Posted on 06/20/2024 8:20:37 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie
It began without warning. “Planes were bombing. Tanks were firing. Quadcopter drones were shooting. People were running and screaming. It felt like Judgment Day, as if we were living our last moments.”
This was the scene at around 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 8 in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. Aerial bombardment, as described by a journalist in the camp who preferred to remain anonymous, was accompanied by the entry of dozens of Israeli military and police special forces personnel who emerged from aid trucks. “We couldn’t understand what was happening,” the journalist added.
As later became clear, a major Israeli military operation was underway to retrieve four hostages whom Hamas had kidnapped from the Nova music festival almost exactly eight months prior. In doing so, Israeli forces unleashed devastation on Nuseirat camp, killing at least 276 Palestinians and wounding approximately 700 more.
“The intensity of the bombing felt like an earthquake,” Enas Al-Louh, a 45-year-old from Gaza City who had sought refuge in the camp, recounted. “I thought my life would end right there. I was screaming at my children not to leave my side so that we could die together. For more than an hour, we lived through the horror of nonstop bombing and shelling.”
For Amjad Al-Majdalawi, a 40-year-old who had been staying in Nuseirat camp with his family since the start of the war, the sound of explosions and people screaming in the market jolted him into a state of panic. “My mind stopped, and I ran to check on my family,” he told +972. “While running, I saw the martyrs and the wounded lying on the ground, and the survivors begging for help.
“I arrived home to find my children and my family screaming in fear,” he continued. “We tried to find some relief from the shock of the event, but it continued to become more and more violent. The occupation deceived the camp through the state of calm in which we lived for several days [prior to the operation], without hearing the sound of reconnaissance planes. Then came the attack, with such brutality. Everyone in the camp lost someone from their family.”
‘We are cheap blood in this hypocritical world’
As hundreds of wounded Palestinians began arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, the Israeli army called the hospital staff and ordered them to evacuate, threatening to bomb the hospital. Staff passed on the warning to those it could, but most were too desperate to pay heed. The attack didn’t materialize, and it appears that the threat was intended to sow further chaos and confusion as Israel’s operation unfolded.
“All the photographers and journalists chose to stay,” the journalist recounted. “By covering the events inside the hospital — which continued to receive countless numbers of injured patients — we fulfilled our work. We didn’t care about the evacuation order, because what we experienced was more terrible than any other thought or feeling. The crying of mothers and children was so intense.”
Khalil Al-Dakran, the hospital’s spokesperson, told +972 that most of the wounded who arrived that day were women and children. But due to the Israeli army’s continuous attacks on central Gaza in the previous weeks, he explained, the hospital was unable to receive such large numbers.
“We treated the injured on the floor of the corridors and outside in the tents, because there were no empty beds to receive the wounded,” Al-Dakran continued. “They arrived in ambulances, civilian cars, and animal-drawn vehicles.” The situation was so dire that the hospital was forced to send patients to Al-Awda Maternity Hospital, which was closer to the massacre in Nuseirat, despite it being ill-equipped to accommodate patients with severe injuries.
Al-Aqsa’s dwindling resources further limited the hospital’s ability to admit the influx of patients. “Some medical delegations come to Gaza with supplies that can help our patients, but the Israeli army confiscates these and prevents them from entering Gaza,” Al-Dakran explained. “It inhibits the entry of fuel and medical equipment into hospitals and keeps the wounded from seeking life-saving treatment abroad.”
The Nuseirat operation marked only the third time since October 7 that Israeli forces have freed hostages alive. The second, on Feb. 12, also came at a high cost to Palestinian lives, killing at least 74 in Rafah’s Shaboura refugee camp in order to create a “diversion.”
Al-Louh is still struggling to make sense of what he witnessed. “How is it reasonable to kill over 200 people for the sake of four? We are cheap blood in this hypocritical world that does not know the meaning of humanity, does not speak about the hundreds of martyrs and wounded, and does not express its anger at this massacre.”
Okay let us not call it a terror raid, but terror works. We burnt Tokyo with fire bombing. The Brits did the same to Dresden. Terror works but I prefer to call it a tactic of war. It is obscene but it works. Its real name is TOTAL WAR! Total war defeats the enemy. If one uses less than total war the enemy is then dictating the rules of engagement and you will lose. I abhor war. If the enemy knows you are willing to wage total war it is very doubtful he will war against you unless he perceives you as weak as did the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.
Oddly Admiral Yamamoto who was educated in the United States was against attacking the USA. He knew we were weak but also knew our industrial capacity to turn out the weapons of war. He said, "You will awaken a sleeping giant." He was correct.
Oddly he planned the attack knowing it would be their end. He was a loyal soldier and oddly honorable, almost a martyr.
When I think of the mechanics of war - I think of Sun Tzu.
Know the enemy and know yourself in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[d] 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare[e] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
Truly there is nothing new under the sun.
How do we know that 200 actually died?
The context of the situation in Genesis 18:22-33 is not the same as the context of the war against in Gaza against Hamas.
There are better old testment examples that are more analogous to the situation with Hamas today.
Death of 200 Hamas Terrorists?
What is the value alive? Ø (actually a minus value)
What is the value dead? A Step toward Peace.
The very name “Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital “ implies that it’s good for them to die for their cause. (I think that’s killing Jews and whining for decades) So there they are at the martyrs hospital, isn’t it wonderful that they too can become martyrs if they just try a little harder. I wish them every success with that effort.
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