Gaza-Israel Conflict | 2023-2024

[Hassan Al-Somal]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1821826249792352367

Recovering the bodies of martyrs and extinguishing fires in a school for displaced people after it was bombed east of the city of Gaza [by the Israeli occupation forces].

 

[Hassan Al-Somal]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1821558604497031346

 

[Meengla]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1821558604497031346

It heart breaking to watch this.
But the Islamic World will not move collectively unless Saudi Arabia moves and they will not move because of their immense investments in the West; that's the primary reason, I believe, followed by a fear of Iran.

 

[clutch]

Let's see: I merely question the wisdom of the Palestinian leadership. You called them traitors. But saying that this is their own fault makes me delusional. I simply cannot choose to argue against such a fantastic line of reasoning.

On topic, has Iran responded to the assassination of the Hamas chief? May be they need to present some evidence of what they claim first.

 

[Musings]

Video appears to show IDF soldiers sexually abusing Palestinian detainee

CCTV broadcast by an Israeli television channel allegedly shows IDF soldiers leading away a prisoner before sexually abusing the person behind their shields.

news.sky.com

Now those that are still doubting war crimes being committed watch the above carefully?
@TruthSeeker @Solomon2
Do you want or attempt to justify your brave army?
These are war crimes and these bastards will pay. We won’t allow this to be forgotten

 

[Meengla]

Video appears to show IDF soldiers sexually abusing Palestinian detainee

CCTV broadcast by an Israeli television channel allegedly shows IDF soldiers leading away a prisoner before sexually abusing the person behind their shields.

news.sky.com

Now those that are still doubting war crimes being committed watch the above carefully?
@TruthSeeker @Solomon2
Do you want or attempt to justify your brave army?
These are war crimes and these bastards will pay. We won’t allow this to be forgotten

When the sitting Israeli PM invoked the Amalek last October, then why be so surprised? They invoke Amalek, they bring up the carpet bombing of Dresden, they bring up Hiroshima, they even bring up the casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war. All of those are the intellectual-foundations to justify what's been done in Gaza!!
These 'ancient' people are truly 'ancient': Brutes hiding behind glitzy high rises!!

 

[Musings]

Video appears to show IDF soldiers sexually abusing Palestinian detainee

CCTV broadcast by an Israeli television channel allegedly shows IDF soldiers leading away a prisoner before sexually abusing the person behind their shields.

news.sky.com

Now those that are still doubting war crimes being committed watch the above carefully?
@TruthSeeker @Solomon2
Do you want or attempt to justify your brave army?
These are war crimes and these bastards will pay. We won’t allow this to be forgotten

One on @VCheng
What dya think?

 

[Falcon29]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1821942377319149738

 

[VCheng]

One on @VCheng
What dya think?

Of course all such crimes are horrendous and must be investigated fairly and swiftly prosecuted by due process to the fullest extent possible.

 

[Alter_Ego]

Though Israelis have to put on a brave face, often their despair shows. Worth reading it all and discusses the 'new Normal' as @UKBengali had said some pages ago.

Iran's campaign of psychological torture has been a strategic win - opinion

Ironically, Iran’s strategy of suspense has inflicted considerable harm without firing a single shot.

www.jpost.com

Iran's campaign of psychological torture has been a strategic win - opinion​

Ironically, Iran’s strategy of suspense has inflicted considerable harm without firing a single shot.​

Yet, ten days following the Mossad’s reported assassination of Haniyeh, a haunting question lingers: Did Israel achieve the outcome it anticipated? Was his death truly worth the precarious position Israel now finds itself in – anxiously bracing for an Iranian and Hezbollah retaliation that looms like a shadow over the nation?

Almost all flights in and out of Israel have been canceled indefinitely, and the economy, already suffering as a result of the war in Gaza, is expected to further deteriorate in the event of a larger war in the North. In the Finance Ministry, the uncertainty is great with officials there predicting that in the event of a larger conflict, damage to infrastructure, businesses, import and export of goods and more will be unlike anything seen before in the State of Israel.

Ironically, Iran’s strategy of suspense has inflicted considerable harm without firing a single shot. Millions of Israelis live in a heightened state of anxiety, caught in a relentless cycle of “will they or won’t they” that amplifies an unbearable tension.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah shrewdly acknowledged that the suspense itself is an attack. Reflect on this: just by threatening Israel, Iran and Hezbollah have brought international travel to a standstill, have led the Americans to divert significant forces to the region and have put Israel on the highest level of alert since Oct. 7.

In other words they starting to feel a taste of of their own medicine. Though its comparatively mild with respect to what Palestinians have gone through for 7 decades.

 

[Solomon2]

Of course all such crimes are horrendous and must be investigated fairly and swiftly prosecuted by due process to the fullest extent possible.

Film is from an Israeli channel. Israel is good at performing such investigations and prosecutions.

The contrast with Pakistan, which still cannot prosecute or even disown its personnel for the deeds of 1970-71, cannot be greater. Will Pakistan ever rise up to follow Israel's good example?

 

[VCheng]

Film is from an Israeli channel. Israel is good at performing such investigations and prosecutions.

Then let Israel show the world it by due process similar to those followed after Abu Ghraib where such crimes of the military were prosecuted, right up to the commanding officers, and the results made public for all to see.

 

[TruthSeeker]

IDF and Shin Bet closing in on Yahya Sinwar as assassinations take their toll - security official

According to security sources, Sinwar's movement area, like other senior Hamas officials in the organization, is getting smaller and smaller.

www.jpost.com

IDF and Shin Bet closing in on Yahya Sinwar as assassinations take their toll - security official​

According to security sources, Sinwar's movement area, like other senior Hamas officials in the organization, is getting smaller and smaller.​

By AVI ASHKENAZIAUGUST 9, 2024 20:18 Updated: AUGUST 9, 2024 20:19

Friday's operation in Khan Yunis, as well as the activity in the center of the Gaza Strip and Rafah, may advance the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to their primary goal: the elimination of senior Hamas leadership. In fact, one security source estimates that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is running out of places to hide.

Sinwar is almost alone at the top of Hamas. His close friends in the senior military ranks of the organization, as well as the senior officials, have been eliminated or have disappeared: Mohammad Deif, Rafa'a Salama, Ahmed Ghandour, Raad Saad, and Ayman Nofal.

According to Arab media, the man closest to Sinwar, the minister in the Hamas government and his right-hand man, Rawhi Mushtaha, was also killed along with Sameh al-Siraj and three military commanders from the al-Qassam Brigades who accompanied them: Abdul Hadi Siam, Sami Odeh, and Muhammad Hadid.

Mushtaha, one of Hamas's senior members, is considered to be very close to the leader and is the figure that Sinwar relies on the most, both in the military and the political management of the organization.

The elimination of Rafa'a Salama is also significant for Sinwar's survival. Salama is from one of the most powerful and wealthy families in Khan Yunis, owns many properties, and was the operative factor in providing cover to senior officials, which helped enable the survival of the Hamas leadership.

HAMAS GAZA leader Yahya Sinwar (left) speaks with leader Ismail Haniyeh (center) at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, in 2017. Is it possible for Israel to lay its hands on Sinwar? (credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)

Shifting sands​

The fact that Sinwar's entire operational hub has disappeared makes it difficult for him, according to the IDF's estimates, to move to hiding places, especially above ground.

"Every day, he has trouble finding places where he can hide. The list of associates and confidants is being reduced," said a security source.

According to the source, Sinwar's movement area, like that of other senior officials in the organization, is getting smaller and smaller.

Recently, the IDF even detected ten attempts by Hamas members to move through the Rafah beaches to the Egyptian side of the border.

First, in small rowing boats and even swimming with fins, binoculars, and a life belt when the route was meters away from the shore. Navy ships managed to thwart all attempts, and all terrorists were eliminated.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Vigilance over panic: Israelis defiant to maintain normalcy in the face of threats

Even as the US and Russia are scrambling to contain the conflict in various ways, Israelis, after a few days of catastrophizing, are continuing to go on with their lives.

www.jpost.com

Vigilance over panic: Israelis defiant to maintain normalcy in the face of threats​

Even as the US and Russia are scrambling to contain the conflict in various ways, Israelis, after a few days of catastrophizing, are continuing to go on with their lives.​

By HERB KEINON AUGUST 9, 2024 14:16

More than a week after twin high-profile assassinations in Beirut and Tehran set the region, and the country, on edge, Israel has settled into what could be best described as a state of routine vigilance – a condition of habitual alertness.

Preparedness, in other words, has been woven into daily life.

But preparedness should not be mistaken for panic. Despite the impression one may glean from some news reports and incessant speculation about when, where, and how Iran and Hezbollah, separately or together, might attack, it would be wrong to say the country is panicking.

It is not panicking. Brisk sales of solar phone rechargers, home generators, bottled water, canned tuna, and peanut butter are signs of preparedness, not panic.

Panic is people falling over themselves to leave the country, refusing to leave their homes, staying off the roads, not going to the beach, cafés or malls. That is not what Israel is experiencing.

A BILLBOARD on a street in Tehran displays a picture of assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian. Did Israel achieve the outcome it anticipated from the killing of Haniyeh? (credit: West Asian News Agency/Reuters)

The country is not at a panicked standstill, despite what Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah might have his listeners believe. “The Israelis’ anticipation over the past week is part of the punishment, part of our response, and part of the battle,” he said in a speech Tuesday night.

His words led to a typical Israeli reaction: He thinks he is going to disrupt our daily life; we’ll show him by partying harder.

“What is the appropriate Zionist response right now, in the face of the Iranian revenge?” asked KAN journalist Akiva Novick in a half-humorous, half-serious Facebook post. Once, Novick said in reference to Nachman Shai, the IDF spokesman during the First Gulf War and the tense period during that Scud-rocked period, the country was told to drink some water.

Today, he said, taking a gulp of beer, “We say drink beer. I’m not kidding. That is one of the best ways to prepare for the revenge from Iran and Nasrallah.”

Drink beer not because of the alcohol’s numbing effects, he stressed, but “because our enemies have one clear goal: that we will walk around here in fear, with our heads down, be bummed. Therefore, our normal life here is something to fight for. Go out, enjoy yourself, buy things, drink beer, smoke drugs, with medical permission, of course. Buy wine from the Golan Heights and support the farmers there. Our soldiers are risking their lives so we can do just that.”

Novick made clear that he was not minimizing the need to be prepared – buy bottled water, prepare the safe rooms – “but don’t give up on your fun; it has strategic importance.”

And he’s right. Hezbollah and Iran are aiming to paralyze the country, and it is a strategic necessity to ensure that they don’t do it.

NOVICK’S REMARKS evoke memories of times past, such as the weeks preceding, and the time during, the First Gulf War in 1990-1991, when anxiety permeated the nation, and the public – fearing the worst – taped up windows and donned gas masks in anticipation of chemical-laced missiles. Now is not the only time the country has prepared for worst-case scenarios in the face of threats by enemies.

The same was true of the tense waiting period before the Six Day War, a three-week period that earned its own moniker, tekufat hahamtana, the waiting period. This was a period of anxiety, uncertainty, and preparation within Israel as the country faced the imminent threat of an all-out regional war. Egypt had closed the Strait of Tiran and kicked UN peacekeepers out of Sinai, and the rhetoric from the Arab countries was chilling.

Operation Cast Lead​

The period leading up to Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008 was also an anxiety-filled one, as constant rocket fire from Gaza created a sense of urgency and fear, with the country bracing for the necessity of a widespread military campaign but not knowing how Hamas would respond. Israel is schooled in this kind of anxious anticipation, and – as such – it does not shut down; there is a sense of “been there, done that.”

Nevertheless, there are some characteristics now that distinguish the current waiting period from similar periods in the past.

The first is that this period is unfolding in the midst of a 10-month-old war that has already taken a significant psychological toll on the population. Unlike previous periods of relative calm before major conflicts, the current situation has been marked by ongoing fighting, long stints of reserve duty, and rocket fire on the country for 10 months.

While this prolonged strain can lead to psychological fatigue, affecting the country’s overall resilience and ability to cope with additional threats, it has also resulted in increased calls for the government to take preemptive action – driven in part by the sentiment that “enough is enough.” These calls were not as prominent after the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus in April, even when it was also clear that Iran would retaliate, though not as massively as they eventually did.

ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT difference this time is the heightened international involvement aimed at containing the fallout from the killing of Hezbollah’s chief of staff Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Fearing that the current crisis could lead to a much wider conflagration, the international community is involved in ways not seen during previous periods of anxious waiting.

The most glaring example is in 1967, when Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser closed the Strait of Tiran and expelled UN peacekeepers from Sinai, with hardly an international peep.

The US, distracted and preoccupied at the time with its own affairs – the Vietnam War, US race issues – did little to tamp down matters. Washington did not honor previous commitments to Israel to keep the Strait of Tiran open, and then-US president Lyndon Johnson did nothing to prevent the removal of the UN forces from Sinai.

Contrast that with the current situation. Even though the US is distracted, as it was in 1967, with domestic issues – first and foremost the November presidential elections – it has taken strong proactive steps, such as dispatching an aircraft carrier, 12 warships, and a fighter jet squadron to the region to deter Iranian aggression. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, is working the diplomatic channels aiming for a similar result.

The Americans are not the only ones involved. The Russians, too, are reportedly using their leverage on the Iranians to try to dissuade them from a dramatic response, with Russian President Vladimir Putin dispatching his Security Council secretary, Sergei Shoigu, to Tehran to speak with the country’s leaders.

This contrasts greatly with the period before the Six Day War, when the Soviet Union played a significant role in escalating tensions. At the same time, the Russians are also reported to be providing the Iranians with their advanced air defense systems.

The involvement of the Russians and their siding here with Israel’s sworn enemy stands in stark contrast to the bromance Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu developed during a large part of the last decade.That relationship, which led to the establishment of a deconfliction mechanism in Syria where Israel would coordinate with the Russians before striking targets in Syria so as not to accidentally harm Russian interests, deteriorated when Putin invaded Ukraine.

While Israel was careful in the beginning of that war to remain neutral, because of its interests in maintaining good ties with the Russians due to their massive presence in Syria, that position gradually shifted as the Russians became more reliant on Iranian arms – first and foremost drones – in their war effort.

While at one time Russia’s and Iran’s interests conflicted in Syria, as Russia withdrew forces from Syria to focus on Ukraine their interests aligned. And as their interests aligned, Israel’s relations with Russia took a nosedive.

The reported efforts of Russia to put a lid on Iran’s reaction, therefore, are not a throwback to the golden days of the Putin-Netanyahu relationship or a reflection of any concern on Putin’s part that some of the more than one million Russian-speakers in Israel, one of the largest Russian diasporas in the world, might be hurt in an Iranian attack. Rather, they have to do with cold Russian interests.

If Iran attacks Israel in a dramatic way and Israel responds in kind, or if Israel preempts, there are a number of strategic targets it could hit, including oil installations, ports, and arms facilities.

While a strike on oil installations, hitting at the Islamic Republic’s ability to produce oil, would not necessarily affect Russia’s interests, hitting Iranian ports – as Israel did in Yemen last month in relation to a Houthi attack – or arms manufacturing facilities could significantly hurt the Russians.

Russia has become increasingly dependent on Iranian ports, a result of Western sanctions that limit Russian access to European markets, meaning that Moscow has pivoted south, establishing trade routes through Iranian ports on the Indian Ocean to connect with India and the Persian Gulf. Hitting these ports would be highly detrimental to Russian interests.

Equally detrimental would be if Israel targeted Iranian arms manufacturing sites, especially those producing drones and artillery shells, which Russia has – since the beginning of the Ukrainian war and the Western sanctions – become much more reliant on.

Even as the US and Russia are scrambling to contain the conflict in various ways, Israelis, after a few days of catastrophizing and even as they relentlessly follow the news and prepare for various scenarios, are continuing to go on with their lives – both because that’s just their default mode and as an act of strategic defiance.

 

[Musings]

Film is from an Israeli channel. Israel is good at performing such investigations and prosecutions.

The contrast with Pakistan, which still cannot prosecute or even disown its personnel for the deeds of 1970-71, cannot be greater. Will Pakistan ever rise up to follow Israel's good example?

Instead of being able to accept the Israeli army has behaved like a bunch of cockroaches - he has to dilute the severity by deflection. He brings Pakistan and 70-71.
This post is an ideal example of how Zionists behave when caught with their pants down.