas is the official Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood.) It also alienated another of its supporters, Iran, when it sided with the Brotherhood against Bashar Assad in Syria. Opposition within Gaza to Hamas’ corruption and misrule was also on the rise. What to do? Provoke Israel. It had worked in the past. A kidnapping of Israeli soldiers on the northern border had led to Israel’s less-than-discriminate assault on Hizballah in Lebanon in 2006\. Rocket attacks had provoked Israel’s two previous Gaza incursions, in 2008 and 2012\. Hamas and Hizballah had “won” those wars because their fighters resisted the Israelis more effectively than conventional Arab armies had done in the past but also because the images of collapsed buildings and blood-soaked children had bolstered Israel’s growing reputation as an oppressor and a bully in the eyes of the world. This time is different, however, for several reasons. The initial provocation, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, was indefensible, as was a retaliatory murder of a Palestinian teen. In a moment of moral clarity, Hamas lauded its kidnappers, while a furious Netanyahu called the retaliation “reprehensible.” Indeed, Israel’s actions have been more prudent across the board. It confined its bombing at first to Hamas’ military facilities and leaders. Civilians were killed in the process–as was Hamas’ intent–but these were targeted strikes, not the free-range assault on Gaza City that had occurred in Operation Cast Lead in 2008\. The ground campaign that followed was limited as well, confined to Shejaiya, a neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City that was a warren of Palestinian fighters and the launch point for a very elaborate tunnel system from Gaza to Israel. The fighting has been brutal, to be sure. More than 500 Palestinians and 32 Israeli soldiers have been killed. But it was not an indiscriminate massacre. Israel was protecting its border, the right of any sovereign nation; its citizens were threatened by Palestinian assaults at the receiving end of the tunnels (several of which were attempted, and foiled, during the fighting). “I don’t like the civilian casualties that result from bombing the homes of the Hamas leaders,” Nir says. “And what’s happening in Shejaiya is horrible, but I think it falls within the normal rules of war. The moral bottom line seems clear.” And then, semi-amazed to be doing so, he quoted Netanyahu: “‘We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.'” There have been the predictable anti-Israel riots in Europe, mostly populated by Islamic groups; the parlor left has been appalled, on cue, by the alleged Israeli brutality–without questioning the deadly cynicism of Hamas. Meanwhile, Hamas has been outfoxed diplomatically: it opposed the cease-fire agreement proposed by Egypt, which Israel–and the Arab League–supported. If you’re really the aggrieved party, it’s not easy to explain why you won’t accept peace. By now, in a reasonable world, Hamas would have lost all remaining shreds of its tenuous moral credibility. A cease-fire will be negotiated sooner or later, perhaps even by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. It is likely that nothing good will come of it. But Hamas’ weakness, its inability to dictate terms, does leave a tiny possibility for peace. The first step is to restore legal order in Gaza by returning the Palestinian Authority–ousted by Hamas in a 2007 coup–to power and bringing in the U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces who have done such an excellent job of bringing law and order to the West Bank. The next step is free elections in Gaza, which, given Hamas’ current unpopularity, might be won by more moderate factions, perhaps even Fatah. This is the Middle East, of course. Israel remains intransigent on a West Bank agreement. Peace is a chimera; only the dead bodies are real. TO READ JOE’S BLOG POSTS, GO TO time.com/politics _Clarification:_ _The views expressed by Ori Nir in this column are his own and not those of Americans for Peace Now._ ## Transcript As you see now, Gaza is totally in a blackout and there is ED drones are hovering over the sky. Hard to hear. Some sirens going off. One bomb went off. There's another one. And we'll start our day. [ MUSIC ] Good morning, it is about 8 o'clock in the morning on Thursday. We're here in Tel Aviv. Sort of the cultural heartbeat of Israel. There's suppose to be a six hour humanitarian. Cease fire this morning so hopefully things will remain quiet. If you can hear this, this is my friend's cell phone. It's beeping right now every time there's a siren somewhere in Israel it goes off and it's been beeping like crazy. It's a little fuzzy here but in in the south. And north all over Israel, missiles are dropping. Yeah, [ UNKNOWN ] leave their homes. To bring the necessities during the ceasefire. Hello, my name is Basel, I'm 19 years old from Gaza strip. I lived once in the States, in the state of Oregon. It was a heck of an experience to me. It actually spoiled me because we had electricity in the states all the time. And when you get back to Gaza it's only 8 hours. And it's [ INAUDIBLE ] of 8 hours. Here we are in Tel Aviv. It's about 12: 30 pm, about 2 1 / 2 hours after. The ceasefire was begun Hamas broke about half an hour ago but nevertheless this is life here. Barely minutes after the end of that truce two rockets were fired, headed for Israel. I'm pretty bored so I'm gonna make a lot of these videos. Just for the heck of it. I certainly have nothing to do sort of sitting down reading something and waiting for the first day of the internet to come back. Israel and Tel Aviv. You have to understand. People aren't out jogging and in cafes because they're casual about conflict. It's because one of the amazing things about people in this country. Is that with all the wars this country's been through and the struggles and the conflict it's been through, and the struggles and the conflict, people have learned to be pretty resilient. And they live life to the fullest. So we just received word that Israel has started their ground operation. And as you can see, the streets of Tel Aviv are very concerned with the updates, [ NOISE ]. As you hear, there is a lot of bombing there. [ NOISE ] And the light flares are falling from the sky. 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