Israel’s current ground operation in Gaza is in line with the advice the US has been giving, a US official told The Times of Israel.
The official said Israel had launched a “limited” ground incursion, which is what the US recommended to avoid harming hostages, as opposed to a full-scale invasion. Hamas has claimed 50 hostages have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, but the number hasn’t been confirmed.
The US official said Israel did not need pressure from the US to launch a limited incursion. The New York Times reported that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin advised a limited ground incursion in talks with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant. The Pentagon has also dispatched a three-star Marine Corps general and other officers to serve as military advisors, demonstrating how deeply involved the US is with the war planning.
When Israeli ground forces entered Gaza on Friday, the enclave’s phone and internet services were cut, blacking out any media coverage on the ground and making rescue operations significantly more difficult. Services were restored on Sunday morning after 34 hours.
A US official told The Wall Street Journal that the US had convinced Israel to restore Gaza’s phone and internet service after shutting it down so the UN and aid groups could communicate with their staff inside the enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel’s war in Gaza had entered a “second stage” and told Israelis to prepare for a “long and hard” offensive. Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassams Brigade, said Sunday that its forces were engaged in “heavy fighting with the invading occupation forces in northwest Gaza.”
While Israel’s ground incursion might be more limited than initially planned, its airstrikes have continued to pound Gaza relentlessly. According to Al Jazeera, Gaza residents described the weekend bombardment as the most intense yet. Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported the death toll in the enclave since Israel unleashed its bombing campaign has surpassed 8,000, including over 3,000 children.
There is an allegation from another Israeli who said that the Israeli forces shot at and killed Israelis. This second allegation involves being fired at by Apache helicopters being flown by Israeli pilots. Mark Blumenthal, Scheerpost.com: https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/29/october-7-testimonies-eveal-israels-military-shelling-israeli-citizens-with-tanks-missiles/
This is an important post by Max. It actually includes references to multiple reports in Israeli media about deliberate friendly fire incidents, with interviews of pilots and commanders of an Apache helicopter squadron.
Allegations. Lol.
Here’s links to that, Times of Israel also reported it. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=israelis+killed+by+friendly+fire&ia=news&iar=news
God confirmed in a press conference that WWIII will not begin until Israel genocided every Palestinian, “both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.” (Joshua 6:20-21) When asked why not start WWIII at the same time? He said, “It wouldn’t be nice to spoil the fun for everybody else…” Then, I was rudely awakened by clips of both Satanyahu and Mike Johnson citing religious Scripture. I don’t want to sleep ever again.
Al Jazeera has the best reporting I have seen about the genocide in Gaza. See https://www.aljazeera.com/
The medical staff at Al Qads Hospital have refused to evacuate despite orders from the Israeli military to evacuate the hundreds of patients and 14,000 (that is 14 thousand!) civilians sheltering in and around the hospital. The patients include ICU patients, patients on ventilators and infants in incubators that can’t be moved. And the thousands of civilians have no safe place to move.
Hamas has repeated its offer to immediately exchange all hostages for the release of all 6,600 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Hamas also reports that 50 Israeli hostages have been killed by the Israeli bombing.
The hostage for prisoners exchange is unlikely. From Israel point of view, making that deal will just encourage future hostage taking in exchange for something. From Hamas point of view, the hostages provide some level of protection for the senior Hamas officials because they think Israel will not bomb a known Hamas headquarters where hostages are kept. (Note: I’m not sure that is true, but I believe Hamas thinks that.)
“The hostage for hostage exchange is unlikely.”
Fixed, no charge.
Or prisoners for prisoners. Another way of looking at it. But from a purist point of view a hostage is someone held with the idea of exchanging for a some gain. Now a prisoner in theory is being punished for a crime. Of course in the Middle East things get blurring will quick.
Tom, do you agree with my analysis that will be no major swamp between the two parties? I don’t they will be, but I would be interest in someone generating a real reason for it to occur.
“But from a purist point of view a hostage is someone held with the idea of exchanging for a some gain”
As the Israeli regime has done with Palestinian hostages in return for e.g. capture IDF personnel in the past?
“Now a prisoner in theory is being punished for a crime.”
The Israeli regime “administratively detains” Palestinian Arabs indefinitely without charge or trial. “Indefinitely” at least sometimes meaning “until we can swap them for some of ours.”
I do agree with you that it’s unlikely there’ll be a swap THIS time. The Israeli regime has bigger goals than saving a few hundred Israeli lives. Possibly up to and including annexing Gaza.
(Note: I’m not sure that is true, but I believe Hamas thinks that.)
I’d bet the house it isn’t true. And I don’t think Hamas’ believes that. Unless they’re collectively stupid. The “human shield” card is always there for exoneration.
Isn’t the Israeli plan for hostages/prisoners along the lines of “Kill them all, let God sort them out”?
Crazy zealot Netanyahu invoking biblical references is very ominous. Yet stupid zionist controlled America is supporting this monster.
False statement…! Israel soldiers got their ass kicked and returned to Israel on all land incursions thus far…!
Elon Musk, the unlikely hero, pledged to do this with starlink, against Netanyahu’s directives. Now the US is feigning that it is so humanitarian because the globe has turned against it.
And, check out the anti-Musk articles on the MSM after he did that. I still wonder why Musk hasn’t been liquidated. He’s certain a fly in the ointment and not totally on board with Wash. policy.
I’m surprised the US advice isn’t, “Ahhh..just throw more soldiers at ’em.”
That’s working splendid in Ukraine, isn’t it ?
Not just ‘taking advise’. Wash. is giving them everything they want and need for the ethnic cleansing they have always dreamed about.
Good take by Caitlyn Johnstone:
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/10/30/before-they-launch-missiles-they-launch-propaganda-campaigns/
After all the US knows about ethnic cleansing
And, if the Indians had rockets and machine guns, American history would certainly be different.
Back then it was mostly bows and arrows against the cavalrys gun..History is controlled by the country with the best weapons which says something about humans.
Yes. And an ICBM is just an advancement of a spear or arrow, except the flint head has advanced and been replaced with multiple H bombs.
Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
Absolutely masterful interview on Gaza of Dominique De Villepin, former Prime Minister of France, who famously led France’s opposition to the Iraq war and who, IMHO is the best diplomat the West has produced in decades.
This is so important, so incredibly well argued, that I decided to translate it in full:
“Hamas has set a trap for us, and this trap is one of maximum horror, of maximum cruelty. And so there’s a risk of an escalation in militarism, of more military interventions, as if we could with armies solve a problem as serious as the Palestinian question.
There’s also a second major trap, which is that of Occidentalism. We find ourselves trapped, with Israel, in this western bloc which today is being challenged by most of the international community.
[Presenter: What is Occidentalism?]
Occidentalism is the idea that the West, which for 5 centuries managed the world’s affairs, will be able to quietly continue to do so. And we can clearly see, even in the debates of the French political class, that there is the idea that, faced with what is currently happening in the Middle East, we must continue the fight even more, towards what might resemble a religious or a civilizational war. That is to say, to isolate ourselves even more on the international stage.
This is not the way, especially since there’s a third trap, which is that of moralism. And here we have in a way the proof, through what is happening in Ukraine and what is happening in the Middle East, of this double standard that is denounced everywhere in the world, including in recent weeks when I travel to Africa, the Middle East, or Latin America. The criticism is always the same: look at how civilian populations are treated in Gaza, you denounce what happened in Ukraine, and you are very timid in the face of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza.
Consider international law, the second criticism that is made by the global south. We sanction Russia when it aggresses Ukraine, we sanction Russia when it doesn’t respect the resolutions of the United Nations, and it’s been 70 years that the resolutions of the United Nations have been voted in vain and that Israel doesn’t respect them.
[Presenter: Do you believe that the Westerners are currently guilty of hubris?]
Westerners must open their eyes to the extent of the historical drama unfolding before us to find the right answers.
[Presenter: What is the historical drama? I mean, we’re talking about the tragedy of October 7th first and foremost, right?]
Of course, there are these horrors happening, but the way to respond to them is crucial. Are we going to kill the future by finding the wrong answers…
[Presenter: Kill the future?]
Kill the future, yes! Why?
[Presenter: But who is killing whom?]
You are in a game of causes and effects. Faced with the tragedy of history, one cannot take this ‘chain of causality’ analytical grid, simply because if you do you can’t escape from it. Once we understand that there is a trap, once we realize that behind this trap there has also been a change in the Middle East regarding the Palestinian issue… The situation today is profoundly different [from what it was in the past]. The Palestinian cause was a political and secular cause. Today we are faced with an Islamist cause, led by Hamas. Obviously, this kind of cause is absolute and allows no form of negotiation. On the Israeli side, there has also been a development. Zionism was secular and political, championed by Theodor Herzl in the late 19th century. It has largely become messianic, biblical today. This means that they too do not want to compromise, and everything that the far-right Israeli government does, continuing to encourage colonization, obviously makes things worse, including since October 7th. So in this context, understand that we are already in this region facing a problem that seems profoundly insoluble.
Added to this is the hardening of states. Diplomatically, look at the statements of the King of Jordan, they are not the same as six months ago. Look at the statements of Erdogan in Turkey.
[Presenter: Precisely, these are extremely harsh statements…]
Extremely worrying. Why? Because if the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian issue, hasn’t been brought to the forefront, hasn’t been put on stage [for a while], and if most of the youth today in Europe have often never even heard of it, it remains for the Arab peoples the mother of all battles. All the progress made towards an attempt to stabilize the Middle East, where one could believe…
[Presenter: Yes, but whose fault is it? I have a hard time following you, is it Hamas’s fault?]
But Ms. Malherbe, I am trained as a diplomat. The question of fault will be addressed by historians and philosophers.
[Presenter: But you can’t remain neutral, it’s difficult, it’s complicated, isn’t it?]
I am not neutral, I am in action. I am simply telling you that every day that passes, we can ensure that this horrific cycle stops… that’s why I speak of a trap and that’s why it’s so important to know what response we are going to give. We stand alone before history today. And we do not treat this new world the way we currently do, knowing that today we are no longer in a position of strength, we are not able to manage on our own, as the world’s policemen.
[Presenter: So what do we do?]
Exactly, what should we do? This is where it is essential not to cut off anyone on the international stage.
[Presenter: Including the Russians?]
Everyone.
[Presenter: Everyone? Should we ask the Russians for help?]
I’m not saying we should ask the Russians for help. I’m saying: if the Russians can contribute by calming some factions in this region, then it will be a step in the right direction.
[Presenter: How can we proportionally respond to barbarism? It’s no longer army against army.]
But listen, Appolline de Malherbe, the civilian populations that are dying in Gaza, don’t they exist? So because horror was committed on one side, horror must be committed on the other?
[Presenter: Do we indeed need to equate the two?]
No, it’s you who are doing that. I’m not saying I equate the faults. I try to take into account what a large part of humanity thinks. There is certainly a realistic objective to pursue, which is to eradicate the Hamas leaders who committed this horror. And not to confuse the Palestinians with Hamas, that’s a realistic goal.
The second thing is a targeted response. Let’s define realistic political objectives. And the third thing is a combined response. Because there is no effective use of force without a political strategy. We are not in 1973 or in 1967. There are things no army in the world knows how to do, which is to win in an asymmetrical battle against terrorists. The war on terror has never been won anywhere. And it instead triggers extremely dramatic misdeeds, cycles, and escalations. If America lost in Afghanistan, if America lost in Iraq, if we lost in the Sahel, it’s because it’s a battle that can’t be won simply, it’s not like you have a hammer that strikes a nail and the problem is solved. So we need to mobilize the international community, get out of this Western entrapment in which we are.
[Presenter: But when Emmanuel Macron talks about an international coalition…]
Yes, and what was the response?
[Presenter: None.]
Exactly. We need a political perspective, and this is challenging because the two-state solution has been removed from the Israeli political and diplomatic program. Israel needs to understand that for a country with a territory of 20,000 square kilometers, a population of 9 million inhabitants, facing 1.5 billion people… Peoples have never forgotten that the Palestinian cause and the injustice done to the Palestinians was a significant source of mobilization. We must consider this situation, and I believe it is essential to help Israel, to guide… some say impose, but I think it’s better to convince, to move in this direction. The challenge is that there is no interlocutor today, neither on the Israeli side nor the Palestinian side. We need to bring out interlocutors.
[Presenter: It’s not for us to choose who will be the leaders of Palestine.]
The Israeli policy over recent years did not necessarily want to cultivate a Palestinian leadership… Many are in prison, and Israel’s interest – because I repeat: it was not in their program or in Israel’s interest at the time, or so they thought – was instead to divide the Palestinians and ensure that the Palestinian question fades. This Palestinian question will not fade. And so we must address it and find an answer. This is where we need courage. The use of force is a dead end. The moral condemnation of what Hamas did – and there’s no “but” in my words regarding the moral condemnation of this horror – must not prevent us from moving forward politically and diplomatically in an enlightened manner. The law of retaliation is a never-ending cycle.
[Presenter: The “eye for an eye, tooth for tooth”.]
Yes. That’s why the political response must be defended by us. Israel has a right to self-defense, but this right cannot be indiscriminate vengeance. And there cannot be collective responsibility of the Palestinian people for the actions of a terrorist minority from Hamas.
When you get into this cycle of finding faults, one side’s memories clash with the other’s. Some will juxtapose Israel’s memories with the memories of the Nakba, the 1948 catastrophe, which is a disaster that the Palestinians still experience every day. So you can’t break these cycles. We must have the strength, of course, to understand and denounce what happened, and from this standpoint, there’s no doubt about our position. But we must also have the courage, and that’s what diplomacy is… diplomacy is about being able to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And that’s the cunning of history; when you’re at the bottom, something can happen that gives hope. After the 1973 war, who would have thought that before the end of the decade, Egypt would sign a peace treaty with Israel?
The debate shouldn’t be about rhetoric or word choice. The debate today is about action; we must act. And when you think about action, there are two options. Either it’s war, war, war. Or it’s about trying to move towards peace, and I’ll say it again, it’s in Israel’s interest. It’s in Israel’s interest!”
“But Ms. Malherbe, I am trained as a diplomat. The question of fault will be addressed by historians and philosophers.”
Quote of the year, right there…!
Al Jazeera just reported that several minutes ago Israel jets bombed the Turkish hospital in Gaza. The Turkish hospital is the only hospital treating cancer patients in the enclave.
The medical staff at Al Qads hospital is still resisting Israel’s evacuation order. Hundreds of patients and an estimated 14,000 civilians are sheltering at Al Qads hospital.
Netanyahu refused the pleas for a cease fire and a prisoner exchange made by Israeli prisoners in a video released by Hamas. NSA adviser John Kirby speaking for the Biden administration said that a ceasefire is not the answer for Gaza. I guess Biden thinks genocide is a better answer.
For a continuous update on the genocide and the resistance go to:
https://www.aljazeera.com/
Shout it in the streets and across the internet. No matter what the US Government and the MSM say,
Palestinian Lives Matter!!!
Resistance is not futile!!!
The saddest thing is no amount of worldwide peaceful protest will change a thing.
For 20 months from March 30, 2018 through December 2019 Hamas organized “The Great march of Return” – peaceful protests every Friday where Gazans would march to the fence and demonstrate agains the siege. The Israelis responded by murdering over 200 Palestinian protestors and medics, and wounding thousands with live fire. And no one in the world noticed or did anything to help the Palestinians.
Sadly, it is only when Israelis die that anyone cares about Palestine. You can’t say Hamas didn’t try non-violence..