This is the reality of Hamas

[keenforhelp]

This is a very interesting opinion piece and underlines how difficult it is and has been for Israel.

There must be more international calls for Hamas to be removed from Gaza.

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/11/17/cole-the-reality-of-hamas/

May her memory be for a blessing 💔. I saw a video where she thanked donors for their support, what a loss

How awful @ScrollingLeaves thanks for sharing.

May Allah accept her good deeds and grant her Janaat al Firdous. Ameen.

@Humdingerydoo I wonder too

Tonight on BBC News at 10 Jeremy Bowen interviewed the head of Hamas outside Israel in Doha.

He asked him why Hamas carried out the Oct 7 attack, why they attacked civilians and children, and why Hamas would not just surrender and give up the hostages. It is worth getting it on iPlayer. Maybe the BBC will publish a transcript. (I could not quite hear everything the translator said as their voice was quiet.)

This is Jeremy Bowen from the BBC interviewing Al-Hayya the Hamas deputy leader.

Watch: Jeremy Bowen presses Hamas deputy leader on 7 October attacks

07:38

Watch: Jeremy Bowen presses Hamas deputy leader on 7 October attacksClose
The most senior leader of Hamas outside Gaza has told the BBC that the crisis his organisation provoked in the Middle East, which has led to thousands of deaths across the region in the last year, is justified.

Challenged by BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen, Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy leader of Hamas, denied overwhelming evidence that Hamas fighters targeted civilians during the attacks on 7 October last year.

Around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and more than 250 taken into Gaza as hostages. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UK and other governments.

Al-Hayya said the 7 October attacks last year were necessary to place the issue of Palestinian statehood back on the global agenda.

Without it, he said, the cycle of violence in the Middle East would not end.
Pressed on whether he regretted an offensive that led to the deaths of more than 40,000 Gazans in Israeli attacks, he said Israel’s occupation of land Palestinians believe is theirs was at the root of the violence and killing in the Middle East.
Al-Hayya is the most senior man in Hamas after the leader, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be in Gaza.

The interview took place in Doha, where most of the political leadership of Hamas is based. Iran attacked Israel with ballistic missiles around an hour after the interview was recorded.

Published
2 hours ago

www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cdd4rpv5jp0o

Haaretz:
GAZA: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar tried to convince Hezbollah and Iran to join the group's October 7 attack, according to a New York Times article citing minutes from 10 secret meetings that it obtained. The minutes show that Hamas began planning the attack in 2022, delaying it because of the effort to recruit Hezbollah and Iran.

Unfortunately I cannot get the NYT or full Haaretz article. If this is true, I wonder what Hezbollah and Iran said when they did not agree to join Hamas in the attack?

I have read it but it’s very long and I don’t particularly remember.Its pretty wordy and sparse on detail on that respect. They seem to be aware of the existence of a plan and approved in principle but we’re not party to the details- even lower level Hamas operatives were unaware until a few hours before, it confirms. A senior Iranian military officer in Lebanon was briefed and the plan was to discuss with Nasrallsh but not clear if that happened. They shared sensitive information with Haniya in Quatar but the extent of this is not revealed in the article.

It’s interesting that terrorists keep minutes of the rationale for heir decisions and then leave them on laptops in tunnels so even thpugh the nyt journalists are pretty good you do have to wonder how reliable these minutes are, especially with the Israeli propaganda machine’s past performance . on the other hand you could have guessed most of what has been put on the public domain anyway.
What was interesting was confirmation about what made them go ahead
. The considers noted were intelligence about new very effective Israeli anti- rocket lasers, the continuing West Bank settlements, the normalising of relations between Saudi and Israel and particularly the return of Netanyahu with increasing autocracy ,and the contentious tour of the Aqua mosque compound.

Thank you.

I wonder when these minutes were found? Does it say? I mean it feels very convenient if it were found recently and it could be a piece of propaganda used to justify the attack on Lebanon and then Iran. I don't know if that's true or not but it would be hard to put anything past the Israeli government to be honest.

There was no immediate arrangement to progress to an invasion of Israel. The impression I got was that they wanted to weaken Israel and damage Israel’s sense of inviolability enough to get some pull back on the settlements and Aqsa mosque issue and to renew the international focus on the Palestinian Territories.But again, that’s something that was already evident- a brutal surprise terrorist attack that kills 1200 people is not an existential threat to a highly militarised country of 9 million.So the material could have been left behind deliberately to show that it had achieved its objectives, albeit at an unprecedented cost of civilian lives.The NYT is very pro/Israeli and pro-democrat so there is a kind of spin in the last few days to make it look like Kamala Harris/Biden’s support for Israel is linked to its recent gains. There’s no reference to popular support in Gaza- more the opposite, the need to keep the lid on the activities of splinter groups under their umbrella and so as to lull intelligence agencies into a false sense of security.

I think that the contents of these minutes could be presented with a very different spin in pro-Iranian circles.Hamas is reconstituting like one of those lizards who lose legs grow back as younger men in the organisation seize the opportunity to take the place of their fallen elders in a grim game of brutal Whackamole

I picked up on the methods used by Hamas to inflict psychological warfare, with video

This was on the World Service. It had stuck with me. It maybe repeated as they often do, I will listen to all of it next time

Just so barbaric and awful to hear

There is no religion in the world that states kill all mankind!!. This is man's interpretation. What is the outcome? The war in the middle East will go on for yrs. Muslims will die for their faith.Innocent people will go on dying, families torn apart. What is the solution? Nuclear? War? Famine? Hate? This is a scary situation, this could lead to a 3rd world war! I have a grand daughter, what a world she will grow up in, if she does! Man unfortunatley is full of hate. We all come into this world the same, and die the same, and bleed the same!. Very, very sad world we are living in. We are one world, we have to stop this war , now! Too many innocent lives lost on both sides. I feel so sad that we have come to this. Man has become Evil.

I agree it is hard not to despair.

Haaretz
This is an anonymous Gazan writer:

"I wish for the release of the Israeli hostages to the same extent that I wish for my own liberation. I call on the world to relate to us just as it relates to them, as hostages, and save us from both the brutality of the Israeli occupation and from our Hamas kidnappers. This will only happen by exerting great pressure on our kidnappers and on Israel's government so that they stop colluding against Gaza, and finally let us decide our own fate" – An anonymous resident of northern Gaza