How Israel Helped the Gaza Strip Before October 7, 2023
by Khaled Abu Toameh • September 16, 2025 at 5:00 am
Which European country would tolerate 50,000 rockets, mortars and missiles fired at it -- or even one rocket or missile?
Before the October 7, 2023 attack.... Egypt, Qatar, the United Nations and other international parties kept assuring Israel that the best way to achieve calm and stability in the Gaza Strip was by improving its economy and issuing more permits for Palestinian laborers to enter Israel.
When Israel imposed restrictions on the Gaza Strip to protect its own citizens and prevent terrorism, it was condemned for imposing suffering and pain on the Palestinians living there. When Israel started easing restrictions and handing out thousands of permits to Gazan workers to enter Israel (while Egypt and other Arab countries refused to accept Palestinians), it faced criticism for allegedly strengthening Hamas.
When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, there was a lot of talk in Israel about turning the enclave into the "Singapore of the Middle East." Israel's goal, or dream, was to transform the Gaza Strip into a prosperous, thriving area, similar to how Singapore developed from a small, poor country into a wealthy, technologically advanced hub. Israel clearly wanted to open a new chapter in its relations with the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip and work together on economic and technology projects for the benefit of both people.
Israel had been led to believe that jobs, money and humanitarian aid would bring stability and calm, and had hoped that the humanitarian and economic aid would prevent, or at least reduce, terror attacks from the Gaza Strip. However, Hamas and many Palestinians viewed these conciliatory measures as signs of weakness on the part of Israel.
What the international community fails to understand is that since the establishment of Hamas more than 35 years ago, its stated goal has been the elimination of Israel. For Hamas, the conflict with Israel has never been about the economy or settlements or improving the living conditions of the Palestinians. Hamas regards Israel as one big illegitimate "settlement" that needs to be uprooted and replaced with an Islamist state.
Israel is damned both for helping the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and damned for not helping them enough. When Israel allows funding and economic aid sent into Gaza, as it did, Israel is blamed for helping fund Hamas's war against Israel. If Israel had refused to allow funding and economic aid to be sent into Gaza, Israel would be accused of starving and brutalizing the Palestinians. Everyone, it seems, wants to have it both ways so that whatever Israel does is "wrong."
Several years ago, Israel came under pressure from many in the international community to ease restrictions on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, in order to alleviate the suffering of the two million Palestinians living there. The pressure came despite Hamas's repeated terror attacks against Israel, including more than 31,000 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza at the civilian communities of Israel, a country the size of New Jersey, before 2023, accompanied by violent riots by the terror group at Israel's border.
In the nearly two years since 2023, an additional 19,000 rockets and missiles have been fired at Israel from Gaza.
Which European country would tolerate 50,000 rockets, mortars and missiles fired at it -- or even one rocket or missile?
Since 2023, Israel nevertheless expressed its readiness to help the residents of the Gaza Strip despite the continued attacks and threats by Hamas to pursue its Jihad (holy war) against Israel.
