It has been about 15 months since the first shot that reignited the Israeli-Palestine conflict was fired, and now a ceasefire has been brokered. As the occupants of Gaza, dubbed the world's largest open-air prison shift through the rubble to find their loved ones, or what is left of them, we wonder what is the cost of their zeal for freedom.
The world stopped tracking the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli's wanton destruction of Palestinian infrastructure. Hospitals, universities, schools, and homes were all razed. Officially, the total number of Palestinian dead numbered 46,707, as reported by Al Jazeera. But the figure did not include perhaps thousands of bodies lay under the rubble of their homes, and many more whose bodies just disintegrated by the destructive power of the bombs dropped upon them. You would not want to know what would happen to a human body when a massive 1,000-pound explosive detonates within arm's length. Another reason why the numbers froze at the 46,000 mark is because the Gazan's Ministry of Health had collapsed under the relentless Israeli attack.
Hamas and their allies had also suffered immensely. Hamas lost two of their most public-facing leaders, Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in Iran, and Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in battle. Hizbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, too died in an air strike, with many of Hizbollah's command structure killed using rigged walkie-talkies. Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, another known strong backer of Hamas, had to leave in exile.
Despite the massive Palestinian losses, the Israelis are decrying their 'defeat'. Why so?
About 1,200 Israelis were killed on the 7th October attack, many of them died under Israeli fire under the secretive Hannibal Directive to prevent another long-drawn-out operation to save IDF Sergeant Gilad Shalit in 2006. He was only released in 2011. The 15-month-long operation saw another 1,706 Israeli soldiers and police killed. No details on the number of IDF personnel who are now amputees; the latest news open source information on the number of Israeli soldiers who are disabled came out a year ago was an Al Jazeera news report citing 12,500 IDF soldiers are expected to be disabled due to combat.
However, the loss to the Israelis is not only limited to manpower. In January 2024, the Central Bank of Israel estimated the Israeli economy would cost at least 10% of its GDP to the war. Loss of production due to bans on Palestinian workers and activation of military reservists are cited as causes of the weakening of the Israeli economy.
The indiscriminate nature of the Israeli retaliation further damaged the Israeli image abroad.
Then, there is the BDS, or Boycott, Divest, Sanctions movement. A worldwide boycott of Israeli products or companies believed to be supporting Israel in one way or another has severely impacted many international companies with franchises or subsidiaries in Israel. The word is, that these BDS actions will continue despite the ceasefire.
The usage of the rigged pagers and walkie-talkie to dismantle Hizbullah's command infrastructure is seen as novel but is believed to have a ripple effect on Israel's tech company, the duck that lays the golden egg. Can Israeli tech firms still be trusted when they deliver backdoor explosives, albeit to their enemies?
The rise of social media was cited as the cause of the downfall of Egyptian dictator Husni Mubarak, as the media triggered the Arab Spring. The CIA is believed to have tried using social media to bring a regime change in Cuba but failed. That did not stop this new generation of IDF personnel on social media, such as TikTok, from which they openly displayed many actions deemed as war crimes. With ByteDance not under any Western control, unfettered information from the battleground permeated into the Western world and to the world at large, finally breaking the hold on the truth of the war. TikTok especially was so damaging that IDF personnel had been instructed not to record their actions but also not to reveal details of their units and any operations to prevent them from being arrested overseas, as one IDF reservist was nearly arrested in Brazil.
But perhaps the most damaging mistake that the Israelis made was the way they handled the killing of Yahya Sinwar. Short of battlefield victories that could really damage the psyche of Hamas fighters, they decided to release the final moments of a very defiant Yahya Sinwar, thinking that the video would shake Hamas fighters' ranks. Instead, they created a martyr in Yahya Sinwar, who gave his all to fight the Israeli machinery. And the Israelis were still forced to negotiate with Hamas for the ceasefire deal.
But, did the Palestinians win?
Perhaps the Malay adage best sums up this pyrrhic victory. "Yang menang, menjadi arang, yang kalah menjadi abu", roughly translated as the winner turns into burnt coal, while the loser is left in ashes.
Danny Liew is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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