Very true! I think all those university women who are demonstrating for the Palestinians haven't a clue. Palestinian rights and Sharia Islam aren't the same, but many of those who know what they are demonstrating for are part of the conservative Islam faction. It is all part of the education system here and the lack of critical thinking.
It's very upsetting to see all of those pro-Palestinian demonstrators. I've seen several "man on the street" interviews and they were asked if they supported Hamas. They avoided the question entirely, and kept talking about Palestinian "rights". Not one of those marchers mentioned the Oct 7th massacre.
The IDF has captured a key Hamas command and control compound. Many documents, communication equipment and detailed maps of Hamas tunnels were recovered. After removing those items, the command center was destroyed.
In spite of a Hamas call for Hezbollah and Iran to join the fight against Israel, the leader of Hezbollah stopped short of calling for full scale war and Iran is only using their proxies in Syria to attack the 2 U.S. bases in Syria , but no U.S. personnel have been harmed. The SYRIAN attacks have only used a few drones, but NOT used any ground personnel. Iran COULD launch rockets at Israel , but that has not happened... so far. Hezbollah continues to harass the IDF in the north and a few drone attacks against Israeli villages in the north. but their have not been any full scale attacks. It is estimated that Hezbollah has 120,000 to 150,000 rockets , some capable of hitting deep into Israel, but they have not tried to use them. I believe that Hamas was counting on a regional war, but calls for outside help have fallen on deaf ears. In that respect, Hamas has failed. It would seen that Hamas is standing alone.
Hamas has not been able to launch any successful attacks against the IDF. Yes, they continue to pop up from their tunnels and engage the IDF, but they are soon eliminated. With Gaza City being completely surrounded, and fierce air attacks every day, Hamas is doomed. Every time Hamas launches rocket attacks on Israel's cities/towns, they show the location of another tunnel exit and the Israeli air force destroys that exit. Every time Hamas pops up to attack the IDF ground troops, drone mounted thermal cameras can see exactly where they are and they are wiped out. No matter how many tunnel exits there are, even if there are literally hundreds, sooner or later the IDF will destroy them. Once that happens, those tunnels will become a massive tomb for Hamas. In the last few hours the IDF has started a huge air attack on central Gaza City.
As the IDF begins phase 3, actually entering Gaza City, they claim that they have eliminated 16 top Hamas commanders: the leaders of their intelligence division, the RPG division which is responsible for attacking tanks and armored personnel carriers, the top commander of Hamas's drones and numerous other battalion commanders. One of whom planned the Oct 7th massacre. The IDF has opened a 3rd humanitarian pause (from 10am to 2pm) so that more Palestinian civilians can flee south. BUT Hamas is trying to keep the civilians as human shields, and they began shooting at those who were fleeing. The IDF has claimed that they have destroyed 100 km of tunnels, one 1/5th of the estimated 500 Km of tunnels. In this evenings news I saw a video of a NBC reporter who is embedded in the IDF. He showed the entrance of a tunnel just before the IDF plugged it up with a "sponge bomb". A sponge bomb doesn't have any explosive charge, but it creates a tremendous fountain of liquid plastic like material that quickly hardens like concrete. Each sponge bomb can fill an olympic size swimming pool in 7 seconds. Right now the IDF is chewing at the edges of Gaza City, using ground troops, taking it slowly, going street by street and building by building.
I still have only reports of 1 dead American and 2 possible deaths. The Pentagon released 45 deaths of American troops so far, but they said it may go higher. No statement I saw concerning the severity of the injuries. There are also reports of American Special Forces in Gaza wearing Israeli uniforms as part of hostage rescue efforts. Of course if they are killed in foreign uniforms, it will never be made public. Does anyone recall Cambodia and Laos? I don't think we ever truly officially made public the deaths in those battlefields either, although there were MIAs there.
We are beginning to get the first reports of IDF troops fighting in the very heart of Gaza City. During the last 24 hours, Israel has struck 2,500 Hamas targets with aerial bombs and artillery. In one outlying area of Gaza City is a town of aprox 60,000 , not one building has been left standing. Just mounds of concrete. All of the people who once lived there had fled south. One IDF trooper was asked if he saw any civilians. He replied, "Not one single person. They left." At top very top of Israel's "hit list" is Yahya Sinwar, the leader of all Hamas. Sinwar planned and directed the massacre of Oct, 7th. When the IDF captured a Hamas command post, they found hundreds of documents with his signature. Israel's intelligence agencies are working overtime to locate him. Hamas continues to pop up out of their tunnels and briefly put up fierce fire-fights. A few IDF tanks have been put out of action , but the tankers survived.
The largest hospital in Gaza is the Al-Shifa Hospital complex which is located in the very heart of Gaza City. In addition to providing care for the injured, Al-Shifa is providing shelter for hundreds of civilians. The complex is filled to overflowing with wounded and those seeking shelter. Israel military intelligence is saying that hundreds of terrorists retreated into Al-Shifa after the massacre of Oct 7th. Moreover, Israel has stated that UNDER Al-Shifa is the top command post of Hamas. To prove that, Israel has shown reporters a video of multiple tunnel entrances/exits and from satellite photos (taken over several years) they showed stockpiles of precast concrete arches which are only used to reinforce tunnels. Those stockpiles were stored on hospital grounds. Additional, they showed interviews of young Hamas operatives who have been captured alive. All of the captives told of how they had gone down into tunnels beneath Al-Shifa. The IDf has bombed NEAR the hospital but not directly bombed it. How the IDF will capture or kill Hamas in that complex only they know, and are not sharing it. BUT, one thing is certain. The IDF will have to take control of Al-Shifa
When the Egyptians dealt with Hamas, they flooded the tunnels with sea water. I don't know if that is what the Israelis will do or not. Many civilians also took shelter in the hospital thinking the IDF will not bomb it, so it is not just terrorists at that location.
Yes, correct. Many civilians in Al-Shifa. That is going to be a problem for the IDF. The Egyptians not only used sea water. According to several videos, they also used raw sewage. No way of knowing what the Egyptians were thinking. PERHAPS they didn't want to kill fellow Arabs, and didn't use explosives ? The IDF has claimed they have destroyed 130 tunnels in Gaza. BUT, what does that mean, exactly ? A complete collapse of the tunnels OR just plugging them up ?
I think the Egyptians just didn't want to kill any more innocents than they had to. As has been brought up before, nobody in the Arab world really wants the Palestinians around. They want the Israelis to have to deal with them, and they use the so-called Plight of the Palestinians as a call to unite the other Arab and Muslim states. That is, in part, why this entire thing started. Iran didn't want Saudi Arabia to come to terms with the Israelis. If the Arab world befriends Israel, Iran would be isolated at the only major nation in the Muslim world not on terms wit the Jewish state. Throw the Shia thing on top and it could turn out that the Arab Sunni world would turn against Iran.
As we head into the 2nd month of the Israel/Hamas war, nothing is stopping the IDF. Quite frankly, I had expected Hamas to put up a better fight. Seriously, they had nearly 2 decades to prepare. 300 miles of underground tunnels, massive armament support from Iran, setting booby traps, building rocket launchers, and a fighting force of 30,000 men. Hamas has killed only 32 IDF soldiers, while they have lost perhaps thousands. Thus far, Hamas has only managed to knock out 2 IDF tanks and 1 armored bulldozer. With literally hundreds of tunnel exits, I had expected them to come pouring out in mass, but they have only come out to fight in only small numbers. Hamas has called upon other groups of Arabic terrorists to attack Israel, but thus far, there has been only a very weak response. Hezbollah has fired SOME rockets , BUT nowhere near their potential. It is estimated that Hezbollah has 150,000 rockets, some capable of hitting Tel Aviv. Yemen insurgents have fired merely a dozen of so rockets at Israel but they have been all shot down. Iranian proxies in Syria have sent drones to attack U.S. troops in Syria, but have not caused any serious damage. And, Iran itself has done nothing except saber rattle. If Hamas had hoped to start a regional war, they have failed here also. The IDF is now deep in the heart of Gaza City and only 1 1/2 mile from Hamas "general headquarters" located in and under Al Shifa hospital. The IDF has not directly targeted that hospital/headquarters. Something did knock out solar panels on the hospital roof, but it might have been a Hamas misfired rocket. Israel has agreed to "pause" for 4 hours every day to allow more citizens to evacuate south. Everyday we see long columns of citizens going south.
Interestingly, it seems that CNN, the AP, Reuters, and the New York Times had embedded reporters with Hamas when they launched their attack against Israel, which suggests that they knew about it ahead of time. This further confuses me as to how it could be that Israel was taken by surprise.
Yes, it kinda makes me wonder those side they are truly on ? What I find amazing is that international journalists give so much credence to what Hamas is telling them. They might as well be reporters for Al Jazeera. There is no question that civilians have been killed, BUT the Palestinian Health Authority (PHA) is controlled by Hamas, and they will say whatever Hamas wants. The PHA says over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed thus far, BUT that number includes Hamas fighters. International journalists are reporting merely the 10,000 number with no mention that it includes dead terrorists.