Israel's War Against Hamas - Updates

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[Hamas targeting anyone in Israel, including Muslims, with their rockets - fueled by gasoline they steal from the aid trucks ]

 

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[ Terrorists ingenuity ]

 

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Political analyst Amit Segal visited the family of Sergeant First Class (res.) Ahmad Abu Latif, who was killed in the Gaza building collapse disaster.

Segal shared his experiences in a television broadcast and added that he was surprised that no Arab MK had visited the family.

Ahmad was in charge of security for Ben-Gurion University. His father spoke about how strict his son was and added that when he had visited the university, Ahmad had made him go through a security check. “I trust you, but maybe someone is smuggling something in with you. I can't make any exceptions,” he would tell his father.


The family explained that on the morning of October 7th, Ahmad was unable to find the key to the closet containing his uniform. In his rush to report for duty, he had smashed the door rather than keep looking for the key.

“Everyone was there - religious, secular, Arab,” Segal recounted. “On my way out, his brother stopped me. I asked him if everyone had indeed visited, and he told me ‘No, do you know who is missing? Not even one Arab MK.’

Fellow anchor Ben Caspit replied “This is weird, we need to check on this with Mansour Abbas. It would be most fitting for him to visit. He is very active among the families of the hostages.”

“At a minimum, he is responsible to show some humanity and console the family of a casualty,” Segal agreed.

Family of fallen Bedouin soldier: 'Not one Arab MK has visited'

The family of a Bedouin soldier killed in the Gaza building collapse noticed one group in particular missing from the many who came to console them.

www.israelnationalnews.com

 

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Police detained four demonstrators during a rally on Monday near the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza.

The arrests come one day after the Israel Defense Forces announced that it expanded the closed military zone surrounding the border crossing following daily demonstrations against allowing humanitarian aid into the Hamas-rule enclave until the remaining 136 hostages are released.

Hamas is stealing much of the aid intended for Gazan civilians and redirecting it to terrorists hiding in tunnels.

Border Police officers blocked dozens of protesters on Monday from reaching the road where trucks line up to bring aid into the Strip.

It marks the sixth straight day that the demonstrations are taking place. On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters prevented aid trucks from entering Gaza.

The protesters from the “Order 9” movement demand that “no aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns, no equipment be transferred to the enemy.”

Four arrested on sixth day of protests at Kerem Shalom crossing

The arrests come a day after the IDF expanded the closed military zone around the border crossing.

www.jns.org

 

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Hamas’ military strategy on the ground is to ‘hide’ among civilians

The Australian’s Yoni Bashan says the challenge for the IDF is identifying Hamas terrorists as they hide among civilians with everyday clothing.

“It’s a tee shirt, it’s a hoodie, it’s sweatpants, and quite often they’ll be seen walking down the streets without actually holding any weapons,” Mr Bashan told Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“The military strategy on the ground for Hamas is to hide RPGs, Kalashnikovs, anti-tank missiles in secluded – locations.

“They’ll either be in houses, they’ll be around corners, they’ll be in gutters, or in any place where the Israelis can’t see them.”

Mr Bashan sat down with Ms Markson to discuss the Israel-Hamas war.

 

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Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and the chairman of the PLO, criticized the nations who are suspending aid to UNRWA.

Read his words carefully, because they say exactly why UNRWA should be dismantled.

The Palestinian Presidency expressed today its strong rejection of the oppressive campaign led by the Israeli government against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

“The campaign aims to liquidate the issue of Palestinian refugees, contradicting UN Resolution 302, based on which the UNRWA was established on December 18, 1949, and other UN resolutions related to the refugee issue,” said the Presidency in a statement.

The Presidency emphasized that “the refugee issue is at the core of the Palestinian cause, with dozens of UN resolutions adopted on the matter. There is no solution to the Palestinian issue except for the return of refugees, in accordance with Resolution 194.”

His reasons for maintaining UNRWA are not because of humanitarian aid. He is stating - as he has stated countless times before - that the purpose of UNRWA is to keep the issue of "refugees" alive, with the ultimate aim to destroy Israel via the fictional "right of return" of millions of descendants of 1948 refugees to Israel.

Indeed, that is UNRWA's real purpose. It has taught generations of Palestinians not to accept a two state solution but that all of the area from the river to the sea is theirs and theirs alone, and Israel is an illegitimate state stealing their land.

So when Abbas says that UNRWA must be funded, he is not talking about it to help feed or house or treat Palestinians in Gaza. He couldn't care less about them. He is saying that UNRWA is an essential Palestinian weapon to destroy the Jewish state, and that's why it should be funded to the tune of billions by the world.

A similar message came from Hussein Al-Sheikh, Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the PLO and possible successor to Mahmoud Abbas, who also downplayed the aid aspect funding UNRWA.

"We urge the countries that have declared a halt to their support for the UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision, which carries significant political and humanitarian risks."

Note how "political" is ahead of "humanitarian."

UNRWA insists, against all evidence, that it is not a political organization. But Palestinian leaders know the truth - it is little but political.

At any rate, Palestinian leaders are explaining exactly why they want UNRWA to be funded -and it has nothing to do with helping Gaza civilians. It is their atom bomb to destroy Israel.

 

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John Spencer is recognized as one of the world's leading experts on urban warfare. One of his books, "Understanding Urban Warfare," is considered a leading source on the topic. He is the chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy. He served twenty-five years in the U.S. Army as an infantry soldier and is a highly decorated combat veteran. Spencer is the host of the Urban Warfare Project podcast, in which he interviews fellow industry experts.

This thread he wrote yesterday is essential reading.


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In my opinion, Israel has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties in urban warfare than any other military in the history of war. This includes many measure the U.S. has (or has not) taken in wars and battles but also many measures no military in the world has ever taken.

Precautions during the initial air campaign to target enemy military capabilities to include using precision guided munitions and strict targeting protocols in both pre-planned and dynamic strikes against only military targets.

Use of precision guided munitions (PCMs): Despite the ignorance of reporting on ratios of PCMs to non-PCMs, Israel has used many types of PCMs to include lower collateral damage munitions/small diameter bombs and technologies and tactics that increase the accuracy of non-PCMs (dive bombing) limit civilian causalities (sat imagery, AI, cell phone presence)

The idea that a military must use more PCMs vs non-PCMs in a war is a myth. In the First Gulf War the U.S. fired 250,000 individual bombs and missiles in just 43 days. A small fraction of those would fit the definition of PCMs.

Also myths about choice of munitions and proportionality assessment/value of target/collateral damage estimate such as saying a 500 lbs bomb would achieve the same military task of a 2,000 lb. bomb with no mention of tunnels that would require greater penetration or availability of types/quantity of munitions.

Call/Text ahead of a strike with (at times) roof-knocking (no military has ever implemented in war). In some cases, IDF will call, text, drop small munitions on the roof of a building. While limited in the context of the strike it has been used in this war.

Provide warning and evacuate urban areas/cities before the full combined air and ground attack begins. While the tactic does alert the enemy defender and provide them the military advantage to prepare further, it is one of the best ways to prevent civilian casualties.

The U.S. did not do this in the invasion of Iraq or attack of Baghdad in 2003. Did not do this in the 2004 1st Battle of Fallujah but did do this in the Second Battle of Fallujah 6 months later because of the different context.

In the 2016-2017 Battle of Mosul, the Iraq government told the civilian to not evacuate and shelter in place during the battle for both Eastern and Western Mosul, but later changed instructions further into the battle.

Israel provided days and then weeks of warnings and time for civilians to evacuate multiple cities in northern Gaza before starting the main air-ground attack of urban areas.

Use of air dropped flyers to give instruction on evacuations and establishing evacuation corridors (U.S. implemented in 2nd Fallujah & assisted 2016-2017 Mosul). Israel dropped over 520,000 pamphlets, broadcasted over radio and through social media messages to provide instruction for civilians to leave combat areas using corridors.




Use of real phone calls (19,734) to civilians in the combat areas, SMS texts (64,399) and pre-recorded calls (almost 6 million) to civilians to provide instructions on evacuations. No military has never done this in urban warfare history.

(full article online)

Leading military expert: " Israel has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties in urban warfare than any other military in history."

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

elderofziyon.blogspot.com

 

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