Hamas tries to get more leverage for hostage ceasefire talks -- noting that the talks have fallen completely apart. Depleted Hamas focuses on desperate new aim: capturing an Israeli soldier Militant group has become adept at exploiting successful attacks – and now needs all the leverage it can get for talks https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...esperate-new-aim-capturing-an-israeli-soldier As Hamas intensifies its insurgent campaign against Israeli forces in Gaza, it is focusing on a new aim: capturing an Israeli soldier. Last week, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sergeant was killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in an attempted abduction. Hamas militants also tried to take away the remains of 25-year-old Abraham Azulay but abandoned the effort when attacked by other Israeli forces. The capture of a soldier or their remains would offer significant new leverage for Hamas as indirect negotiations continue over a ceasefire deal, and have a major impact on public opinion in Israel. “This attempt failed. [But there is] no doubt Hamas will increase its attempts to take new hostages, including bodies of dead soldiers and civilians,” said Michael Milstein, the head of the Palestinian studies forum at Tel Aviv University. Hamas is still holding 50 of the 250 hostages seized during its surprise attack on 7 October 2023, when militants killed 1,200, mostly civilians, and triggered the conflict in Gaza. More than half are thought to be dead, and the release of 28 is being discussed in the ceasefire talks in Qatar. “Hamas may release captives to have a ceasefire, at least for now, but is also attempting to capture more … so is signalling that any agreement is not going to be a permanent end to the overall conflict,” said Abdeljawad Hamayel, a Ramallah-based political analyst. Hamas has proved to be adept at exploiting the propaganda value of successful attacks, and its media channels broadcast a video of the attempted abduction last week. Other images showed militants attacking Israeli armoured vehicles and bulldozers. One Qatar-based Palestinian analyst familiar with Hamas’s strategic discussions said: “It’s not just about gaining a card to play in negotiations but is a key part of the psychological battle. Hamas aim to boost their own fighters and demoralise both Israeli soldiers in Gaza and civilians in Israel.” Israeli officials have repeatedly described how Hamas’s military strength has been degraded, and few analysts doubt the heavy casualties suffered in Gaza by the military wing of the organisation. The IDF claims to have killed up to 23,000 militants, out of about 30,000 at the beginning of the war, without providing evidence. Hamas’s leadership losses are clearer. Most senior and middle-ranking commanders active in 2023 are now dead. The Qatar-based analyst said Hamas might only be deploying a “couple of hundred” of fighters in Gaza but that this was sufficient for its strategic purposes. “Hamas only have a few cells here, but they are very careful and precise with their resources,” they said. Military experts say Hamas has made a “military transformation” during the 21-month conflict, from a quasi-conventional force to one that is suited to guerrilla warfare, and that its new strategy is better adapted to the devastation in Gaza, where the Israeli offensive has killed 57,000, mostly civilians, and reduced vast swaths to ruins. An ambush last week killed five soldiers and injured nine in what is left of Beit Hanoun, once a thriving town in the north of Gaza that has been reduced to smashed masonry and twisted metal by successive Israeli offensives. Some of Hamas’s extensive tunnel network is still intact, too, offering a means of escaping Israel’s air power and surveillance capabilities. Guy Aviad, a former IDF military historian and expert on the group, said: “It’s a very complicated battlefield for the IDF. Hamas are taking advantage of all the rubble. They are experts in guerrilla warfare and have been fighting Israel for 20 years.” Channels remain open between military leaders in Gaza and the political leadership of Hamas in Qatar and Istanbul, experts said. Only two significant political leaders – including the then leader Ismail Haniyeh – have been killed since the war began. The group’s network of envoys, officials, clandestine operatives and sympathisers across much of the Islamic world and elsewhere also remains largely intact and continues to raise funds for the organisation. Hamas ruled Gaza from 2007 and its officials still nominally run ministries, municipal authorities and much else, though its grip on the territory is slipping as other actors including criminal gangs, coalitions of community leaders and new militia backed by Israel contest its remaining authority. Aid workers in the territory say Hamas officials and security personnel are less present than they were even six months ago. Casualties continue to mount in the territory. Hundreds of civilians have been killed since the latest round of ceasefire talks began on Sunday. Ten IDF soldiers have been killed this month and 20 in July. “We are now seeing a form of attritional warfare which is placing some limits on Israel’s power and is also having some effect on public opinion across the world,” said Hamayel. Milstein said Hamas was eager for a ceasefire but not at any cost. “Here in Israel, we have had an experiment with the idea that more and more pressure on Hamas means they will [eventually] give up. Well, how much more pressure can you imagine?,” he said. “We have killed their leaders. We have destroyed Gaza. But we have not changed the basic attitudes and demands of Hamas.”
This quote from Milstein captures a truth that anyone who's lived through a prolonged asymmetric conflict already understood. I guess US war films not telling the truth about why they keep losing, is part of this stupid. I saw a video recently where Settler (terrorists) attacked aid trucks, they specifically targeted the ones carrying refined sugar which is dual use for making solid fuel rockets. Israel could have cut off such dual use aid two decades ago but they fucking wanted the rockets, as this gave them their narritive to maintain the conditions. To keep Gaza as a permanent emergency. (Gazans living off Splenda would have probably done more political damage to Hamas than anything.)
52 Palestinians in Gaza are killed by Israeli airstrikes or shot dead while seeking aid Mourners attend the funeral of their … more > By Wafaa Shurafa and Samya Kullab Associated Press Saturday, July 12, 2025 https://www.washingtontimes.com/new...led-israeli-airstrikes-shot-dead-seeking-aid/ DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians including four children in the Gaza Strip, while 24 others were fatally shot on their way to an aid distribution site, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said Saturday. The children and two women were among at least 13 people killed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said. Fifteen others died in airstrikes in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment. At least 24 people were killed on their way to a food distribution site near Rafah run by an Israeli-backed American organization, hospital officials and witnesses said. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots toward people it said were behaving suspiciously to prevent them from approaching. It said it was not aware of any casualties. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said no incident occurred near its sites. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that would bring the release of more hostages from Gaza and potentially wind down the war. But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough. The militant group still holds some 50 hostages, with at least 20 believed to remain alive. The 21-month war has left much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million reliant on outside aid while food security experts warn of famine. Israel blocked and then restricted aid entry after ending the latest ceasefire in March. The fatal shootings of 24 people occurred in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, hundreds of meters (yards) from the food distribution site, Israel’s military said. A GHF spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the group’s policies, said: “We checked with our extended team and this incident didn’t happen near our sites.” Witnesses said they were shot at while on their way to the site seeking food. Abdullah al-Haddad said he was 200 meters (655 feet) from the aid distribution site run by the GHF close to the Shakoush area, west of Rafah, when an Israeli tank started firing at crowds of Palestinians. “We were together, and they shot us at once,” he said, writhing in pain from a leg wound at Nasser Hospital. Mohammed Jamal al-Sahloo, another witness, said Israel’s military had ordered them to proceed to the site when the shooting started. Sumaya al-Sha’er’s 17-year-old son, Nasir, was killed in the shooting, hospital officials said. “He said to me, ‘Mom, you don’t have flour and today I’ll go and bring you flour, even if I die, I’ll go and get it,’” she said. “But he never came back home.” Until then, she said, she had prevented the teenager from going to GHF sites because she thought it was too dangerous. But food supplies were running out. Witnesses, health officials and U.N. officials say hundreds have been killed by Israeli fire while heading toward GHF distribution points through military zones off limits to independent media. The military has acknowledged firing warning shots at Palestinians who it says approached its forces in a suspicious manner. The GHF denies there has been violence in or around its sites in the past. But two of its contractors told the AP that their colleagues have fired live ammunition and stun grenades as Palestinians scramble for food, allegations denied by the foundation. In a separate effort, the U.N. and aid groups say they are struggling to distribute humanitarian aid because of Israeli military restrictions and a breakdown of law and order that has led to widespread looting. The first fuel - 150,000 liters - entered Gaza this week after 130 days, a joint statement by U.N. aid bodies said, calling it a small amount for the “the backbone of survival in Gaza.” Fuel runs hospitals, water systems, transport and more, the statement said. Israel’s military said that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in Gaza including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional Hamas sites. Also on Saturday, the military announced strict restrictions along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast and called on fishermen, swimmers and divers not to go to sea. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war and abducted 251. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 57,800 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
DOJ pressures DC's Bowser over antisemitism 'crisis' in Washington Trump has long insulted and sought to take federal control of the District. Leo Terrell, the chair of the Department of Justice’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, slammed the D.C. mayor for her “lukewarm response” to a “crisis” of antisemitism in the city in a series of posts to his X account this week. | Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images By Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing 07/12/2025 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/12/trump-antisemitism-dc-task-force-00448611 The Trump administration is launching another offensive against Washington, D.C. — a city President Donald Trump has long insulted and sought to overhaul — this time over allegations of a “lukewarm” response from D.C. officials to rising threats of antisemitism in the nation’s capital. Leo Terrell, the chair of the Department of Justice’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, slammed Mayor Muriel Bowser for her “lukewarm response” to a “crisis” of antisemitism in the city in a series of posts to his X account this week. Terrell’s decision to turn his task force’s focus to the nation’s capital also comes after the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in May sent shock waves through the local community and prompted D.C.-area Jewish religious and community centers to bolster their security apparatuses. “There’s been a disturbing rise in antisemitic violence in Washington, DC,” Terrell wrote in a post accompanying a photograph of the initial letter he sent to the mayor. “I saw blood being wiped off the sidewalk outside the Capital Jewish Museum after a domestic terrorist murdered Israeli embassy staffers. Jewish community members are facing threats, intimidation — and in some cases, are being forced to pay outrageous ‘Jewish taxes’ just to get security and feel safe.” ....................................... Meanwhile There are no shock waves, there is no protest, there is nothing done because jewish lives are deemed more important (sacred) and Palestinian lives are not considered important.
A crisis??? And pray tell then what the fuck is Gaza, not a crisis? Americans, they've always enjoyed violence and so too the Jews, they don't mind violence as long as it is not in their backyard.
Pro-Hamas terrorists are openly murdering people at Jewish events in Washington D.C. Synagogues in Washington D.C. now have to hire private security due to all the endless threats. Yes, Washington D.C. is facing an antisemitism crisis and the government needs to take action to address it.
Well the government is addressing the problem and the solution they've taken is "send more bombs for Israel" and "we support Israel and we want to bomb Iran" and "we will beat up protestors at our universities". In other words "the solution to antisemitism is more violence".
Watch how the word “terrorist” functions. It doesn’t invite reflection, it ends it. It's a verbal grenade thrown into moral debate, used to collapse complex realities into a single unchallengeable frame: killable. “Terrorism” is less a moral category than a political weapon, invoked to justify the actions of one side while condemning the other.