Hamas has threatened to execute the hostages’ families, causing desperation among them
Israeli Security in the Light of Israel’s Damnation of the Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah War, and Implications for the Insurgents in the Gaza Strip
In response to attacks by Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, also supported by Iran, Israel has fortified schools and bus stops, instituted a coded alarm system, deployed a sophisticated Iron Dome missile shield and constructed a high-tech fence to stop incursions across its border with Gaza. It imposed an economic blockade as well as restrictions on movement between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Hamas responded by constructing a series of smuggling tunnels.
Despite its grotesque atrocities against civilians, Hamas may have already reset the political realignment in the Middle East by disrupting the prospective diplomatic talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia. But if Gaza were now to escalate into a protracted ground war, Hamas could also undermine the Abraham Accords, which established agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and break the trend of increasing Arab-Israeli normalization. The Palestinian Authority was unable to block the Abraham Accords, but Hamas could still unwind them.
Israel carried out heavy bombardments across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as its military repeatedly hit the enclave following last weekend’s deadly incursion by Hamas militants in Israel.
Families across Israel are frantically trying to look for any clues about their loved ones who are believed to be held in the Gaza Strip. Images and videos are starting to appear on social media showing civilians being forcibly led away from their homes by Hamas.
The U.S. Security Forces and the West Bank: “It’s All Yours,” spokesman John Kirby told NPR
The Biden administration said there are talks to create a safe corridor for civilians, echoing a call from the U.S. World Food Program to create emergency humanitarian corridors.
In 2014, after the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas-affiliated militants in the West Bank, Israel Defense Forces arrested hundreds of Hamas militants in the territory. Hamas launched rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, setting off a war that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, including many civilians.
The first shipment of U.S. weapons arrived in Israel, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Israel to deliver a message of solidarity and support, the State Department announced.
President Joe Biden promised to ” make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of itself” after he decried Hamas’ attack on Israel.
More than 20 Americans are missing, and 14 of them have been killed in Israel. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an interview on NPR that there were some Americans among those held hostage by Hamas, though he added that it was a small number of Americans.
There is a larger number of Americans that are missing. Now, some of them could turn up to be in the hostage pool. We don’t know. So, we’re, we’re trying to get as much information as we can,” Kirby said.
The Israeli Response to the Yom Kippur War: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to leave Israel triggered by Hamas’ operation Al Aqsa Flood
On the Jewish Simchat Torah day, Israel was attacked by Arab countries, a day after the start of the Yom Kippur War.
Militants attacked Israeli communication towers with improvised explosives, they penetrated the Gaza- Israel border fence within minutes and assumed control of several Israeli communities. They paraglided over the border and gunned down civilians at a music festival.
Speaking to mayors of the southern border towns that were struck by the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country’s response will change the Middle East.
The experts that follow the region closely point to key developments in Israel and the Palestinian territories that led to this explosion of violence.
Tal Schneider, the political and diplomatic correspondent for The Times of Israel, told NPR that Netanyahu’s appointment of two controversial figures into his cabinet intensified tensions within Israeli politics.
Schneider said that the man nominated the minister of national security who had been convicted eight times for inciting violence against Arabs. “This is someone who was outlawed, who was for us Israelis, someone who was not supposed to sit in government. Netanyahu made him a strong leader and someone who is fully engaged in politics.”
Then there is Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul Israel’s judiciary, which has been delayed, but not abandoned due to support from the far-right politicians, after mass protests broke out for months as Israelis rejected the proposal to weaken the country’s supreme court.
With Israel having seen a far-right, ultranationalist and religiously conservative government, Hamas saw an opportunity to take advantage of the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
Telhami said there is an increase in settler violence, an incursion into East Jerusalem, which is really critical. People in the Muslim world do not understand how important Jerusalem is to the Palestinians. That’s why, in fact, Hamas named this operation Al Aqsa Flood, referring to the holy mosque in Jerusalem. They are trying to capture that mood.
“I mean, the Israelis could prevail and destroy Hamas and destroy Gaza. And then what? Telhami said the Biden administration needs to rethink its approach as well, since it was focused on brokering a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Some Israelis are blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for emboldening Hamas by focusing disproportionately on the West Bank and engaging in policies that have served to weaken the Palestinian Authority.
They think they have undermined Israeli deterrence. They’ve shown Israel to be weaker than it claims to be,” Telhami said. “They’re becoming more popular in the Arab and Muslim countries, you can see people supporting them like you saw in places like Morocco that have already made peace with Israel and Egypt.”
Hamas’ ability to survive and respond to Israeli fire is a question for the short term. Telhami and Schneider don’t believe in a winning military strategy for Israel.
“If I was in the Biden administration’s position, I would immediately send out signals that there’s going to be a stalemate,” he said. “Even if there’s a military outcome that ends the military part of the conflict, there’s going to be a need for some political shift that’s dramatic, far more than they were anticipating, and they need to plan it now.”
“The war is not outside of Israel. It’s inside Israel,” Schneider said. “I don’t ever recall that in recent history. We are losing so much time that I am telling you. They’re losing big time. It’s a vicious circle of blood with no end in sight. A completely lose-lose situation. It’s just terrible.
TEL AVIV — Dirty dishes are piled high in 51-year-old Ido Dan’s home these days. There are still decorations for his twin girls’ birthday party. The tech start-up coach has spent every waking moment trying to find out the whereabouts of several family members who disappeared Saturday after Hamas militants stormed into their towns killing civilians and taking others hostage. An NPR Morning Edition team in Israel spoke with Dan following the attack.
“If there’s one message that I want to pass to the Hamas is whatever your objectives or goals are, leave the elderly and the kids out of it,” Dan said. “Just release them first. Please, just let them go.
The hostages are being treated poorly by Hamas, who have been cut off from food, water, and electricity by Israeli forces. The lack of fuel will cause the power plants there to shut down.
As Israeli forces have carried out retaliatory air strikes on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 1,055 people there, the military wing of Hamas has threatened to execute a hostage for every bomb that’s dropped on a home without warning.
“What it says in Arabic is don’t hurt him, don’t hurt him” said Dan, adding that the hostages are more likely being held as “a precious bargaining chip.”
Dan is alarmed by the fact that Hamas carried out such a highly choreographed invasion and that it involved more than 1000 militant fighters. He’s worried that Israel’s intelligence service was not prepared for the attack that many in Israel say is 9/11.
“If the government, from the soldiers at the border, through the commanders, through the minister of defense, through the prime minister, all should be kicked out, go home or maybe even be in jail, that’s what I think.” I don’t understand what happened here. Dan said that nobody can. The radio version of this story was produced by Taylor Haney and Nina Kravinsky and edited by Arezou Rezvani. The digital version was edited by Treye Green.
Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Story of Hamas’ Attack on Israel and a “True Faith” of Israel
Hamas’ attack was unprecedented. Senior Hamas official tells NPR that the planning was kept a secret. Since Hamas’ formation more than three decades ago, the armed, hard-line Islamist group has been a major presence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The key points are here.
For many in Hamas, opposing Israel is the organization’s reason for existing, says Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council. What they’re trained for, what they want to do is what a core constituency in Hamas live for.
The military wing is currently overseen by Marwan Issa, reportedly born in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, and Mohammed Deif, who is said to be the mastermind of the latest assault on Israel. Israel has previously tried to assassinate Deif.
Most experts agree that the attack that took place on the weekend was well orchestrated and required a lot of planning. Israel launched air assaults deep into Gaza and vowed to have a complete siege.
The strike by Hamas could also serve as a touchstone for others who want to fight against Israel, says C. Ross Anthony, a senior economist at Rand Corp. and co-author of Alternatives in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. They killed Israelis in a way they never had before and captured people. That will make people in the Middle East and West Bank think, and that may inspire some people in the West Bank.
Dennis Jett, a retired U.S. ambassador and professor of international affairs at Pennsylvania State University, says Hamas learned an important lesson after abducting Israeli Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006. Five years later, Shalit was turned over in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners held by Israel.
In the poll, 53% of the 1,200 Palestinians surveyed said they believed Hamas is “most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people.” Just 4% said the same thing of Fatah.
Panikoff said that after the conflict Israel thought it had limited Hamas’s potential for continued violence. He says that Israel has a policy of mowing the grass. Going after Hamas, getting a lot of the rockets, [going after] their militant leaders, either killing them or capturing them.”
“This battle was very secretive; the planning and execution were kept secret,” Hamas representative Barakeh tells NPR. “The zero hour was confidential, and no one outside of Hamas knew about it.”
Jett of Pennsylvania State University says Israel turned its attention to the West Bank instead of concentrating on Gaza and was overly confident of defense against a Hamas attack.
He says that the wall built with an Iron Dome system failed due to the concentrated effort that was made to suppress the people in the West Bank. “And the Iron Dome was overwhelmed.”
The Qassam Brigades, Israel vs. Iran in the Ex-Reissner-Zatsepin-Kuzmin Attack
Iran denied involvement in the attack. Barakeh tells NPR that Iran knows that Hamas fights Israel and offers support, which we do not deny. We can’t take orders from anyone. In Hamas, specifically the Qassam Brigades, we were the ones who planned this operation, determined the zero hour, and once the operation began, we immediately informed all allies and friends. There was no prior coordination regarding this operation.”
Panikoff thinks that it’s likely that Iranian acquiescence would have been needed for such an operation, but it’s not clear if Tehran helped with specific planning.
Barakeh, a Hamas official, told NPR that there were promises from Hamas’ allies that they would not leave us alone, but refused to provide any details.
Who governs Gaza? What happens to it? He thinks that they would want to get rid of Hamas, but not necessarily take control of Gaza.
