what happened in Jenin last week is truly tragic. Human life on both sides was lost and destruction and hate were everywhere. But was it necessary? The lesson of last week's death and destruction in Jenin show that no military solution will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the entire attack was futile and reinforced the need for a political solution.

According to Palestinian healthy ministry officials, 13 Palestinians were killed in Jenin last week, among them five 17-year-olds who Israeli said were militants. Israel said one of its soldiers from the Beit El Settlement was killed. Hundreds of Palestinians were forcibly evacuated as a huge Caterpillar D9 Israeli military bulldozer literally tore up buildings, widened the narrow streets, and according to UN officials, destroyed water piping that served the 24,000 Palestinians living in the area.

Israel says it confiscated weapons and destroyed bomb-making facilities in Jenin, where many Palestinians fed up with the lack of progress by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas have decided to take up arms to resist the Israeli occupation.

Characteristically, Abbas called the attack on Jenin a war crime, but didn't support those fighting back, insisting on his method for ending the occupation via peaceful negotiations. Abbas, who took over after the death of Yaser Arafat in 2015, has consistently opposed any armed attacks against Israelis, be they Hamas rockets or the uneven match-up between armed Palestinian fighters and the powerful, well trained and equipped Israeli army machine. In the latest attack on Jenin, Israel used fighter jets, helicopters, and heavy equipment to crush the nascent Palestinian armed resistance.

The Israeli attacks have and will continue to cause a deepening of the violent cycle that seems to have no end and for which the Palestinians pay the heaviest price. Some international officials including the leaders of the U.S. and the U.K. picked up on the Israeli narrative that Israel was exercising its right to self-defense, ignoring the rights of Palestinians, including those stipulated in the Oslo Accords. The frustrated Palestinian leadership can't explain why its 70,000-armed security personnel don't intervene to protect its own people against the Israeli army and the rowdy settlers who in recent months have burnt Palestinian villages in areas under Israeli security control and in front of Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinian security, which has been coordinating with Israel, gave up on this mission when it became clear Israel would be ignoring the Oslo Accords. When Palestinians jailed their fellow fighters in Jericho in 2006 in accordance with the security agreement, the Israeli army barged into the Jericho jail and kidnapped the imprisoned Palestinians, tried them, and imprisoned them.

Israel has further violated the agreement by taking away money earmarked for the Palestinian government, while at the same time insisting that Abbas and his security team fully cooperate with Israeli security. Palestinians understand that they need to coordinate security, but as part of an agreement that is meant to end in a sovereign contiguous Palestinian state. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will fight against the Palestinian state, but he still wants Abbas and his team to survive so they can serve Israel.

No one seems to care or say the simple truth: that neither Palestinians nor Israelis will see peace through a military victory. Israelis can't crush or evaporate four million Palestinians, and Palestinians will not cause Israel to change its policies through Palestinian acts of resistance against a powerful dominant Israeli occupier, which often takes their orders directly or indirectly from illegal settlers.

What happened in Jenin will not advance the political process. In fact, since April 2014, Israel has stopped even talking to Palestinians or agreeing to continue the negotiations that began on that festive day at the White House in September 1993.

Israel's attack in Jenin will not deter Palestinians, nor will it bring peace to the conflict. The time has come for the international community to put action behind their words. No country should utter the words "two-state solution" if they are unwilling to act on them, including the simple but important recognition of the Palestinian part of the two-state solution. Once Palestine is recognized as a state under occupation, it will have to negotiate relations with another state, Israel, on issues of borders, Jerusalem, refugees, and settlements.

Jenin has once against shown that there is no military solution. The occupation needs to end and peace between two sovereign states must be at the top of the agenda of the world community. Palestinians and Israelis have proven that they are unable on their own to reach peace. The world can and needs to help.