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Here’s What’s Happening on the Ground in Gaza as IDF Works to Dismantle Hamas
An Israeli military convoy moves inside the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, June 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israeli forces continue to gradually work their way through the Rafah district, where they are discovering and destroying Hamas infrastructure. IDF units are operating simultaneously both above ground and in the tunnels underneath. Maintaining coordination in such an operation is difficult because of communications difficulties (the deep tunnels prevent the use of wireless communications with units above ground).
According to the latest reports, approximately 1,000 Hamas personnel have been killed in the Rafah area since the beginning of the Israeli offensive there, about half that figure since the last update. Though there is quite a bit of fighting, the Hamas units are not so much defending territory as conducting “hit and run” actions. They are hunted by some IDF units while other units focus on destroying Hamas infrastructure.
The IDF has also continued to conduct raids into northern Gaza and Khan Yunis whenever concentrations of returning Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists are discovered, as well as into the Nusayrat area between Gaza City and Khan Yunis.
Over the past two weeks, the IDF conducted raids mostly into northern Gaza, while this past week it increased its efforts to cause the remaining population in that area to evacuate south. In response to the IDF’s original calls to evacuate in October-November 2023, about 80% of the population of northern Gaza evacuated the area. More have left since then, and videos on Palestinian social media show the movement of more people on the routes shown in IDF leaflets.
The Israeli raids are aimed at concentrations of Hamas and other militant personnel who are attempting to reassert control and rebuild capabilities in northern Gaza and Khan Yunis. Each raid ends within a few days to a couple of weeks, after the Hamas personnel have been killed or captured or have fled the area. Reports indicate that since the last update, a couple of hundred terrorists have been killed in these raids.
Sixteen Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting in Gaza since my last update, and a few hundred wounded (some severely, but mostly with light wounds).
The IDF has also conducted several focused air strikes on high-ranking Hamas personnel and concentrations of Hamas personnel in areas where its ground forces are not present. In each case, Hamas has claimed the deaths of dozens of civilians, whereas the IDF has claimed that most if not all the casualties were combatants.
In some instances, Hamas personnel were detected in or adjacent to UNRWA sites or similar sites (schools, hospitals, mosques). Two possible casualties in the Israeli strikes include the Hamas supreme military commander, Muhammad Deif, and the brigade commander for Khan Yunis. They were attacked based on intelligence information on their whereabouts. The death of the brigade commander has been confirmed, but that of Deif has not. Hamas insists that he survived but has provided no proof. The bodies of the people killed in that strike have been collected.
In a rare statement, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas for using civilians as human shields in Gaza.
Occasionally, Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad manages to fire a few rockets at Israeli villages near the border and (more rarely) at towns further away. No casualties have been reported so far, as most of the villages are still empty following the October 7 Hamas massacre. Other rockets have either missed or were intercepted..
Below are a sampling of the weapons found in an UNRWA compound: Rocket sections, remote-controlled bombs, a drone being assembled, equipment for planting and controlling bombs, and an infantryman’s equipment vest:
After spending an estimated $320 million on building a floating pier to provide humanitarian supplies for Gaza (that was as of mid-June; the figure is probably higher by now given the need to repair sections and operate tugs and other equipment since then), it is reported that the US will permanently dismantle the pier, as it proved incapable of withstanding the buffeting of the waves. It broke apart once, and the pieces were towed to an Israeli port for repair and to await the calming of the sea. Once repaired, the pier was returned to the Gaza coast, but when the sea conditions worsened once again, the Americans pulled it out a second time. The pier was apparently returned to the Gaza shore but will be permanently dismantled and removed in the coming days or weeks.
As noted in the last update, the total amount of supplies that actually landed in Gaza via the American pier was minimal — about 9,000 tons in three months. Supplies brought in via the Israeli ground entrances, on the other hand, have grown to 5,000 to 6,000 tons each day.
The main problem with getting supplies to Gazans is not the Israelis. The problem is the distribution of the supplies once they are inside Gaza in areas that Israel does not control. Supplies are piling up and not being distributed. A report on the Palestinian Sawa Foundation website quotes UN sources as saying there are more than 1,300 trucks standing on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing that are loaded and waiting to be distributed.
Furthermore, trucks carrying supplies and occasionally storage areas are attacked and looted by Hamas personnel (for their own use or for sale in the marketplace), by criminal gangs (for sale), and in some cases by the general population itself. UNRWA and the other humanitarian organizations are simply not up to the task of policing this problem.
Over the past month, there have been reports of increased fighting among Palestinian factions inside Gaza, though this is still occurring on a small scale. It includes political rivalries as well as clan and personal rivalries as well as criminal enterprises fighting either each other or Hamas over sources of revenue. In one case, a social activist was kidnapped and had both legs and arms broken by Hamas personnel for publishing criticism on Facebook about Hamas’ management of the war and blaming Hamas for the suffering of the Palestinian population.
Dr. Eado Hecht, a senior research fellow at the BESA Center, is a military analyst focusing mainly on the relationship between military theory, military doctrine, and military practice. He teaches courses on military theory and military history at Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University, and Reichman University and in a variety of courses in the Israel Defense Forces. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
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Pro-Hamas Demonstrators Avoid Punishment Following Wave of Dropped Charges, Reports Say
Law enforcement officers detain a demonstrator, as they clear out a pro-Hamas protest encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Los Angeles, California, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/David Swanson
The State Attorney’s Office of Cook County, Illinois has dropped criminal charges filed against three Northwestern University faculty and one graduate student who allegedly obstructed law enforcement’s efforts to clear an unlawful demonstration at the Deering Meadow section of campus.
According to a local National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate, the office said its decision is based on its “policy not to prosecute peaceful protesters.”
Charges against the four individuals were pursued by the Northwestern University Police Department, which said that they allegedly engaged in “obstructing a police officer during the protests,” a crime for which they could, if convicted, spend a year in jail and pay a $2,500 fine, The Daily Northwestern reported last week. They had already appeared before a judge and were scheduled to do so again in August.
The university had defended the recommendation of its police department and rejected the notion that the individuals acted peaceably, saying in a statement issued earlier this month that it “does not permit activity that disrupts university operations, violates the law, or includes the intimidation or harassment of members of the community.”
Many more protesters have similarly avoided punishment for the actions they took during a burst of pro-Hamas demonstrations at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, according to a new report by The New York Times. Prosecutors in Travis County, Texas, for example, have dropped over 100 charges of criminal trespassing filed against University of Texas at Austin protesters, the paper said, and 60 other Northwestern University protesters saw their charges dismissed, with prosecutors calling them “constitutionally dubious.” The Times added, however, that some charges will stick, including those filed against someone who bit a police officer, and many students are still awaiting the outcome of disciplinary proceedings.
Per the report, “At the University of Virginia on May 4, as students were preparing for final exams, administrators called in police to break up an encampment. Police officers in riot gear used chemical irritants to get protesters to disperse and eventually arrested 27 people. The local prosecutor dropped the charges facing seven people after he determined there wasn’t enough evidence. He offered the rest an agreement: their charges would be dismissed in August if they didn’t have any outstanding criminal charges at the time.”
Prosecutors in other states have not been as forbearing. According to Fresh Take Florida, prosecutors in Alachua County, Florida charged seven University of Florida students, as well as two non-students, with trespassing and resisting arrest. The defendants have resolved to take their chances at trial, the news service added, noting that all nine have rejected “deferred prosecution,” an agreement that would require them to plead guilty, or no contest, in exchange for the state’s expunging the convictions from their records in the future so long as they abstain from committing more criminal acts.
One of the nine, computer science student Parker Stanley Hovis, 26, — who was suspended for three years — proclaimed earlier this month that they will contest the state’s cases.
“We did not resist arrest, and we are prepared to fight our charges,” Hovis said in a statement. “We’re standing in solidarity with each other, and collectively demanding that the state drop the charges against us.”
Jewish civil rights group have described the anti-Israel protesters across the US as posing an imminent threat to Jewish students and faculty while noting that many avert being identified by concealing their faces with masks and keffiyehs, a traditional headscarf worn by Palestinians which has become known as a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and opposition to Israel. Images and footage of the practice have been widely circulated online, and it has rendered identifying the protesters — many of whom have chanted antisemitic slogans, vandalized school property, and threatened to harm Jewish students and faculty during a weeks-long demonstration between April and May — virtually impossible.
On Thursday, one such civil rights group, StandWithUs (SWU), implored the US Department of Justice to crack down on masked protests at Columbia University by enforcing legal statues which are widely referred to as the “KKK Laws,” citing numerous antisemitic incidents of harassment and assault on its campus and the difficulty of punishing the perpetrators.
Dating back to the administration of former US President Ulysses S. Grant, the so-called “KKK Laws” empower the federal government to prosecute those who engage in activities which violate the civil rights of protected groups, as the Ku Klux Klan did across the US South during Reconstruction to prevent African Americans from voting and living as free citizens. StandWithUs alleges that five anti-Zionist groups — most notably Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — currently operating on Columbia University’s campus have perpetrated similar abuses in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which guarantees all students, regardless of race or ethnic background, has the right to a safe learning environment.
“We hope the Department of Justice will take this opportunity to restore justice on Columbia University’s campuses and hold bad actors responsible for violating federal laws,” Yael Lerman, director of the SWU Saidoff Legal Department, said in a statement.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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France Says Israeli Athletes ‘Welcome’ at Olympics Amid Mounting Threats, Added Security Measures
The Olympic Village prepared for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Photo: Paris 2024 / Raphael Vriet
French leaders said on Monday that the Israeli delegation to the 2024 Paris Olympics is welcome in France, despite what critics described as “antisemitic” comments to the contrary made by a French politician two days earlier
At an anti-Israel rally on Saturday, far-left French lawmaker Thomas Portes said, “I am here to say that, no, the Israeli delegation is not welcome in Paris. Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Olympic Games in Paris.”
Portes called for Israelis to be excluded from the Paris Olympics because of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip who perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
Portes later also told the newspaper Le Parisien that “France’s diplomats should pressure the International Olympic Committee to bar the Israeli flag and anthem, as is done for Russia” due to its invasion of Ukraine.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Portes’ comments had “obvious antisemitic overtones” and “placed a target on the backs of the Israeli athletes.” He added, “I want to express my disgust at that. I want to assure the Israeli athletes of our full protection, like all athletes, but particularly them, also welcoming them.”
Darmanin also announced that Israel’s Olympic delegation, which includes 88 athletes representing the Jewish state, will have increased security and will receive 24-hour security from French police. He said the decision was made after taking into consideration the 1972 Munich Olympics — where 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September — and how Israeli athletes are a target for attacks, especially since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
France has experienced a record surge in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched the war with its massacre across southern Israel.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné reiterated that the Israeli delegation “is welcome in France” for the Paris Olympics during his visit to Brussels on Monday, the French-language newspaper Le Monde reported. He called Portes’ remarks “irresponsible and dangerous,” and added that France “will ensure the security of the [Israeli] delegation.”
Paris Police Chief Laurent Nuñez said 30,000 to 45,000 police personnel will be working daily to ensure safety at Olympic sites and fan zones in Paris.
It was previously reported that Israel doubled its security budget for this year’s Games, which will be Israel’s 18th appearance in the Olympics. Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar told The Telegraph that the Israeli Olympic delegation this year, which is the second-largest Israeli delegation in Olympics history, has received threats but he did not go into detail. He added that delegation members will receive security details from Israel’s Shin Bet security agency but not everyone will have their own bodyguards.
“We try our best to make sure the athletes feel free but also safe and not afraid. We don’t want them to notice the security guards too much. We want them to feel confident so they can do their job,” he explained to the publication.
There have been calls to ban Israel from the Paris Olympics because of the Israel-Hamas war, but Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said in March there is no doubt that Israel will participate in the Paris Olympics.
The 2024 Olympic Games will take place from July 26-Aug. 11.
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Adidas’ Olympics Campaign — With or Without Bella Hadid — Is a Disgrace to Israelis and Jews
Bella Hadid in a now-cancelled Adidas campaign for the brand’s remake of its SL 72 sneaker. Photo: Adidas
The decision makers at Adidas are either suffering from mental decline, incompetence, or the virus of antisemitism.
The German shoe company fired Bella Hadid — an anti-Israel model and social media influencer who has more than 61.3 million Instagram followers — from a campaign marking the 52nd anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics, and their shoes from that year.
Forget Hadid for a second.
On September 5, 1972, eight Palestinian terrorists from the group Black September posed as athletes, and took 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage, killing two on the scene, and the remaining nine in helicopters by grenade and by shooting them.
German forces refused requests to have an Israeli special unit come to try to save them, and then bungled their own operation. Ultimately, some German police officers weren’t willing to go through with the operation. What a surprise that Germans didn’t want to risk their life to save Jews.
While none of the 200+ prisoners the terrorists demanded to be released from Israeli jails were freed, in a press conference, a Palestinian terrorist said it was a success because the whole world was talking about their cause.
To make matters worse, initial press reports claimed the hostages were saved, only to later be corrected, as ABC’s Jim McKay said, “They’re all gone.”
The Olympics continued anyway, and Israel buried Moshe Weinberg, Yossef Romano, Ze’ev Friedman, David Berger, Yacov Springer, Eliezer Halfin, Yosef Guttfreund, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, and Andre Spitzer.
In addition, the International Olympic Committee long rejected Israel’s request for a moment of silence for the athletes at the games in an open display of antisemitism.
For more horrific details about the attack, which were only released in the early 1990s, click here.
Why in the world is Adidas having any campaign to honor the 1972 Olympics, or the relaunch of its SL72 shoe line?
Furthermore, Hadid’s history of refusing to condemn Palestinian terrorism is disturbing.
She did not specially condemn Hamas for the massacre of October 7, but wrote that she condemned terrorist attacks on any civilians. Her father, Mohamed, was born in Nazareth in 1948, and the family is notorious for its anti-Israel activism.
Hadid has filed a lawsuit she may very well win against Adidas. The decision to hire Hadid (and fire her after complaints from Jews and others) is revolting, but the company, which cut ties with Kanye West after his antisemitic meltdown, has said it will in some way revamp the ad campaign.
Perhaps they will find Jamal al-Gashey, believed to be the only current surviving terrorist of the attack at the Munich Olympics, who appeared in the documentary One Day in September, to endorse the sneaker line.
The stupidity or malice of the ad with Hadid only causes more tension and hatred for Jews, if that is even possible at this point.
In 2022, Germany announced a payment of $28 million to families of the Israelis murdered in the 1972 attack, and last year, the government announced an international commission to “rigorously examine the period before and after” the attack — more than 50 years after it took place.
I guess Germans aren’t always punctual.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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