2023-2025 Israel-Hamas War/Israeli invasion of Gaza

 "War"
2023-2025 Israel-Hamas War/Israeli invasion of Gaza (Israeli–Palestinian conflict,  invasion,  bombing,  shooting,  war crime,  genocide?)

Date	27 October 2023 - Present
Location	Gaza Strip
Deaths	30000
Injured (non-fatal)	115000
Description	After October 7, Israel invaded Gaza with widespread international support. The IDF went on a widely reported revenge killing spree. Even by Israel's own account, they killed 19,500 Palestinian civilians after half a year of bombing hospitals, schools and civilian towers, utilising numerous condemned tactics.
Participants	Hamas, Shin Bet, Mossad, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Iran
Perpetrators	Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF, Yoav Gallant, Benny Gantz

The Israeli invasion of Gaza began on 27 October 2023 when Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in order to clear the area of its 2.1 million inhabitants, one way or the other.

Official narrative

Israel invaded with the stated goals of destroying Hamas, which led a "surprise" attack on Israel earlier in the month, and of freeing Israeli hostages taken by the Palestinians.

Israeli tactics

Shutting down the Internet

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

Before the invasion, dubbed Operation Iron Sword, Israel had declared war, tightened its blockade, and ordered the evacuation of the northern Gaza Strip.

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".

Starvation

Israeli protesters block aid to Gaza as starvation looms

The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime, resulting in condemnation from Human Rights Watch. Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival.

"Emphasis is on damage, not on accuracy"

In the first week of the war, the IDF carried out 6,000 airstrikes across Gaza, killing over 3,300 civilians and injuring over 12,000.

The strikes hit hospitals, markets, refugee camps, mosques and schools. A group of UN special rapporteurs asserted that Israel's airstrikes were "absolutely prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime". Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that "the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy".

Other examples included targeting multiple refugee camps, ambulances, mosques, churches, foreign consulates, hundreds of UN relief workers, and even flown-in chefs in specifically marked vehicles and journalists.

Deliberately hitting homes

A +972 Magazine investigation found the IDF instructed their soldiers to hit civilian targets on purpose. Research conducted by Dr. Yagil Levy at the Open University of Israel said Israel was "deliberately targeting residential blocks to cause mass civilian casualties".

Directing civilians to targeted areas

Reports by CNN and Sky News all found that Israel had bombed areas it had previously and recently told civilians to evacuate to. Multiple times, Israel dropped 2000-pound bombs on those people.

Looting and desecrating graveyards

Israeli soldiers filmed setting fire to scarce water and food supplies

During the war, soldiers looted Palestinian homes in Gaza, taking belongings and violating the 1949 Geneva Convention on looting in wartime. On 21 February 2024, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the IDF's Military Advocate General, admitted in 2024 that the actions had "crossed the criminal threshold".

Executions

Multiple executions appear to be filmed by or with the IDF present.

In video footage dated 8 December 2023, the Israeli military is seen shooting one person hiding under a car. British network ITV released footage of an Israeli sniper shooting in 2024 where the sniper shot a man carrying a white flag whom the journalist had interviewed only moments before his death. The IDF responded with the sentence "There are mistakes, it is war".

In March 2024, in Zeitoun a Palestinian civilian was "run over" by an Israeli tank, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor:

"Israeli soldiers restrained the victim’s hands before they crushed him, and tramped on his body from the legs up, confirming that he was alive during the incident. To guarantee thorough and complete crushing, the victim was placed on asphalt rather than in an adjacent sandy area."

Killing Israeli hostages

In December 2023, the IDF admitted they killed 3 Israelis hostages they found as a mistake. Although the three were "shirtless and waving a white flag", one solider "opened fire and called them terrorists, which resulted other soldiers shooting bullets at the three. Although even the Mossad came forward explaining this was a mistake, the IDF report into the ....incident found soldiers were told to kill all fighting age (not adult) men that approached them.

Perfidy

In January 2024, the IDF entered the Ibn Sina hospital disguised as medics, shooting three Arab fighters, one of whom was a patient. The attack was condemned by dozens of organizations. The IDF initially said the raid had been a "joint IDF, ISA, and Israel Police counterterrorism activity", but later said that none of their soldiers were physically present during the raid, causing the incident to be added to a massive list of war crime investigations by UN-councils.

Rape

According to UN investigators, multiple arrested boys, men, girls and women were raped in custody by soldiers and Shin Bet police forces.

"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.

Genocide

Is Israel Guilty Of Genocide?

"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 7^th 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

 

Known Participants

4 of the 5 participants already have pages here:

Participant	Description
Hamas	"Terrorists" according to the West, largely founded, financed and brought to power by Israel, Hamas has led Palestine into becoming an enemy image to the western world since 2006.
Iran	Iran possesses the 4th largest oil reserves of any nation state.
Mossad	"Mossad" (Hebrew for Institute) is an abbreviation for ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim (Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks). It is the Israeli State Agency with overall responsible for external intelligence and covert operations.
Shin Bet	Police agency of Israel. Is also private security force of El Al. Former agents appear in "terrorism" incidents as possible handlers or false flag organisers.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The Israel-US game plan for Gaza is staring us in the face	Article	30 April 2024	Jonathan Cook	"The western media is pretending the West’s efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza are serious. But a different script has clearly been written in advance by Israel and the United States. Our job is to do everything in our power to stop them making their plan a reality."
Document:US says Israel may have breached international law with American weapons in Gaza	commentary	11 May 2024	Jonathan Cook	"If that sounds like extreme linguistic, legal and moral gymnastics in defence of continuing US complicity in genocide, it's because that is exactly what it is."

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