October 389, 2023, "The War"
My 288th post on The War
Special Announcement
I will be taking a one week break from these posts in order to go sailing in Greece with a couple of friends. I apologize for the interruption and will return to filing these posts on my return.
Today’s Image
Meet Mr. Karim Ahmad Khan, the lead prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Mr. Khan was born in Edinburgh of Pakistani descent. He was appointed, at one point, as the Senior Crown Prosecutor in the UK. In May 2024 he submitted requests for arrest warrants for the following people: Yahya Sinwar (Hamas - dead), Mohammed Deif (Hamas - dead), Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas - dead), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Israel). His announcement caught many western leaders by surprise, particularly in the USA since he had previously promised that he would visit Israel before requesting any warrants in order to hear arguments from the government and the IDF on how they believed they were adhering to International Laws of Warfare. But on the day he was scheduled to fly to Israel he announced these warrants instead. It sent shock and panic through parts of the government here in Israel. Since May the court has been receiving drafts from leaders across the world, some in support of the warrants and some against. To date, after five months the warrants have yet to be issued. Israeli International Law experts submitted positions to the court stating that Israel has a vibrant court system, including a Supreme Court which has demanded in the past investigations, when relevant, into actions by the IDF felt to be in violation of humanitarian laws. In cases where a country, in which an accused lives, has a vibrant court enforcing humanitarian laws the ICC has no jurisdiction. The ICC is only supposed to get involved when there is no independent court system in place or when the court system is hindered from rendering proper judgements. In the UK, the previous Tory Government under Rishi Sunak submitted briefs to the ICC court suggesting that the ICC was extending its jurisdiction improperly. But his was withdrawn by Keir Starmer when his Labour Party replaced the Torys in a recent election.
According to this report in The Wall Street Journal the reasons for rushing this request for a warrant appears to be totally unrelated to justice. This report suggests that Mr. Khan was under internal investigation after being accused of sexual harassment by a former staff member. And in this report in the UK’s The Guardian it is alleged that Khan’s office suffered by efforts of “Israeli intelligence” to undermine, influence and allegedly intimidate the ICC chief prosecutor’s office. Since the start of The War I have monitored reports in The Guardian and I have yet to see one which shows Israel in a positive light. Nonetheless, its report about Israeli attempts to influence the prosecutor’s office are possible. The Palestinian Authority has been, over many years, attempting to draw the ICC into deciding that Israel occupies Judea/Samaria (West Bank). With regards to the accusations of sexual harassment, the issue was raised to the ICC back in May. The ICC has an oversight committee which has the authority to investigate charges like sexual harassment but no investigation into the accusations was started. The accuser, since submitting her claims against Khan withdrew her charges. Some have said that it was done under pressure. You can read more here.
My View - The Corrupt UN and its Vast Array of Organizations
As you read this portion of the post, you should bear in mind that the USA contributes about $20B each year to the UN Budget. The next largest country is China at about $10B. Iran does not even make the list so its contributions must be below $100k if anything at all.
I have no way of knowing whether the sexual harassment charges against the ICC prosecutor are based on reality or not. I have raised these issue in my post to point out the hidden agendas and built-in anti Israel biases of International Organizations such as:
International Court of Justice ICJ,
International Criminal Court ICC,
UN General Assembly,
Human Rights Watch HRW,
United Nations Relief Works Agency UNRWA,
Office of UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestinian Territories,
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon UNIFIL
and many more.
Let me start with UNIFIL which you have been reading about recently. There are some 10,000 UNIFIL forces deployed at one time or another in their facilities in Southern Lebanon. They come from many countries around the world including Spain, Ireland, Indonesia and more. On their own web site you can read their mandate which says that according to UN Security Council Resolution 1701 the UNIFIL forces are to ensure that the only military forces in Southern Lebanon are to be those of the Lebanese Armed Forces, not IDF or Hezbollah. Yet for nearly 28 years UNIFIL forces have totally ignored their mandate as Hezbollah has built up its forces and armaments literally right under their noses. In recent reporting in Southern Lebanon the UNIFIL forces have come under fire as Hezbollah forces have used their bases for cover. This has prompted countries from around the world, led by Ireland and Spain, condemning Israel. Yet the Israeli government has requested for weeks that UNIFIL forces pull back to several km north of the Blue Line as they are currently in an active combat zone. Yet UNIFIL forces have consistently refused this request. And only recently are we learning why. First you can read these AP reports on how Hezbollah is using UNIFIL facilities to stage its operations against Israel. And here you, based on testimony from a former Danish members of UNIFIL, can read how Hezbollah intimidated UNIFIL forces from fulfilling their duties on a regular basis. To quote - “It was forbidden to film and take pictures. And if we did, we could end up with the locals confiscating our cameras. It happened to my colleagues in UNIFIL and UNTSO.” And in this video report from an on location reporter from the UK’s The Telegraph you can see how Hezbollah built its tunnels in full sight of UNIFIL outposts. Despite their mandate, they did absolutely nothing. Only when they obstruct Israeli IDF forces do their governments scream. When it was Hezbollah threatening them no one cared. And now maybe we know why… And here it is reported that based on interrogations of captured Hezbollah combatants, Hezbollah has been bribing members of UNIFIL for years to look the other way. I believe that in any future scenario in Lebanon, Israel will insist that UNIFIL be disbanded as it serves no purpose and the people stationed there do nothing.
Next on my list is UNRWA. In 1948, all the Arab Armies in the region launched a massive attack on the newly formed State of Israel threatening to kill all its inhabitants. They failed in that effort, but a by product was the creation of about 750,000 Arab Refugees in and around the State of Israel. These Arab inhabitants did not declare a state of their own. At this point in time no one heard of Palestine, other than use it for the British Mandated Colony that preceded Israel. Instead, Egyptian forces entered and controlled Gaza while Jordanian forces entered Judea/Samaria (West Bank) and declared it an integral part of Jordan. Only the UK recognized this seizure of land by the Peacock Throne of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. There was no Palestine Liberation Organization.
At the demands of the Arab League, the UN created an organization whose sole purpose was to handle the Arab Refugees created as a byproduct of the attack on Israel by those same Arab countries. This corrupt organization was established in 1948 for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Arab Refugees resulting from the war initiated by all the Arab nations in the region declaring war on the newly formed State of Israel. The organization UNHCR handles refugees in all other regions in the world. And their role is to the refugees in resettling elsewhere while providing temporary assistance during the interim. At around this same time more than 800,000 Jews living in North Africa and the Arab nations were forces to flee for their lives, leaving behind everything. It was Israel and the Jewish funded Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS, that helped these refugees resettle. No corrupt UN Agency was created.
Since its founding UNRWA has solely focussed on the perpetuation of the refugee status of those under its administration. Rather than taking on the responsibility of administering its own people in Gaza, Hamas has intertwined with UNRWA staff in the distribution of aid and overseeing the school system. In its school curriculum children are taught to hate and how to murder Jews. The IDF has documented numerous occasions during the course of The War, where Hamas has used UNRWA facilities for storing arms, launching rockets and planning attacks. The IDF has also documented how UNRWA paid staff also double as Hamas Combatants. Independent organizations have documented how UNRWA teaches students to become future terrorists and kill Jews. Just today UNRWA confirmed that one of its staff members, Muhammad Abu Attawi, was killed by the IDF this week after he was identified as a commander of Hamas’s Nukba force and participated in the October 7 attack on Kibbutz Re’im. The evidence is overwhelming and deserves a full investigation. I list just a small percentage of online documentation of some of these instances below.
Hamas terrorists using hospital in Gaza for actively staging attacks,
Young children from UNRWA schools in summer camp learning how to kill Jews,
When an objective member of UNRWA describes something Hamas doesn’t like they are forced to flee for their life, (that has not happened often)
UNRWA Director found to have misappropriated funds… and then gets hired to run the International Committee for the Red Cross ICRC,
Report on Aid Agencies and integration with Hamas - UNRWA, Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF,
UNWRA staff actively participate in October 7 attacks as Hamas operatives, here, and confirmed by UNRWA here,
Documentation of UNRWA school teachers praising terror attacks against Jews in class,
There are many, many more available but can’t list them all…
BUT IF YOU ONLY HAVE TIME TO READ/VIEW A COUPLE, I RECOMMEND YOU READ THESE TWO:
As Israel reported on all this corruption of UNRWA, its integration with Hamas and staff participation in October 7 as well as other terror attacks some financial funders of UNRWA withheld their funding. But as documented here, all but the USA have fully reinstated their funding to this criminal organization.
The Israeli government is moving forward with legislation that defines UNRWA as a terrorist organization. At this time it is not clear that it will pass due to worries about consequences for Israel in the Security Council. But the hope here is that, at least, they will force the closure of their vast offices in Jerusalem.
One of my “favorite” organizations and people is Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This is an entire UN organization whose sole role is to castigate Israel every chance it gets. I have quoted her numerous times in previous posts. Here it was uncovered that Albanese failed to disclose to UN officials that her husband was a previous employee of the Palestine Liberation Organization. That is strange as I would have thought that it might have been a qualification to get a job as such a corrupt institution. Here is a report on how she has misused funds, against UN regulations, while serving in her position. Again, it is my guess that it was a prerequisite.
NOW BACK TO THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING…
Casualties
It was a bad day. Five IDF reservists were killed in Southern Lebanon late last night: Maj. (res.) Dan Maori - 43 (Z’’L), Cpt. (res.) Alon Safrai - 28 (Z’’L), Warrant Officer (res.) Omri Lotan - 47 (Z’’L), Warrant Officer (res.) Guy Idan - 51 (Z’’L) and Master Sgt. (res.) Tom Segal - 28 (Z’’L). All served in the same Armored Brigade (tanks). They were killed when they were inside a building in a village securing logistical supplies and Hezbollah launched a rocket which struck the building. Nineteen others were injured in the attack, four of whom are classified in serious condition.
Then just as I was ready to publish this post the IDF announced the death of three soldiers from fighting in Gaza: Cpt. Barak Israel Sagan - 22 (Z’’L), Sgt. Ido Ben Zvi - 21 (Z’’L) and Sgt. Hillel Ovadia - 22 (Z’’L). The circumstances of their deaths was not disclosed yet.
And on top of that, rocket barrages fired by Hezbollah landed on the northern Arab village of Majd al-Krum injuring nine people. Sirens went off alerting the residents to go to their bomb shelters. Four were rushed to the hospital in either critical or serious conditions.
Rockets & Missiles & Drones
No rockets fired from Gaza crossed into Israel the past 10 days.
Altogether more than 70 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon today as well as more than 30 missiles targeting the center of the country.
A drone crossing Israel’s border with Syria entered Israel’s Golan Heights and was neutralized by aerial defense systems.
Early this morning a missile fired from northern Lebanon was intercepted. It was heading to Ceasearia, the coastal town where Prime Minister Netanyahu maintains his private residence. Very late last night a drone fired from Iraq approached Israeli air space near the southern city of Eilat. The drone was neutralized before entering Israeli air space.
Lebanon Operations
After providing the population advanced warnings, IDF fighter jets struck several Hezbollah weapons storage facilities, manufacturing sites and command centers used by terrorists’ intelligence units in the southern Beirut neighborhood of Dahiyeh. this afternoon.
And fighter jets were also busy along the road crossing from Syrian into Lebanon where active arms smuggling is an hourly occurrence. Here you can see videos posted by the IAF (they have their own x.com account) showing strikes on convoys carrying arms.
IDF announced that troops uncovered two more tunnels and underground barracks today in Southern Lebanon. The arms were removed along with 11 trucks all packed with anti-tank missiles, launchers, grenades and assault rifles. The Biden Administration was threatening Israel against allowing ground troops into Southern Lebanon. Another round of terrible advice. We absolutely had to go in and it is lucky we did as all these arms were destined to be used in a larger version of an October 7 attack from the north.
The IAF today assassinated a commander of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, Abbas Adnan Moslem, in a strike in southern Lebanon. He is attributed with many rocket barrage launches.
In this report you can see a video showing the uncovering of one of the underground bunkers being uncovered in southern Lebanon. They are finding facilities like this at the rate of 4-5 per day. You can see the massive amounts of arms they are finding in these facilities. At the end of the video you will see them destroying one of these facilities buried inside carved rock caverns. In this, similar report you learn that they are finding arms stored in nearly every home in southern Lebanon, depending on the village and its association with Hezbollah.
And in this summary from Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the IDF, he mentions that more than 3,200 explosives IEDs and 2,500 anti-tank missiles were seized so far in the IDF ground operations.
Gaza Operations
To date about 50,000 civilians have left the area around Jabaliya in northern Gaza. IDF infantry continues to operate. Several hundreds of Hamas operatives have been arrested and hundreds killed in close quarters combat. After assisting in the evacuation of patients and staff from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, IDF troops entered the facility to locate and destroy terrorist infrastructure.
In this rather unusual post, the Ramallah based Al Quds newspaper reports that it found documents in which Sinwar left behind instructions regarding the remaining hostages in Gaza. According to this report his instructions demanded that the living hostages be taken care of since they are important bargaining chips in negotiations. It also shows the locations of the hostages - 14 in Gaza City, 25 in Gaza center and 50 in Rafah. It seems that the documents were drafted months ago, after the first ceasefire and hostage release in December. You can read more here.
Yemen Operations
Syria/Iran/Jordan/Egypt/Iraq/Turkiye
According to this report in The New York Times Iran is preparing for war with Israel. I guess that this subject is way over my pay grade. I could have sworn we were already at war with Iran. What are they going to do now, send over thousands of Iranians to fight the IDF in a terrain they don’t know and with local hostage populations? Are they going to send huge missile attacks? They are talking now about sending 1,000 such ballistic missiles. I read that this is about all they have left. They already did that. Iran’s way of doing things, again, is to fight to the last Arab. As long as it is not their own troops fighting and dying they will say/do anything.
Hostages/Ceasefire
David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, returned from a flight to Cairo, Egypt where he met with the new Egyptian head of Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Hassan Mahmoud Rashad. The publicly disclosed reason for the visit was to discuss a potential hostage/ceasefire deal. Barnea is leaving on Sunday for Doha, Qatar where negotiations are set to resume on a hostage/ceasefire deal. No details are being provided on why there is reason to be optimistic, but there must be something afoot to justify the trip.
Protests/Politics
Yesterday I reported on two incidents of Iran recruiting and paying spies within Israel - Arabs in Jerusalem and Recent Immigrants from Azerbaijan in Haifa. More details are emerging regarding the second group which is the most serious. The group of seven posed as tour guides and managed to take photographs of four different air bases as well as four other bases, including the base in Glillot housing the 8200 Signal Corp and Mossad. They also photographed details of infrastructure including ports of Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat as well as the main power plant in Israel. Among the images found in their home was that of the Dining Hall in the Golani Base hit last week by a drone. I do not know how they were able to capture photos inside a base since you need special permission to enter and drones are easily detected and forbidden near the bases.
Yesterday, was the Jewish Holiday of Simchat Torah. It is a comparatively minor holiday in which the annual torah reading cycle restarts. Tomorrow, Shabbat they will read from the first passage in Genesis. Thousands of people descended to the site of the Nova Music Festival to do the traditional joyous dance with the torah. But this year the festivities were muted - there and throughout the rest of the country.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
I am not the only one pointing out the corruption in UNRWA and other UN organizations. Ben Dror Yemini, a well known columnist in the daily Yediot Ahronot had this to say on the subject. The title says it all: “The world does not understand: UNRWA must be dismantled”.