The Palestinian resistance in Gaza inflicted on the Israeli occupation army heavy losses in equipment and soldiers (French)
After the events of October 7, during which Hamas dealt a major blow to the Israeli security, army, and settlements, Israel responded with a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, inflicting heavy losses on all sectors of the city without exception. The question that arises after all this loss resulting from that war: Is the October 7th operation worth all the losses that the Palestinian people paid in Gaza? To answer this question, we need to read the war and its results from several angles.
Losses of war parties
More than 25,000 martyrs have been martyred in this war so far, two-thirds of whom are children and women, and there are more than 63,000 injured and injured. More than 347 Palestinians have also been martyred, with more than 4,000 wounded in the West Bank, which Israeli reports indicate is a candidate for an imminent explosion. . The Israeli occupation forces estimate and claim that they killed more than 8,000 Palestinian fighters affiliated with the Palestinian resistance movements in Gaza.
Israel inflicted extensive destruction on Gaza City's infrastructure; It destroyed more than 50% of the number of housing units, paralyzed and put all infrastructure facilities out of service, and displaced 85% of the population of Gaza who were displaced from their homes due to the damage caused by the bombing. Israel has dropped 10,000 bombs and missiles on Gaza so far.
Reports have estimated that the explosives dropped on Gaza until November 2 last year had the same explosive power as the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory pointed out the complete lack of sources of potable water. Due to the cutting of water supplies to Gaza and the disruption of fuel needed for water transfer and distribution stations, which caused the spread of transmittable and infectious diseases.
A United Nations committee of experts explained that more than 90% of the Gaza Strip's population has become acutely food insecure, and that a quarter of the population suffers from catastrophic levels of hunger.
School education was also disrupted; 69% of educational facilities were destroyed, many health facilities stopped providing health services, and 373 of their staff were martyred, which exacerbated the crisis of the sector, which was suffering before the war. All previous numbers are likely to increase significantly in light of the continuing war and Israeli aggression against Gaza.
On the other hand, the size of the Israeli losses resulting from the war on Gaza was not small, and according to Israel’s admissions, the soldiers killed since October 7 (including the soldiers who were killed on October 7, and the soldiers who were killed in The ground war, and those killed on the border with Lebanon, and those killed in accidents and friendly fire) amounted to 561 soldiers, and 2,496 Israeli soldiers were wounded, and the number is likely to increase in light of the large losses that the Israeli army suffers every day in Gaza, the latest of which is the Al-Maghazi incident.
On October 7, 790 Israeli civilians were killed, the number of injured and wounded civilians reached more than 10,000, and approximately a quarter of a million Israelis were displaced from the settlements on the northern and southern borders.
The resistance movements in Gaza are still holding 132 Israeli prisoners since October 7, after they exchanged a number of them with Palestinian female prisoners in the temporary truce that took place last November.
The resistance movements from Gaza launched 14,000 rockets, striking Israeli areas, including Tel Aviv and the city of Jerusalem, and they are still capable of launching rockets from the Strip, and all of these numbers are subject to increase from time to time.
Profit and loss in the balance of resistance movement wars
It is true that the size of the difference between the loss of the Palestinian resistance and its popular incubator and the relative loss incurred by the Israeli occupation state is large, but the balance of profit and loss in the wars led by resistance movements remains completely different from the wars waged by states and regular armies against each other. History says: It is always The loss of the material resistance is many times greater than the loss of the occupying state, but no matter how great the loss of the resistance forces and their popular incubator is, it remains less harmful when compared to the loss resulting from the continued occupation of those peoples.
Also, the occupied countries cannot bear the cost of war, even with their small losses, and this is evidenced by the history of liberation movements in the world.
The secondary results achieved by the Palestinian resistance in this war in favor of the Palestinian cause can be summarized in several matters:
On the military level, the resistance was able to dispel the idea of an invincible army. The events of October 7 revealed the extent of the illusion and artificial aura surrounding the occupying state itself, and that a group of fighters who had the serious will and element of surprise were able to achieve on the ground what the occupying state had not undertaken since the date of its establishment, and to break the Arab psychological barrier. They invalidate the saying of the invincible army.
Just as the Jordanian War of Dignity in 1968, the Egyptian October 6 War in 1973, and the Lebanese resistance that forced Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000 were able to end Israel’s dream of geographical expansion outside the Palestinian territories, the Israeli defeat in Gaza - if What happened means the end of Israel’s dream of geographical expansion into the Palestinian interior at the expense of the Palestinian people and their lands, the beginning of the erosion of the Israeli project, and the beginning of the countdown to the end of this emergency project on the ground.
On the political level, the resistance was able to restore the presence of the Palestinian issue to the Palestinian issue, and put it back on the table in international forums after it had almost been covered by the dust of oblivion. The events of October 7 brought back the presence of the idea of a two-state solution among American and European politicians, a solution that the right rejects. He maintains control over the Israeli government, wants all of the Palestinian lands that he occupied in 1967, and wants to get rid of the entire Palestinian population outside Palestine.
The operation was able to temporarily stop the wheel of Arab-Israeli normalization, the fate of which will also depend on the results of the war on Gaza.
The October 7 operation managed to confuse the ruling Israeli right, which managed the battle in a way that created internal division among them, division even within the mini-war government, and actions that caused Israel a great loss in relations with its closest supporters.
The latest opinion polls have shown that the war has weakened the Israeli right, and that a major loss will befall the right-wing parties forming the current government in favor of the opposition if early elections are held.
The Palestinian narrative was also able, through the Israeli reaction, to reveal the extent of the brutality enjoyed by the occupying state. The operation was able to provoke the unruly Israeli right, and bring out to the media the worst of the Israeli mentality, so that it would be revealed to the world and the public of the countries that support Israel the extent of the barbarism enjoyed by this state.
This was reflected in American opinion polls, in which American youth from the ages of 18 to 24 saw that the solution to the Palestinian issue and ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - from their point of view - would be by ending the State of Israel and handing it over to the Palestinians, as alternative media and social networking sites helped to show scenes of Israeli brutality on the ground. Its truth without guidance and embellishment.
Also, the scenes of war were able to drag Israel to the International Court of Justice for the crimes of genocide, and that moment may be the defining moment in which the image of Israel changed from playing the role of the victim that it lived over the past decades to the role of the executioner who commits crimes against humanity.
When is the resistance victorious or defeated?
Despite all the political and military gains achieved by the resistance, despite their importance, they remain marginal and secondary gains in this war, and the direct, influential and main criterion of victory and defeat will remain governed by the results of the final war on the ground, which will be reflected in the Palestinian cause and will be a major turning point in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, far from the criterion of Material loss in the number of martyrs, buildings and infrastructure; All of this can be compensated for, and nations do not perish, but rather recover quickly.
We can say that the resistance wins or is defeated if either side of the conflict achieves victory or defeat in the following elements:
1- If Israel withdraws from the areas into which it penetrated in Gaza at the end of the war; This withdrawal means that Israel is no longer able to impose what it wants on the ground, and that the resistance, despite its huge loss, was able to impose a new situation in the Israeli conflict, and end the time in which Israel achieves everything it wants.
While the Palestinian resistance will be defeated and lost if Israel is able to occupy the Gaza Strip again, control it, subjugate it to the Israeli authorities quietly, and return Gaza to its pre-2005 state, then the events of October 7 will be a step backwards in the Palestinian struggle movement.
2- The victory of the resistance will be if its body and organizational structures remain effective and able to rebuild and renew itself, and part of its leadership remains in the public scene and the media scene, and most important of all is that it retains its weapons and is able to rebuild its military system.
While the defeat of the resistance will result in dismantling and disarming it, dismantling the military system and organizational structures of the Palestinian resistance movements, arresting and trying their leaders, or accepting their displacement out of Gaza.
3- The resistance’s success in conducting a prisoner exchange deal will be the major political victory that will enable it to liberate many influential and effective leaders in the struggle of the Palestinian people, those leaders whose liberation means giving a great impetus and significant struggle experience to all Palestinian factions. Which will be reflected in all Palestinian struggle and liberation movements.
However, if Israel can free its prisoners by force without having to go to a prisoner exchange deal with the resistance, it will be a major political victory for Israel even if some of them are killed.
Without a doubt, this war is a zero-sum war. Either the resistance wins and Israel and its project retreat, or the resistance - God forbid - is crushed and Israel advances.
There are no compromise solutions, approaches, half-solutions, or transferring the crisis to the future in this war. It is either complete victory by defeating the occupation, or complete defeat, and the military reality in the field is what determines all the terms of victory and defeat after that.