Iran funded Hamas attacks / Biden released $6B to Iran

Israel defence minister orders 'complete siege' on Gaza

The United Nations said more than 123,000 people have been displaced inside Gaza since the outbreak of violence.

09 Oct 2023 05:55PM (Updated: 09 Oct 2023 07:50PM)
www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israel-hamas-conflict-complete-siege-gaza-strip-air-strikes-3832201


Israel defence minister orders 'complete siege' on Gaza

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Oct 9, 2023. (Photo: AFP/Mahmud Hams)

Qatar holds urgent calls with Hamas on hostage release in coordination with the US

Hamas is in talks to free Israeli women and children hostages in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israeli jails, according to a source cited by Reuters. Talks are reportedly "moving positively" but no signs of a breakthrough yet.

The death toll from the fighting has topped 1,100

The Israeli military carried out more than 500 air and artillery strikes targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip overnight.

Thailand works to release nationals taken hostage

Thailand is working with Jordan, Egypt and Malaysia to secure the release of its citizens taken hostage during unrest in Israel, as over 1,000 Thai migrant workers caught in the conflict look to return home.

Hamas attack on dance festival leaves 260 dead

A festival in Kibbutz Re'im, close to Gaza, became one of the first targets of Palestinian gunmen who crossed into Israel early on Saturday. Survivors recount "hearing shots from every direction" and seeing "terrorists killing people".

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday (Oct 9) ordered a "complete siege" on the Gaza Strip as the military pounded the Palestinian enclave with air strikes.

"We are putting a complete siege on Gaza ... No electricity, no food, no water, no gas - it's all closed," Gallant said in a video statement, referring to the crowded enclave home to about 2.3 million people.

Gallant described the "total blockade" as part of a battle against "beastly people".

"We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly," he said in Hebrew.

At least 700 people have been killed in Israel after hundreds of Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border.

In response Israeli army has launched intense air strikes on the Palestinian enclave which has so far killed at least 493 people.

More than 120,000 people in Gaza have been displaced, said the United Nations.

"The price the Gaza Strip will pay will be a very heavy one that will change reality for generations," Gallant earlier said in Ofakim, one of the towns where calm was restored after a battle with Hamas fighters who stormed through it, killing civilians and leaving with hostages.


A plume of smoke rises in the sky of Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on Oct 9, 2023 (Photo: AFP/Madmud Hams)

Naked woman paraded by jeering Hamas fighters

James Crisp - Sun, October 8, 2023 at 4:01 AM EDT·6 min read
news.yahoo.com/naked-israeli-woman-paraded-jeering-191753028.html


Shani Louk is believed to be the woman paraded around Gaza - Instagram

The naked body of a woman was paraded through the streets in the back of a pick-up truck on Saturday as Hamas fighters sat on her unmoving form.

A celebrating crowd surrounded the armed men in combat fatigues, who shouted “Allah Akbar” from the open back of the truck.

Some in the crowd, which included youngsters, spat on the woman’s body before the truck sped away on a day of unprecedented massacres of Israeli civilians.

The woman was later named as Shani Louk. Miss Louk’s family confirmed they had seen the video but said they “still have some kind of hope” that she had survived.

Miss Louk is believed to have been kidnapped from Israel after Hamas fighters infiltrated by air, sea and land. Hundreds of Israelis were killed in the brutal attack and dozens, including members of the Israeli defence forces were taken hostage.

“We recognised her by the tattoos, and she has long dreadlocks,” Tom Weintraub Louk, Miss Louk’s cousin, told The Washington Post.

Miss Louk had been attending an outdoor music festival near Kibbutz Urim when militants stormed the area, The Post reported.

Distressing videos of the scene and other attacks spread on social media, as world leaders decried the killing of civilians in bloodshed compared to 9/11.

In one video, a crying woman named Noa was loaded onto a motorcycle as she reached out in tears to a man who was being marched with his hands tied behind his back by captors. She had also been attending a music festival before she was abducted into Gaza.

Hamas released footage of a group of Israeli men lying on a concrete floor in a dark room with their hands also tied behind their backs.

An elderly Israeli woman appears unnaturally calm as she is driven by armed men into the Gaza Strip on a golf cart - Hatem Ali/AP

As a bright light was shone on them to expose their faces to the camera, their eyes widened. The men claimed to be soldiers, although not all were in uniform.

In another clip, soldiers were dragged out of a smoking tank before being forced to lie on the ground, with at least one then being executed.

Palestinian men rode around the streets on top of a captured Israeli armoured car.

A man, who appeared to be a dead Israeli soldier, was pulled from a car by two jubilant men. His body was kicked and stamped on by an onrushing crowd, who madly celebrated this “victory”. But Hamas did not limit themselves to military targets in an assault that ruthlessly targeted unarmed civilians.

In one clip, an elderly Israeli woman appeared unnaturally calm as she was driven by armed men into the Gaza Strip on a golf cart.

A different older woman sat stoically in a chair as a Hamas terrorist, his face covered and a machine gun in his hands, made the victory sign with his fingers.

A terrorist tells a family with young children they will not be killed after breaking into their home

Meanwhile, a woman described online as an Israeli settler took selfies of herself as she was led away by her kidnappers.

A convoy of Toyota trucks carrying celebrating terrorists were filmed driving into Gaza.

As the crowd rushed towards them, they held their arms and smartphones aloft to film at least one hostage tied up in the back of one of the vehicles.

A bloodied Israeli woman was filmed being taken from the boot of a different jeep by a man with a handgun in what appeared to be the Gaza Strip.

The woman, who had her hands tied behind her back and was bleeding through her trousers, was quickly shoved back into the back seat of the car.

In shaky smartphone footage, taken by terrified Israelis from balconies or the corners of windows, Hamas terrorists were captured walking through the streets.

On one highway, there were four cars and a van, their windscreens and windows shattered by gunfire.

The drivers and passengers sprawled dead on the road amid the broken glass or slumped behind the wheel.

Two cars had crashed into each other, presumably in desperation to escape the terrorist’s bullets.

What appeared to be a woman’s body was some distance away, as if she had been shot while trying to escape.

Terrorists discuss mercy

In one widely circulated video, a terrorist told a family with young children that they would not be killed after breaking into their home. He makes clear if he wanted to kill them, he would have done so already.

The children ask in Hebrew why the men are in their home and why they are shooting guns.

In one clip, Hamas terrorists discuss showing mercy to an Israeli mother and her two children, although it is unclear what happened to the family.

The Israeli government last night confirmed a “significant” number of hostages had been taken.

A group of three Israelis were shown stuffed in the back of a trailer, hugging each other for support amid what appeared to be looted bicycles, as they were taken away into captivity out of Israeli territory.

A terrorist with an automatic weapon opened the door to a building to reveal a pile of bloodied bodies of at least eight Israelis in civilian clothes.

He fired several shots in what appeared to be a cold-blooded execution of one of the wounded people.

Natan Levy, a professional mixed martial artist, posted one image of four dead people, including two elderly victims, lying face down in their own blood at a bullet-pocked bus stop.

Shots at passing cars

A group of heavily armed terrorists were filmed shooting at passing cars from a white truck on a road in Israeli territory from one apartment.

In one photograph, a young woman lay dead on her side in her car, a gaping bullet wound in her side.

A mayor who “went to defend a town” from Hamas attacks on Israel was named as the first to die.

Ofir Liebstein was killed in a shootout with Hamas militants, Shaar Negev council said.

The region borders the north-east of the Gaza Strip. Mr Liebstein wrote on social media that he was “filled with hope for what’s coming” just hours before his death.

In the evening, the police chief of Rahat, a predominantly Arab town in southern Israel, was reported to have been killed.

In Gaza, the local health authorities reported that at least 198 people had been killed, although it was not clear if that number included terrorists as well as civilians.

Scenes of death and destruction also filled social media after Israeli air strikes began to hit the city.

www.the-express.com/news/world-news/114456/israel-hamas-terrorists-behead-soldier

'Worse than ISIS': Hamas terrorists 'behead Israeli soldiers' in sickening footage

Hamas has been denounced as "savages, animals, butchers" as Israel unleashes strikes on Gaza in response to the attack.

By CHARLIE BRADLEY - 03:59 ET, Mon, Oct 9, 2023

Hamas assault on Israel an exercise in self-destruction

Israel’s drive to avenge the deaths and humiliation means eventual victory – though to what end and at what price?

By DANIEL WILLIAMS - OCTOBER 10, 2023
asiatimes.com/2023/10/hamas-assault-on-israel-an-exercise-in-self-destruction/

Israeli soldiers pictured on a tank at the Israel-Gaza border. Picture: CNBC Screengrab / Picture Alliance

Not long after Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) gunmen attacked southern Israel, military analysts and others were quick to compare the surprise assault to the 1973 Yom Kippur War in which the armies of Egypt and Syria invaded the country.

But besides the scope of each conflict, there’s a difference Israelis might prefer to forget. In 1973, the Israeli government knew an invasion was likely but chose to ignore the warnings. The current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no inkling that Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the Gaza Strip, was preparing – and able – to invade.

The blunder will likely have big consequences for Middle East stability in the months and perhaps years ahead. Hamas has cemented its place among many Palestinians and Arab populations at large as the avenging angel of anti-Israel resistance. It has far outstripped the moribund Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which governs the West Bank but has stood by idly as chaos engulfed Israel’s south.

Moreover, Israel’s reputation as the all-seeing intelligence force in the Middle East has been severely undermined. Israeli perceptions that Hamas, a group that says it aims to erase the Jewish state, had been tamed also proved faulty.

This is not to say that an eventual Hamas military victory is likely. Israel plans to restore its mythic regional power by crushing Hamas. It is amassing thousands of troops for a ground offensive to do so. In preparation, it is bombarding the crowded Gaza enclave with hundreds of missiles a day, taking down skyscrapers and small buildings alike.

And the government announced on Monday (October 9) afternoon that it would cut off supplies of food, electricity, fuel and water to the entire Gaza Strip to pressure the Palestinians to quit.

Despite the futility of waging this war, it is likely that Hamas will have killed the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be put on a global backshelf while the world focused on the war in Ukraine and intensifying US-China rivalry.

The Hamas assault required scores of gunmen, meticulous planning and secrecy – virtues sometimes missing from Palestinian warfare. The planning was kept secret from even government officials, except for a few closest to Hamas’s top leadership.

To allay suspicions that it might be preparing for war, Hamas employed meticulous deception. The organization reached an agreement with Israel to let thousands of Palestinian laborers go to work in Israel. Israel took that as a sign that Hamas was focused on fixing deep economic problems, not on armed resistance, an Israeli official was quoted as saying.

Some pieces of equipment used in the assault – motorcycles, hang-gliders, civilian pick-up trucks and tractors – were not elements that rang up Israeli alarm.

Besides deception, a well-planned invasion choreography surprised Israeli intelligence officials. In an interview with Israeli television, one official described the tactical sequence as:


Map: Wikiimedia Commons

1. the initial firing of rockets into Israel in order to create distraction and panic;
2. blasting holes in metal link fencing along the Gaza frontier to permit guerrillas on motorcycles to enter Israeli territory and fire on area residents and security personnel, and also grab hostages;
3. use of bulldozers to widen gaps that permitted the entry of pickup troop trucks to travel roads among Israeli border towns and farming settlements; and, finally,
4. dispatch of gunmen to roam farms and towns to spread terror. (Israel is still hunting some of them down.)

The Israelis, perhaps due to hubris, also ignored a visible tip-off that suggested something might be afoot: use, inside Gaza but in plain sight, of a full-scale model of an Israeli settlement where Palestinian guerrillas trained.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials, reported that Iran played a key role. It said Iranian officials had helped train the assailants and, last Monday, met with Hamas officials in Beirut to give the go-ahead for the attack.

The report also claimed members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s army, helped design the step-by-step assault. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration had not yet found evidence of direct Iranian involvement.

One feature of the Hamas invasion did follow a well-worn pattern of Iran-Hezbollah combat action: terrorism. Both Iran and Hezbollah have long practiced hostage-taking. Hamas seemed determined to outdo competitors by rounding up more than 100 civilians from an outdoor music festival and forcing them into Gaza. If they survive, they will probably be used for prisoner exchanges.

Killing civilians, on the other hand, was a solidly-established practice of Palestinian resistance groups – still, the shooting deaths by Hamas of at least 260 Israeli spectators at the music festival and around 600 more elsewhere where was the worst such atrocity in the long years of Palestinian conflict with Israel. Around 160 Israeli soldiers have died.

Netanyahu has pledged to wipe out Hamas, and there will be no objection from a traumatized and angry Israeli public. So far, aerial bombing pf the Gaza Strip has killed over 700 Palestinians. The Israeli government reported that 1,600 Hamas raiders were killed inside Israel.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught unaware and is under heavy pressure to retaliate. Photo: Asia Times Files / AFP / Emmanuel Dunand

Some observers think that Israel might try to install the PLO. One fanciful idea is that Israel would invite Arab countries, perhaps even the Saudis, to serve as caretakers.

Israel is unlikely to restore its own occupation; it left Gaza because of constant shelling by makeshift mortars. Ambushes made its hold on Gaza costly.

Hamas-Israel conflicts have been frequent ever since. Sometimes fighting fades quickly, sometimes it continues until Israel’s main ally, the United States, calls for an end.

So far, the US is supporting Israel’s effort to punish Hamas and accepting the damage it will do to Gaza residents and the enclave’s infrastructure. Israel may nonetheless be worried that Washington’s tolerance for destructive revenge could have its limits, even as Hamas is being destroyed.

Perhaps that is why, on Sunday, the first day after war broke out, Israeli government media stopped comparing Hamas’s invasion to the Yom Kippur War and instead started talking about it as Israel’s 9/11, tying the horrific attack to al-Qaeda’s 2001 passenger airplane assaults on New York and Washington.

Reminding Americans of that event – and the anger it generated – may extend US patience with what will be an ugly finale in Gaza.

When you read headlines like the one below, you know somebody is going to unleash hell on the 'baby killers'. Just substitute Hamas terrorists for Nazis.

 

And now this excerpt:


'IT'S A MASSACRE' Hamas slaughters 40 babies & kids in one town with some beheaded as families burned alive in ‘pogrom’, Israel claims

Imogen Braddick - Published: 10:39 ET, Oct 10 2023
www.the-sun.com/news/9293542/hamas-slaughters-40-babies-kids-beheaded/

As fears mounted inside the enclave of an immanent assault, an Israeli defence official vowed earlier that Gaza will become a 'tent city' and every building razed.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12617483/gaza-airstrikes-tent-city-nest-terror.html

I don't know how anyone can support Hamas. Read their charter's covenants that I have posted below:

Covenant of Hamas terror

The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement was issued on August 18, 1988. The Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as the HAMAS, is an extremist fundamentalist Islamic organization operating in the territories under Israeli control. Its Covenant is a comprehensive manifesto comprised of 36 separate articles, all of which promote the basic HAMAS goal of destroying the State of Israel through Jihad (Islamic Holy War). The following are excerpts of the HAMAS Covenant:​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​The Hamas Covenant - Selected Excerpts

1. Calls for the Destruction of Israel

Introduction: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory)." [Page 1]

Article 6: "The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine…" [Page 3]

2. Calls for Jihad

Article 13: " There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad." [Page 7]

"Article Eight: The Slogan of the Islamic Resistance Movement: Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes." [Page 5]

Article 15: " In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised." [Page 8]

Article 15: "The Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine is an Individual Duty: " "The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised." [Page 8]

Article 3: "The basic structure of the Islamic Resistance Movement consists of Moslems who have given their allegiance to Allah whom they truly worship, - "I have created the jinn and humans only for the purpose of worshipping" - who know their duty towards themselves, their families and country. In all that, they fear Allah and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors, so that they would rid the land and the people of their uncleanliness, vileness and evils. " [Page 3]

3. Rejection of Peace Negotiations

Article 32: "Leaving the circle of struggle with Zionism is high treason" [Page 18]

Article 11: "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. [Page 5]

Article 13: " Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question…. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters." [Page 7]

4. Antisemitism and Conspiracy Theories

Article 7: "The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."" [Page 4]

Article 32: "The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying." [Page 17]

Article 20: "In their Nazi treatment, the Jews made no exception for women or children. Their policy of striking fear in the heart is meant for all. They attack people where their breadwinning is concerned, extorting their money and threatening their honour." [Page 11]

Article 32: "Peoples should augment by further steps on their part; Islamic groupings all over the Arab world should also do the same, since all of these are the best-equipped for the future role in the fight with the warmongering Jews." [Page 18]

Article 22: "For a long time, the enemies have been planning, skillfully and with precision, for the achievement of what they have attained. They took into consideration the causes affecting the current of events. They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realisation of their dream.

With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others.

With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein.

They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there.

With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.

You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources." [Page 12]

Article 28: "The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion. It does not refrain from resorting to all methods, using all evil and contemptible ways to achieve its end. It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations it gave rise to, such as the Freemasons, The Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups. All these organizations, whether secret or open, work in the interest of Zionism and according to its instructions. They aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion. " [Page 15]

Introduction: "Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious." [Page 2]

5. The Conflict with Israel as a Religious Struggle

Article 1: "The Movement's programme is Islam" [Page 2]

Article 15: "It is necessary to instill in the minds of the Moslem generations that the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis." [Page 8]

"The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine. Moslem Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times." [Page 2]

Article 11: Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Moslem generations until Judgement Day. This being so, who could claim to have the right to represent Moslem generations till Judgement Day? " [Page 5]

Anti-Semitic incitement:

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him." (Article 7)

"The enemies have been scheming for a long time ... and have accumulated huge and influential material wealth. With their money, they took control of the world media... With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the globe... They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about... With their money they formed secret organizations - such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs and the Lions - which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests... They stood behind World War I ... and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains... There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it." (Article 22)

"Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River. When they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'." (Article 32)

"The HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism... Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews." (Article 32)