2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War

 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War (bombing,  murder,  false flag?)

Date	7 October 2023 - Present
Location	Israel,  Gaza Strip,  Golan Heights,  Lebanon
Participants	Hamas, Israel, Hezbollah, Iran?
Perpetrators	Hamas
Deaths	1500
Injured (non-fatal)	3000
Interests	Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Subpage	•2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/Israeli invasion of Gaza •2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/October 7
Description	A new attack on dozens of illegal Israeli settler towns in Southern Israel. Called an Israeli "9-11".

On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, breaking through the Gaza–Israel barrier and forcing entry via the Gaza border crossings, into nearby settlements in Israel and military installations, in Operation Al Aqsa Flood.

Israel responded by bombarding and laying siege to Gaza in Operation Iron Swords.

Official narrative

Full article: Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Israeli festival goers gunned down by Hamas as they flee Supernova music festival - The Times

At least 3,000 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip as a large number of Hamas militants broke through the border and entered Israel, killing at least 900 Israelis and prompting Israel's government to declare a state of emergency. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel "is at war" in a national address following the beginning of the attacks. Palestinian militants who infiltrated Israel made their way into several kibbutzim near the Gaza Strip as well as the city of Sderot.

Israeli military prisoners-of-war and civilians, including children, had been taken hostage by Palestinian militants; several of these hostages have reportedly since been taken to the Gaza Strip. Numerous cases of violence against Israeli civilians have occurred since the beginning of the Hamas offensive, including a massacre at a music festival in Re'im that killed at least 260. Hamas called it "Operation Al Aqsa Flood". In response, the IDF launched Operation Iron Sword.

Problems with official narrative

Full article: Israel

Full article: Palestine

The land that is now known as Israel and Palestine has been contested for multiple millennia. World War 2 and the Balfour Declaration caused the formation of a Zionist deep state of Israel at the will of Zionists whom largely settled in the 1800s. Israel was founded in 1948 and remained and expanded ever since, despite numerous attacks. Given the reputation of Israel enormous reach and capabilities of Israel's military-intelligence apparatus, the attack is unlikely to has been unexpected, as have been acknowledged by a IDF official and Egyptian officials warning them just before the attack. Iran denied any involvement.

UNRWA statement

Statement by the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, on the hostilities between Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel;

Jerusalem, 10 October 2023

Palestinian armed groups infiltrated Israel on 7 October, killing and capturing hundreds of Israeli civilians and members of the Israeli forces while indiscriminately firing thousands of rockets into Israel. On 8 October, the Government of Israel declared war, launching intensive air strikes into the densely populated Gaza Strip over the past three days. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and over two thousand now injured. The magnitude of the ongoing hostilities has led to grave humanitarian consequences. Homes, schools, medical facilities, and other infrastructure have been damaged and destroyed. In Gaza, at least 200,000 of the 2.2 million residents, have been displaced after fleeing for fear of their lives or their houses were destroyed by airstrikes. Most of them are taking shelter in UNRWA’s schools, at least two of which have already been damaged by airstrikes in the area. The numbers of those affected by the hostilities are only expected to increase. Israeli authorities have cut their water supply to Gaza, reducing an already scarce availability of potable water. And in accordance with the complete siege ordered by the Israeli Government on Gaza, access to electricity, food, and fuel have also been severed, inevitably worsening the already dire humanitarian situation. Palestinians in Gaza now only have electricity to 3-4 hours per day. This hinders the ability of health facilities to function and treat those injured.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are working to meet acute needs, in particular shelter, in dangerous circumstances. However, access for humanitarian staff and supplies into Gaza has also been cut and the intensity of the hostilities is limiting the ability of staff to deliver aid. As the security and humanitarian situations continue to escalate, all parties must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law. All military and armed groups must abide by the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution when conducting their operations. Civilians, especially children, medical facilities, humanitarian personnel health workers, and journalists must be protected. Captured civilians must be released immediately and unconditionally. Anyone captured or detained, including combatants, must be treated humanely and with dignity.

All relevant actors must allow humanitarian teams and goods to immediately and safely reach the hundreds of thousands of people in need.

Israel Military

Israeli Air Force

Dozens of Israeli air force reservists said 2 months earlier they’ll refuse to show up for duty if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government moves ahead with a contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary. Israeli Army suspended its navy commander 2 months before the attack. A protest signed by thousands of reservists over the last seven months up to the attack, had mostly remained threats. Up to the attack, 161 critical air force personnel announced they will stop their service, raising concerns about the military’s readiness in the face of similar refusals at a time of heightened violence and tensions on several fronts. Hundreds of reservists from various units joined a rally in Tel Aviv in august 2023, declaring they would not report for duty anymore.

Intelligence Failure?

In 2021, Israel completed a sensor-equipped underground wall on its side of Gaza, a countermeasure developed after Hamas used tunnels to repel its troops during a 2014 invasion of the besieged Palestinian territory. The project also includes an above-ground fence, a naval barrier, radar systems and command and control rooms. The barrier includes hundreds of cameras, radar and other sensors, and spans 65km (40 miles). 140,000 tonnes of iron and steel were used in its construction, which took three-and-a-half years to complete. Israeli officials just argued that intelligence failed because of Sabbat and a Jewish holiday on top of that.

Foreknowledge

Iranian officials helped plan Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut a week before the attack, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah. Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon, they said. Although the US denied this, Syrian advisors and EU officials repeated the claim, in a rare agreement with Iran. In case, these claims are true, the picture painted by the US and Israel of a pure intelligence failure is even more suspicious.

US Claims

Iran was reported in the Washington Post to give "Hamas (...) $70 million in military assistance from Iran. According to a US State Department report from 2020, Iran provides about $100 million annually to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command Current and former intelligence officials confirmed that Iran had provided technical help to Hamas in manufacturing the more than 4,000 rockets and armed drones launched into Israel. At least some Hamas militants also have undergone training in advanced military tactics, including at Lebanese camps staffed by technical advisers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.

US Weapons

US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene argued the weapons used in the attack appeared to be American and were moved from Ukraine to Gaza.

Reactions

A good example of how this event has played into PM Netanyahu's hand; Al Jazeera wrote; The Israeli military is bombarding Gaza, Hamas is launching more rockets and the death toll on both sides of the divide is rising, Splashed across Israeli media headlines is ‘Israel at War’ with many outlets reporting events as they happen, while some op eds – and even high profile figures have been using rhetoric criticized as dangerous and inflammatory.

Full article: Israeli Deep state

Full article: “9-11/Israel did it”

Jonathan Conricus, a former international spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces, compared it to a "Pearl Harbour-type of moment for Israel, where there was reality up until today, and then there will be reality after today.", while the Intercept compared the attack to 9-11, which is ironic of itself as 9-11 is suspected to have been made possible with help of the Israeli Deep state.

Consequences

Israel announced a total blockade of the already besieged Gaza Strip. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said they would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel as part of "a complete siege" on Hamas-run Gaza, where about 2.3 million people live in one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Israel controls Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters, as well as two of the three border crossing points; the third is controlled by Egypt.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Ronald Plasterk	“All the more exasperating that in the reactions to Hamas's horrific pogrom, in which more Jews were murdered in one day than at any time since the Holocaust, first, it is pretended that it is indeed symmetrical, and the major media such as the NOS news even ostentatiously takes sides with Hamas and against Israel (see, for example, holding Israel directly responsible for that bomb on the hospital, without any check, and then no neat response). You can have all sorts of objections to the Netanyahu government, and because Israel is a democracy (the only one in the Middle East) there are many people even within Israel who voice those objections. You can insist on observing borders when counterattacking. If you recognise Israel's full right to defend itself, there are always limits anyway; remember, for example, that Israel is a nuclear power. But even if you keep the balance right, it is important to have in mind why the situation between Israel and Hamas is anything but symmetrical. There are civilian casualties on both sides. A first fundamental difference is that Hamas, as a terror organisation, is out to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible, while the Israeli army is trying to hit Hamas while inflicting as few civilian casualties as possible. You might perhaps think that they should take even more of a margin on that point, but in any case the intention is a completely different one from Hamas’. A further difference is that Israeli soldiers may be willing to die in war, but still prefer to come home to their families in one piece. Hamas has a death culture, with the highest good being to blow yourself up, for which you are rewarded with sex with 72 young virgins (not wondering if those 72 young women feel like it). Then taking civilians hostage as human shields, including very young children. That is a serious war crime, and one would expect that all responses would constantly insist that Hamas must first release those hostages. On top of that, Hamas is also preventing its own civilians from leaving locations where Hamas posts are located, precisely with the intention of those civilians being killed in attacks from Israel. Another criminal tactic that Israel does not use.”	Ronald Plasterk	2023

 

Known Participants

All 5 of the participants already have pages here:

Participant	Description
Ansarallah	Islamist political and military organisation from Yemen.
Hezbollah	Political Islamic party, and army fighting many wars in the Middle East, linked to possible CIA drug trafficking.
Iran	Iran possesses the 4th largest oil reserves of any nation state.
Israel	Only country in the world to be founded, led and designated by and for Jewish people after the Holocaust. Zionists achieved this with forms of land grabbing, apartheid and murder of Palestinians, but saying that is apparently.... antisemitic...
Yemen	A war torn country in the Middle East

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:A Devastating Indictment of Israel’s War on Gaza	Article	11 January 2024	Mike Small Roshdi Sarraj
Document:Biden’s pier for Gaza is a hollow gesture that will change almost nothing	blog post	8 March 2024	Jonathan Cook	President Biden needs to look like Gaza’s saviour when Democrats are deciding who they are voting for. He and the Democratic party are betting voters are dumb enough to fall for this charade. Please don’t prove them right.
Document:Complaint filed alleging UK ministers' complicity in Israeli war crimes	Article	16 January 2024	Alex MacDonald Dania Akkad
Document:Dikgang Moseneke to join bench of judges in Israel-Hamas world court case	Article	5 January 2024	Kgaugelo Masweneng	Should presiding American Judge Joan Donoghue recuse herself when it comes to determining whether US staunch ally Israel has committed genocide in Gaza?
Document:Goliath's Revenge - Israel and Apartheid South Africa	Article	5 January 2024	Christopher Nicholson	"During the apartheid years I practised as a human rights lawyer and one of my colleagues defended a young boy, charged with assaulting a police officer. He had thrown a stone at the man, who was on board a tank-like military vehicle, but had arrogantly left his helmet off. A law in force with regard to firearms required a warning shot to be fired in certain circumstances. The prosecutor then demanded of the latter-day David: ‘Why did you not throw a warning stone?’"
Document:Meeting the Gaze of the Ghost in the Rubble	Article	28 February 2024	George Gunn	Meanwhile the ghost still looks out from the rubble of Gaza. Her stare searches across the ocean of our conscience like the beam of a lighthouse. The ghost in the rubble asks of us all: why can we not stop this madness and feed the people?
Document:On Gaza, Sunak's Tories and Starmer's Labour have merged into a single pro-war party	Article	22 January 2024	Peter Oborne	If the ICJ rules in South Africa’s favour then Rishi Sunak, as well as US President Joe Biden, will be wide open to the charge that they are aiding and abetting genocide. And so will Labour’s Keir Starmer.
Stop the Worsening Undercount of Palestinian Casualties in Gaza	Article	5 March 2024	Ralph Nader	From accounts of people on the ground, videos and photographs of deadly episode after episode, plus the resultant mortalities from blocking or smashing the crucial necessities of life, a more likely estimate, in my appraisal, is that at least 200,000 Palestinians must have perished by now and the toll is accelerating by the hour.

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