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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 10 July 2024

Hamas calls on ICC to investigate ‘monstrous behaviour’ of Israeli soldiers

Hamas has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “urgently investigate the monstrous behaviour” of Israeli soldiers that it says has been encouraged by Israeli army leaders.

It referred to “documented” images and videos that showcase Israeli soldiers committing the “most brutal crimes against Palestinians, including shooting civilians and burning down homes”.

Their actions, Hamas said, are carried out for their “own entertainment” and target women, children, and the elderly. These actions are a “disgrace on the face of humanity and the international community”, and should be looked into by the ICC’s chief prosecutor, the group added.


‘Everything is permitted’: Israeli soldiers attack Palestinians indiscriminately

Oren Ziv, a journalist at +972 Magazine, interviewed six Israeli soldiers who described being authorised to open fire on Palestinians indiscriminately.

Soldiers from six different units who were in Gaza at different times, said they executed Palestinians who strayed into “no-go zones”, and that there were “no limits” to what and whom they can shoot.

“What we learned is the open-fire regulation was not very strict, they didn’t even get proper orders from their commanders,” Ziv told Al Jazeera. “They could fire almost at everything”, including schools, hospitals, as well as public institutions. Some required pre-approvals which were always granted, Ziv said.

Some testified they were shooting “out of being bored, or just for fun”, he said. “The general feeling the soldier described is, that there was a big sense after the October 7 attack of revenge … they told us everything is permitted.”



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SvennoJ on 10 July 2024

MSF says facing ‘critical’ medical supply shortage in Gaza

Aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned of “critical” shortages of medical supplies in Gaza, with no resupply for more than two months as the Israeli war wears on. MSF is “facing critical shortages of many things like gauze, gloves … things like that,” paediatrician Amber Alayyan told AFP.

The aid group warned last week in a statement that it had been unable to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since the end of April and called on Israel to open more crossing points into the territory. “We’re seeing people who are injured in bombings, in shootings, in drone attacks,” Alayyan said.

“MSF staff have shifted to changing wound dressings every four days rather than the usual two to save on supplies, she added. MSF now risks running out of vital medication such as anaesthetics needed for surgery. “If we have to continue going like this … we won’t be able to operate. We won’t operate without anaesthesia,” Alayyan said.


‘There are flies in the OR’

Al Jazeera spoke to doctors who volunteer at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and they have sounded the alarm over the dire situation of the healthcare sector in Gaza. Doctor Hina Cheema, an obstetrician-gynecologist who came to Gaza from the United States, said she witnessed “so much hardship here”.

“It’s not just the hospitals, but the entire infrastructure that has been bombed,” Cheema told Al Jazeera. “We’re based in Nasser Hospital, and it blows my mind that two months ago, the hospital was completely nonfunctional.”

Cheema said medical workers lack the most basic equipment and much-needed fuel to keep generators operational. “We are sweating … there are flies in the OR [operating room], but it’s only because they have to cut the air to conserve the fuel,” she said.

Thalia Raya Pachiyannakis, another obstetrician-gynecologist, said doctors do not have soap to wash their hands. Other basic necessities that are missing include drape and disposable gowns,” she told Al Jazeera, stressing that “This is unacceptable.”


More from MSF: Gaza needs to be rebuilt with wheelchair-accessible ramps

The aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has also said that it is concerned about the rising number of amputees in the besieged Gaza Strip. UNRWA, the United Nations body responsible for Palestinian refugees, estimated last month that around 10 children per day were losing one or both legs in Gaza.

Where MSF is involved, “most of the amputations … are being done as life-saving amputations,” MSF’s Amber Alayyan said. Afterwards, “we don’t even have enough wheelchairs in our own hospital … much less prosthetic devices”, she added.

With around 88,000 people wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, it will be a “proper catastrophe for years to come in terms of post-operative care, wound care, amputations, prosthetics”, Alayyan said.

“Gaza itself needs to be rebuilt. So, it’s going to have to be rebuilt with wheelchair-accessible ramps all over the place for the thousands of people who are going to be in wheelchairs,” she said.

“The war needs to stop … the healthcare system is completely destroyed.”



SvennoJ on 10 July 2024

Israeli army bulldozes cemetery in Gaza City

Exclusive video obtained by Al Jazeera shows bodies strewn around the streets in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, as fighting there continues.

Residents of the area, where Israeli forces have been conducting an intense ground operation for the last several days, reported that upon their return to their partially destroyed homes, they found graves exhumed and the cemetery completely bulldozed.

This is not the first time the Israeli army has been accused of desecrating graveyards. In January, video captured a destroyed cemetery in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, with the telltale marks of bulldozer treads in the dirt on top of what were previously graves.

Fighting rages across Gaza City

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip reports that Israeli army has expanded its military operation against the city, which has been continuing for the better part of two weeks, to the al-Rimal neighbourhood, in the southwest.

Our correspondent adds that fierce clashes are taking place between the Israeli troops that have penetrated the southwestern part of the city and Palestinian fighters, and that Israeli army helicopters were seen landing in the area, believed to be evacuating casualties.

In addition, the al-Quds Bridages, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, says in a statement that its members are fighting “from point-blank range” with Israeli troops inside in the Shujayea neighbourhood, where this round of fighting in Gaza City began.

It also claims to have detonated explosives against Israeli army vehicles.


Al-Quds Brigades claims series of attacks on Israeli military in Shujayea

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad has said its fighters:

  • Clashed with Israeli special forces inside a house in the Shujayea neighbourhood, east of Gaza, killing and injuring an unspecified number.
  • Detonated explosives against Israeli military vehicles in the same neighbourhood.
  • Killed an Israeli soldier with sniper fire in the vicinity of Tallet al-Mantar, east of Shujayea.


SvennoJ on 10 July 2024

Israeli military extends evacuation order to whole of Gaza City

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/10/middleeast/idf-evacuation-gaza-city-intl-latam/index.html


Rescuers stand on the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli bombardment near to the Great Omari Mosque in the Old City of Gaza City

The Israeli military has expanded its evacuation order to the whole of Gaza City after sending tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing from several of the city’s neighborhoods earlier this week.

It has also issued a notice saying it will be suspending inspections along two roads in Gaza City to allow civilians to reach humanitarian zones more easily and quickly as the city “will remain a dangerous combat zone.”

“We announce to you that Tariq Bin Ziyad and Omar Al-Mukhtar Streets are considered safe passages to cross west to Al-Rashid (Al-Bahr) Street and from there south. Al-Wahda and Khalil Al-Wazir streets are considered safe passages to cross east to the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and the city roundabout, and from there to Salah Al-Din Street to the south,” an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) flier dropped on the city says.

Gaza City experienced shelling overnight. A local journalist told CNN the building he was sheltering in has been struck and he is now forced to move with his family once more.

Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told CNN he was aware of dozens of deaths in the industrial zone, east of Gaza City, and the financial hub in the center. Bassal added that several Palestinians are besieged in the Jordanian hospital and at Al-Aqsa University in the city, as the situation remains dangerous.

“Today, suddenly, all bakeries in Gaza are completely closed. It seems that there are instructions for them to do so, or that they fall in the red zone,” he added.

Gaza interior ministry warns Palestinians in Gaza City against fleeing southwards

Gaza’s interior ministry has called on residents in Gaza City to refrain from following Israeli evacuation orders, saying the instructions are a part of the Israeli army’s psychological warfare against Palestinians.

The residents were directed to head to a “humanitarian zone” located in al-Mawasi, an area on the southern end of the Gaza Strip that has previously come under attack by the Israeli army.

The ministry said so-called safe corridors are, in fact, “death corridors” and those who flee will likely be killed. In previous evacuation orders, Palestinians were shot and arrested when they attempted to move southwards via Salah al-Din, a road stretching across the length of Gaza.

It urged residents to flee to areas nearby instead of attempting to leave to the south of the enclave.

The latest evacuation order comes as the Israeli army continues to intensify its attacks on Gaza City.


Palestinians are ‘trapped’

We have been reading a lot of (social media) posts by Palestinians who are trapped in Gaza City, where some people mentioned that their family members were killed in front of their eyes – executed while trying to evacuate to a safe area or a safe place.

They also said that Israeli forces suddenly invaded their houses and started executing them. The snipers were everywhere, quadcopters were everywhere. So Palestinians were left helpless, not knowing where to go.

And let me also remind you that there are no civil defence teams, and there’s no Red Cross. No one is there to evacuate those Palestinians. So now Palestinians are trapped. If they try to evacuate and listen to Israel’s order, they’re being killed.

As leaflets are dropped on Gaza City, ‘mixed messaging from the Israeli army'

The Israeli military around 9am [local time; 06:00 GMT] released a statement saying that they’re continuing operations in northern Gaza, specifically in Gaza City. They said that they created “safe corridors” for Palestinians to evacuate from there as they had “targeted operations” in northern Gaza.

But the leaflets that were dropped in the north clearly say, ‘To the residents of Gaza City in its entirety’ on the map and it maps them out, telling them where to go, where these so-called “safe passages and corridors” are, heading south to Deir el-Balah.

This is a second time a notice like this has been dropped on Gaza City. Previously, it was in October.  But now we’re hearing from Israeli military sources that this was not, in fact, an evacuation order for all of Gaza City, but rather specific areas where the Israeli army is operating.

Now, let’s talk about what the Interior Ministry in Gaza is saying. They’re saying that if anyone is in any immediate danger to go to an area that is perhaps less dangerous, but they’re stressing that there is still no safe place for Palestinians in Gaza. Time and time again, these Palestinians have been displaced with simply nowhere to go. The Israeli army [is] continuously dropping these leaflets with several evacuation orders to go to designated safe areas that we have seen repeatedly bombarded in the last nine months.

In addition to that, at the end of [the leaflet], it says that Gaza City is a dangerous combat zone and no one should be there anyway. So mixed messaging from the Israeli army.



SvennoJ on 10 July 2024

Egypt says talks ongoing with Lebanon, Israel to avoid ‘confrontations’

Egypt’s foreign minister says that talks are under way with Lebanese and Israeli parties to avoid “engaging in all-encompassing confrontations”.

In a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said that recent meetings aimed to stop this “grave scenario” on the Lebanese front.

Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire mostly at the border since October 7.

Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to evacuate from the area around the border between the two countries, and international observers have warned in recent weeks of the growing risk of a wider conflict.

Protest camp in support of Palestinians removed at McGill University’s campus


A protest camp in support of Palestinians is removed by authorities at McGill University’s campus in Montreal, Quebec, Canada


US-made munitions used in deadly Israeli strike on school complex near Khan Younis, CNN analysis finds

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/10/middleeast/israel-us-munitions-school-strike-khan-younis-intl-latam/index.html


A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike, outside a school sheltering displaced people, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 10

Israeli forces used US-made munitions in a deadly strike on a school complex that was housing displaced people near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to a CNN analysis of video from the scene.

At least 27 people have been killed and 53 have been injured in the strike, which hit the gate of the Al-Mutanabbi school complex, also known locally as the Al-Awda Schools, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

In a video filmed at the scene by a journalist working for CNN in the aftermath of the strike, a remnant of a US-made GBU-39 small-diameter bomb (SDB) is clearly visible.

....

CNN identified remnants of GBU-39 small-diameter bombs in another two Israeli strikes in the past few months.

The GBU-39, which is manufactured by Boeing, is a high-precision munition “designed to attack strategically important point targets” and result in low collateral damage, explosive weapons expert Chris Cobb-Smith told CNN following the first strike on Rafah tent camp, which took place on May 26.

“Using any munition, even of this size, will always incur risks in a densely populated area,” said Cobb-Smith, who is also a former British Army artillery officer.



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SvennoJ on 10 July 2024

US to resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel, US official says

The United States will resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel but will continue to hold back on supplying 2,000-pound bombs over concerns about their use in Gaza, a US official has said.

The move comes as US officials are engaging in another round of talks with other key mediators to try to end Israel’s assault in Gaza. Talks are set to begin in Qatar after discussions in Egypt.

 

Shujayea ‘a ghost town’ after Israeli forces withdraw from area, Civil Defence spokesperson says

Mahmoud Bassal, a Civil Defence spokesperson, says “massive” destruction to infrastructure and residential buildings has been left behind in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.

Bassal described the area as “a ghost town that is no longer fit for living”. He said teams found “many martyrs” who could have been saved had medics been allowed to enter the area when it was under severe bombardment.

"This reality is repeated in every incursion, where Israeli forces enter areas inside the Gaza Strip, and then many end up losing their lives” due to the teams’ inability to reach them, he said.

More than 30 killed in Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, Civil Defence spokesperson says

According to Mahmoud Bassal, Israeli forces are now in the Tal al-Hawa area of Gaza City. More than 30 people have been killed so far, he said, adding that teams were shot at by Israeli soldiers when they attempted to reach them.

“We’ve received dozens of calls from residents there, saying the bodies of martyrs are filling the streets,” Bassal said. Many of those who sustained wounds remain trapped inside their homes and are unable to leave, he said.

Bassal called on international organisations and rights groups to “act” immediately in order to enable medical teams and service providers to reach targeted areas and save Palestinian lives.

Fourteen-year-old shot by Israeli forces ‘lying on the ground bleeding for 15 to 20 minutes’: Rights group

We reported that Israeli forces shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in Deir Abu Mishal village yesterday.

Ghassan Zahran was shot and killed in the Palestinian village located west of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP).

The group said that Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked Palestinian residents who tried to reach Ghassan while he bled out. “A group of Israeli settlers gathered after Israeli soldiers shot Ghassan and began throwing stones at Palestinian village residents attempting to reach him. Israeli forces opened fire on the Palestinian residents to prevent them from reaching the child, who remained lying on the ground bleeding for 15 to 20 minutes,” DCIP said.

Israeli forces and settlers have killed 56 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.

“Unlawful killings of Palestinian children have become the norm as Israeli forces become increasingly empowered to use intentional lethal force in situations that are not justified. In short, these are war crimes with no consequence,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP.



SvennoJ on 10 July 2024

More on the US resuming 500-pound bomb shipments to Israel

At the beginning of May, US officials said the US had paused a shipment of heavy bombs, including 1,800 of 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs and 1,700 of 500-pound (227kg) bombs to Israel over concerns Israel would use the bombs on the then-heavily overcrowded Rafah.

Now, according to an unnamed US official quoted by Reuters, the US says the 500-pound bombs were only delayed because they were caught up in the same shipment as the 2,000-pound bombs.

“Our main concern had been and remains the potential use of 2,000 pound bombs,” the unnamed official told Reuters. “Because our concern was not about the 500 pounds bombs, those are moving forward as part of the usual process,” the US official added.

Is there a difference?

On explosion, a 500-pound bomb can severely harm or kill everything or anyone within a 20-metre (65 feet) radius, according to the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA), which conducts defence policy research and analysis.

A 2,000-pound bomb has a destruction radius of 35 metres (115 feet).


The small diameter bombs already kill dozens of people a day. At least it won't be difficult to prove complicity if the ICJ ever gets the balls to actually convict Israel of genocide. While the US is not a signatory to the Rome Statute (ICC), the US has ratified the genocide convention (by Reagan).

However "The United States withdrew from the court’s compulsory jurisdiction in 1986 after the court ruled it owed Nicaragua war reparations."
https://www.cfr.org/video/united-states-and-icj
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2023/06/28/us-owes-nicaragua-reparations-1986-icj/

And of course with Veto power in the UNSC, the US can maintain impunity. (Just like UK, France, Russia, China)


Spanish PM Sanchez calls out West’s ‘double standards’ on Gaza at NATO summit

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the West was guilty of “double standards” regarding the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, the AFP news agency reports.

“If we are telling our people that we are supporting Ukraine because we are defending the international law, this is the same to what we have to do towards Gaza,” Sanchez said at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

The West required a “consistent political position” in which “we don’t have double standards”, he said.

Sanchez also said the world needed to press to “stop this terrible humanitarian crisis” affecting the Palestinians and called for an international peace conference to push for a Palestinian state. “We need to create the conditions for an immediate and urgent ceasefire,” he said, adding that there is a serious risk of escalation in Lebanon

Sanchez has already infuriated Israel’s right-wing government by recently recognising Palestinian statehood and has criticised Israel’s conduct in its war on Gaza.


Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivers remarks at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, DC, on Wednesday

UN documents spiralling Israeli military, settler violence in the occupied West Bank

Fifteen Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank between July 2 and 9, the UN reports, while the total number of Palestinians killed in the occupied territory since October has now reached 553.

Twelve of the 15 victims were killed in two Israeli military operations in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarem and their nearby refugee camps, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest West Bank situation report. Another of the victims was a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot and killed on Tuesday in the Ramallah area.

An Israeli settler attack during the same period forced the displacement of a Palestinian family while 13 other families were affected by the violence, OCHA reports.

Since October, more than 1,000 attacks by settlers have been reported against Palestinians as well as the displacement of 1,390 people, of which 660 were children, the UN report adds.



SvennoJ on 10 July 2024

Khan Younis reduced to ‘sand and rubble’

Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip has largely been reduced to sand and rubble, says Muhannad Hadi, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Hadi was in Khan Younis for a rare visit from an outside official to the besieged enclave on Tuesday, and says every building he saw there was damaged in some way. Hadi said many of the women he spoke to said they had cut off their hair, as “extreme overcrowding” in temporary shelters and tent camps was leading to the spread of lice.

Last week, Israel ordered the forced displacement of 250,000 Palestinians from eastern Khan Younis,  according to UN estimates.

Children pick through rubble in Shujayea ‘ghost town’ after Israeli forces withdraw


Palestinian boys fill sacks with wood for cooking while searching through the rubble of destroyed buildings after the Israeli military withdrew from Shujayea in Gaza City on Wednesday


A destroyed Israeli military vehicle remains in the streets of Shujayea after Israeli forces withdrew


Mahmoud Bassal, the civil defence spokesperson in Gaza, said Shujayea had become ‘a ghost town that is no longer fit for living’

 

Israel continues to face ‘fierce resistance’ in north Gaza as Shujayea operation ends

The Israeli army confirmed late on Wednesday that they’ve wrapped up their two-week operation in northern Gaza’s Shujayea neighbourhood.

It comes after at least 60,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from the Palestinian neighbourhood, according to the United Nations. We know that dozens of Palestinians were killed in the relentless bombardment both from the air and on land in the last two weeks.

Israeli military officials have said that this was a precise and targeted operation based on their intelligence. They say that Hamas was using several areas and facilities for military purposes. But they did not provide any proof of Hamas using those facilities. They said that it was based on their own intelligence.

This comes after months of the Israeli army saying that they had obtained near full operational control of these areas in northern Gaza. But we know that to be untrue. On Wednesday, the Israeli army ordered an additional evacuation of Gaza City, but later walked back that statement saying that it was just for certain areas where the Israeli army is looking to target rocket launching sites.

Nonetheless, the Israeli military is still facing fierce resistance in northern Gaza as they wrap up their operation in Shujayea.



jason1637 on 11 July 2024

Whats even the point for Hamas to give the hostages at the point? In a perfect world the hostages are released and the ceasefire comes to pass but the damage is done. A generation of Palestinians that are still alive will have to live their lives with so much trauma. parentless, no education, and basically on the brink of starvation.



SvennoJ on 11 July 2024
jason1637 said:

Whats even the point for Hamas to give the hostages at the point? In a perfect world the hostages are released and the ceasefire comes to pass but the damage is done. A generation of Palestinians that are still alive will have to live their lives with so much trauma. parentless, no education, and basically on the brink of starvation.

Their point is to trade the soldiers they took hostage for high profile prisoners in Israeli prisons, aka their fighters.

Including / especially Marwan Barghouti "To his supporters, Barghouti is a jailed freedom fighter akin to Nelson Mandela, imprisoned by an occupying force and ready to lead his people to freedom. To Israel, he is a convicted terrorist who since his imprisonment has continued to call for violence against Israel."

https://www.dannymorrison.com/marwan-barghouti-a-palestinian-hero/



He is the most popular possible future leader to unite the West Bank and Gaza and form a Palestinian state.

"Hamas leaders demanded Friday that Israel release Barghouti, a leader of the militant group's main political rival, as part of any deal to end the fighting in Gaza. The demand brings new attention to Barghouti, who plays a central role in Palestinian politics even after spending more than two decades behind bars." Feb 3, 2024

The civilian hostages were not planned, definitely not in the quantity they were brought to Gaza. Hamas lost control on Oct 7 when the Israeli military turned out to be very ineffective. Many other people and factions crossed into Gaza grabbing civilians while the plan was to take soldiers hostage. (Much higher value in trade). Already 4 days after Oct 7 Hamas was negotiating with Israel to please take the civilian hostages back as they didn't have the accommodations / weren't prepared for so many hostages. Israel refused...

It's how civilian hostages ended up in civilian homes under low security, managed to escape (and get shot by the Israeli military) and get 'rescued' in Rafah and Nuseirat from civilian homes. And why the trade in November was at a 'low cost', 3 low profile Palestinians in Israeli jail for each civilian hostage (many of which who have been put back in jail later in the daily West Bank raids, that was indeed pointless)

Israel has traded over a 1000 prisoners for 1 soldier before
https://www.cnn.com/2011/10/17/world/meast/israel-prisoner-swap-explainer/index.html

Yahya Sinwar was among those released, the current Hamas leader in Gaza. (Barghouti wasn't)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/21/yahya-sinwar-the-man-who-may-hold-key-to-release-of-gaza-hostages
When released with more than 1,000 prisoners swapped in 2011 for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas five years earlier, Sinwar returned to frontline militancy immediately, stating that he had concluded from his own experience that the capture of Israeli soldiers was the “only way” to free prisoners.


For all the ceasefire and hostage exchange talks, the soldiers will always be last. They will be part of phase 2 in the current talked about 'deal', which Netanyahu is hell bent on never reaching. Netanyahu only wants a temporary pause to get civilian hostages out, get some pressure of his back.
Palestinians never had a future in Gaza. The blockade has been ongoing for 17 years with the international community ignoring it. Gaza was/is an open air prison, so in the eyes of Hamas, getting the world to wake up to the cruelty of Israel is a huge success. Although they never expected Israel to go this far destroying most of Gaza.

However the destruction only strengthens Hamas' position. Just giving the hostages up now is not an option for them. But Hamas seems more willing to accept a temporary pause since they have dropped their demand for a permanent ceasefire agreement before accepting the deal. However Netanyahu has thrown up other obstacles, he doesn't care about the hostages, only about his political survival. Even a temporary pause is dangerous for his survival.


Last thing Hamas wants is going back to the slow genocide of Gaza, with Israel 'mowing the grass' periodically.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/14/israel-gaza-history/

Zehava Galon, a former lawmaker with the leftist Meretz party, wrote for Haaretz that the strategy results in “perpetual war” that forgets “human beings are also able to talk, not only to carry a club.”

“Just like mowing your front lawn, this is constant, hard work,” David M. Weinberg of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security wrote for the Jerusalem Post this week. “If you fail to do so, weeds grow wild and snakes begin to slither around in the brush.”


Oct 7 was a last resort. Hamas had tried everything before from peaceful protests (2018-2019 border protests)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2019/mar/29/a-year-of-bloodshed-at-gaza-border-protests
Gaza border protests: 190 killed and 28,000 injured in a year of bloodshed. Israeli snipers fired live ammunition, killing and maiming dozens. This lethal response on 30 March 2018 triggered anger and disbelief across the world but has not stopped.

A year later, the rallies continue. Thousands have bullet wounds through their legs. The streets of Gaza are filled with people limping or in wheelchairs. Children, journalists and medics have been killed, even when they were standing far back from the fence. The UN has said Israel’s military may have committed war crimes, deliberately targeting civilians.

to repeatedly appealing to the UN and the ICC (as early as 2015 after the 2014 massacres in Gaza). They knew Israel would take revenge, but were not going to continue to sit in Gaza under total occupation and blockade any longer. The Abraham accords were the last straw, normalizing relations with Israel under the premise not to recognize Palestine.
https://gulfif.org/from-hope-to-halt-the-abraham-accords-and-the-palestinian-predicament/

It has turned into "Live free or die".

The UN, international community, USA in particular are equally responsible for making Oct 7 and the current genocide happen.

Occupation only 'ends' 2 ways, either all the occupied are slaughtered into submission (USA, Canada, Australia) or through violent resistance (Vietnam, Somalia, South Africa, Algiers, Afghanistan, Ukraine)
Last edited by SvennoJ - on 11 July 2024