BREAKING....Thread 9...Israel At War...OPERATION SWORDS OF IRON

[PeteS in CA]

UNCOVERED: 1.5km long terrorist tunnel route in eastern Rafah containing dozens of anti-tank missiles and weapons was dismantled. ...
...

Hopefully that mile-long tunnel has been collapsed or otherwise rendered unusable.

IDF Investigation: Rafah Blast That Killed Civilians Caused by Secondary Explosions in Hamas Weapons Dump

Legal Insurrection by Vijeta Uniyal Thursday, May 30, 2024

“According to the IDF, the strike was not intended to harm any civilians and it had carried out steps ahead of the attack to ensure that no women or children were in the Hamas compound.”

While the mainstream media and pro-Hamas activists are trying to pin the blame on Israel for Sunday’s blast that claimed dozens of civilians’ lives, the initial Israeli military investigation shows that the civilian deaths were likely caused by secondary explosions in a Hamas weapons dump located in a humanitarian area. The incident took place in the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood in western Rafah on Sunday, an area outside the IDF’s designated combat zone.

The civilian deaths were caused by “secondary explosions from a Hamas ammunition warehouse near the civilian compound and over 100 meters away from the strike site,” the Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday.

Israel Defense Forces
@IDF
“Despite our efforts to minimize civilian casualties during the strike, the fire that broke out was unexpected and unintended...Our investigation seeks to determine what may have caused such a large fire to ignite.“
...
More: https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/05/idf-investigation-rafah-blast-that-killed-civilians-caused-by-secondary-explosions-in-hamas-weapons-dump/

The bombs IDF planes used in the strike targeting Hamas leaders were 17 Kg (~37.5 lbs.), very small. That bombs that small caused a fire that cooked off Hamas munitions 100+ meters (110+ yards) away shows that flammable materials (fuel? propellant?) were stored near where the strike hit, and that munitions were stored near or among non-combatant civilians. Not that facts matter to anti-Semitic world-wide-MSM Israel-Haters.

[mountaineer]

 Hezbollah continues terrorizing the residents of the North by firing rockets and launching UAVs which cause massive fire and destruction.
5:57 AM · Jun 4, 2024

https://twitter.com/IsraelWarRoom/status/1797930695588987029

[mystery-ak]

Report: Half of Hamas Terrorists Killed; 7,000 Remain in Rafah

Joel B. Pollak 7 Jun 2024

Half of all the Hamas terrorists in Gaza have been killed during the war, according to Reuters, citing U.S. officials Thursday, and most of the remaining ones are holed up in the town of Rafah, where Israel has been advancing slowly.

Reuters reported:

    Hamas has seen about half its forces wiped out in eight months of war and is relying on hit-and-run insurgent tactics to frustrate Israel’s attempts to take control of Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials told Reuters.

    The enclave’s ruling group has been reduced to between 9,000 and 12,000 fighters, according to three senior U.S. officials familiar with battlefield developments, down from American estimates, opens new tab of 20,000-25,000 before the conflict. By contrast, Israel says it has lost almost 300 troops in the Gaza campaign.

Israel estimates that it has killed roughly 15,000 Hamas terrorists, which falls within the range of U.S. estimates.

more
https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2024/06/07/report-half-of-hamas-terrorists-killed-7000-remain-in-rafah/

[Hoodat]

Report: Half of Hamas Terrorists Killed; 7,000 Remain in Rafah

So is Hamas half full or half empty?

[Cyber Liberty]

So is Hamas half full or half empty?

One is too full.

[Timber Rattler]

Serves Gantz right for jumping into bed with Biden.

CIA assessment concludes Netanyahu is likely to defy US pressure to set a post-war plan for Gaza

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/07/politics/cia-netanyahu-assessment/index.html

A CIA assessment circulated among US officials this week concluded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely judges he can get away without defining a post-war plan — even as the Biden administration has launched a full-court press to pressure him to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza.

Netanyahu “probably believes he can maintain support from his security chiefs and prevent defections” from the right wing of his coalition by discussing the future of Gaza in “vague terms,” the June 3 report, reviewed by CNN, reads.

The assessment — which has not been previously reported — represents one of the most up to date intelligence assessments about Netanyahu’s mindset that has been circulated among senior US officials, according to a source familiar with internal reporting.

It comes amid a clear shift in how the Biden administration views Israel: less as a trusted partner and more as an unpredictable foreign government to be analyzed and understood.

The CIA declined to comment when asked about CNN’s reporting.

From Hot Air:

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/06/07/qatar-issues-ultimatum-to-hamas-take-deal-or-get-out-n3789813

But Qatar may not play this card immediately, because another ultimatum expiration comes tomorrow. Benny Gantz had threatened to leave the unity government if Netanyahu didn't come up with a post-war plan that satisfied him -- even though Gantz himself hasn't presented one publicly, either. There's a reason for that; there isn't an end state possible with Hamas still around. Any attempt to prop up a native Gazan government without Hamas would result in either a Hamas coup or Hamas co-opting it.  Gantz isn't proposing one because there's nothing to propose until Hamas is destroyed.

The ultimatum seemed to damage Gantz and his National Unity party in recent polling, but that doesn't mean Gantz will back down.

(snip)

According to reports from Kan, the Biden team has pressured Gantz to delay his move in order to keep pressure on Netanyahu to remain attached to the latest proposal to Hamas. There is considerable irony in this, as Gantz' ultimatum resulted from intervention by Biden's team to put that pressure on Netanyahu. Hostage families are exerting public pressure on Gantz to stay for the same reasons:

(snip)

For Gantz, it's either walk and incur wrath from an Israeli electorate and the US, or renege and lose even more credibility -- a Hobson's choice of Gantz' own construction.

[Fishrrman]

7,000 down.
7,000 to go.

[DefiantMassRINO]

What were the chances of Hamas terrorists hiding inside, or under, a United Nations school?  I wonder.



It's reasonable to surmise that any UN facility in Gaza is a potential legitimate target for the IDF.  It's amazing how many of them Hamas are embedded in UN organizations and facilities.

[Cyber Liberty]

What were the chances of Hamas terrorist hiding inside, or under, a United Nations school?  I wonder.



It's reasonable to surmise that any UN facility in Gaza is a potential legitimate target for the IDF.  It's amazing how many of them Hamas are embedded in UN organizations and facilities.

This was never in doubt for me.  I've been watching what crap the UN allows since I was a pup (Cub Reporter, actually, in radio), about 50 years ago.  Arabs have been clustering their weapons in the middle of refugee areas in order to create civilian casualties back then. 

And the UN buildings everywhere gave them more places to turn into ammo dumps and tunnel entrances.

[Timber Rattler]

Israeli minister Benny Gantz resigns from war cabinet in blow to Netanyahu

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/09/middleeast/benny-gantz-resignation-post-war-plan-gaza-intl-latam/index.html

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz has resigned from Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, delivering a blow to the prime minister who has been celebrating the rare rescue of hostages held in Gaza.

“Netanyahu prevents us from moving forward to a real victory [in Gaza],” Gantz said in a televised statement Sunday in which he described leaving the government as a “complex and painful decision.”

“That is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart, but with a whole heart.”

The decision by Gantz – considered Netanyahu’s main political challenger – fulfils an ultimatum he gave the prime minister last month calling on him to lay out a new plan for the war against Hamas by June 8.

Gantz had been expected to resign on Saturday, but postponed the announcement following news that Israeli forces had rescued four hostages in an operation Gazan officials said left more than 270 Palestinians dead.

EXCEPT

So I guess that Gantz has chosen Hamas over his own people then...

[GtHawk]

Israeli minister Benny Gantz resigns from war cabinet in blow to Netanyahu

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/09/middleeast/benny-gantz-resignation-post-war-plan-gaza-intl-latam/index.html

EXCEPT

So I guess that Gantz has chosen Hamas over his own people then...

I wonder what real victory Gantz feels Netanyahu is keeping Israel from, because I would think his goal of eradicating Hamas would make for a pretty real victory. From what I've gotten Gantz hasn't put forward any plan of his own, unless he just wants the same old same old of pulling back and waiting for Hamas to man up, weapon up and murder Israelis again?

[mountaineer]

Today's feel-good story. Terrorist dressed in civilian clothing exits a tunnel in Gaza whilst holding an RPG. The man was quickly eliminated by IDF forces.

https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1800195541206487531

[catfish1957]

Let's not forget that the day after the October 7th raid, a poll was taken in Giza, saying that 75% of their population supports Hamas.

These ancillary deaths, including those in civilian clothes holding RPG's, are not civlian casualites.

[PeteS in CA]

Israelis on Front Lines Say Biden's Peace Plan Is Forcing Them To Fight Forever War

https://freebeacon.com/israel/israelis-on-front-lines-say-bidens-peace-plan-is-forcing-them-to-fight-forever-war/

But more than half a dozen war-weary Israeli reserve soldiers from across the country told the Washington Free Beacon that Biden’s diplomacy is actually dragging out the Gaza war he is pressing Israel to bring to an end. By restraining Israel, they said, Biden is preventing the Jewish state from defeating or deterring its genocidal enemies.
...
"I don't think Biden really understands this neighborhood," said Emil Grishpun, 40, a Finance Ministry official and infantry reservist who volunteered on Oct. 7 and served four and a half months in the West Bank. "We're here doing the job, so let us finish the job. Otherwise, it will be like this until the end of time."

"The U.S. is really strong-arming us and not letting us have the military might that we need to win," said Etay Inbar, 34, a principal at a Tel Aviv venture capital fund and military intelligence reservist who has been involved in the search for the Israeli hostages. "What we need to do is come to a conclusion quickly, but we need to come to a positive conclusion for us so we don't face the same thing a decade from now."

Israelis are overwhelmingly grateful for U.S. military and diplomatic support, and officials are generally loath to criticize the country's most important ally. But, more than eight months into the Gaza war, IDF reservists's frustration with the Biden administration reflects growing awareness in Israel of a conflict between Washington's imagined Middle East and the brutal reality. ...

[Timber Rattler]

Why So Many ‘Day After’ Plans for Gaza Amount to No Plan at All

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/06/12/post-war-gaza-plans-column-00162811

Ever since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, and even during the most hopeless stretches, smart people have been complaining that there’s no plan for Gaza once we reach the “day after” — that still-TBD moment when the fighting ends and the future begins. And there needs to be such a plan to bring hope and stability, they warn, or the conflict could reignite.

You might be surprised, then, to hear that there are many “day after” plans.

From think tankers to McKinsey types to Washington bureaucrats, plenty of people are offering proposals. Some focus on the immediate security and governance needs of shell-shocked Palestinians left in Gaza, using terms like “contact group” and “mandate.” Some dream of Gaza soccer stadiums decades from now. The Biden administration, I’m told by U.S. and Arab officials, is coalescing around plans for an interim “Palestinian Council” to govern Gaza and a security coalition in which the U.S. military will play a major role. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a man accused of deliberately avoiding having a plan, including by a politician who just abandoned his coalition — has, technically, proposed a plan.

I’ve tracked down or spoken to people involved with a dozen such blueprints, some more sophisticated than others. And if current cease-fire talks produce some calm — a big if — more plans may be released.

And yet … I still feel like there’s no plan.

(snip)

The Biden administration is building its current post-war plans around the idea that the U.S. will play a major role in a multi-national force largely made up of Arab forces, according to four U.S. officials familiar with Middle East policy and an Arab official familiar with the issue. But President Joe Biden is unlikely to allow any U.S. troops inside Gaza itself.

EXCERPT

[jafo2010]

The ONLY PLAN for Gaza should be completed and total destruction, with NO INTENT for rebuilding.  That is the cheapest and most sound plan.

I suggest Israel lease six B-52 bombers, and they carpet bomb every city in Gaza, leveling them all, making all permanently uninhabitable.  The people should be warned to flee to where they can, otherwise they will die.  PERIOD!!!  And no loss if every last one of them is sent to hell now, versus in the future after they murder untold numbers of Israelis.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Let's not forget that the day after the October 7th raid, a poll was taken in Giza, saying that 75% of their population supports Hamas.

These ancillary deaths, including those in civilian clothes holding RPG's, are not civlian casualites.

FWIW....

Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald

That people lose their status as "innocent civilians" if they support their government's violence -- and thus become legitimate targets -- was exactly the rationale used by Osama bin Laden:

Americans choose their leaders and support bombing our region, so they're not innocent.


12:46 PM · Jun 12, 2024

[Right_in_Virginia]

Twelve IDF soldiers killed in three separate incidents, ten new soldiers named
Soldiers were killed in fighting in both the southern and northern parts of the Gaza Strip.
Jerusalem  Post, Jun 16, 2024

12 IDF soldiers have been killed in three separate recent incidents, with 10 additional soldiers named on Sunday after two had been named already on Saturday.

Most of the soldiers were killed when an armored personnel carrier was blown up by Hamas, while there were two other separate incidents as well.

The ten newly announced soldiers included:

[...]

More:  https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-806373

[Right_in_Virginia]

IDF spokesman says Hamas can’t be destroyed, drawing response from Netanyahu
Times of Israel, June 19, 2024



IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari has cast the goal of eradicating the Hamas terror group as unattainable, drawing a response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Hamas is an idea. Those who think it can be made to disappear are wrong,” Hagari tells Channel 13 news in an interview, adding that anyone promising this is “misleading the public.”

“If the government doesn’t find an alternative — it will remain” in Gaza, he argues.

In response, Netanyahu’s office says in a statement that his security cabinet “has defined as one of the war goals the destruction of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities.”

“The IDF is of course committed to this,” the statement adds.


https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-spokesman-says-hamas-cant-be-destroyed-drawing-response-from-netanyahu/

[Fishrrman]

Kudos to Daniel Hagari for having the courage to speak realistically on the issue.

You could kill 95% of the hamas soldiers, and -- in time -- it will recover to be "right back there" as a fighting force, as strong as before.

Look at how the pali kids are raised and trained from an early age -- to hate Israel and the Jews. That isn't going to change. And after this war, the hatred will be greater than ever.

I admire the Israelis for their determination, spirit, ingenuity, and abilities.
But considering the future they face where they are... well, it don't look so good in the long term.

[mountaineer]

Bring Them Home: The Five Americans Still Held Hostage by Hamas

Has Joe Biden said the name of Hersh Goldberg-Polin once?

https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1805295928657547351

[PeteS in CA]

In Progs' Victim-Oppressor hagiography, Arab Palis can do no wrong. So Hersh Goldberg-Polin is an oppressor in Progs' worldview.

[Gefn]

'Held with her newborn by these murderers': Pregnant hostage gives birth in Gaza

WASHINGTON − A woman who Hamas is holding hostage in Gaza gave birth to a baby while in captivity, according to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

The revelation came in a letter from the wife of Israel's Prime Minister, Sara Netanyahu, to first lady Jill Biden seeking her help in calling for the immediate release of children and all other hostages held in Gaza.

There are 32 children among the more than 240 hostages taken to Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Sara Netanyahu says in the letter, which was publicized by the prime minister's office Thursday.

https://ca.style.yahoo.com/news/being-held-her-newborn-murderers-191401707.html

[libertybele]

Efforts to secure Gaza ceasefire and hostage release gain momentum

- Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country's team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency.
A source in Israel's negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was now a real chance of achieving agreement.
The Israeli remarks were in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were not acceptable.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts said the latest proposal by the militant Islamist group could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel.
He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.
"Should the sides need more time to seal an agreement on a permanent ceasefire, the two sides should agree there would be no return to the fighting until they do that," the official told Reuters.
Turkey's president, Tayyip Erdogan, was quoted by Turkish media as saying he hoped a "final ceasefire" could be secured "in a couple of days", and urged Western countries to put pressure on Israel to accept the terms on offer.

HEZBOLLAH-HAMAS TALKS

Gaza health authorities say more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive launched in response to a Hamas-led attack on Israel last Oct. 7 in which Israel said 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage.
The war has displaced hundreds of thousands of Gazans and caused a humanitarian crisis. It has also fuelled tension across the region, triggering exchanges of fire across Israel's northern border with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.
Hezbollah said on Friday its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and a top Hamas official, Khalil Al-Hayya, had met to discuss the latest developments in Gaza.
A Hezbollah official later said the group would stop firing as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect, echoing previous statements by the group, which says its rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel are in support of the Palestinians.
"If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon," the official told Reuters........

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-ceasefire-hopes-rise-israel-says-it-will-resume-stalled-negotiations-2024-07-05/

[mountaineer]

Oli London
@OliLondonTV
Hamas’ military chief ELIMINATED by air strike in Gaza.
The IDF has confirmed Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, and Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, were taken out in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip this morning.
Deif was one of the masterminds of the Oct 7 attack, which claimed 1,200 lives.
7:00 AM · Jul 13, 2024

Oli London
@OliLondonTV
The IDF made a precision strike against the compound containing the terrorists. Several other terrorists, wearing civilian clothing, were also eliminated in the vicinity of the compound.
8:48 AM · Jul 13, 2024


Rot in Hades.