173rd Day. Critical of GW But Also Have Positive Views. Khaled More.
I have been critical of GW but I also liked his no nonsense clear eyed tell it like he saw it ability. He had a degree of hubris mixed with lack of knowledge that often caused him grief but his heart was in the right place and he was dealt a tough hand which left few options. He had to respond.
Following a heavy barrage of 30 rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon overnight, one individual was killed, and two were reported as lightly wounded in Kiryat Shmona, Maariv. Additionally, damage was caused to property in the area. The barrage was fired in response to Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, Hezbollah stated.
Magen David Adom paramedics reported that they rescued the body of 25-year-old Zahar Bashara, from the Druze village of Ein Kaniya in the Golan Heights. Bashara was found without signs of life following a direct hit from one of the rockets, for which Hezbollah took credit. Bashara worked in Kiryat Shmona's industrial sector. He was pronounced dead at the scene. MDA announced the worker was not a resident of Kiryat Shmona.
The US-Israel relationship remains on a collision course due to a public disagreement over Israel’s war on Hamas. Following the US’s decision not to veto a UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire, Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized Israel’s most significant and strategic ally. This is likely to amplify the significant pressure on Israel to cease its military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Responding to the non-binding resolution’s adoption, Netanyahu stated the US “is harming the war effort and ability to get the return of the hostages.” Resolution 2728 demands an immediate cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the immediate, unconditional release of all the hostages held by Hamas since its surprise offensive on Israel on October 7 last year.
Netanyahu argued the US’s support for a cease-fire without prior unconditional release of the 134 hostages held by the Gaza-based group “gives Hamas hope the international pressure will allow them to achieve a cease-fire without release of our hostages.” Netanyahu also canceled the departure of an Israeli delegation to Washington, which was set to discuss military plans for operations against Hamas in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.
Israeli military briefers showed journalists a map of Gaza illustrating the case the IDF is steadily winning its battles - if not yet the war - against Hamas. The IDF says it has "dismantled" 20 of the original 24 Hamas battalions. Dismantle does not mean destroyed; its remnants are still capable of waging a lethal insurgency. The IDF could soon turn its focus on the four "completely operational" Hamas battalions in Rafah. The city is above a network of Hamas tunnels that the IDF suspects hold not only thousands of fighters, but also its "most wanted" commanders - alongside more than 100 Israeli hostages.
The battlefield looks very different than it did a month or two ago. "It is now warfare. It is not a full-scale war. It is very different," said Amos Harel, defense analyst for Ha'aretz, describing the change in intensity as wel as the IDF force reduction active in Gaza. "The IDF's tactical advantage is clear." There is less bombardment, less artillery and tank fire by Israel, and less ambushes, RPG assaults and sniping by Hamas. Far fewer Israeli soldiers are dying. Almost all of the Israeli reservists have returned home.
After nearly six months of fighting, the Israeli military might not have complete control of the strip, but they have freedom of movement. Kobi Michael, a former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel's Ministry for Strategic Affairs and now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, said the IDF is now carrying out more precise raids - aimed at targets where its intelligence officers say Hamas is regrouping, such as Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
Israel, overall, has settled into a routine with most of the country functioning even though the 130 hostages still held by Hamas remains on the minds of all Israelis. May they come home soon.
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Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It?
The Israel Defense Forces conducted an operation at al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas terrorists recently, once again taking unique precautions as it entered the facility to protect the innocent; Israeli media reported that doctors accompanied the forces to help Palestinian patients if needed. They were also reported to be carrying food, water and medical supplies for the civilians inside.
None of this meant anything to Israel's critics, of course, who immediately pounced. The critics, as usual, didn't call out Hamas for using protected facilities like hospitals for its military activity. Nor did they mention the efforts of the IDF to minimize civilian casualties.
In their criticism, Israel's opponents are erasing a remarkable, historic new standard Israel has set. In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I've never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy's civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The international community, and increasingly the United States, barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians—even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage. Instead, the U.S. and its allies should be studying how they can apply the IDF's tactics for protecting civilians, despite the fact that these militaries would almost certainly be extremely reluctant to employ these techniques because of how it would disadvantage them in any fight with an urban terrorist army like Hamas.
Al-Quds Brigades fighters in training
Militants from the Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, take part in military training on March 3, 2015. The group siezed hostages from Israel alongside Hamas and took responsibility for the kidnapping of Hannah... AFP PHOTO / MAHMUD HAMS/Getty Images
The predominant Western theory of executing wars, called maneuver warfare, seeks to shatter an enemy morally and physically with surprising, overwhelming force and speed, striking at the political and military centers of gravity so that the enemy is destroyed or surrenders quickly. This was the case in the invasions of Panama in 1989, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and the failed illegal attempt by Russia to take Ukraine in 2022. In all these cases, no warning or time was given to evacuate cities.
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In many ways, Israel has had to abandon this established playbook in order to prevent civilian harm. The IDF has telegraphed almost every move ahead of time so civilians can relocate, nearly always ceding the element of surprise. This has allowed Hamas to reposition its senior leaders (and the Israel hostages) as needed through the dense urban terrain of Gaza and the miles of underground tunnels it's built.
Hamas fighters, who unlike the IDF don't wear uniforms, have also taken the opportunity to blend into civilian populations as they evacuate. The net effect is that Hamas succeeds in its strategy of creating Palestinian suffering and images of destruction to build international pressure on Israel to stop its operations, therefore ensuring Hamas' survival.
Israel gave warning, in some cases for weeks, for civilians to evacuate the major urban areas of northern Gaza before it launched its ground campaign in the fall. The IDF reported dropping over 7 million flyers, but it also deployed technologies never used anywhere in the world, as I witness firsthand on a recent trip to Gaza and southern Israel.
Israel has made over 70,000 direct phones calls, sent over 13 million text messages and left over 15 million pre-recorded voicemails to notify civilians that they should leave combat areas, where they should go, and what route they should take. They deployed drones with speakers and dropped giant speakers by parachute that began broadcasting for civilians to leave combat areas once they hit the ground. They announced and conducted daily pauses of all operations to allow any civilians left in combat areas to evacuate.
These measures were effective. Israel was able to evacuate upwards of 85 percent of the urban areas in northern Gaza before the heaviest fighting began. This is actually consistent with my research on urban warfare history that shows that no matter the effort, about 10 percent of populations stay.
As the war raged on, Israel began giving out its military maps to civilians so they could conduct localized evacuations. This, too, has never been done in war. During my recent visit to Khan Yunis, Gaza, and the IDF civilian harm mitigation unit in southern Israel, I observed as the army began using these maps to communicate each day where the IDF would be operating so civilians in other areas would stay out of harm's way.
I saw that the IDF even tracked the population in real time down to a few-block radius using drone and satellite imagery and cell phone presence and building damage assessments to avoid hitting civilians. The New York Times reported in January that the daily civilian death toll had more than halved in the previous month and was down almost two-thirds from its peak.
Of course, the true number of Gaza civilian deaths is unknown. The current Hamas-supplied estimate of over 31,000 does not acknowledge a single combatant death (nor any deaths due to the misfiring of its own rockets or other friendly fire). The IDF estimates it has killed about 13,000 Hamas operatives, a number I believe credible partly because I believe the armed forces of a democratic American ally over a terrorist regime, but also because of the size of Hamas fighters assigned to areas that were cleared and having observed the weapons used, the state of Hamas' tunnels and other aspects of the combat.
That would mean some 18,000 civilians have died in Gaza, a ratio of roughly 1 combatant to 1.5 civilians. Given Hamas' likely inflation of the death count, the real figure could be closer to 1 to 1. Either way, the number would be historically low for modern urban warfare.
The UN, EU and other sources estimate that civilians usually account for 80 percent to 90 percent of casualties, or a 1:9 ratio, in modern war (though this does mix all types of wars). In the 2016-2017 Battle of Mosul, a battle supervised by the U.S. that used the world's most powerful airpower resources, some 10,000 civilians were killed compared to roughly 4,000 ISIS terrorists.
And yet, analysts who should know better are still engaging in condemnation of the IDF based on the level of destruction that's still occurred—destruction that is unavoidable against an enemy that embeds in a vast tunnel system under civilian sites in dense urban terrain. This effects-based condemnation or criticism is not how the laws of war work, or violations determined. These and other analysts say the destruction and civilian causalities must either stop or be avoided in an alternative form of warfare.
Ironically, the careful approach Israel has taken may have actually led to more destruction; since the IDF giving warnings and conducting evacuations help Hamas survive, it ultimately prolongs the war and, with it, its devastation.
Israel has not created a gold standard in civilian harm mitigation in war. That implies there is a standard in civilian casualties in war that is acceptable or not acceptable; that zero civilian deaths in war is remotely possible and should be the goal; that there is a set civilian-to-combatant ratio in war no matter the context or tactics of the enemy. But all available evidence shows that Israel has followed the laws of war, legal obligations, best practices in civilian harm mitigation and still found a way to reduce civilian casualties to historically low levels.
Those calling for Israel to find an alternative to inflicting civilian casualties to lower amounts (like zero) should be honest that this alternative would leave the Israeli hostages in captivity and allow Hamas to survive the war. The alternative to a nation's survival cannot be a path to extinction.
John Spencer is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, codirector of MWI's Urban Warfare Project and host of the "Urban Warfare Project Podcast." He served for 25 years as an infantry soldier, which included two combat tours in Iraq. He is the author of the book "Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connection in Modern War" and co-author of "Understanding Urban Warfare."
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own. They are not necessarily the views of the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, Army University, or the U.S. Military Academy.
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Khaled is a friend and is seldom wrong. He is clear eyed, very specific and remains so.
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By Khaled Abu Toameh
Khaled Abu Toameh3d •Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel did not come as a surprise to those who have been covering Palestinian affairs for many years. An ongoing campaign by Hamas and other Palestinian parties to delegitimize Israel and demonize Jews paved the way for the massacre. The campaign started long before Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
As I told a Yale University delegation visiting Israel to support Israeli scientists and students, Hamas never abandoned its dream of "liberating all of Palestine," and its leaders have repeatedly made this clear over the past three decades.
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Israel At War
Day 173
March 27, 2024
Published Daily, Monday Through Friday
Shalom.
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Over the past day, IAF aircraft struck dozens of terror targets including tunnels, military compounds, armed terrorists, and additional terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. The strikes were conducted to assist IDF troops operating on the ground.
Northern Gaza Strip
The IDF and ISA are continuing to conduct precise operational activity in the area of Shifa Hospital, all while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment. The hospital is the largest civilian medical facility in the Gaza Strip and has been exploited by Hamas and used as a base for terror activities.
In the last day, the troops continued to eliminate terrorists and locate terror infrastructure and weapons. Thus far, hundreds of terrorists have been apprehended and dozens of terrorists have been eliminated in the area of the hospital.
Central Gaza Strip
In the central Gaza Strip, IDF troops eliminated a number of terrorists over the past day. During one of the strikes, a terrorist was identified adjacent to IDF troops; an aircraft then targeted and eliminated the terrorist.
Southern Gaza Strip
Led by the 98th Division, the IDF and ISA are continuing to conduct precise operational activities in the areas of Al Amal and Al-Qarara in Khan Yunis.
In Al-Amal, IDF troops eliminated a number of terrorists in cooperation with the IAF. During a targeted raid on terror infrastructure, the troops located and seized weapons including launchers, AK-47 rifles, and grenades.
Hostage Confirmed Murdered by Hamas; Body Being Held by Terrorists in Gaza
We are heartbroken to share that yesterday, Israeli authorities confirmed that Uriel Baruch (35), believed to be held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, was in fact murdered by the terror organization on Oct. 7th, 2023; his body is still being held in Gaza by the terrorists.
In a post on X, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum stated the following about Uriel:
"Uriel Baruch (35), of blessed memory, was a joyful person who loved life.
Uriel was always surrounded by friends, most of whom called him by the affectionate nickname “Badalu.”
Uriel left behind his wife, Racheli, and their two children, ages 8 and 5.
He was kidnapped from the Nova Festival."
May Uriel's memory be forever a blessing.
#BringThemHomeNow
Israeli Air Force Eliminates Two Senior Hamas Terrorists Responsible for Planning Oct. 7th Terror Attack
Yesterday, the IDF announced that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) eliminated two senior Hamas terrorists responsible for planning the Oct. 7th terror attack in a precision airstrike: Deputy Head of Hamas’s Military Wing, Marwan Issa and Head of Hamas’s Administrative and Combat Support Staff, Ghazi Abu Tamaa. More information about each of these terrorists can be found in the infographics below:
Analyzing Houthi Terror Activity in the Red Sea
Along with Iranian proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, the Yemen-based Houthis have waged a campaign of terror against Israel and on international trade in the Red Sea region since Oct. 7th, 2023. THIS ANALYSIS created by the Israel-based Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center provides an in-depth look at the Houthis: their objectives, tactics, and connection to the Ayatollah regime in Iran.
Yom HaZikaron: Honoring Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror
This year, Yom HaZikaron will be marked on May 12th. Yom HaZikaron (Day of Remembrance) is when the State of Israel honors its fallen soldiers and victims of terror.
This year, our personal and collective pain is far greater following the murderous terror attack of Oct. 7th, 2023 and the many lives lost in the war since then.
If you have lost a loved one in the past or more recently in the war against Hamas, we would be honored to include your loved one's full name in the slideshow which will be shown during the Yom HaZikaron commemoration event in Atlanta, organized by our Consulate.
To include your loved one in the slideshow, please fill out THIS FORM.
May the memories of the fallen be forever a blessing.
Stories of the Hostages
Pictured above is Nadav Popplewell (51). He is still being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
134 Israelis remain in Hamas captivity. They have spent the past 172 nights as hostages after being brutally kidnapped to Gaza. Each day, we will be highlighting their stories, until they are all released. Please do your part by sharing THIS POSTand in calling for the immediate release of all the hostages. To learn more about the hostages still in captivity and to raise awareness and share their stories, please visit THIS WEBSITE.
We Honor and Remember the IDF Soldiers Who Have Fallen in the War in the Past 24 Hours
SSG. Nissim Kachlon
3.27.24
THIS LINKwill lead you to the personal stories of IDF soldiers who have fallen in the line of duty in the war against Hamas. These soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice while fighting to protect Israel and its people.
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