While the Israeli military is raring to launch an offensive to destroy Hamas and liberate captives, President Joe Biden and the European powers are telling Israel to delay the ground incursion to facilitate hostage negotiations and ‘humanitarian’ operations in Gaza.
“Israel is under rising American and European pressure to delay a ground offensive into Gaza to give negotiators more time to win freedom for Hamas-held hostages,” the UK daily Telegraph reported Saturday.
Confirming the reports, The New York Times noted Sunday: “The Biden administration has advised Israel to delay a ground invasion of Gaza, hoping to buy time for hostage negotiations and to allow more humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in the sealed-off enclave, according to several U.S. officials.”
The Biden staffers are telling the media that the Israeli military is unprepared for a ground offensive against Hamas. “The Biden administration is concerned that Israel lacks achievable military objectives in Gaza, and that the Israel Defense Forces are not yet ready to launch a ground invasion with a plan that can work, senior administration officials said,” the NYT reported Monday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rejected assertions that troops were unprepared for the ground offensive and warned that Hamas is stalling the negotiations to fortify positions to counter an Israeli offensive.
“Hamas trying to buy time through slow ‘drip’ of hostages,” NBC reported Monday, citing IDF Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan.
The Israeli military leadership believes that the IDF is ready to take on the Hamas terrorist forces in Gaza. The armed forces were prepared for all combat scenarios, including the opening of a northern front by Lebanon-based Iran’s proxy terrorist group Hezbollah, Israeli media reports indicate.
The Times of Israel reported Monday:
The Israel Defense Forces believes that in order to attain the government’s stated objectives in the war against the Hamas terror group, the military must begin its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip sooner rather than later, The Times of Israel learned Monday.Israel says its war against Hamas is aimed at destroying the Iran-backed terror group’s infrastructure and has vowed to dismantle the organization after the October 7 massacres. (…)The Israel Defense Forces believes that in order to attain the government’s stated objectives in the war against the Hamas terror group, the military must begin its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip sooner rather than later, The Times of Israel learned Monday.Israel says its war against Hamas is aimed at destroying the Iran-backed terror group’s infrastructure and has vowed to dismantle the organization after the October 7 massacres.Should the army need to move its focus to the northern front instead of Gaza, it is confident that it could pivot within just a few days. The IDF has already heavily bolstered the Lebanon border, but most forces remain near Gaza, ahead of the expected ground offensive.
With bodies of the October 7 victims still being found and Israeli authorities struggling to identify hundreds of charred and mutilated corpses, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Israel on Tuesday, calling for creating a Palestinian state and halting of ‘settlement’ building.
“Macron called for a “decisive relaunch” of the Palestinian peace process. He said he would be discussing this issue later Tuesday during his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah,” the state-run France24 TV reported Tuesday.
“French President Emmanuel Macron will call for … the creation of a Palestinian state, and “halting the colonization” of the West Bank, while visiting Israel on Tuesday, his office says,” the Times of Israel reported Monday night.
The French president appears to have the backing of the Biden White House, the report in the Israeli news website further suggests:
At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says the US has not given up a two-state solution or normalization with Saudi Arabia.“We still believe in the promise of a two-state solution. We’re still going to work on that,” he says.“A key to eventually getting a two-state solution is normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia and we’re still going to work on that as well,” he adds.
Several French citizens were among the victims of the October 7 massacres, in which 1400 people were murdered and more than 210 were taken as hostages into Gaza. “At least 30 French nationals were killed in the attack, and seven are missing, including a confirmed hostage and several others probably held by Hamas in Gaza,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Tuesday.
The interrogation of captive Hamas terrorists, who took part in the October 7 mass-murder, reveals that Hamas has promised $10,000 and an apartment for each Israel hostage. The terrorist group cited Islamic laws to justify the killing of innocent women and children, the interrogated terrorist disclosed.
They also admitted beheading and mutilating their victims in compliance with Hamas’ instructions ahead of the terrorist operation.
The Ynet reported Monday:
The six Hamas terrorists from the Nukhba unit, who participated in the terror attack on communities along the Gaza border, told their interrogators that Hamas offered to reward its terrorists the sum of $ 10K and provide them with an apartment in return for every captive brought back to the Strip. They said they were ordered to “kidnap the elderly, women, and children, clean houses, and expose as many captives as possible.”During the interrogations, the terrorists provided harrowing descriptions of their actions on the day of the massacre: “Her dog came out, so I shot it”; “We took a 15-year-old girl, and we took a selfie with her”; “She was lying dead on the floor, so I shot her. The commander shouted at me, asking why I was wasting bullets on her”; “We finished, and then we set two houses on fire.”One of the terrorists participated in the terror attack on Kibbutz Alumim and was subsequently captured by security forces. During his interrogation, he disclosed to investigators that ahead of their mission the terrorists received the approval to kill women and children from religious authorities.“The plan was to move from house to house, room to room, throw grenades, and kill everyone there, including women and children,” he said. “Hamas instructed us to do the following: behead them and cut their legs.” The IDF also released disturbing information from his interrogation related to sexual abuse, which they chose not to publish.
Despite foreign pressure, the Israeli military is hitting Hamas terror targets in Gaza. “During combined operational activities, IDF tanks, helicopters and artillery struck anti-tank missile launchers and observation posts in which Hamas terrorist operatives were located,” the IDF said in a statement on Tuesday morning. “Simultaneously, IAF helicopters and fighter jets struck terrorist infrastructure located in a multi-story building, as well as additional anti-tank infrastructure. During the activity, IDF forces killed a number of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, the IDF is responding to terrorist activities by Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. “Clashes between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have continued on the northern border, resulting in over night strikes on the Lebanese terror group’s military positions,” the i24NEWS reported Tuesday.
With Leftist and Islamist supporters of Hamas in the U.S. and elsewhere denying the horrific atrocities committed on October 7 despite numerous videos circulating on social media, Israel on Monday showed unedited footage taken from terrorist body-cams, surveillance cameras and cell phones in a closed-door screening for foreign journalists in Tel Aviv.
The UK newspaper Independent reported Monday:
Israel has played harrowing footage of killings during the attack by Hamas that left 1,400 people dead.The 43 minute-long footage was captured by security cameras, body cameras worn by the attackers, vehicle dashboard cameras, social media accounts and videos from mobile phones, the Israeli military said.It contained clips of Hamas gunmen cheering with apparent joy as they shot civilians on the road, and later stalking the pathways of kibbutzim and killing parents and children in their homes. Much of the footage was too grisly to release.It was shown to foreign journalists in Tel Aviv on Monday, reflecting a desire from the Israeli military to counter what it has said are attempts to downplay or deny the extent of the attack. Journalists present were not able to record the compilation of footage, but a short exert was released to the public.
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