‘Israel’ selling lies, far from defeating Resistance: Abu Obeida

Posted on April 24, 2024 by uprootedpalestinians

23 Apr 2024

Source: Al Mayadeen

Hamas military spokesperson Abu Obeida during his speech on the 200th day of the Israeli genocide in Gaza on April 23, 2024 (Screen grab)

By Al Mayadeen English

Palestinian al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obeida hails the steadfastness of the Palestinian Resistance as it faces the Israeli occupation forces for the 200th day.

The Israeli occupation has proven impotent as it proved unsuccessful in making any advances in Gaza 200 days into its ruthless onslaught as it only commits massacres and destroys civilian infrastructure, al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obeida said on Tuesday.

Today marks the 200th day of Israeli aggression on Gaza in the wake of Operation al-Aqsa Flood, an aggression that has thus far claimed the lives of more than 34,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others. However, no one is touting an Israeli victory, as their declared goal of destroying the Resistance is not only far from being achieved, but also continuously proving to be unattainable.

The spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing underlined that the Israeli occupation continues to peddle the great lie that is its capacity to destroy all the Palestinian Resistance factions. “200 days later, and the Resistance is still unwavering. It will continue to deal blows to the occupation so long as its aggression continues and so long as it continues to exist on Palestinian land.”

Resistance to adapt, escalate

The Resistance’s operations, the spokesperson said, “Will take new forms and adapt with new, adequate tactics.”

As the war entered its seventh month, Abu Obeida stressed that the Israeli occupation “is still stuck in the mud in Gaza with no hope on the horizon, and it will reap nothing but shame and defeat.”

The Resistance fighters are expelling and will continue to expel “this enemy despite being covered in ashes, rising from beneath the rubble as the whole world bears witness to the might of the Resistance fighters, not just through action on the battlefield but their withdrawal from various directions.”

The Israeli occupation is still trying to restore its image that was tarnished on October 7, the spokesperson underlined. “They aim to link their victory to invading Rafah, and it tries to sell the lie that it defeated all Resistance factions except for the Rafah Battalion.”

Ron Arad scenario to repeat itself

Commenting on the ongoing negotiations and prisoner swap talks, Abu Obeida said the Israeli occupation was attempting to rid itself of the pledges it made during the talks as it aims to gain more time. However, he added, “The Palestinian Resistance will not surrender the pivotal rights of the Palestinian people, chief among which is the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces, the lifting of the blockade, and the return of the displaced.”

Abu Obeida, addressing Israeli settlers, underlined that the ball was in the court of the Israeli regime, “but the window of time is very narrow, and they have very limited opportunities.”

He recalled the story of Israeli pilot Ron Arad, who disappeared during a mission in the airspace of Lebanon in 1986, with no information being known about him since. “The Israeli captives in Gaza might be fortunate to meet the same fate as Ron Arad,” he said, warning the Israeli occupation against delaying the talks any further.

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“The occupation’s policy of exerting military pressure will not push the Resistance but to adhere to its position and safeguard the rights of the people,” he said. 

Iranian response set up new rules of engagement

Abu Obeida hailed Iran’s Operation True Promise carried out by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in Iran in response to the occupation’s aggression against the Iranian consulate in Damascus and emphasized that this response “set new rules of engagement and disarrayed the occupation,” as the regime’s backers scrambled to defend it from thousands of miles away.

The al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson went on to praise every military and popular effort made toward Operation al-Aqsa Flood, especially the fronts of Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq.

Abu Obeida said the leading edge front of the Resistance was the West Bank front. He also hailed the people of Jordan and called on them to escalate and called on the people of the Arab and Islamic Worlds to also escalate in support of the Palestinian people and cause.

“The hysteric reaction to the Resistance’s military actions on the various fronts indicates the importance of the armed struggle in the face of the occupying powers,” he concluded by saying.

200 days of genocide

The Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed Tuesday that the number of Palestinians killed as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression since October 7 has risen to 34,183 and those injured to 77,143.

In its daily report, the Ministry said that the Israeli occupation forces have committed three massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, resulting in 32 martyrs and 59 injuries who were transferred to hospitals in the past 24 hours.

On its part, the Government Media Office in Gaza confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces have committed a total of 3,025 massacres against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and dropped 75,000 tonnes of explosives on the enclave.

In an update on the figures resulting from 200 days of “Israel’s” genocidal war on Gaza, the Office emphasized that out of the 34,183 martyrs who reached hospitals, 14,778 are children and 9,752 are women. It added that 30 children lost their lives due to famine, confirming that 72% of the victims of the Israeli war were children and women.

According to the report, the Israeli occupation forces killed 485 medical staff, 67 civil defense crews, and 140 journalists.

It said that 7,000 are still missing and 17,000 children are now orphaned, living without one or both parents.

Multi-front solidarity

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon – Hezbollah confirmed Tuesday that it engaged the headquarters of two Israeli military units in southern occupied Palestine in response to the assassination of one of its fighters in a southern Lebanese town earlier.

In a statement, Hezbollah said its Resistance fighters launched a combined aerial attack using diversionary and suicide drones and engaged the headquarters of the Golani Brigade and the Egoz Unit 621 at Shraga barracks north of the occupied city of Akka, hitting its targets precisely.

Reuters highlighted that this was Hezbollah’s “deepest attack” into occupied Palestinian territory since the start of the Gaza war on October 7.

Israeli media had earlier reported sirens sounding in the Upper al-Jalil area over a drone infiltration and mentioned that interception missiles were launched toward a suspicious aerial target in the skies of Nahariya.

The media also pointed out that sirens sounded in numerous northern settlements reaching the city of Akka. It was also noted that sirens sounded in Kiryat for the first time since last December.

The Israeli Army Radio confirmed that 200,000 Israelis took shelter in the north after three drones were launched from Lebanon over Nahariya.

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Hezbollah Launches Aerial Attack on Israeli Defenses, Strikes Command Posts in Galilee

Posted on April 17, 2024 by martyrashrakat

 April 16, 2024

 Hezbollah Statements – Lebanon – Live News – News – Top

In support of the Palestinian people and resistance in Gaza and in light of the Israeli aggression on the various South Lebanon villages, the Islamic Resistance continued striking the Zionist occupation sites near Lebanon border.

Hezbollah military media issued consecutive statements to illustrate the attacks and their outcomes.

The first statement mentioned that the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted yesterday evening, Monday, April 15, 2024, a gathering of “Israeli” enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Birket Risha site with rocket weapons.

According to the second statement, the Islamic Resistance fighters launched at 14:25 in the afternoon of Tuesday, April 16, 2024, a targeted aerial attack with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on two batches that targeted the missile defense system in Beit Hillel.

“The attack successfully hit the Iron Dome platforms, causing casualties among its crew, leaving them dead and wounded.”

Israeli Channel 12 reported that drones fell in the Galilee, adding that 3 firefighting teams were working to extinguish a fire that broke out in the area, and the incident was under control.

The third statement affirmed that Hezbollah fighters targeted at 15:40 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, Zibdeen barracks in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with missiles.

According to the fourth statement, Hezbollah fighters targeted at 16:15 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, Al-Samaqa site in the occupied Lebanese Kfarshouba Hills with artillery shells.

The fifth statement indicated that, in response to the Israeli attacks on the safe villages, the most recent of which was Ai Baal, the Islamic Resistance fighters bombarded Beit Hillel base with Katyusha missiles at 16:45 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.

In response to the Israeli aggression on the Lebanese villages, including Ain Baal and Shehabiyah, the Islamic Resistance fighters bombarded at 19:25 on Tuesday, April 16, 202 the command headquarters of Brigade 769 in Kiryat Shmona with Katyusha missiles, according to the sixth statement.

The seventh statement mentioned that. in response to the Israeli aggression on the Lebanese villages, including Ain Baal and Shehabiyah, the Islamic Resistance fighters bombarded at 19:30 on Tuesday, April 16, 202 the command headquarters of air surveillance unit in Mount Meron with missiles and artillery shells.

Hezbollah military media issued two statements to mourn the fighters Esmail Youssef Baz (Abu Jaafar), Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadlullah, and Mohammad Hussein Mustafa Shehoury who embraced martyrdom all the way to Al-Quds.

Martyr Esmail Youssef Baz
Martyr Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadlullah
Martyr Mohammad Hussein Mustafa Shehoury

Meanwhile, the Israeli media indicated that 40% of Israelis who have evacuated the northern settlements due to Hezbollah attacks will not return.

On the other hand, the Israeli drones and war jets raided several villages in southern Lebanon, targeting civilian houses and cars in Shahabiyeh, Ai Baal, Yaroun, and Alma al-Shaab.

In support of the steadfast Palestinian people in Gaza and in reinforcement of their courageous and honorable resistance, the Islamic Resistance carried out a number of operations against the positions and deployments of the “Israeli” enemy army along the Palestinian-Lebanese borders on Monday, April 15, 2024, as follows:

– Eastern Sector:

1- On Sunday, April 14, 2024, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the espionage equipment at Al-Radar site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with appropriate weapons, inflicting direct hits.

2- At 5:45 pm, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted Ruwaisat Al-Alam site in the occupied Lebanese hills of Kfar Shuba with rocket weapons, inflicting direct hits.

3- At 6:40 pm, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted Al-Radar site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with rocket weapons, inflicting direct hits.

– Western Sector:

1- At 6:20 am, after careful monitoring and anticipation of movements by “Israeli” enemy forces, the Islamic Resistance fighters planted several explosive devices in the area of Tal Ismail, adjacent to the border with occupied Palestine within Lebanese territory. When a unit belonging to the Golani Brigade crossed the border and reached the location of the devices, they were detonated, resulting in casualties among them, leaving them dead and wounded.

2- At 4:55 pm, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of “Israeli” enemy soldiers in the vicinity of Metat barracks with appropriate weapons, resulting in casualties among them, leaving them dead and wounded.

3- At 5:00 pm, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the deployment of “Israeli” enemy soldiers in the woods of Hanita with rocket weapons and artillery shells, inflicting direct hits.

Source: Al-Manar English Website

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Al-Manar Exclusive: Maps Show Why Resistance in Gaza is Unbreakable

Posted on March 21, 2024 by uprootedpalestinians

March 20, 2024

Exclusive – Featured – In depth – Top

Marwa Haidar

Maps prepared by Mohamamd Assaf

Nearly five months on the start of the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza, the Palestinian resistance, by its unwavering resolve, still stands as an impenetrable barrier, despite the relentless aggression and the horrific genocide.

Started on October 27, 2023, the ground offensive was declared with the stated goals of eliminating Hamas and releasing the captives taken by the resistance group during the heroic Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th.

Despite attempts of advance throughout long weeks of ferocious fighting, the Israeli occupation army failed to secure its presence in numerous areas across the strip, and was forced to pull out several brigades from Gaza.

Al-Manar has prepared several maps that show the course of the battlefield since the start of the ground invasion. The maps provide a comprehensive visual representation of the battlefield’s dynamics and tactical maneuvers.

Maps Talk

On the evening of 27 October, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) launched a large-scale ground assault on the towns of Beit Hanoun and Bureij in the Gaza Strip. A day later, the occupation military said the deployed units were still on the ground, marking the beginning of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

During the first month of the ground offensive, the Israeli incursions initially took place at two areas: Beit Hanoun in the north and in the area near Juhr Al-Deek in the strip’s center, south of the Gaza City (Map 1 gives more details). The occupation troops then expanded their presence from the north to the west, and then to the center.

By November 18, the occupation military ended up in cutting the Gaza Strip in to two halves, the north and the south, and in encircling the Gaza City.

Later in December, the IOF attempted to stage a new incursion in the south, near Al-Qarara city, north of Khan Younis (Map 2). In this stage, the Palestinian resistance was still capable to stage attacks against the occupation forces in the north.

Two weeks later (by December 19), the occupation forces tried to expand their presence in the north, the center and the south (Map3).  During this phase, heavy losses were inflicted upon the IOF who were met by fierce resistance.

By December 22, the Israeli occupation army pulled out several brigades from Gaza, including the Golani Brigade, after significant losses inflicted upon (Map 4 gives more details).

The resistance’s say was decisive later in January: The Israeli occupation can never control the northern area of the Gaza strip, it can only lay siege to the area and try to make another attempt in the south, in Al-Qarara and Khan Younis (Map 5 gives details).

During February, the Israeli occupation army tried to bolster its military presence in the north.

In March, and nearly five months on the start of the ground invasion, the Israeli occupation military withdrew from several areas in the Strip’s center and south. It ended up building a 1-kilometer deep path on the Gaza Strip’s border with the occupied territories in Gaza envelope (as shown in Map 6).

The Unbreakable Resistance

By March 19, the official Israeli death toll, announced by the occupation military since the start of the ground offensive, stood at 251, with estimations that the real figures have been far greater.

Fighting in an urban environment, the Israeli troops have been facing many challenging factors that shaped the outcome of the military engagements.

Of these challenging factors are the booby traps and shells. These local-made explosive devices have been used by the well-trained resistance fighters, frequently at point-blank range.

Furthermore, the complex tunnel system in the Gaza Strip is seen by the occupation army as a serious problem. Fighters can move between the buildings without actually going outside into the street, indicating that soldiers are susceptible to ambush.

On the other hand, the resistance fighters are seen as a formidable adversary to the occupation army as they are the native people of Palestine. They are familiar with the territory in Gaza and have been preparing for this for a long time.

Ultimately, the Israeli ambitions have crumbled against the resilience of the Palestinians, leaving their hopes of conquest dashed against the achievements secured by the unbreakable resistance.

Source: Al-Manar English Website

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Hezbollah foils Israeli infiltration attempts into Lebanese territory

Posted on March 5, 2024 by uprootedpalestinians

4 Mar 2024

Source: Al Mayadeen

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment on southern Lebanon, on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (AP Photo)

By Al Mayadeen English

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon says its fighters thwarted two Israeli infiltration attempts into Lebanese territory.

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon – Hezbollah announced early Monday that its fighters thwarted two separate Israeli infiltration attempts into Lebanese territory.

In a statement, Hezbollah confirmed that its Resistance fighters on Sunday at 11:45 PM engaged with missiles an Israeli military force attempting to infiltrate into Lebanese territory in the Wadi Qatmoun area opposite the village of Rmeish, achieving direct hits.

Later, in a separate statement, the Resistance mentioned that its fighters detonated on Monday at 12:15 AM a large explosive device against an Israeli force from the Golani Brigade attempting to infiltrate into Lebanese territory from the direction of “Khirbet Zar’it” opposite the town of Ramya.

It added that Hezbollah fighters then targeted the infiltrating Israeli force with several artillery shells, causing direct hits.

Al Mayadeen‘s correspondent pointed out that Israeli aircraft intensified their airstrikes Sunday on the areas where infiltration attempts were made, highlighting that the fighters of the Lebanese Islamic Resistance were vigilant and countered the Israeli attacks.

In addition, the Resistance said its fighters bombarded on Monday at 1:30 AM the Zar’it barracks and its vicinity with artillery weapons.

Earlier on Sunday, Hezbollah fighters carried out six operations against Israeli occupation forces and military sites on the border with occupied Palestine.

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The operations were as follows:

Eastern Sector:

At 11:20 AM, Resistance fighters hit the surveillance system at the “Metula” site with appropriate weapons and achieved a direct hit.

At 1:40 PM, and after precise monitoring, Hezbollah fighters engaged an Israeli military force opposite the village of al-Wazzani with appropriate weapons, inflicting direct hits on the force. According to the statement, this prompted the Israeli occupation forces to launch smoke shells to cover the evacuation operation of the dead and wounded soldiers with helicopters.

At 2:30 PM, Resistance fighters bombarded the al-Samaqa site in the occupied Lebanese Kfar Shuba Hills with rocket weapons and achieved a direct hit.

At 7:00 PM, Resistance fighters bombarded the deployment of Israeli occupation soldiers in Mount Nothor with rocket weapons and caused a direct hit.

Western Sector:

At 6:45 AM, Hezbollah fighters bombarded the Jal al-Allam site with a Burkan rocket and achieved a direct hit.

At 9:45 PM, Resistance fighters engaged an Israeli mechanized force in the vicinity of the al-Malikiyah site with several artillery shells and achieved a direct hit.

It is noteworthy that in all of its statements, Hezbollah reiterates that its operations come in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and their brave and honorable Resistance.

Read more: Israeli media: ‘Metulla’ wall cannot stop Hezbollah

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Videograph Sheds Light on Golani Brigade Defeated by Palestinian Resistance in Gaza

Posted on December 27, 2023 by indigoblue76

December 26, 2023

When the Israeli military command decided last week to withdraw Golani Brigade from the ground battle in Gaza, the features of the Zionist defeat in the Strip started to appear.

Being an elite force, Golani soldiers are viewed by the Zionist society as extremely powerful warriors who can confront all the challenges which face the IOF on ground.

However, their recent defeat in Gaza has shaken this confidence and left the enemy’s command as well as public facing embarrassing questions about the future of the entity which relies mainly on the Army to survive.

The following videograph tells more about Golani Brigade:

Source: Al-Manar English Website

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Israel’s Golani Brigade turns tail from Gaza

Posted on December 23, 2023 by fada1

DEC 22, 2023

A former Israeli general has revealed that the ‘elite’ Golani Brigade lost a quarter of its forces on the first day of the war

(Photo credit: AFP)

News Desk

Israel’s Channel 13 reported on 21 December that the army’s elite Golani Brigade withdrew from Gaza following 60 days of fighting to “reorganize its ranks” after facing unprecedented losses during the first weeks of battle in the strip. 

The news comes days after it was reported that the elite infantry unit had suffered major losses during the ground assault on Gaza. 

Retired Israeli general Moshe Kaplinsky said this week that the Golani Brigade lost 88 soldiers since 7 October. According to the retired general, 72 were killed on the first day of the war – amounting to a quarter of the entire brigade. 

In late October, Israel expanded the limited incursions it was carrying out in Gaza into a full-scale ground assault. Since then, Israeli troops have fallen into bloody ambushes laid by the Gaza resistance daily. 

The withdrawal of the Golani Brigade came one day after the Israeli army claimed in a statement that it had achieved “operational control” over the Shujaiya neighborhood in northern Gaza. While the ground war is now focused on the south of Gaza, battles continue to rage across the north of the strip – despite the army previously claiming to have dealt a significant blow to the Hamas presence there. 

According to Palestine Chronicle, Israel announced control over Shujaiya “to reduce the shock of the news that its most elite fighting force had essentially been defeated, forcing it to an early retreat.” 

The Shujaiya neighborhood in north Gaza is where the Israeli army has faced some of the stiffest resistance since the start of the ground war. 

Footage released on 21 December shows the exact moment a force of elite Golani Brigade soldiers was attacked in Shujaiya. Screams are heard as the troops scramble to treat a wounded soldier, whose go-pro camera recorded the incident. 

https://twitter.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1738144662215369139?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1738144662215369139%7Ctwgr%5Ef82ed2eb9b4cf465386b7e265e0d473a614c9d11%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnew.thecradle.co%2Farticles-id%2F16336

Israeli forces face such ambushes daily, as evident from the statements and videos released by Hamas’ Qassam Brigades via its media channel.

Seven members of the Golani Brigade were taken out in a single ambush in Shujaiya on 12 December. 
Among the dead were Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, head of the Golani Brigade’s commander’s team, and Tomer Grinberg, the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion commander.

Grindberg had been filmed earlier in December promising the Israeli people “a resounding victory” in Gaza. 

The Israeli losses being reported are only a fraction of the actual number of dead and wounded soldiers, as hospital data recently cited by Hebrew media indicates that soldier casualties are being underreported by half.

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Day 77: Israeli Quest for Military Success in Gaza Hits Roadblocks

Posted on December 23, 2023 by martyrashrakat

December 22, 2023

Israeli occupation troops in the Gaza Strip in a photo released on December 21, 2023.

The Israeli occupation is hardly looking for a military achievement to announce in Gaza on the 77th day of the brutal aggression on the besieged enclave.

The Israeli occupation army has been boasting with resounding statements by claiming to “destroy Hamas leaders tunnel network in Gaza city,” and “turning Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s home to dust.”

Such statements have been aimed at raising the morale of the Israeli army’s whose Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion withdrew from Gaza after suffering significant losses.

Israeli Toll

The Israeli occupation army announced on Friday the death of two Israeli soldiers, taking the death toll of Israeli troops since the start of the ground offensive in Gaza to 139 and the total number of troops killed since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood to 470.

Meanwhile, the occupation army said that 23 soldiers have been injured in the ground battles in the last 24 hours, taking the number of wounded troops since the start of the ground offensive to more than 600 including 179 seriously injured and 302 others in moderate condition.

Israeli occupation forces in Gaza (photo released by occupation military on December 16, 2023).

On the other hand, according to figures offered by Beirut-based Union Center for Research and Development (known as U-Feed), 720 Israeli vehicles and tanks have been destroyed or damaged during the ground battles in Gaza.

Fierce Clashes

Meanwhile on Friday, fierce clashes were reported in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, indicating that the occupation army hasn’t been able yet to control the northern region of the strip as the Israeli media has been propagating.

Al-Qassam resistance fighter confronting Israeli occupation troops in Gaza’s Zeitoun Neighborhood (December 2023).

Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance group announced that its fighters managed to down an Israeli drone over Gaza on Friday. It added that the resistance fighters fired heavy mortar shells on gatherings of Israeli occupation troops stationed in Al-Qurm roundabout in northern Gaza Strip.

Continuous Massacres

On the other hand, the Israeli occupation went ahead with its brutal aggression against the besieged enclave, staging more strikes and shelling against several areas across the strip including Jabalia in the north and Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip as well as Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south.

Palestinian Health Ministry announced on Friday that 390 Palestinians have been martyred and 734 injured in the past two days, raising the toll of martyrs to 20,057 and the number of injured to 53,320 since the start of the aggression on October 7th.

Source: Al-Manar English Website

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The hidden toll: Is Israel downplaying soldiers’ deaths?

Posted on December 20, 2023 by fada1

DEC 19, 2023

Faced with its longest and deadliest war to date, Israel is now under increasing pressure to transparently disclose its losses, going against the common practice of concealing casualties during wartime.

Photo Credit: The Cradle

William Van Wagenen

“How many Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza?”

This is a persistent question that many are asking as the Israeli military’s ground campaign in the bombed and besieged enclave nears its second month.

If the army is suffering relatively low losses while inflicting massive Palestinian civilian casualties, this suggests Israel is well on its way to achieving its clear objective of eliminating Hamas, but also its unspoken goals: conquer Gaza, ethnically cleanse its 2.3 million residents, and rebuild the Gush Katif settlement bloc.

But if the occupation army is indeed suffering huge losses, this suggests the Israeli military and political leadership may need to soon end their genocidal campaign prematurely, while citing exaggerated external pressure from the White House as the pretext.

Secrecy surrounding Israeli losses

Israel’s military claimed on 17 December that 121 soldiers had been killed since its delayed ground campaign began on 27 October, when tanks and infantry began to push into Gaza’s cities and refugee camps.

But determining the true number of Israeli soldier casualties has always been notoriously difficult, as Israel’s military goes to great lengths to cover up its combat losses. A recent battle between Hamas and Israel’s vaunted Golani Brigade exemplifies this secrecy.

“We are heading to the most difficult and deepest place with a large number of enemy fighters,” boasted Israeli Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, commander of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, shortly before leading his troops on a ground operation in the legendary Shujaiyya (which aptly means “courageous”) neighborhood in northern Gaza.

He then added, “I promise you a resounding victory.”

But Grinberg is now dead.

According to Israeli sources, Grinberg was killed during the 12 December operation, along with nine other Golani soldiers, in an ambush by Hamas fighters.

After four of the brigade’s soldiers were injured in a firefight, others sought to rescue them amid fears they may be dragged into a tunnel. The second group was also hit by explosives, as was a third group that also tried to evacuate the wounded.

After the battle, Hamas issued a statement warning:

“The longer you stay there, the greater the bill of your deaths and losses will be, and you will emerge from it carrying the tail of disappointment and loss, God willing.”

Resistance claims higher soldier toll

But there is compelling reason to believe the number of soldiers killed alongside Grinberg in Shujaiyya is much higher than the nine announced by the army.

Security expert and retired Israeli Colonel Miri Eisin told CNN that the 12 December attack was particularly painful because so many of the dead were high-ranking officers:

“We’re hurting today…It’s always hard when soldiers are killed, but when it’s this level of command, it hits you in the gut. These are commanders that commanded hundreds of soldiers.”

This led one former US soldier to ask on X whether Israel was hiding the true number of soldiers killed in the ambush. “Where are all the privates, and the corporals, and the lower enlisted?”

Hamas, through its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, provides an answer.

Regarding the events on 12 December, the Qassam Brigades reported killing 11 soldiers in Shujaiyya, including members of a rescue team, in an apparent reference to the deaths acknowledged by the Israeli army.

But according to Qassam, on the same day, its fighters also killed or injured 10 soldiers east of the city of Khan Yunis, killed or injured another 20 soldiers barricaded inside a building in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City, and killed another 15 soldiers who attacked them in their make-shift base at the Abu Rashid Pool.

Censorship on the press and hospitals

Despite claiming to be “the only democracy in the Middle East,” Tel Aviv maintains a tight grip on information related to military casualties through the use of military censors, controlling what the press can publish concerning national security issues, including injuries and deaths of soldiers.

“The human losses announced by the security establishment are usually binding on hundreds of media institutions, and these are allowed to work basically according to this rule. The death toll always comes from one source, and no one questions it,” Hassan Abdo, The Cradle’s Palestine Correspondent, reported earlier this year.

Abdo attributes this to preserving the image of the invincible Israeli soldier “who does not fall victim to a weak, primitive opponent.”

This is “one of the main pillars of the Zionist project based on the tripartite of security, immigration, and settlement,” he added.

As The Cradle noted, even before the outbreak of war on 7 October, Israeli soldiers have had a strange tendency to die in “accidents” during periods of heightened conflict with the Palestinian resistance, including in car accidents, plane crashes, suicides, gas leaks, and even falling from balconies.

But this invincible image was shattered with the operation Al-Aqsa Flood, when Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups broke out of the Gaza Strip to attack the Israeli military bases and settlements (kibbutzim) enforcing the brutal 17-year siege on the tiny and impoverished enclave.

During Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas killed 41 soldiers from Grinberg’s Golani battalion alone, in major battles at the Re’im and Nahal Oz military bases.

Hezbollah’s estimates and questions from within

Israel claims Hamas carried out a massacre at the Nova music festival, just a few kilometers from the Re’im base, but a major battle took place there as well. At Nova, 58 Israeli police were killed, including from elite combat counter-terror units of the Border Police, known as Yamam, who were the first to respond to the attack.

According to an Israeli police investigation regarding events at Nova, had there not been a substantial police deployment at Yad Mordechai, some 30 kilometers further north, “the terrorists would have been on their way to … Tel Aviv in 40 minutes.”

It, therefore, becomes more imperative than ever for the occupation state to hide the extent of its losses, both in the battle against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and in the north in the battle with Hezbollah, to reestablish and maintain the myth of an overwhelmingly powerful military presence in the region.

Anecdotal evidence and estimates from Hezbollah suggest that the official count of 115 Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting in Gaza and near the Lebanese border following 7 October is likely much lower than the true figure. Reports from different sources indicate a significant discrepancy, with instances of mass casualties not officially acknowledged.

The Lebanese resistance movement estimates its attacks on settlements and military bases in northern-occupied Palestine have killed at least 35 Israeli soldiers and injured 172.

After just the first week of fighting in Gaza, the death toll, as announced by the Israeli army from fighting there, had reached 19. Among them were nine soldiers killed in just one attack. Hamas struck the “Namer” armored personnel carrier transporting the soldiers to the battle with an anti-tank missile.

Seven of the dead soldiers were 20 years old or younger, which seems to confirm the perception that Israel is sending inexperienced fighters into combat against Hamas’ battle-hardened fighters motivated by a cause, resistance to occupation, they firmly believe in.

But the occupation army spokesperson’s unit quickly learned not to announce the mass killing of soldiers of this sort.

Baruch Rosenblum, an Israeli rabbi, recalled a story from a senior officer in the army from the second week of the Gaza ground campaign. The officer explained that most of the fighting takes place at night, and that in just one operation, Hamas had killed 36 soldiers.

The rabbi explained that Hamas had attacked a convoy of three Namer armored vehicles, each carrying 12 soldiers, setting them ablaze. The army command watched via drone live feed as the soldiers abandoned the vehicles and Hamas eliminated them all with anti-tank weapons.

The senior officer chose not to disclose his name to the rabbi “to avoid arrest for revealing state secrets,” and the incident was never announced by the army or reported in the Israeli press.

On 18 November, in the third week of the ground operation, David Oren Baruch, the director of Mount Herzl Military Cemetery, provided another anecdote suggesting a soldier death toll much larger than what was publicly known.

He revealed that “We are now going through a period where every hour there is a funeral, every hour and a half a funeral.”

“I was asked to open a large number of graves. Only in the Mount Herzl cemetery did we bury 50 soldiers in 48 hours,” Baruch explained further.

Military control of the narrative

The Israeli military’s reluctance to disclose the number of wounded soldiers further adds to suspicions of underreporting.

Unlike in past wars, the Israeli military had refused to make any statement about the number of wounded in Gaza. This finally changed on 10 December, just before Haaretz planned to publish its report on the number of soldier casualties based instead on hospital sources.

Haaretz noted “a considerable and unexplained gap between the data reported by the military and that from the hospitals.” The hospital data the outlet obtained showed the number of wounded soldiers was “twice as high as the army’s numbers.”

The Israeli newspaper also highlighted the military’s tight control over the data reported by the hospitals themselves, explaining that members of the army spokesperson’s unit “are in the hospitals around the clock. Every press release regarding wounded soldiers and replies to media queries must receive their approval.”

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth similarly reported on 9 December that, “Every day, about 60 new wounded are received only by the rehabilitation department” and that “the cumulative numbers since October 7 are astronomical: More than 2,000 soldiers, policemen and other members of the security forces have been officially recognized as disabled.”

“We have never been through anything even similar to this,” explained Limor Luria, head of the rehabilitation department at the Ministry of Defense.

“More than 58 percent of the wounded who are taken in by us have severe injuries of arms and legs, including those that require amputations. About 12 percent are internal injuries – spleen, kidney, tearing of internal organs. There are also head and eye injuries.”

In addition to thousands of horrific physical injuries, Israel is also facing “a tsunami of trauma,” the paper added. “I sat with a fighter who took three bullets. A physically torn person, a very serious injury,” Luria added, “but his main struggle is with the sights he saw.”

One injured soldier, Elisha Madan, recounted to a crowd how his fellow soldiers were killed in front of his eyes. “I came back from the dead alone. My entire squad died, and I was on the verge of death. I survived thanks to your prayers,” Madan said while seated in his wheelchair.

‘All warfare is based on deception’ – Sun Tzu

Since 7 October, the Israeli military leadership has reported falsehoods about almost every facet of that day’s events, and the war that followed.

They lied about Hamas beheading babies, they covered up burning alive their own soldiers and civilians with Apache helicopter and tank fire, and they continue to lie about pretending to care about the safety of Palestinian civilians, who they have mercilessly bombed for months with only the slightest pretext of targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure.

As a result, while it is impossible to know the true numbers of Israeli soldiers killed in battle against the Palestinian resistance, there is there is ample reason to question the veracity of the information provided by the US-backed occupation army.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.

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Why Does the West Support the Genocide of Gaza?

Posted on December 2, 2023 by Zara Ali

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Source

…And when will its political and media leaders be tried, condemned, and executed?

Kevin Barrett

Even Israeli experts call it “a textbook case of genocide.” Those are the exact words of Raz Siegal, an Israeli historian and professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University. On October 16, Siegal told Democracy Now:

We have to understand that the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide from 1948 requires that we see special intent for genocide to happen. And to quote the convention, intent to destroy a group is defined as racial, ethnic, religious or national as such that is collectively, not just individuals. And this intent, as we just heard, is on full display by Israeli politicians and army officers since October 7th. We heard Israel’s president. It’s well-known what Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on October 9th declaring a complete siege on Gaza, cutting off water, food, fuel, stating that “We’re fighting human animals,” and we will react “accordingly.” He also said that “We will eliminate everything.” We know that Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, for example, acknowledged wanton destruction and said explicitly, “The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.” So we’re seeing the special intent on full display.

And it isn’t just Israelis who are guilty. Leaders of Western countries have given the Gaza Holocaust their full backing. On Saturday, October 7, even as Israeli tanks, rockets, and helicopter gunships were mass-murdering hundreds of Israeli civilian prisoners alongside dozens of their Hamas captors, US President Joe Biden condemned as “unconscionable” the “appalling terrorist attacks” and encouraged what would become genocidal Israeli “retaliation.”

In reality, the Israelis, not Hamas, were the terrorists of October 7. The only mass slaughters of civilians that day were carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces. Hamas’s brave soldiers were under strict orders to attack Israeli military targets and try to capture military hostages, with the taking of civilian hostages being a secondary option or last resort. There were no Hamas orders to kill unarmed civilians, and surviving Israeli hostages speak of the kindness and generosity of their Hamas captors.

Zionist-owned Western media immediately began broadcasting outrageous lies deliberately designed to incite genocide. (Every media person responsible for those lies must some day be tried, convicted and executed.)

Zionist genocide propagandists raved deliriously about Hamas supposedly beheading 40 babies, baking babies in ovens, gouging eyes, mutilating breasts, cutting open naked women, raping women, mutilating dead bodies, spreading cyanide, and on and on. All lies. When Joe Biden endorsed the beheaded babies canard, claiming that he had seen the bodies, he sealed his fate as a self-incriminated genocide inciter who will be executed in the unlikely event that he lives long enough to face trial.

What really happened on October 7 was reasonably clear even then, and has since become undeniable. Hamas scored what Scott Ritter has called “the most successful military raid of this century:”

Hamas effectively neutralized Israel’s vaunted intelligence services, blinding them to the possibility of an attack of this scope and scale…(then) Hamas defeated those Israeli soldiers stationed along the barrier wall in a stand-up fight. Two battalions of the Golani Brigade were routed, as were elements of other vaunted IDF units.

Hamas struck the Headquarters of the Gaza Division, the local intelligence hub, and other major command and control facilities with brutal precision, turning what should have been a five-minute response time into many hours—more than enough time for Hamas to carry out one of its primary objectives—the taking of hostages. This they did with extreme proficiency, returning to Gaza with more than 230 Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Hamas fighters killed about 600 Israeli soldiers during the first 24 hours, a total that “included many of Israel’s most elite officers, including dozens of colonels and majors.” After Hamas repeatedly defeated the Israeli military in stand-up fights, and captured hundreds of Israeli prisoners, the Zionists panicked and invoked the Hannibal Directive, according to which heavy weaponry is used to eliminate both hostage takers and hostages. According to an Israeli Air Force officer who participated in the mass murder of hundreds of Israeli civilians along with their Hamas captors, top-level Zionist commanders ordered “mass Hannibal.” In other words, they deliberately ordered the mass slaughter of their own civilians by the hundreds in order to prevent them from becoming hostages and adding to Israel’s political problems. Had they not done so, Hamas would have returned to Gaza with as many as 700 prisoners, rather than the 250 that they actually got.

Israel then used photos of the carnage that they themselves had inflicted—using helicopter gunships, tanks, and rockets—and blamed it on Hamas. Even a cursory look at the photos of the devastated kibbutz buildings, the blown-up buildings at the music festival, and the vast array of shredded automobiles makes it clear that most of the damage was done not by Hamas’s small arms fire, but by Israel’s heavy weaponry. Yet the shameless Zionists, mass-murderers of their own people, had the chutzpah to blame the courageous and ethical soldiers of Hamas for their own crimes!

The West Sparks the Genocide

By October 8 I could see, as could anyone else with eyes, that the images out of Israel showed that the Israelis, not Hamas, were responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths. The Biden Administration, and its CIA daily briefer, must have known the same thing, with even greater certainty and in greater detail. Yet instead of using its knowledge of the truth to restrain Israel’s murderous impulse towards Biblical-scale vengeance, Joe Biden went on television and bloviated about supposedly seeing 40 Israeli babies beheaded by Hamas.

Everything the almost-entirely-Jewish Biden Administration did was calculated to encourage Israel to launch a genocide. And every other Western leader went along, actively or passively, with the genocide plan.

Once the exterminationist carpet-bombing of Gaza was underway, and thousands of women and children murdered, did those Western leaders reverse course and demand that Israel stop? Of course not.

Anthony Blinken, who flew to Tel Aviv first, in the midst of the carpet-bombing, let slip that his pre-eminent loyalty was to the genocidal entity, announcing that he flew to Tel Aviv “not only as the United States Secretary of State but also as a Jew.” (Remove the words only and also from that sentence to understand its real meaning.)

Joe Biden flew to Tel Aviv to put his stamp of approval on the genocide. So did UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who described Hamas as “the new Nazis” according to Netanyahu. Second-tier Western powers like Austria and Czechoslovakia also sent their leaders to kiss Netanyahu’s reeking rump and endorse the Gaza Holocaust.

Why has the West’s entire leadership class been falling all over itself competing to see who can move to the head of the line of genocidal war criminals? Can’t they see that the global majority is appalled by the wholesale Zionist atrocities and sides with Palestine? Don’t they realize that the West is hastening its own demise, and ensuring the rise of a non-Western-led world order, by undermining its pretense of concern for international law and human rights?

Several possible reasons for the West’s unanimously-pro-genocide position have been proposed. Some say the West is incorrigibly racist and just doesn’t care about the deaths of brown people, especially Muslims. They add that the West’s undisputed hegemon, the USA, was founded on Old Testament style genocide, and that the formerly Protestant and now Jewish Bible-thumpers of Washington DC share Netanyahu’s vengeful lust for Biblical extermination of “Amalek” (meaning the designated racial enemies of the Jews and/or Americans).

Another potential explanation invokes realpolitik. The US imperial center increasingly dominates the West (the Ukraine war destruction of Nordstream emasculated Europe) but is losing ground elsewhere. Hamas’s crushing defeat of Israel on October 7 struck a powerful blow not only against Zionism, but against the whole Anglo-Zionist Empire. The Biden “minyan” (Jewish-Zionist cabinet) panicked and scrambled to endorse Israeli genocide, not out of sober calculation, but for the same reason that a rabid rat, when cornered, mindlessly lashes out. These people know that the days of the US empire, and the Zionist entity, are numbered, and it drives them crazy. They see that every day the rising countries, led by China, Russia, and Iran, become stronger, and the US and its European vassals grow weaker. Terrified, they realize that if war is to come, the sooner the better, because every day the West’s chances of winning recede. And then, even more terrified, they grasp that it is already too late. So they take out their frustration on the women and children of Gaza.

Another realpolitik-based explanation involves the possibility that US leaders, or at least the most extreme neocon faction, would welcome an all-out war with Iran and the Axis of Resistance—a war which every additional day of genocide brings closer. Even though such a war risks a civilization-imploding World War III, and would at minimum result in tens or hundreds of thousands of Israeli and American casualties, it might at least offer a distraction from looming US defeat in Ukraine. Additionally, a massive war in West Asia would reduce the region to chaos and set back China’s Belt-and-Road plan by a decade or two, thereby prolonging the US imperial illusion by maintaining it on life support for another few years. (China builds, the US destroys, so maximizing destruction prolongs the US imperial agony.)

But in the end, the best explanation for Western leaders’ pro-genocide position involves the role of the media. Allan Thompson’s (ed.) The Media and the Rwanda Genocide shows that more than half a million Rwandans were butchered in 1994, most hacked to death with machetes, primarily due to media incitement. By dominating the formation of public opinion, the Rwandan media, especially radio, created a pro-genocide bubble that took on a life of its own. Specifically, by spreading outrageous lies that dehumanized the target group, both broadcast and print media deliberately orchestrated the mass murder of as many as 700,000 people.

This is exactly what mainstream Western media have done in their incitement of the Gaza genocide. The aforementioned lies about beheaded and roasted babies, gouged eyeballs and broken pelvises, and other gory inventions from the fecund sado-masochistic Zionist imagination were deliberately deployed to provoke real mass murders and maimings of Palestinians.

By enthusiastically participating in the Gaza genocide, the West, starting with its media and political elites, has completely discredited itself in the eyes of the world. The era of Western hegemony is coming to an end. The majority of the Earth’s population can now see that anything, absolutely anything, would be better than allowing these genocidal monsters to continue to dominate this planet.

The war criminals have sealed their own so-called civilization’s fate, and condemned their own souls to eternal hellfire. I hope to live long enough, insha’allah, to see them all, every last one of them, dragged to Beijing or Moscow or Tehran and tried for their crimes against humanity and led to the gallows.

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A legend that debunked a myth: Scenes from the 2006 July War

Posted on July 13, 2023 by martyrashrakat

July 12, 2023

In the last days of the war, a tank was destroyed in the vicinity of the village of Ayta Al-Shaab with an RPG-29 rocket

Source: Al Mayadeen English

By Ali Jezzini

In this article, scenes from the July War and its battles would be presented in an attempt to highlight the Lebanese resistance’s legendary feat and the consequent utter Israeli military failure.

The beginning – Ayta; the legend

On the first day of the July 2006 war, the Israeli Minister of Security, Amir Peretz, accompanied by Gal Hirsch, the commander of the 91st Division, watched a live feed of a Merkava MK4 tank turret being thrown 136 meters away from its hull as it attempted to climb onto a hill overlooking the Lebanese village of Ayta Al-Shaab. The Lebanese Resistance had captured two Israeli soldiers to exchange them for Lebanese prisoners.

“Do you know what a tonne of explosive materials means?”

Gal Hirsch, the commander of the 91st Division

is said to have continued repeating to his interlocutor for the rest of the war duration.

In the book Prisoners in Lebanon, Ofer Shelah and Yoav Limor say that this blow had a shocking effect similar to Zidane’s hitting Materazzi with his head in the chest during the World Cup that preceded the war. The Merkava event marked the Israeli military actions in the war, which were characterized by hesitation and overcaution. Military operations did not start in the Ayta Al-Shaab area until two weeks into the war and up to 3 weeks in the eastern sectors.

A destroyed/disabled Israeli Merkava 3 Tank during the War

The book also lists that Gal Hirsch himself never stopped repeating to those who asked him to commit to a land invasion the following question: “Do you know what a ton of explosive materials means?” Ironically, the military that intended to employ the Shock and Awe doctrine suffered from it until the end of the war.

It would be unfair to consider this shock as the main reason to dissuade the Israeli military from conducting a land invasion, with the picture becoming clearer as this article goes on. The defeat was due to a combination of several factors, including internal politics, military and operational causes, and cognitive factors.

Israeli chief of staff Dan Halutz, the arrogant officer as described by his close associates, was a believer in the theory of achieving victories through air dominance. This is not only because Halutz is a former pilot and an officer in the Air Force but also to the general belief that dominated the Israeli military, which is that winning the war is possible through Shock and Awe without body bags returning, i.e. through modern technologies and large quantities of explosives.

Perhaps this was also one of the reasons that prompted Halutz himself to hastily announce the destruction of the bulk of the Resistance’s missile arsenal in what he called “Operation Density”; a claim clearly proven wrong by the rockets continuing to fall on Israeli installations down to the last day.

In Ayta Al-Shaab, the two weeks that followed the beginning of the war on July 12 witnessed limited military operations by “Israel”. Israeli forces stuck to reconnaissance by fire in the vicinity of the relatively large town. The Resistance also did not stand still during this period, so it launched an intense and accurate bombardment that targeted the command center of the 91st Division in the “Biranit” camp, located on the site of the destroyed village of Mansoura. One of these missiles hit the electrical generator of the command center, which led to the loss of illumination and ventilation for some time. On July 31, the Israeli forces began to advance, in what the Israeli dubbed “Operation Change of Direction 8.” Consequently, the Israeli Paratroopers Brigade effectively surrounded the town from all directions.

More often than not, such a maneuver means the end for defenders, but that was just the beginning.

It was not long before the encirclement was followed by an attempt to storm the town from the east, which failed, followed by another attempt by the 890th Paratroopers Battalion from the north, which was also dealt a blow. The soldiers were surprised by the ferocity and violence of the fire, as one of them expressed in his post-war account, as terror and hysteria gripped the forces as soon as the casualties began to pile up. This was especially exacerbated when one of the soldiers, a sergeant, was fatally wounded in the head, so they “stopped functioning” and did not proceed to return fire directly that day.

After the battle, which resulted in the death of 3 Israeli soldiers and the wounding of 25 others, according to Israeli accounts, the paratroopers withdrew to the outskirts of the town, carrying their wounded on stretchers toward the border. Attempts to enter continued in the following days without achieving any progress, and the senior officers in the “army” continued their efforts without showing any intention to withdraw from the town, despite the growing frustration due to the lack of progress.

On August 5, the Carmeli Brigade (reserve) decided to withdraw on its own from the town after suffering losses, with one dead and 19 wounded, in what it called a “tactical retreat”. This step came under harsh criticism after the war by the military leadership. It came to the point that the Israeli “army” sent a team to negotiate the evacuation of the town on August 7, and it could not extract with words what its soldiers had failed to do, especially after the insistence of the two leaderships on the process of occupying the town, “a symbol of the determination” of the resistance, as some Israeli officers put it.

The bombing of Ayta Al-Shaab, Lebanon, August 6, 2006 (Israeli Military Photographer)

In the last days of the war, a tank was destroyed in the vicinity of the village of Ayta Al-Shaab with an RPG-29 rocket. Its crew consisting of 4 people got killed and its turret flew off, similar to what happened with the Merkava tank that was destroyed on the first day of the war. In addition, a Puma armored vehicle and several bulldozers were destroyed, one of which attempted to demolish some houses. Here, we can only imagine how the Israelis will vent out these successive blows by just depicting the pictures of demolished homes deeply rooted in the Arab consciousness in general and the Palestinian one in particular.

On the last day of the fighting, 4 soldiers were killed in Tal Abu Tawil, north of Ayta Al-Shaab, and 20 others were wounded by an anti-tank missile attack.

Using the word heroic to summarize the battle in Ayta Al-Shaab does not suffice. The Israelis, employing about 5 infantry brigades in the village and surroundings, comprising thousands of soldiers, after destroying more than 90% of the town’s buildings, according to the UNHCR report, were not able to defeat a besieged Resistance infantry company comprising about 80 fighters, as admitted by the Israelis themselves. 

I believe that the word myth was not created except for battles such as this one, which rarely exists in history in the tangible, material sense, and not the emotional and poetic one.

Bint Jbeil and Maroun Al-Ras

On Maroun Al-Ras and Bint Jbeil fronts, the scene was completely different, as a Maglan unit (which is an elite reconnaissance force) encountered an ambush of the Resistance in the Jal Al-Deir area, where more than half of them were killed and injured in seconds, while the rest of the unit was left stunned. This prompted the command to send two Egoz companies (another elite unit) to support the besieged Maglan unit. The companies, in turn, came under fire from Malyutka-guided missiles from the low grounds of Bint Jbeil, killing five soldiers, including Colonel Benjamin Hillman. That day was the bloodiest in the history of the Egoz.

“We expected to find a tent and 3 Kalashnikovs, and then we found a steel hydraulic door leading to a series of fortified tunnels,” one of the Maglan unit soldiers said after the war. Such fortifications were later dubbed Nature Reserves, which are fortified sites that formed a wall in the face of the Israeli military offensive. Following this incident, the commander of the northern military region, Odi Adam, prevented the attack on Nature Reserves for fear of losses, saying “A Nature Reserve is capable of swallowing an entire brigade.”

In Bint Jbeil, several days after the previously mentioned battle of Maroun Al-Ras, excessive caution did not prevent the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade from falling victim to an ambush that swallowed one company after another and ended with the death of one of the company commanders and his deputy, in addition to the wounding of another company commander and the death of his deputy.

Destruction of Bint Jbeil town in the July 2006 war (Awad Awad/AFP)

The battalion was literally about to disintegrate in a military sense and its original mission turned into a rescue mission. In a later account of one of the soldiers who participated in the battle, he recounts hearing on the radio that while he was being hit by Malyutka missiles from all sides, Brigadier General Gil Hirsch, who was in charge of the operation, declared that “the work is about to be completed, And the terrorists are fleeing.” In such occasions, “you realize something is wrong,” the soldier commented.

According to a Jerusalem Post article by Yaakov Katz, dated July 26, 2006, the Israeli government’s stance on Bint Jbeil evolved as the war continued. Despite promises of advancement, there was “nothing tangible to put on display” to demonstrate it, knowing that a decisive win at Bint Jbeil may likely mark the turning point in the conflict for the Israeli public. It was thought that a Hezbollah capitulation here would have a “ripple effect” on the Resistance’s other strongholds in South Lebanon. 

A reason that pushed the Israeli military to attack Bint Jbeil, for which the whole operation was called “Webs of Steel” was Hezbollah Secretary General’s victory speech In 2000. During that speech, Sayyed Nasrallah said “Israel” was weaker than a spider’s web, which according to Israeli journalist Amir Rapaport developed a “cobwebs complex” in the Israeli high command.

According to Yaakov Katz in the Jerusalem Post, Bint Jbeil was cited as a significant “symbol” by senior Israeli officers such as Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and Chief of Operations Gadi Eisenkot. In the same location where Sayyed Nasrallah delivered his speech in 2000, they wanted to seize the town and bring an Israeli leader to deliver a victory speech. Rapaport claimed that Bint Jbeil would come to represent “Lebanon’s collapse”.

To sum the battle up, The Israelis failed to accomplish any symbolic or small task after failing to fulfill any sort of tactically significant achievements. The Israelis then hoisted the flag on a building they were positioned in, but they did not publish the photo later, since they withdrew after failing to accomplish their main objective.

An army of ‘crying toddlers’

“In every land battle, the moment our soldiers encounter any resistance, the progress of the force stops. The commanders called for reinforcements, and the fighting focuses on evacuating the wounded and the dead from the battlefield… You will not find a single story about a force that fought until the completion of its mission, or a Hezbollah force that was killed or defeated”

Israeli war correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai,

 in an article he wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth in 2011.

Ron Ben-Yishai, the renowned Israeli journalist, was not the first to place most of the blame on cultural and psychological factors following his military’s defeat in the war, which is an old habit practiced by many. In World War I, Italian General Luigi Cadorno, having sent thousands of his soldiers to death by Austrian machine guns, armed with the high patriotism of that era, blamed the “cowardice and degradation of Italian soldiers” for Caporetto’s crushing defeat. It is a dangerous path for anyone who wants to take it, especially if you need to mobilize for a national war. And we, the Arabs, took it to the end after the Naksa in 1967.

Although the Israeli journalist’s words carry some accuracy in describing what he calls “the mentality of crying toddlers,” in an old article of his titled “Crying toddlers do not win wars,” the reasons for this mentality are nothing more than a combination of several factors, including beliefs. Such factors include the military itself, the structure and development of a certain society, and the excessive reliance on technical superiority.

In some cases, this mentality was visible, while in the other cases of the July 2006 war, the defeat was dealt with through conventional military material means. The Israeli military institution suffered from what looks like psychological trauma after 2006. 

Two events from the July 2006 war can shed light on such a trauma. In the first incident, tanks from the Israeli 366th Armored Division left a tank belonging to the battalion commander all by itself, backed by only an armored personnel carrier, in the Khiam area. The brigade assigned to the battalion commander consequently retreated toward occupied Palestine after being hit by Kornet laser-guided anti-tank missiles and suffering casualties. Another battalion commander refused to advance with his tanks and then proceeded to resign. 

In another incident, the Carmeli Brigade, which was fighting in the vicinity of Ayta Al-Shaab, withdrew one of its battalions after losing a soldier and others sustaining injuries, in what it called a “tactical retreat”, despite the Nahhal Brigade and paratroopers asking for the Carmeli Brigade support in attacking the village that was defended by a handful of Resistance fighters, around 80 to be precise, according to Israeli sources.

In both cases, the commands of the Israeli 91st and 366th Divisions were severely bashed after the end of the war, and their commanders either resigned or were expelled.

Conclusion

Following the war that ended on August 14, 2006, the Israelis went into a full spiral of disbelief, pathological lying, and all level of coping mechanisms. What had happened was not a mere military defeat, but a full-blown trauma to the Israeli military arrogance and ego. 

The Arabs, for a long time, were subjected to all racial bias and slurs and were dubbed as incapable of mounting an organized and well-motivated military force, but this time they defeated “Israel”. The turn of events after the war and the consequent deterrence that was established meant that the bully of West Asia had been put in its place and that another location where the Israelis regularly committed atrocities was to become a stronghold too risky to be attacked.

It has been 17 years without any Israeli wars on Lebanon, a record time to say the least in the history of the West’s enforcer or its unsinkable aircraft carrier as some like to describe the colonial regime of occupation. 

Israeli deterrence and power projection capabilities have been seeing a steady decline since that war they lost by failing to fulfill any of their pre-war announced objectives. “Israel’s” early founders said they cannot afford to even lose one signal conflict, and while the defeat of 2006 didn’t cause the Zionist regime to collapse or Palestine to be liberated, it is, without a doubt, a turning point in the Arab struggle for liberty and dignity in this battle that will be won by the side of the longest breath, the more solid will, and the stronger spirit.

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