Israel/Palestine, 31 October 2023
Good morning everybody!
Before I go on, and once again, my usual DISCLAIMER: my guidelines for monitoring all conflicts on this biosphere named Earth are exactly the same. Fundaments are the UN Charter, the IHL, and the Rome Statute. Exactly like in the case of my analysis of the War in Ukraine, I recommend anybody who might ‘not like’ anything of what is to follow, or prefers applying double standards, to go and read something else, somewhere else. Mind that I didn’t chain you to my blog and I do not know anybody else forcing you to read.
An ‘extra’ for all the racists, supremacists, and other sort of trolling scum calling me an ‘anti-Semite’, ‘Nazi’ and similar names:
a) As stated multiple times, I do not care about distinguishing people by their ethnic- and/or religious groups, taint or else: for me, everybody is the same, with exactly the same rights and responsibilities. However, since these topics appear to be so ‘super-important’ to so many, keep in mind that Palestinians are Semitic people, and that more so than Ashkenazi Jews; and
b) you’re doing nothing else but what the former Israeli minister Shulamit Aloni nicely summarised with: ‘“Anti-Semitic” is a trick we always use (to silence critique of Israel)’.
Precisely that is why I’m recommending reading Israeli historians like Shlomo Sand.
With other words: you’re neither impressing me, nor can change anything about the way I’m thinking and working.
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General
On 27 October, Israeli authorities have cut off all telecommunication links to the Gaza Strip. When this caused a public uproar (especially so in the USA, though not at all within the circles of incompetent Western politicians), the services were slowly recovered through 29 and 30 October.
As of the morning of 30 October, the Gaza Health Ministry reported the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip over 10,000 - including over 4,000 children. Mind: these figures are valid for clearly identified cases. Means: in three weeks of ‘destroying Hamas’, Israel has killed more Palestinian children than Russia killed in Ukraine in 19 months.
Another 20,000 Palestinians were wounded.
Feel free to follow in fashion of the US President Joe Biden and declare these figures for lies, but then you need to explain how comes one of Israeli TV-stations is publicly cheering while declaring all the fatalities in the Gaza Strip to be ‘terrorists’ - and how comes its counter was ‘over 7,500’ as of late 29 October?
Statistically, another Palestinian child in the Gaza Strip is killed every 10 minutes now.
Mind: ‘official’ figures of Palestinian authorities in the Gaza Strip (yes, these are all Hamas-controlled) do not include those buried under the rubble: the situation in the Gaza Strip is meanwhile out of control, Israel is systematically targeting ambulance cars (so much so, only 27 were still operational as of the last evening), and no services are capable of systematically searching and rescuing people (and animals) buried by the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Absurdly, on 28 October, the IDF ‘officially’ (and ‘once again’) requested the Palestinian population of the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate the area. It did so in English, and via TV and the internet – at the time there were no TV- and no internet services in the Gaza Strip, and although the mass of Gazans do not understand English language. No doubt, all the possible ‘Israel fans’ understanding English are going to be highly satisfied with this ‘humane act’.
Since early 30 October, Israel is dropping leaflets over the Gaza Strip, demanding Palestinians to surrender.
Yesterday in the morning, Sinwar (head of the Hamas military wing), made his first public statement since 7 October 2023: said he is willing to exchange all hostages for all Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Another Hamas spokesman said that only Egypt and Qatar are still mediating between Hamas and Israel, and that talks (with Israel) are currently about release of women and children in exchange for a ‘ceasefire of several days’.
Immediately after, and apparently in reaction to Hamas releasing a video of three female hostages damning Netanyahu’s government and blaming it for this catastrophe, the Israeli internal security agency Shin Bet announced it has liberated one of captives (a female soldier of the IDF) in the course of a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. So far, no other details about this operation have been released, and thus it remains unclear if, for example, Hamas, PIJ, or any other of Palestinian terrorist groups are really keeping single hostages in different places, ‘instead’ in groups, as could be expected.
Israeli-Lebanese Border
‘Regular‘ exchanges of fire between Hezbollah/IRGC and IASF/IDF are continued. Hezbollah/IRGC continue deploying large numbers of ATGMs to strike Israeli surveillance systems, while the IASF and the IDF are striking back by air strikes, artillery- and tank fire. At least according to Israeli claims, Hezbollah is suffering heavy losses in such exchanges, while the Israelis are suffering none. Arguably, the Hezbollah/IRGC admitted over 50 fatalities so far: the IDF is usually releasing details about its own only days later, which is why it appears it’s losing none.
Foremost: regardless how much is Tehran warning about ‘Israel crossing all red lines’, generally, the Hezbollah/IRGC conglomerate is remaining limited in its actions (so much so, even some of Hamas ‘leaders’ are meanwhile unable to explain the ‘why’). Apparently, while constantly hauling reinforcements and additional arms and ammunition from Iran to southern Lebanon and Syria, they are trying to provoke Israel into an attack into southern Lebanon or, from the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, into south-western Syria.
ADD-On: Hezbollah released a video showing some of its ATGM-strikes on Israeli surveillance facilities in northern Israel and Israel-occupied Sheba Farms.
West Bank
IDF continued raiding Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, and also flew additional air strikes on different of objects there, just like terrorist settlers - armed and supported by the IDF - continued assaulting Palestinian municipalities: by now, eight of the latter had been ethnically cleansed this year alone (including four since 7 October).
Indeed, in reaction to armed resistance and mass demonstrations resisting its raids and hijackings of dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank, the IDF has meanwhile threatened to launch a similar bombardment campaign like against the Gaza Strip.
Gaza Strip
Over the last 48 hours, the IASF and IDF have further reinforced their bombardment. The IASF is claiming to be striking 400-500 ‘terrorist targets’ per day.
Between others, the IASF has bombed out the main food depot of the UNRWA (yes, and what a surprise: what was left of the same was then looted by civilians). BTW, this depot was right next to al-Qods Hospital: ignoring multiple pleas from the Palestinian Red Crescent, the IDF repeated its demands for a complete evacuation of the same: the IASF then went on to - repeatedly - damage al-Qods Hospital by air strikes in immediate neighbourhood before, yesterday in the afternoon, actually starting to bombard the hospital, still full of medical personnel, patients, and ‘internally displaced persons’.
The IASF has also directly bombed the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the sole facility in the Gaza Strip for treating cancer-patients. All the electromechanical equipment was knocked out.
Both the bombardment by the ‘best air force in the world’, and the artillery of the ‘army of the light’ remain so ‘highly-precise’ that on 29 October Hamas fired two huge volleys of rockets: one at Tel Aviv, another in direction of Jerusalem. Yesterday, the very same exercise was repeated again.
On the ground, mechanised formations of the IDF (usually combinations of Merkava 4 MBTs, Nammer IFVs, and D7 bulldozers) are advancing into the Gaza Strip from multiple directions:
- North: along the beach and the Salah ad-Din Road (the old highway to Egypt);
- North-East: on Bayt Hanaoun from two directions (intense ‘gun battles’ are reported from this area for two days in succession now);
- East: IDF has reached the az-Zaytoun area in the southern Gaza City: this advance is expected to reach the coast during today, and then to meet the advance from the north, along the beach.
With this, one of two Israel-declared ‘evacuation routes’ from the northern Gaza City was cut off, and the Gaza City is going to be completely encircled by the IDF within the coming hours.
- Although repeatedly declaring the part of the Gaza Strip south of the Wadi Gaza for ‘safe’, IASF is constantly bombarding refugee camps there, and since two days the IDF is advancing in direction of Dayr Balah, and from Kerem Shalon in direction of Rafah. The latter effort is probably aiming to cut off as many tunnels under the border to Egypt as possible.
- Yesterday, Hamas claimed that it has set up an ambush for the IDF, using one of tunnels, and to have knocked out six Israeli armoured vehicles. The IDF claimed to have destroyed a tunnel and killed ‘dozens of terrorists’. Israeli troops have celebrated their victory by dragging a body of a ‘Nazzi terrorist’ (read: dead Palestinian) by a rope behind a car.
So far, the IDF advances into the Gaza Strip have been ‘limited’ to empty or scarcely populated areas, which Hamas, PIJ and other terrorist organisations are not defending. Serious fighting must be expected once the IDF attempts to enter the ruins of different population centres.
ADD-ON: gauging by photographs and videos released by the IDF now, the Israeli armed forces are systematically demolishing all buildings in the Gaza Strip they have reached and secured.
While this appears to be explained with ‘destroying nests of Hamas terrorism’ (i.e. armed resistance), one should keep in mind that yesterday the Wikileaks leaked a document of the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence officially ‘endorsing’ the idea of driving the Palestinian population completely out of the Gaza Strip - as ‘demanded’ by plentiful of Israeli politicians and parts of the public alike, for weeks already.
The document envisions a three-stages process including an ‘establishment of tent-cities’ in Sinai, opening a ‘humanitarian corridor’ and then constructing ‘cities in northern Sinai from which there would be no return to Gaza’.
In combination with the content of this article in the Financial Times, it transpires that the aim of the Israeli operation is no ‘war to destroy Hamas’, but that that Israel aims to completely destroy the Gaza Strip, mass-murder and then ethnically cleanse its population into Egypt.
Unsurprisingly, Egyptian dictator Sisi has rejected Israeli apology for damage to an Egyptian Army guard post, mobilised the Egyptian Army, started deploying large units of commandos and mechanised forces on the Sinai Peninsula (details to follow), and issued a warning Israel not to attack the Philadelphi Corridor (the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt).