RSS
Why Does Hamas Sacrifice the Good of the Palestinian People for Its Genocidal Aims?
Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of WithinOurLifetime (WOL), leading a pro-Hamas demonstration in New York City on August 14, 2024. Photo: Michael Nigro via Reuters Connect
Hamas defined the war it started on October 7, 2023, as a divine victory. Iran and Hezbollah were privy to the planning and scope of the planned attack. Hamas was well aware of the sacrifice that would be required to pull it off, but in all the Hamas protocols seized by the IDF in the ensuing war, the heavy Israeli price tag was hardly mentioned. Palestinian sacrifice, especially the deaths of many Palestinians, was seen as a necessary evil in order to gain independence.
In the official document explaining Operation Tufan Al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa Flood) that Hamas published on all its websites, several justifications for war with Israel are described, but the immediate reason for the October 7 assault is not mentioned. The reasons cited in the Hamas document include Jewish ascension to the Temple Mount, an ongoing event that has taken place on and off since 1967 under various restrictions; the presence of seven million Palestinian refugees in refugee camps throughout the Middle East; the continuation of the Palestinian problem for about 75 years, the settlements in the West Bank; and the detention by Israel of Palestinian prisoners. None of these reasons is new. No world-changing event obliged Hamas to launch an all-out war on Israel with the support of the entire Iranian resistance axis. So why did it proceed?
An analysis of articles published on Hamas websites shows that the main goal of Tufan al-Aqsa was to prevent a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. This aim was also revealed in the secret seized protocols of Hamas. This goal is a distinct Iranian interest.
Yahya Sinwar was the person most associated with the planning and execution of Operation Tufan al-Aqsa. By virtue of his position as head of the Hamas organization in the Gaza Strip, and as one of the group’s founders and part of its military arm, Sinwar held power on a level unequaled by anyone before him. After the death of Ismail Haniyeh, Sinwar was officially appointed head of the political bureau. He was the first Hamas chief to emerge from the military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, to head the organization’s political bureau as well (he is the fourth leader of the political bureau after Musa Abu Marzouk, Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh).
Sinwar, as claimed in Al-Sharq Al-Awast, represented the connection between Hamas and Iran. This connection led to the training by Iran of Hamas’s military arm; the supply of armaments, including precision armaments; and tremendous financial support from Iran.
Sinwar’s assassination was described by sources in Hamas as “aqsa dharba,” or an extremely severe blow. Sinwar had charisma and was able to sway people to follow him. His survival, as the man who symbolized the October 7 war for Hamas, was in itself an image of victory over Israel. His elimination constitutes a counter-image of Israeli victory, regardless of how the war ends.
The candidates to replace Sinwar at the head of Hamas are Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy head of the political bureau (al-Hayya is considered less charismatic and pragmatic); Muhammad al-Sinwar, Yahya’s brother, who currently heads the military wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip (after replacing Mohammed Deif); and Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, head of the North Gaza Brigade and the only senior military commander to have survived thus far. It is likely that Khaled Meshaal will return to lead Hamas as the main leader of the political arm – at least temporarily, until a permanent appointment is made by the Shura Council.
The war Hamas started on October 7 has destroyed the Gaza Strip, killed over 50,000 Palestinians (according to Hamas sources, which do not differentiate between civilians and militants), and wounded over 100,000. Faced with such grim results, Hamas is now trying to explain why it embarked on Operation Tufan al-Aqsa in the first place. The organization is well aware that its support among the Gazan population is at an unprecedented low. The majority of the Palestinian population in the Strip currently believes Hamas’s decision to launch the invasion on October 7, 2023, was based on incorrect assumptions and a strategic mistake. This is despite the degree of Islamization that Palestinian society has undergone since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip.
In an article entitled, “Was Sinwar’s decision [to start the war] correct? “published on the Hamas website on October 10, 2024, the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of Sinwar’s war in Gaza, the war is presented as a “victory of the resistance, steadfastness, faith, patience and sacrifice of the people of Gaza. This is an epic historical resistance that will lead to the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.” The author, Monir Shafiq, a Lebanese writer of Christian-Palestinian origin, was active in Fatah, converted to Islam, and over the years came closer to the concept of Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The publication of the article in October 2024 indicates a striking disconnect between the organization’s leadership and the suffering Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip. The article describes Hamas’s indiscriminate murder, torture, rape, and abduction of Jewish men, women and children in the Gaza Envelope as heroic actions justified by the “takeover” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the other reasons mentioned above. Israel is described as the “representative of Western civilization (the white race) against the barbarians (the peoples of the world).”
According to this logic, the barbaric attack by Hamas is justified according to international law while Israel’s attempts to protect and defend the lives of its citizens are violations of those laws. According to Hamas, Israel has no right to exist as a state and a sovereign entity in any borders whatsoever (not the 1967 borders, the 1947 borders, or any others). A year after October 7, Hamas is still refusing to take responsibility for the vast destruction it has brought down upon its people, the Gaza Strip, and the peoples of the region. Hamas has expressed no desire to reach a historical reconciliation that will end hostilities between the nations. After Sinwar’s departure, will Hamas realize that the time has come to end the war they started and lost with a settlement that restores the Gaza Strip and establishes regional peace? Or does Hamas prefer to continue serving Iran, even if doing so is directly at odds with the national interest of the Palestinian people?
Dr. (Lt. Col.) Shaul Bartal is a senior researcher at the BESA Center and a research fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Lisbon. During his military service, he served in various roles in the West Bank. He has also taught in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and the Department of Political Science. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
The post Why Does Hamas Sacrifice the Good of the Palestinian People for Its Genocidal Aims? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.