There will be several perspectives, analyses, and conclusions about Hamas’s attack on Israel.

Many will be hard-pressed not to include the Palestinian cause as the raison d’être for Hamas’s actions. Others will blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-held animosity and policies, his history of suppression and denial of the rights of the Palestinians, and more recent actions against West Bank Palestinians for Hamas’s attacks against Israel. Yet others will blame Iran, a well-known State sponsor of terrorism and Hamas’s benefactor, for launching a proxy war against Israel. There may be some truths in these arguments. But there is no justification for acts of international terrorism, and that’s what this is.

At the end of the day, no one can plausibly refute the fact that Hamas’s attacks against Israel are acts of terrorism. For that, if for no other reason, the entire international community must condemn the attacks. At the same time, we should not take our eyes off the root causes of terrorism and the conditions in the region which give rise to this constant threat. Primary among the reasons is the lack of a peaceful settlement of the age-old conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people. Nothing short of a two-State solution — with Israel and a Palestinian State living side by side under conditions which guarantee security for both — will suffice.

Almost three decades ago, the international community took the unprecedented decision to reject the so-called political exception to acts which would otherwise be characterised as terrorism. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in its December 1994 Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism (1994 Declaration) set a new precedent for how the international community, all states, should treat acts of terrorism. The UNGA’s consensus rejected the then often-used and abused political exception to international cooperation against acts of terrorism.

The 1994 Declaration unequivocally “condemned all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, wherever and by whomever committed”, and, most importantly, that “criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons, or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious, or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them”.

This formulation rejecting the political exception has been adopted and reiterated by the UN Security Council in its pre-9/11 resolution 1269 (1999) and post-9/11 resolutions 1368 (2001), 1373 (2001), 1377 (2001), and several subsequent resolutions. I worked on some of these resolutions while serving on the UN Security Council, with resolution 1377 being adopted under Jamaica’s presidency of the council, convened at the foreign ministers’ level, with Jamaica’s then Foreign Minister K D Knight presiding. It was generally accepted that the political exception no longer had resonance.

There are certain undeniable facts about Hamas’s attacks on Israel. Hamas crossed an international border to wantonly kill Israeli civilians on Israeli territory. This was not an attack against the Israeli military. In the process, citizens of other countries, including the United States, were also killed. Women, children, and the elderly were indiscriminately killed in the attacks. This was an attack that was intended to instil fear in the Israeli population and destroy their way of life.

There were reports, of which I have no means of verification, that women were raped in the process. This attack targeted and destroyed civilian properties. Hamas took civilians as hostages, including women, children, and the elderly and took them by force across Israel’s border into Gaza to be used as human shields against possible Israeli military response.

By international and moral standards, much of what Hamas did, and perhaps yet to do, are crimes against humanity. Some of these egregious acts may be characterised as war crimes and subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. In the meantime, these acts are acts of international terrorism which should be universally condemned and prosecutable in any country which obtains future jurisdiction over any Hamas leader deemed culpable for the planning and execution of these attacks.

It has been common knowledge for decades that Hamas receives a great deal of support from Iran. According to reports, over the decades of Hamas’s existence, the designated terrorist group has been funded, supplied with arms, and trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Hamas’s arsenal of rockets, which rained terror on Israeli civilians, were supplied by Iran. No independent verification is needed. These rockets cannot be classified as intended for defence of Palestinian territory, whether Gaza or the West Bank. And they were not used in the past for deterrence. These rockets are offensive weapons, to be used for one purpose only — attacking Israel.

Because of Hamas’s dependence on Iran, speculations have been sparked that Hamas would not have taken such bold, unprecedented actions, invasion of Israel, without the acquiescence of Iran.

For a very long time, while Israel has been surrounded by enemies of the State of Israel, partially due to the unsettled Palestinian question, Netanyahu has been seen by many, inside and outside of Israel, as Israel’s enemy from within. Yet Netanyahu, despite being indicted on several criminal charges in Israel, continues to use the perpetual fear of the Israeli people and his hard line defence policies to coalesce with Israeli hardliners to hold on to power.

The attacks by Hamas have destroyed the facade Netanyahu has built about his uniqueness to protect the Israeli people. When the dust is settled, and the Israeli people have had time to investigate Netanyahu’s failure, he may finally meet his Waterloo. In the meantime, the Israeli people, as they always have under difficult circumstances, will come together and respond to Hamas’s atrocities.

There will be many more casualties on both sides. Most will be innocent civilians. The Israeli hostages taken by Hamas will be on the front line and may be among the first to die. The cost of peace is not war. This attack by Hamas, rather than advancing the Palestinian cause, as some are speculating may be the outcome, will have the opposite effect. The Palestinian cause will be set back yet again.

The international community will continue to go in circles on this issue. One country, the United States, has the power and influence to move this issue to an acceptable conclusion. But domestic politics stands in the way, and there is no political will now or in the foreseeable future to change these dynamics.

Ambassador Curtis A Ward is a former ambassador of Jamaica to the United Nations, an attorney-at-law, and CEO of Curtis Ward & Associates. He is also chairman of the Caribbean Research & Policy Center, Inc and adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia.