You don’t see them launching rockets from the rich people’s villas. Why? Cause they are Hamas.
Then the Israelis should have provided a safe haven and safe passage for the civilians and have the fight with the remainers. They did neither.
Ridiculous plan and thinking from Israel. Hamas has supplies, arsenal, and medical facilities underground. They don’t need the above-ground facilities.
For how long. Electricity will run out at some point or the other.
40000 Hamas militants in tunnels where the exits are sealed off either by the bombed buildings or by Israel collapsing them.
I’d like to see how long they sustain themselves in what effectively will be their Jail. Israel then can easily play the waiting game with drones , snipers etc.
Now that they have Gaza City effectively encircled with armed forces, I believe they do have that obligation.
Fair to say Israel didn’t give reasonable time for citizens to withdraw. And Hamas did stop citizens from withdrawing too.
US military aid to Israel $14.5b
US military aid to Ukraine $ 425m
That’s not right mate.
“Since the war began, the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have directed more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute.”
The key thing is the consequences of such actions. You can only surrender if you believe your enemy will act in good faith. Respect norms or rules of war/peace.
You need to have confidence that it will ultimately benefit your population. At best surrender brings about short term restraint, but ultimately death by 1000 cuts. At worst you give an enemy carte blanche to flatten the city or permanently displace millions.
Given the rhetoric of extermination coming from Israel (and lack of basic human rights for decades), I don’t think you can expect an enemy to surrender. They are fighting so that their people have a future.
The Palestine issue had fallen off the radar. For Hamas the best outcome is the international condemnation or pressure for a resolution. They need the atrocities so that it comes to a point. Their aim is holding on long enough that the world can no longer hold its nose.
Sorry. Hamas isn’t fighting because they want their people to have a future. The leaders of Hamas are billionaires sitting in Qatar. They make money on the backs of Palestinian sufferings. It doesn’t really matter to them whether the Palestinians get freedom or not. They are sitting in Qatar watching it all unfold in the comfort of their AC offices/homes.
I could get into debate about motives/intentions (or those on the ground have same intent as leaders), but end outcome the same.
If I am connecting your dots correctly (Hamas exploiting aid meant for civilians). The strategy remains the same. Assuming true, they will be holding out for the world to call out atrocities to lead to an end. They will not surrender, as not in their interests. They dont want a dead population as you cant exploit that. You dont a population that Isreail fully controls, as you cant feather your nest.
So you are agreeing with @Sithbare ? Hamas don’t give two fucks about the Palestinian population, except as a population to exploited for their own gain?
The point is that you’ve said that Hamas is fighting so that Palestinians have a future.
I disagree with that statement entirely. They really don’t care about the Palestinians. Most of the leaders of the islamic radical groups really don’t bother about the people they claim to represent. For them, it’s little more than a money making enterprise.
What else could explain the leaders of Hamas being billionaires, their children staying far away in the safe sanctums when 40% of Hamas population is unemployed ?
I think it’s equally important to call out the callousness of Hamas as a governing body. For the people in Gaza , they are a government.
The valid plight of the Palestinians should not be translated into sympathies for Hamas.
And any settlement of this conflict has to involve Hamas getting their wings clipped as well.
I’m all for Israel getting sanctions etc , but Hamas cannot be allowed to get away Scot free. The international community will have to act to get their leaders arrested , destroy their network in Gaza / West Bank and cut their funding etc.
No, I dont agree.
I dont belive that exploiting for your own personal gain, and also caring for your population are mutually exclusive. Its corruption. Look at the UK, billionaire PM, with tory mates (or wifes company) getting favorable contracts or Netanyahu he is worth close to $100M. I believe they all have their own self interest first. However I could not say that most people in the Tory party, do not care about the population. Even though I believe unequivocally that Sunak/Johnson exploited for their own self gain, I still believe they tried to balance it with the UKs best interest (to a lesser or more degree).
There are 40,000 fighters in Hamas. I belive most of them are fighting for their freedom/revenge/to have a future. Most will not be getting rich.
What I am saying is the world is not black and white, its murky shades of grey. (I am not defending Hamas in any way). But the world is typically not good and evil. You can be the bad guy but still care for your people.
Before we want to delegitimize Hamas, someone has to take up the Palestinian cause. Who is going to speak for the Palestinians
Abbas
Israel
Saudis
EU and USA
Hamas exists because people ignored the hell called Palestine .
I don’t disagree with that.
But there’s a difference between the reason Hamas came into existence and what it is right now.
Hamas started as an offshoot of the PLO. What it is now is a terrorist organisation who’s behaving as a rogue government.
And about delegitimizing Hamas ,
It is something which needs to be done. Needs to be done for the Palestinians to get some relief firstly. I don’t think life is easy for them with Hamas / Fatah as their governments either. And then they have Israel on the other side.
Every such attack that Hamas does only serves to delegitimize the Palestinian cause.
In some cases, yes.
Leaders can recieve a kickback of sorts to facilitate a deal through which gives some benefits to the nation as such. That’s not ethical , it’s corruption as you’ve said but it’s understandable.
What Hamas is doing isn’t that though. They tax the people, the entire trade to Gaza goes through their underground tunnel network (which they tax for the use anyway). They execute people who disagree with them (with the charge of being Israeli informants) , they rule over the peope with fear. They sacrifice lives of normal Palestinians by launching missile attacks knowing that there is going to be a retaliatory attack by Israeli.
Why do they do that ? All for getting more eyes on the Palestinian crisis. Yeah sure , but more likely they do that because the donations etc that they receive go directly into their back pockets without even bothering to improve the lives of the Palestinians. That’s not just pure corruption. That’s cruelty. You can’t equate corruption of the regular government officials with cruelty that’s being shown by Hamas leadership…
If Israel magically agrees to the two state solution tomorrow, would the hardships that Palestinians face with Abbas on one side and Hamas on the other disappear entirely , knowing the corruption and cruelty that they are capable off ?