Today is Sunday, October 8, 2023. The conflict in Israel has entered its second day as more details about the savage operation by the militant organization known as Hamas have been released – such as the death toll passing 700 dead thus far, with 260 young lives taken at a music festival near the Gaza-Israeli border, according to social media videos and accounts from festivalgoers. This outdoor Nova festival was supposed to be an all-night dance party, celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot; instead it brutally turned into a bloodbath. There have been reports of people taken as hostages by Hamas militants. Some of those taken into captivity include children. In the meantime, Israel is pounding Gaza with airstrikes and formally declared war on Hamas. More than 400 Palestinians have died, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

An online CNN article delves into this attack against Israel as it explains what Hamas is and why this has been percolating for a very long time between the two adversaries. The article is titled “Hamas has launched an unprecedented attack against Israel. Here’s what to know,” and it is by Hadas Gold, Richard Allen Greene, Amir Tal, Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer Salman, Kareem Khaddar, and Nadeem Ibrahim.

As the conflict enters its second day, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said its focus was on taking control of the Gaza Strip as fighting continued on the ground in the Promised Land.

The large-scale surprise assault has left hundreds of Israelis dead, prompting a lethal volley of retaliatory Israeli airstrikes and a formal declaration of war made on Sunday.

The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed “mighty vengeance” on Hamas and declared that Israel is stopping the supply of electricity, fuel, and goods to Gaza.

The deadly attack was launched around 6:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, the Sabbath, when many Israelis were likely to have been asleep and were roused awake when they heard sirens go off as rockets flew over the country.

Militants from Gaza then entered Israel by land, sea, and air, with some using paragliders, the IDF said.

The IDF said around 2,200 rockets were fired at Israel. Hamas put the figure at 5,000. To put that number in context, some 4,000 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel during the 50-day war between the two sides in 2014.

The reason for the attack was allegedly a response to attacks on women, the desecration of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and the ongoing siege of Gaza, as indicated by Hamas military commander Muhammad Al-Deif who called the operation “Al-Aqsa Storm.”

Hamas declared it captured Israeli soldiers, posting videos of soldiers it purportedly captured on its social media accounts.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have existed since before the nation’s founding in 1948. Thousands of people on both sides have been killed and many more injured in the long-simmering conflict between the two sides over decades.

Violence has been particularly heightened this year, as the number of Palestinians – militants and civilians – killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces reached its highest level in nearly two decades. The same is true of Israelis and foreigners – most of them civilians – killed in Palestinian attacks.

Israel and Hamas have been involved in armed conflict dating back as early as the 1987 First Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in a 1967 war, then withdrew in 2005. The territory is home to some 2 million Palestinians and it fell under Hamas’s control in 2007 after a brief civil war with Fatah, a rival Palestinian faction that is the backbone of the Palestinian Authority.

After Hamas seized control of Gaza, Israel and Egypt imposed a strict siege on the territory, which is ongoing. Israel also maintains an air and naval blockade on Gaza.

Before Saturday’s operation, the last war between Hamas and Israel was in 2021, which lasted for 11 days and killed at least 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel.

This assault occurred on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war, when Israel’s Arab neighbors launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, on October 6, 1973. Could this have been just a coincidence then or something more?

Hamas, the militant organization that initiated this attack against Israel, is an Islamist organization with a military wing that came into being in 1987, emerging out of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist group that was founded in the late 1920s in Egypt.

The word “Hamas” is itself an acronym for “Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia” – Arabic for Islamic Resistance Movement. The group, like most Palestinian factions and political parties, insists that Israel is an occupying power and that it is trying to liberate the Palestinian territories. It considers Israel an illegitimate state.

Its refusal to recognize Israel is one reason why it has rejected peace talks in the past. In 1993, it opposed the Oslo Accords, a peace pact between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

The group presents itself as an alternative to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has recognized Israel and has engaged in multiple failed peace initiatives with it. The PA is led by Mahmoud Abbas and is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Hamas has over the years claimed many attacks on Israel and has been designated as a terorrist organization by the United States, the European Union, and Israel. Israel accuses its archenemy Iran of backing Hamas.

This is some background information on the reasons for the conflict and some details behind the shadowy group that has launched this offensive against its neighbor. With knowledge comes some solution to the conflict, I hope. However, how do you deal with an organization that doesn’t recognize your legitimacy as a nation?

As Mehdi Hasan from MSNBC just pointed out on tonight’s program, it’s the terrible conditions experienced by people living in Gaza that have served as the powder keg of yesterday’s rocket attack on Israel. Gaza is one of the most densely packed places in the world, an isolated coastal enclave consisting of almost 2 million people crammed into 140 square miles. It would appear that there is no hope for the people living there and it would partially explain why an aggressive action such as the one taken on Saturday originated from there.

It’s difficult to say how long this conflict will go on. Let’s pray it doesn’t become another Ukraine. Let’s hope cooler heads will prevail and peace will be pursued by both sides. Let’s hope that no other countries become involved in this conflict.

So that’s it.

Elliot and I will be off tomorrow for Japan. We fly into Los Angeles first, then fly to Japan Tuesday morning, arriving finally on Wednesday. I’m so not looking forward to this long flight. If everything goes well, we’ll be back on Sunday, October 22.

Stay safe and be well.

Sayonara.