Operation Iron Swords - Day 26 - 01 November 2023
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."
An 01 November 2923 IDF assessment of Hamas’s October 7 massacre suggested that around 3,000 terrorists invaded southern Israel to carry out a murderous rampage through Gaza border towns. Previously, the military had estimated that some 2,500 terrorist operatives took part. According to the latest assessment, the figure only includes armed terror operatives and not the waves of Gazan citizens who took advantage of the enormous gaps in the fence to also make their way inside later in the day. The intelligence gathered from the interrogation of captured terrorists by the Shin Bet. The revised assessment from the Southern Command indicates that approximately 3,000 Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel at various points, a figure significantly higher than the initially estimated 1,500 to 2,000.
Butcher's Bill / Oasis of Martyrs
Palestinian health authorities say that at least 8,796 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, more than three times the number killed in the six-week-long war in 2014. The death toll included 3,648 children and 2,290 women [these subtotals fluctuate inexplicably]. In addition, 23,219 citizens have been injured since October 7th, including at least 6,360 children and 4,891 women. More than 1,650 were missing and presumed buried under rubble, including 940 children. On the West bank, at least 129 Palestinians had been killed, and more than 1,980 injured. IDF said it was holding 1,500 bodies of terrorists.
More than 1,405 Israelis were killed as a result of HAMAS attacks, including 331 soldiers and officers, according to what was announced by the Israeli army. At least 5,431 were injured.
Some 249 hostages are being held by militants in the Gaza Strip. Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said “almost 50” hostages had been killed in Israeli bombing raids in the three weeks since the war began. About 40 Israelis remained missing. More than 50 people were killed in an Israeli air raid on the densely packed Jabalia refugee camp, Palestinian authorities said. Hamas said seven Israeli hostages, three of whom held foreign passports, were killed in this attack.
By one estimate, over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. More Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank led to the arrests of dozens of Palestinians, and the number held in Israeli jails has more than doubled to about 10,000 since the Hamas attack on October 7. Israeis jails initially held about 4,000 prisoners from Gaza, and more than 1,550 from the West Bank.
Thousands of Palestinians whose permits to work in Israel were revoked are believed to be held in detention camps, but Israel has so far refused to release information about them, human rights groups said. About 18,500 residents of Gaza held permits to work outside the besieged strip. The Minister of Labour for the Palestinian Authority estimated that about 4,500 workers are unaccounted for and are believed to have been detained by Israeli forces.
Operational Update
Israeli Forces have almost completed the cutting through of the Gaza Strip. The IDF spearheads are little more than 1 km away from the coast and by one estimate that they will reach the coast within the next 24 hours.
Soldiers of the 84th Givati Infantry Brigade, part of the IDF's 162nd Armored Division HaPlada, died in a Namer armored personnel carrier destroyed by Hamas militants during a raid in the northern Gaza Strip. Hamas militants, using their tunnels, approached one of these armored vehicle parking lots, which was not guarded in any way along the perimeter, and shot at a heavy Namer armored personnel carrier and a couple of Merkavas with tandem grenades at close range. Apparently, it was in this armored personnel carrier that an entire squad of Israeli soldiers died.
Bloomberg Economics and Governance Correspondent Henry Meir, stated that the military goal of the new long-term Israeli strategy is to limit the deaths of its army and limit human losses in order to avoid raising more international concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The strategy announced by Israel of implementing a slow and gradual attack on Gaza threatens a long and deadly war, and that the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas )’s use of vast tunnels complicates this campaign.
Israel's ambition to defeat Hamas was greater than ever, with the army and government are currently preparing the public for a campaign that will take months, not weeks. Meir quoted former Israeli military intelligence official Yossi Kuperwasser as saying, “Israel is proceeding gradually and with extreme caution because it wants to ensure that there is a minimum number of casualties, and it believes that it is not under any time pressure.”
The gradual progress of the current campaign aims to avoid heavy fighting in built-up areas, while the forces fear getting close to the vast network of secret underground tunnels in which Hamas hides. Slow tactics may succeed in limiting Israeli military losses and perhaps civilian deaths, but they You risk prolonging the war.
The Bloombreg report attributed Amir Avivi, the former brigadier general who participated in the preparations for the Gaza war in 2014, as saying that expelling Hamas from Gaza may take more than a year. “We need to spend months and months dismantling all this infrastructure,” Avivi said after meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior military officials as head of an association that includes former and reserve members of the security forces.
The challenge facing Israel in Gaza is magnified by the presence of the tunnel network, which Hamas says extends for several hundred kilometers and is equipped with ventilation and electricity poles, some of which reach a depth of 35 meters and can contain railway tracks and communications rooms, according to experts, and often falls. Its entrance into residential buildings or other public facilities.
He stated that using robots to explore the intricacies of the tunnels could reduce risks, but given the tight spaces, booby traps, and Hamas's greater knowledge of the secret environment, Israeli forces trying to enter would be at a severe disadvantage. Another complication is that Hamas has said it keeps detainees underground, making bombing tunnels more dangerous.
The report drew attention to the fact that former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on the “X” website: “Hamas depends on us entering every hideout and every tunnel in order to pay a heavy price in blood.” He called for a long siege to "suffocate Hamas in the tunnels until they are forced to leave."
Manuel Trajtenberg, executive director of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said that due to international and local pressures, Israel will need to reduce the attack after a few weeks and then rely on more targeted missions for a long period. He stressed, “At no time do we think about occupying Israel.”
IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari reported "IDF forces continue to significantly expand ground operations in the Gaza Strip. In northern Gaza, during the night, significant battles took place, one of which was conducted surrounding a multi-story building in the area of Jabaliya from which terrorists shot at our forces. This building, like many locations that Hamas terrorists use as shelter, is a civilian structure, located in close proximity to a school, medical center and government offices. IDF soldiers directed aircraft to strike the threat, eliminating the terrorists. "
IDF intercepted a surface-to-air missile that was launched from Lebanese territory toward an IDF UAV. In response, IAF aircraft struck the origin of the missile launch, as well as the terrorists who carried out the launch.
IDF troops are continuing ground activities in the Gaza Strip in a joint multi-branch effort of ground, air and naval forces. IDF fighter jets, helicopters, UAVs, naval vessels and artillery are assisting the ground forces by directing and conducting simultaneous air strikes according to the operational need.
During these strikes, dozens of Hamas terror targets were struck, including observation posts, anti-tank missile squads and launch posts, naval vessels and military posts. Furthermore, terrorists were killed, infiltrations into Israel were prevented and terror activities were thwarted. To date, the IDF has struck over 11,000 targets.
The Israeli naval force deployed ships equipped with missiles in the Red Sea on Tuesday, as part of what the entity claims is a "situation assessment and efforts to bolster defense," Israeli media reported. Israeli forces spokesperson commenting on the measure claimed that the military is "in a very high state of readiness." The Wall Street Journal had previously published footage of Israeli naval vessels in the Red Sea after Yemen's Sanaa revealed that it carried out missile and drone launches targeting the depth of Israel.
Israel cut Gaza’s telecommunication and internet services for a second time despite humanitarian aid agencies warning that such blackouts severely disrupt their work in an already dire situation in the war-torn Palestinian enclave. Telecom provider Paltel reported a “complete disruption” of communications and internet services in Gaza. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, providing sporadic updates via satellite from Khan Younis, southern Gaza, said on Wednesday that the blackout sent “waves of concern and fear among people and evacuees in the southern part of Gaza who still have family members remaining in the northern part and Gaza City”.
“This blackout is very tragic for people here and an indication that something serious is going on,” he reported. The lack of communication only intensifies people’s concerns “about what’s going to happen to their relatives and loved ones”, he added. “The difficult part is the inability to know exactly what’s going on. It becomes increasingly difficult to understand the situation in Gaza City and the northern part as Israeli tanks move to separate the north from the south.”
Kan Hebrew channel analyst Shmuel Rosner said that Israel must take into account that many of its prisoners are in Gaza , and that during the coming weeks it will fluctuate between successful moments and difficult ones, stressing that it seems that the difficult moments will be many. Shmuel stressed the need to remember that Israel is in a state of war and that the clock is not moving much towards victory because the government has only liberated one prisoner.
Regarding the ground incursion, former Shin Bet employee Shalom Ben Hanan said that Israel was on its way to the target during the past days, but it is now inside the target. He added, "This means that we will engage in battles face-to-face and from house to house," noting that some of these houses have tunnel openings from which fighters emerge to engage, and this makes the matter very complicated, because the army has penetrated more this time than any previous time.
Gaza’s border with Egypt opened for limited evacuation, allowing for just under 500 people to flee war-torn Gaza. Palestine’s General Authorities for Crossings and Borders listed a set of 491 people, some dual nationals, others foreign passport holders, and still others injured Palestinians, that a set of countries agreed to evacuate from Gaza.
The director of the Jerusalem Center for Future Studies, Ahmed Rafiq Awad, said that what Israel is doing in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem is enough to transform this front from hot to hotter, because it anticipated matters and initiated an unprecedented campaign of arrests, random killings and raids, and launched settlers into the streets to harass the Palestinians, intimidate them, and prevent them from Moving, it closed roads and prevented prayers at Al-Aqsa.
Regarding whether the iron fist in Jerusalem will actually achieve security and stability, Awad answered that the problem of any occupier - not just Israel - is his belief that he can with his force snatch up national and religious hopes and dreams, but in reality he fails to resist the ideas. The same spokesman added that if the occupation kills the resistor, it will not be able to kill the idea of ??resistance, and popular demands do not end with the killing of a leader or movement, but rather the Palestinian people will always demand their rights, and this is what we have seen since 1948 of Israel’s inability to overcome the Palestinians, their resistance and their demands, even though it recorded successes here and there.
Bystanders
The director of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights resigned over the organization’s response to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, which he described as a “text-book case of genocide.” In a public letter, dated October 28, Craig Mokhiber said that he is writing “at a moment of great anguish” as the world sees “a genocide unfolding before our eyes.”
“The European, ethno-nationalist, settler colonial project in Palestine has entered its final phase, toward the expedited destruction of the last remnants of indigenous Palestinian life,” he wrote in the letter publicly shared on Tuesday, and addressed to Volker Turk, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. “This is a text-book case of genocide,” Mokhiber said, adding that Western governments “are wholly complicit in the horrific assault. The former UN human rights official said that the US, UK and much of the Europe are not only “refusing to meet their treaty obligations,” under the Geneva Conventions, but also supporting Israel by providing it arms and political and diplomatic support.
“The genocide we are witnessing in Palestine is the product of decades of Israeli impunity provided by the US & other western governments & decades of dehumanization of the Palestinian people by western corporate media,” he wrote on X. “Both must end now. Speak up for human rights.”
Mokhiber has worked for the United Nations since 1992, in a number of prominent roles. He led the high commissioner’s work on devising a human rights-based approach to development, and acted as a senior human rights adviser in Palestine, Afghanistan and Sudan. A lawyer who specializes in international human rights law, he lived in Gaza in the 1990s.
His letter called for the effective end to the state of Israel. "We must support the establishment of a single, democratic secular state in all of historic Palestine, with equal rights for Christians, Muslims, and Jews,” he wrote, adding: “and, therefore, the dismantling of the deeply racist, settler-colonial project and an end to apartheid across the land.”
International responses to the October 7 Hamas attack were broadly split between the Global North and South over condemnations of the killings of just Israeli civilians in the terror attack or all civilians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But as the Gaza humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, divisions are increasing within the West.
Argentina, home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community, condemned Israel’s attack on the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. “Nothing justifies the violation of international humanitarian law,” the Argentine foreign ministry said in a statement, in which it also called for the release of Israeli hostages captured by Palestinian Hamas militants.
The statement came a day after neighboring South American nation Bolivia cut diplomatic ties with Israel because of its attacks on the Gaza Strip, while Colombia and Chile recalled their ambassadors to Israel. Bolivia “has decided to break diplomatic relations with the Israeli state in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip,” Deputy Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani announced at a press conference.
Israel traded blame with Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, over the devastating attack on the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. But in the absence of an independent investigation, the Israeli military’s assertion that the blast was due to a missile misfire by Islamic Jihad failed to assuage the anger spreading across the Arab world. Protests erupted on Wednesday in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Iran, Libya and Yemen. Many were staged outside the embassies of major Western powers, the US, UK and France.
But more than a year after the West suffered a rude shock when the countries of the Global South stayed neutral on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, patience is running out on the old ways of doing diplomatic business. When castigated over their failure to uphold the tenets of international law, Global South countries have cited the West’s “double standards” as well as its selective response to aggression and the use of asymmetric force.
If the Russian invasion of Ukraine exposed divisions in the international community, the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict is tearing it apart, particularly among emerging powers in Asia, Africa and Latin America, many of whom do not share the Eurocentric histories of the old major global players.
“This crisis is without any doubt increasing the divisions, because this is reinforcing the Global South narrative of [the West’s] double standards,” said Michel Duclos, a former French ambassador to Syria and a special advisor to the Paris-based Institut Montaigne. From the Global South perspective, economic and geostrategic interests drove the splits over the Ukraine war. The Israeli-Palestinian divide is driven by emotional baggage and for countries that emerged after World War II, patience is running out. “It’s more about the West is hypocritical and gives priority not so much to their interests as their own feelings. The West has special feelings for Israel and Israeli interests, Israeli pain, in emotional terms. In the Global South, this is seen as selective emotion and selective rules of the game,” explained Duclos.
“It’s not that the Global South is all united and has one single position – that's unlikely in these circumstances,” said Sarang Shidore, director of the Global South Program at the Washington DC-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “The question is, are there enough countries in the Global South that are animated by this issue and are significant players? And, are they willing to push back and make their views well known? The answer to both questions is yes.”
The nature of the response, according to Shidore, would depend on developments in the Gaza Strip. If the humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian enclave deteriorates, some Global South countries could push for a UN General Assembly vote, particularly if the stalemate in the 15-member UN Security Council continues.
Israel’s deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip after blocking fuel, water, medication and food supplies sparked rifts in the US-EU partnership that are mostly contained within closed doors but have occasionally erupted in public. At an emergency video summit of EU leaders, several leaders warned that failing to uphold the rights of Palestinians in Gaza risked exposing Western states to the charge of hypocrisy, the Financial Times reported, citing multiple officials briefed on the discussion. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has faced a backlash from EU leaders and lawmakers for not explicitly calling on Israel to respect international law in its war on Gaza during a trip to Israel.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar publicly declared the European Commission president’s comments “lacked balance” and insisted that she was “not speaking for Ireland”.
“The Europeans are getting concerned about being viewed as not standing up for international law. Ursula von der Leyen’s stance of unreserved solidarity for Israel is being seen as one-sided and causing them to lose soft power in the Global South. Europe depends more on soft power than the US, which often relies more on hard power, though that is increasingly turning out to be counterproductive,” said Shidore.
Both the US and the EU have increased humanitarian funding for Palestinians since the Israeli bombardments following the Hamas attack. The EU’s aid to the Palestinians is the “price of their guilty conscience about the disappearance of the prospect of the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel,” noted French journalist and writer Gilles Paris in Le Monde.
The question, though, is how long will Brussels tolerate the repeated Israeli destruction of Gaza infrastructure funded by the EU. The 27-member bloc has long been divided over the issue, but the debate has been held behind closed doors. If the EU decides to move the debate on to the public and policy stage, it could receive considerable help from the Global South.
The US has the military hardware to weather differences with its European allies over the Israeli-Palestinian issue. But it will not gain friends in the soft power competition, and both Russia and China are ready and able to take its place in the Global South community that is emerging to change the existing world order.
Axis of Resistance
Israel is “committing barbaric massacres against unarmed civilians”, Ismail Haniyeh said. Hamas’s political leader has accused Israel of carrying out “massacres” in the besieged Gaza Strip to conceal its own “defeats” and warned that the hundreds of Israeli and foreign hostages being held captive in Gaza faced the same risk of “death and destruction” from the Israeli assault on the territory as Palestinian residents.
Haniyeh, threatened the Israeli occupation army with more losses in the Gaza Strip , and revealed that Hamas presented a comprehensive vision that begins with stopping the Israeli aggression on Gaza, opening the crossings, and concluding a prisoner exchange deal. He said that the Palestinian resistance “teaches the enemy a new lesson every day in the military built on the shoulders of faithful men,” stressing that the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of Hamas) and the resistance factions are fighting the occupation army on all fronts and are confronting them with all heroism and valor. Not caring about their tanks or their continuous bombardment.
The Hamas president revealed that they informed the mediators of the need to "put an immediate end to the massacre and genocide" and that the movement presented "a comprehensive vision that begins with stopping the aggression and opening the crossings, passing through a deal to exchange prisoners, and ending with opening the political path to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the right to self-determination."
He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who said he leads a right-wing, racist, fascist group - is one of the most important causes of the current war, "and he only thinks about how to save himself and his family and fears imprisonment and accountability, even if it is at the expense of destroying the entire region."
Hezbollah issued a message to the resistance in Gaza and Palestine:
"'From limbs that have known humiliation and disgrace, and hearts filled with certainty in God and His promise, to the land of steadfastness and glory, to the land of the Miraj of the Messenger and the Beloved, the Best of Mankind, Prophet Muhammad. To the Qiblah of the free and the faithful, the people of the Al-Aqsa Flood in the honourable Gaza.
"To support Al-Aqsa, we have taken up arms. Victory is a promised certainty, and the morning is near.
"'O oppressed people of proud Gaza, the killing of your children, your women, your young men, and your old people is great and honourable, and your spirit of steadfastness is even greater, and this blood of your resistance is drowning the aging Israeli ???? entity, of which only a portion of its last breath remains.
"Our hand is with you on the trigger, as we fight the enemy of God in support of our most vulnerable people and our oppressed people in beloved Palestine, so strike them above the necks, and strike them with every finger, and be certain that your martyrs and our martyrs are on the path to Jerusalem, until the day of the promised conquest.
"And truly, God helps those who help Him" [Quran].
"Peace and blessings be upon Muhammad, his Pure and Blessed family and true companions.'""
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei has called on Muslim states to cease oil and food exports to Israel, demanding an end to the bombardment of the Gaza Strip. “The bombings on Gaza must stop immediately … the path of oil and food exports to the Zionist regime should be stopped,” Khamenei said, according to Iranian state media. He suggested that the “people of Gaza have mobilised the public’s conscience by their patience,” referring to the pro-Palestinian protests around the world.
“Look at what’s happening in the world. In the UK, France, Italy, and the US, many people came out to the street and chanted slogans against Israel and the United States. They have lost their credibility and really, there is no remedy for them as they cannot justify Israel’s attack,” Khamenei said. “The world of Islam shouldn’t forget in the case of Gaza it was the US, France, and the UK that stood against the oppressed people of Gaza, it wasn’t just the Zionist regime.”
A New York Times report believes that Tehran, whose leaders have pledged for four decades to destroy Israel, is now facing a test of its credibility, and whether its decision and its agents in the region live up to their fiery rhetoric. The report, written by the newspaper's New York-based correspondent, Farnaz Fassehi, indicates that if Iran does nothing, its "enthusiastic" leaders risk losing their credibility among voters and allies, especially with internal voices in Iran questioning why their country's actions do not match its rhetoric in the country to Liberate Jerusalem .”
According to three Iranians linked to the government and familiar with internal deliberations, the report says that Iran does not want a regional war, because that carries risks for Tehran and its rulers. The report also revealed that senior leaders of the Quds Force and Hezbollah believe that if Israel succeeds in eliminating the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ), it will go after them afterward.
People familiar with the Iranian strategy said that the goal currently is not all-out war, but rather to keep the Israeli army under pressure, which could limit its ability to strike Hamas. The New York Times considered that the confrontation with Israel may significantly weaken the military capabilities of pro-Iranian groups, especially if the American army intervenes.
Ali Fayez of the International Crisis Group said Iran may try to solve this cycle by allowing its allies to escalate their attacks against Israel and the United States in a measured way. He added that for nearly 4 decades, Iran's defense policy has succeeded in protecting its territory against foreign attacks, while the conflict in Gaza represents a test of the limits of that policy in an unprecedented way.
Iran's position regarding Palestine is that there should exist one state and one state only; while the Jewish population can either choose to live under this government like the rest of the citizens or travel to another country, deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament Mojtaba Zonnouri said.
"Muslim countries must come to an agreement and take practical action ... There are two options for action. According to the first option, most Arab countries favor the creation of two independent states – Palestine and Israel. Iran does not accept this scenario. Iran has the simplest and most democratic proposal ... We accept any type of one state and government formed by democratic elections," he said.
Following the elections in the established Palestinian state, the lawmaker emphasized that the incoming government will face a crucial decision to present. They will need to offer a choice to the "former" settlers of "Israel" who were involved in operations against the Gaza Strip and the occupation of Palestinian territories. This choice will involve either remaining in the new state and acquiring citizenship or opting to depart.
"The operation against Israel belongs 100% to the Hamas group. We would also welcome a Hamas victory. We are providing and will continue to provide any non-material help that we can and any consultations in the international arena, whether it is agitation among the countries of the Muslim world or something else. If we can get help from them for Hamas, we will definitely get it, but to say that the rockets used by Hamas are Iranian is a real lie," he concluded.
Nicholas Aucott, Senior Military Advisor at the UK Delegation to the OSCE, in his speech at a meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation in Vienna, pointed out that Russia is now forced to cooperate only with authoritarian regimes. “Russia may proclaim a new world order; but this is a world order in which Russia invites the Hamas terrorist group to Moscow, following Hamas’s brutal murder of over 1400 Israeli citizens; it is the world order of allying with Iran, the provider of Shahed one way attack drones which have been used extensively by Russia to kill Ukrainian civilians and attack critical infrastructure; and the development of North Korea as Russia’s new strategic arms partner and provider of military aid,” the UK military diplomat said.
He added that is not a “new world order”, but a “grouping of authoritarian States that have aligned out of desperate necessity”. “Mixing with such regimes mark the depths to which Russia has sunk in an effort to maintain its military in the field. Russia does this while it continues to suffer devastating losses both around the town of Avdiivka and in the campaign more broadly,” Aucott said.
Allied for Democracy
U.S. President Joe Biden says that he will veto the Israel aid bill proposed by the House Republicans if it were to be passed. If passed, fourteen-point-three billion U.S. dollars in aid would be given to Israel, but none to Ukraine. Senators from both parties are voicing doubts about the bill, while the White House says the bill would be bad for Israel, the Middle East, and the national security of the United States. This is after Biden requested one-hundred-and-six billion U.S. dollars in aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that their war with Hamas is a “war of the free world” as they vowed to continue their efforts to “eradicate” the “terrorist” organization. The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs vowed it would continue to act to “depose the Hamas regime, destroy its military capabilities, and remove the terrorist threat posed to Israel from the Gaza Strip.” It said, while it would continue its ground invasion of the besieged enclave, it would continue to make “maximum effort to resolve the hostage issue” but said, “Israel will protect its borders and its citizens.”
The statement continued: “Israel cannot continue to allow the existence of a murderous terrorist organization that surpasses ISIS in its brutality in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s war with Hamas is the war of the free world. The world must join Israel in its efforts to eradicate Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in the Middle East and in the entire world.”
“Achieving the goals of the war requires the entry of ground forces into areas controlled by Hamas, in order to uproot it from the tunnels, headquarters, bunkers and outposts it has spread throughout the Gaza Strip – especially in close proximity and under hospitals, mosques and schools.... The expansion of ground activities is being initiated under time constraints, and Israel is committed to carry out these activities in accordance with the Rules of War.”
The United States and Israel have initiated discussions regarding the future of the Gaza Strip. According to a report by Bloomberg citing informed sources, the discussions revolve around three main options that include usurping the resistance and internationalizing governance of Gaza.
- Multinational Oversight: The first option entails granting temporary oversight of Gaza to regional countries, backed by troops from the US, UK, Germany, and France. Ideally, it would also include representation from Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.
- Multinational Force: The second option proposes mimicking the Multinational Force and Observers group that currently operates in the Sinai Peninsula, mirroring the treaty between Egypt and Israel.
- United Nations Oversight: The third option suggests placing Gaza under temporary United Nations oversight. A proposal that Israel views as impractical.
"We can't have a reversion to the status quo with Hamas running Gaza. We also can't have Israel running or controlling Gaza. Between those shoals are a variety of possible permutations that we're looking at very closely now, as are other countries," Secretary Blinken said. However, it is clear that all three options come with political risks for the US and partnering states, including the Gulf States. Any foreign troops would be subject to danger as they would be serving as an extension of the Israeli occupation.
As Israel wages war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attacks, traumatised Israelis have ostensibly put their differences aside and rallied behind the government. But with Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza and hundreds of hostages still being held by Hamas, Israeli society is more divided than ever on strategy. On the street and in the political sphere, moderate voices have been pushed to the margins.
Justin Salhani, writing 01 November 2023 for al-Jazeera, noted that Gal Hirsch had no known experience in hostage negotiations, and in 2006, he left the Israeli forces, disgraced over his role in military failures during the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Yet when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu picked the former military commander to lead efforts for the release of captives taken by Hamas to Gaza after its October 7 attack, that decision made sense to political psychologist Saul Kimhi. “He’s choosing people [to join his wartime administration] based on their opinions of him and not on how fit they are for the job,” Kimhi said. Hirsch is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, and — like Israel’s prime minister himself — has faced charges of corruption.
Kimhi, who teaches at Tel Aviv University, has studied Netanyahu’s mind for almost a quarter of a century. In 1999, the same year that Netanyahu’s first term as premier would end, Kimhi’s behavioural analysis of the leader found a concerning pattern of behaviour. Some of his conclusions: Netanyahu was narcissistic, entitled and paranoid, and he reacted poorly under stress.
Kimhi revisited Netanyahu as a subject in 2017 but found not much had changed. As people age, Kimhi said, their behaviours tend to become more extreme. For Netanyahu, his paranoia and narcissism have grown. He trusts no one, except maybe his immediate family, and prioritises his “personal future” over all else, Kimhi’s research found. Netanyahu’s behavioural analysis, according to Kimhi, suggests that he is indecisive and struggles with difficult decisions. “He is not a resilient person at all,” Kimhi told Al Jazeera.
Netanyahu also has qualities that appear to have helped him emerge as one of the world’s great political survivors. A 2021 personality study by the Jordanian professor of political science Walid ‘Abd al-Hay, found Netanyahu to be highly charismatic, “with a strong memory and high analytical ability”. In a career at the top of Israeli politics spanning almost three decades, those attributes have frequently worked for him.
Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. He first came to power in 1996 and served a three-year term before he was replaced by Ehud Barak. He would return to power in 2009 and then serve for 13 of the last 14 years. On a handful of occasions, Netanyahu’s time appeared to be running out. In 2015, with his back to the wall, he used a scaremongering tactic, saying “Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves.” He was re-elected.
After losing the premiership for a year, he came back to power in 2022, this time, by assembling the most far-right government in Israel’s history. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been convicted of incitement to racism, destroying property, and joining a “terror” organisation when he was 16 years old. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads the hardline Religious Zionist Party that not only rejects Palestinian statehood but denies the existence of the Palestinian people and has condemned LGBTQ activists. Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri is an ultraorthodox rabbi who was sentenced to three years in jail for taking bribes. An op-ed in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has described some of Netanyahu’s ministers as “neo-Nazi” and “neo-fascist”.
Netanyahu’s paranoia and entitlement have arguably shaped his view on a Palestinian state as well. Despite publicly saying he is open to a two-state solution, he has undermined the process at every turn — including by insisting that a Palestinian state should have no military or security oversight over its territory.
Under his reign, settlement expansion has flourished and political repression of Palestinians is rampant. Even before October 7, this year was the deadliest on record for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank with more than 150 people killed by Israeli forces, 38 of those children. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7. Netanyahu has tried to circumvent a Palestinian state by building regional agreements with Arab states through the Abraham Accords.
The issue of settlements and Netanyahu’s perceived unwillingness to engage in good-faith peace talks has grated many of Netanyahu’s foreign contemporaries over the years. “I cannot bear Netanyahu,” former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was caught telling then-American President Obama on a hot mic in 2011. “He’s a liar.” Obama replied “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you”.
Netanyahu believes that all of historical Palestine should belong to Israel. It is a belief with roots in Netanyahu’s upbringing. Benzion Netanyahu, the prime minister’s father, was a proponent of Ze’ev Jabotinsky – a proponent of what is known as Revisionist Zionism – who believed a Jewish state should extend to both sides of the Jordan River. In effect, that means an Israel that includes the country’s current territory, the West Bank, Gaza and part or all of Jordan.
After failing to be awarded a position at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Benzion moved his family to the United States and took a position at Cornell University where he taught Judaic Studies. He carried that rejection for the rest of his life, and along with it, a distrust of intellectuals and the Israeli Labor Party. Netanyahu held his father, who died in 2012 at the age of 102, in high regard. He said his father knew “how to identify danger in time” and “draw the necessary conclusions”.
Netanyahu learned that relationships were transactional – not altruistic – and “that humans live in constant Darwinian struggle for survival”, according to ‘Abd al-Hay’s study.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the war in the Middle East must not weaken support for Ukraine and emphasized the need to provide more weapons to our country to fight against Russia. “The war in Gaza must not lead to a weakening of our will and ability to support Ukraine. A new winter is approaching, and we must expect new attacks against energy supplies and other critical infrastructure. There are no signs that Russia is planning for peace. On the contrary, they are planning for more war. Therefore, we must continue to support Ukraine. That means more weapons. And I say that because I want peace in Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the 75th Nordic Council in Oslo, Norway.
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