Operation Iron Swords - Day 24 - 30 October 2023

Palestinian armed group Hamas launched thousands of missiles at Israel and deployed its militants to infiltrate Jewish settlements near the country’s border with Gaza on 07 October 2023. The 1,200 Israelis killed on the first day would be the equivalent of 36,000 Americans killed in an attack, as a proportion to Israel’s population of 9.3 million people (compared to 332 million in the USA). Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated: “Not since the Holocaust have so many Jews been killed in one day". PM Netanyahu stated "On October 7th, Hamas murdered 1,400 Israelis. Maybe more. This is in a country of fewer than 10 million people. This would be equivalent to over 50,000 Americans murdered in a single day. That’s twenty 9/11s. That is why October 7th is another day that will live in infamy."

Butcher's Bill / Oasis of Martyrs

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 8,306 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli air and artillery strikes since the war erupted. The number of Palestinians missing under the rubble exceeded 1,800.

The number of Israeli deaths since the Palestinian resistance launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 had risen to more than 1,538 dead, while the process of identifying the bodies is still ongoing. The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said on Monday that the bodies of 823 dead non-soldiers have been identified so far, and 715 bodies have been transferred for burial. The Israeli Broadcasting Authority added that the process of identifying the remaining bodies is still ongoing. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari announced that the number of soldiers killed since the start of the war on Gaza had reached 311, and Israeli prisoners held by the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) in Gaza had reached 230.

The spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, announced two days earlier that the indiscriminate Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip has led to the death of about 50 Israeli prisoners so far. While the Israeli Ministry of Health reported - earlier - that 5,431 Israelis had been injured since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip. More than 220 prisoners are held by Hamas and other Palestinian factions whose families are putting pressure on the Israeli government to give their release priority. There are also prisoners of 41 different nationalities, about a quarter of whom are agricultural workers from Thailand.

During overnight ground operations, PVT Ori Megidish, an IDF field observer who was abducted by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7th, was released. She has received medical attention and is now home with her family.

Since the beginning of the war, about 1,070 wanted persons have been arrested throughout the Judea and Samaria Division and the Bekaa and Valleys Division, about 700 associated with the terrorist organization.

Operational Update

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarked at the start of the Cabinet meeting: "We are in the midst of the war. We have set the clear goal of destroying Hamas's military and governing capabilities. We are doing this systematically. First of all, the initial blocking stage is over. The second stage, pounding them from the air is continuing all the time. The third stage – the IDF has expanded its ground incursion inside the Gaza Strip. It is doing so in measured, very powerful, steps making methodical, step-by-step progress.,,,

"At the same time, we are continuing the efforts to free the hostages, both with the maneuver, which is even creating possibilities of securing release that we will not miss. This campaign will take time. There will be pitfalls. There will be difficulties. There will be losses. There will also be surprises, but in the end, I promise you one thing: Hamas will be crushed. Hamas will be defeated; there will be a different Gaza....

"I am in daily contact with the President of the US. His team is talking with their counterparts constantly. We have made it clear that we are fighting not only our war, but their war as well; because if Hamas is not defeated, then the axis of evil will win. And if the axis of evil wins, the free world will lose. The western world and the entire Arab world will lose, and there will be a great threat to humanity. Our battle is a battle for our existence but it is also a battle for their future."

Israeli tanks briefly advanced into the fringes of Gaza City as the army ramped up its war on Hamas. "Dozens" of tanks were reported to have entered the Zaytun district in southern part of Gaza city, cutting a key road from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip for over an hour. "They have cut the Salahedin road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it," one resident told the AFP news agency. Israeli jets were reported to have bombed a section of the road, leaving large craters. The Israeli military said it had killed dozens of Islamist militants in hundreds of strikes, hitting more than 600 targets in 24 hours. That figure, in one of the most intense days of the conflict so far, is up from 450 the previous day.

IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagar stated i "We are conducting expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip. Ground forces, tanks, infantry, and armored forces are maneuvering towards terrorists. The terrorists are assembling in staging sites in order to try to attack our soldiers, after which we strike them from the air. As one example, in one of many strikes, we targeted 20 terrorists who were assembled and preparing to attack our forces. We maneuver on the ground, identify the terrorists, and strike from the air. Ground forces are also directly engaging terrorists....

"Early this morning, an IAF aircraft thwarted a number of armed terrorists in Jenin. Armed terrorists in contact with our ground forces were eliminated from the air. In parallel, we detained dozens of terrorist operatives last night. In total, over seven hundred Hamas terrorists have been detained throughout Judea and Samaria since the beginning of the war. We will continue to thwart terrorism to secure Judea and Samaria. It is critical that the residents of Judea and Samaria continue to abide by the instructions of the Commander of the Central Command."

Joint operations involving ground forces, the air force, the navy and intelligence enable the IDF to close the loop against active threats in real time. One example of this collaboration took place when soldiers in Gaza identified over twenty Hamas operatives in a building and called in an aerial strike. In another case, armed terrorists were identified and targeted in an aerial strike while in an anti-tank missile launching post at the al-Azhar University in Gaza. In yet another example of Hamas’ usage of sensitive sites, soldiers identified Hamas Nukhba operatives in a tunnel under a mosque and called in an aerial strike. This collaboration enabled dynamic collaboration of developing situations; following another air strike, ground forces were able to identify operatives who escaped and call in an aerial strike on them.

The Israeli's initial incursion into Gaza might have more pragmatic objectives than previously anticipated, the Financial Times reported on Monday. According to the US outlet, the limited scope of the operation could go back to the Israeli occupation seeking goals less ambitious than toppling Hamas. the invasion was not so much of an invasion as it was an incursion with limited capabilities.

Incumbent and former officials cited in the report explained that the seemingly limited scope of this initial Israeli incursion reflects a complex mix of factors: the occupation's primary aim is to maximize its firepower advantage over Hamas while minimizing the losses while also being cautious not to get involved in a broader conflict that could get other adversaries involved.

From a tactical perspective, the smaller footprint of the incursion allows for ground forces to receive close air support easily, which is crucial for entering parts of northern Gaza, according to insiders familiar with Israeli battle plans. Gaza Division former deputy commander Amir Avivi explained this approach, noting that the Israeli occupation forces "do not take risks" and that its usage of artillery and close air support was to ensure the safety of Israeli soldiers as they move in Gaza.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli military vehicles penetrated 3 kilometers from the eastern border of the central Gaza Strip in the morning. But the Gaza government later announced the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the areas it had penetrated on Salah al-Din Street.

The Al- Quds Brigades , the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement , said that its fighters caught “an armored force of the Israeli enemy in a tight ambush east of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gharra , resulting in casualties among its ranks.” A statement by the Al-Quds Brigades said, “Our mujahideen trapped an enemy armored force in a sophisticated engineering ambush east of Olive,” noting that there were casualties among the force’s ranks, without further details. It also reported that its fighters were engaged in violent clashes to repel and obstruct the forces invading southeast of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Earlier, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades - the military arm of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) - announced the targeting of two Israeli vehicles that entered the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza, with “Al-Yassin 105” missiles.

The government media office in Gaza denied the existence of any ground advance inside the residential neighborhoods in the Strip, stressing that what happened on Salah al-Din Street was the incursion of a few occupation army tanks and a bulldozer from the open agricultural area. This comes in response to the Israeli army’s claim that it carried out a large ground operation in Gaza. He explained that these vehicles targeted two civilian cars on Salah al-Din Street, and bulldozed them before the resistance forced them to retreat. There are currently no occupation army vehicles in the area. He concluded that the occupation army cannot remain in any area inside the Gaza Strip under resistance strikes, even if it is an open agricultural area.

The Media Office also underscored that what happened shows that the IOF cannot maintain its presence in any area inside the Gaza Strip under Resistance strikes, "even if it is an open agricultural field like the one it entered in the morning, covered by heavy aerial bombardment," stressing that the Israeli occupation is "trying to paint an unrealistic picture" regarding the presence of IOF soldiers in areas within the sector.

Hezbollah hostilities continued with a number of attacks along the northern border. This included rockets fired from southern Lebanon, including one that hit a house in the city of Kiryat Shmona, one of the cities evacuated by the Ministry of Defense earlier in the war, as well as rockets fired from Syria. Over the past day, six terrorist cells were identified and neutralized along the Lebanese border, including one that attempted to infiltrate Israel. In addition to target the cells, the IDF targeted Hezbollah and military sites in southern Lebanon and Syria.

The military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces reached Salah al-Din Street in the eastern Gaza Strip and cut it off, but this happened for a very short time, as the Palestinian resistance forces began managing the battle in a way that he described as effective. He added that the IDF used smoke bombs because its attacking forces fell into what Al-Duwairi called the battle management impasse, noting that the withdrawal of the occupation forces came due to losses among their ranks.

Regarding the significance of the presence of Israeli tanks inside Salah al-Din Street, Al-Duwairi pointed out that there are two contradictory narratives, one by the Qassam Brigades and the other by the occupation, explaining that he will not adopt either of them, but he noted that the Israeli mechanisms were unable to continue achieving their goals, so they stopped at a certain point and began to retreat. Using smoke bombs to facilitate the withdrawal process.

He also believes that the occupation is practicing what is called "field deception", that is, carrying out multiple operations in an attempt to confuse the defending forces, and spoke of an increasing progression in its operations, which began with a tank and two bulldozers in the Khan Yunis area, then 5 tanks and two bulldozers in the Beit Hanoun area, then an attempt to land on the beach. Then an attack in the Beit Lahia area and another in the Bureij area.

The government media office in Gaza confirmed in a statement that the resistance forced the Israeli occupation forces to withdraw after they advanced to Salah al-Din Street, which connects the northern and southern Strip. It said that what happened on Salah al-Din Street was the incursion of a few tanks of the occupation army and a bulldozer from the open agricultural area in the “Juhr Al-Dik” area.

In 2014, Israeli forces reached Al-Rashid Street and isolated the north from the center and south of the Gaza Strip. They used this area as a military base, a starting point, and a main supply line coming from their forces on the border with Gaza. This area witnessed widespread clashes at that time. The IDF was using huge bulldozers to build roads in front of tanks and vehicles in anticipation of ambushes, but this has not happened since 2014, even though the Gaza Strip witnessed 3 major wars and two waves of escalation, and this incursion was unlikely due to resistance reinforcements.

Israel's military said it had carried out air strikes on military infrastructure in Syria. The Israeli military claimed it targeted launchers from where overnight attacks originated towards Israeli territory. The military did not provide details on what area was struck. The Israeli public broadcaster Kan News said the strikes hit near the southern city of Daraa. Syria's Defense Ministry confirmed that Israel had carried out air strikes around 1:35 a.m. local time on Monday (2235 UTC on Sunday). It said that the strikes hit the countryside of the southern Daraa region. The ministry said the strikes caused "some material losses." The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel hit "an artillery battalion" in the Daraa region. The Observatory said that Israel targeted Hezbollah-linked Syrian and Palestinian groups that had shelled the occupied Golan Heights overnight.

Ukraine dismissed claims from Russia that Kyiv orchestrated an anti-Israeli riot at an airport in Dagestan, a Muslim-majority republic in Russia's North Caucasus region. On Sunday night, hundreds of rioters, most of them young men, broke through barriers at Dagestan's Makhachkala airport to attack passengers arriving on a flight from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. At least 20 people were injured in the unrest and 60 people were arrested. Russia accused Ukraine of playing "a direct and key role" in the events at the airport. But Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said blaming Kyiv for the violence was like trying to "shift responsibility from a sick person to a healthy one." "The events in Makhachkala reflect deep-rooted antisemitism of Russian elites and society," he said in a post on Facebook. Following the violence in Dagestan, Israel called on Russian authorities to protect Israelis and Jews in their jurisdictions.

The anti-Semitic riot in Dagestan was inspired by Western intelligence services from the territory of Ukraine and is part of a broader effort to destabilize the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The events in Makhachkala were inspired through social networks, including from the territory of Ukraine, by agents of Western special services,” Putin said in his opening remarks at the evening meeting.

Telegram had already banned ‘Utro Dagestan’ (Dagestan Morning), the channel linked to Ukrainian intelligence which had called for storming the Makhachkala airport in search of “Jewish refugees.” Around 150 people took part in the riot.

The Russian president brought up the horrific imagery coming out of Gaza as fueling an emotional response, noting that the “collective punishment” of civilians that Israel seems to have chosen is “absolutely not justifiable.” However, he noted that the “ruling elite of the US and its satellites” are behind the current conflict in the Middle East and other places around the globe, in an effort to sow chaos and prevent the rise of a multipolar world order.

Putin argued that Russia is not just leading the effort to create a truly multipolar world of sovereign countries, but literally fighting for it on the battlefields of Ukraine – and that many volunteers from Dagestan are taking part in that struggle already. Russia is the bulwark for all of those who fight for their independence and freedom, against those who spread chaos and conflict and their “useful idiots,” Putin concluded.

At least 33 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Sunday, the United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. The UN humanitarian office said that the aid convoy was the largest since October 21, when the first trucks carrying vital aid entered the besieged enclave. Israel ordered a complete siege of the region to root out Hamas militants, considered a terror group by the EU, the US and others, following the militants' terror attack on Israeli soil on October 7. “Our teams in Gaza received 24 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent through the Rafah crossing this evening, containing food supplies and medical necessities," the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said. The organization said it had received 118 trucks containing food and medical supplies in total. But trucks containing fuel are still not allowed to cross into Gaza, the PRCS added.

The Economist quoted Israeli army officials as saying, in interviews conducted with them in recent days, that the goals of the war have not changed, and are to isolate and destroy the infrastructure of the Hamas movement, especially its network of underground tunnels, and to overthrow it from power in Gaza, but the army’s tactics are not As it was supposed to be after the Palestinian resistance attack on Israel on October 7th. According to the British magazine, the two sites that Israeli forces entered on Friday, north and south of Gaza, indicate that there is a gradual plan to encircle the Strip. A senior army officer explained that the ground offensive is a campaign that will take months, perhaps a year.

According to the magazine, the slow-paced campaign relies on siege methods, noting that Hamas has stored fuel, food and other necessities in the tunnel network, but these supplies will run out at some point. It commented on this by saying that the lack of fuel needed to operate the electricity generators may mean cutting off fresh air and lighting from the underground tunnels, which will force Hamas fighters to come out to the surface. In this regard, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says : “Hamas does not expect any of this at all. It expects a ground invasion for 3 or 6 weeks.”

Gil Murciano, the CEO of MITVIM, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies think tank, told DW that Israeli authorities were trying to balance between "three impossible or contradicting goals" in its ground operations in the Gaza Strip. Murciano said Israel's government had the "stated goal of bringing [about] the collapse of Hamas," as well as the goal of "bringing back the hostages."He said that Israel was also under Egyptian and US pressure to allow a "humanitarian corridor" for civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Murciano argued that Israel was balancing these three different goals by engaging in "large-scale raids" rather than launching a "ground offensive to conquer Gaza." He said that while the "entire society" in Israel was "recruited and mobilized in order to fight Hamas," public approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "incredibly low" and constituted "open animosity" towards the leader. Murciano added that there was "very high" public trust towards the "army and security establishment," combined with "total mistrust for the political leadership." He argued that coexistence between Israel and Hamas was a "dead end." He added that "the ability to create an alternative to Hamas is obviously connected to [...] the renewal of a political process between Israelis and Palestinians." The analyst called for "international" and "regional" involvement in a political process over the status of the Palestinian territories. He added that this would only be possible after the removal of Hamas and the fall of Israel's current right-wing government.

Thomas Friedman - known for his support of Israel - advised Tel Aviv to draw inspiration from the Indian model in dealing with events such as the one it was exposed to following the sudden attack by the Palestinian resistance on October 7th. In his article - for which he chose the title: “Please do not get lost inside Hamas’ tunnels !” - Friedman called on Israel to be patient and carefully consider the consequences of any hasty reaction to the incursion of Palestinian resistance fighters into its territory, and the heavy costs that any retaliation could entail.

He recalled the incident of 10 fighters from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, “which is widely believed to have links to Pakistani military intelligence,” infiltrating India and killing more than 160 people in the city of Mumbai in November 2008. What was the reaction of the Indian Prime Minister at that time, Manmohan Singh? Friedman responds in his article in the New York Times by saying that the man never took military revenge on Pakistan, or attacked Lashkar-e-Taiba camps inside Pakistan. Rather, exercise self-control. India's foreign minister at the time, Shivshankar Menon, explained in his book "Choices: Inside the Making of India's Foreign Policy" the reasons that prompted Singh to adopt this policy of not retaliating militarily, and using diplomacy and secrecy as means of responding to the attack,

He added that the Israeli officials he spoke to told him that they knew two things for sure: that Hamas would not rule Gaza again, and that Israel would not rule Gaza after Hamas. They suggest they would establish an arrangement similar to what exists in parts of the West Bank today, where Palestinians in the enclave run daily life, while Israeli army and Shin Bet security teams provide power behind the scenes. The American writer describes this plan as half-baked, because those Palestinians who will be recruited to implement it will be killed,

Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that some 5,000 US military forces are engaging in the "expanded" Israeli "ground operation" launched in Gaza on Friday night, adding that the operation involved three divisions and several brigades. Earlier, Tasnim reported that the US military commanders took charge of the situation in the Israeli army after the Israeli leaders lost all faith in the abilities of their personnel following the humiliating defeat in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Bystanders

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the need for "immediate cessation of attacks targeting civilians and a ceasefire" regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict, Turkish diplomatic sources said. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan received the Head of the EU Delegation Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut and the Ambassadors of EU member states to Ankara. "Attacks targeting civilians are unacceptable, they must stop immediately and a ceasefire must be declared. Humanitarian aid needs to be delivered to Gaza without interruption," the sources said on developments in Gaza, citing the foreign minister.

"We must prevent the conflict from reaching a regional level. The peace process needs to start as soon as possible, within agreed parameters and aiming for a two-state solution. In this context, we believe that the guarantor mechanism can be utilised". "It is a double standard that in some European countries demonstrations in support of Palestine are banned, while attacks targeting our holy book, the Holy Quran, are allowed on the grounds of freedom of expression," the sources added citing Fidan.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune affirmed that "Palestinians are not terrorists" and recalled that Algerians were described with this term during the war of independence (1954-1962) against French colonization. "The Palestinians are not terrorists and will not be terrorists, and whoever defends the right, the land, and his homeland is not a terrorist," he said. "The French considered the revolutionaries of the Algerian Liberation Army terrorists, but we were defending our land," Tebboune recalled. The Algerian president also described the Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip as "a war crime" and held Israel responsible for the conflict that has been amplifying since October 7.

Axis of Resistance

Ghazi Hamad , member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), called on the Arab countries to sever their relations with Israel and expel Tel Aviv’s ambassadors from their lands. He considered it shameful to raise the Israeli flag stained with the blood and body parts of children in the midst of Arab and Islamic capitals.

Hamad said - during a press conference held by Hamas in the Lebanese capital, Beirut - that Gaza is a cemetery for invaders, and revealed that his movement has a lot to surprise the occupation, expressing his confidence in the strength, steadfastness and cohesion of the Palestinian people inside and achieving victory in the current battle. He stressed that the invasion of Gaza is an attempt to whitewash the image of the occupation, raise its morale, and convince the Israeli public that it has achieved an achievement. He added that the fighting ability of the Al-Qassam Brigades was able to repel the failed invasion, and he considered today’s Israeli incursion to be a strong indication of the occupation’s failure.

He pointed out that the occupying state and army have not been able to achieve any military or political achievement since the start of the war, despite the fact that raids continue everywhere and at all times in the Gaza Strip. The killing count did not stop as he resorted to the scorched earth policy.

The leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, Daoud Shehab, confirmed that the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip is directing strong strikes at the occupation forces that are trying to penetrate the Strip, highlighting that one of the resistance’s priorities is the release of prisoners in the occupation prisons. He said that the enemy's ground incursions are still limited to the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, whether in the north or in some eastern areas, which are empty areas.

He pointed out that the occupation forces are receiving major strikes at the hands of the resistance, whether through landing operations behind enemy lines or through strikes with anti-armor missiles or mortar shells and various weapons possessed by the resistance. He added, "Even the incursion into the open, uninhabited areas on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip was neither easy nor free, and resistance was waiting for it," stressing - in a statement to Al Jazeera - that the resistance is ready and prepared to confront any attempt to incursion into the Strip.

Despite the Israeli raids and the use of American weapons, “perhaps they are being used for the first time in Gaza or for the first time that Israel is using them in all of its wars,” the leader of the Jihad movement says that the resistance missiles, on the other hand, are still destroying the cities of the Israeli depths and the cover settlements, and reaching Tel Aviv and other points.

On the other hand, Shehab said that the Israeli enemy does not target the military targets of the resistance in the Gaza Strip, as it claims, but rather relies mainly on air strikes that allow it to inflict large losses on Palestinian civilians, and “most of the targets that the occupation spoke about are residential buildings.” And civilians are safe in their home.

Iran said attacks on US forces in Iraq and elsewhere in the region were a result of “wrong American policies” including support for Israel in its war against Hamas. “The attack on American bases in the region, especially in Iraq, is the result of wrong American policies in the region, which we hope it will correct,” said Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani. He said the attacks were carried out by groups against “the US presence in the region and seriously opposed to American support for the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel).” “You reap what you sow,” he said, urging the United States to “stop” backing Israel.

Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Egypt called on the governments of Arab and Islamic countries to quickly extend a helping hand to the Palestinians in the face of the war launched by Israel against them. Al-Azhar said - in a statement today, Monday - that it calls on the Arab and Islamic governments to harness their capabilities, wealth, and sources of power to support Gaza, praising those he described as the heroes in Gaza, whom he addressed, saying, “With your faith, you confront battleships, aircraft carriers, and missile launchers, and confront them from the platform of faith in God, without fear or humiliation.” ", according to the statemeny.

Al-Azhar described the occupation army as a terrorist that was “stripped of all meanings of morality and humanity, and permitted various brutal crimes, including bombing hospitals, destroying mosques and churches, and killing children, women, newspaper reporters, and innocent citizens.” Al-Azhar appreciated what it described as the courageous, manly stance of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres , who had previously called for “the necessity of stopping the aggression against the weak and oppressed in the Gaza Str

The Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Khalili, renewed his greetings to those he described as honorable people in the world who support the Palestinian cause in light of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Sheikh Al-Khalili had previously commented on the “ Al-Aqsa Flood ” operation launched by the Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza at the dawn of October 7, stressing in a statement “the right of the Palestinians to defend their legitimate rights,” adding, “We ask God for the Mighty Victory and the Clear Conquest.”

The Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman also appreciated, on more than one occasion, “the heroic stance of the Almoravids who face the repeated Israeli incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque,” especially in the month of Ramadan, criticizing “the failure of the Islamic nation, especially the Arabs, to support their brothers in occupied Jerusalem.""

Editor-in-Chief of the British Middle East Eye website, David Hirst, stressed the necessity of separating the position of Western public opinion regarding the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip since October 7, from the opinion of the leaders that the Zionist lobby controls the joints of the ruling class in Western society. Hirst added in the symposium organized by the Qatar Press Centery, entitled “The International Community’s Double Standards in the War on Gaza,” that the double standards are what contributed to shaping the international community’s interaction with Gaza, stressing the necessity of working to correct this situation, as fairness in International responses to conflicts are essential to achieving justice and peace. The journalist pointed out that the Zionist lobby has complete control over Western liberal society, and that there are many members of the US Congress who fear losing Zionist funding or support if they present a viewpoint different from what Israel wants.

Hirst ruled out the possibility of the Israeli occupation being able to eliminate the Hamas movement, saying, "Hamas is rooted in Palestinian society and cannot be eliminated, and it is not a terrorist organization for many people in the world." He said, "The Israelis do not have a clear way out of this war, and their forces are not prepared or trained for ground war, so they are focusing on air attacks and the massive destruction of buildings," expecting increased pressure on Israel in the coming days to stop the war, and for the United Nations and Arab countries to play a decisive role in stimulating negotiations and ceasefire processes.

Allied for Democracy

Netanyahu said that a ceasefire in the Gaza war “will not happen” as it would amount to surrendering to the territory’s rulers Hamas. “Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the terrorist attack of 9/11, Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7,” he said at a press conference with foreign journalists. “Calls for a ceasefire are a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. This will not happen.” Netanyahu also told a press conference that other countries must give more help in the struggle to free more than 230 hostages kidnapped by Hamas in its October 7 attacks.

Berlin urged Israel to "protect" Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. "Israel, as the occupying power in the West Bank, is responsible for ensuring the safety and integrity of the Palestinian population in the West Bank," German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer said. "We call on Israel to protect Palestinians from the activities of extremist settlers and to hold those responsible accountable," he said. "It must be ensured that Palestinian families can remain where they have resided for decades and are not forced to leave their ancestral homes out of fear for life and limb," he added. Some 700,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem. According to the Palestinian Authority, 121 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, when the Hamas militant Islamist group, which governs the Gaza Strip, launched attacks in Israel.

Analysts and former Israeli security officials doubted the possibility of eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) from the Palestinian scene. The Hamas movement and ways to confront it dominated the discussion in the Israeli media, in addition to the issue of those detained by the movement in the Gaza Strip, where some relatives called on the Israeli government to be clear and give priority to the release of detainees and not to a ground attack on the Palestinian Strip.

Ohid Himo, a military analyst on Channel 12, commented on the issue of confronting Hamas, saying: “Hamas symbolizes a global ideology and vision that is difficult to uproot from people’s minds.” As for Ami Ayalon, a former head of the Israeli General Security Service ( Shin Bet ), he saw - in his comment on the Israeli Channel 13 - that the Israeli government had misunderstood the security and political assessment in its dealings with what he described as the existential threat posed by the Hamas movement to Israel, indicating that the intelligence and security assessment The politician in Israel was pointing out that Hamas was “deterred” because of what he called the fatal blow it received during the “Keeper of the Walls” campaign.

Reserve General Yossi Langotsky, a former advisor to the Chief of Staff for tunnel treatment, considered in his analysis that “the current war is an existential war for the State of Israel, and the battle is above all to kill the enemy.” Reserve General Gadi Shamni, a former Gaza Battalion Commander, described Gaza as “an empire that is still standing on its feet,” saying, “The injury is there, but it is not severe... There are many houses demolished and people killed.” He claimed that there are underground reserves in Gaza. Weapons, fuel, and medicines are sufficient to last long months of war.

While he called on the Israeli army to “occupy and destroy Hamas,” Shamni warned of the way to deal with the issue of Israeli detainees held by Hamas, and explained his position by saying: “If we hypothetically assume a deal is made now and we return everyone for everyone... then we must know that Hamas is not fools because they will take guarantees.” From the Americans, Egyptians and Qataris, Israel will be shackled, and this will be a clear victory for Hamas and a crushing defeat for the State of Israel.”