Israel formally declared war on Hamas on Sunday, setting the stage for a major military operation in Gaza as fighting rages on Israeli soil. The declaration comes after Hamas, an Islamist militant group, launched a surprise assault this weekend that has so far killed over 600 Israelis.
Saturday was the deadliest day in decades for Israel and came after months of surging violence between Palestinians and Israelis, with the long-running conflict now heading into uncharted and dangerous new territory. Questions remain over how the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus appeared to be caught off guard in one of the country’s worst security failures.
Over 400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as Israel responds with airstrikes in the densely-inhabited enclave. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed retaliation, warning his country would take “mighty vengeance” and was readying for “a long and difficult war.”
He urged Palestinians living in Gaza to “leave now.”
Okay “Bibi”? Where are they supposed to go? Are you going to let Palestinian civilians enter Israeli territory? Is the border crossing with Egypt open? Will Egypt let them in? Or do you just want to say this so the thousands of dead civilians get blamed for not leaving?
They’ve been pushed to evacuate to shelters further south from Gaza, which is kind of the only option aside from Egypt opening up. Given that this is all caused by Palestinian terrorists entering Israel, I don’t think anyone can blame them for not opening up their border to let more in
And obviously there’s plenty of innocent civilians who could be admitted no problem, but Hamas is still the governing party with majority support and would undeniably use that as an opportunity to sneak more militants in
From all the nations in the world one would expect that Jews should have learned that being an oppressor is not a recipe for peace.
At the end of the day all comes to politics and media propaganda on both sides. Both sides think they are morally right, but the truth is that neither is and that in most cases innocent civilians are suffering the most as a result. Really sad!
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I despise the government of Israel, and everyone who supports it, but killing civilians is not acceptable. I don’t care about dead military personnel, soldiers are a legitimate target, but civilians? Th fuck, Hamas, THE FUCK.
This is what Hamas is, what they believe, what they do. They’re religious extremists who want genocide, and the only thing that’s stopping them is their physical inability to make it happen.
Tbf it is also what israel is doing in retaliation. Both sides are absolutely terrible
They’re going to eliminate the threat. Which is going to mean hundreds or thousands of deaths. But Hamas knew that. They hide behind civilians to try to make Israel kill them, so they can get more recruits. It’s an intentional strategy. I’m not really interested in people both sidesing this. It’s a dishonest tactic intended to excuse the actions of monsters.
I have many criticisms of Israel, but they do not wish a genocide. Hamas does. There is no both sides. Hamas must be eradicated, and if the Palestinians won’t do it, Israel will, and the Palestinians in Gaza will have no one to blame but themselves for all the pain that process will involve.
In the same breath you’re expecting Israel to cause thousands of civilian deaths you talk about how it’s wrong to excuse the actions of monsters. At best we can hope the “kills thousands of civilians” is bundled up in your tidy “I have criticisms”.
Hamas is ultimately causing those deaths by forcing the war and then hiding among civilians. It’s unfortunate that Israel doesn’t have magic powers and cannot eliminate these monsters without civilian casualties, but the only way for the Palestinians in Gaza to be free from threats caused by Hamas is to kick Hamas out.
Shit sucks, I get it, but life is a removed and if you support terrorists you can’t be surprised if the people they attack don’t just bend over and take it up the ass.
Shit sucks, I get it, but life is a removed and if you support terrorists you can’t be surprised if the people they attack don’t just bend over and take it up the ass.
The exact same words could be applied to Israel.
Nah. They don’t support genocidal terrorists. If Israel wanted a genocide against Palestinians, it would happen.
it doesn’t seem like you know what criteria makes something a genocide. Either that or you are just bias.
but they do not wish a genocide
In a country with mandatory military service, I disagree that soldiers are a legitimate target as a blanket statement. As the rich and powerful wage wars, it’s the poor and those with limited options who die.
In the same vein, would that not make all Israeli citizens (except those under 18) semi legitmate targets since they’re trained military personal and potential combatants?
That’s what I’m talking about. They don’t get a choice. They are required to train. I think that’s disingenuous to say they are guilty by what is simply existing there.
I’d say the same if true for the other side about mandatory military service.
Shouldn’t we put the onus of responsibility on Israeli’s leadership and all that support this kind of ruling which blurs the lines between civilian and combatant?
It doesn’t help that Israel uses its military to protect and bolster settlers in plain clothes as they commit terrorism against the indigenous populations. In a sense, Israel is using its noncombatant civilian population as a “human shield” as sorts because they know that Palestinian resistance groups lack the luxury to sift through potential targets because time and technology is limited, and the risks are sky high. Perhaps, this was done by design to force everybody to have a stake in the conflict, whether they wanted to or not.
No, I think target identification and official uniforms are key to any state military.
With the acknowledgement that the current attacks are mostly along the Gaza border, where do the West Bank settlers fall in that dichotomy? Because they’re not just passive citizens of an oppressive nation, they’re very much a participant in the oppression. And on the other side, military service in Israel is compulsory. There are soldiers who didn’t want to be soldiers and think occupying the West Bank is wrong that are in that set of legitimate targets. Maybe it just sucks to be them and they should have tried harder to pursue a non-military service option, but it’s not an easy sort where uniform = agent of oppression and civilian = neutral third party.
The military is the main tool of oppression and as such is a valid target. The individual soldier might not be the issue but the military in its entirety. Of which said soldier is a part of. The individual soldier simply doesn’t matter. And that has been the case in every war that was ever fought. The individual does not matter.
Seems like the Israeli military is a good shield against people fighting “oppression” by slaughtering random innocents at a music festival and stating their goal as eradicating all Jews from the “river to the sea.”
Well, this sucks
The only truth here
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Whose soil? The soil that was handed to the Zionists by the British? Or the soil that the Zionists violently forced people off of to form a country on stolen land?
Ah yes, Jordan, Egypt, and Syria have no blame for this situation. It’s not like there was a major international body that attempted to create borders and one side agreed to and the other side attempted to exterminate the other in a belief they could win a war, then attempted again a few decades
A party that should be holding the major bag is the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Hamas is a major wing of their organization and yet, they keep the border closed. They could set up a major airport in Rafah and open trade routes into Gaza. Israel would have no say, but they don’t.
The Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t hold power in Egypt, a military dictator does. Egypt cooperates with Israel on most security matters concerning Gaza, and events of the past few days have shown why. They don’t want extremists running around their country either.
whenever someone uses the term ‘zionist’, you already know they don’t have a clue what they are talking about
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Saturday’s shock attacks by Hamas led to the deadliest day in decades for Israel and come after months of surging violence between Palestinians and Israelis with the decades-long conflict now heading into uncharted and dangerous new territory.
Netanyahu announced Israeli forces have started an “offensive formation” which will “continue without reservation and without respite until the objectives are achieved.” Among the decisions made by the cabinet is to stop the supply of electricity, fuel and goods to Gaza.
The highly coordinated assault, which began Saturday morning, was unprecedented in its scale and scope and came on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 War in which Arab states blitzed Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
“We had no warning of any kind, and it was a total surprise that the war broke out this morning,” Efraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad, Israel’s Intelligence Service, told CNN.
“This Iron Dome is being fired up all around us right now, it’s illuminating the sky here,” said CNN’s International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson in Zikim, Israel, referring to the Israeli rocket defense system.
On Saturday he tracked her phone and saw it was located in Gaza; later that day he recognized her in a viral clip of people loaded into the back of a truck flanked by Hamas militants.
The original article contains 1,772 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 88%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
