It’s Hamas that wants to see Palestinians killed

No reasonable person expects anything good from Hamas. But the group’s latest efforts to provoke a military confrontation with Israel still somehow boggle the mind.

In recent weeks, Palestinians have protested at the densely populated Gaza Strip’s border with Israel, demanding the right to return to the territory their ancestors once inhabited but lost long ago through a combination of emigration, military defeats, and strategic blunders connected to the Arabs’ repeatedly failed attempts to expel the Jews from the land also of Jewish ancestry. When protesters have turned violent and either tried breaching the border or posing harm to Israelis on the other side, Israeli forces have responded with fire. In total, 27 Palestinians were killed in protests last Friday and this Friday, many of them identified as Hamas fighters.

The loss of life is tragic, and the frustration of Gaza’s Palestinians is understandable. Even devoted supporters of Israel can still feel sympathy for those living under the dysfunctional, cynical and corrupt rule of a Hamas government more devoted to Iran than its own people.

But the obvious reality is that Israel has nothing to gain from clashes along the border; indeed, given the lopsided international opprobrium it must bear, Israel has every reason to avoid bloodshed. It is Hamas that seeks to inflame tensions, encouraging protesters to test the border, despite Israel’s warnings that it will defend its territory against invasion. Hamas surely doesn’t doubt Israel’s resolve. It’s counting on it. Leaders are sending soldiers to whip up the crowd and push them all, civilians included, toward a heightened confrontation. And if Israeli troops shoot to defend their territory, Hamas and its antiIsrael apologists get to decry the atrocity of it.

Israel must act responsibly and proportionally. There is a special moral responsibility that goes along with greater military power. Israel routinely acts with far greater restraint than most other countries, even in the West, would under similar circumstances. We trust it will continue to do so in the face of this latest blatant provocation. It isn’t just, but these are the facts on the ground.

Still, there are other facts. Israel did not seek this confrontation. It pulled out of Gaza unilaterally more than a decade ago, continues to supply the enclave with necessities of life, routinely withstands attacks from Gazan territory and is not in any way precipitating these clashes. It has long been ready to negotiate peace, but there are still no responsible partners it can negotiate with.

We hope for no further bloodshed. But if it comes, let no one forget Hamas’s culpability in it.