2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War

 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War (Israeli–Palestinian conflict,  bombing,  cover-up,  murder,  genocide?)

Date	7 October 2023 - Present
Location	Israel,  Gaza Strip,  West Bank,  Golan Heights,  Lebanon,  Egypt,  Indian Ocean,  Iraq,  Syria
Participants	Israel, Hezbollah, Iran, Houthi, Yemen
Perpetrators	Hamas, IDF
Deaths	20,000
Injured (non-fatal)	60,000
Subpage	•2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/Israeli invasion of Gaza •2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/October 7
Description	Hamas attack on dozens of illegal Israeli settlements in Southern Israel provoking mass retaliatory killings by Israel. Corporate media call it the Israeli "9-11", while critics of Israel refer to "10-7" as a staged, military operation in order to manufacture consent for a disproportionate response.

On 7 October 2023 – precisely one day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War – the 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War began. Around 3,000 armed Palestinian militants led by Hamas infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip – seemingly unopposed – and broke through the Gaza–Israel barrier into nearby settlements and military installations in Israel, in Operation Al Aqsa Flood.

Israel responded by bombarding and invading Gaza in the far more devastating Operation Iron Sword.

By December 2023 reports from the NYT and Haaretz emerged, that the Israeli IDF and Unit 8200 knew of the exact details of the planned incursion, but deemed the plan "not realistic", raising questions over the official narrative of 10-7 being a Palestinian "surprise attack".

On 20 March 2024, Al Jazeera Investigations released an hour-long video entitled "October 7" which found that many of the worst stories that came out in the days following the attack were false. This was especially true of atrocities that were used repeatedly by politicians in Israel and the West to justify the ferocity of the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, such as the mass killing of babies and allegations of widespread and systematic rape. The video revealed that claims by the Israel Defence Force that it found 8 burned babies at a house in Kibbutz Be’eri were entirely untrue. There were no babies in the house and the 12 civilians inside were killed by Israeli forces when they stormed the house.

Background

Full article: Israel

Full article: Palestine

Full article: Yom Kippur War

The land that is now known as Israel and Palestine has been contested for millennia. World War 2 and the Balfour Declaration caused the formation of a Zionist deep state of Israel at the will of Zionists, many of whom settled there in the 1800s. Israel was founded in 1948 and remained and expanded ever since, despite numerous attacks.

Official narrative

Full article: Israeli–Palestinian conflict

GRAPHIC RAW FOOTAGE: Massacre Across Israel From the Eyes of Hamas - Footage of CCTV 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 went into several kibbutzim as well as the city of Sderot.

After a surprise hang-glider and land assault on Israeli settlements, military bases and a music festival, over 1000 people died on the 7th of October by the hand of Hamas fighters. Israeli forces claim that Hamas gunmen killed more than 100 people in the kibbutz of Be'eri and a similar number in the Kfar Aza kibbutz. By 11 November 2023, the death toll in Gaza had reportedly exceeded 11,000 Palestinians whilst the Israelis revised downward their death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel to around 1,200 from a previous government estimate of 1,400.

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, where it called up 300,000 reservists and started a massive assault on Gaza. On the northern border with Lebanon, minor exchanges of fire continued.

IDF officials reported that the bodies of 1,500 Hamas soldiers had been recovered from Israeli territory.. Apparently not many prisoners were taken, with pictures showing desecration of their corpses.

4 weeks into the conflict, Houthi militants in Yemen announced a number of missile and drone attacks on Israel. In January 2024, the US and UK launched airstrikes on more than a dozen sites used by Houthis in Yemen

Genocide?

On December 29, South Africa’s government filed a case with the International Court of Justice alleging that, by atrocities against the Palestinian people after October 7, Israel is violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The government of Israel has said it would be represented at the ICJ to oppose the allegations.

Hamas

Several international law scholars - including former Attorney General of Canada Irwin Cotler and former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo - called Hamas' assault genocide. In the first week, many self-recorded acts of mutilation and sexual assault were broadcast by Hamas and praised and re-broadcast by Muslims on social media. Israeli police said dozens of women and some men were raped, highlighting the Hamas founding charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel, denounced Zionism and Judaism, and, according to certain researchers according to Rutgers, implies a call for the genocide of Jews (before a 2017 revision that advocated for a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, what would include the West Bank region and East Jerusalem).

Several Hamas soldiers confiscated victims' phones to livestream their deaths on social media while they posted messages or media on victims' social media accounts and even went as far as calling relatives to taunt them. Ghazi Hamad, senior Hamas official, promised in a late October 2023 interview to launch "a second, a third, a fourth" attack until the country is "annihilated," asserting, "We are victims - everything we do is justified".

Al Jazeera's hour-long video "October 7" reveals widespread human rights abuses by Hamas fighters and others who followed them through the fence from Gaza into Israel. But the investigation also found that many of the worst stories that came out in the days following the attack were false. There were a number of incidents where the police and IDF appear to have killed Israeli citizens.

Forensic examinations on victims on the attacks of 7th October showed signs of sexual abuse, mutilations, broken limbs, and broken pelvises, with reports of released hostages and 1,500 testimonies supporting the rape reports. The NYT also shared testimonies of sexual violence during hostages their time in Gaza City. Following the capture of Hamas soldiers, one came on the record to confess he got permission to "rape corpses", and given explicit instructions to kill everyone they encountered, including beheading victims and cutting off their legs. The plan, as described in the videos, involved moving from home to home, from room to room, throwing grenades, and killing everyone, including women and children. In one video a person whose face is blurred says that gunmen were ordered to "crush victims' heads, sever limbs, and cut off their legs".

Israel

"The intent that we have observed is extensive and it comes from all quarters of the Israeli state," said Anisha Patel, a legal researcher with the group Law for Palestine — which provides legal analysis on international law as it relates to Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately following the Oct. 7 massacre, described Gaza as "the city of evil.", exclaiming "We will turn all the places in which Hamas deploys and hides into ruins. I am telling the people of Gaza — get out of there now. We will act everywhere and with full power," in a televised statement. Israel denied the threats, even though the UN, the World Health Organization, the International Red Cross and have stated that Palestinians in Gaza have nowhere safe to go, partly due to ther other Arab countries not accepting Gaza civillians, fearing civil unrest, with Egypt leading the way.

One of the few bakeries that had still been standing in the Gaza Strip was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah in December, and Gazans were reported to be searching through the rubble of bombed bakeries attempting to find bags of flour. Yoav Gallant, Israeli Minister of Defense, said on the 7th of October "We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly". Avi Dichter, Israeli Minister of Agriculture, called for a "Gaza’s Al Nakba" on Israeli TV with Amihai Eliyahu, Israeli Minister of Heritage calling for an nuclear bomb with Major General Ghassan Alian, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories promising that "There will be no electricity and no water (in Gaza), there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell". Within 3 months. more than 21,000 Palestinians, including over 8,000 children, 6,200 women and 61 journalists had been killed already,

UN reaction

UNRWA statement

UN Security Council holds open debate on Israel-Hamas conflict - 24 October

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.

UNSCR 2702

US and Russia abstain, 13 votes in favour

Instead of calling for an immediate ceasefire, UNSCR 2702 of 2023 was watered down by the United States to allowing Israel to continue controlling the amount and distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and to continue its bombardment unhindered:

The Security Council reaffirmed the obligations of the parties to the conflict under international humanitarian law, especially regarding the protection of civilians and civilian objects, safety of humanitarian personnel, and the provision of humanitarian assistance.

The UNSC resolution demanded that the parties “allow, facilitate and enable” the immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale directly to the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip.

It also requested the UN Secretary-General to appoint a Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator with responsibility for “facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying” in Gaza, as appropriate, the humanitarian nature of all relief consignments to the enclave provided through States that are not party to the conflict.

It also called for the “expeditious” establishment of a UN mechanism to accelerate aid consignments to Gaza through States that are not party to the conflict, to expedite, streamline and accelerate assistance while continuing to help ensure that aid reaches its civilian destination.

UNWRA and UN Watch

On the 27th of January 2024, UNWRA funding was cut after accusations of their personnel working or supporting Hamas operations in Gaza.

Funding cuts

Hillel Neuer appeared on ABC News with Linsey Davis to discuss the U.N. workers accused of helping Hamas in the October 7th attacks on Israel, and new evidence that he presented in the US Congress on 30 January 2024.

After the cutting of funds for the IGO, some critics from the UN themselves gave interviews arguing accusations against UNWRA already were known, even in the UN. A recent example resulted in UNWRA suspending up to 120 teachers working for UNWRA for teaching Gazan children to violently act against Israeli targets.

Hillel Neuer, A director of UN Watch, a Geneva based NGO whose mission is to monitor the United Nations, UN Watch increasingly warned the UN since 2015 about UNWRA. Neuer called for an absolute end to UNWRA as he accused UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of purposely only allowing UNWRA to work alongside western countries keeping the strategy of tension alive in the Gaza-Israel conflict by quickly giving UNWRA dozens of monthly payments in advance. Even though UNWRA was accused to be infiltrated by Hamas employees.

“UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said after a key Hamas operations center was discovered right beneath his headquarters that he had no idea. That's absurd. There was a very advanced tunnel with electrical cables, which supplied a Hamas server center with power. That came directly from UNRWA's electricity grid. Moreover, a few years ago, UNRWA staff noticed that an entire parking lot above it was starting to subside. So what do you mean, we couldn't have known anything?”
Hillel Neuer (2024) 

Canada cut funding without seeing evidence

On 7 February 2024, CBC News reported that the Trudeau government cut funding without seeing evidence to back Israel's claims of UNRWA-Hamas collusion. Government sources told CBC that Israel still hadn't shared evidence with Canada to substantiate its claim that 12 employees of UNRWA were involved in some capacity in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the affiliated group Islamic Jihad.

Earlier in February, Britain's Channel 4 News obtained a copy of a dossier that the government of Israel shared with the UK government, which also cut funding to UNRWA. Channel Four reported that the dossier was only six pages long. The news service said it rehashes long-standing Israeli government complaints about UNRWA and alleges the involvement of UNRWA staff in the Oct 7 attack, but "provides no evidence" to back up Israel's explosive allegations against the agency.

Britain's Sky News also reviewed the dossier and reached a similar conclusion:

"The Israeli intelligence documents make several claims that Sky News has not seen proof of and many of the claims, even if true, do not directly implicate UNRWA," the news channel reported.

French public broadcaster France 24 also had access to the Israeli report, which it compared to the notorious "dodgy dossier" of intelligence claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that led the UK government to join the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Problems with official narrative

Given the reputation of Israel, and the enormous reach and capabilities of Israel's military-intelligence apparatus, the attack is unlikely to have been unexpected, as has been acknowledged by IDF and Egyptian officials, who repeatedly warned Tel Aviv that an escalation was imminent Stories in corporate media also say that US intelligence officials also had warned that Hamas was preparing a large-scale operation.

In March 2023, Israel passed a law that according to Minister of Settlements Orit Strock was "a step on the way to re-occupying and resettling the Gaza Strip", a move she acknowledged would cause "many casualties."

Disinformation

Ben Shapiro shared an image of "burned Jewish babies" during the October 20233 "surprise" Hamas attack on Israel. The picture was soon exposed as an AI generated fake

On 11 October 2023, Jonathan Cook posted on X:

"So Western journalists simply accepted without any evidence that Hamas beheaded 40 Israeli babies. It's not like they don't know there's a precedent for this kind of disinformation.

"Remember how a US ally spread lies in 1990 about Iraqi soldiers pulling babies from incubators.

"The fake testimony was supplied by a schoolgirl, 'Nayirah', who it much later turned out was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US. Her lies helped pave the way to the US launching the 1991 Gulf War."

Intelligence Failure?

Did Israel's security agencies underestimate Egypt's repeated warnings about a potential strike by Hamas? A senior Egyptian intelligence officer has made a startling revelation. He claims, Jerusalem ignored multiple warnings on potential hamas strike - Gravitas

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 Sabbath and a Jewish holiday on top of that.

Israeli journalist Efrat Fenigson, who served in Israel's intelligence forces, said "No military involvement, no police, no arms on the ground for hours and hours. This is something that is non-typical and unusual for Israel defence forces...[The fact that the border was breached in 15 places] is completely ridiculous because normally with one breach of the fence, the whole army is triggered and things start moving immediately. Things start moving immediately and here there was nothing for hours."

Hannibal Directive

The Israeli forces used the Hannibal Directive, which states that kidnappings "must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces," and also allows for no consideration to be taken to save friendly civilians.

Yasmin Porat, a survivor from the Kibbutz Be’eri, told Israeli radio that Israeli security forces "undoubtedly" killed a large number of their own civilians following the Hamas assault on 7 October. Porat stated that the Palestinian fighters – who she says treated her and the other Israeli civilians "humanely" – intended "kidnap us to Gaza. Not to murder us"..."After we were there for two hours with the abductors, the police arrive. A gun battle takes place that our police started....They eliminated everyone, including the hostages. Because there was very, very heavy crossfire."

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper published an interview with a man called Tuval who lived in Kibbutz Be’eri, but who was away on 7 October. Tuval’s partner was however killed in the events. Haaretz reported: "According to him [Tuval], only on Monday night and only after the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses with all their occupants inside in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages – did the IDF [Israeli army] complete the takeover of the kibbutz. The price was terrible: at least 112 Be’eri people were killed. Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble."

Israeli helicopter pilots told how they focused on vehicles streaming back into Gaza from the Nova electronic music festival and nearby kibbutzes, attacking cars with knowledge that Israeli captives could be inside. One Apache pilot reflected on the difficult dilemma of whether to shoot at people and cars returning to Gaza. He knew that many of those vehicles may have contained Israeli captives. But he chose to open fire anyway. In 4 hours, 300 cars were targeted.

Re'im music festival

The official narrative holds that Hamas massacred 260 civilians, injured a greater number, and took an unknown number of hostages at the "Supernova Sukkot Gathering", an open-air psychedelic trance music festival. The event was held near a Gaza Regiment military base. The concert was not meant to be held so close to the base and the location of the event was moved just two nights before. These circumstances should normally have led to a long list of security precautions in a super-militarized state such as Israel. Witness reports from survivors indicate most died in crossfire, after an IDF roadblock hindered the participants from escaping.

Foreknowledge

Foreknowledge by Israeli intelligence

“Last year, after Israel obtained the Jericho Wall document, the military’s Gaza division drafted its own intelligence assessment of this latest invasion plan.

Hamas had "decided to plan a new raid, unprecedented in its scope," analysts wrote in the assessment reviewed by The Times. It said that Hamas intended to carry out a deception operation followed by a “large-scale maneuver” with the aim of overwhelming the division. But the Gaza division referred to the plan as a “compass.” In other words, the division determined that Hamas knew where it wanted to go but had not arrived there yet. On July 6, 2023, the veteran Unit 8200 analyst wrote to a group of other intelligence experts that dozens of Hamas commandos had recently conducted training exercises, with senior Hamas commanders observing.

The training included a dry run of shooting down Israeli aircraft and taking over a kibbutz and a military training base, killing all the cadets. During the exercise, Hamas fighters used the same phrase from the Quran that appeared at the top of the Jericho Wall attack plan, she wrote in the email exchanges viewed by The Times. The analyst warned that the drill closely followed the Jericho Wall plan, and that Hamas was building the capacity to carry it out. The colonel in the Gaza division applauded the analysis but said the exercise was part of a “totally imaginative” scenario, not an indication of Hamas’s ability to pull it off.

“In short, let’s wait patiently,” the colonel wrote.”
Ronen Bergman,  Adam Goldman (2023) 

Foreknowledge by Netanyahu

A month after the attack, prime minister Netanyahu removed the following tweet very quickly after being pressued by intelligence agencies and the IDF, hinting at internal deep political interference. The BBC mentioned "the post on X unleashed a wave of furious reactions by high-ranking Israeli security officials, exposing deep internal divisions".

“Under no circumstances and at no stage was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of war intentions on the part of Hamas. On the contrary, the assessment of the entire security echelon, including the head of military intelligence and the head of Shin Bet, was that Hamas was deterred and was seeking an arrangement".”
Benjamin Netanyahu (October 2023) 

Foreknowledge on the stock market

In December 2023, Haaretz revealed that unnamed people who "made giant gambles against Israel on the markets in Tel Aviv and Wall Street days before Hamas’ attack made billions."

Difference in Aid by EU Telecom-providers

A Dutch investigation by journalist Tim Hofman revealed the European internet providers actually decided within one day to make telephones calls - to Ukraine from the EU - free of charge. The same European Telecom providers refused the same procedures for at least 8 months into the 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict. Upon investigation by the same journalist, at least one Dutch telecom provider lied on camera that a "middle-man actually requested the 26 EU countries via the European Parliament" to immediately order telecom companies within one day after the Russian invasion. After verifying this procedure with multiple Dutch Ministerial Departments, this handler was denied to have ever existed, playing questions as to who or whom is deep lobbying to deny Palestinians cheaper telecommunication systems, but grant them to Ukrainians at instant.

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.

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.

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.

Iran denied any involvement.

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.

"Israel might use nuclear bomb"

On 5 November 2023, Sky News reported that an Israeli junior minister who said dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was "one of the possibilities" in the Hamas war has been suspended, with Benjamin Netanyahu saying the statement was "not based in reality".

Junior minister Amihai Eliyahu, of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party, made the claim in an interview with Kol Beramah radio.

Reactions

Interestingly enough, a spokesperson for Hamas admitted Israel to be practically undefeated with US support, but wants to maintain the strategy of tension between Gaza and Tel Aviv, seemingly not trying to advance the cause of the Palestine with other means, apart from bloodshed.

President Joe Biden and his top advisers were reported by CNN after 2 months to be warning Israel "with growing force" that it will become increasingly difficult for it to pursue its military goals in Gaza as global outcry intensifies about the scale of humanitarian suffering there.

Israeli Pulls Gaza Internet to conduct operations

By November 2023, Israel had started a tactic of killing of the internet in the entirety of Gaza for hours before a large scale attack to curb social media outrage.

Hamas representative in Lebanon Ahmad Abd Al-Hadi said in an October 12, 2023 show on NBN TV (Lebanon) that the goal of its “strategic deception” was to make Israel “fall asleep for a while, making it believe that Gaza was not going to do anything.” He said that this is the reason that Hamas did not join the August 2022 and May 2023 rounds of fighting between Gaza and Israel. Abd Al-Hadi added that Hamas and other factions had managed attacks against Israel in the West Bank from Gaza in order to move Israel’s focus from Gaza to there. Later in the interview, he said that in this operation Hamas has made several steps forward in its enterprise to liberate Palestine and destroy Israel. Abd Al-Hadi stated that another goal of the operation was to land a blow to the normalisation of relations between Israel and several Arab countries - Memri TV

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 criticised as dangerous and inflammatory.

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."(which was accused in OP-EDs and books by historians to not be that much of a surprise), 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.

Blockade

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. Independent United Nations experts condemned the Israel Defense Forces' actions in Gaza, saying Israel had resorted to "indiscriminate military attacks" and "collective punishment".

Covert operation

US Navy Seals were reported to enter the conflict. Israel was using banned white phosphorus artillery projectiles on harbours in Gaza, while denying using them.

Deep state leadership

Full article: Israeli Deep state

PM Netanyahu rallied the country and even his enemies in Israeli parliament, as he even was able to form a new coalition in Israeli parliament, which is very important as Israel has no constitution and Israeli parliament has a final say since 2023 is nearly all affairs as they control the judges.

Colonists

“There had already been a significant increase in violence by Israeli settlers this year, even before the Hamas attack, according to UN data, with more than 100 incidents reported each month and about 400 people driven from their land between January and August.

Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem told the BBC that since the attack, it had documented "a concerted and organised effort by settlers to use the fact that the entire international and local attention is focused on Gaza and the north of Israel to try to seize land in the West Bank". Partial data compiled by B'Tselem, covering the first six days after the Hamas attack, recorded at least 46 separate incidents in which it said settlers threatened, physically attacked or damaged the property of Palestinians in the West Bank.

"A lot of shepherding families and communities have fled because they were threatened in the past week by settlers," said Roy Yellin, a spokesman for B'Tselem. "Settlers have been giving residents a deadline to leave and telling them if they don't they will be harmed. And some villages have been totally emptied out."”
Joel Gunter,  BBC (2023) 

The attack also gave the IDF a window to raze several villages in the West Bank and remove Palestinian villages. A crime according to NGOs.

Hamas Bases

Hamas Hospitals

Hamas hospital base revealed as IDF video shows lair filled with guns, grenades and rockets - The Sun

During the Israeli revenge operation dubbed a removal of Hamas, the IDF released footage of Hamas bases according to them, apparently hidden in WHO hospitals and others in children bedrooms. A French doctor acknowledged claims by Italian journalist that they've seen the same hospital procedures.

“When I was first asked to work there [at Shifa], I was told there was a part of the hospital I was not to go near, and if I did, I’d be in danger of being shot. No, but implicit was that it was being used for non-medical purposes. I stayed away, but I saw a few dodgy-looking non-medical characters going in and out all the time. It was a ward leading to a basement. As I said, I didn’t go there; so I behaved myself. I was welcome everywhere else, and as I say the doctors and nurses there were very welcoming and very kind and the hushed tones under which this was said was very consistent with all the other hushed tones with which Hamas was discussed. You know people were genuinely fearful. I cannot emphasise too much, the air of collective paranoia that existed there. If hospital staff were 10 per cent frightened of possible Israeli airstrikes, they were 90 per cent frightened of being persecuted by Hamas.’”
Nick Pisa,  Daily Mail (2023) 

Journalists who have reported from al-Shifa throughout the years have also backed Israel’s claim that Hamas operates in the hospital. In 2008, a New York Times journalist watched armed Hamas members inside the hospital wearing civilian clothes. The journalist also witnessed Hamas execute a Palestinian man accused of collaborating with Israel. In 2015 Amnesty International issued a report, also stating that Hamas interrogated and tortured Palestinians accused of working with the IDF or Shin Bet.

Underground tunnel system

The IDF had an initial plan to destroy the tunnel system under Gaza, but found out in the process that it is much larger and possibly can not be destroyed or rendered unusable as originally intended.

Iran attack

Iran attacked Israel with at least 200 missiles and drones on April 14, 2024, after Israel striking the Iranian Embassy in Damascus 14 days prior. The strike resulted in minimal damage to infrastructure or civilians. This was the first time Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic fired rockets directly at Israeli soil..

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Craig Murray	“The International Court of Justice has stated definitively that the Israeli occupation is illegal and it is the duty of states not to support it. Yet in UK law it is perfectly legal to state that you support the IDF and hope that they kill all the Palestinians in Gaza But it is illegal in the UK - and carries 14 years in jail - to express support for named Palestinian organisations engaged, legally in international law, in armed resistance to illegal occupation.”	Craig Murray	20 August 2024
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:Dear Mr Starmer, we fact-checked your 7 Oct statement. You’re welcome	blog post	7 October 2024	Editor	"Appalling mix of regurgitated and already-discredited lies with grotesque one-sidedness"
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:ICC prosecutor says world leaders 'threatened' him over Israel arrest warrants	Article	5 September 2024	News Desk	“Target Israel, and we will target you,” US Senators, led by Tom Cotton, warned in the letter. “Such actions are illegitimate and lack legal basis, and, if carried out, will result in severe sanctions against you and your institution.” Senators Mitch McConnell (minority leader), Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio also signed the letter.
Document:Jill Stein considering Palestinian American as running mate	Article	11 August 2024	Maya Yang	Kamala Harris mishandled anti-war demonstrators who protested during her rally in Detroit, Michigan, chanting: “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we won’t vote for genocide." Harris responded: “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”
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.
Document:Only a failing US empire would be so blind as to cheer Netanyahu and his genocide	Article	26 July 2024	Jonathan Cook	Members of the US Congress roared “USA!” to their satrap from Israel, just as Roman senators once roared “Glory!” to generals whose victories they assumed would continue forever. Every empire falls. Its collapse becomes inevitable once its rulers lose all sense of how absurd and abhorrent they have become.
Document:The Presence of Evil	blog post	25 July 2024	Craig Murray	Netanyahu’s slanderous attacks on the institutions of international law were applauded to the rafters by America’s political leaders. The whole world was watching, and took note. The Zionist project per se is evil. To steal another people’s land and subject them to long and progressive genocide is about as evil a deed as can be imagined.
Document:The official death toll in Gaza is a lie. The casualty numbers are far, far higher	blog post	31 July 2024	Jonathan Cook	In July 2024, researchers to The Lancet medical journal very conservatively estimated that the total number of Gazans who will die over the coming months – not just from bombs but as a result of the lack of medical care, insanitary conditions and famine – is 186,000, or 8 per cent of the population.
Document:What Really Happens in Blackburn	blog post	24 June 2024	Craig Murray	"When my candidacy for Blackburn was announced in March, Jack Straw issued an attack on me on 3 April 2024, stating that I had 'no cause' to stand in Blackburn. Then lo and behold, two months later after the election was called Jack Straw’s old fixer turns up with an 'Independent Candidate' to split the pro-Palestine vote."
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.

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.