Gaza has been “in the news” for many centuries, rarely as “good news.”
You may remember the Bible account of how strong man Samson (Judges 16) eluded some of his enemies at Gaza by taking the posts and gates of the city on his shoulders and carrying them away at midnight.
Gaza has been in the news often in modern times as Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, surrounded by Israel and Egypt on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, periodically fire rockets from Gaza into Israel’s cities.
Then just a few days ago, as several ships attempted to break Israel’s naval blockade to deliver what they said was humanitarian aid to Gaza, Israeli troops boarded the ships. An outbreak of firing resulted in nine deaths among those on the ships. Israel claimed its forces fired only in self-defense. But Israel is being condemned internationally because of the deaths among the would-be invaders on the ships.
In the Middle East, nothing ever seems to “go right.” Israel is always faulted for “existing,” for defending itself from surrounding nations in several wars, and for resisting periodic random guerrilla attacks from land and sea.
There have been several wars and countless violent engagements over the years since modern Israel gained its independence in 1948.
History reminds us there has been little real peace in either ancient Israel or the Israel of modern times.