Hamas strike on Israel - mod warning in OP updated 19/10/23

I am hearing reports Mohamed Dief( the leader of Hamas's military wing)maybe dead,although the IDF on previous occasions thought they had eliminated him. If it is confirmed it wil probably make it even harder for a ceasefire to happen. I also read that Hamas had agreed as part of a ceasefire to cede control of Gaza to a US trained Palestinian force.

I know that but if they have an excuse ready they can kill even more than usual. Another huge bomb on a tented camp.

They need no reason and have no reason. Full of sh*te and the civilised world will never forget or forgive. What a horrible miserable legacy for the ordinary people of Israel. And all because they haven't the collective balls to stand up for what they know is right.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-deif-assassination-attempt.html

The IDF may just killed the man who is second in command of Hamas.

Hamas has no option but to go back to the negotiating table, said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, which is affiliated with Fatah, the main Palestinian political rival of Hamas.

“Hamas is in a very bad position,” he said. “It has been pushed into a corner militarily, and there is no question that it has been weakened after nine months.”

It's been clear for months now. Hamas must end their war of aggression now to stop the suffering of the Palestinians.

It will all come out in time and Bibi will go down as being the monster everyone knows he is. Unfortunately thousands more innocents will perish before that happens.

Well,yes he has been returned to power for much of the last 20 years which indicates he has had widespread support. You are echoing a point made by Norman Finkelstein that Bibi is not an aberration, rather he is a reflection of the mentality of a lot of Israelis. As said he wouldn't have been returned to power so often otherwise.

You're the only one displaying naivete and ignorance.

Hamas were given the keys to Gaza when Israel withdrew 20 years ago. Instead of looking to develop Gaza for the betterment of their citizens, they used that time to build a war machine. Their intention? It was to kill Jews and annihilate the Israeli state. All their statements to this effect are public, they make no apologies, nor do they try to hide this.

Israel has every right to go after this filthy regime that has never done a tap for the people they claim to represent, has stolen and raped from them, and then uses them as human shields.

If Hamas had any shred of decency, they would recognise the futility of their war of aggression and sue for peace. They won't though, they are determined to take the Palestinian people down with them rather than surrender.

Sharon didn't leave Gaza as a gesture of good will. Some posters might be keen to portray it as that but it certainly wasn't. Bibi was happy to prop up Hamas to weaken Fatah prior to October 7th. As per usual any inconvenient facts are ignored so as to avoid criticising Israel. The bias renders some incapable of seeing that Hamas and The Israeli right used each other to justify their respective positions prior to October 7th. Even if Hamas are defeated in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank is an indicator of what will happen in Gaza post Hamas. Bibi and his ilk have no interest in a two state solution so they will need a variant of hamas to emerge to justify their intransigence.

We have in fact seen this twice before whereby Israeli goverments have given support to Islamists to weaken their more moderate rivals.

Of course the usual suspects will continue to apportion blame to one side only.

That maybe so. Whereas you realise there are valid criticisms to be made of both Hamas and the Israeli government. Which you have spent most of the thread doing. You haven't sought to deflect criticism of Israel with one liners.

I haven't seen the post where you condemned the murders of 17,000 Palestinian children as yet. That's not hilarious at all but very sad and made to look like you actually support it. Maybe you'd like to comment on why?

Terribly cruel but not surprising. They are a rabble. A proper army would look after someone with Special Needs.

The Israelis claim that they target Hamas militants with these 'surgical strikes' which many people claim are direct attacks on the civilian population. I'm inclined to agree. If their information is so good then why haven't they freed the hostages as yet?

Some relevant points about the use of IDF " surgical strikes" raise a lot of awkward questions for the Israeli government & I'm sure plenty of people in Israel are thinking the same.

One point that is hard to get your head around is that the IDF is getting information on the location of individuals within Hamas from Palestinians.

I know usually they will use a mixture of bribery & blackmail but someone now is still passing on information with the knowledge that scores of civilians will be killed.

You would have to think that the IDF might have more information on the location of any hostages still alive than they are willing to admit.

Just out of interest, is anyone else getting PMs from thread banned users asking to engage about posts in this thread? I got one this morning and I have no interest in replying to them.

If the times of Israel can be believed, the strikes supposedly targeting Dief wouldn't have gone ahead if he was surrounded by Israeli hostages. So it could be the IDF and Israeli intelligence know more about where other hostages are but can't come up with a plan that would free them without mass casualties amongst the hostages. The others leaders of Hamas that are still alive won't be making the same mistake as Dief made. Although we still don't even know if he was actually killed or not.

Joe boasted in a recent interview that no one has done more for Palestinians than he has. Maybe he was mixing up Israelis and Palestinians. Who ever takes over there will be no great change in American policy towards Israel. It's going to be a more difficult path for European nations after the ICJ ruling on Friday. They will find it harder to ignore the ruling.

Great. A new Palestine with a few Chinese airbases in it would upset a lot of countries. Especially those countries who supplied the murder weapons to Israel.

Is this conjecture on your part or a statement of fact. I ask because if we believe some western press outlets no dual citizens or westerners ever arrested for spying in Iran are actually spies, instead they are all political pawns. While I believe that is possible in some cases- perhaps even in the case you mention. Is this really plausible in every case Political Analyst?

I mean are we going to deny that spies operate in allied countries never mind those of foes. With this in mind we know the FBI have been kept very busy over the years with Mossad activity in America. It just might be possible then that some foreigners arrested by Iranian intelligence for spying are actually spies .