Israel's War Against Hamas - Updates

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South Africa never really had a chance in its genocide claims against Israel if applying the laws of war, being that the entire “show” before the International Court of Justice is a political stunt designed to blacken Israel’s name, using legal-sounding language to launder an anti-Israel agenda.

But many of the arguments that its lawyers made on Thursday were so specious that they removed any veil of seriousness that they might have held onto.

From the start, South Africa really had two arguments to go on that had any remote legal significance – and forget about having any chance to actually prove genocide.

They were that top Israeli officials had made horrible statements (many of them should not have been said and were very morally problematic even if legally insignificant) that could allegedly be used to infer genocidal intent, and that the IDF had allegedly killed 23,000 Palestinians, likely 60% to 70% of them being civilians.

If South Africa had stuck to these arguments, any serious lawyer or judge still would have tossed them out of court because: None of the statements they have provided from public officials were official policy or legal statements; many were by officials without real influence over the war; those by key officials could easily be read in context as metaphorical; Israel has publicly produced vast amounts of evidence that it has expended enormous resources to avoid killing Palestinian civilians; and it acknowledged and explained errors, which happen in all wars, where errors have occurred.

South Africa's disconnected argument​

Here is a list of some of the worst offenders:

South Africa did not mention Hamas’s systematic use of the Palestinian civilian population and civilian locations, including schools, mosques, and UN buildings, as human shields.

The US and other European countries have condemned Hamas for doing this.

Even the International Criminal Court has made statements implicitly acknowledging that Hamas has done this, with its criticism sometimes being narrower about whether Israel has properly applied the proportionality test – something, even in the worst case, that is far away from genocide.

South Africa clung to prior arguments from the 2004 ICJ case against the legality of Israel’s West Bank security barrier, saying Israel had no self-defense right because it was an occupier acting in Palestinian territory.

But this time, there was an “armed attack” by Hamas on October 17, invading 22 Israeli towns, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and more than 3,000 rockets were fired against Israel’s home front.

So putting aside the 2004 ruling that Israel rejected at the time, even according to the logic of the ICJ at the time, in 2023, there is no question that Israel had the right to counter-strike as part of self-defense.

South Africa claimed that Israel is settling Gaza, but it provided no evidence. Of course, it provided no evidence, because there is none. True, there are some ministers who are not part of the critical five-member war cabinet who dream about resettling Gaza, but the war cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all official policy and legal positions, and the actual view in the field show that there has not been a single move to settle Jews in Gaza.


(full article online)

How miserably South Africa’s arguments fail laws of war - analysis

South Africa really only has two arguments to go on which have any remote legal significance - forget about having any chance to actually prove genocide.

www.jpost.com

 

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Egyptian analyst sanity on Lebanese TV: "Hamas is the problem, Arabs have to stop thinking Israel will disappear, Hezbollah hijacked Lebanon"

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

elderofziyon.blogspot.com

 

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According to Kan News, the IDF in Gaza has discovered cages belonging to Hamas that may have been used to transport and confine hostages.

Hostages freed from Hamas captivity, many speaking anonymously, described horrific treatment, such as being starved, bullied, branded and even being kept and transported in cages.

The Kan report Saturday said sources were unspecified intelligence findings that indicated that hostages captured during the October 7th massacre might have been transported and kept in cages.


(full article online)

Shocking: Hamas Used Cages to Transport and Confine Hostages | United with Israel

Recent IDF findings reveal shocking details of Hamas' captive treatment, including the use of cages.

unitedwithisrael.org

 

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UK Labour's ex-chief Corbyn joins South African delegation to ICJ case against Israel | The Times of Israel

www.timesofisrael.com

 

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IDF: Hamas used over 6,000 tons of concrete, 1,800 tons of steel for Gaza tunnels

Citing new intel, military says terror group invested tens of millions of dollars in subterranean network project; issues video of tunnel in southern Gaza that held hostages

www.timesofisrael.com

 

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Combat Drones That Catch Prey In Mid-Air And Underground

Robotican's battle-tested products can even snatch other drones out of the sky or trundle into tunnels.

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The Israeli military said Wednesday it has found evidence that hostages were present in an underground tunnel in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, which has become the focus of Israel’s ground offensive.

The military showed the tunnel to journalists who were escorted into a neighborhood near the ruins of destroyed homes and streets. A corrugated tin hut covered the tunnel’s entrance in a residential yard.

A makeshift ladder led to the narrow underground pathway, about 2.5 meters (8 feet) below. The tunnel was hot and humid, with walls lined with concrete and electrical wires.

(full article online)

IDF Getting Closer: Hostage DNA Uncovered in Khan Younis Tunnels | United with Israel

The tunnel was hot and humid, with walls lined with concrete and electrical wires.

unitedwithisrael.org

 

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WATCH: The Untold Story of Those Who Collected and Cleaned Corpses on Oct. 7th | United with Israel

Selfless individuals dedicate themselves to ensuring that all victims receive a proper Jewish burial.

unitedwithisrael.org

 

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WATCH: Hezbollah Founder Accuses Egypt of Besieging Gaza and Starving Children | United with Israel

Hezbollah founder Subhi Al-Tufayli: 'it is Egypt that's besieging Gaza and starving its children.'

unitedwithisrael.org

 

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For Traumatized Israelis, Video Helpline Is Friendly Face, Listening Ear

Israeli Tech and Innovation News

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Dairy farms along Israel’s Gaza border have been supplying milk uninterruptedly since the outbreak of the war on October 7 owing to a small cadre of staff that remained behind while most residents evacuated to the center of the country. Among those who stayed are an unlikely group — university students from Africa and Asia.

“Without our agricultural interns from Ghana and Tanzania we would have had a hard time milking our cows and feeding our calves,” says Gabo Altmark, the manager of the Kibbutz Zikim dairy farm located less than two kilometers (1.2 miles) north of the Gaza border.

The students were offered the opportunity to relocate, says Altmark, but unlike Zikim’s foreign workers who were quick to leave, the students insisted on remaining.

Zikim’s five interns are among more than 3,200 university students from 30 countries in the developing world currently training at farms across Israel. About 250 were on farms near Gaza when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed the border and brutally massacred 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted roughly 240 more to the Gaza Strip, leading Israel to launch an ongoing military operation aimed at returning the hostages and removing Hamas from power in the Strip.

“On October 7, I had finished the early morning milking and gone back to bed when I heard tzeva adom, tzeva adom [red alert] over the loudspeaker,” recalls Kwabena Frimpong, 28, as he walks through the Zikim calf nursery where about 500 calves are bottle-fed. A student at Ghana’s Cape Coast University, he had just arrived at Zikim in late September.

“I knew from our orientation program that when we heard the tzeva adom alert we had to rush to the bomb shelter. Kibbutz members were there with us and we felt a sense of protection to be together with them. My supervisor Gabo also kept on texting us messages with instructions,” says Frimpong.

Unknown to Frimpong, Altmark sent some of those messages after hurrying to the kibbutz fence where he and seven other members of Zikim’s civilian anti-terror first responders were confronting Hamas terrorists who had reached the kibbutz perimeter. Altmark and his fellow civil guards managed to hold off the terrorists until soldiers arrived from a nearby army base. Together with the soldiers, they eliminated the terrorists before any were able to enter the kibbutz grounds.

By midday, Altmark was able to return to the cowshed where he joined Frimpong and the rest of the staff in carrying out the noontime milking. Zikim has about 500 cows that need to be milked three times a day. Using mechanized technologies the entire herd can be milked by a staff of about 10, but the role of each worker is crucial.


(full article online)

Undeterred by Oct. 7 massacre, foreign interns keep Gaza-periphery dairy farms afloat

Agricultural students from Africa and Asia plant themselves on mostly-evacuated kibbutzim, helping to tend to the herds during a labor shortage

www.timesofisrael.com