October 277, 2023, "The War"
October 277, 2023, "The War"
My 216th post on The War
Today’s Image
The top photo shows Abdel Qader Sabbah, a member of the Hamas run General Training Directorate, a division with the Hamas run police. There he inspecting troops from the Directorate along with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, at a time when Haniyeh was still leading Hamas in Gaza. It turns out that Sabbah is also a paid reporter on the payroll of CNN. The bottom image is a Twitter post on CNN’s official thread talking about how brave their reporters are in Gaza. CNN, among many other Western Media outlets, has publicly criticized Israel for the “high number” of journalist casualties during The War. Well, if they are moonlighting as reporters, but are actually Hamas combatants, what do you expect?? After documentation in Honest Reporting, CNN announce that they fired Sabbah. CNN also told Honest Reporting that they do nothing to vett their paid reporting staff in Gaza or Judea/Samaria (West Bank). I guess that this explains a lot. More on this later.
Gaza Rockets
In a rather unusual operation, a shoulder mounted anti-aircraft missile was launched from Gaza in a futile attempt to take down an Israeli fighter jet. The missile missed by landed in a small Israeli village of Kfar Maimon where it landed on a residential home doing damage but no injuries.
Casualties
There were no IDF casualties reported in the last 24 hours. BUT, there was a terror attack in the northern Israeli city of Karmiel that resulted in the death of one civilian (name not released yet) and another seriously injured. The attack was committed by a single assailant, an Israeli Arab named Jawed Omar Rubia, who attacked the two men with a large knife. Rubia was killed by one of the victims who was armed with a hand gun. The victim who dies was an IDF soldier, Sergeant Aleksandr Iakiminskyi - 19 (Z’’L). After October 7, more and more gun permits have been requested by Israelis. Several family members of Rubia were arrested for questioning after the incident as they work at the shopping mall. Here you can see footage from a security camera in one of the stores inside the mall.
Gaza Operations
Operations are continuing in Rafah with IDF infantry uncovering many new tunnel entrances and weapons storage facilities. All are being defended by Hamas combatants that are generally killed as part of the IDF operations - either by a missile fired from a drone or by close-quarters combat. Here you can read an article in which the IDF commanders fighting in Rafah describe the new tactics that Hamas put in place there after learning from IDF operations in Gaza City and Khan Yunis. I recommend you read it. In the article the IDF estimates that it has killed about 900 active combatants during the Rafah operation so far.
Likewise, operations continue in the Shejalya neighborhood of Gaza City with many tunnel entrances uncovered and much weaponry.
Former Brigadier General Amir Avivi was interviewed by one of the local papers. In the interview he stated that it will take many years for the IDF to fully clear out the tunnel infrastructure in Gaza. He insists that it was negligence on the part of the Governments since the sighing of the Oslo Agreement until now that enable this tunnel infrastructure to be built. There were signs that tunnels were being built as early as 1997 and used to smuggle massive amounts of weapons. I recommend you read the entire article here. It is about a 5-10 minute read.
Reports in foreign Arab Press are indicating that only 2-3 people actually know the location of the Hamas leadership in Gaza - Sinwar and Deif. The same sources providing this information told the authors of the article that Sinwar and the leadership would never consider a deal resulting in them exiled, which has been offered by Israel during the course of negotiations. The leadership will only accept a scenario where they remain in charge of Gaza, the IDF evacuates all its troops and there is a “permanent” ceasefire. It is either that or “martyrdom”. None of this surprises me in the least. As I reported in January, all communications between the Hamas leadership and its command structure takes place via human couriers as no other channel is trusted as being secure. As far back as early January, I wrote:
It is my firm belief that no one, most importantly members of our Israeli War Cabinet, has yet to put themselves into the mind set of the Hamas Leadership to understand their motivations. That is the first principle of negotiation - Understand what are the goals of your opponent and if there is a way to mitigate them. Yahyah Sinwar has spent his entire life building up the armed forces of terrorists he now has at his disposal. He has done this out of the ideological perspective that kicking out the Jews was the first step to an Islamic Revival. You can read the Hamas Charter and it is all spelled out there - https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/attachments/jps-articles/2538093.pdf . The aims of Hamas, as consistent with other elements of the Moslem Brotherhood, extends way beyond its claims on the Jews and Israel. So in their vision liberating Palestine from the Jews and eradicating them is just the first step in a very long struggle. He and his co-leaders have invested billions of dollars in stolen money, taken from naive donor countries (or in the case of Qatar, not so naive) and invested in building a military force. He believed that by initiating the attack on October 7, it would cause Israel to invade and get strangled in the quagmire of the tunnel infrastructure in Gaza. So far this has not happened, but instead they have lost nearly ½ of their armed and trained personnel. There is no way that the IDF could leave Gaza with Hamas in charge. And there is no way that the Hamas leadership could give up the base of operations they established there. What are they going to to, pick up he army and move it to the French Riviera? Or Libya? Or Syria? Or Qatar? No way. In Gaza they have a willing base of people that they have raised from childhood do hate and glorify martyrdom. Where else are they going to have this?
Lebanon Operations
A successful assassination was completed by the IDF today of one of the top 5 Hezbollah commanders, Muhammad Nimah Nasser, by a missile fired from an IDF drone near the coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. Nasser is the third senior commander assassinated by Israel since the start of The War. Hezbollah placed him at the same level as Taleb Abdullah, assassinated last month and Wissam al-Tawil, assassinated back in January. The missile struck Nasser’s car killing him and his staff. Here you can see a photo of the destroyed car, from a distance. And here you can read more about Nasser and see his mug shot.
Due to this successful operation and IDF fighter jet attacks on Hezbollah positions very early this morning, I suspect that we will see an uptick in rockets fired by Hezbollah over the next 24 hours. Sure enough, even before I finished writing this Hezbollah launched a barrage of 100 rockets at the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona. No injuries were reported so far.
Meantime, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib sent a message through the Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov that he and his government do not want a war to break out between them. Well, neither does Israel. And neither does Israel want its entire population in the north evacuated because they under hourly rocket and drone attacks from Hezbollah. So many, Habib should direct his messages to Hezbollah who started these attacks, unprovoked. Israel has close relations with Azerbaijan, a moslem country.
Yemen Operations
The Houthis announced yesterday that they, along with Iraqi based Iranian proxies, conducted attacks on ships inside Israel’s Haifa shipping port. No one here has any idea what they are talking about. There have been no attacks on Haifa coming from Iraq.
Egypt/Syria/Iraq/Jordan
The Prime Minister of Egypt, Mostafa Madbouly, re-assigned responsibilities for running the Finance and Foreign Ministries to newly appointed staff. Egypt is in a fairly severe financial crisis that started before The War, but has been aggravated by events related to The War. The country has a severe budget deficit and is experiencing major power outages around the country amidst an unusually hot summer season. The country used to be a natural gas exporter. It also used to generate serious revenue from its Suez Canal tariffs. But because the actions by the Houthis have caused about 85% of the normal Suez Canal traffic to divert to going around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, this revenue has been lost. They also lost the revenue resulting from the commissions earned in all the arms smuggling going on between Egypt and Gaza, to Hamas.
Aid
Israel and the UN agencies responsible for distributing aid are in discussions with StarLink, the satellite internet communications system company started by Elon Musk, to deploy the system in Gaza so that regular communications can take place between the IDF and the aid agencies. This has been one problem plaguing the aid distribution problem in Gaza as the two parties have difficulty coordinating efforts in securing and then distributing the massive amount of aid that has piled up within the staging areas near the border crossing between Israel and Gaza. One reason the system has not been deployed yet is the IDF’s fear that units from the system could fall into the hands of Hamas operatives, allowing them to coordinate terror attacks.
A total of 303 aid trucks unloaded their cargo inside Gaza at the internal staging areas. Most entered from the Kerem Shalom border crossing straddling Egypt, Israel and Gaza. Aid equivalent to 186 trucks was picked up by aid agencies inside Gaza fro distribution. So aid is still accumulating inside Gaza but more of it is getting distributed than before.
IDF General
Senior IDF commanders and security officials insist that the New York Times report that IDF senior officers are telling the Government to agree to a ceasefire so that it can focus on fighting Hezbollah in the north are incorrect, false. They insist that they do not support enabling Hamas to continue its rule and military capabilities in Gaza in any version of a ceasefire. In this report from Ron Ben Yishai, a military correspondent for the major Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahhanot, he briefs the public on his discussions with senior officers. I read most of what Ben Yishai writes, including his articles only written in Hebrew. He is a writer who reports with knowledge and authority so I believe 100% of what he writes.
International
Two days ago I reported that the Arab League rescinded Hezbollah’s designation as a terrorist group. But, according to Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, the organization still holds “reservation and objections” over Hezbollah’s behavior, policies and actions. Well I, for one, find this “clarification” clear and refreshing…. (Not!)
Politics/Protests
An independent ad hoc group calling themselves The Movement for Quality Government, issues a letter to Defense Minister Gallant, Chief of Staff Herzi Haley and Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara demanding that the IDF immediately start conscription of eligible ultra-orthodox men as demanded by the Israeli Supreme Court affective immediately. In their letter the organization noted that from the 63,000 eligible young men, not a single draft notice was issued by the IDF. I wonder if The Movement for Quality Government has a US Chapter, or for that matter, UK, French chapters.
But reports on Israeli TV suggest that the IDF is actively preparing a list of the first group of ultra-orthodox that will receive draft notices. Apparently, they are gathering income tax data to locate those who are working in order to start with drafting from this segment. Most ultra-orthodox men do not work, but study all day.
There is a report coming from an unusual source, Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), that funds from the Qatari government found their way to personally benefit Prime Minister Netanyahu at least twice in the past two years. The report is unusual for three key reasons. Firstly, MEMRI is an independent media outlet that focuses solely on monitoring Arabic Media for what is said within the Arab population about Israel in order to hold them responsible for what they say “behind closed doors”. The second reason it is unusual is that it only appeared in English and in The Jerusalem Post. Before I try and describe what is going on, here is the original breaking story in MEMRI (an highly reputable media outlet). And here is the story in The Jerusalem Post. The reports imply that the funds were channeled to Netanyahu directly and were not necessarily used as a conduit for sending the funds on to Hamas. And finally, most of the Israeli newspapers and TV stations dislike Prime Minister Netanyahu. They publish regularly ugly reports on the Prime Minister that are much less condemning than this. So why is it that they are not reporting this story?? Because, if it is true and, as is implied that Netanyahu took the money for personal use it is the most condemning charge that could come out against a standing Prime Minister in Israeli history. Something does not smell right here and I hope to continue reporting on this until some more clarity surfaces. It also implies that Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the opposition party, Israeli Beitanu was involved. The Likud Party, in response, came out and said that in fact no money was ever exchanged. From my view this is a lame response. Assuming it is true, the fact that a sitting Prime Minister would even contemplate receiving large amounts of money from a foreign government that publicly supports the Muslim Brotherhood and can be seen as a clear adversary is sufficient to demand that the Prime Minister step down. You should read both articles.
A member of the opposition party, Labor, submitted a bill that would cancel the summer Knesset recess. It seems reasonable to me. If the soldiers fighting in the IDF, both active duty and reservists, are unable to take normal vacations, why should the politicians? The Party received support from nearly all the other opposition parties.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
In this video the US based non profit, Honest Reporting, documents so called independently contracted “reporters” or “journalists” who are actually members of Hamas. The video documents several of these so called journalists paid by Western Media, but actually are active Hamas members. Remember, my monologue on June 20th regarding the four elements comprising the corruption of the West? Well #1 is:
The Corruption of Western Media News Reporting,