1y ago

Israel Takes Fight Underground to Hamas’s Vast Gaza Tunnel Network

www.wsj.com

TEL AVIV—Israeli forces have taken control of much of northern Gaza—at least the parts that are above ground. Beneath the strip’s devastated urban landscape, Hamas still reigns.

The war is entering a new phase, as the Israeli military takes its fight underground and into Gaza’s legendary subterranean tunnel network.

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"they're not in al-Shifa, they're actually in this other hospital!"
- they're actually in multiple
  
  The whole argument about whether they are or aren't in any given spot is moot. Israel isn't differentiating between Hamas and civilians, and none of this is an actual defensive operation.
  If Netanyahu wanted to actually protect Israelis, the obvious ways to do so are to:
  Staff the Gaza boarder crossings. They were largely unmanned, as they troops were relocated to assist in illegally annexing the West Bank.
  Replace Hamas. Netanyahu repeatedly supported Hamas because he said that their rule in Gaza prevented the PLO from negotiating for peace.
  Stop trying to ignite terrorism in the West Bank. The whole point of all of this is to TRY to create violence that justifies land theft. He's literally not trying to keep Israeli's safe.
  Just negotiate peace. He's been in charge for nearly a generation, and his primary legacy has been eroding civil rights for both Israelis AND Palestinians.
  It's just maddening how we get focused on the trees instead of the forest: Netanyahu has been an authoritarian war criminal for decades, and under his control this situation will never lead to peace or security, because that's never been the goal.
  
  and how do you get the hostages back and launch a counteroffensive because Hamas broke the ceasefire that was in place?
  
  By trading them in for Palestinian kids and women rotting away in Israeli jails.
  Also, reform the judiciary branch so Palestinians aren't judged by 1 Israeli judge with a conviction rate of 98%. Maybe a council of three judges: Israeli, Palestinian and Christian. And throw an atheist in there too.
  Counteroffensive Israel fucked up that plan the minute they also went bloodlust and revenge massacre. It's too late now with so many killed. You can expect a second Hamas with a different name to attack Israel within 15/20ish years max. Unless you change.
  Normally cooler heads should have prevailed but they're stuck with Netanyahu.
  You should have enforced your borders, so nothing gets in. At the same time, you should have tightened and upped diplomatic relations with everyone else in the region instead of alienating and threatening them. Chances were, they would have helped you get the Hamas military wing labeled as terrorists in the region and made no place safe for them. No one wants to see dead civilians. (Granted this doesn't count for Hezbollah).
  Negotiating a deal for the hostage exchanges and knowing Hamas, it would have taken months or years maybe, but most of them would have made it out alive. And this will give you the time you'll need.
  Use your intelligence services to get every name and face of the Hamas that killed civilians.Once your list is complete, then you start hunting them down. Just like the Mossad did with ex-nazi's. No matter how long it takes.
  Make a long-term plan to get the Palestinians not on your side really, but on their OWN side. Free from Israel AND Hamas. Give them a better life, let them prosper, live their lives, raise their kids and grow old. You don't want them and they don't want you, so a 2 state is the only solution. With each country having its own governance.
  Once people value their lives and families and have something to live for, they won't be sucked into this rage, hate and hopelessness and join something that'll be just another Hamas.
  Normal people don't join terrorists/freedom fighter causes, desperate people do.
  
  I don't understand what you're asking. Can you rephrase it?
  
  Israel's extreme response is because Hamas killed roughly one thousand innocent lives and also captured civilian and military hostages. How do you get them back while responding to the attack?
  
  You pick up the phone and negotiate a hostage exchange.
  You say, meet us at this spot tomorrow with 10 of the oldest and youngest hostages you've got and we'll do the same. If it goes well, we'll talk about doing another exchange the next day.
  That's what Hamas wants. That's what they've usually taken and returned hostages for. Hamas released two hostages so far in the weeks this has been going on. How come someone negotiated for 2 and then stopped there?
  
  Hamas:
  “No thanks. We want a war that maximizes civilian deaths for the purpose of creating a larger conflict in the region so as to bring support to the eradication of the Zionist State.”
  
  What's crazy about this is that regardless of whether we agree on whether Hamas would participate in a hostage exchange, you're still acknowledging that the current response benefits them, and risks a spiral of violence that draws in the whole region or world.
  
  I believe Hamas would agree to a small hostage exchange in a slow and drawn out manner. In the past, Israel literally used an exchange rate of 1000-1 for prisoner swaps. Hamas knows the value of hostages and won’t settle for anything close to proportional swaps. They also need to retain the hostages in order to prolong the conflict and appeal to sympathetic neighboring countries for assistance.
  Netanyahu and Hamas both benefit from open conflict and neither believe in a two state solution. It’s a recipe for disaster. The best case scenario is that Israel manages to cripple Hamas, Netanyahu is removed from office, and then a new Israeli Government helps to rebuild Gaza. The worst case scenario is a broad conflict in the middle-east with nuclear weapons in the mix.
  
  Netanyahu:
  “Oh good, I wanted a reason to use the military.”
  
  You’re both right.
  Nobody is the good guy here.
  
  And Israeli response to the massacre?
  
  After the hostages are returned on both sides, announce a resumption of the peace process coupled with an order to arrest, try, and convict the masterminds behind the attack of war crimes.
  Then end the system of apartheid. Dismantle the cruel and barbaric conditions that are deliberately foisted on these people in abject poverty that offer them nothing more appealing than a satisfying death. There is already a ruthlessly cruel system of doling out rights selectively in the form of movement and work permits. Expand it to eventually provide the highest degree of permissions to everyone who passes a basic background check while new leaders on both sides negotiate a permanent peace agreement on how to cohabitate on the land.
  All of this should've happened decades ago, but the next best time is now.
  
  I'm sure that's why the BBC found a planted gun in the MRI room of al-Shifa...
  
  A planted gun? As in the IDF put it there?
  
  Ignore the user who posted it, but this was recently aired on BBC: https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1725581508340015530?s=20
  The IDF claims that, between their first video through the MRI room and when they led the BBC through it, they found another gun and put it in the MRI room.
  We can take a step back and ask why guns made of metal were anywhere near an MRI, but we can also ask where the IDF supposedly "found" the original guns.
  Also of note is that the laptop shown at the end of the "uncut" al-Shifa video... Uses an Israeli power plug and displays an IDF soldier. The IDF later took the video down and re-uploaded it with that picture blurred.
  
  I'm not buying anything the BBC says regarding this conflict. They have repeatedly had to apologise for flat-out lying during their reporting.
  As BBC News covered initial reports that Israeli forces had entered Gaza’s main hospital, we said that “medical teams and Arab speakers” were being targeted. This was incorrect and misquoted a Reuters report. We should have said IDF forces included medical teams and Arabic speakers for this operation. We apologise for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards. The correct version of events was broadcast minutes later and we apologised for the mistake on air later in the morning.
  They also had the government warn them of their impartial reporting during an anti-semitic attack, where they claimed that the Jewish victim perpetuated the attack.
  Oh, but there's even more. In 2004, the former BBC Director of News commissioned a report into the impartiality of the BBC reporting on conflicts in the Middle East, particularly Israel-Palestine. The BBC spent £330,000 in legal costs (not including staff or VAT) contesting again and again the findings of the report, themselves refusing to publically release the report's findings. Fighting in court repeatedly against activists for almost a decade to withhold the report findings is extremely suspicious.
  The BBC's history of being biased or misleading shows they cannot be trusted for news in the middle-east.
  We can take a step back and ask why guns made of metal were anywhere near an MRI, but we can also ask where the IDF supposedly “found” the original guns.
  Because without electricity, the MRI is off? Hospitals don't tend to use MRIs during extraordinary crises due to power consumption.
  Also of note is that the laptop shown at the end of the “uncut” al-Shifa video… Uses an Israeli power plug and displays an IDF soldier. The IDF later took the video down and re-uploaded it with that picture blurred.
  Yes, in the video, they say that it was one of their captured soldiers. As for the power plug, I don't see what that proves? The soldiers plugged in the laptop to view its contents? Hamas had an Israeli power bank? The main issue is that there were guns inside the hospital, which violates Article 19 of the Geneva Convention, which means that the hospital loses its immunity--that's the problem worth noting here.
  
  The IDF published the first video and the BBC published the second video. You can verify the presence of an additional gun yourself.
  That means that we know the IDF intentionally placed another gun behind the MRI machine and calls into question whether the other guns were placed there by the IDF as well.
  The IDF is framing it as an uncut, first look inside the hospital (that is, before the IDF got a chance to mess around and manipulate evidence). That's clearly untrue, which is why the IDF took the video down and blurred the laptop.
  
  I dunno why i bother when you just ignore all the evidence that the BBC can't be trusted.
  
  I suppose CNN can't be trusted either? Or the NYT? They're reporting on this too.

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