Operation Iron Swords - Day 67 - 12 December 2023
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NEW - Operations NEW - By-Standers NEW - Axis of Resistance NEW - Allied for Democracy UPDATED - Oasis of Martyrs UPDATED - Hostages |
Netanyahu's statements sparked criticism from Israeli commentators and media, who accused him of "exploiting the war and its Israeli victims" to strengthen his political position and preserve his ruling right-wing coalition. They said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech is part of an electoral campaign he is leading to serve his interests to continue ruling after the end of the war, without caring about the interests of the Israeli public.
Observers in Israel linked Netanyahu's statements in the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee yesterday with previous statements, in which he did not rule out the Israeli army entering into combat with the security services of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, but they considered all his statements since the beginning of the war on Gaza to be part of an electoral campaign that he continues to serve his interests.
Netanyahu said that Israel is ready to fight the security forces of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank , stressing that the Gaza Strip will remain under Israeli security control after the war. Netanyahu added - according to statements leaked by Israeli media about him to the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in the Knesset - that Israel is ready for a scenario in which it turns the barrels of rifles and directs them towards the authority forces.
He said that he is the only one capable of keeping the Strip under Israeli security authority, and will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He reiterated that he would not allow the Palestinian Authority to return to rule in the Gaza Strip under any circumstances. He stressed that the Gaza Strip would remain under Israeli security control after the war, and that he would establish a civil administration in the Strip that would not pose any threat to Israel.
One Palestinian citizen described her suffering and having to give her children salt water while her husband looked for food by saying: “If they had dropped a nuclear bomb on us, it would have been more comfortable for us than this life.” This was reported by the New York Times in an article titled “Gaza Evacuation Decree Leaves Its Residents Confused,” written by Yara Bayoumi, Lauren Leatherby, and Iyad O. Hawila from Jerusalem, London, and Cairo, and published by the newspaper today, Tuesday, December 12.
When scores of foreign journalists were shepherded into a room in Tel Aviv and shown government-compiled footage, depicting acts of violence and mutilation that occurred during the Hamas incursion in southern Israel on October 7, it marked a watershed moment in information warfare during the conflict. Israel – in the wake of the bloodiest day in the country’s history and its relentless retaliatory bombardment on the besieged Gaza Strip – wanted to take hold of a narrative that had seen an influx of both misinformation and disinformation, as supporters on either side aimed to garner support and vilify their adversaries.
In the era of social media, the Israel-Hamas conflict has been marred by a surge of misinformation. Misleading videos, translation errors, and outright false claims have taken center stage, often overshadowing accurate reporting from the region. It has brought new meaning to the Fog of War, with truth being one of the earliest casualties.
Executive director of US consultancy firm SITE Intelligence Group, Rita Katz, described the level of disinformation about the Israel-Hamas war as “staggering.” She told Al Arabiya English “I’ve been tracking conflicts for several decades. I’ve never seen anything like this... It’s even making its way into respected news outlets in ways I never thought possible.”
Social media platforms, said Katz, have played a major role in the problem. She said while disinformation during wars is not new, and certainly not surprising, one thing that’s new with the Israel-Hamas war is that X, formerly known as Twitter, is, in many ways, the central venue where it all goes viral. “During crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, Twitter was far more aggressive in combatting this content, pushing the fringe conspiracists and trolls onto Telegram and ‘alternative’ social media platforms. Even with the Russia-Ukraine war, most of the globally aimed disinformation action is happening on Telegram, with X being a secondary venue to further disseminate it,” she said.
However, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is far more divisive than any other issue one can think of, Katz added. As such, people are far more invested in skewing the conversation to favor their “team,” creating an inventive to amplify false information, whether wittingly or otherwise, said Katz.
“The intensity surrounding this conflict makes this disinformation all the more dangerous. Given all the protests and even deadly attacks we’ve seen across the globe in the last month, it’s not hard to imagine a fake image or video going viral and inspiring an attack. In a larger sense, it’s disturbing to think how much public opinion is surely being swayed by reports and media that is completely fake,” she said, adding that the Israel-Hamas war requires an exhausting amount of fact-checking, contextualization, and skepticism.
Katz further said: “Even respected outlets like the New York Times were forced to walk back their reporting about the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital blast, admitting that they took too seriously the dishonest claims of Hamas. This, though, begs the question: Why would reporters give Hamas any more credibility than they would ISIS?”
Katz said she believes the majority of the disinformation we’re currently seeing on the matter originates on X, formerly Twitter. “The platform’s laxed censorship policies and algorithms – combined with the divisive nature of this conflict – have laid the foundation for the chaos we now see on X. Of course, I understand that honest mistakes in reporting are an inevitability and that liars and trolls are not new to Twitter, but these problems on X have never been so consequential as they are now,” Katz added. “Whatever productive discourse or democratized journalism Elon [Musk] envisioned for X has not played out, and this Israel-Hamas war content is proof,” Katz said.
Program Coordinator at Wilson Center, Yusuf Can, also raised the role of Musk and his platform, X, in the spread of disinformation. Musk’s changes to the platform, including the disbanding of the Trust and Safety Council, he said, has raised questions about the handling of disinformation. The algorithm on X was modified to prioritize engagement, which incentivized sharing of false information.
To combat disinformation, FakeReporter – a disinformation monitoring organization based in Israel, founded by a team of researchers, activists, and OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) experts – is running a war room staffed with 2,500 volunteers across Israel. The volunteers flag and report suspicious, malicious and graphic content to the platforms themselves. FakeReporter also debunks misleading narratives on social media.
In a slick media campaign, Israel has repeatedly published graphic imagery of the massacres of October 7 and the plight of the hostages taken by Hamas to justify their retaliatory actions. Lior Haiat, spokesperson of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Al Arabiya English that Hamas “lies to its public and the entire world” and that it will work to combat their “propaganda.”
“Hamas uses the media and social networks as a tool to spread false propaganda and incitement to hide war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas terrorists.” Haiat said Israel acts in several ways to fight the lies of Hamas, but claimed “the main way is presenting the truth to the world.”
“In recent weeks, we have been showing a 47-minute film taken entirely from the body cameras found on the Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre,” he said. “We want the world to see exactly what kind of enemy Israel is fighting.” Haiat says there are dozens of examples of misinformation that Hamas spreads – often by using images from other regions of the world and images created with artificial intelligence – in order to show Israeli harm to civilians.
Haiat gives an example of the explosion at Al-Ahli hospital in the Gaza Strip on October 17. “Minutes after the explosion, Hamas accused Israel of bombing the hospital and less than an hour later reported at least 500 dead from the attack. A short time later, the facts became clear: The explosion occurred due to a missile that was fired by Islamic Jihad terrorists towards Israel, which fell inside the Gaza Strip,” Haiat said, adding that the number of casualties amounted to several dozen only.
For supporters on the pro-Palestinian side, the focus has been on civilians being killed by Israeli bombardment, with little mention of the October 7 attacks. The imagery has, say, experts, in many ways, led to tens of thousands of protesters rallying across the Middle East and in parts of Asia, Europe, and the United States in support of Palestinians and condemnation of Israel as it intensified its strikes on Gaza.
The White House also had to retract President Biden’s statement about seeing images of beheaded children after Hamas’ attack on Israel. Initially, Biden mentioned seeing such pictures during a meeting with Jewish leaders, describing the attack as the “deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.” These unverified claims circulated widely, fueled by a news reporter’s statement on a live broadcast and information from the Israeli government. However, a White House spokesperson clarified later that neither the president nor US officials had independently confirmed or seen such images or reports.
The French newspaper Liberation said that the almost final assessment, two months after the attack launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) on Israel, confirms that some of the alleged “atrocities” that were sometimes hastily reported and reached the highest levels to obtain international support for Tel Aviv never happened. In a joint investigation between Cedric Mathieu, Florian Gautier, and Jacques Bizet, the newspaper recovered the details of the actions, most of which were filmed on the day of the Al- Aqsa Flood on the seventh of October, after the final results of what happened became almost known.
The newspaper's fact-checking department noted many unconfirmed or inconsistent stories and testimonies, and available data has confirmed that some of the "atrocities" initially described did not occur. Most of these false testimonies relate to allegations of child abuse, which were at the heart of the public relations campaign that Israel started it two months ago. These lies were promoted for weeks by volunteer rescuers, soldiers or Israeli army officials, but also by the head of state and Israeli diplomacy, and were hyped by the world press, as well as statements by Western political leaders. The newspaper wondered: Did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the wife of President Isaac Herzog intentionally spread lies in diplomatic conversations at the highest levels, with the aim of garnering support for international public opinion?
Three days after the Hamas attack (the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood), the Israeli army allowed foreign journalists to enter Kibbutz Kfar Azza, located less than a kilometer from the Gaza Strip. There, Nicole Zedek, a correspondent for the Israeli Channel 24, reported that “one of the leaders here said that no less than About 40 children were killed, adding that “some of them were beheaded. He said he had never seen such brutal acts before.”
This statement was repeated in the media around the world, and by the Israeli authorities, for several weeks. The next day, the “official account of the State of Israel” posted on Twitter a video clip from the same channel invoking the “Kfar Azza massacre,” accompanied by the phrase “40 children were killed.” The statement then spread prominently among the videos with which Israel flooded the Internet in October. The first is to denounce what it describes as the “crimes” of Hamas.
However, this information now contradicts the numbers, because the Israeli police informed the Israeli National Insurance Institute, whose statistics are considered a reference today, of the names of the owners of 789 identified bodies of civilians, excluding the security forces, and only one child was found among the civilians who were killed on October 7. Last October.
In light of the information available to the newspaper, many of the statements that followed the attack, in addition to the 40 children’s lie, appeared to be “inaccurate or false.” Some of this can be explained by the chaos that followed the attack, the extent of the destruction, and the bodies that were not identified, but others were just “pure inventions,” unrelated to the proven facts and not connected to them at all, according to the report.
According to the newspaper, the roots of most of the false statements related to infants or young children go back to Kibbutz Kfar Azza, where the 40-child lie was born, and some of them came from military sources, as Colonel Golan Fach, commander of the National Rescue Unit of the Israeli army, told a delegation of French parliamentarians that he “reported himself, the headless corpses of children,” and this story today contradicts the assessments.
Colonel Golan Fach, commander of the Israeli army's rescue unit, said he "personally transported the bodies of decapitated children," and this story today contradicts assessments. For his part, retired Lieutenant Colonel Yaron Buskila told the Epoch Times that he spoke to a rabbi who was said to have visited Kibbutz Kfar Azza, and said, “I regret meeting the rabbi. His description of the things he saw was so shocking, that I vomited,” and according to Buskila, “he saw the rabbi.” Children hanging in a row on a clothesline, with their mothers' bras on.
Yaron Buskila, of the Israel Defense and Security Forum who advocates the idea that peace in Israel can only be obtained by force, repeated the same account in an interview with the Kikar Hashabat news site, this time claiming that he had seen with his own eyes “babies hanging on a clothesline.” The website deleted the interview because it reported that no children died in Kfar Azza.
The newspaper pointed out that there were other inconsistent or unverified stories, some of which came from relief agencies, and from the charitable organization “Zakka” in particular, which is responsible for collecting bodies. Its director, Yossi Landau, appeared and testified before the whole world, in multiple interviews, that Many "atrocities" were committed, but some elements of his stories seemed distorted if not invented.
Yossi Landau recounted the discovery of the burned bodies of 20 children in the Be'eri settlement, and said, "I saw 20 children together, with their hands tied behind their backs," and this statement was echoed by a large number of media outlets. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was filmed speaking on the phone with US President Joe Biden , saying, “They took dozens of children, tied them up, burned them, and executed them.” This story contradicts what we know today, where 10 miners were killed in Be’eri.
Regarding Be'eri, Yossi Landau recounted the discovery of the bodies of a family that included two children aged 6 and 11 (or 6 and 7, according to another interview), who had been tortured while what he described as "terrorists" were eating the remains of the Sabbath meal. The statements made by Landau varied depending on the media he spoke to. Sometimes he spoke about children being burned alive in front of their families, but more often than not he spoke in detail about the mutilations inflicted on each family member.
Blinken repeated before Congress Israeli accounts of “atrocities” committed against children in Be’eri, but reports proved that they did not occur. These “atrocities” - as the newspaper says - were reported verbatim by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on October 31 last before the US Senate: “A little boy and a little girl, ages 6 and 8, and their parents at the breakfast table. The father’s eye was gouged out in front of his children and cut off.” The mother’s breasts, the girl’s foot was amputated, and the boy’s fingers were cut off before they were executed,” noting that no child between the ages of 6 and 11 years old died in Be’eri, according to available reports.
Eli Beer, director of the non-governmental organization "Yanatad Hatzalah", provided this testimony (which was false, according to the newspaper), and said, "I saw with my own eyes a woman who was four months pregnant, and she was in a small kibbutz. They entered her house in front of her children, opened her stomach, took out the little girl, stabbed her, and then "They shot her in front of her family. Then they killed the rest of the children." He added, "I saw young children with their heads cut off, and we did not know which child had their head... We saw a small child in the oven. These miscreants put the child in the oven and lit the oven. We found the child a few hours later," he said.
At the time that Eli Beer testified before American Republican leaders, Lenore Atias from the same organization was giving an interview to the American channel CNN on November 1, in which she described this “terrifying” scene that she said she had seen in Be’eri. “She was there.” A little girl, 8 or 9 years old. They cut off her hand and she was still breathing, and that was her last breath. She lost a lot of blood for hours," and no matching information was found for such a case, the newspaper says.
The newspaper concluded that this campaign, which was whispered in the ears of political leaders and formulated on social networks and among journalists, was aimed at mobilizing and then strengthening support for Israeli and international public opinion for the violent reprisals in Gaza.
Tod Helmus, senior behavioral scientist at think-tank RAND, said, at the tactical and operational level, the war in Gaza, and the Israeli ground incursion are about bombs, guns, mortars, and the ability of each side to make street-by-street gains in a deadly urban battle. “At the strategic level, though, the war is about perception, telling a story about who is the victim and who is the aggressor. And if the prelude to the invasion of Gaza is any indication, lies, mistruths, and disinformation will play a key and continuing role in this fight.
“In past Israeli campaigns into Gaza, such as the ones in 2012 and 2014, initial support for the Israeli operation faded as sympathies increasingly turned toward the Palestinians who were suffering high civilian casualties in the densely populated landscape. This was buttressed by the Hamas media wing, which effectively used images and video of the conflict, and the resultant suffering, to change international opinion,” Helmus said.
The stakes are even higher today, he added. “The atrocities committed by Hamas militants in Israel have quickly been termed as ‘Israel’s 9/11.’ Israel has consequently set a political objective of total destruction of Hamas.” Helmus further said: “Perceptions of civilian casualties in Gaza are, in strategic military parlance, the center of gravity for the conflict. High civilian casualties will dissipate Israel’s international support and risk limiting the destruction they can rain on Hamas. Each side knows this and will attempt to shape perceptions, in some cases through any means necessary, and false information will play a key role.”
Operational Update
The Financial Times reported that the United States expects Israel to change its combat tactics in the Gaza Strip by next January. The newspaper, citing unidentified American officials, explained that Washington expects Israel to reduce the scope of its operations in the southern Gaza Strip by next month, thus reducing the scope of its ground attack and reducing the intensity of its raids, which will become more precise and target only senior Hamas leaders and large, valuable strategic targets.
Earlier, The Economist magazine reported, citing informed sources, that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken informed the Israeli side during a visit to Tel Aviv that the military operation in the Gaza Strip must be completed before the New Year.
COGAT [Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories: Judea and Samaria and towards the Gaza Strip] announced: "To the residents of Shejaiya, Jabalia, Zeytoun, the Old City, and to everyone who was unable to evacuate from Gaza City, today between the hours of 16:00-09:00, Salah al-Din Street will be open for movement for you, and you can move on it in a safer manner to the shelters in the area. Dair Al Balah."
COGAT also stated "we will open the Kerem Shalom crossing to conduct security checks for aid received from Al-Arish. The inspection of aid in Kerem Shalom in conjunction with the inspection in Nitzana will allow doubling the volume of aid that is inspected before it enters the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing. We continue to promote ways to expand the scope of aid transferred to the Gaza Strip for Gazans, although Hamas continues its attempts to obtain aid to meet its own needs."
Nearly 40,000 buildings, or about 18% of all pre-conflict structures, have been damaged or destroyed in the Gaza Strip since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, a UN assessment showed. The latest estimate, based on an image dated from November 26, was produced by the United Nations Satellite Centre, where analysts examine very high resolution satellite images to find damaged buildings and publish maps that can guide relief work and rebuilding plans during natural disasters and conflicts. An earlier UN assessment released on November 7 said that 25,050 buildings had been damaged or destroyed or about 10% of the total structures in Gaza.
Estimates such as this based on high-resolution satellite images might still under-estimate the scale of destruction since they do not show all building damage – for example, a collapsed building with an intact roof can look undamaged. eutsche Welle reported "Over half of all Gaza's buildings have been destroyed, and 90% of the population is now displaced. "
The Israeli military has begun pumping seawater into Hamas's tunnel complex in Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported citing unnamed US officials, adding that the process would likely take weeks. Some Biden administration officials have said that the process could help destroy the tunnels, where Israel believes the militant group is hiding hostages, fighters and munitions, the Journal reported. Other officials have expressed concerns that the seawater would endanger Gaza's fresh water supply.
The newspaper added that the whole process would take several weeks to complete without specifying clear indicators of its success. However, on the Israeli side, as that of their allies, concerns arose regarding the nature of this operation. Over the course of the war on Gaza, "Israel" claimed that the captives were being held by the Resistance in tunnels under the Strip. Meanwhile, such a measure, if successful per Israeli objectives, would almost certainly lead to the death of captives placed in the targeted networks.
But the real catastrophe remains in the after-effect of such an aggression. International environmental and human rights organizations warned that this move, which would see the pumping and dumping of tens of millions of tons of seawater into Gaza's soil will have long-term devastating consequences on both agricultural lands and drinking water in the besieged Strip with a 2.2 million population, and would probably make most targeted lands uninhabitable.
Commenting on the plans, the Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said that such a step "will constitute a blatant war crime," pointing out that its real aim is to damage Gaza's natural resources and agricultural capacities. "War crimes are snowballing - shocking reports have been circulated in recent days that Israel plans to flood underground facilities in the Gaza Strip with seawater," Polyansky said during a UNSC meeting.
"Hailing this ‘brilliant tactical solution,’ the Western-biased mass media don’t even try to think about the potential consequences of pumping thousands of cubic meters of seawater, i.e. salt water, into soil. Obviously, it is a real plan of action to undermine the enclave’s fragile agricultural capacities, because seawater will inevitably contaminate Gaza’s subsoil waters."
The Israeli government has been clear. The militant group Hamas will be "eliminated," many senior members of government, including the country's prime minister, have all said. On certain Israeli television channels, slogans such as "Together we will win" appear regularly. But is it really possible to completely eliminate Hamas and "win" in a situation like this? The short answer, as experts have repeatedly said, is no.
Most analysts say that it won't be possible to get rid of Hamas altogether, the main reason being that Hamas is more than just a militant organization. Israel "would love to eradicate Hamas as an institution, as a political, religious and cultural structure, and as a military structure," Rashid Khalidi, a professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University in New York told the Spanish newspaper El Pais, in late October. "I don't think they can do the first two things," he argued. "Whether they kill all their leaders, whether they kill all the armed militants, Hamas will remain as a political force, whether the Israelis occupy Gaza or leave. So destroying Hamas as a political institution, destroying Hamas as an idea, is impossible."
"The [Israeli] military can do the best job they can. They could eliminate the leadership. They can destroy missile launching facilities," Justin Crump, a terrorism expert who heads Sibylline Ltd, a global intelligence and risk analysis consultancy, said. "But they won't eliminate the idea of Hamas."
The Al Jazeera military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, said that the Israeli tone has changed regarding the possibility of accepting new proposals for another prisoner exchange deal with the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip " “It stems from the reality of field battles.” Al-Duwairi explained that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called on the fighters of the Qassam Brigadesthe military wing of the Hamas movement to “surrender,” claiming that the end of Hamas was near with the expansion of the scope of the war. But the movement responded by saying, “Qassam heroes do not surrender, and the occupation’s lies do not deceive anyone.”
The military expert added that the Israelis are now moving toward negotiations after 66 days of battle in Gaza, during which the occupation army failed throughout this period to rescue even a single prisoner, with the exception of a single attempt whose result was disastrous after the Israeli prisoner was killed and the resistance kept his body. The resistance factions - led by Al-Qassam - continued to broadcast documentary scenes of targeting Israeli foot forces and military vehicles in various combat axes, confirming that dozens of soldiers were killed by ambushes and targeting them with anti-personnel shells and fortifications.
Al-Duwairi's comment came after Israeli Channels 12 and 13 quoted an Israeli source as saying that Tel Aviv is ready to listen to the mediators' proposals regarding a new exchange deal, and the source indicated that the conditions have ripened for a return to consensus regarding it.
A temporary truce that began on November 24 lasted for 7 days between the Hamas movement and the Israeli occupation, with Qatari mediation and Egyptian-American coordination, during which 80 Israelis were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, in addition to foreign workers, most of whom were Thai.
Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, described the occupation army as a failure, a coward, and incompetent, in his comment on the latter’s admission that 20% of its soldiers and officers were killed in the Gaza Strip by “friendly fire” since the start of the ground battles. Al-Duwairi explained - during his military analysis for Al Jazeera - that if he adopted the Israeli narrative, “the occupation army does not have the ability to distinguish between the enemy and the friend, and its planes and artillery bomb the areas of clashes, which leads to the death of its members.”
He stressed that this matter is a weak point in the Israeli army and not as it is said to be highly competent, adding that it "enjoys advanced equipment, but its soldiers and officers are failures." The IDF announced that 20 soldiers had been killed by “friendly fire” in the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground battles in late October, which represents one-fifth of the number of soldiers killed during the ground operation, with 111 deaths among officers and soldiers.
On the other hand, Al-Duwairi indicated that if he did not accept the story of the IDF, he would see the scene as an actual interpretation of the intensity of the clashes that led to a large number of deaths that the IDF did not dare to reveal, in addition to Tel Aviv’s attempt to cover up deaths at the hands of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement. ( agitation ).
He reiterated that Al-Qassam's account is more credible than the other side's because it is supported by videos and shows both sides of the fighting, confirming that the IDF lost 500 military vehicles, at the rate of two armored divisions, according to the military perspective.
Regarding field developments, Al-Duwairi stressed that the occupation was not able to completely control one square kilometer, but rather made progress in various areas north and south of the Gaza Strip, then quickly retreated under the weight of resistance, referring to the fierce clashes in the Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood, the Jabalia camp, and the city of Khan Yunis.
Al-Duwairi, considered Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s talk about his army besieging the last stronghold of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, “an internal message to Israeli society that does not reflect reality.” Al-Duwairi said in his military analysis for Al Jazeera that the recent video broadcast by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, was clear, stressing that fighting is still taking place in the northeastern areas of the Shujaiya neighborhood.
He added that the battles are taking place in the outer framework of the Al-Shuja'iya neighborhood, and the depth of the population and urban bloc has not been reached, and he stressed that the areas he entered through the fence are considered dead and empty lands all the way to Baghdad Street. The fighting is still intense, even though the size of the Israeli force attacking Shuja'iya - according to Al-Duwairi - is a minimum of an armored brigade. Which means 97 to 105 combat vehicles; 70% of them are tanks, while 30% are Tiger armored vehicles, supported by bulldozers, and the total reaches 150 Israeli vehicles.
He stressed that the fighting is taking place at zero distance, which ranges from zero to 130 metres. It is the effective distance range for resistance weapons, such as anti-armor and anti-personnel missiles, sniping operations, dropping grenades, and finishing off soldiers from point zero. He noted that historically, the Shuja'iya Battalion, along with the Al-Tuffah Battalion, is considered one of the battalions of the Qassam strike force, and has great influence in previous wars, especially in the 2014 war.
Regarding Gallant's character, Al-Duwairi said that the Israeli Defense Minister deals with military superiority and arrogance, but he is "defeated internally and lying to himself, despite all the arrogance and dirty vocabulary he displays in his speeches," similar to describing the Palestinians as "human animals."
He pointed out that the tunnel network known only to the fighters, and it has distributed openings from which resistance members exit and then enter demolished buildings after monitoring and intelligence operations of the movements of the occupation soldiers. He stressed that whoever carries out the monitoring operations knows with certainty that it may be the last mission because he is undertaking an extremely dangerous job, but he must accomplish it by obtaining information and communicating it via wired phone. This confirms that the command and control system is still effective.
Al-Duwairi explains that the official who receives this information about the presence of Israeli vehicles prepares the force and determines its number based on the observed target, and then the force goes out to carry out the mission. It is noteworthy that satellite images obtained by Al Jazeera confirm that the occupation army was unable to besiege the Shuja'iya neighborhood until December 10, and the channel also broadcast scenes of the Qassams targeting Israeli tanks and vehicles from different distances.
Israel continued its operations against Hezbollah, as the Iron Dome system intercepted 6 missiles from Lebanon towards settlements in the Western Galilee, and bombed the outskirts of the border towns of Zebqin, Yarin, Marwahin, Al-Jebin and Shehin, south of Lebanon. Perhaps one of the most important indicators of the escalation is Israel’s targeting of Lebanese army positions several times, which led to the martyrdom of a corporal, the wounding of about 4 soldiers, and the fall of shells near UNIFIL force positions south of the Litani, subject to Resolution 1701.
With the northern Israeli settlements empty of tens of thousands of settlers, as well as the displacement of thousands of civilians from the southern border villages in Lebanon, observers wonder if Israel is seeking to turn these spaces into military buffer zones. In fact, the Israeli escalation came in response to the specific operations carried out by Hezbollah, which, since the end of the truce in the Gaza Strip on December 3, have caused at least 40 wounded in the occupation army, while military estimates suggest that a greater number of The army was wounded and killed, and Israel does not disclose its full losses.
Some Arab experts believe that Israel, which is still unable to achieve a military victory against the Islamic Resistance Movement " Hamas ," is seeking to intensify its operations in southern Lebanon, both quantitatively and qualitatively, to lure Hezbollah into initiating war, in search of a way out of Gaza, especially with the circulation of information that Washington gave it a deadline for its first round. In the war until the end of this year.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, the military expert and head of the Middle East Center for Studies and Research, retired Brigadier General Hisham Jaber, and the writer and political analyst Daoud Rammal, read about the backgrounds and scenarios of the Israeli escalation. On the ground, Jaber finds that Lebanon is facing a continuing military escalation as long as the war continues in Gaza. The irony, in his opinion, is that Hezbollah is committed to the new rules of engagement after October 7, in terms of area of fire and targeting military bases. Meanwhile, Israel is escalating the quality and objectives of its operations, by targeting the Lebanese army, killing a large number of civilians, and bombing populated areas, while Hezbollah strikes the headquarters of the occupation army after the northern settlements turned into Israeli camps.
He says, "Israel's strike on a populated neighborhood in Aitaroun is a message that it is ready to repeat the Gaza scenario in Lebanon, especially since the threats of Israeli government leaders to Hezbollah to destroy Lebanon do not stop." Rammal also believes that Lebanon is facing a dangerous escalation in the south, which involves an Israeli effort to break the rules of engagement and expand the battle front to an area exceeding 5 kilometers. He says, "Israel is managing the escalation in the south, not Hezbollah, as a reflection of its desire for the northern front to move to more violent levels and with different rules."
If it were not for the presence of the American fleets at sea, in the opinion of military expert Hisham Jaber, Israel would not have dared to send this threatening message to Hezbollah, which had previously been informed of Washington’s threats that it would fight directly with Israel if it launched a large-scale war against it.
On the other hand, political analyst Daoud Rimal believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , who is in crisis inside Israel and in Gaza, is seeking to blackmail the international community and exploit American support by moving the confrontation to the northern front with Hezbollah, which will lead to opening a battle with Iran as his way out of the quagmire of the war against Hamas. Consequently, Israel is expected to continue its provocations to change the rules of fire with Hezbollah, and to drag it towards an open confrontation according to Israeli time.
Regarding Hezbollah’s handling of the Israeli escalation, Jaber believes that it is acting with the logic of strong wisdom in terms of not being drawn into what Israel wants, “because whoever initiates the war will be responsible for its results.”
Although Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah previously announced the civilian-for-civilian equation, Rammal believes that he avoids striking civilian settlers, and that he did not implement reciprocity, as he did not target populated areas as Israel did. The writer considers that Hezbollah’s gain in this context created a situation It is located in the Galilee, without any fighter entering it, in addition to gouging out Israel’s eyes by destroying all spying and surveillance systems, which prompted it to rely on satellites and drones to monitor and track Hezbollah centers and elements.
Rimal also talks about the high economic price for Israel, as the northern settlements are a storehouse of agricultural production, and there are factories for manufacturing, packaging, and supply.
Many wonder whether the military operations in southern Lebanon will remain at a controlled escalation pace or will drag Hezbollah and Israel towards war. Here, Jaber says, “Hezbollah will not be drawn into opening the broad front for internal and regional reasons, and because Iran has no interest in getting involved in a front in which Washington will be an active party, and that the latter also has no interest in igniting a new hotbed at the gates of the American elections.”
He added, "The two major players, Iran and America, do not want a war in Lebanon, which makes any improvised Israeli escalation risky." It is likely that what Netanyahu wants is a consolation prize in Gaza in exchange for reducing the risk of sliding into war on the Lebanon front. The prize, for example, is for northern Gaza to be demilitarized and free of Qassam elements, “because he fears Israeli internal accountability, and because his political future is at stake, and he will not leave without A victory he offers to his people.”
For his part, Rimal recalls international messages that arrived in Lebanon through the movement of American and European delegations, especially the French, after the visit of two security delegations to Lebanon, the first headed by the head of French intelligence, Bernard Emier, and his work team, and the second, a security delegation that toured the Lebanese leaders publicly. He says, "They conveyed the international community's desire not to expand the war in Lebanon."
However, if Netanyahu does not achieve a qualitative achievement in Gaza, there is a real fear, according to Rimal, that he will risk igniting the Lebanon front to reverse regional realities, because it will lead to major military developments, the activation of the Yemeni front, and the movement of the Syrian Golan front that has been silent until now.
Rimal continues that this potential scenario would lead to a regional war, and “ the UN Security Council would then be faced with difficult choices, in terms of how to stop hostilities, and in terms of finding a political settlement that includes all parties that will refuse defeat.”
Israeli military analyst Amos Harel predicted that the Israeli war on Gaza will end without achieving its goals, adding that defeating the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) is not possible currently, amid the occupation army’s continued losses during its ground operation in the Strip. This came in an analysis published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in which he said that there are no indications that the Hamas movement is close to collapse, and the movement’s resistance is still fierce in some areas, as he put it.
Harel confirmed that pictures of those killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip are published daily, most of whom are reserve soldiers. Harel considered that the Israeli army’s promises to eliminate the Hamas movement, return all detainees, rebuild all destroyed border settlements and remove the security threat from them, are ambitious goals, some of which will clearly not be achieved, according to him.
The Israeli analyst added that Tel Aviv would accept not achieving the goals of its war on Gaza under American pressure. He also said that the impact of the enormous and rapidly increasing economic difficulties facing Israel, and the burden on reservists, could all contribute to shortening the duration of the intensive operation inside Gaza.
Harel stressed that Israel's failure to achieve the goals of the war on Gaza will put it facing a problem, as a large portion of Israelis believe that liberating detainees should be the government's top priority, and that any delay in returning them is tantamount to a major failure, in addition to the fact that the Israelis are demanding the elimination of the movement. agitation.
Politico website had quoted 3 Israeli officials as saying that the administration of US President Joe Biden had given Israel until the end of the year to end its war in Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s spokesman said that the war in Gaza could be ended “on the condition that the leaders of the movement are handed over.” Hamas themselves for the Israeli army, and the return of prisoners from Gaza.”
The military spokesman for the Ansar Allah Movement ( Houthis ), Yahya Saree, confirmed that a Norwegian ship heading to Israel was targeted with a naval missile. This comes as a source in the Yemeni government told Al Jazeera that it had received an American invitation to participate in a military coalition to protect the Red Sea from Houthi operations, and that it had decided to participate in it.
Saree said that the naval forces carried out the military operation against the Norwegian ship "Stranda" after its crew refused to heed the warnings. He added - in a statement broadcast on television - that the group targeted the tanker with a naval missile and that it "succeeded during the past two days in preventing the passage of several ships that responded to the warnings of the Yemeni naval forces and did not resort to targeting the Norwegian ship loaded with oil except after its crew rejected all warning calls."
The group renewed its pledge that it will continue to prevent all ships of all nationalities from heading to Israeli ports “until they bring in the food and medicine our steadfast brothers need in the Gaza Strip ,” according to the statement. Reuters quoted the tanker's owner as saying that it was hit by a missile off the coast of Yemen and that it was "on the way to a safe port, and none of the 22 crew members were injured."
A US official told Al Jazeera that a ship flying the Norwegian flag was attacked by a missile launched by the Houthi group, adding that the attack occurred near Bab al-Mandab and resulted in damage to the ship. The official said in his statements to Al Jazeera that the US destroyer "Mason" responded to a distress call from the targeted ship, and confirmed that there was no American warship present during the missile attack by the Houthis.
The Houthi group had threatened to prevent the crossing of ships heading to Israel if food and medicine did not enter the Gaza Strip, stressing that any ship heading to Israel is a legitimate target. Before that, the Houthis targeted ships they say are linked to Israel, but their latest threat expands the scope of their operations to include all ships heading to it.
The Houthis launched their first attacks on October 19, targeting Israel with cruise missiles and drones. Then they took control of a commercial ship in the Red Sea and detained 25 of its members. They also attacked 3 commercial ships, while France and the United States announced that they had intercepted Houthi missiles and drones that were heading to Israel.
The head of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen - the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Mahdi Al-Mashat, praised the positions of the armed forces and the Yemeni army as they fight for the sake of God and the oppressed alongside the Palestinian resistance factions and the Islamic resistance in Lebanon.
This came in a message sent by Al-Mashat to the Yemeni Armed Forces, saying: “Peace be upon the heroes of our faithful and Mujahid Yemeni army, the men of God, and the Knights of Jerusalem and the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. Peace be upon you and your great stances as you “fight for the sake of God and the Messiah, weak among men and women.” And the children who say, “Our Lord” Bring us out of this town, the oppressor of its people, and make for us a guardian from Yourself and for us, and make for us a helper from Yourself.” And you are embodied. The words of God, the All-Powerful, the All-Conquering: “Those who have believed in You shall be killed in the path of God, and those who have disbelieved in You shall be killed in the path of the tyrant. “Lord, the guardians of Satan. Indeed, Satan’s plan was weak.”
He pointed out that the Islamic nation is going through a sensitive stage in its struggle with the American enemy, which has dominated the land and is most corrupt, and its crimes today in Gaza are not new, but rather they are only one point in the record of its heinous crimes against humanity, since its inception and appearance .
He added: "Our defense of Palestine and Jerusalem, and our support of Gaza in this great battle and the compelling circumstances, is a defense of Yemen, the nation, and all of humanity, and we must thank God and thank Him for enabling us to take this advanced position in victory for the oppressed among His servants."
Al-Mashat concluded his message by saying: “In the face of these great challenges and imminent dangers, and in the face of the escalation of the dangerous and declared Israeli enemy, we and you must make the utmost efforts to strike the enemies, and raise the level of readiness and readiness to face all possibilities, confident in the victory of the Almighty God who says: ‘O you who have believed, if you support God.’” He will support you and make your feet firm. And those who disbelieved, then He made misfortune for them and led astray their deeds. And He who says: If Allah helps you, then no one can defeat you, and if He abandons you, then who is He? Who will help you after your death? And in God let the believers put their trust. There should be no hostility except against the wrongdoers, and victory is only from God, the Mighty, the Wise."
The Yemeni Armed Forces of the Houthi group in Yemen announced a new position in the series of measures it is taking to support the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip , with its intention to target and attack any ship heading towards Israeli ports, through the Gulf of Aden, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Red Sea, regardless of the country to which the ship belongs. This is the position that the group announced last Saturday, linking its decision to the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip by preventing the entry of food and medicine, stressing that all ships will be a legitimate target for the Yemeni armed forces.
This development in the position of the Houthis constituted a new complication in the scene of the repercussions of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. This was preceded by the group’s announcement of targeting ships flying the Israeli flag, or affiliated with Israelis. The group said, in a statement, “The Yemeni armed forces continue to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in Gaza stops.” This forced Israeli ships to take more expensive shipping routes around Africa.
On November 19, it announced its control of the Israeli ship Galaxy Leader, and took it and its crew to the Yemeni coast. On the 25th of the same month, a Yemeni march attacked the Kalandar ship, owned by the Israeli company ZIM. Last weekend, a Yemeni march bombed two Israeli ships in the Red Sea.
In reaction to the Houthi decisions in Yemen, the United States announced that it would form a military force with 38 countries to escort commercial ships and secure maritime navigation. For his part, Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said on Saturday that "Israel is ready to act against the efforts of the Houthis in Yemen to disrupt navigation in the Red Sea if the international community fails to do so."
He added to Israeli Channel 12 that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden as well as European leaders about the Houthis targeting commercial ships with alleged Israeli ties. He added, "Israel is giving the world some time to organize in order to prevent this, but if there is no global arrangement, because it is a global issue, we will move to remove this naval blockade."
In recent years, Israel sought to significantly enhance its trade with Asian countries, especially India, China, Japan and Singapore. The volume of Israeli trade with Asian countries is estimated at 40 billion dollars annually. The number of ships coming from Asia to Israeli ports via the Red Sea is estimated at 278 thousand ships.
After the Houthis’ announcements and targeting of Israeli ships in the Red Sea, it is expected that these ships will be forced to change their course via the Cape of Good Hope, which will raise shipping fees and commodity prices by a minimum of 9%, according to websites tracking the movement of commercial ships.
The latest Houthi decision represents an announcement of imposing a direct maritime trade blockade on Israel through the Red Sea, at a time when some ships heading towards Israel are taking a route through the Mediterranean Sea to avoid Houthi attacks. This increases the difficulties facing the Israeli economy, which has been facing a major recession since October 7. This prompts the Central Bank of Israel to keep interest rates at high levels, and an increase in the government compensation bill pledged by the Israeli government to those affected, which will be reflected in the prices of goods for consumers, which will witness an increase between 30% and 40%, according to economists.
US Department of Defense spokesman Patrick Ryder announced that the United States is holding discussions to establish an international "naval task force" against Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, indicating that the force will be an alliance that includes 38 countries willing to do so. This option represents an American attempt to avoid bearing the burdens and consequences of this difficult mission. The Biden administration is currently focusing on not opening new fronts in the region and limiting the escalation to the Gaza Strip front, as officials in the Biden administration indicated that there is almost complete consensus within the administration that it does not make sense for the United States to respond directly to the Houthis in Yemen. According to the American news site Politico.
This applies to the position of the Biden administration, which opposes Israel dealing with the Houthi file directly to prevent escalation. The "Politico" website report stated that American officials currently estimate that an attack against the Houthis would be a wrong action, and poses a great risk of escalating the Israeli war on Gaza into a broader regional confrontation, and that the Biden administration is seeking to prevent such an escalation. The report added that the Biden administration asked Israel not to attack the Houthis. A report published by the Wall Street Journal stated that the US administration asked Israel not to attack Yemen, for fear of expanding the war.
On the other hand, the Houthis’ position in escalating their actions in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait constitutes a direct threat to international trade. It also puts the United States at risk for its ability to secure merchant marine routes. Given the Houthi group's close connection to Iran, and the prevailing belief among Western and Israeli officials that the group is coordinating its steps with Tehran, leaving this issue without a radical and rapid treatment may constitute a real pressure card in the hands of Tehran in any upcoming escalation or negotiation in the region.
Therefore, Israel is putting pressure on the Biden administration and Western allies with the need to take quick measures to prevent the situation from developing to isolate Israel from the southern maritime domain. The head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, condemned what he described as a "naval blockade" and warned, "If the world does not care about this matter, because it is an international problem, we will move to put an end to this naval blockade." He said during an interview with local media, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz that his government will move militarily against the Houthis if no one confronts them."
In light of these facts, the American and European powers are maintaining a specific pace in confronting the Houthi attacks, limiting themselves to that in the current situation and not initiating proactive action within Yemeni territory.
Saudi Arabia supports them in this, as last week Saudi Arabia clearly asked the United States not to attack in Yemen now. There is great fear in Saudi Arabia of escalation towards a wide regional war in the Middle East.
Aside from the current moment, the Houthis' position represented a turning point in American, European and regional discussions about dealing with the group's situation in Yemen. Multiple scenarios are presented.
In an analysis published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Michael Knights, a specialist in military and security affairs, pointed out that “this reality necessitates Washington to develop a practical policy to contain and ideally reduce the military and political power of the Houthis inside Yemen.” The report provides an integrated vision on containing the Houthis in Yemen by exerting military and political pressure on them, imposing broad sanctions, and supporting “non-Houthi Yemen,” according to the report’s description.
The proposed American and European options show that there is a deep awareness that the confrontation with the Houthis in Yemen faces challenges, given the complexity and sensitivity of the geographical location of Yemen, and the importance of the Ansar Allah group in relation to the Iranian axis.
Instead, this would represent a reversal in the United States' Middle Eastern strategy of reducing escalation and not returning to direct involvement in the region's conflicts. This may explain the Biden administration's decision to choose the option of forming an international force. It takes time and effort to be effective. Which reinforces the conviction that the United States and its European allies do not have a clear deterrence policy to deal with the Houthis in Yemen.
The Israeli port of Ashdod acknowledged that the attacks launched by the Houthi group in Yemen on commercial ships represent a strategic threat to global shipping routes and maritime traffic to Israel, although they have no direct impact on port activity. The port said, in a statement, “We confirm that we are doing our best to keep the roads to Israel open despite the challenges of war.”
Israel depends on maritime traffic for its imports and exports. The port of Ashdod in the south and Haifa in the north are the two largest ports in Israel. It should be noted that the port of Ashkelon, the smallest and closest to Gaza, has been closed since Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” launched by the Palestinian resistance led by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of the Hamas movement ) on the seventh of last October.
In 2022, Israeli ports unloaded goods with a tonnage of 40.6 million tons, and that they carried abroad goods with a tonnage of 18.2 million tons. As for individuals who passed through Israel’s commercial ports, they were estimated at approximately 378,000 passengers in 2022, which may lead to Israel losing an important part of its share in transporting individuals by sea, whether for the purpose of trade or tourism.
Israel's maritime trade does not only take place through its ships, but may also take place through ships owned by other countries or companies. It is noteworthy that the Bab al-Mandab Strait , which Yemen oversees, passes through 10% of international maritime trade annually through the passage of about 21 thousand ships. 6 million barrels of oil pass through it daily. The Houthi threat to ships dealing with Israel, which pass through Bab al-Mandab, would affect its trade with the East, especially with Asia.
There will be a high cost for the operation of Israeli ships passing through waters near Yemen during the coming period, either due to the risks of their detention, or the rise in insurance fees on them, which means an increase in the cost of operating these ships and an increase in the wages they receive either from Israeli companies or By third parties who agree to deal with companies or individuals who own Israeli ships.
If risks continue in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, and sea trade and Israeli ships are exposed to the risks of detention, the alternative may be air or land transportation, which means higher costs, which will reflect negatively on Israel’s foreign trade.
The Iran-backed Houthis have lobbed missiles and other projectiles at Israel since the fighting began following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. US warships have also come into close proximity to missiles and projectiles fired by Iran-backed groups in the Middle East.
According to Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, "The Houthis are known to operate two types of larger anti-ship ballistic missiles: The Asef, which appears to be an anti-ship version of the Iranian Fateh 313 (450km range) and the Tankil, an anti-ship version of the IRGC-developed Zohair (500km). Using ballistic missiles in the anti-ship role is highly challenging and the Iranians have talked about how they suffered a frustratingly high number of failed tests during development."
Washington has been in touch with at least 12 countries as part of efforts to develop a naval task force to secure the passage of commercial vessels in and around the Red Sea, a US defense official tells Al Arabiya English. US officials have said they are looking at ways to expand an existing task force, Combined Task Force 153, which currently has its base in Bahrain. CTF-153 currently has 39 member nations, but the US defense official said talks involving the 12 nations are centered on what they may be able to contribute to the current task of securing maritime navigation.
The number of countries involved in the talks has yet to be reported. The official, who spoke to Al Arabiya English on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate on which countries the US was negotiating with.
The US military said the Houthis attacked the Motor Tanker STRINDA using an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) while it was passing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea. The Houthis claimed the attack and said they targeted the tanker because it was going to deliver crude oil to Israel. But the Norwegian owners of the tank said it was headed to Italy and not planning to stop in Israel, according to Reuters. The USS Mason, which responded to a call from the tanker, headed to the scene but later left after no help was needed, according to a US defense official.
US officials have been exploring the idea of a task force focused on the Houthi threats after an uptick of attacks by the group emanating from Yemen against commercial ships as well as at Israel. The US special envoy for Yemen traveled to the Gulf earlier this month, which the State Department said was threatening almost two years of progress to end the yearslong war in Yemen. Tim Lenderking went to continue “intensive” US diplomacy and regional coordination to safeguard maritime security in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden amid the increase in Houthi and Iranian attacks, the State Department said.
The US military said it had every reason to believe four attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea last week were “fully enabled” by Iran despite being launched by Yemen’s Houthis, adding that the US would consider “all appropriate responses.”
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All maps are lies. But it is impossible to comprehend the war in Gaza without reference to maps, otherwise the entire conflict is reduced to an endless series of meaningless acts of random violence and the suffering of civilians. Evidently, different mappers have different ideas of how to depict the war in Gaza, notably those that seek to depict Israeli progress in the ground campaign. Part of the problem is latency. The news that forms the basis of the maps takes time to filter out to mappers, and the cartographers take time in crafting their maps, and it takes time to curate them. Thes processes are uneven among mappers, so their maps may differ in detail. Probably there is some ideological bias, or at least thematic apperception, which is understandable in wartime. It may come as no surprise that al-Jazeera maps depict rather less Israeli territorial progress than other sources. Finally, the remains the epistemological question of just exactly what are the colored in areas depicting. Naively, this might be understood as areas of Israeli control, that are no longer contested by the HAMAS. Or possibly these are areas of Israeli presence, in many of which the possibility of an RPG-wielding HAMAS militant popping out of a tunnel unexpectedly remains a live possibility. With the "zero-range" combat characterized by small unit tactics on both sides, maps may be prey to a fallacy of misplaced concreteness. |
Bystanders
The UN World Food Programme says half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million is starving as the expansion of Israel's military assault into the southern part of the Gaza Strip, in response to October's bloody cross-border rampage by Hamas militants, has cut people off from food, medicine and fuel.
Egypt sent an aid convoy of 80 trucks to the reopened Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip for inspection, according to humanitarian sources in Egypt. Another 100 trucks were sent to the Nitzana border post, which has been processing all international aid from Egypt's Rafah border crossing before it is allowed into Gaza. Israel agreed to reopen Kerem Shalom as a checkpoint to inspect aid into the bombarded Palestinian territory. Kerem Shalom was used for 60 percent of goods entering the besieged Palestinian territory
the United Nations General Assembly voted by a majority in favor of the resolution submitted by Egypt and Mauritania, which calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone. total of 153 countries, including Russia and China, voted in favor of the draft resolution, while 10 countries voted against it, and 25 countries abstained from voting.
Earlier, the United Nations General Assembly rejected an American amendment calling for the condemnation of the Palestinian Hamas movement. The General Assembly also rejected an amendment presented by Austria, which states that the hostages are being held by Hamas and other groups. This step comes after the United States on Friday used its veto power against a similar Emirati draft resolution in the UN Security Council. In October, the General Assembly (consisting of 193 states) adopted a resolution, with 121 votes in favour, 14 against and 44 abstentions, calling for “an immediate, permanent and sustainable humanitarian truce leading to the cessation of hostilities.”
Axis of Resistance
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned that “continued American support for the war in Gaza means the possibility of a massive explosion in the region.” During his participation via video in the security conference held in Doha, Hussein Amir Abdullahian explained in his response to the questions of Becky Anderson, who moderates the dialogues at this conference, that “the Gaza war has expanded to the Lebanon front and the Yemen front,” considering that “the American veto on The decision to stop the war in Gaza is a political scandal for the White House.”
Amir Abdullahian pointed out that “Iran receives an American message almost every week, in which American officials claim that American bases in Syria and Iraq were targeted by some factions,” stressing that “these factions are not linked to Iran, but were formed years ago to fight ISIS.” And now it defends the Arabs and Muslims of Gaza.”
He added: "The war has expanded in parts of Syria and Iraq," explaining that the Secretary-General of the Lebanese "Hezbollah", Hassan Nasrallah, told him during his recent visit to Beirut: "We will take a new decision at every moment according to the circumstances," as Amir Abdullahian saw that “This confirms that an explosion could occur in the region and no party will control it.”
The Foreign Minister stated, "Iran warned America of the need to stop the flow of weapons to Tel Aviv to kill women, children and civilians." He continued: "Let me say frankly that if America and Israel continue this war in Gaza for 10 years, they will be unable to eliminate Hamas, because Hamas is rooted in the reality of the Palestinian people."
Hossein Amir Abdullahian confirmed that “Iran responded to America by saying that there are no groups fighting on behalf of Tehran in the region,” pointing out that “the Zionist entity is a group that fights on behalf of America in the region.” He continued: “We have sent a response to some American messages, and we believe that America must stop its absolute support for Israel, because war cannot eliminate Hamas and no prisoner in Gaza will be released through war. Rather, the truce that was agreed upon must continue.” “For which our friends in Qatar made a great effort.”
At the beginning of his response to a question regarding “Iran’s position on some countries normalizing their relationship with Tel Aviv,” Amir Abdullahian stated that “these countries have never benefited from this relationship, but rather their security has been affected due to the activity of the Israeli intelligence services, and that Israel threatens the security of the region based on this.” countries," adding: "We presented some of these countries with documents so that they would know that Israel is not their friend, but rather their enemy, and we do not consider normalization a solution."
The Iranian Foreign Minister stressed that “Israel does not want a two-state solution, but rather wants to forcibly displace the people of Gaza to Egypt, and displace the people of the West Bank to Jordan, but America is thinking about how to manage Gaza after the war,” continuing: “If America shows realism, the war, massacres, and operations can be stopped.” Genocide, and for the region to witness calm, but continued support for the war means the possibility of a massive, unpredictable explosion in the region that will harm everyone, including us, America, and the rest of the countries in the region as well, and negotiations and a political solution must replace war.”
Hamas considered that Netanyahu's statements confirm "the occupation army's readiness to attack the Palestinian Authority and its intention to target our people in Gaza and the West Bank." The movement added that Netanyahu's statements confirm "his indifference to the political settlement and his endeavor to consolidate the occupation, especially Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque ," calling on the Palestinian Authority and its agencies to "bypass the Oslo Accords , stop security coordination, and transition to comprehensive resistance." Netanyahu has never addressed a scenario of confrontation with the Palestinian security services in the West Bank since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The Palestinian presidency denounced the statements of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about his far-right government's readiness for the possibility of waging a war against the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank , and considered them evidence of his intention to ignite the West Bank. Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, said in a statement, “The statements made by Netanyahu clearly express his premeditated intentions and the existence of an Israeli decision to ignite the West Bank.”
He added that this comes as a "continuation of the comprehensive war" launched by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Abu Rudeina condemned the Israeli government's post-war plans against Gaza regarding the management of the Strip.
or his part, Hussein Al-Sheikh, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said , “Netanyahu’s statement, which equates the Oslo Accords with what happened on October 7, confirms that his war is against all Palestinians.” Hussein Al-Sheikh posted on the social messaging platform X "We say to Netanyahu that Oslo died under the treads of his tanks, sweeping through our cities, villages, and camps from Jenin to Rafah”.
It is noteworthy that many Authority officials have expressed the willingness of President Mahmoud Abbas to take over the administration of the Gaza Strip after stopping the war on the Strip and ending the authority of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) there.
Deputy Secretary-General of the Lebanese "Hezbollah", Naim Qassem, confirmed that "the party will not yield to any signal from any party that talks about a settlement, weakening, or ending their weapons," stressing that "the party stands on the lookout for Israel." Naim Qassem said: “With regard to the Lebanon Front, from the beginning, Hezbollah announced that the Lebanon Front is a support front. It is obligatory support, not desirable, and it is in the interest of Lebanon and Palestine.”
Qassem added: “We will not yield to any signal from any party that talks about settling, weakening, or ending this weapon, because strength is what makes us live in our country independently and with our heads held high, and makes us able to face challenges and put an end to brutality from spreading and extending.” Naim Qassem, Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah continued: “It is not known now whether the pace of fighting will continue to fluctuate up and down in this limited circle, and this is linked to developments in the field, and what decisions Israel may take, and we are watching for it.”
A researcher at the Department of Israel and Jewish Communities at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Elizaveta Yakimova, wrote in "Izvestia" about who will lead Gaza after the IDF operation. The international community continues to make efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone, and the American administration is exercising its influence on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to limit the duration of the Israeli army’s operation “Iron Swords” and to develop a vision for the post-war regime in the Gaza Strip. Neither party has yet proposed a project in this regard, although there are several possible scenarios.
Implementing the process of transferring the Strip to the Palestinian National Authority may seem relatively easy. This is exactly the outcome that the United States is now pushing to achieve. However, the feelings of Gaza residents are not entirely clear.
Against the backdrop of hostilities against Gaza, the Fatah opposition enters the arena, trying to exploit the conflict to dismantle Abbas's authority, while at the same time ensuring the survival of Hamas. It seems that there are currently no appropriate conditions for waging a major battle for power between and within the factions, but the middle option is possible in the form of a comprehensive political process, within the geographical borders of the Gaza Strip, to form a comprehensive Palestinian government. That is, establishing a temporary administration there with the possibility of generalizing the experience to all Palestinian territories. The success of this scenario seriously depends on the position of the Arab countries.
The issue of restoring Israel's authority in Gaza also arises. For the Israeli leadership, such a scenario does not seem appropriate for economic reasons, and because of the lack of support from regional and international mediators. At the same time, Israel insists not only on dismantling the power of Hamas and preventing the Palestinian National Authority from ruling, but also on forming a special security system in the Strip, including a buffer zone and crossings under its authority.
Overall, the political future of the Gaza Strip is part of a more complex and perhaps more dangerous issue for the region: the crisis of authority throughout the Palestinian territories. There is no clear solution yet, and the path to it is likely to face obstacles on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
Allied for Democracy
US President Joe Biden said that the Israeli administration was opposed to a two-state solution with the Palestinians and urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to "change" his government. Biden's comments to Democratic donors revealed a rare rift with Netanyahu after weeks in which the US leader has strongly backed Israel's assault on Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks.
"Bibi's got a tough decision to make," Biden said, referring to Netanyahu and his hardline right-wing government. This is the most conservative government in Israel's history," he said, adding that the Israeli government "doesn't want a two-state solution". Biden added that Israel was starting to lose support around the world and that Netanyahu "has to strengthen and change" the Israeli government to find a long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Butcher's Bill / Oasis of Martyrs
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."
It is the second largest loss inflicted on the Israeli forces after the 1973 war, as the Palestinian resistance killed more than 1,200, wounded more than 5,132 others, and captured more than 250, most of them military personnel, some of whom were high-ranking officers in the army.
The HAMAS Ministry of Health in the besieged sector announced that the number of victims of the Israeli operation its beginning had risen to about 18,412 martyrs. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The number wounded was 50,100 [down from the 56,400 with varying injuries two days previousl]. The Palestinian Government Media Office in Gaza had said many days earlier that the number of missing people had risen to more than 7,500 [double the 3,750 previously reported], including 1,800 children still under the rubble, including 4,700 children and women.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health explained that the death toll in the West Bank since the beginning of this year has risen to 465, including 257 martyrs since last October 7.
Israel revised down the death toll from the October Hamas attacks in southern Israel from 1,400 to 1,200. IDF had said previously it was holding 1,500 bodies of terrorists, a total that now would increas to about 1,700.
Of the 101 IDF soldiers killed in Gaza, 60 have been active duty, compared to 41 reservists. A high proportion, 23 of them, have been officers (including a battalion commander, at least four company commanders, and at least 13 platoon commanders and company 2ICs). The IDF estimated that 13 soldiers killed while fighting in Gaza were shot after being mistakenly identified as Hamas members, and another seven were killed in operational incidents.
The army acknowledged the killing of 7 soldiers, including 5 officers, during the fighting in the Gaza Strip, bringing the number of its deaths since the start of the ground operation to about 110. This brings the total number of dead officers and soldiers whose names the Israeli army allowed to be published to 433 since the Palestinian resistance launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th.
At least 10,157 Israelis were injured, according to i24 TV. The IDF updated the number of soldiers injured in the war and attacks on October 7 to 1,683.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that 5,000 soldiers had been wounded since the beginning of the war on October 7, and that the Ministry of Defense had recognized 2,000 soldiers as disabled so far. The Hebrew newspaper Haaretz revealed that the army rarely referred to casualties when talking about the deaths of soldiers during battles. According to the same newspaper, this policy differs from what was prevalent in previous wars and military campaigns, during which the army also published the number of its wounded, in addition to publishing other details.
Yedioth Ahronoth said that the Israeli Ministry of Defense rehabilitation department receives 60 injured people daily, most of whom are in serious condition, in addition to at least 100 being blinded, and 7% suffering from psychological symptoms.
The military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, stated 09 December 2023 that the numbers provided by the Israeli newspaper about the losses of the occupation army are not correct, and they are greater than that. He pointed to Israeli sources that talk about 3,000 dead and 11,000 wounded, which are the numbers closest to the truth, the adds.
Al Jazeera TV General Al-Duwairi said that a Hebrew newspaper’s announcement of these numbers confirms that the reality is much greater than this. Because Yedioth Ahronoth will be concerned about Israeli morale in the end, meaning it will not provide everything. He added, "Given that the number of vehicles destroyed by the resistance - according to its announcements - reached 500, between a tank and a troop carrier, the first carrying 10 personnel and the second 12 personnel, this means an average of 11 personnel per vehicle."
While losses in symmetrical battles are estimated at one dead to every three wounded, Al-Duwairi believes that the losses in the current battles will be much greater because they are all battles that take place from zero distance, meaning they are deadly battles and even the casualties in them are very serious.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry released its first official casualty numbers in fighting, saying 77 people were killed and 251 wounded since the start of the war on Gaza.
Hostages
Israel declared 19 out of 135 people still in Gaza captivity dead in absentia, after announcing its forces had recovered the bodies of two hostages. The list of 19 includes a Tanzanian national, the government press office said. It did not name him. Tanzania has said that two of its citizens, both farming students, had been among some 240 people taken hostage by Hamas in the militant group's October 7 cross-border rampage. One of the Tanzanians was confirmed dead last month. Israel considers those still held by Hamas to be hostages regardless of whether they are dead or alive. Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy earlier had told reporters that Hamas still held 137 captives. The resistance released 10 Israeli detainees, 4 Thais and 2 Russian women, who were released outside the agreement. Over the course of 6 days, Israel has received 102 detainees, women and children, including 78 Israelis, in exchange for the release of 234 Palestinian prisoners, women and children.
Eylon Levy, the Israeli government spokesperson, told reporters 01 December 2023:
- Hamas still holds 137 hostages from the October attacks, in addition to four others who went missing before the war
- The hostages include two children aged four and 10 months, who, Hamas now claims, are dead
- 117 male hostages are still kept in Gaza, including the two children, as well as 20 females
- 126 hostages are Israelis, and 11 others are foreign nationals
- Foreign nationals are eight Thais, one Nepalese, one Tanzanian and one French Mexican citizen
- Ten of the remaining hostages are 75 and older. There are seven missing people since the October 7 attack
- Hamas has released 110 hostages so far – 86 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals.
The Al-Qassam Brigades announced the death of an Israeli woman and her two children who were detained by them as a result of a previous Israeli bombing of Gaza. The Israeli army confirmed the deaths of five hostages held in Gaza, saying their families had been informed, and the body of one of them returned to Israel. “In recent days, the IDF and Israel police notified the families of the hostages Eliyahu Margalit, Maya Goren, Ronen Engel and Arye Zalmanovitz about their deaths,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari said. He also said troops had brought back the body of a fifth person that he identified as Ofir Tsarfati. Hagari said Gaza militants were still holding “136 hostages, among them 17 women and children.”
Before the release of the sixth batch of Israelis detained in Gaza, Israeli government spokesman Elon Levy said that 161 Israelis are still detained in the Strip [al-Jazeera reported "more than 100 prisoners" remain with the resistance]. Levy added that Israel has prepared a list of 50 Palestinian detainees to be released if Hamas continues to release detainees. At least 76, and possibly more than 80, hostages had been released by Hamas over six days of a cease-fire. During the pause, Hamas fighters released 60 Israeli women and children. In return, Israel released 180 security detainees from its prisons, all of them women and minors under the age of 19. Hamas also separately released 19 foreign hostages, most of them Thai farm workers, under separate agreements parallel to the truce agreement.
Thirty children held by Gazan terrorists have been released as part of a four-day ceasefire deal with Hamas that began Friday, but 10 still remain in the Strip. The terror group has said it planned to release 20 more hostages as part of a two-day extension to the deal. U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the Biden administration believes eight or nine more Americans are still being held but the U.S. does not have "solid information on each and every one of them." Perhaps 100 are Israeli civilians. Some of the rest are soldiers, seized when Hamas raided military bases in Israel. They may end up being held the longest. The Israeli military had not specified how many soldiers were captured, nor their ranks.
By one account
- 236 confirmed abducted civilians and IDF soldiers.
- 18 of the abductees are elderly people aged 75 and older.
- 121 of the abductees have foreign citizenship (including dual citizenship).
Conflicting estimates were provided regarding the number of Thai nationals still in captivity. The Wall Street Journal reported 25 November 2023 that Hamas is interested in releasing 23 Thai citizens during the four days of the ceasefire, mediated by Iran. On the other hand, the Thai Foreign Ministry claimed 20 more citizens who are held captive by Hamas, and that four of the ten who were released were not included in the number initially estimated.
According to some estimates, Hamas was initially holding nearly 210 of the 240 hostages, while Palestinian Islamic Jihad was holding the remaining 30. About 40 Israelis remained missing. More than 40 hostages taken from Israel into Gaza on October 7th are not currently in the custody of Hamas, the group responsible for the attack, according to a CNN report based on a diplomatic source briefed on the negotiations, CNN's prior reports had indicated that an estimated 40 to 50 hostages were held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad or other unidentified groups or individuals.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on Hamas’ telegram account that 23 bodies of the 60 missing Israel hostages were trapped under the rubble. “It seems that we will never be able to reach them due to the continued brutal aggression of the occupation against Gaza,” he said.
The the Palestinian Prisoners' Club announced that the Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 15 citizens from several governorates in the West Bank, from yesterday evening, Friday, until dawn today. This brings the number of arrests in the occupied West Bank since October 7 to 3,700 detainees. Israel said that, since the beginning of the war, about 2,100 wanted persons have been arrested throughout the IOS Division and the Bekaa and Emekim Brigade, about 1,100 of them are affiliated with Hamas.
During the “Loyalty of the Free” prisoner exchange deal between the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” and the Israeli occupation in 2011, under which 1,027 prisoners were liberated in exchange for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit, the occupation refused to release a list of about 40 prisoners and classified them as dangerous. Throughout their detention, these forty remained outside the scope of negotiations, and the occupation insisted on not releasing them under any circumstances. But Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” which began on October 7, in which the resistance captured about 250 Israelis, restored hope to the prisoners and their families, and made the idea of liberation from captivity closer to being achieved, even for those with high sentences. Among them, the names of the three senior prisoners, Abbas Al-Sayyid, Ahmed Saadat, and Ibrahim Hamed, stand out.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al Mezan Center, and Al-Haq called for an end to the “forced disappearance” of hundreds of detainees from the Gaza Strip, inside Israeli detention centers. he three human rights organizations called for "an end to the state of forced disappearance imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities, to which hundreds of Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip are subjected, including dozens of women."
On Sunday, the Prisoners' Affairs Authority (governmental) and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club (non-governmental) announced that "the occupation is detaining 142 female prisoners from Gaza, including infant girls, in its prisons." The three institutions called on “the relevant authorities to intervene to reveal the fate and names of the detainees, to stop the ongoing acts of abuse and torture during arbitrary detention operations in the areas of ground incursion into the Gaza Strip..., to enable legal teams to meet with them, and to stop all torture and retaliatory measures against them.”
According to information and testimonies, the institutions say that “the (Israeli) occupation forces have continued for several days mass arrests of hundreds of civilian residents, especially residents of northern Gaza and Gaza City, whether from their homes or inside shelter centers in schools affiliated with UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees). They said that these forces force detainees "to take off their clothes, line up in lines, and sit in the streets almost naked in a humiliating position, in addition to subjecting them to torture and abuse, before taking them piled on top of each other in trucks to unknown places."
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