Hamas launches war on Israel

[Jimbuna]

Surprise! Hamas has thousands more fighters than Israel initially thought

30,000 was always an estimate for how many fighters Hamas had. We now know that the number was too low. Following numbers provided by Israeli defense sources, Israel has killed around 13,000 members of Hamas.

Already back in early February, the IDF had wounded another 10,000 to such a degree that it was assessed that they would not be able to return to battle and had arrested another 2,300.

The IDF has not provided updated wounded and arrest numbers since then, but simply adding together a series of public announcements regarding arrests, such as the more than 500 Hamas terrorists arrested at Shifa Hospital, at least around 3,500 would have been arrested to date.

This means that at least around 26,000 Hamas members have been put out of action by Israel to date when adding together killed, wounded, and arrested totals.

Until Tuesday, Israeli defense sources had said that there were four Hamas battalions in Rafah and two left in central Gaza, leaving around 6,000 Hamas forces.

Adding 26,000 and 6,000 would have broken the 30,000 total but could be considered close enough to be generally accurate. However, on Tuesday, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said that Hamas has 8,000 of its forces in Rafah. Adding an additional 4,000 to 32,000 brings us up to 36,000.

But that is not the end of it. Recently, IDF sources gave a briefing indicating that around 70% of Hamas forces in Khan Yunis, out of an original 4,500, had been removed from the battlefield. That would leave at least 1,300 additional forces in Khan Yunis.

Similarly, there have been reports that Hamas still had at least a few thousand forces left in northern Gaza. Adding all these numbers up, one comes closer to a pre-war Hamas force of 40,000 or more and the idea that it still has around 15,000 or more remaining forces.

None of this takes credit away from Israel for having succeeded at taking apart 18 out of Hamas's 24 battalions and from having succeeded at removing - even with these new numbers - more than 60% of Hamas forces from the battlefield, an impressive feat.

The truth is that even as almost all official channels from the IDF repeated the 30,000 number, a couple of high officials always let slip, in less regulated briefings, that the actual number was closer to 40,000.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other...f2fb1fb&ei=102

[Jimbuna]

Gaza starvation could amount to war crime, UN human rights chief tells BBC

After months of warnings, a recent UN-backed report offered hard statistical evidence that the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is turning into a man-made famine.

It has increased the pressure on Israel to fulfil its legal responsibilities to protect Palestinian civilians, and to allow adequate supplies of humanitarian aid to reach the people who need it.

The UN's most senior human rights official, Volker Türk, said in a BBC interview that Israel bore significant blame, and that there was a "plausible" case that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.

Mr Türk, who is the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that if intent was proven, that would amount to a war crime.

Israel's economy minister, Nir Barkat, a senior politician in Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, dismissed Mr Türk's warnings as "total nonsense - a totally irresponsible thing to say".

Like his cabinet colleagues, Mr Barkat insisted that Israel was letting in all the aid offered by the US and the rest of the world. Israel says the UN fails to distribute whatever is left once Hamas has helped itself.

But a long line of lorries fully loaded with aid supplies desperately needed in the Gaza Strip is backing up on the Egyptian side of the border with Rafah. They can only enter Gaza through Israel, after a complex and bureaucratic series of checks.

The absence of adequate supplies has forced Jordan, and now other countries including the US and UK, to drop aid from the air - the least effective way to deliver humanitarian supplies.

Palestinians on the ground fighting to secure a share have drowned as they try to swim to pallets that have landed in the sea, or have been crushed when parachutes fail.

The US Navy is also sending an engineering flotilla across the Atlantic to build a temporary pier to land aid by sea.

None of that would be necessary if Israel granted full road access to Gaza and expedited the delivery of relief supplies through the modern container port at Ashdod, only about half an hour's drive north of the Gaza Strip.

In an interview from Geneva, Mr Türk said evidence had emerged that Israel was slowing down or withholding the delivery of aid.

Mr Türk condemned the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers on 7 October, including killing, rape and hostage-taking. But he also said that no side in the war should evade accountability for its actions, including for any attempt to withhold aid supplies from the people who need it in Gaza.

"All of my humanitarian colleagues keep telling us that there is a lot of red tape. There are obstacles. There are hindrances… Israel is to blame in a significant way," he said.

"I can only say the facts speak for themselves… I understand that this needs to be controlled, but it cannot take days for it to be done.

"When you put all kinds of requirements on the table that are unreasonable in an emergency… that brings up the question, with all the restrictions that we currently see, whether there is a plausible claim to be made that starvation is, or may be used as, a weapon of war."

Concern about humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip deepened last week with the release of a soberly written commentary alongside a series of maps, charts and statistics. It prompted more warnings from Israel's allies that it should change the way it is fighting the war against Hamas to spare civilians from death from either high explosive or hunger.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68679482

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Top UN court orders Israel to allow food and medical aid into Gaza

The UN's top court has ordered Israel to enable the unhindered flow of aid into Gaza in order to avert a famine.

In a unanimous decision, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel had to act "without delay" to allow the "provision... of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance".

This follows warnings that famine could hit Gaza within weeks.

Israel has called allegations it is blocking aid "wholly unfounded".

Giving its response to the court order, the Israeli foreign ministry said it was continuing "to promote new initiatives, and to expand existing ones" to allow a continuous flow of aid into Gaza "by land, air and sea", working with the UN and others.

It said that Hamas was to blame for the situation in Gaza and for starting the war.

The latest ruling by the court in The Hague comes after South Africa asked it to bolster an order issued to Israel in January to take all measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.

South Africa said it had an obligation to act to prevent genocide as a signatory of the UN's 1948 Genocide Convention.

The country has been highly critical of Israel's military operation in Gaza and its governing African National Congress (ANC) has a long history of solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Although orders issued by the ICJ are legally binding, the court lacks the power to enforce them. The UN Security Council is the only UN body which can introduce measures to try to ensure compliance.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68691095

[Jimbuna]

Netanyahu says Israel will return to table for cease-fire talks with Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will return to the table for cease-fire talks with Hamas.

Friday’s announcement marks yet another attempt to reach a deal with the militant group that would pause Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages. Several rounds of negotiations have faltered.

Netanyahu says he has spoken with Israel’s lead negotiators and authorized Israeli delegations to join talks in Qatar and Egypt over the coming days.

With the war now grinding through a sixth month, the United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to negotiate another cease-fire and hostage release. But those efforts appear to have stalled.

Hamas has previously proposed a phased process in which it would release all the remaining hostages in exchange for an end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the opening of its borders for aid and reconstruction, and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants serving life sentences.

Netanyahu has called the demands delusional and vowed to resume Israel’s offensive after any hostage release and keep fighting until the militant group is destroyed.

Hamas is believed to be holding roughly 100 hostages, as well as the remains of about 30 people killed in the group’s Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the war, or who died in captivity.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...685eee09&ei=16

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Second aid ship heads for Gaza with tonnes of food for starving Palestinians

Athree-ship convoy carrying 400 tonnes of food and other supplies to starving Palestinians in Gaza left a port in Cyprus on Saturday as concerns mount about hunger in the territory.

US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) said the vessels and a barge were carrying enough ready-to-eat items, including rice, pasta, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and proteins, to prepare more than 1 million meals. Also on board were dates, which are traditionally eaten to break the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

It is the second shipment this month, after Israel eased a 17-year naval blockade on the Gaza Strip to allow aid sourced by WCK to enter the territory from Cyprus. It comes after the Cypriot authorities established, in cooperation with Israel, a maritime corridor to facilitate the delivery of pre-screened cargo directly to Gaza.
A ship operated by Spanish charity Open Arms inaugurated the direct sea route to the Palestinian territory earlier this month, with 200 tonnes of food, water and other aid. A makeshift jetty was built from rubble to offload the cargo, as the territory does not have any port facilities.

Saturday’s convoy includes two forklifts and a crane to assist with future marine deliveries, as well as a team to operate the crane.

Separately, the US plans to construct a floating pier off Gaza to receive aid. The target for completion is 1 May but it could be ready by around 15 April, Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides said late on Friday, citing briefings with US officials earlier in the week.

The aid will be taken to Gaza on a cargo ship and a barge towed by a salvage vessel, along with a tugboat carrying a support team – a journey that will take about 60 hours, according to a Cypriot official.

WCK, which has been active in Gaza for months, arranged the mission with the Open Arms charity, with financing mainly from the United Arab Emirates and support from Cypriot authorities.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...41f12837&ei=22

[Skybird]

This fool lost it.

https://unherd.com/2024/03/israels-v...ahus-downfall/

When I asked an officer at IDF headquarters why so much time had passed with Rafah untouched, his answer was unexpectedly gnomic: “Netanyahu is not Ben Gurion.” The comparison is charged: Ben Gurion was not only Israel’s first prime minister, but its spiritual founder, midwife to a nation born under siege. When he declared independence on May 15, 1948, he triggered the invasions of four Arab states, each one better equipped than his underground Jewish militias, for whom a rifle was precious and artillery an impossible dream. With this act, Ben Gurion ignored American and British warnings that the war would end in a massacre and went it alone, demonstrating a faith in the fighting spirit of his young country and a conviction in his own powers of leadership. These are qualities that Netanyahu sorely lacks. Netanyahu was once a very decisive politician who set Israel on the path to techno-prosperity as a revolutionary finance minister two decades ago. And he had been an equally decisive soldier, serving for five years instead of the obligatory two and a half, fighting hard in Israel’s premier commando force in dozens of combat actions. But he has not been a decisive war leader. His political trajectory is a story of declining authority, propped up by ever more marginal and objectionable elements within Israeli politics.

Fear the old men who miss the right time to step down.