What was once called the Gaza Strip and is now called Gaza is a small, densely populated Arab de facto nation. It is governed by an organization called Hamas which appears to have sufficiently wide support among the inhabitants.
Articles like this one argue that Hamas are terrorists, which is to say non-state actors. That is false, properly understood Gaza is a nation which is at war with its neighbor Israel, and has been at war with Israel the whole time Hamas has been in power.
Much poorer and more corrupt than Israel, Hamas-run Gaza has no chance of defeating Israel in open warfare. So it periodically attacks Israel when it has, with Iran’s help, amassed sufficient rockets and other arms to do some damage. Israel responds with similar tactics and greater damage.
Israel could defeat Hamas-run Gaza if it chose, but would then have to run the place and become responsible for it. This Israel wisely chooses not to do, understanding Gaza to be like Uncle Remus’ “tar-baby” (no racial connotation implied or intended).
After getting beat up once again, Gaza subsides into “frozen war” and licks its wounds, while trying to curry underdog favor with other nations. And the cycle repeats, and will continue to do so until the people of Gaza tire of it, if they ever do.
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The situation between Israel and Gaza has elements in common with the U.K. and German-occupied Europe before the U.S. entered World War II. Suppose the Japanese had not attacked U.S. owned Pacific islands. With strong isolationist sentiments in the U.S. keeping us neutral, a similar stalemate might have developed across the Channel.
The analogy is far from exact, but prior to U.S. entry in the war the U.K. was like Gaza, with the U.S. filling the indirect support role Iran plays. German-occupied Europe played the stronger Israel.
Had the situation gone on longer, I imagine German Europe wanting to get on with life and with subduing Russia, so the Luftwaffe blitzes the U.K. only when the RAF sends planes or commandos to pester them, with pauses in between while the U.K. repairs the damage. Who knows how long that stalemate might have lasted? Perhaps the post-war fate of Taiwan is a model to consider, except they and the PRC don’t do much shooting at each other.
