It is mind-blowing how millions across the world openly support Hamas while repeating the tired mantra of occupation as if it explains everything. Facts matter. In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza under the leadership of Ariel Sharon. Every soldier was removed. Every Israeli civilian was uprooted, including entire communities that had lived there for decades. Gaza was left without a single Israeli settlement. That is not an occupation. That is territorial withdrawal.

Yes, Israel built a security barrier. Why? Because buses, restaurants, and markets had been turned into slaughterhouses during the Second Intifada. Because rockets were already being launched. Because terrorism forced Israel to protect its citizens. Gaza also shares a border with Egypt. Yet global protests rarely target Cairo. Why is Israel uniquely blamed for security measures that any sovereign nation would take?

Before October 7, thousands of Gazans held permits to work in Israel. They earned salaries significantly higher than in Gaza. Children from Gaza were treated in Israeli hospitals free of charge. Israeli volunteers from kibbutzim near the border routinely transported sick Gazan children for care. Those same kibbutzim were among the first targets of the October 7 massacre. The very communities that believed in coexistence were invaded, burned, and butchered.

What did Gaza’s leadership do with billions in foreign aid? Did they build Singapore on the Mediterranean? Did they invest in infrastructure, desalination, industry, education? No. Hamas and its allies invested in terror. For years they built a vast underground tunnel network, stockpiled weapons, and trained for war. The October 7 assault did not emerge from despair. It was planned, financed, and rehearsed.

Let us speak clearly about the organizations that must disarm. Hamas. Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Popular Resistance Committees. Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Smaller Salafi jihadist factions. And yes, the networks of supporters who glorify murder and indoctrinate children with hatred.

Disarmament cannot be symbolic. It must be total.

No more rockets. These are not crude fireworks. Many are locally manufactured with foreign guidance, capable of reaching major Israeli cities, forcing millions into bomb shelters. They are deliberately fired at civilian neighborhoods, a war crime by definition.

No more mortars. Short range, easily hidden, and devastating to border communities, they are designed to terrorize farmers, families, and schoolchildren living seconds from Gaza.

No more anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. These are battlefield weapons used against civilian vehicles and homes, turning roads into kill zones.

No more rifles, assault weapons, sniper systems, and machine guns. October 7 proved how these weapons are used not for resistance against soldiers but for execution style killings of civilians.

No more explosive devices. Car bombs. Suicide vests. Roadside bombs. Grenades. These are tools of indiscriminate slaughter, meant to maximize bloodshed and psychological trauma.

No more naval explosive devices designed to infiltrate Israeli shores.

No more drones weaponized to drop explosives or gather intelligence for attacks.

No more paragliders used to bypass security barriers and descend into music festivals and family gatherings.

No more tunnels. Hundreds of kilometers of reinforced underground corridors were built not for civilian shelter but for kidnapping, smuggling, command centers, and surprise assaults.

No more booby traps and incendiary balloons that torch Israeli farmland and nature reserves.

No more anti aircraft weapons that escalate the conflict and endanger regional stability.

Some place hope in diplomatic plans floated by leaders like Donald Trump, who has argued that Gaza cannot be rebuilt while Hamas remains armed. He is correct on that point. But disarming Hamas alone is insufficient. Every armed faction must be dismantled. Every ideology that sanctifies death must be confronted.

Peace will not come through slogans. It will not come through rewriting history or denying Israel’s right to defend its citizens. It will come when Gaza’s leadership chooses life over martyrdom, prosperity over perpetual war, coexistence over annihilation.

Peace will come when terror lays down its weapons and chooses life over hate.