Yesterday, many around the world commemorated the 100th day since October 7, and 100 days of captivity for the hostages. In a statement, President Biden said, "We mark a devastating and tragic milestone — 100 days of captivity for the more than 100 innocent people, including as many as 6 Americans, who are still held being hostage by Hamas in Gaza…I again reaffirm my pledge to all the hostages and their families—we are with you."
Another day has passed, and we now mark 101 days of hostages in Hamas’ captivity. The Iranian-backed terrorist group posted a video of three hostages yesterday as part of its ongoing psychological warfare against the people of Israel.
An Israeli soccer player was arrested in Turkey for writing "100 days. October 7." on his wrist with a Star of David and showing it to the cameras after he scored a goal. Sagiv Jehezkel has been suspended by his Turkish team, had his contract terminated, and is reportedly being deported back to Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, "through its actions, Turkey serves as the executive arm of Hamas."
As Israel mourned and commemorated, the military continued its operation in Gaza to destroy Hamas' capabilities, drive the terror group from power, and free the hostages. The IDF seized a command center in Khan Yunis, uncovering another large cache of weapons including rifles and rocket propelled grenades.
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Included below is an important thread posted on X by John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute. Spencer details how critics of Israel are wrongly comparing the IDF’s operation to other urban warfare environments, thereby ignoring the truly unprecedented nature of this battle.
While the operation presses forward, Israel facilitated 237 trucks of humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip. This is the largest number of aid trucks in a single day since the war started. A video also circulated online of Hamas stealing a truck with aid provided by the United Arab Emirates.
In Ra’anana, Israel, a woman was killed and at least 17 were injured — including at least seven children and teenagers — in a car-ramming and stabbing terror attack perpetrated by two Palestinians from the West Bank.
In the Red Sea, the Iran-backed Houthis renewed their missile attacks. Yesterday, an anti-ship cruise missile fired toward a U.S. Navy ship was intercepted by fighter jets. Today, the Houthis hit a commercial container ship with a missile. The United States should re-designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and stop the flow of arms and money from Iran to the Houthis.
One of the biggest mistakes of critics of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza is attempting to compare the war to a past modern war (post WWII) or battle that is not what Israel is conducting in Gaza.
Israel is not conducting a counterinsurgency, counter-terror campaign (it may later) in a semi-permissive environment with host nation support, or fighting a single battle against a small terror force that has temporarily seized an urban area.
Initially I too tried to explain that the closest comparison of Israel's initial attack of Gaza City was the 2016-2017 Battle of Mosul. As in a city attack of an enemy held city where the defenders were using human shields & had prepared a complex defense
But, even Mosul fails on multiple levels to compare in context to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. None of the battles of Raqqa, Aleppo, Marawi, Mosul, or Fallujah are comparable to Israel's operations for many reasons.
Again, Israel is not trying to find a few terrorists embedded in an urban environment where they have host-nation support and 90% of the civilians are not combatants or are not present such as 2004 Fallujah with 3,000 enemy fighters in a single city or the 2016-2017 Mosul with 5,000 ISIS fighters in a single city.
The IDF is fighting a full-scale war against a terrorist military of over 30,000 fighters with a massive arsenal of rockets, who has spent decades & millions of dollars digging an underground world of hundreds of miles of tunnels woven into the civilian society & with the design to reverse engineer the current laws of war (lawfare) to achieve their strategic goals.
Unlike other battles, the Hamas strategic goals are not to hold terrain or defeat Israel's military but to sacrifice their civilians (so not human shields, but human sacrifices) to cause the international community to force Israel to stop their counter-attack.
No modern military has faced 13,000 plus rockets being launched over their heads at their homes while conducting their war/battle/operation.
Nor since World War II has a military fought in a situation where hundreds (now 136) of their own citizens (to include babies, women, elderly) are being illegally held hostage inside the combat area and a strategic factor in their timeline of the war.
Israel is not fighting in one city. It is fighting in five major cities. It is fighting a real and definable existential threat to the survival of their citizens and nation.
[In my opinion], the fact is that Israel has followed the laws of war, has implemented civilian harm mitigation steps that no military has implemented in modern urban battles and people still attempt a moral equivalence with out of context battles.
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