The Price of the Israel-Hamas War: Is It Worth Fighting For?

by Pradeep Pariyar Thapa

A World Apart

Updated: Exclusive: Opinion- Every morning, I wake up to the gentle chorus of birds singing from my backyard — a sound I have long taken for granted. Many of my readers likely share this peaceful routine, greeting each day with quiet ease and comfort. But for the men, women, and children living in war-torn villages and towns across the world, that same morning carries no such promise. I cannot fathom the agony and dread that settles with each falling night — no guarantee that tomorrow will bring anything better than another day trapped between life and death.

No War Is Ever Justified Against the Human Toll

Tyrants and terrorists alike bear equal responsibility for the countless deaths of innocent people. The simple joy of waking to birdsong should not be the exclusive privilege of the fortunate few. Every human being is born with the right to live a peaceful and dignified life. Someone must rise to stop the merciless slaughter of people who have no part in these conflicts. Yet war, history has proven time and again, is never the answer. Lasting peace is not won on a battlefield — it is earned through a collective awakening of our shared humanity.

The Unwanted War: How It Began

On October 7, 2023, Iran-backed Hamas fighters launched a devastating surprise attack on Israel — firing rockets into Israeli territory and storming southern communities across the Gaza border. The assault killed more than 1,200 people, injured over 3,300, and resulted in the abduction of 251 hostages. It was the deadliest attack on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust, and the most significant escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades.

One day after the attack, the Israeli cabinet formally declared war on Hamas. Israel's Defense Minister issued a directive to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to impose a "complete siege" of Gaza. Israel vowed to dismantle Hamas entirely, and in the months that followed, it systematically targeted and eliminated the group's senior leadership.

The Human Cost

The toll on both sides has been catastrophic:

• Gaza: Israeli forces have killed over 72,000 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry — which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The IDF reports killing over 23,000 combatants in Gaza, and an additional 1,600 terrorists during the October 7 attack itself.

• Displacement: Nearly 1.9 million Palestinians — approximately 90% of Gaza's population — have been displaced, many forced to flee multiple times. On the Israeli side, more than 100,000 residents were internally displaced from border communities near Gaza and Lebanon.

• Hostages: The 251 hostages taken on October 7 were eventually returned through a combination of military operations and ceasefire-hostage agreements, with Israel's last remaining hostages in Gaza freed under an October 2025 ceasefire deal.

Hamas Leadership: A War of Elimination

Throughout the conflict, Israel methodically targeted Hamas's command structure. Below is a summary of key figures killed:

Yahya Sinwar

Hamas leader; chief architect of October 7. Killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, October 2024

Ismail Haniyeh

Political bureau chief; led ceasefire negotiations. Assassinated in Tehran, July 2024

Rawhi Mushtaha

Head of Hamas's government in Gaza. Killed in a strike in northern Gaza

Mohammed Deif

Supreme commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades; mastermind of October 7. Killed in an airstrike, July 2024

Muhammad Sinwar

Head of Hamas's armed wing; younger brother of Yahya Sinwar. Killed in a Gaza strike, May 2025

Marwan Issa

Deputy military commander. Killed, March 2024

Saleh al-Arouri

Deputy Hamas chief; co-founder of Al-Qassam Brigades. Killed in a drone strike in Beirut, January 2024

Izz al-Din al-Haddad

Top military commander in Gaza; managed Hamas's hostage system. Killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, May 2026

The IDF described Haddad — who assumed leadership after Mohammed Sinwar's killing — as "one of the architects of the brutal October 7 massacre"and noted that he surrounded himself with hostages in a deliberate effort to shield himself from elimination.

The Land in Question: How Israel Was Founded

To understand the depth of this conflict, one must look back at history. The land at the center of this war has changed hands many times over the centuries:

• Ottoman Rule (1517–1917): For roughly 400 years, the territory now known as Israel and Palestine was governed by the Ottoman Empire.

• British Mandate (1920–1948): Following World War I, the League of Nations entrusted Britain with the administration of the region — formally known as Mandatory Palestine — with the stated goal of establishing a national homeland for the Jewish people.

• UN Partition Plan (1947): In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition the British Mandate into two separate states — one Jewish, one Arab.

• Israeli Independence (1948): On May 14, 1948, as the British Mandate ended, Israel declared its independence. The Arab-Israeli War immediately followed, setting the stage for decades of conflict.

It is worth noting that the territory was never, in the modern era, an independent state called "Israel" prior to 1948. Historically, it was referred to by various names — Palestine, the Holy Land, and the Land of Israel — by different peoples and at different times.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War & Its Aftermath: Is there Independent Palestine ?

Following the United Nations' 1947 partition plan — which proposed separate Arab and Jewish states — the State of Israel was declared in 1948. The war that followed reshaped the proposed borders dramatically:

• Israel seized control of significantly more territory than the UN plan had allocated.

• Jordan annexed the West Bank.

• Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip.

As a result, no independent Palestinian state emerged from the conflict, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced — an event Palestinians call the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe").

A Question Without a Simple Answer

The morning song of birds should belong to everyone — not just those fortunate enough to live far from the sound of rockets and airstrikes. In this age of artificial intelligence, space exploration, and unprecedented human connectivity, how is it that we remain unable to secure the most fundamental of all human needs: peace?

Every morning when I hear those birds sing, I am filled with a deep, restless question: Why can't we all have this? Who — or what — stands in the way of a world where every child wakes up safely, every family sleeps without fear, and every morning is simply a morning?

The Israel-Hamas war, like every war before it, offers no winners — only varying degrees of loss. The real price of this conflict is not measured in military victories or eliminated leaders. It is measured in the silenced mornings of nearly two million displaced people who may never hear those birds the same way again.

Mr. Pradeep Pariyar Thapa is the Editor of Nepalism.com. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.