World At War: Reckoning At Rafah - Sons of David Strike !

Killjoy

Killjoy

Propelling The Farce!!
Valued Senior Member
Looks like we may be headed into the final inning of this matchup, sports fans !
Brushing aside a surprise last minute grasp at a cease-fire deal by Hamas, brusquely ordering the civilian populace to evacuate what many see as their last refuge in Gaza, Team SoD has begun bombing, bombardment and ground operations in and around what they view as the only remaining Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip. Civilian casualties have already been reported, but Team SoD shows no signs of letting up as they bulldoze their way to what they evidently perceive as total victory.
Negotiations on a cease-fire deal reportedly continue amid the carnage and chaos.
Will they yield a result ? The world wonders !

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/middleeast/rafah-israel-idf-ground-operation-intl-latam/index.html
Israeli military operations in Rafah expand from airstrikes to ground operations, satellite images show

Israel’s attack in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has expanded from airstrikes to ground operations, new satellite images obtained by CNN from Planet Labs show.

The images, which bear a striking resemblance to the early stages of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza last year, show the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are active outside of the immediate border crossing area between Egypt and Gaza, which Israel took control of on Monday evening.

The images, which span from May 5 to 7, suggest some buildings have been bulldozed and show what appear to be mustering areas for IDF vehicles. Some of the IDF forces have penetrated more than a mile inside the Palestinian enclave from the Rafah crossing gate, the images also show.

These ground operations follow a series of airstrikes on Rafah that have completely destroyed several buildings in the past 24 hours, and killed at least four people, according to a local hospital. Satellite images suggest these strikes are continuing, with one picture showing smoke still rising from one location.

...Gazans began fleeing the densely populated city on Monday after Israel’s military issued a call for residents in the east of Rafah to “evacuate immediately.”

...The IDF said in a statement on Wednesday that it was conducting a “precise counterterrorism operation in specific areas of eastern Rafah,” which included “targeted raids.” It also claimed to have “eliminated terrorists and uncovered terrorist infrastructure, as well as underground shafts in several locations in the eastern Rafah area.”

The IDF has released footage of its 401st Brigade Combat team conducting “operational raids on suspicious buildings” near to where it said its soldiers had been fired on by Hamas militants.
Click to expand...
 
Killjoy said:
Looks like we may be headed into the final inning of this matchup, sports fans !
Brushing aside a surprise last minute grasp at a cease-fire deal by Hamas, brusquely ordering the civilian populace to evacuate what many see as their last refuge in Gaza, Team SoD has begun bombing, bombardment and ground operations in and around what they view as the only remaining Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip. Civilian casualties have already been reported, but Team SoD shows no signs of letting up as they bulldoze their way to what they evidently perceive as total victory.
Negotiations on a cease-fire deal reportedly continue amid the carnage and chaos.
Will they yield a result ? The world wonders !

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/middleeast/rafah-israel-idf-ground-operation-intl-latam/index.html
Click to expand...
Not in the best taste mate.

People are starving to death with little to medical care.

Women and children.
 
I think the delays (cease fires) may be worse for the civilians than a rapid deployment. Did anyone really expect that the response to Oct 7 would be anything less than brutal? Hamas should return the kidnap victims.
 
Pinball1970 said:
Not in the best taste mate.

People are starving to death with little to medical care.

Women and children.
Click to expand...
I'm quite aware that the situation is the epitome of a living nightmare.

candy said:
I think the delays (cease fires) may be worse for the civilians than a rapid deployment. Did anyone really expect that the response to Oct 7 would be anything less than brutal? Hamas should return the kidnap victims.
Click to expand...
Seems like the world forgot it's the Israelis they're dealing with. I'd like to think a cease-fire would lessen the humanitarian crisis by some degree it seems almost ludicrous to mention considering the horrid reality of it by allowing for a freer flow of aid - but then what ? Israel apparently maintains that they intend to eradicate Hamas regardless of any cease fire agreement. Presumably that means the carnage cranks up again at some point.
Agreed that all hostages should be released, but don't expect Hamas to do so so long as they believe they can use them as bargaining chips & somehow end up with a degree of combat effectiveness left when this is all over.
 
If Hamas was serious about caring about the Palestinian people in Gaza, surely the first thing to do would be to free the remaining Israeli hostages. It is delusional for anybody in Hamas to expect that the hostages can be used as a valuable bargaining chip to end the war. As far as I am aware, nobody in the Israeli government has said anything to the effect of "free the hostages and we'll stop bombing and shooting the place up". I'm sure that Hamas's negotiators have already tried playing that bargaining chip. Freeing the hostages isn't Israel's end game in this conflict.

The stated aim of irradicating Hamas is one that Israel's leaders must know is untenable. As long as Iran exists, Hamas will exist. In all likelihood, anybody who is important in Hamas left Gaza long ago, but they'll come back if Gaza is not occupied and controlled by Israel (and even then, they will do their best to continue the terrorism).

Unfortunately, the innocent people of Gaza are caught between two opponents who are each bent on the destruction of the other and who each have little regard for "collateral damage".
 
The IDF will obstruct humanitarian aid as much as they can get away with as long as Hamas holds the kidnap victims as hostages. Eradicating Hamas is not possible; you cannot kill an idea that has some basis in fact. The fact is the IDF has treated the people of Gaza very badly.
 
James R said:
It is delusional for anybody in Hamas to expect that the hostages can be used as a valuable bargaining chip to end the war.
Click to expand...
I think the goal of Hamas is to create as many Palestinian casualties as possible so they can portray themselves as the real victims in this war, and thereby gain more power/international support.
 
I think the real goal of Netanyahu has been to get re-elected by whatever means possible.
 
Killjoy said:
[...] Team SoD has begun bombing, bombardment and ground operations in and around what they view as the only remaining Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip [...]
Click to expand...

In the long view, there is no option but eradicating Hamas -- or futilely trying to -- while the window is still feasible. That was made clear toward the end of October, last year:

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news...ihilated/0000018b-8b9d-db7e-af9b-ebdfbee90000

A senior Hamas official said in an interview aired last week that the October 7 attack against Israel were just the beginning, vowing to launch "a second, a third, a fourth" attack until the country is "annihilated."

Ghazi Hamad – whose comments were transcribed by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington-based think tank – added in the LBC interview that "Israel has no place on our land. We must remove the country because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe."​

But even after this is over, if there is no international coalition that volunteers to govern the Strip, then another "freedom fighter" group will simply assert its authority there amidst the power vacuum of ruins and rubble.

Although there is a lot of huffing and puffing about Israel maintaining a security presence after withdrawal, it has had no desire to occupy and directly manage the Strip since its disengagement in 2005.

However, Israel returning to its past policy of negotiating peace deals with and offering bribes to the proxy rulers would obviously be insane, too, since again -- the latter would just be another temporarily pacified terrorist organization that will eventually go postal.

If a pact of other countries doesn't intervene and run slash police the Strip, then Israel really has no choice but to do what it abhors -- permanently occupy the area, and intermittently have its unwelcome forces and administrating officials shot at and blown-up. ... Lingchi: "Death by a thousand (minor) cuts."

Another possibility is that the Strip is so thoroughly messed-up that the Palestinian population has to be displaced to neighboring countries. Something which Egypt and the rest have refused to accept over the years for two good reasons. Accordingly, they will insist vehemently that the land can still retain its habitability for Palestinians.

"... former Israeli officials have related intentions of carving out a heavily fortified 'buffer zone' in northern Gaza to protect Israel from any future attacks..."​
_
 
Last edited:
Wasn't that in the OT of the KJB, loosely, 'and if you don't kill them all they will be a pain in your side forever and I will end up doing to you what I intended to do to them'.
 
C C said:
In the long view, there is no option but eradicating Hamas -- or futilely trying to -- while the window is still feasible.
Click to expand...

I think trying to embroil the religious Jews into this 'eradication' process through conscription is fraught with danger for Netanyahu and his right wing cohorts.

The religious ones know that Yahweh effectively 'destroyed' Baal by forcing the Israelites to wander in the desert for 40 years (after the ethnic cleansing of Canaan), so that those with the blood of the innocents on their hands should die before the Israelites entered the promised land. In Jeremiah 7:31 Yahweh flatly declares that child sacrifice is a thing that "I did not command, nor did it arise in my mind" and Jeremiah 19:5 further identifies the 'baal' (Hebrew for lord) as one of the gods to which children were sacrificed.

Just because Hamas put the children of Palestine on the altar of Baal, doesn't mean Israel has no choice but to partake in the obscene ritual of a false god, and cut the throats of over 10,000 innocents to ensure victory. Enough is enough!
 
LaurieAG said:
[...] Just because Hamas put the children of Palestine on the altar of Baal, doesn't mean Israel has no choice but to partake in the obscene ritual of a false god, and cut the throats of over 10,000 innocents to ensure victory. Enough is enough!
Click to expand...

That food and aid are being choked off is one general concern that's surely reliable in the rumour mill, even if some of the specifics might not be. Over six million refugees were allowed to flee Ukraine, but Gazans are stuck.

Mounds of feces are building up in the streets of Rafah, which draws flies and disease. The question still arises of whether the Strip would be legitimately habitable again even with reconstruction efforts. But Palestinians have no where else to go.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-801082

Israel secretly asked Palestinian Authority to run Rafah crossing undercover. Four officials from the PA, Israel and the United States told Axios that Israel made the request as Egypt threatened to disallow the transport of aid unless Israel withdrew from Rafah.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been closed since Israeli troops seized it a week ago. Fighting in Rafah city has made it impossible for aid groups to access the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, though Israel says it is allowing supply trucks to enter from its side.

[...] Aid workers struggled Monday to distribute dwindling food and other supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by what Israel says is a limited military operation in Rafah, as the two main crossings near the southern Gaza city remained closed.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Egypt [...] has kept the border firmly closed except to let a few thousand foreigners, dual nationals and a handful of others leave Gaza. Egypt and other Arabs strongly oppose any attempt to push Palestinians over the border.
_
 
Last edited:
When events have finally settled, could the Palestinian Authority somehow return to managing Gaza, after all these years since Hamas ousted it? The last time I read anything floating the possibility was back in February.

Like their Israeli equivalents, very few administrators from the West Bank would want to relocate to the dangers and devastation of the Strip. And it's absurd that Israel would accept any surviving Hamas-affiliated civil servants to fill in the slots still left vacant by such a reluctant Palestinian government extending itself from the West Bank.

The option of Gazans being allowed to migrate to the West Bank itself is even more remote than Egypt lowering its barriers for them. Since unlike the latter, Israel would not tolerate the former, and it's suggested that the Palestinian Authority (like Egypt) would dread the prospect of elements of Gazan extremism entering and settling into its domain.

The Israelis may be determined to establish a depopulated buffer zone that thereby squeezes Gazans into even less territory, as a kind of alternative to having to govern the Strip themselves (i.e., let it be lawless). Placing additional pressure on Egypt to accept the suffering Palestinians as refugees -- which just isn't going to happen.

It's up to the international community to rebuild that shrinking landscape, and set up something to fill the post-Hamas power vacuum. The last part of which it is almost as if not more averse to getting involved in than the local players.
_
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top