Israeli-Hamas Conflict in the Light of Israel’s Resolution of the Gaza Constraints on Security and Security Issues in the Middle East
This situation makes Israel’s fight against Hamas exceptionally difficult. As a liberal democracy, the only one in the Middle East, Israel has made a commitment under international law to protect Palestinian civilians while pursuing its military objectives. While it is true that Hamas has made no such commitment, Israel holds itself to a different, higher standard. It can’t allow anger and want for vengeance to undermine its moral obligations.
Both sides in this conflict have to obey any measure that would be effective. Hamas would need to agree with its representatives to stop launching missiles at Israel. It’s important that Arab countries put pressure on Hamas to release its hostages, which include many women and children.
The attacks by Hamas on other countries, such as the United States, would make people understand exactly what the group stands for.
Israel and Hamas are playing a role in the different parts of the city. Israeli officials say 19 of their soldiers have been killed in the fighting in Gaza, while Hamas hasn’t released casualty numbers.
Hasan Nasrallah: What Israel can do to avoid a war with Israel and its allies in the Middle East, and how it might affect the US response to the Gaza attack
That is not Hezbollah’s plan, the leader of the group, Hasan Nasrallah, told his followers in his first public statement since the war began.
But it fit with analysts’ assessment that Israel and Hezbollah appeared to be calibrating their actions to avoid setting off a broader war. Mr. Nasrallah described Hezbollah’s objective as a controlled battle along the border aimed at sapping Israel’s morale and resources.
The Lebanese front has reduced the number of forces that were about to increase the attack on Gaza. The people in Lebanon say that we are taking a risk. But this risk is part of a beneficial, correct calculation.”
Mr Nasrallah praised Hamas early on in his speech for carrying out the Oct. 7 attack that killed over 1,400 people in Israel. The Hezbollah leader said that there was no conflict more justified than the battle with the Zionists.
Should hostilities with Israel Escalate, Mr. Nasrallah warned, he was keeping Hezbollah’s forces ready. “All the possibilities on our Lebanese front are open,” he said. “All the choices are available and we could resort to them at any time.”
During one of the most tense periods in the Middle East in recent years, though, Mr. Nasrallah’s speech offered a small measure of relief for many, that at least one powerful force was not seeking to plunge the region into even greater violence.
Mr. Nasrallah is a highly respected figure inside a group that calls itself the “axis of resistance,” a network of Iranian-backed militias in several Arab countries that share an anti-American and anti-Israeli ideology and have come to coordinate their operations more closely in recent years. A decision by Hezbollah to launch a full-on war with Israel would most likely encourage attacks by an assortment of allied militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Hezbollah leader, Mr. Nasrallah, accused the US of being dishonest in telling Israel that it has the right to defend itself but that it needed to respect.
The two aircraft carriers the United States dispatched to the eastern Mediterranean had the ability to hit Hezbollah targets, but the group was not intimidated by that.
“Your fleets in the Mediterranean do not scare us and will never scare us,” Mr. Nasrallah said. “Your fleets that you threaten us with, we are prepared for them as well.”
Should the United States intervene directly in the war, Mr. Nasrallah said, it could expect attacks by Hezbollah’s allies on its military bases and other targets in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
The US military said it sent the carriers because they were worried about a regional war, with mounting anger in the Arab world over the worsening situation in Gaza. Israel has faced increasing international criticism over the dire conditions in Gaza, but has so far resisted calls for either a cease-fire or humanitarian “pauses” to help deliver aid.
The leader of the Hezbollah group, Mr. Nasrallah, said that fighters from his and other armed groups in Lebanon were destroying communications infrastructure and attacking Israeli military positions. Israeli civilians fled to the north so that they would not be involved in attacks on Gaza.
Thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered in Lebanon to watch the speech on screens. There were Hezbollah and Palestinian flags at the biggest site in the southern suburbs. When he appeared in front of the camera, supporters raised their hands and said “We are here for you, Nasrallah.”
He said that Israeli treatment of the Palestinians had gotten so bad that a “great event” had been required to restore the Palestinian cause as “the No. 1 issue in the world.”
What Have We Learned About the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza City since the July 11, 2003 Reaction by Mohamad Sbeti?
Mohamad Sbeti, 40, fired a volley of celebratory gunshots into the air after Mr. Nasrallah finished speaking. He said he would fight for Israel if contacted by Hezbollah.
A driver who had grown poorer during Lebanon’s deep economic crisis in recent years, Mr. Sbeti was not overly worried about the vast damage that Israel could do to Lebanon in a new war.
A second satellite image from a European Space Agency satellite taken on Nov. 1 showed evidence that Israeli armor had advanced to within three-quarters of a mile (a little over a kilometer) of the coast. Eyewitness videos also appeared to document heavy fighting in the neighborhood of Tal Al Hawa, on the southern end of Gaza City near the coast.
According to Sean MacFarland, a retired three-star general in the U.S. Army, who was involved in operations against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the Israelis have a brigade consisting of several thousand troops in the northwest part of the city.
“They’re pushing in with ground forces, but their objective doesn’t seem to be keeping territory and setting up checkpoint,” says Jones, who oversees the International Security Program at the Center.
But even if the other two axes also contain about a brigade, that wouldn’t be nearly enough to fully occupy or even conduct a building-by-building sweep of a dense, urban environment like Gaza City, says Gentile.
He says that they could choose to control the city from the outskirts or conduct operations inside. Such raids might allow them to destroy tunnels and other key parts of Hamas infrastructure without committing to a full occupation.
Satellite images, bystanders and the Israel Defense Forces were examined by NPR. Here’s what we have seen and heard about the operation so far.
High-resolution satellite imagery taken by the company Planet on Oct. 31 shows roughly two-dozen Israeli armored vehicles stationed near the road, presumably to control access.
Israel appears to be using a lot of heavy weaponry in its fight, and some of it may be non-precision bombs, Garlasco says. Unguided bombs and artillery run the risk of incurring greater civilian casualties in a densely populated area like Gaza City.
On October 31, there was an airstrike on a part of the refugee camp just north of Gaza City. According to the Israel Defense Force, the strike was the result of intelligence gathered by Shin Bet.
The Israeli military said dozens of Hamas fighters were killed, along with a senior Hamas commander. Photos from the site showed a massive crater, consistent with a collapsed tunnel beneath the site, and many injured civilians. The health ministry in Gaza reports that nearly 200 people have died, and 120 are still missing.
The incident underscores a dangerous new phase in operations, says Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon intelligence officer who now works for Pax, a Dutch nonprofit working to protect civilians against acts of war. In the opening weeks of the war Israel conducted strikes on predetermined targets. Now they’re striking quickly at “dynamic targets” with little warning or no warning for civilians in the area.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza may ultimately be what limits Israel’s ability to reach its goals, says Plitsas. A group called Special Operations Association of America helped him get a group of people out of Gaza and the stories they gave him were harrowing.
He says that Israel has a right to defend itself, but not an unlimited one. They must target military objects and not civilians, he says, and they must also operate under the principle of proportionality. He says that the military gain can’t be overshadowed by the civilian harm.
In a statement Wednesday, the United Nations’ human rights office appeared to echo those concerns, warning that strikes on the Jabalia camp “could amount to war crimes.”
The Israeli Operation Gaza After the Sept. 7 Attack: Towards Re-establishing Deterrence Against the Hezbollah Army
Gentile was in Iraq in 2006 where he participated in urban warfare. Israel and Hamas see this as an important battle.
“They were treating burns with saline and iodine only. There’s no post-wound care, no antibiotics, hospitals were performing surgery without anesthesia because they had no choice,” he says.
It is difficult to imagine that Israel will be able to retain international support unless it can be shown that it is helping civilians and avoiding casualties.
“I think the humanitarian conditions on the ground are an Achilles heel for the operation,” he says. “That needs to get addressed, and addressed very, very quickly.”
The smaller bombs are better suited to the dense cityscapes of Gaza, according to American military officials. But Israel has over the years built up stocks of larger bombs, intended mostly to target hardened Hezbollah military positions in Lebanon.
The New York Times analyzed satellite imagery, photos and videos and concluded that Israel used at least two 2,000-pound bombs on Tuesday on the dense area just north of Gaza City.
The Americans say Israel’s forceful response to the attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, in which more than 1,400 people were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage, reflects the importance that it places on re-establishing deterrence against attacks from adversaries in the region. The Israeli military’s aura of power was shaken by the Oct. 7 attack, the officials say.
The United States has increased the amount of intelligence it is collecting in Gaza which includes searching for hostages and redirecting military satellites to monitor the enclave. The United States is also using aircraft on the two carriers in the Mediterranean to help collect additional intelligence, including electronic intercepts.
The U.S. has increased the intelligence it gives to Israel, but officials stressed that they don’t help the country pick targets.
“We do our best to destroy Hamas only, without harming the civilians,” said Iddo Ben-Anat, a deputy brigade commander leading part of the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The Syrian War on Hamas and the Palestinian People’s Left Behind: State Senator Seth Moulton’s Call for a Stop
Arab leaders demanded an immediate cease-fire during a meeting with Mr. Blinken in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday.
Mr. Blinken said that Hamas must be fought not just with military might, but also with “a better future, with a better vision” for the Palestinian people.
Democratic lawmakers and terrorism experts say the higher the civilian casualty toll, the more resentment will build in Gaza, and that Hamas can use that to build more support.
Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts and an Iraq war veteran, said the America’s biggest mistake in that conflict was trying to provide “military solutions to fundamentally political problems.”
At a news conference in Tel Aviv, the deputy secretary of state appeared to acknowledge the risk, but argued the international community needed to ensure Hamas doesn’t gain more followers in the process.