Operation Iron Swords - Day 81 - 26 December 2023
Contents |
|
NEW - Operations NEW - Operations Maps NEW - By-Standers NEW - Axis of Resistance NEW - Allied for Democracy UPDATED - Oasis of Martyrs UPDATED - Hostages |
He warned that “unjustly blaming” Israel for civilian casualties “will only encourage Hamas and other terror organizations around the world to use human shields. To render this cruel and cynical strategy ineffective, the international community must place the blame for these casualties squarely on Hamas. It must recognize that Israel is fighting the bigger battle of the civilized world against barbarism.”
“The expectation that the Palestinian Authority will demilitarize Gaza is a pipe dream. It currently funds and glorifies terrorism in Judea and Samaria and educates Palestinian children to seek the destruction of Israel,” he wrote. “Not surprisingly it has shown neither the capability nor the will to demilitarize Gaza. It failed to do so before Hamas booted it out of the territory in 2007, and it has failed to do so in the territories under its control today. For the foreseeable future Israel will have to retain overriding security responsibility over Gaza.”
Third, Gaza will have to be deradicalized, he said, noting that the school system will have to be reformed so that children are taught to “cherish life rather than death.” Preaching death to Jews from mosques must cease and Palestinian civil society transformed, he continued. “Successful deradicalization took place in Germany and Japan after the Allied victory in World War II. Today, both nations are great allies of the U.S. and promote peace, stability and prosperity in Europe and Asia,” Netanyahu said.
“Once Hamas is destroyed, Gaza is demilitarized and Palestinian society begins a deradicalization process, Gaza can be rebuilt and the prospects of a broader peace in the Middle East will become a reality,” he concluded.
Operational Update
On the 82nd day of the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip , the Israeli army continues its military operations on land, air and sea, while the Al- Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) - broadcast images that it said were targeting Israeli vehicles penetrating the Sheikh Zayed area in northern Gaza. Al Jazeera's camera also monitored a missile salvo launched from Gaza, as a result of which sirens sounded in Ashkelon on the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Qassam Brigades published two video clips, one of them luring an Israeli special force through an elaborate ambush, and the other targeting a foot force in the northern Gaza Strip. In the first clip, Al-Qassam broadcast scenes of the process of luring an Israeli special force to a house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip and destroying the house “with 3 personnel bombs, a shock device, and a strobe device.” According to the Brigades' statement, the operation led to "the killing of the entire force, and the seizure of a Hanegev machine gun."
The other clip relates to the targeting of an Israeli foot force penetrating the Sheikh Zayed Mosque area in the northern Gaza Strip. Al-Qassam has been documenting its operations against the occupation army forces and vehicles - in various combat axes - since the start of the Israeli ground operation late last October, as the brigades use anti-personnel missiles, armor and fortifications, in addition to precise ambushes and precise sniper operations.
The Al -Qassam Brigades said that its fighters blew up a tunnel opening in an Israeli force consisting of 8 soldiers east of the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, leaving them dead and wounded. Northeast of the Bureij camp, Al-Qassam confirmed that it had targeted a troop carrier, killing and wounding its members. It also announced that two Merkava tanks had been targeted with “ Al-Yassin 105 ” shells in the same area. In the southern Gaza Strip, the brigades targeted an occupation tank and a military bulldozer north of the city of Khan Yunis with “Al-Yassin 105” shells.
The military wing of Hamas published video clips documenting previous operations, which included booby-trapping a house in Beit Hanoun and killing 5 soldiers there after luring them to it, targeting two Israeli forces in the Jabalia and Sheikh Zayed areas, and bombing a military jeep in the Abraj al-Nada area in the northern Gaza Strip.
For its part, the Al- Quds Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement - said that it and the Al-Qassam Brigades were able to target 5 Israeli military vehicles in the advance axes in Jabalia al-Balad, north of the Gaza Strip. The brigades also said that they bombed - in two batches - Ashkelon, Sderot, and settlements in the northern Gaza Strip with missile salvos.
On Al Jazeera, experts and analysts said that Israel's talk about a third phase of the war on the Gaza Strip is an escape from military failure, while their opinions differed about Iran's response and its possible location to the assassination of its prominent military advisor in Syria. Israeli affairs expert Dr. Muhannad Mustafa believes that the occupation’s talk about a new phase in the Gaza war is an escape forward after failing to achieve the goals, and an attempt to reduce popular pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government due to the losses of the occupation army.
The expert adds that the rate of dead officers in the ranks of the Israeli army is the highest in the history of the Tel Aviv wars, noting that Israel hopes that the new phase of the war will reduce the burden of the economic repercussions and the cost of calling up reserve soldiers, and it also comes within the framework of Netanyahu’s tendency to prolong the duration of the war. He indicated that Netanyahu presented in an article his vision for a political solution through three points: These are: eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), turning Gaza into a demilitarized zone, and educating the Palestinians about the so-called “love of life,” which in practice means a long occupation of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media reported that the Israeli army is preparing to move to the third phase of the fighting in Gaza in the coming weeks, which includes “ending the ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip, reducing forces, demobilizing reserve soldiers, resorting to concentrated air strikes, and establishing a buffer zone on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.”
In turn, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Dr. Khalil Al-Anani, said that there is an Israeli-American disagreement over the form of the war, its duration, and the post-war phase, as Netanyahu rejects the return of the Palestinian Authority, contrary to Washington’s wishes. However, Al-Anani asserts that electoral calculations pushed US President Joe Biden to blindly follow Netanyahu and surrender to his tendencies, especially since the former is weak and shaky despite his desire to end the war as quickly as possible.
For his part, the military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, explains that there are no real separations between the stages of the Gaza war, and these stages that are being talked about are not consistent with the standards taught in military institutes. Because certain goals have not been achieved to move on to others. He added that the fighting in the northern Gaza Strip is still continuing, and what actually happened separated the ground operation before the temporary truce and after it, by starting a ground phase in Khan Yunis in the south, believing that the perception revolves around the shape of the war in the next phase.
Regarding the repercussions of the assassination of Radhi Mousavi, one of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ advisors in Syria, Dr. Muhannad said that there is a kind of Israeli reassurance given the history of the conflict with Iran, expecting the response to be via “Iran’s arms,” likely to intensify the confrontations on the northern front between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
But Al-Anani believes that Tehran may use the Yemeni front as it is softer and more vital than the fronts of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, especially in light of the movements of the Ansar Allah Houthi group in the Red Sea, and the pursuit of ships heading to Israeli ports. In turn, military expert Fayez Al-Duwairi said that the killing of the Iranian advisor will not cast a large shadow on the current reality, recalling the liquidation operations that took place against Iranian generals and others inside Syria, and the Iranian responses were not up to the level of statements.
Military expert Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi said that the house bombing operation carried out by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) - against Israeli forces in Beit Hanoun and the Bureij camp, reflects the accuracy of information and good expectations on the part of the resistance.
The Al-Qassam Brigades published two video clips one of them luring an Israeli special force through an elaborate ambush east of the Bureij refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, and the other targeting a foot force inside a house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. The Al-Qassam Brigades said that the house bombing operation led to "the killing of the entire force, and the seizure of a Hanegev machine gun."
Commenting on the operation, Al-Duwairi said that the house that was booby-trapped seemed distinct in terms of its location, which prompted Al-Qassam to booby-trap it in advance, adding, “This means that the resistance expected the forces to enter the place.” He explained that the operation was carried out using paste explosives whose strength is 3 or 4 times the explosive power of TNT. In the operation to lure the foot force carried out by Al-Qassam, east of the Bureij camp, Al-Duwairi also said that it reflects the accuracy of planning and information, pointing out that these operations are taking place in areas that Israel claims to have completely controlled.
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy said that the war launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip will likely continue for several months. Halevy added to reporters on the border with Gaza that there are no quick ways to dismantle the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), stressing that “the Israeli army will reach the leadership of Hamas whether that takes weeks or months,” as he put it. He added that they are fighting in the most complex conditions ever, and that the army will do everything to return those detained by Hamas to their families.
He also said that the army is close to completing the dismantling of the brigades affiliated with Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, in reference to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades , adding that they are currently focusing their efforts in the southern Gaza Strip, specifically the city of Khan Yunis and the central camps, as he put it. He explained that the Israeli leadership will conduct in-depth investigations that will not exclude any detail, regarding the circumstances of what happened last October 7, in reference to the Al- Aqsa Flood Operation launched by the Palestinian resistance, led by the Al-Qassam Brigades.
Ofir Gendelman, Netanyahu's spokesman, said that Gaza must be disarmed, and a temporary security zone must be established along the Strip's border with southern Israel, in addition to inspection mechanisms on the border between Gaza and Egypt to prevent weapons smuggling. Regarding the future of Gaza after the war, Gendelman said that in the foreseeable future, Israel will retain security responsibility in the Gaza Strip, but the expectation that the Palestinian Authority will disarm Gaza is an imaginary expectation, according to him.
“The Israeli army is diving into the Gaza quagmire.” With these words, Yossi Yehoshua, the military and security affairs correspondent for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, described what the occupation forces penetrating into the Gaza Strip are experiencing. His description agrees with analyzes that the ground battles are tending to be a war of attrition, which reflects the steadfastness of the Hamas movement , which inflicts heavy losses on the Israeli army in terms of soldiers, equipment, and military vehicles.
These words, which Yehoshua summarized by saying, “The Israeli army is immersed in the Gaza quagmire, and the Gaza mud has become a reality,” carry within them messages that refute the Israeli army’s claims that it controls large areas in the northern Gaza Strip, and also express the challenges facing the invading forces, in light of the battles. Fierce and violent clashes with Palestinian resistance factions, which cause deaths and injuries among soldiers daily.
The military analyst added that the stormy weather made matters worse and made incursions more difficult, while the complexities of ground battles worsened, represented by face-to-face clashes, zero distance, firing shells and anti-tank and anti-armor missiles, as well as setting up ambushes, planting explosive devices, throwing explosives, and the fear of friendly fire, all of which... “Guerrilla warfare” features, as he described it. Yehoshua explained that the Israeli army is facing pre-prepared scenarios by Hamas fighters who are hiding in tunnels, booby-trapping homes and firing anti-tank shells. He stressed that these scenarios turned into a reality on the ground during the course of the ground battles, saying, “These circumstances and Hamas’ preparations lead us to pay and will pay heavy prices in the face of the mission of occupying the land, clearing it of militants, and eliminating Hamas, so that the residents of the Western Negev can return to their homes.”
The simple truth, says the military analyst, "is that air strikes and artillery alone will not achieve this result. Hamas has built an underground city that the Israeli army is working to dismantle, which is difficult, painful and expensive."
Yehoshua quotes a military source in the Israeli army as saying that Hamas “is less inclined to engage in clashes and direct confrontation or to launch organized incursions, and prefers to fire from behind, plant explosive devices and mines against military equipment and machinery, and blow up and demolish buildings over the Israeli army forces.”
The same reading was reviewed by the military analyst in the newspaper "Haaretz", Amos Harel, who confirmed that a few attacks are enough for Hamas to cause the Israeli army to incur daily losses of lives and equipment, even in areas controlled by the army, which are witnessing fierce battles and violent clashes.
The military analyst explained that the continuation of the Israeli army’s ground military operations in the Gaza Strip entails severe friction with the defensive formations of the Hamas movement, which continues to attempt to track down the forces penetrating the areas controlled by the Israeli army, while in places where control has not yet been achieved, the resistance is Very difficult.
When huge forces attack the sector, no less than 4 teams, the military analyst says, “This means a large and complex area of ??contact with the enemy, within densely built areas, large parts of which have been destroyed, while underground, the tunnel system is still active. Most attacks are carried out.” "The counter-attack carried out by Hamas using guerrilla warfare methods."
Fierce battles are facing the Israeli army, even in the areas it claims to control. Regular and reserve soldiers killed in the war, Harel says, “went to war on October 7 with a strong feeling that there was no other choice, but to strike a strong blow at Hamas, including a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, to try to reduce some of the damage caused by the surprise attack.” "And to improve the security situation in the south and to create conditions for the return of the abductees."
After 80 days have passed, Harel says, “As time passes, the Israeli public will find it difficult to ignore the high price, as well as doubt that the goals of the war are still far from being achieved, and that Hamas shows no signs of surrender in the near future.” In light of the complexities of the military scene, and increasing estimates that the war’s goals will not be achieved in the near term, and with the intensification of resistance and clashes on all axes of the incursion, the military affairs correspondent on the website of the newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth”, Yoav Zaytoun, believes that the ground battles are heading to turn into a war of attrition.
The military correspondent notes that the fighting routine in Gaza has begun to settle into fixed, similar patterns, saying, "The pace has become slower for several reasons: repeated sweeps of armed cells in areas controlled by the army, and fear of friendly fire."
Meanwhile, Hamas, Zeitoun says, “also appears to be investigating the course of events and operations, learning lessons, and looking for weaknesses in the Israeli army forces after each incident, in preparation for another round of fighting the next day.” However, in the never-ending battle of learning, the military correspondent says, “Hamas is showing patience that may have been planned in advance, noting that the use of snipers against soldiers has increased, along with highlighting the army’s weaknesses, at a time when Hamas is constantly searching for ways to overcome the obstacles imposed by it.” The Israeli army has its weapons.
In light of this reality and field developments on the battlefields, Zaitoun says, “The Israeli army does not feel an hourglass to stop or pressure to end the maneuver, but the rate of progress of the forces is not fast, as the army would like to show that it has achieved some achievements when withdrawing to the border areas, and maintaining the status quo of During limited ground incursions and attacks from the air.”
Regarding the progress of the fighting and developments in the battles, Zaitoun says, “Instructions are being passed to the militants via paper messages, amid the increased use of snipers and camouflaged explosive devices, as Hamas engages in a battle of learning and training against the Israeli army, which on the other hand uses deadly tricks, and there are those in the army who mention the security belt.” In southern Lebanon, that is, transferring the Lebanese model to Gaza.”
Yossi Yehoshua, the military and security affairs correspondent for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, wrote an article entitled “They keep a side for the war in the north: This is how the arms economy works in the Israeli army.” The military correspondent reviewed the meanings and implications of this policy, saying, “The large number of casualties and injuries among the ranks of the Israeli army forces in the war on Gaza raises an extensive discussion about the scope and strength of the weapons used that are supposed to facilitate the ground incursion into crowded and dangerous areas.”
With the end of the third month of the war on the Gaza Strip approaching, the Israeli army may have resorted to a policy of “saving and saving” ammunition and not excessive use of weapons in order to preserve the reserve of military equipment in the warehouses, in anticipation of any emergency and for fear of a comprehensive confrontation with Hezbollah on the border with Lebanon. According to estimates by the Israeli Ministry of Security, the cost of the war on Gaza has so far reached 65 billion shekels ($18 billion), and this huge amount is equivalent to the entire annual Israeli defense budget, excluding American aid funds.
This "economy" in weapons and ammunition comes amid the complexity of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, and the heavy losses that the Palestinian resistance inflicts daily on the Israeli army in terms of equipment and manpower. It also comes at a time when military and political analyzes unanimously agree on the failure to achieve the declared goals of the war, and say that undermining the rule of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) and its military arsenal requires a long period of fighting.
Military analyzes estimated that the resolution of the battle in Gaza depends on the size of the Israeli army’s armament, which reduces and “economizes” in the use of weapons and ammunition in order to preserve emergency stocks in warehouses, while political analyzes believe that the course of the war was managed according to declared goals that are not consistent with the facts on the ground and in the field.
The Israeli army's policy came despite unprecedented American military support. Since the " Al-Aqsa Flood " battle on October 7, and the aggression against Gaza, Washington has sent 230 cargo planes and 30 ships to Tel Aviv loaded with ammunition, weapons, artillery shells, armored vehicles, and basic combat equipment. For fighters, including ceramic jackets. In order to preserve the reserve of weapons and ammunition, the military industries affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Security deliberately - in some cases - early activated long-term contracts for weapons and military equipment that were on the shelves, or found in American emergency stores.
It is likely that the occupation army used large and unprecedented quantities of ammunition and weapons during the war that were in stock and warehouses, and therefore it “spared” with the use of either air or artillery in order to preserve the stock and fear the scenario of the escalation with Hezbollah developing into a comprehensive confrontation. The Israeli army says that there will be no saving in the use of ammunition in a way that exposes soldiers to danger, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also claims that there is no pressure from the United States , which provides a large part of the weapons.
However, the military correspondent says, "The truth is that the Israeli army is sparing in its use of ammunition, even though at the beginning of the war this was excessive." The military correspondent quoted a high-ranking Israeli security official as saying, “The army has mobilized its weapons depots again, and even more than that, in order to remain fully prepared and prepared for the possibility of a comprehensive war with Hezbollah.”
According to the security official, the occupation army, during the war on Gaza, did not use the ammunition designated for attack and air defense if a war broke out on the northern front, pointing out that “the army’s excessive use of ammunition, aircraft, and artillery in the first month of the war is due to an incomplete estimate of the enemy’s capabilities to resist.” On the other hand, the military analyst in the newspaper "Maariv", Tal Lev Ram, confirmed that the Israeli army has been adopting for several days the "economy" policy of using weapons and ammunition in the war on Gaza, pointing out that this policy will soon be discussed in the " war cabinet ."
In recent days, allegations have been made from various parties at the political and even popular levels. The military analyst says, “The Air Force is currently refraining from operating at full capacity in the Gaza Strip for political considerations, and that the intensive activity will only take place before the ground entry of army fighters into a new area in the Strip.”
These estimates were confirmed by Major General Eliezer Toledano, stressing that Israeli aircraft attack less frequently in Gaza, and explaining that “the reasons for this are entirely operational, and that “there is no limit to the use of force.” Toledano told the ministers during the weekly government session, "There is no army in the world that is endless, but the consideration that guides us is operational. This is a war that will last for a long time, and we will have to manage the arms economy, but the goal is to eliminate Hamas in the end," as he put it.
The dilemma facing Israel now, says military analyst Lev Ram, "is not whether the air force should be activated, but rather whether it is right to continue the incursion and reach virtually every home and every site in the Strip, in light of the difficult guerrilla war that is developing there." Ram adds, “The Israeli Air Force dropped more than 30,000 shells and bombs on the Strip, which is a huge number by any standards. Managing the arms economy is an integral part of any war, and this may be especially true in a long war such as the one Israel is now fighting in Gaza.” And perhaps in the north as well.
He concluded by saying, "The security establishment is keen to emphasize that the operational considerations in the current situation of the war are very complex, and the Israeli army also draws conclusions from previous combat rounds in the Gaza Strip that the use of excessive air force will not achieve the desired results against Hamas tunnels."
An Al Jazeera correspondent reported that Israeli occupation forces stormed two towns in the Tulkarm Governorate in the northern West Bank. The occupation forces also stormed the city of Tulkarm and the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps for the third time in 3 days, in addition to storming several villages and towns in the Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalqilya, and Hebron governorates.
“Based on the information I received from soldiers and officers fighting in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, I came to the following conclusion: The IDF spokesman and military analysts on TV channels present a false picture of the thousands of Hamas deaths and of our fighting with their forces face to face." With this preface, retired Israeli General Yitzhak Brik began an analysis in which he explained that the number of those killed among the forces of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) was much less than what was being promoted, and that most of the Israeli soldiers and officers killed fell as a result of Hamas’ bombs and anti-tank missiles. He expressed his belief that the Israeli army does not currently have an effective and quick way to eliminate Hamas members, most of whom hide in the tunnels and only emerge from their openings to plant bombs, set up explosive traps, and fire anti-tank missiles at our armored vehicles, and then disappear again into the tunnels, as he put it. It is clear, according to Brick, that the Israeli army spokesman and senior defense officials want to portray the war as a “great victory” before the dust of the battle settles and the true picture becomes clear. To this end, they are bringing correspondents from major television channels to Gaza to show “pictures of victory,” making this the most photographed war ever waged by Israel, and perhaps any war waged even in the entire world, according to the retired general. But such bragging by displaying images of victory, Brick says in his analysis in Haaretz newspaper, “Even before we get close to achieving our goals, it may be very destructive... It would have been better for us to remain more humble.” He adds that this reminds him of what Israeli officials, including retired generals and others, used to repeat before the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, that their army is the strongest in the Middle East and that Israel’s enemies have been deterred. “Unfortunately, these same reporters, analysts, and retired generals continue to fabricate images of this kind, as if they have learned nothing,” according to the author. Regarding the Hamas tunnels, Brik asserts that their destruction will take many years, and will cost Israel heavy losses, noting that the Israeli army itself now acknowledges the existence of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels deep in the ground that connect the length and breadth of Gaza, and even connect this sector to the Sinai Peninsula. The retired general stressed that the illusion of deterring Hamas was what made Israel neglect to direct its experts to study, plan and manufacture appropriate equipment for underground warfare, which is what made it today try to improvise solutions. In this regard, many officers fighting in Gaza were quoted as saying that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to prevent Hamas from rebuilding itself, even after all the destruction that the Israeli army inflicted on its bases. For Brick, the solution lies in leaving dense urban areas and acting more precisely, through bombing and air strikes based on accurate intelligence information. At the end of his analysis, he poses the following question : Are politicians and senior defense officials capable of dealing with such a scenario? Or are they able to think of other creative solutions, in which we do not achieve everything we want, but in which we are also not the biggest losers?
Maps
|
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. The first characteristic of guerrilla warfare is the loss of a front line. 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, there 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
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced 3 conditions for the Palestinian Authority to assume responsibility in Gaza , which has been subjected to a devastating Israeli war since last October 7, considering at the same time that the Authority “did not leave the Gaza Strip until it returned to it.” Abbas spoke during an interview with the Egyptian channel “On” and broadcast on Palestine TV (government), on Tuesday evening, where he said, “We want a comprehensive halt to the fighting, open the doors for humanitarian aid, and prevent the migration of Palestinians outside their homeland.”
He continued, "We requested these three points. After that, if there is an (Israeli) exit from Gaza, we are ready to bear our responsibilities that we bear now. We will continue to bear the responsibilities of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem as one Palestinian state."
In response to a question about whether there were plans or cadres to rule Gaza the day after the war, he replied, “We have everything, and the cadres are there (…), we did not leave Gaza in order to return to it.”
The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, and following the collapse of a national unity government, the movement took control of Gaza the following year, in light of disputes that still exist with the Fatah movement led by Abbas. Abbas said, "We are present in Gaza, and we have our institutions, cadres, and youth. We pay Gaza, the people and institutions, 140 million dollars a month. We are present in Gaza. Today, among our ministers, 5 are from Gaza, and 3 are residents there."
Axis of Resistance
Iraj Masjedi , advisor to the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, warned that “Iran will level Tel Aviv to the ground if Israel encroaches on Iranian territory.” Masjedi added - in an interview with the Iranian Tasnim Agency - that there is no need for Iran to intervene in the war on the Gaza Strip, because the Palestinian resistance is capable of confronting the aggression. He continued that Israel is powerless in the face of resistance and will not repair the defeat it suffered in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, no matter what it does. On the other hand, Iranian Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib said that the assassination of Revolutionary Guard Advisor Radhi Mousavi is a crime that will have serious repercussions for Israel. The Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Mohammad Bagheri, said that "the Israelis committed a strategic mistake" by assassinating Mousavi on Syrian territory. The HAMAS government media office in Gaza accused the Israeli occupation of stealing organs from the bodies of Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip, and called for the formation of an independent international investigation committee. In coordination with the United Nations, according to a medical source, the bodies of about 80 Palestinians who were killed by the Israeli army and detained for a period during its ongoing ground operation in the northern Gaza Strip since October 27 arrived in Gaza.
The government media office said in a statement, "After examining the bodies, it became clear that the features of the martyrs had changed significantly, in a clear indication that the occupation had stolen vital organs from the bodies of these martyrs." The statement indicated that the occupation handed over "unidentified bodies, refused to specify the names of these martyrs, and refused to specify the places from which they were stolen."
The HAMAS office denounced the army's "disrespect for the dignity of the bodies of 80 Palestinian martyrs," noting that they were delivered through the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing (south). He stated that "the occupation repeated this crime (withholding bodies) more than once during the genocidal war. It had also previously exhumed graves in Jabalia (north of the Gaza Strip) and stolen some of the bodies of the martyrs from them."
The HAMAS government media office called for "the formation of a completely independent international investigation committee into the occupation army's kidnapping of the bodies of martyrs and theft of their vital organs," pointing out that Israel is still detaining "the bodies of dozens of martyrs from Gaza." The office condemned what it described as "the silent positions of international organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, such as the Red Cross, regarding such terrible crimes committed by the occupation army."
The director of Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah (south), Marwan Al-Hams, told Anadolu Agency, earlier Tuesday, that the United Nations informed them of “the arrival of the bodies of about 80 martyrs to Gaza.” Al-Hams explained, "The bodies arrived inside a container. Some of them were complete bodies, others were body parts, and some had parts of their bodies decomposed."
In Islam, the body of the demised (jenazah) should be buried whole and unharmed, and no part of the body should be cut or harmed. Whenever a servant of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala takes leave from this world for the Hereafter, Islam has defined a special way for his departure; one which is imbued with full of honor, dignity and grace.
Postmortems are only acceptable if required by law. Muslims are always buried, never cremated. It is a religious requirement that the body be ritually washed and draped before burial. No true God fearing Muslim would donate his body, which isn’t His to begin with. The body has been lend to him, and Muslims are instructed to bury it. Organ donation is not haram so long as the donation will not lead to the death of the donor. For more, see the resolutions of the Islamic Fiqh Council of the Organization of the Islamic Conference on the different forms of organ transplants.
The Islamic Fiqh Council which convened in the fourth conference in Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 18-23 Safar 1408 AH/6-11 February 1988 CE, determined the following "It is permissible to transplant an organ from a dead person to a living person whose life or basic essential functions depend on that organ, subject to the condition that permission be given by the deceased before his death, or by his heirs after his death, or by the authorities in charge of the Muslims if the identity of the deceased is unknown or he has no heirs."
The Russian propaganda machine resurrected one of its longest running fakes: the alleged battlefield harvesting and international sale of organs from the bodies of deceased military personnel. “The bodies of ‘donors’ simply disappear from the battlefield and, in a matter of hours, the containers with their internal organs are far beyond the borders of Ukraine,” Argumenty y Fakty posted in 2023. “Black transplantologists appeared in Ukraine back in 2014, when hostilities began in the Donbas. Both the dead or wounded soldiers of the people's republics, and the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who strangely ‘evaporated’ went under the scalpel of the ‘surgeons’,” the propagandists further posted.
The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) condemned Israeli soldiers photographing Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip after stripping them of their clothes, after several photos spread of detainees in Gaza at the hands of occupation soldiers while they were almost naked. Hamas said - in a statement - that the occupation army soldiers photographing dozens of Palestinian civilians in Gaza after arresting them and stripping them of their clothes despite the cold weather is a “war crime.”
The movement called on human rights institutions to document this crime that is contrary to the most basic human rights, asking them to follow up on the conditions of civilians detained by the occupation in undeclared places, especially since their fate and health conditions are unknown. Palestinian activists circulated on social media pictures of a group of citizens who were arrested by the army, wearing only their underwear, including children and the elderly, after they were gathered in one of the playgrounds in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this December, video clips published by Israeli and Palestinian websites showed that the occupation forces arrested displaced young men residing in a shelter center in Gaza, and stripped them of their clothes in front of the cameras. The clips showed occupation soldiers standing in front of young men, handcuffed and naked except for their shorts, after they had been gathered in the courtyard of a school before being taken to an unknown location.
In a press conference in Beirut, Osama Hamdan , leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), warned all countries against dealing with the plans of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding what he called the voluntary migration of residents of the Gaza Strip. He stressed that Netanyahu is moving without a goal or vision, saying that he is "moving from one failure to another," and that the combat operations taking place in Gaza confirm this.
He added that the leadership of the Hamas movement received proposals and initiatives from a number of countries regarding the war in Gaza, and stressed that they are open to everything that achieves the interests of the Palestinian people. Hamdan pointed out that the people of Gaza are not waiting for a temporary truce, but rather a comprehensive cessation of the Israeli aggression against the Strip. He explained that Israel is presenting to the mediators ideas for calm that do not live up to the sacrifices of the Palestinian people, and there is still no mature initiative on a ceasefire, adding that the occupation army is trying to change its tactics in order to start moving backwards.
Hamdan also said that the American administration is stained with the blood of Gaza’s children, surprising Washington’s talk about saving the lives of civilians in Gaza and then supplying Israel with weapons. The Hamas leader considered that the management of the Israeli War Council is in a state of confusion because they have not achieved any of the declared goals of the war.
Allied for Democracy
Israeli Channel 12 said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the request of security service leaders on three occasions to discuss the post-war phase in Gaza. For his part, the Israeli military spokesman told Fox News that the army launched operations to rescue the hostages, but success was limited, indicating that this would not weaken their resolve, as he put it.
Butcher's Bill / Oasis of Martyrs
An Israeli soldier died after being infected by a dangerous type of fungus found in the soil of the Gaza Strip, Kan reported on December 26, 2023. The soldier was transported to Assuta Ashdod Medical Center two weeks ago, suffering from serious limb wounds infected by the fungus. The medical staff attempted every available treatment, including experimental treatments from abroad, and brought in experts, but the fungus proved resistant and eventually overtook his organs, resulting in his death. There are around 10 other soldiers who have been infected with the deadly strain in Gaza, according to professor Galia Rahab, chairperson of the Infectious Diseases Association.
Israeli media spoke about the reasons for the increase in the number of deaths and injuries of the occupation army in the Gaza Strip after the recent humanitarian truce than before, and raised questions about the duration of the war, and shed light on the nature of its injuries. Israeli Channel 13 quoted former Mossad chief Danny Yatom as saying that the increase in death tolls is not due to the army entering into a truce, but rather due to the transition in the war from a populated area to another open area, which gave a wider range to anti-tank missiles. Yatom explained that the resistance elements are watching the army soldiers, and it is easy to distinguish them in open areas, and in houses consisting of one or two floors and no more, adding that as the war progresses, the enemy extracts from it what can overcome part of our great strength, as he put it. Yatom added, "Guerrilla warfare is difficult, and in general there is an advantage for the defender in it because he moves and changes clothes, and in the street he looks like a citizen and suddenly draws his weapon as he emerges from wells and tunnels, and there are much more tunnels than we estimated." The same channel also quoted the director of the surgery department at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba , Professor Gilbert Spaj, as saying that the injuries received by soldiers participating in the war in Gaza are “complex and difficult,” noting that their degrees of difficulty exceed what was reached during past wars. In turn, the former commander of the southern region, Yom Tov Samia, said that anyone who did not participate in the previous wars that occurred in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 should not tell us that this war will be easier. He continued in his interview with Channel 11, "This war is a challenge for the entire country... I said on the day it started that it would take from 3 to 6 months, but now I ask to recalculate and correct what I said, because it will take more time than that." Channel 13's Arab affairs analyst, Zvi Yehezqili, spoke about the resistance elements' reliance on individual planning and their lack of need for significant intervention from the leadership, pointing out that the army's reliance in Khan Yunis on a plan based on starting entry with infiltrated forces increased the prices paid. 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 20,674 martyrs, and the killing of more than 7,700 Palestinian children. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The number wounded was 54,536. 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 including 4,700 children and women.
Palestinian Ministry of Health has announced that the total number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank by the Israeli occupation this year had reached 505 people, including 111 children. The Palestinian Ministry of Health earlier 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.
The Israeli bombing led to the killing of 126 Hezbollah members, a number of civilians, and 3 journalists. Lebanon’s Health Ministry released an official casualty numbers in fighting, saying 77 people were killed and 251 wounded since the start of the war on Gaza.
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.
The Israeli army announced the killing ofthe killing of 5 officers and soldiers, including a company commander in the Nahal Brigade of the elite forces. This brings the officially announced number of deaths among the Israeli army since the start of the ground incursion on October 27th to 169, and 500 deaths since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on the 7th of the same month.
Since the start of the ground incursion, the number of wounded rose to 652, including 146 seriously injured.
Israeli media reported that 27% of the Israeli military casualties in the war were officers. In detail, the media highlighted that three brigade commanders, four battalion commanders, and other senior officers have been killed in the war so far.
At least 11,845 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 had 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.
According to some reports statistics indicate that 20% of the Israeli losses were due to friendly fire. Because the nature of the battle has become completely different from what was expected, and it lacks a front line.
Hostages
The Israeli occupation army announced the recovery of the bodies of 5 Israeli prisoners who were killed in the Gaza Strip , 3 of them soldiers and 2 civilians, during its discovery of a network of tunnels in Jabalia, north of the Strip. This came in a press conference held by army spokesman Daniel Hagari, who explained that Israeli soldiers recovered five bodies of prisoners who were killed inside the tunnel network. Hagari did not explain the reason behind the killing of the prisoners whose bodies were recovered.
Israel had previously estimated there were 116 living hostages in Palestinian custody. Israel declared 19 out of 135 people in Gaza captivity dead in absentia, after announcing its forces had recovered the bodies of two hostages. 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 held 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 had released 110 hostages so far – 86 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals.
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.
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 Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) and the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission released a new tally of Palestinians detained by "Israel", revealing that the number of Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank has risen to 4,695. Some 150 women have been arrested thus far, both from the West Bank and the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948. Additionally, more than 255 children had been arrested. Israel had earliers said that, since the beginning of the war, about 2,100 wanted persons had been arrested throughout the IOS Division and the Bekaa and Emekim Brigade, about 1,100 of them are affiliated with Hamas.
By late December 2023 a video was circulating in Israeli media which purported to show the surrender of some Hamas fighters. But critics say it is staged and cast doubt on its authenticity. The footage comes as Hamas continues to resist Israel's relentless assault, more than nine weeks into the conflict.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
