On Saturday morning, the armed wing of Hamas launched the most devastating ground assault against Israel in 50 years. In response, Israel declared war and began an indiscriminate aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, while calling on its reserve forces in order to muster counter-attacks on Palestinian fighters who managed to seize control of Israeli settlements. On both sides of the Gaza separation fence, bodies are now lining the streets as critical infrastructure is leveled. However, this conflict did not begin on Saturday and where it goes next could change the course of history.
October 7 will go down as one of the darkest days in Israeli history, a day when the entire Israeli military, intelligence, and security establishments collapsed under the pressure of a much weaker military force launching a surprise attack. The offensive that was launched by the armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, which began in the early hours of Saturday, erupted with a shock burst of thousands of rockets into Israeli held territory, even striking as far as Tel Aviv. As the unexpected rocket fire caught the Israeli military by surprise, hundreds of Palestinian fighters stormed the separation fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel’s bordering settlements. The fighters stormed the periphery of Gaza, breaking through the Israeli fences and walls on foot, through motor-driven parachute gliders, in trucks, and in small boats.
The Palestinian gunmen surrounded Israeli military sites around the Gaza-Israel separation barrier, killed and captured soldiers that were manning their positions in Israel’s first line of defense, then headed on into the Israeli settlements beyond those points. About two hours into the attack, videos began to emerge of social media of Israeli settlers laying bloody all over the streets, while Hamas gunmen in trucks and on foot took over dozens of areas. Hamas’ al-Qassam brigades fighters killed hundreds of Israelis, capturing and killing highly ranked soldiers belonging to various specialized units. Around five hours after the Palestinian fighters had taken control of at least 10 settlement areas surrounding Gaza, Israel began to launch retaliatory action and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced ‘Operation Iron Swords’, before formally declaring a state of war. The Israeli Air Force launched a massive bombing campaign, targeting civilian infrastructure through Gaza, massacring hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the process.
Why Did Hamas Decide To Launch This Attack?
To call this attack unprecedented is an understatement, this is the single largest military debacle faced by the Israeli army, intelligence, and government since the October War of 1973; which began with a surprise attack coordinated between the Egyptian and Syrian militaries, with the stated goal of recapturing the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights that were illegally occupied by Israel in June of 1967.
In Western corporate media, and from the addresses of leaders in Europe and the US, there has been little to no mention of what the Qassam brigades stated reasoning behind their offensive was. Instead, the details of the attack and Israel’s response have taken the spotlight, with all causation put down to “terrorism”. In the opening statement, issued by the Qassam Brigades top commander, Mohammed Deif, Hamas made it clear that the military operation, ‘Flood of Al-Aqsa’, was launched in response to Israeli attacks on worshippers at the Third Holiest Islamic site, al-Aqsa Mosque. Following May of 2021, when Hamas responded to mass assaults on Palestinian worshippers at al-Aqsa that had continued over the period of a month, launching the battle it named ‘Sword of Jerusalem’, the elected government in Gaza repeatedly threatened war if Tel Aviv decides to cross red-lines at the mosque site again. During the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan in 2022 and earlier this year, Israeli riot police forces again stormed the Aqsa Mosque compound and assaulted worshippers brutally, resulting in deaths and injuries. Since then, the Israeli settler movement has used Tel Aviv’s national occasions, along with Judaism’s religious holidays, to organize mass incursions of thousands of illegal settlers into the Holy site, which was happening days prior to the offensive. Hamas says that the beating of worshippers, plans to change the status quo at the Mosque, and the settler incursions, were the reason for their offensive. The stated reasoning for Hama’s actions has been ignored and was not acknowledged by a single western corporate media.
This is incredibly important context to note, as regional forces under the command of Lebanese Hezbollah’s secretary general, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, have been formulating a joint strategy to defend al-Aqsa for two years; included in the alliance are Yemen’s Ansarallah, the Palestinian factions in Gaza, Hezbollah itself, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and a number of Iraqi groups belonging to the Hashd al-Shaabi. What became clear on Sunday, when Hezbollah decided to fire guided missiles into three Israeli military targets along the Lebanese border, is that the war waged by the Palestinian armed factions in Gaza has been highly coordinated with the other fronts. Reports, released on Saturday, indicated that an Egyptian mediator had communicated with Israeli officials that Hezbollah would get directly involved in the war if Tel Aviv decides to launch a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. The Hezbollah strikes, which were responded to with Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Lebanese villages close to the border, seemed to have represented warning shots in order to confuse their enemy. Simultaneously, as Hezbollah opened fire, drones were also sent across the separation barrier from Gaza. This occurred before there were rockets fired in order to provide cover for another round of Qassam fighters entering the Israeli settlements and military sites. Repeatedly, the Palestinian armed factions in Gaza and the West Bank, have urged all the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims to join in the fight against the Zionist regime.
There have also been a number of incidents at the Lebanese border, including multiple cases of rocket fire, an attack by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters that killed 4 Israeli soldiers and guided missile strikes on an Israeli military vehicle by Lebanese Hezbollah. Israel also killed 3 Hezbollah fighters in strikes it conducted while PIJ fighters were engaged in an armed clash with their armed forces. Artillery fire struck the Golan Heights from Syria as well, triggering Israeli airstrikes on Syrian territory, all dramatic escalations. The US has also indirectly threatened to intervene in the event that Hezbollah enters the war.
Beyond all of that, what can this offensive hope to achieve? There are several possible achievements which could come as a result of this offensive. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have captured and continue to capture Israeli settlers and soldiers, meaning that they are now in a position to achieve a prisoner exchange that could free a large number of the some 5200 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli military detention. Another achievement has been the economic and military defeats that have already been inflicted on the Israelis, crumbling the Zionist morale and the faith of foreign investors in Israeli industries.
One of the biggest victories, perhaps one of the primary goals of the offensive, is the collapsing of normalization viability between the Israelis and Saudi Arabia. Not only does the offensive show how weak and unstable Israel is, making it difficult for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to see the benefits of close cooperation, but it also creates an environment which has revived the Palestinian cause and demonstrated the need for a solution. The whole point of the US government pursuing normalization between the Arab World and Israel is to bypass the Palestinian issue and to put Israel in the strongest possible position by taking the one negotiating chip that the Palestinian movement possessed out of their hands. Hence, normalization is widely seen as Washington’s way of attempting to liquidate the Palestinian cause for statehood.
However, normalization with Saudi Arabia is different, because it would tear apart Chinese brokered Saudi-Iranian rapprochement. The KSA was requesting a security pact with the United States in return for achieving normalization, which was speculated to have included a clause similar to NATO’s article 5; translating to a war on one is a war on all. This would have put the US into almost certain war with Yemen directly, putting the US and the KSA on a direct crash course for war against Tehran. It is likely that the Iranians, who according to unnamed sources that were cited in the Wall Street Journal, were involved in the planning of the Hamas attack, saw the potential Saudi-Israeli deal as an existential threat and so decided to take action. It was also stated by Hamas military spokesman, Abu Obeida, that the Palestinian resistance received intelligence suggesting that an Israeli attack on Gaza was being planned and so they acted pre-emptively.
Another outcome may be the strengthening of the Palestinian national movement altogether, through putting chips on the table that could be utilized by the Palestinian Authority (PA) which controls the West Bank and represents the State of Palestine at the United Nations. Additionally, the US may be forced to contact Hamas and begin taking them seriously, rather than just labelling them a terrorist group and ignoring them, similar to what they once did with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Regardless, if the Palestinian armed groups are capable of surviving the Israeli onslaught, they may be able to achieve major breakthroughs that will change the social and economic dynamic inside Gaza; a territory that has been under siege for 17 years, where 97% of the water is unfit for human consumption, while UN experts argue the area became unlivable in 2020.
What the future holds depends solely on how far the Israeli establishment seeks to take this war. If they end up dragging in other regional actors, like Hezbollah, then they could force a regional conflict in which the US could even end up getting involved. So far, the US Congress is already discussing how much to money send to Israel (on top of how much is regularly sent, almost 4 billion a year), and there are even calls to divert Ukraine funding to Israel. The US is also moving an aircraft carrier closer to the coastline as a show of strength. The American President, Joe Biden, has so far ruled out requesting a ceasefire and instead offered full support to Israel’s military. However, in the event that Hezbollah and other regional actors become involved, it may be possible that the US will play a more direct role, one that will send American soldiers home in body bags. If the Israeli airfields are knocked out by the missiles of Hezbollah, the conflict will be limited to a ground war, which the occupation army has proven a failure in conducting against the much less powerful Palestinian armed groups.
Do you really think this was an “intelligence failure”? Highly unlikely. You don’t understand how advanced their “intelligence” system really is!
You should read these two articles about the motives and intentions of this whatever ‘war’; Aren’t you aware about the “Greater Israel” old plan?
= https://michelchossudovsky.substack.com/p/greater-israel-zionist-plan-middle-east?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1910355&post_id=137810495&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=kus4t&utm_medium=email
= https://www.unz.com/proberts/hamas-attack-on-israel-is-puzzling/?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=daily
There’s a somewhat well-known quote that’s been attributed to multiple individuals – “Every time I hear someone say that Israel is our (US) only friend and ally in the Middle East, I can’t help but think that before Israel we had no enemies in the Middle East.”
Looks like a false flag op to justify an Israeli military “final solution” to the “Palestinian problem”. Hard to miss the tragic irony.
Israel is creating anti-Semites and dragging the Dems into the ditch. Bull doze my house and I’ll be violent but so far I’m ready to negotiate.
There is a wondrous solution to all this–with satellite technology, the real “Third Temple” can be created on the Temple Mount. Jewish tradition says the eternal third temple will come down “from Heaven.” Heaven has a lot of meanings. Through satellite uplinks, Jews in their myriads can gather all around the world and their images and voices transmitted directly to flat-screen TVs up on Temple Mount. The physical area holds 400 000 Muslims on holy days, and there are way more Jews than that. This method can hold them ALL. The action at Holy of Holies and Court of the Levites can be downlinked via satellites to those synagogues with their myriads–and to any non-Jew who likes–that is the court of the gentiles.
Best of all, it is the Muslims’ destiny to cause the construction, for that is ISHMAEL’s destiny according to the SAMARITAN version of Genesis 16:12. What the angel Raphael REALLY told Hagar, pregnant with Abraham’s firstborn son was “And he shall be a fruitful man, hand-in-hand with all his brothers to cause to tabernacle.”