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Hamas/Israel conflict: news and discussion

If the IDF was being overwhelmed by the army of another state, then it might make "sense" (if we can use such a term for such an eventuality) for the State of Israel to drop a nuclear bomb on the capital city of that state. For example, when it seemed in 1973 that the Egyptian army would continue its advance.
Or cram the population of Gaza into a tiny sliver of the enclave, and then explode a neutron bomb over them.
 
The Israeli military has killed more than 4,200 Palestinians since the conflict started on 7 October, according to the latest tally.

The following numbers are accurate as of 11:30 (GMT) on 20 October and are sourced from the Palestinian health ministry.

Gaza

  • Killed: More than 4,137 (1,524+ children, 1,032+ women)
  • Wounded: 13,162
West Bank and East Jerusalem

  • Killed: 81 (23 children, one woman)
  • Wounded: At least 1,400
MEE
When I ticked like I meant for the information, not the fact of the murders…
 
Wow. 'I have been leading calls for the past week'?

Every time he opens his mouth, he goes down in my estimation.

Wanker.
There's an equivocation going on with what he's saying. Hes asked if Israel has the right (it doesn't) to curtail essential resources. He equivocates to 'humanitarian aid coming in'. That isn't the same thing. I don't even think, at least nominally, Israel are saying that. It takes the heat off them somewhat in the eyes of the international community and it allows them t continue what they are doing because someone else will pick up the pieces. That is what he's supporting. He won't call out Israel for committing war crimes etc, he won't point out the counter intuitive nature of their response given they will inevitablyu have bombed their own hostages, and he doesn't point out that starving children doesn't rescue hostages. Who will feed or medicate those hostages now? He's just making Israel's excuses for them
 
I think it's also about the US protecting itself and its own right to act.

Israel has the right to defend itself and our default position is that it is a democratic country and so any decision it takes regarding its self-defence will necessarily be reasonable.

That's basically the line the likes of the US, UK and France are taking thus far. In the US's case, and sadly by extension also the case of the UK, it is also implicitly a defence of the US's right to bomb civilians when they see fit.
That last being the entire reason for the US position.
 
For anyone who missed this, it's worth a watch John Finucane Sinn Féin MP for Belfast North and a rather irate Fiona Bruce on Question time:


Thank you for this.

For those who think that the solution is to simply “destroy Hamas”, here is a quote from the
graveside oration of Patrick Pearse at the funeral of O'Donovan Rossa on 1 August 1915.

“They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! – they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
 
I remember that one - front page of Le Monde where was he published it. And most people said "this fucking guy, this time he's gone too far". But as mass media put more and more space between people being bombed, and those watching it on TV, well, it's starting to look like he had a point. . .
I don't want to derail the thread with an abstract conversation about postmodernism, but if anything I would say this war is being experienced more viscerally via film than most any other, what with the majority being one sided fighting being done against and filmed by civilians, and then shared on much watched social media. Ukraine footage is more reliant on soldiers but that's out there too for those who want to see it.

A bit like George Floyd's slow killing, some recent violent events are being experienced much more as a reality than the TV of the 90s.

Israel's 2008 Operation Cast Lead was the killing spree that really opened my eyes and affected me, but the vast majority of the images I saw from that were in print. Mass social media was still in its infancy. This is a very different era for video reportage than 91... Or even 2008...
 
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MEE 30 minutes ago:


“Israel has warned al-Quds hospital in Gaza to evacuate, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Friday.
The charity said that Israeli forces had warned them to "immediately evacuate" the hospital, which currently houses over 400 patients and 12,000 displaced civilians.”

ffs
 
MEE 30 minutes ago:


“Israel has warned al-Quds hospital in Gaza to evacuate, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Friday.
The charity said that Israeli forces had warned them to "immediately evacuate" the hospital, which currently houses over 400 patients and 12,000 displaced civilians.”

ffs
They're probably worried Hamas will fire a rocket at them.
 
Oh yes, let's get some more sources that aren't just biased, but do so in a way that you can spot it from orbit. One day, we'll know what the hell happened in the hospital parking lot. But it's not this day, nor is it likely soon. In the meantime, it's a terrible distraction from more serious issues.
 
MEE 30 minutes ago:


“Israel has warned al-Quds hospital in Gaza to evacuate, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Friday.
The charity said that Israeli forces had warned them to "immediately evacuate" the hospital, which currently houses over 400 patients and 12,000 displaced civilians.”

ffs

Apparently they've told five UNRWA schools in Gaza City to evacuate "as soon as possible" as well... at 11pm, when there is no ceasefire and the bombing / shelling continues. Ten thousand plus people told to march in the dark.
 
hospital bombing not a serious issue.Christ what have we come to.
Hospital blowing up, sure. Who or what did it is, right this moment, a distraction at best. When this is all over and there's a reckoning, yes then it's important. Whether it was an IAF bomb or a rocket from some Hamas splinter group really doesn't matter to the ongoing humanitarian disaster caused by two groups of people whose stated aims are the annihilation of the other, irrespective of the poor fuckers caught up between them.
 
It's possible to simultaneously acknowledge the reality that what happened at the hospital is obfuscated by competing propagandas while acknowledging other people are going to care and post about it you know. Just skip over them if uninterested.
 
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