Hamas strike on Israel - mod warning in OP updated 19/10/23

As predicted….

Famine is so close in Gaza that when it does hit it will be too late for aid to arrive and there will be mass death, UNICEF's Global spokesperson James Elder has warned.

He described what is happening in the Palestinian territory as "abhorrent" and said that when the killing so many children ceases to shock, "then we've gone beyond living in a tragedy. We're complicit in it".

Just because Hamas killed hundreds of civilians but that does not justify genocide mass starvation of women children and shooting protesters and bombing hospitals .And every day there seems to be civilians killed for the crime of being in a tent or near a hospital or near a food aid centre . At this point the IDF seems to be in a competition. Is there anything we can do to destroy the reputation of Israel and inspire hate and loathing in all right thinking person s in any country that can read the news or watch tv

There wouldn't be a war if those murderers and rapists hadn't attacked Israel on Oct 7th.

They knew full well israel would come at them with everything they had and still went ahead.

And what did Hamas achieve?

Gaza is a pile of rubble, no Palestinian will ever work in Israel again like they used to before the war and a 2 state solution is dead.

In Irish terms, your post is the equivalent of endorsing the 'Black and Tans' wiping out a village because one of the lads was in the IRA.

Have you heard of the term "collective punishment"? It is a war crime.

And Israelis have elected their own war criminal and much more recently. It's like dumb and dumber in that region.

You left out that Israel is now a pariah state, with a reputation far worse than that of Russia and North Korea. The 'only democracy in the Middle East' thing has long since gone down the drain, not after 21 months of genocide and war crimes.

Can you name a few moderate politicians in Gaza? Would you be moderate if a politician.. and in those conditions?

why they decided to elect them instead of a moderate government is anybodies guess

What a load of **** like. Anybody's guess

Israeli media reporting that Greta and the other crew members refused to watch the October 7th film their captors were trying to force them to watch.

And I suppose you think this makes it ok to murder thousands of children who didn't vote?

It appears from witnesses to be local gunmen, there's a reference to the militia backed by Israel. It seems they were with the IDF, and the IDF as well. They were shooting civilians and stealing their aid as well. Absolutely abhorrent living conditions. And I'd use the term" living conditions" very loosely.

GHF quoted in that report as delivering 11 million meals in two weeks.

Assuming every Palestinian gets an equal share, that's 1 meal every three days.

Mass starvation.

Interesting take on Greta Thunberg from Trump. His reference's to Nethanyahu are interesting too, claiming he has enough trouble, but no condemnation or asking for ceasefire or even reference to Gaza as such.

Indeed Hamas knew exactly how Israel would respond, they have achieved exactly what they set out to achieve. Likewise after Oct 7th attack, by e.g. deliberately hiding in schools, hospitals, etc. The "free Palestine" is mostly a front, the true goal of Hamas is the destruction of Israel - and the only hope of that occurring is to turn the region/world against Israel.

If, in an alternative universe, Israel had responded in a restrained way - it's likely Hamas would have persisted as a threat to Israel, and on top of that such a response would have further emboldened other enemies, like Hezbollah. It would have been a return to the scenario that led up to Oct 7th, and as such was never going to be a route the Israelis took.

Given the history, when Oct 7th was planned, everything was always going to unfold like this. Israel will likely grind Palestine to dust - people can't plan/help rocket attacks when they are dead, starving or broken.

As usual the good people of Palestine are the victims in all this, by all involved sides.

Hamas have triggered current situation with Oct 7th, in a very calculated and deliberate way, but the whole decades long conflict is not their "fault" as such, they are a by-product of it.

I should clarify, from a normal perspective the Israeli reaction is overwhelming and brutal, absurdly disproportionate and indeed it's definitely punitive.

As for Hamas being a weak force, I don't agree. They aren't strong in a conventional sense, but they have persisted against a powerful force for decades. Likewise the US could not defeat the Taliban in 20 years.

The difference is that post Oct 7th Israel have decided to go after Hamas wherever they are regardless of casualties. A "convenient" by-product of that doctrine is the destruction of Palestine and suffering they are inflicting on Palestinians - they clearly want to turn Palestinians against Hamas and destroy their will to support launching rocket attacks by bombing them to bits and enabling starvation.

This also has the very direct and grim effect of sending a direct "message" to the Lebanese mothers, wives, sons, fathers, relatives of Hezbollah fighters, and any other enemies in the region.

From the Israeli perspective what they see is that for the first time in many years they aren't seeing any rocket attacks from the Gaza strip, so what they are doing is "working".