Israel attacks Gaza all-out from land and air

Israel has begun retaliating in full force against Gaza, with bombing raids, a vast siege, and plans for ground invasion. Meanwhile, President Biden has embarrassed himself with his refusal to hold any press conferences. And some reports on the ground indicate the quality of military aid that might be forthcoming to Gaza.

Israel on the march

Simon Ateba, Chief White House correspondent for Today News Africa, seems to be delivering the most balanced accounts. This footage is an actual report from a CNN correspondent caught in a rocket barrage out of Gaza.

The correspondent describes her location as near the Israel-Gaza border. She reports rockets flying toward the Negev and points north, and jet warplanes flying toward Gaza.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apparently told President Biden yesterday that Israel will invade Gaza on the ground, as it must.

Ateba shared this CNN interview with Mustafa Barghouti, founder of something called the Palestine National Initiative. Barghouti is claiming that Gaza’s army, such as it is, “attacked mainly military installations.” He also admits to the hostage-taking others have observed (and that the Gaza elements filmed themselves doing). But, he says, most of the hostages are IDF service members. False, says Ateba.

The music festival to which he refers is the one that yielded this casualty – a German female festival attendee. WARNING! The footage in this post is as graphic as any CNAV has yet seen. Parental judgment and discretion are advised!

The White House has been strangely silent for the last two days.

Few people outside the region realize that Israel has always supplied Gaza with electricity, water, and other utilities. Israel, in declaring war, has cut all those supplies off.

Ateba also published this long-form op-ed, seemingly warning that Gaza may have provoked unintended consequences for itself.

Recap

The Third Arab-Israeli War (or the Fourth, Fifth, or Sixth) began early Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. Israel Daylight Time. The Islamic Resistance Movement (Arabic Harakah al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmiyyah, abbreviated HAMAS) began by launching 5,000 rockets into the Negev. Many of those rockets flew as far north as Tel Aviv.

Erick-Woods Erickson, in a scathing denunciation of the Biden administration, charged that they let Gaza/HAMAS acquire left-behind Afghanistan weapons. He cited this article in Middle East Monitor from three and a half months ago. Rumors are circulating that Ukraine has sold weapons to HAMAS on the black market.

Newsweek reports today that Ukraine denies that report and accuses the Russians of furnishing those weapons. But Newsweek also highlighted a report they made over the summer, in which Israel worried even then about weapons, intended for Ukraine, were flowing to Gaza. (Erickson doesn’t believe that Ukraine sold weapons to Gaza. He calls that “disinformation” by what he sees as a Russo-Sino-Iranian alliance.)

London’s Express reports an unconfirmed rumor that the Taliban is seeking overland passage through Iran, Iraq and Jordan. They say they will literally march on Jerusalem, using captured American weapons from the Afghanistan war.