Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 26-27/2023
Jihadist Hamas does not serve the Palestinian cause, and its victory will be a victory for ISIS, fundamentalism, and for the Vicious Iranian mullahs’ Schemes/Elias Bejjani/October 26/2023
To, Dear Youmna Gemayel: Hezbollah is a jihadist, Iranian & non Lebanese Entity, and its war with Israel is a jihadist and Iranian war, and not a Lebanese one./Elias Bejjani/October 25/2023
Israel strikes south after missile fired at Israeli drone
Lebanon is urged to deploy army on border, pull back Hezbollah and Palestinians
Israel-Hamas war could threaten Lebanon's already fragile economy
'Martyrs on the Path to Jerusalem': Hezbollah's message amidst intense confrontations
Berri and Mikati: Military institution issue should be approached calmly and wisely
Bou Habib: Israel must cease threatening Lebanon with attacks
Interior Ministry, UNDP join hands for governorates' development
Geagea says Berri, Mikati must ask 'militants' to withdraw from border
Berri condemns use of white phosphorus amid renewed Israeli shelling
Maine shooting live updates: 18 dead in Lewiston; suspect Robert Card at large
What a shame!': Slim storms out of meeting with Mikati
Franjieh maintains his nomination, Bassil promises 'cooperation'
US First Lady shines in Lebanese-American designer's dress for Australian State Dinner

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 26-27/2023
Israeli troops raid Gaza as Arab ministers condemn bombardment
Israel launches brief ground raid into Gaza ahead of expected incursion
Hamas armed wing says ‘almost 50’ Israeli hostages killed in raids
Biden warns Iran against targeting US troops in Middle East
Netanyahu says he will be held accountable for Hamas' attack
Retired US colonel: US and Israeli forces 'shot to pieces' in Gaza
Pentagon says 900 US troops have deployed or are deploying to Middle East amid heightened tensions
Palestinian foreign minister promises cooperation with international courts on visit to The Hague
Iran warns of ‘uncontrollable consequences’ of US support for Israel
Iran's foreign minister in New York for talks on Gaza
US forces in Iraq, Syria face spike in attacks
10 PKK fighters killed as Turkey strikes northern Iraq
Harassment against Jewish, Muslim Americans increases amid Gaza war
Pope, Erdogan discuss Israel-Hamas war
200 British citizens say they are trapped in Gaza
What is the Rafah crossing and why is it hard to get aid into Gaza?
At least 16 dead in Maine mass killing, police hunt for shooter

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 26-27/2023
Qatar: Master Double-Dealer/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/October 26, 2023
Is Israel Prepared to Take Gaza?/Michael Young/Carnegie/October 26/2023
Today in History: A Forgotten ‘Braveheart’ Delivers His Homeland from Islamic Terror/Raymond Ibrahim/October 26/2023
Hopeless on Gaza...No decent person can support terrorism and genocide/Clifford D. May/ The Washington Times/October 26, 2023
Putting the Hamas Massacre, and Hamas Denials, in Context/Matthew Levitt, Delaney Soliday/The Washington Institute/October 26/2023
Why Egypt Won’t Open the Border to Its Palestinian Neighbors/Ghaith al-Omari, David Schenker/The Washington Institute/October 26/2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 26-27/2023
Jihadist Hamas does not serve the Palestinian cause, and its victory will be a victory for ISIS, fundamentalism, and for the Vicious Iranian mullahs’ Schemes
Elias Bejjani/October 26/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123570/123570/
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: “Hamas actions” do not represent the Palestinian people… and the PLO is the only legitimate representative.”
When trying to understand the political dilemma in the Middle East, it is imperative to deeply focus on the dangers and threats posed by terrorist, jihadist, and ideologically driven organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Houthies, and all the Muslim Brotherhood Islamic Jihadit’s offspring.
These groups represent a serious and significant threat to peace, security, and stability, not only in the Middle East, but also in all countries worldwide.
It is crucial to keep in mind that Hamas is a jihadist organization with ideological ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Turkey’s Erdogan and the Qatar Emirate etc.
If left unchecked and the Jihadists emerge victorious in Gaza’s ongoing war since the seventh of this month, there will be catastrophic consequences and dangers for various regional and international affairs, including a serious threat to moderate Arab and Gulf states’ regimes.
Hamas, and as the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abass stated on October 15/2023: “Its actions” do not represent the Palestinian people… and the PLO is the only legitimate representative”.
Hamas’s success in the Gaza war will undermine regional security and stability, ignite destructive populist hysteria, and trigger a wave of military coups that may target several Arab countries.
Hamas’s success will pose a significant threat to moderate Arab regimes and have highly negative consequences for strengthening the influence and presence of extremists in the region, and increasing their popularity among the youth.
Such a new imposed status could force many Arab and Islamic governments to abandon their moderate principles, in a bid to maintain domestic stability and avoid popular pressure.
Meanwhile, many political Islamic leaders may view Hamas’s success as an opportunity to achieve their jihadist, religious, and ideological goals, and could drive them to endorse and lead violent acts and angry popular protests that marginalize and threaten national identities, and also undermine peace and stability.
With the possibility of escalating tensions and disruptions in some Arab countries, military coups may occur, as the military Generals in these countries may see themselves responsible for maintaining stability and restoring order, which would impact democracy, freedoms, and a return to an era of regimes ruled by their military.
In conclusion, the jihadist success of Hamas, or any other jihadist terrorist organization poses a serious threat to security, stability, and peace in the region. At the same time, the repercussions of Hamas’s success on the fate of moderate Arab regimes, the spread of hysterical and impulsive uprisings among the people, and the likelihood of military coups cannot be ignored.
Addressing these fundamental challenges posed by Hamas, Hezbollah, and their patron, the Iranian regime, requires immediate and serious cooperation from all moderate Arab countries, their societies, intellectuals, and moderate leaders to coordinate openly with the free Western world in a bid to combat terrorism and promote stability in the region.
Such world-wide endeavors MUST also involve plans to diminishing Iran’s influence and ending its proxies, especially Hezbollah, in addition to openly and courageously supporting moderate and democratic forces.
*Picture Enclosed/Ayatollah-Ali-Khamenei.-Ismail-Haniyeh-in-Tehran-on-February-12-2012

To, Dear Youmna Gemayel: Hezbollah is a jihadist, Iranian & non Lebanese Entity, and its war with Israel is a jihadist and Iranian war, and not a Lebanese one.
Elias Bejjani/October 25/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123515/123515/
To Dear Youmna Gemayel: Please read the public saying: “If speech is silver, silence is gold”. This saying addresses your bizarre tweet in regards to the on going war between Hezbollah and Israel. It answers your tweet and all similar concepts of those who are not well-versed in political and national matters, that deal with existential issues superficially and erratically.
Do you not know, madam, that the war is between the Iranian Jihadist Hezbollah, and the state of Israel, and not a war with Lebanon, or the majority of the free and peace loving Lebanese people, from all societal and sectarian backgrounds?
Don’t you know that Hezbollah is an Iranian jihadist army that occupies Lebanon, oppresses its people, seizes and confiscates its decision making process, independence, and freedom?
Don’t you know that Hezbollah brags and takes pride in its complete affiliation to the Iranian Mullahs’ regime, and boldly considers any Lebanese who opposes it’s Iranian scheme and agenda is an agent and a traitor?
Hence, any solidarity with it, even rhetorically, is either an ignorance, stupidity, subservience, or subjugation, and the result is one: surrender and submission.
Please note that supporting the Iranian occupier, Hezbollah, in any way, and under and tag, and for any reason is a mere national crime, and an endorsement of its occupation, empowerment, and entrenchment, that allows it to kill people, and annihilate Lebanon, its identity, existence, and peace role.
Once again, your silence, and the silence of those who engage in politics only on occasions, is a million times better, than any superficial, harmful, and irresponsible rhetoric.

Israel strikes south after missile fired at Israeli drone
Agence France Presse/October 26/2023
The Israeli military said late Wednesday that its aircraft struck at Lebanon in retaliation for the earlier launch of a surface-to-air missile. "A short while ago, the IDF Aerial Defense Array intercepted a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon at an IDF UAV (drone)," the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement. "In response, IDF aircraft struck the source of the launch," it added. Israel has engaged in regular tit-for-tat exchanges with Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in southern Lebanon since the start of its war with Hamas on October 7. Its military also struck military targets inside Syria early on Wednesday in retaliation for what it said were launches towards Israel. The strikes killed eight soldiers, according to Syrian state media. World leaders have expressed concern that these exchanges could draw Israel into a broader conflict with other countries in the region, escalating its war against Hamas. Israel has been bombarding Gaza in retaliation for the surprise attack by Hamas gunmen, who poured across the border reportedly killing 1,400 people and kidnapping 222 others, officials say, in the worst attack in Israel's history.
So far, more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza, and there are fears the toll could further soar if Israel pushes ahead with a widely-expected ground invasion in a bid to destroy Hamas and rescue the hostages. Hezbollah said earlier Wednesday that senior officials of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad had held talks with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah about achieving "real victory" in their war with Israel. The Hezbollah statement did not specify when or where Nasrallah met with Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri and Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh beyond saying that it was at an undisclosed location in Lebanon.

Lebanon is urged to deploy army on border, pull back Hezbollah and Palestinians
Naharnet/October 26/2023
International contacts at the highest levels were held with Lebanese authorities after caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that Lebanon is still committed to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, a media report said. “Lebanese authorities were urged to honor their pledges regarding the resolution,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday. “As long as Lebanon has declared its commitment to this resolution, the army and UNIFIL forces must be tasked with controlling the southern border and Hezbollah and the Palestinians must withdraw,” the daily quoted diplomatic sources as saying. “An international message in this regard has been relayed to Speaker Nabih Berri and (caretaker) Prime Minister (Najib) Mikati,” the sources said. “There is no other plan or solution other than this step, or else the so-called new rules of engagement, which Hezbollah is practicing, mean that there will be a possibility to descend into war in light of the number of victims on the two sides of the border,” the sources added. The sources explained that in order to “eliminate the Hezbollah excuse that is linking the southern front to Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, and also to eliminate Israel’s excuse to wage a war, Lebanon will receive an international-American guarantee that there will be no war should it carry out the step related to the army and the U.N. forces.”“The international community will then shoulder the responsibility of keeping Lebanon safe from war,” the sources added.

Israel-Hamas war could threaten Lebanon's already fragile economy
Associated Press/October 26/2023
Economic crises are rippling through the countries bordering Israel, raising the possibility of a chain reaction from the war with Hamas that further worsens the financial health and political stability of Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan and creates problems well beyond.
Each of the three countries is up against differing economic pressures that led the International Monetary Fund to warn in a September report that they could lose their "sociopolitical stability." That warning came shortly before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering a war that could easily cause economic chaos that President Joe Biden and the European Union would likely need to address. The possible fallout is now starting to be recognized by world leaders and policy analysts. For a Biden administration committed to stopping the Israel-Hamas war from widening, the conflict could amplify the economic strains and possibly cause governments to collapse. If the chaos went unchecked, it could spread across a region that is vital for global oil supplies — with reverberations around the globe. "The more unstable things are economically, the easier it is for bad actors in the region to stir the pot," said Christopher Swift, an international lawyer and former Treasury Department official. "The notion that you can divorce politics from economics is a little bit myopic, and naive. Politics, economics and security go together very closely." World Bank head Ajay Banga warned at a conference in Saudi Arabia this week that the war puts economic development at a "dangerous juncture."The size of the Lebanese economy shrank by more than half from 2019 to 2021, according to the World Bank. Lebanon's currency, which since 1997 had been pegged to the U.S. dollar at 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, now trades around 90,000 pounds to the dollar. While many businesses have taken to charging in dollars, public employees who still get their wages in lira have seen their purchasing power crash, with many now relying on remittances from relatives abroad to stay afloat. International donors including the United States and Qatar have been subsidizing the salaries of Lebanese army soldiers. The country's leaders reached a tentative agreement with the IMF in April 2022 for a bailout package but they have not implemented most of the reforms required to finalize the deal. The IMF warned in a report earlier this year that without reforms, public debt in the small, crisis-ridden country could reach nearly 550% of GDP. Before the latest Israel-Hamas war, some officials had pointed to Lebanon's rebounding tourism industry as an economic lifeline. But since the conflict has threatened to envelop Lebanon — with regular small-scale clashes already taking place between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the country's southern border — foreign embassies have warned their citizens to leave and airlines have canceled flights to the country. Paul Salem, president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, said that "if tensions spread to the Gulf, this conflict will have the potential to severely impact international markets and struggling economies and populations around the globe."

'Martyrs on the Path to Jerusalem': Hezbollah's message amidst intense confrontations
LBCI/October 26/2023
Seventeen days after the "Al-Aqsa Flood" and confrontations in the south, the Hezbollah Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, appeared with a handwritten letter in which he requested the naming of the martyrs who fell on the Palestinian border line since October 7th as "Martyrs on the Road to Jerusalem," as the battle for him is always directed towards Jerusalem. What Nasrallah wrote carries a lot of emotional and conscientious sentiments towards the martyrs, and the ongoing clashes at the southern borders, named the "Battle of the Road to Jerusalem," contain more than one message.
The first message is to the Israelis, stating that the party is ready and prepared to continue the fight. As for the message to the Palestinians, it is that the party stands by their side and "offers" martyrs on the road to Jerusalem. This message alone answers all those who question what Hezbollah provides in the Al-Aqsa Flood operation. This message is not the first one written by Sayyed Nasrallah to his audience and the party members. In the July 2006 war, after receiving a greeting from a group of resistance members who were besieged in Aita Al Shaab, Nasrallah responded with a handwritten letter, which the late Ghassan Matar turned into a poem titled "I Received Your Letter," which was sung by Julia Boutros with the title "Ahibaii" (My Beloved Ones). The "Al-Aqsa Flood" and the "Road to Jerusalem" are two names for one battle and two messages: Hamas' message in defense of Al-Aqsa and Hezbollah's message in defense of Jerusalem, a city that embraces all religions.

Berri and Mikati: Military institution issue should be approached calmly and wisely
LBCI/October 26/2023
Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri discussed on Thursday various issues and developments with Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Ain El-Tineh. Among the topics addressed was the issue of the military institution, emphasizing the need to strengthen and preserve it as the national, unifying institution that safeguards the aspirations of the Lebanese people in their security and the preservation of their homeland's sovereignty. Both stressed that the matter of the military institution should be approached calmly and wisely, expressing confidence that the desired results can be achieved.

Bou Habib: Israel must cease threatening Lebanon with attacks
LBCI/October 26/2023
After meeting with nine accredited ambassadors in Lebanon, Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, declared that 'Israel must cease threatening Lebanon with attack and dragging it back to the Stone Age. “The ceasefire is the beginning of the path to reducing tension in the region and preventing the expansion of conflict,” he added.

Interior Ministry, UNDP join hands for governorates' development
LBCI/October 26/2023
The Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Bassam Mawlawi, has announced the establishment of a mechanism for collecting information within the Ministry and its management within the framework of the ongoing support from the United Nations Development Program for all governorates. The Ministry's directorates, the governorates, and municipalities have worked together to create a "comprehensive and sustainable national platform," as confirmed by the minister during a coordinating meeting.

Geagea says Berri, Mikati must ask 'militants' to withdraw from border
Naharnet/October 26/2023
As Israel and Hezbollah trade near-daily cross-border fire in a relatively contained tit-for-tat fire, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea considers that Hezbollah is taking the decision of war, bypassing the state. After admitting that the opposition cannot do anything about it in an interview in L'Orient Le-Jour, Geagea called on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to ask all "militants" to withdraw from the border, where daily clashes are taking place. In a statement he posted Wednesday on the X platform, Geagea asked whether Berri and Mikati are serious about Lebanon's commitment to the U.N. resolutions. "Both Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati have stated many times that Lebanon respects international legitimacy resolutions, especially Resolution 1701," he said, adding that "if their stance is serious, then they should ask the Lebanese army to deploy in the area where international forces operate, ank call on the other militants, whether Lebanese or Palestinian, to withdraw from the area." Hezbollah's al-Manar reporter Ali Shoeib responded on X, accusing Geagea of political immaturity, treason and indifference about the situation in southern Lebanon. "One simple piece of evidence of the stupidity and political immaturity of Samir Geagea is his request for the withdrawal of what he called 'militants' from the south," Shoeib said. "The 'militants', Samir, are the sons, men, and youth who took up arms to defend their villages and towns," he added.
On Thursday, Geagea said that the region will find no peace before two states are created. The war on Gaza, the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both Palestinians and Israel, started after a Hamas’ surprise rampage on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.
At least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed and 17,439 others wounded. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed and 1,650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids following. In Lebanon's border skirmishes, more than 50 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly combatants but including four civilians, one of them Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.

Berri condemns use of white phosphorus amid renewed Israeli shelling
Naharnet/October 26, 2023
The Israeli army said Thursday its forces had eliminated "five Hezbollah cells" that tried to open fire from south Lebanon yesterday. Israel later fired two artillery shells on the Ghasouna area in Blida's eastern outskirts and on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab with phosphorus bombs, as its troops machine-gunned the forests surrounding the Ruwaisat al-Alam site in the Kfarshouba Heights and Wadi Hounin, facing Markaba. The phosphorus bombs ignited fires in Aita al-Shaab, Alma al-Shaab, Rmeish, Dhaira, Marwahin, Yaroun, Kfarshouba, Shebaa and Naqoura. Israel meanwhile fired shells to obstruct the army and firefighting crews from reaching the burning forests near Aita al-Shaab. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri condemned Thursday the use of the internationally restricted white phosphorus bombs in the southern Lebanese towns and forests, asking the international community and all the international envoys who are visiting the region en-masse to act. The Lebanese Red Cross had transferred overnight six injured fighters and the bodies of two killed by Israeli shelling from Yaroun's outskirts to the Bint Jbeil Governmental Hospital. Hezbollah later announced the deaths of two of its members, raising the death toll on the Lebanese side to more than 52, including four civilians and at least six Palestinian militants.

Maine shooting live updates: 18 dead in Lewiston; suspect Robert Card at large
Yahoo News/October 26, 2023
A massive manhunt is currently underway for a man suspected of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night. People in Lewiston and two surrounding towns have been urged to stay inside and lock their doors as authorities search for the gunman. Police identified the suspect as Robert Card, a 40-year-old firearms instructor trained by the military and recently committed to a mental health facility. A vehicle believed to be Card’s was found in nearby Lisbon.

What a shame!': Slim storms out of meeting with Mikati
Naharnet/October 26, 2023
Caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim has stormed out of a meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in connection with a dispute over the looming vacuum in the army commander post. “What a shame!” Slim was quoted as saying as he left the meeting. “Prior to a broad consultative ministerial meeting, Defense Minister Maurice Slim arrived infuriated and held a closed-door meeting with PM Najib Mikati during which an altercation erupted between them,” Annahar newspaper quoted ministerial sources as saying. “The ministers learned of the matter because of the shouting between the two men,” the sources added. “Slim came to object against a letter addressed to him by the premier, in which the defense minister was asked to suggest a candidate for the army chief post or extend the army chief’s term or fill the vacant posts in the military council, in line with the constitution and the Higher Defense Council’s bylaws,” the sources said. The minister considered the letter to be an infringement on his powers, engaging in a legal debate with the prime minister, the sources added. “Free Patriotic Movement ministers Henri Khoury, Hector Hajjar and Abdallah Bou Habib took part in the session until its end, as the defense minister walked out with an angry face, after which the discussions over jurisdiction was continued and the justice minister was tasked with addressing the issue,” the sources said. Slim meanwhile issue a statement saying Mikati’s letter contained “an unusual manner of communication between the premier and ministers.”He also revealed that the letter mentions that a copy of it was sent to the justice minister “in his capacity as acting defense minister,” which is “something unusual, suspicious and unconstitutional, seeing as the defense minister is practicing his ministerial responsibilities and is not outside the country.” “A copy was also sent to the Army Command, knowing that it is not concerned with submitting the aforementioned suggestions to the Council of Ministers,” Slim added.

Franjieh maintains his nomination, Bassil promises 'cooperation'
Naharnet/October 26, 2023
Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh told reporters after his meeting with Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Wednesday that he is carrying on with his presidential nomination, a media report said on Thursday. “Should there be consensus on someone else, he will resort to the 51 MPs who voted for him in the latest electoral session,” the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal reported, citing Franjieh’s remarks to the reporters. “He added that Bassil promised him to cooperate with him should he be elected president,” al-Anbaa added.

US First Lady shines in Lebanese-American designer's dress for Australian State Dinner
LBCI/October 26/2023
The White House hosted an Australian State Dinner on Wednesday, welcoming more than 300 guests from various fields, including politics, government, and business. The dinner was held to honor the close ties between the US and its ally, Australia, and was attended by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. With neutral colors dominating the State Dinner, the First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, opted to wear an embroidered beige gown by Lebanese-American fashion designer Reem Acra, known internationally for her stunning collections, particularly her bridal designs.
Dr. Biden's dress featured a high, round neck and simple lines, adorned with an overlay of silver beaded leaves. Dr. Biden's admiration for Acra's designs is not new. The First Lady has previously worn Acra's creations at various significant public events, including the wedding of Jordan's Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah and Her Royal Highness Princess Rajwa Al Hussein. Furthermore, the affinity for Acra's designs appears to run in the family. Naomi Biden, the granddaughter of US President Joe Biden and the First Lady, also chose to wear Acra's brand during her wedding reception. Acra's designs at a state dinner during this particular time serve as a reminder of the unique "Lebanese" touch despite the current situation in the region.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 26-27/2023
Israeli troops raid Gaza as Arab ministers condemn bombardment
Reuters/October 26, 2023
GAZA: Israeli ground forces carried out a big raid into Gaza overnight against Hamas targets amid growing anger in the Arab world over Israel’s relentless bombardment of the besieged Palestinian territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Israeli troops were still preparing for a full ground invasion, while the US and other countries urged Israel to delay such action, fearing it could ignite hostilities on other Middle East fronts. The UN agency providing aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza said it may have to shut down operations very soon if no fuel reaches the Hamas-ruled territory amid a desperate need for shelter, water, food and medical services. Israel has for nearly three weeks bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli communities. Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people and took more than 200 hostage. Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children. On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden cast doubt on the Palestinian casualty figures, which an Israeli military spokesman said could not be trusted. The military has not provided any assessment of its own and Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra rejected the statements questioning the figures. The ministry on Thursday published a document which it said contains the names of all the victims identified and their ID numbers. Israeli army radio said the military had overnight staged its biggest incursion into northern Gaza of the current war. Armored vehicles crossed the fortified border and blew up buildings, a military video showed. “Tanks and infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts,” it said. Palestinians said Israeli air strikes pounded the territory again overnight and people in central Gaza reported intensive tank shelling all night.
ARAB CRITICISM
With no sign of a let-up in Gaza, the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates condemned what they called the targeting of civilians and violations of international law. Their joint statement said Israel’s right to self-defense did not justify breaking the law and neglecting Palestinians’ rights. The Arab ministers condemned forced displacement and collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza. They also criticized Israel’s occupation of Palestinian areas and called for more efforts to implement a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict — an idea at the heart of long-moribund peacemaking. “The absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to repeated acts of violence and suffering for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the region,” it said. Support for Israel came from European governments.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday will send a clear signal of backing for Israel. “We can be certain that the Israeli army will respect the rules that arise from international law in everything it does,” Scholz said. But in words reflecting divisions within the bloc, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo warned Israel against starving Gaza. Israel had a right to take action and to prevent future attacks, he said. “But that is never an excuse for blocking a whole region, for blocking humanitarian aid. It cannot be an excuse to starve a population.”
HOSTAGES
Concern also grew over the fate of more than 200 hostages seized by Hamas in the Oct. 7 assault and taken to Gaza.A spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said on Thursday about 50 captives had been killed in Gaza due to Israeli strikes. He gave no further details and Reuters was unable to verify the numbers.Israel says there are 224 hostages, whose presence complicates any Israeli ground invasion. This includes a number of foreign passport holders. Hamas has freed four captives since Friday. A Qatari negotiator told Sky News that a pause in fighting could help get more hostages released in coming days. Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Al Khulaifi said: “It’s a very, very difficult negotiation ... With the bombing continuing every day, our task becomes more difficult. But despite that we remain hopeful.”
MORE DEATHS
In Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, an Israeli air strike hit a house, killing a mother, her three daughters and a baby boy, whose father held his body in hospital. “Did he kill? Did he wound someone? Did he capture someone? They were innocent children inside their house,” he said. The director of the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, Nahed Abu Taaema, said the bodies of 77 people killed in airstrikes had been brought in overnight, most of them women and children, Hamas’s Al-Aqsa radio station reporte. Around midday on Thursday, Nasser hospital officials said, Israel bombed an area not far from an UNRWA shelter for displaced people, killing at least 18 people. Israel said its forces had struck a Hamas missile launch post in the Khan Younis area that was next to a mosque and kindergarten. It was unclear whether the two sides were referring to the same incident.Many Palestinians are sheltering in Khan Younis hospitals, schools, homes and refugee camps and on the street after Israel warned them to leave their homes in the north. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said it urgently needed fuel to maintain life-saving humanitarian operations in Gaza. Israel has refused to let in fuel with aid shipments, saying it could be seized by Hamas. More than 613,000 people made homeless by the war are sheltering in 150 UNRWA facilities across the shattered territory. Humanitarian supplies are critically low but world powers failed at the United Nations to agree on how to call for a lull to the fighting to deliver significant amounts of aid. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, speaking at the UN, said that if Israel’s offensive against Hamas did not stop, the United States will “not be spared from this fire.”

Israel launches brief ground raid into Gaza ahead of expected incursion
Associated Press/October 26, 2023
Israeli troops and tanks launched a brief ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several militant targets in order to "prepare the battlefield" ahead of a widely expected ground invasion after more than two weeks of devastating air raids. The raid came after the U.N. warned it is on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory, which has also been under a complete siege since Hamas' bloody rampage across southern Israel ignited the war earlier this month. Hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources. Health officials said the death toll was soaring as Israeli jets pounded Gaza. Workers pulled dead and wounded civilians, including many children, out of landscapes of rubble in cities across the territory. Gaza's Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day. The Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll, and the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military, which accuses Hamas of operating among civilians, said its strikes killed militants and destroyed military targets. Gaza militants have fired unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started. During the overnight raid, the military said soldiers struck fighters, militant infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions. There were no immediate reports of casualties on either aide. The rising death tolls in Gaza are unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war. That figure includes the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital last week. The fighting has killed more than 1,400 soldiers and civilians in Israel according to the Israeli government. Hamas also holds some 222 hostages in Gaza. The warning by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen. Gaza's population has also been running out of food, water and medicine. About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowded into U.N. shelters.
In recent days, Israel let a small number of trucks with aid enter from Egypt but barred deliveries of fuel — needed to power generators — saying it believes Hamas will take it. UNRWA has been sharing its own fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment working. If it continues doing all of that, fuel will run out by Thursday, so the agency is deciding how to ration its supply, UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai told The Associated Press.
"Do we give for the incubators or the bakeries?" she said. "It is an excruciating decision." More than half of Gaza's primary health care facilities and roughly a third of its hospitals have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said. At Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, the lack of medicine and clean water have led to "alarming" infection rates, the group Doctors Without Borders said. Amputations are often required to prevent infection from spreading in the wounded, it said. One surgeon with the group described amputating half the foot of a 9-year-old boy with only "slight sedation" on a hallway floor as his mother and sister watched. The conflict has also threatened to spread across the region. The Israeli military said it struck military sites in Syria in response to rocket launches from the country. Syrian state media said eight soldiers were killed and seven wounded. Strikes in Syria also hit the airports of Aleppo and Damascus, in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran to militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah. Israel has been exchanging near daily fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the Lebanese border. Hamas' surprise rampage on Oct. 7 in southern Israel stunned the country with its brutality, its unprecedented toll and the failure of intelligence agencies to know it was coming. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech Wednesday night that he will be held accountable, but only after Hamas was defeated. "We will get to the bottom of what happened," he said. "This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me." Israel's U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said his country will stop issuing visas to U.N. personnel after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Hamas' attack "did not happen in a vacuum." It was unclear what the action, if implemented, would mean for U.N. aid personnel working in Gaza and the West Bank. "It's time to teach them a lesson," Erdan told Army Radio, accusing the U.N. chief of justifying a slaughter. The U.N. chief told the Security Council on Tuesday that "the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation." Guterres said "the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."Guterres said Wednesday he is "shocked" at the misinterpretation of his statement "as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas.""This is false. It was the opposite," he told reporters.

Hamas armed wing says ‘almost 50’ Israeli hostages killed in raids
AFP/October 26, 2023
“(Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades estimates that the number of Zionist prisoners who were killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Zionist strikes and massacres has reached almost 50,” the group said in a statement issued on its Telegram channel. AFP was not immediately able to verify the claim. Israel launched a massive air and artillery bombardment of Gaza after Hamas carried out the brutal attacks on southern Israel. Earlier, the Israeli army said 224 people were abducted by militants during the attack that left 1,400 people, mostly civilians, dead. “We have informed the families of 224 hostages. This number is changing based on the intelligence we obtain,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters. “It will continue to change. The effort to return the hostages is a top priority.”According to Israeli government figures that could not be confirmed by AFP, at least half of the hostages have foreign passports. On Thursday in Tel Aviv, an organization representing the families of hostages warned they had reached “the end of their patience” and demanded a meeting with top government officials immediately. “No more patience, from now on we will fight,” said the group. “We demand that the cabinet speak to us this evening and tell us how it intends to bring them back today. We are intensifying the struggle, we are no longer waiting to be led, we are leading the struggle,” said Meirav Leshem Gonen — the mother of Romi Gonen who is among the captives. To date, four women have been released by the militants following mediation by Egypt and Qatar.

Biden warns Iran against targeting US troops in Middle East
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/October 26, 2023
-President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region. "There was a direct message relayed," White House spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing, declining to elaborate. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East following the Oct. 7 attack by the militant Hamas group on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians. About 900 additional U.S. troops are headed to the region or have recently arrived there to bolster air defenses to protect U.S. personnel amid a surge in attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.
U.S. troops have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria in the past week, it added. On Wednesday, Biden said he had warned the ayatollah the United States would respond if U.S. forces continued to be targeted but did not say how the message was communicated. "My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel," he told reporters. In a comment posted on social media before Kirby spoke, an aide to Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi disputed Biden's account.
"The US messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side. If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages," Mohammad Jamshidi, a Raisi aide, wrote. Separately, Iran's state news agency IRNA cited an unnamed source as saying the United States had sent Iran, as well some Iranian allies like Lebanese Hezbollah, messages that it was not seeking to expand the war and urging them to exercise restraint.
"The United States cannot both send military equipment to the Israeli regime and take charge of managing the war with one hand, while issuing political messages with the other hand, and speak about its opposition to the expansion of the war," IRNA cited the unnamed source as saying, adding Iran's allies "act independently and are not subject to Tehran's orders." Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack in which the militant group also took about 200 people hostage. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and is preparing a ground invasion.
Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 have been killed, though Biden has voiced skepticism about such numbers. Reuters has been unable to independently verify the death toll. On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minster Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations that if Israel's retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip doesn't end, then the United States will "not be spared from this fire." One way Iran projects power is by arming and funding militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen and Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
In the last such known U.S. retaliation, the U.S. military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on March 23 against Iran-aligned groups it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor, wounded another and hurt five U.S. troops. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Susan Heavey in Washington; Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)

Netanyahu says he will be held accountable for Hamas' attack
Associated Press
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he will be held accountable for the shocking October 7 attack by Hamas militants, but that will only come after Israel’s war against the militant group. In a nationally televised address Wednesday night, Netanyahu said he was busy plotting a ground invasion of Gaza, though he refused to say when that might happen. He also expressed sorrow over the attack, which allegedly killed more than 1,400 Israelis and saw over 200 others taken captive in Gaza. “Oct. 7 is a black day in our history,” he said. “We will get to the bottom of what happened on the southern border around Gaza. This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me,” he added.

Retired US colonel: US and Israeli forces 'shot to pieces' in Gaza
Naharnet/October 26, 2023
Douglas Macgregor --a retired U.S. Army colonel and a former senior adviser at the Pentagon -- has said that U.S. and Israeli special forced had recently gone into Gaza where they were “shot to pieces.” “Some of our special ops forces and Israeli special ops forces went into Gaza to reconnoiter, to plan for where they might want to go to free hostages and make an impact and they were shot to pieces and took heavy losses, as I understand,” Macgregor said in an interview with U.S. far-right media personality Tucker Carlson.

Pentagon says 900 US troops have deployed or are deploying to Middle East amid heightened tensions
CNN/ October 26, 2023
Roughly 900 US troops have been deployed or are deploying to the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region after a series of attacks on coalition bases that resulted in minor injuries for almost two dozen troops. “These include forces that have been on prepare to deploy orders, and which are deploying from the continental United States,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Thursday. “Deployed and deploying units include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery from Fort Bliss Texas, Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty, North Carolina, and associated air defense headquarters elements from Fort Bliss and Fort Cavazos, Texas.”Ryder added that the deploying units would not be going to Israel and are “intended to support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster US force protection capabilities.”
The Pentagon previously announced the deployment of the THAAD and Patriot batteries. As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, the US is seeking to send a strong message to adversaries to prevent the conflict spreading more widely in the region. CNN has reported that the US has intelligence that Iranian-backed militia groups are planning to ramp up attacks against US forces in the Middle East, as Iran seeks to capitalize on the backlash in the region to US support for Israel. Ryder said Thursday that between October 17 and 26, US and coalition forces have been attacked “at least 12 separate times in Iraq, four separate times in Syria, by a mix of one-way attack drones and rockets.” A total of 21 US service members have received minor injuries as a result of attacks between October 17 and 18, CNN reported Wednesday. Of those, 19 – 15 at Al Assad Air Base in Syria, and four at Al-Tanf Garrison in Iraq – have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI), Ryder said. All have since returned to duty, he added, and there have been “no injuries or no reported cases of TBI since the 17th and 18th of October.”An attack on Thursday, Ryder said, targeted Erbil Airbase and was “unsuccessful” with no casualties and “some minor damage to infrastructure.”The announcement on Thursday comes after the Pentagon put roughly 2,000 US troops on prepare to deploy orders last week, which Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said were focused on providing “air defense, security, logistics, medical, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and transportation” support. That is in addition to US troops already in Iraq and Syria – roughly 2,500 and 900, respectively – and Navy assets that were announced to be heading to the region. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group has been directed to the Middle East, and the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is currently in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Asked Thursday to explain the delay in response to attacks on US forces, Ryder said the US military maintains “the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas.” “As it relates to these groups, again, we know that these are Iranian-backed militia groups that are supported by Iran, and of course, we hold Iran responsible for these groups,” he said.

Palestinian foreign minister promises cooperation with international courts on visit to The Hague
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)/October 26, 2023
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister told reporters Thursday that the authority would not interfere with an International Criminal Court investigation into Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel and will support the court’s overall probe of actions in the Palestinian territories. The court in The Hague investigates and prosecutes people for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki met with chief prosecutor Karim Khan twice during a two-day visit to the Netherlands to drum up international support for an ICC investigation.
Asked by journalists if he would support the court looking into Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel, he said that the Palestinian Authority would not interfere with the investigation. “We cannot say ‘Investigate here, don’t investigate there,’” al-Maliki said.
The international court launched an investigation in 2021 into alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories, focusing on military operations against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and the expansion of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Khan confirmed last week that his mandate would extend to Palestinians who carried out crimes against Israelis. Though spurred by the last major conflict in Gaza, the investigation also can analyze potential war crimes allegations from the current Israel-Hamas war. Israel argues the ICC has no jurisdiction in the conflict because Palestine is not an independent sovereign state. Israel isn’t a party to the treaty that underpins the international court and is not one of its 123 member states. After his visit to court, al-Maliki said Israel was waging a war of revenge on Gaza that has violated international law. “It has no real objective other than the total destruction of every livable place in Gaza,” he said. He urged world leaders to back a U.N. General Assembly resolution put forward by Arab nations that calls for a cease-fire to allow in humanitarian aid. While in The Hague, the Palestinian delegation also made submissions to the International Court of Justice, which is considering the legality of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution asking the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the situation last year. Hearings in those proceedings are scheduled for February 2024.
The war is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, mostly in the initial Hamas rampage. Israel has responded with a series of bombing strikes that, according to al-Maliki, have killed some 7,000 people and left more than 20,000 injured. He also accused Israel of focusing airstrikes on the southern part of Gaza after telling Palestinians living in the north to relocate.

Iran warns of ‘uncontrollable consequences’ of US support for Israel
Nick Robertson/The Hill/October 26, 2023
The Iranian foreign minister warned of “uncontrollable consequences” for the U.S. if its backing of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza continues to expand. “I say frankly to the American statemen who are now managing the genocide in Palestine that we do not welcome the expansion of the war in the region,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a United Nations address. “But I warn, if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire. It is our home and West Asia is our region.”The war in Gaza began earlier this month after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israeli towns, killing more than 1,400 people. Responding Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 6,700 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Iran has long been an ally of Hamas, supplying it with money, military training and weapons. The militant group is considered a terrorist organization in the U.S. and European Union. At the start of the conflict, Hamas took about 200 people hostage, mostly Israeli civilians. Amir-Abdollahian said Hamas is ready to release those hostages and called on members to also support the freeing of about 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Hostages have been the main focus of the conflict in the last week after four were released, two Americans and two elderly Israeli women. Amir-Abdollahian held up the Hamas fighters as a Palestinian resistance and said the group has an “unalienable right” to self-determination and independence for Gaza, free from what he described as Israeli occupation of Palestine. He also criticized the U.S.’s role in the decades-long conflict between Israel and Palestine. “The United States of America, as the unwavering and permanent supporter of the occupying regime, is the main cause of the failures of the United Nations, especially the Security Council, in upholding the rights of the Palestinians,” he said. Amir-Abdollahian directed his words at President Biden, calling on the U.S. to stop backing Israel in the conflict. “While the United States itself is actually in practice and directly involved in committing crimes against Palestinians, it is not in a position to invite others to exercise self-restraint and refrain from spreading the war,” he continued. “Therefore, we strongly warn against the uncontrollable consequences of the unlimited financial, arms and operational support by the White House to the Tel Aviv regime, which have led to the expansion and added to the severity of the bombardments of the civilians and the Palestinian women and children in Gaza and the West Bank.”.

Iran's foreign minister in New York for talks on Gaza
Naharnet/October 26, 2023
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has arrived New York for international consultations over the war in Gaza. Abdollahian cautioned against the war on Gaza spreading to other fronts in the region while speaking with reporters in New York, al-Mayadeen television said. He added that Iran has made significant efforts in New York to block the U.S.-drafted U.N. resolution on Gaza from being approved. Amir-Abdollahian told an IRNA correspondent, upon his arrival in New York, that a genocide of civilians is taking place in Gaza as a result of “the United States and a few other countries' constant backing for the Israeli entity,” and that the situation in the West Asia region has reached a worrying point with the possibility of losing control by all parties involved. He mentioned that China and Russia vetoed the U.S. draft resolution on Palestine and that the Islamic Republic had meetings with them in Tehran.
Abdollahian argued that the essential point is that the U.S. draft resolution did not ensure peace, security, and stability in the region. The Foreign Minister of Iran added that he would like to discuss the Islamic Republic's positions on the recent developments in Gaza and that he will be meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

US forces in Iraq, Syria face spike in attacks
Agence France Presse/October 26, 2023
American and allied forces deployed in Iraq and Syria as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition have been repeatedly targeted by drone and missile attacks this month. Although the attacks have not been claimed by a known group with documented links to Iran, Washington says Tehran is involved and has threatened to respond "decisively" to strikes by its proxies.
Why have attacks increased? -
The recent spike in attacks is linked to the latest war between Israel and Hamas, which began when the militant group carried out a shock cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people. Israel's retaliatory bombardment has killed more than 6,500 people. Armed factions close to Iran have threatened to attack U.S. interests over Washington's support for Israel, with one of them -- Ketaeb Hezbollah -- demanding that American forces leave Iraq or "taste the fires of hell." The Pentagon said there were 10 attacks on American and allied forces in Iraq and three in Syria between October 17 and 24, involving a "mix of one-way attack drones and rockets."
Who is carrying them out?
Many -- though not all -- of the recent attacks have been claimed by the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq." It is not one of the established militant groups operating in the region and has not publicly claimed affiliation with or backing from a specific government.
But its claims of attacks on U.S. forces have appeared in Telegram channels used by pro-Iranian armed factions, and the Pentagon has said the organizations "conducting these attacks are supported by the IRGC and the Iranian regime" -- a reference to Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The White House has meanwhile said Iran is "actively facilitating" attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East. Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a media claiming name, it's not a group." It is the result of various existing Iran-backed groups in Iraq deciding "during the duration of this Gaza conflict to jointly claim all of their attacks," he said.
How dangerous are the attacks?
The impact of the attacks has been relatively limited so far, but the possibility of escalation is high. The Pentagon said Wednesday that 21 U.S. personnel "received minor injuries due to drone attacks" in Iraq and Syria last week, but that all of them returned to duty.
And a U.S. civilian contractor suffered a "cardiac episode" and died while sheltering at a base in Iraq after early warning systems indicated a threat was approaching, according to the Pentagon, which said an attack ultimately did not occur in that case.
There is significant potential for the situation to worsen, especially in the event that a drone or rocket directly kills American personnel. "What we are seeing is the prospect for more significant escalation against U.S. forces and personnel across the region in the very near term coming from Iranian proxy forces, and ultimately from Iran," the Pentagon said.
Why are U.S. forces present? -
There are roughly 2,500 American troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which once held significant territory in both countries but was pushed back by local ground forces backed by international air strikes in a bloody multi-year conflict. U.S. forces and other personnel from the international coalition against the jihadists are deployed at bases in Iraq and Syria that have been the target of the attacks, but the facilities are ultimately controlled by local forces rather than international troops. American troops in Iraq are playing a training and advisory role following the official end of the coalition's combat mission in December 2021, while those in Syria conduct frequent raids against IS.

10 PKK fighters killed as Turkey strikes northern Iraq
Agence France Presse/October 26, 2023
Ten fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed, Iraqi Kurdish authorities said Thursday, as Turkey said it launched renewed air strikes on northern Iraq. Turkey has intensified its cross-border air raids against Kurdish targets in northeastern Syria and northern Iraq in retaliation for an October 1 suicide bombing in Ankara which injured two policemen. That attack was claimed by a branch of the outlawed PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey and is considered a "terrorist" group by Ankara and its Western allies. "Nine PKK fighters were killed in a series of air strikes launched by Turkish warplanes and drones" in Arbil province in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, the Kurdish counter-terrorism service said in a statement. A tenth PKK member was killed and three others wounded in "the bombing of several locations" belonging to the group in Dohuk province, it added.
Turkey's defence ministry on Thursday confirmed conducting air strikes on targets in five areas of northern Iraq, saying "many terrorists were neutralised". "A total of 19 targets including caves, shelters and depots used by terrorists.. were successfully destroyed and many terrorists were neutralised," it said of the strikes which were carried out on Wednesday. The Turkish military rarely comments on its operations in Iraq but it frequently carries out ground and air offensives against the PKK and its positions in northern Iraq. Earlier this month, Turkey's parliament extended the military's authorisation to launch cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq by two more years. Such operations were first approved in 2013 to support the international campaign against the Islamic State group, and have since been renewed annually. Over the past 25 years, Turkey has installed dozens of military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight against the PKK, which also has outposts there. The Iraqi federal government in Baghdad and Kurdish authorities in Arbil have for years been accused of turning a blind eye to the Turkish bombardments to preserve their strategic alliance with Ankara, a key trading partner, despite statements protesting violations of Iraqi sovereignty and harm to civilians. In summer 2022, nine people died when artillery shells hit a recreational park in the Iraqi Kurdish border village of Parakh, with most of those killed holidaymakers from southern Iraq. Baghdad blamed Turkey for the strike but Ankara denied responsibility and pointed the finger at the PKK. In late July, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani's office announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would visit Iraq but so far, no date has been set.

Harassment against Jewish, Muslim Americans increases amid Gaza war
Associated Press/October 26, 2023
Muslim and Jewish civil rights groups say they've seen large increases in reports of harassment, bias and sometimes physical assaults against members of their communities since Oct. 7. The Anti-Defamation League and the Center on American-Islamic Relations saw increases in reported instances, many involving violence or threats against protesters at rallies in support of Israel or in support of Palestinians over the last two weeks as war broke out between Israel and Hamas. Other attacks and harassment reported by the groups were directed at random Muslim or Jewish people in public. A spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Wednesday that the organization's chapters and national office had received 774 reports of bias-related acts between Oct. 7 and Oct. 24. The national headquarters had 110 direct reports during that period, compared to 63 for all of August. The council's leaders believe it's the largest wave of complaints since December 2015, when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump declared his intent to ban Muslim immigration to the U.S. in the wake of the San Bernadino mass shooting that left 14 people dead. The reported acts since Oct. 7 include an Illinois landlord fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy and wounding the boy's mother, as well as the arrest of a Michigan man after police say he asked people in a social media post to join him in hunting Palestinians. "Public officials should do everything in their power to keep the wave of hate sweeping the nation right now from spiraling out of control," said Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director of the Center on American-Islamic Relations. Saylor noted that former President George W. Bush's visit to a mosque after the 9/11 attacks had a calming effect on the backlash felt in Muslim communities. He called on President Joe Biden to visit with Americans who lost family members in Gaza. The Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism reported in a statement Wednesday that the organization recorded at least 312 reports of antisemitic acts between Oct. 7 and Oct. 23 — compared to 64 recorded during the same time period in 2022. Those reports included graffiti, slurs or anonymous postings, as well as physical violence such as a woman being punched in the face in New York by an attacker who the league says said, "You are Jewish." The 312 reports included 109 anti-Israel sentiments spoken or proclaimed at rallies the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism found to be "explicit or strong implicit support for Hamas and/or violence against Jews in Israel," according to the statement. Protesters at several of the rallies used the slogan, "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," which the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups have criticized as a call to dismantle the state of Israel. Many Palestinian activists say they are not calling for the destruction of Israel, but for freedom of movement and equal rights and protections for Palestinians throughout the land. The Anti-Defamation League called for strong responses to antisemitic posts, rhetoric and acts. The organization said violent messages that mention Jews on platforms like Telegram Messenger have increased even more than reports of in-person instances. "It is incumbent on all leaders, from political leaders to CEOs to university presidents, to forcefully and unequivocally condemn antisemitism and terrorism," Jonathan Greenblatt, Anti-Defamation League CEO, wrote in the statement. Jewish civil rights organizations in the United Kingdom, France and other countries across Europe, Latin America, North Africa and elsewhere have also tracked increases in antisemitic acts in the past few weeks compared to 2022. League officials said London police had received 218 reports of antisemitic crimes between Oct. 1 and Oct. 18, which was 13 times greater than the numbers reported in 2022.

Pope, Erdogan discuss Israel-Hamas war
AFP/October 26, 2023
Vatican City: Pope Francis spoke to Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday about the war between Hamas and Israel, emphasising the importance of a two-state solution, the Vatican said. In a statement, it said the telephone call had been requested by Erdogan and focused on the “dramatic situation in the Holy Land.”“The pope expressed his sorrow for what is happening and recalled the position of the Holy See, expressing hope that a two-state solution and a special status for the city of Jerusalem could be achieved.” On October 7, Hamas gunmen poured from Gaza into Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 224 more, according to official tallies. Israel has retaliated with relentless strikes that Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Thursday have killed more than 7,000 people, also mainly civilians — a toll expected to rise substantially if Israeli troops massed near Gaza move in. The Turkish presidency said in a statement that during the call with the pope, Erdogan had again stated he believed Israel’s attack on Gaza had “reached the level of a massacre.”Erdogan added that “the international community’s silence about what is happening is a shame for humanity.” Peace was only possible with the establishment of an independent state of Palestine, the Turkish statement said. Erdogan met Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2018, the first visit by a Turkish leader in nearly 60 years.

200 British citizens say they are trapped in Gaza
Arab News/October 26, 2023
LONDON: About 200 British citizens have informed UK authorities that they are in Gaza, and Border Force officials have been dispatched to Egypt to assist them in leaving. Downing Street clarified that the figure is only for those who have registered their whereabouts, and that the actual number of UK nationals in Gaza remains uncertain, the Guardian reported on Thursday. “We obviously want to ensure that those British nationals that do want to leave can get out of Gaza. That’s something that we’ve been working on intensely over the past few days,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson told reporters. “In terms of whether all of the numbers that are registered do want to leave, I can’t be definitive. But clearly, we are working to enable crossings to be able to open so that people can leave should they wish,” he said. He added that this included discussions with the Israeli and Egyptian governments, as well with “regional leaders who have influence in Gaza.”Although there have been no reports of any British nationals killed or missing, he emphasized the severity of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the besieged Palestinian enclave.Israel has allowed a small amount of aid to get through Rafah crossing in recent days, which UN chief Antonio Guterres said was “a drop of aid in an ocean of need,” and has not opened the crossing to people wanting to move from the territory into northeast Egypt. Rishi Sunak said that Border Force officials had been stationed in Egypt with the hope of a “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s military operations to allow British nationals to leave. Sunak said that for Britons to depart there “needs to be a safer environment, which of course necessitates specific pauses, which are distinct from a cease-fire,” the Guardian reported. The prime minister added: “We’re very keen to be able to bring them out and bring them home. What I can tell you is we’ve pre-positioned Border Force teams to Egypt, so that if there is a possibility for our nationals to cross the Rafah crossing, we’re ready to get them in and bring them back. “It is not something we can do immediately but when the moment arises, we’ll be ready to take it quickly.”

What is the Rafah crossing and why is it hard to get aid into Gaza?
Reuters/October 26, 2023
Aid officials say Rafah’s principal role in the past had been as a civilian crossing and that it was not equipped for a large-scale aid operation. The Rafah crossing is the main entrance and exit point to the Gaza Strip from Egypt. It has become a focal point of efforts to deliver aid to Palestinians since Israel imposed a “total siege” on the enclave following a deadly incursion by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
WHAT IS THE LATEST ON AID TO THE GAZA STRIP?
Humanitarian deliveries through Rafah began on Oct. 21. UN agencies say they are not nearly enough to meet the needs of the 2.3 million population in Gaza, where clean water, food, medicines and fuel are running low. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received 74 aid trucks into the Rafah crossing so far, including 12 on Thursday. UN officials say about 100 trucks are needed each day to meet essential needs. The trucks have been carrying water, food and medicines but not fuel, which Israel says could be used in the conflict by Hamas.
WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO GET LARGE-SCALE AID THROUGH RAFAH?
Aid officials say Rafah’s principal role in the past had been as a civilian crossing and that it was not equipped for a large-scale aid operation. Trucks carrying aid have been driving through the Egyptian border gate at Rafah before heading more than 40km (25 miles) to the Egyptian-Israeli crossing of Al-Awja and Nitzana, south of Egypt’s short border with Gaza, for inspection, as agreed in negotiations with Israel. Trucks return into Egypt empty, with the aid reloaded onto separate trucks for delivery into Gaza. During past conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, aid had mainly been delivered through crossing points with Israel, and the UN aid operation for the Palestinian territories has been run through Israel since the 1950s.
WHERE IS THE RAFAH CROSSING AND WHO CONTROLS IT?
The crossing is at the south of the Gaza Strip, a narrow sliver of land wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. It is controlled by Egypt.
WHY IS THE RAFAH CROSSING SO IMPORTANT IN THIS CONFLICT?
In response to the cross-border infiltration by Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, Israel imposed a total blockade of Gaza, leaving Rafah as the only route in for humanitarian aid and the only exit point for Gaza residents seeking to flee.
More than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, since Oct. 7.
WHY IS ACCESS ACROSS RAFAH RESTRICTED BY EGYPT?
Egypt is wary of insecurity near the border with Gaza in northeastern Sinai, where it faced an Islamist insurgency that peaked after 2013 and has now largely been suppressed. Since Hamas took control in Gaza in 2007, Egypt has helped enforce a blockade of the enclave and heavily restricted the flow of people and goods. In 2008, tens of thousands of Palestinians crossed into Sinai after Hamas blasted holes in border fortifications, prompting Egypt to build a stone and cement wall. Egypt has acted as a mediator between Israel and Palestinian factions during past conflicts. But in those situations it has also locked down the border, allowing aid to enter and medical evacuees to leave but preventing any large-scale movement of people.
WHY ARE ARAB STATES SO RELUCTANT TO TAKE IN PALESTINIANS?
Arab countries have deep-rooted fears that Israel’s latest war with Hamas in Gaza could spark a new wave of permanent displacements. Egypt, the only Arab state to share a border with Gaza, and Jordan, which flanks the Israeli-occupied West Bank, have both warned against Palestinians being forced off their land. For Palestinians, the idea of leaving or being driven out of territory where they want to forge a state carries echoes of the “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when many fled or were forced from their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation. Israel contests the assertion it drove Palestinians out, saying it was attacked by five Arab states after its creation.

At least 16 dead in Maine mass killing, police hunt for shooter
Associated Press/October 26, 2023
A man shot and killed at least 16 people at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday and then fled into the night, sparking a massive search by hundreds of officers while frightened residents stayed locked in their homes. A police bulletin identified Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest in the attack that sent panicked bowlers scrambling behind pins when shots rang out around 7 p.m. Card was described as a firearms instructor believed to be in the Army Reserve and assigned to a training facility in Saco, Maine. The document, circulated to law enforcement officials, said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks in the summer of 2023. It did not provide details about his treatment or condition but said Card had reported "hearing voices and threats to shoot up" the military base. A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service. Lewiston Police said in an earlier Facebook post that they were dealing with an active shooter incident at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away. One bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping. "I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon — he was holding a weapon — I just booked it," he told The Associated Press.
Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery. He was among a busload of survivors who were driven to a middle school in the neighboring city of Auburn to be reunited with family and friends. "I was putting on my bowling shoes when when it started. I've been barefoot for five hours," he said. Melinda Small, the owner of Legends Sports Bar and Grill, said her staff immediately locked their doors and moved all 25 customers and employees away from the doors after a customer reported hearing about the shooting at the bowling alley less than a quarter-mile away. Soon, the police flooded the roadway and a police officer eventually escorted everyone out of the building. "I am honestly in a state of shock. I am blessed that my team responded quickly and everyone is safe," Small said. "But at the same time, my heart is broken for this area and for what everyone is dealing with. I just feel numb." After the shooting, police, many armed with rifles, took up positions while the city descended into eerie quiet — punctuated by occasional sirens — as people hunkered down at home. Schools were closed Thursday in Lewiston, Lisbon and Auburn, as well as municipal offices in Lewiston. The Androscoggin County Sheriff's Office released two photos of the suspect on its Facebook page that showed the shooter walking into an establishment with a weapon raised to his shoulder. Two law enforcement officials told The AP that at least 16 people were killed and the toll was expected to rise. However, Michael Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, declined to provide a specific estimate at a news conference, calling it a "fluid situation." State police planned to hold a mid-morning news conference Thursday.
The two law enforcement officials said dozens of people also had been wounded. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. On its website, Central Maine Medical Center said staff were "reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event" and were coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients. The hospital was locked down and police, some armed with rifles, stood by the entrances. Meanwhile, hospitals as far away as Portland, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) to the south, were on alert to potentially receive victims.
An order for residents and business owners to stay inside and off the streets of the city of 37,000 was extended Wednesday night from Lewiston to Lisbon, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) away, after a "vehicle of interest" was found there, authorities said.
Gov. Janet Mills released a statement echoing instructions for people to shelter. She said she had been briefed on the situation and will remain in close contact with public safety officials. President Joe Biden spoke by phone to Mills and the state's Senate and House members, offering "full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack," a White House statement said. Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent, said he was "deeply sad for the city of Lewiston and all those worried about their family, friends and neighbors" and was monitoring the situation. King's office said the senator would be headed directly home to Maine on the first flight possible. Local schools will be closed Thursday and people should shelter in place or seek safety, Superintendent Jake Langlais said, adding: "Stay close to your loved ones. Embrace them."Wednesday's death toll was staggering for a state that in 2022 had 29 homicides the entire year. Maine doesn't require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting. Some recent attempts by gun control advocates to tighten the state's gun laws have failed. Proposals to require background checks for private gun sales and create a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases failed earlier this year. Proposals that focused on school security and banning bump stocks failed in 2019. State residents have also voted down some attempts to tighten gun laws in Maine. A proposal to require background checks for gun sales failed in a 2016 public vote.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 26-27/2023
Qatar: Master Double-Dealer
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/October 26, 2023
The hundreds of millions of dollars the Qataris have given Hamas during the past decade have been instrumental in helping the terrorist group to develop the infrastructure that enabled it to carry out its murderous assault on Israel in the first place.
Qatar would like the world to believe that it is acting as an honest broker with its efforts to secure the release of the Gaza captives. But the reality is that it deserves to be condemned by the West as a state that sponsors global terrorism, so long as it maintains its indefensible support for Hamas.
The hundreds of millions of dollars that the Gulf state of Qatar has given Hamas during the past decade have been instrumental in helping the terrorist group to develop the infrastructure that enabled it to carry out its murderous assault on Israel in the first place. Pictured: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal (R) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and are hosted by Qatar's then Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani at a ceremony in Doha, Qatar on February 6, 2012. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
There is a very good reason why the tiny Gulf state of Qatar finds itself so well-placed to play a central role in negotiating the release of Israeli hostages taken captive by Hamas during its barbaric assault against Israel.
The hundreds of millions of dollars the Qataris have given Hamas during the past decade have been instrumental in helping the terrorist group to develop the infrastructure that enabled it to carry out its murderous assault on Israel in the first place.
Qatar would like the world to believe that it is acting as an honest broker with its efforts to secure the release of the Gaza captives. But the reality is that it deserves to be condemned by the West as a state that sponsors global terrorism, so long as it maintains its indefensible support for Hamas.
Without the substantial financial backing Hamas has received from both Qatar and Iran, whose support for the terror group is estimated at $100 million a year, it is questionable whether Hamas would even be able to survive.
The extent of Qatar's involvement with Hamas was laid bare during the atrocities committed against Israeli civilians on October 7, when Ismail Haniyeh, the terrorist mastermind behind the attacks, was seen cheering for joy in front of the television in his exclusive hotel suite in Doha, the Qatari capital, as the horrific events unfolded.
Haniyeh, who has been designated a terrorist by the US since 2018, has been resident in Qatar since the Gulf State offered him political asylum in the emirate several years ago.
Apart from enabling Haniyeh and other senior members of the terror group to lead a comfortable lifestyle away from the hardships suffered by poor Palestinians in Gaza, their presence in Qatar provides them with an internationally recognized platform to spread their pernicious propaganda throughout the Middle East on the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera television network.
The key role Qatar plays in facilitating Hamas's ability to maintain its global presence was reflected soon after the October 7 attacks, when Doha played host to a meeting between Haniyeh and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, where the Iranian envoy praised the atrocity as a "historic victory" against Israel.
Qatar's subsequent efforts to involve itself in negotiations to secure the release of the 200 or more Israeli hostages that were taken captive during the Hamas attack are therefore being viewed with a great deal of scepticism by Western leaders, with calls being made for Qatar to end Haniyeh's life of luxury in the Gulf State.
The Qataris claim their close ties with Hamas have enabled them to help secure the release of an American mother and daughter from Chicago, who were visiting the Nahal Oz kibbutz less than two miles from Gaza when Hamas terrorists launched their attack, captured them and took them into captivity. The release of the two women prompted US President Joe Biden to issue an official statement thanking the Qatari and Israeli governments "for their partnership" in securing the release of the two Americans
Qatar's suggestion that it may be able to secure the release of more hostages has also been a key factor in Israel's decision to delay its ground invasion of Gaza as part of the newly-formed Israeli emergency government's aim to wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.
The prospect of further hostage releases has certainly had a significant impact on Israeli public opinion, with some calling for Israel's planned military offensive to be delayed until all the hostages have been freed, a process that could delay any future Israeli military action by months. On Sunday night a crowd gathered outside the home of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, waving placards reading "bring them home".
Qatar's skilful exploitation of the hostage crisis has even resulted in Hamas claiming on Al Jazeera that the Israeli government refused the opportunity to receive two Israelis Hamas offered as part of a hostage deal, a claim the Israelis have denounced as nothing more than Hamas "propaganda".
While Qatar is clearly exploiting the crisis caused by the Hamas attack to burnish its own credentials as a major diplomatic player, questions still remain about its true agenda, especially in the light of the controversial role Doha played in the Afghan peace negotiations between the US and the Taliban. This ultimately resulted in the Taliban seizing control of Afghanistan and imposing uncompromising Islamist rule on the Afghan people.
Qatar certainly has a long history of supporting Islamist groups committed to overthrowing pro-Western Arab regimes in the Middle East. Qatar, together with Turkey, supported the short-lived Muslim Brotherhood government that established a repressive Islamist regime in Egypt following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, a long-standing ally of the West. Qatar has also funded other Islamist groups in the region, such as in Libya.
The Qataris fund these extremist groups as part of their long-running campaign to undermine pro-Western regimes in the Middle East. The timing of the Hamas attack on Israel, for example, is seen as a deliberate attempt to derail the delicate negotiations between Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia, Qatar's long-standing Middle East rival, which were supposed to result in the normalisation of relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem.
Concerns that Qatar is engaging in double-dealing over the hostage issue, offering to secure the release of hostages while at the same time maintaining its support for Hamas, is a cause for concern for many Western leaders.
Qatar's hypocritical conduct has been highlighted by influential commentators such as the head of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMR), who recently made the blunt assessment on Israeli television that "Qatar is Hamas and Hamas is Qatar," and denounced Qatar as a terrorist state. He also demanded that Al Jazeera should pay the price for its ties with Hamas.
In Britain, where Qatar has invested heavily in recent years, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has faced calls to impose sanctions on Qatar for continuing to host the Hamas leaders responsible for directing the atrocity committed against Israeli civilians.
Mounting anger in London at Qatar's continued support for Hamas has also resulted in calls for boycotting Qatari-owned landmark hotels such as the Savoy and the Ritz so long as Qatar continues to provide a safe haven for Haniyeh and other Hamas terrorists.
Qatar would like the world to believe that it is acting as an honest broker with its efforts to secure the release of the Gaza captives. But the reality is that it deserves to be condemned by the West as a state that sponsors global terrorism, so long as it maintains its indefensible support for Hamas.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2023 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Is Israel Prepared to Take Gaza?
Michael Young/Carnegie/October 26/2023
In an interview, Tahani Mustafa says that the Israeli armed forces have less combat knowhow than many people presume.
October 26, 2023
Tahani Mustafa is the senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group, where she works on issues including security and sociopolitical and legal governance in the West Bank. She holds a Ph.D. in politics and international studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is based between the United Kingdom, Jordan, and Palestine. Diwan interviewed Mustafa in late October to get her perspective on the conflict in Gaza and its repercussions for the Palestinians in general.
Michael Young: Will Israel send its troops into Gaza, and if so with what objectives?
Tahani Mustafa: Israel has already sent its troops into Gaza on several small-scale incursions, confining itself to open areas near its border with Gaza. It will likely only send its forces into more heavily built-up areas when it can minimize the risks, possibly after it is sure that it has destroyed buildings and tunnels through aerial bombardments, as these could be used to ambush and attack its soldiers.
It seems likely that these incursions will continue and grow in scale. Israel has not committed to reoccupying Gaza, which would very probably expose its soldiers to too great a risk. Its incursions are likely to be short, sharp, and accompanied by overwhelming force to minimize risks. These operations may well be concentrated in the north of the strip, as that is the part from which it has ordered civilians to evacuate and where it has given notification that it will focus its operations against Hamas, including operations to recover hostages.
However, it is unclear that bombardment and incursions in the north will destroy Hamas or its operational capacity, even if Israel does succeed in destroying all of Hamas’ tunnel network there. It seems likely that the tunnel network in the south is also considerable, and given that the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is now crowded into the south of the strip, operations there will be much more difficult. The risk of massive civilian casualties, which will provoke a significant international response, are also much higher there.
MY: While Israeli leaders were quick to declare that they would enter Gaza and seek to end Hamas’ presence, they have not yet done so. Why is that, and does it tell us something about Israel’s military effectiveness?
TM: Israel is afraid of excessive casualties among its own troops. Its strategy has always been to achieve maximal impact through overwhelming firepower in order to minimize Israeli casualties. But also, Israel’s army has had little experience of actual combat for decades. Many of its current conscripts and reservists do not have any battlefield experience beyond manning checkpoints and harassing ordinary Palestinians. Even search and arrest operations, carried out by elite troops not conscripts, have proven to be difficult. And Hamas fighters are well trained, determined, and experienced in asymmetrical warfare. They also know the terrain in Gaza and are well dug in.
MY: You have mentioned the trouble the Israeli military had earlier this year in attacking Jenin. Can you describe what happened and explain why we should assume that they might have similar problems in Gaza?
TM: Urban warfare is difficult and Israeli soldiers have not demonstrated high levels of capability and professionalism in recent urban operations. Palestinians in the West Bank have developed tactics and strategies to impede and counter Israel’s urban incursions, including using improvised explosive and incendiary devices to disable vehicles and tanks. Given that Hamas’ level of professionalism and training exceeds that of West Bank groups, it’s possible their tactics could be more effective.
Israeli forces have not found it easy to enter refugee camps and urban neighborhoods a fraction of the size of Gaza, where they have fought groups that are far less experienced and not as well organized and equipped as Hamas. Last July, in Jenin camp, a territory measuring one square kilometer, they had to deploy 2,000 ground troops, before calling in an aerial bombardment and helicopters to rescue them. Several Israeli armored vehicles and a tank were destroyed by homemade incendiary devices. The same thing happened in Tulkarem just this week, where a search and arrest operation engaged Israeli forces for 26 hours due to clashes with militants. It also happened in the old city of Nablus in March in an operation against the Lion’s Den group, which tied down Israel’s most elite unit for five hours in a shootout to target five boys under the age of 30. Israeli forces had to resort to using fragmentation explosives in a densely populated residential neighborhood.
MY: The Iranians and their allies have made it clear that if Israel deploys in Gaza to crush Hamas, they will not stand idly by. This implies that they may try to open new fronts against Israel and, even, the United States. How likely, do you think, it is that the West Bank will enter the battle? What would the consequences be?
TM: Israeli provocations in the West Bank are already escalating tensions and resistance against Israeli forces there. Many young Palestinians have been increasingly supportive of, and some have actually joined, armed resistance groups because of the increasingly hard-line attitude of the Israeli government over the past two years. It took Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) two years to dissolve, destroy, or coopt these groups, and they only really managed to finally get a grip on the situation after the raid in Jenin last July 3–5. However, the latest round of preemptive raids, arrests, and rising violence by setters and the Israeli army itself since October 7 have spurred a resurgence of armed resistance in various localities. However, these movements are defensive in nature and are largely leaderless.
The current deterioration in the security situation has weakened the PA and its security forces. Given the political sensitivity of the situation in light of what’s happening in Gaza, for the PA to be seen as arresting fighters resisting the occupation will only serve to delegitimize it further. There is the potential that it will fuel growing resistance in the West Bank, which thus far is still largely localized, amorphous, and leaderless. At the moment, this resistance is driven by the shared desperation of people at the grassroots level. They do not have a clear strategy or objective beyond pushing back against the occupation.
MY: The Palestinian issue had been placed on the backburner for so long that many people seemed to forget about it. The events of the past three weeks have shown the error in this attitude. Why was there such a misreading of the situation, and where will the realization that the Palestinians can no longer be ignored actually lead?
TM: It is not clear that this will change until the growing support for Palestinians in the face of Israeli occupation transforms the largely uncritical support of Israel in the corridors of power in Western capitals. Popular sympathy and support for Palestinians seems to have grown over the years, but it is still only really mobilized as a potential political force when Israel attacks Palestinians in over-the-top, brutal ways. Even on occasions such as the current all-out Israeli assault on Gaza it does not seem to be able to shift the needle much. After Hamas’ attack on October 7, it was clear from Israeli official statements that Israel intended to violate international humanitarian law in its response. However, it was not until much later that Western leaders even hinted that Israel should moderate its military action.
Yes, the events of the last two weeks do show the dangers of ignoring the Palestinian issue, but Israel and the international community have willfully drawn the wrong lessons from this. They have not concluded that they should take the plight of Gaza and the Palestinians seriously; only that they should launch an even harsher military response to crush them. When Palestinians are quiescent, they are ignored; when they fight back they are demonized.
MY: Are we on the cusp of a new Middle East, and if so what might the new region look like?
TM: We may be at a new inflection point in the Middle East—at a time when the status quo is being challenged and a new status quo is in the making. But the last inflection point in the region was the Arab Spring, and that resulted in an escalation of political repression and violence, a strengthening of autocratic rule across the region, and Western support for a turn away from the possibility of even a slightly more democratic order across the region.
Unfortunately, the forces that led this counterrevolutionary movement against the popular and democratic tendencies of the Arab Spring are still very strong in the region, so the fact that the Middle East could be reaching another inflection point does not necessarily mean it will go in a positive direction.
*Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

Today in History: A Forgotten ‘Braveheart’ Delivers His Homeland from Islamic Terror
Raymond Ibrahim/October 26/2023
Today in history, in 1450, a man who would come to be known as the “Albanian Braveheart” delivered his homeland from a brutal Muslim siege following a series of events that still boggle the mind.
Nearly four decades earlier, this same Albanian, George Kastrioti—better known as Skanderbeg (“Lord Alexander”)—was taken captive as a small child by the Ottoman Turks, and trained to be a janissary: a Christian slave turned Muslim soldier. Excelling at war, he quickly rose among the Ottoman ranks until he became a renowned general, with thousands of Turks under his command.
Despite all the honors showered on him, once the opportunity came, he showed where his true allegiance lie: he broke free of the Ottomans and fled back to his native and continuously harried Albania. There, after openly reclaiming his Christian faith, he “abjured the prophet and the sultan, and proclaimed himself the avenger of his family and country,” to quote Edward Gibbon.
His “ingratitude” naturally provoked the Turks to no end and prompted wave after wave of jihadist invasions, each larger and crueler than its predecessor. Finally, in what was meant to be the campaign to end all campaigns, in the spring of 1450 Sultan Murad II himself led a gargantuan army of 160,000 men into Albania—straight for Skanderbeg’s stronghold, the White Castle in Croya.
Against this mammoth Muslim army, Skanderbeg could only raise some 18,000 Christian defenders. He evacuated all of the women and children from Croya, garrisoned it with 1,500 men, and took the rest into the nearby mountains, whence they would harass the besiegers and try to undermine their supply trains with guerilla tactics.
Meanwhile, all along their route to Croya, the Turks left a trail of devastation; countless Albanians were slaughtered or enslaved.
Murad finally arrived and put Croya to siege on May 14, 1450. Day after day, Ottoman cannons rocked the White Castle with projectiles weighing as much as four hundred pounds. As one contemporary wrote, the sultan “bombarded the walls with cannons and brought down a large section of them…. But Skanderbeg lit fires from the mountain signaling to those in the city that when there was need, he would be there to assist them. He attacked some of the sultan’s men who went up the mountain and fought against them, performing remarkable deeds.”
Meanwhile, the janissaries—“traitors to God and their country, the worms whose conscience is ever tormenting their souls,” to quote the former janissary, Skanderbeg—terrorized and devastated the land of their former brother-in-arms, burning homes and grain fields.
Several Albanian nobles individually surrendered in the hopes of retaining their lands and titles; others, envious of the Albanian warlord, actively welcomed the Turks in the hopes of breaking Skanderbeg’s influence. And Venice, once again, supplied the Islamic invader.
Despite such odds, a Venetian report complained that “Skanderbeg is defending himself heroically”—so much so that, if not for Venetian provisions, the Turks “would have pulled up their tents” and retreated: “for this reason, it is feared that Skanderbeg, the moment he frees himself [of the Turks] will attack the lands of the Republic [of Venice in vengeance].”
Similarly, after stating that Murad “attempts with all his might and vigorous battle to crush him [Skanderbeg],” an otherwise pessimistic letter offered a glimmer of hope: “the brave men inside are bound by honor to defend it to the death. Skanderbeg himself is not far from the Turkish tents and daily inflicts heavy losses on the enemy because he takes advantage of the nature of the country and the nearby mountains where he hides without being discovered.”
In short and by all accounts, Skanderbeg and his men, inside and outside of Croya, fought tooth and nail, and managed to inflict heavy casualties on their much larger enemy. In the words of a nineteenth century historian:
With matchless strategy he contrived to keep the myriads of his opponents from the walls. With energy almost superhuman, he swept unexpectedly, now here and now there, by night and by day, into the midst of the foe; every swordsman of his band hewed down scores, and his own blade flashed as the lightning and caused Moslem heads to fall like snowflakes where he passed. Thousands of the bravest warriors of Murad were thus swept away continuously. His hosts were diminishing to the point of danger to his very person.
At one point, Murad espied Skanderbeg and his men on a reconnaissance mission high up in a mountain overlooking the White Castle. Shaking his head, the sultan was heard to mutter that perhaps “the best way was to let alone that furious and untamed lion”—to stop “feed[ing] that unhappy beast” with the blood of his men.
Murad persevered, however, as the breaching of Croya seemed imminent, the cannons having leveled so many of its ramparts. Thus, on an appointed day, after “the sultan had demolished a large part of the walls, he engaged his entire army in the battle.” To a loud cry, the janissaries violently hurled themselves into and “attempted to seize the city at the place where the walls had collapsed to the ground. But they did not overcome those in the city, who were fighting beyond hope. He then decided to starve the city into surrender and made a second, most ferocious attack,” but that too failed.
Countless more Ottomans lay dead and dying. By now Murad was at his wit’s end: he “retired to his pavilion, overcome with grief and rage…tearing his hair and his beard, and pouring out blasphemous speeches against the majesty of heaven, seeming to call the Almighty in question for suffering his gray hairs and his former glory, and the Ottoman name, to be disgraced and humbled for the sake of a paltry castle in Albania.”
As might be expected, contemporary Ottoman chronicles are succinctly more sparing: Murad and his army “struck Croya with cannons and turned it into a graveyard. He hoped that they would surrender but they did not. Winter then arrived.”
And that was that: having marched one of the largest armies he had ever mustered, and having invested Croya for eight months, Murad resigned and lifted the siege on today’s date, October 26, 1450. Some twenty thousand Turks had been killed for nothing.
Although Albania was devastated and plagued by starvation, “that Christmas was the happiest the people had enjoyed since” Skanderbeg had broken free of the Turks and returned to Albania.
Moreover, his epic defense against everything the sultan who had long terrorized southeastern Europe could hurl against him caused an explosion of euphoria throughout the West—not least as Murad had died soon thereafter, of shame, some said.
Pope Nicholas V hailed Skanderbeg a “Champion of Christendom,” and rightfully so. Had the Ottomans managed to transform Albania into a launching pad into Italy in 1450 instead of when they did, in 1480, Muhammad II, the Conqueror—modern day Turkey’s hero—would have had thirty years, not just one, to pursue his long cherished goal of conquering Rome and, from there, inundating Western Europe with his Eastern hordes.
That Skanderbeg was a quintessential Defender of the West was even acknowledged by the United States Congress, in a 2005 resolution titled, “Honoring the 600th anniversary of the birth of Gjergj Kastrioti (Scanderbeg), statesman, diplomat, and military genius, for his role in saving Western Europe from Ottoman occupation.”
In the centuries following his death, more than one thousand books in over twenty different languages, and any number of operas and plays, were written about him.
Today, however, and as might be expected, virtually no one in the West has ever heard of Skanderbeg, a sign of the times.
For the full story of Skanderbeg—as well as several other Christian heroes who stood against Islamic jihad—see Raymond Ibrahim’s Defenders of the West, from which the above account was excerpted. All quoted material is sourced therein.

Hopeless on Gaza...No decent person can support terrorism and genocide
Clifford D. May/ The Washington Times/October 26, 2023
On Sept. 11, 2001, some of al Qaeda’s victims jumped from the World Trade Center’s windows. Better to fall to their deaths than be consumed by hellish flames.
That stomach-churning image, more vivid in my memory than I’d like, led to a hopeful thought: Surely, decent people will never again condone terrorism.
A second hopeful thought from that awful day: In the future, the use of terrorism will set back, rather than advance, any cause to which it is attached.
Before long, however, prominent journalists were insisting that, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Over the years since, this moral sophistry has expanded in the media, academia, and international institutions.
On Oct. 7, 2023, many of Hamas’s victims may have preferred to leap to their deaths. Instead, they were tortured. Children were tied to their parents and set on fire. Women were raped and murdered; their corpses desecrated. Babies were decapitated. Toddlers were dragged from Israel across the border into Gaza and called “prisoners of war.”
Far-right antisemites celebrated. But so did illiberal leftists – those who proclaim themselves “social justice warriors,” fighting for “vulnerable and marginalized groups,” self-proclaimed champions of “safe spaces.”
It’s their contention that Hamas has a right to “resist” Israeli “occupation” and that “resistance” includes any and all acts of violence, however barbaric.
As to “occupation”: Do they not know that all Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005 in the hope that Hamas might become less obsessed with killing Jews?
Instead, Hamas, founded in 1988, killed and maimed members of Fatah, its Palestinian rival and, soon after, began launching rockets into Israeli villages.
Despite that, Israelis have supplied Gazans with electricity, water, fuel, and construction materials (often repurposed by Hamas to make weapons). Gazans were welcomed into Israel to earn their livings – 20,000 a day prior to Oct. 7. Countless Gazans have been treated in Israeli hospitals. Israelis did all this and more not just out of the goodness of their hearts but also in the hope that they could nudge Hamas towards pragmatism – a less lethal conflict. Israelis did attempt to prevent Hamas from importing weapons. Does that constitute a cruel and unfair “blockade”? The question is moot because we now know the attempt failed. Is there any way in which the terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7 are different from the Einsatzgruppen – the “mobile killing units” deployed by the Nazis to slaughter Jews in Europe during World War II? Like the Nazis, Hamas intends genocide. The Hamas Charter is quite candid on that score. Hamas’s patrons in Tehran have been both threatening and inciting genocide since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. That’s caused no concern at the United Nations, even in its Office of Genocide Prevention. On the contrary, U.N. agencies and officials have demonized and de-legitimized Israel for decades.
Israel is slandered as “racist” even though it’s the most diverse nation in the Middle East.
Israeli society is slandered as “apartheid” even though the 20 percent of Israel’s citizens who are Arab Muslims are the freest – and among the most accomplished – Arab Muslim communities in the Middle East.
Israelis are slandered as “settler colonists” even though Jews may be the longest surviving indigenous people of the Middle East. “The Jews are the Native Americans of this piece of land,” author Jamie Kirchick recently pointed out to comedian/commentator Bill Maher.
How dishonest must one be to regard a Jew living in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem as a “settler colonist”?
A little history for uneducated college students and their ill-educated professors: Over the centuries, foreign empires sent their armies to Zion – a biblical name for the ancient Jewish homeland – where they slaughtered, enslaved, and expelled Jews.
Some Jewish communities survived and remained. Others left and returned when that became possible. To be fair, the Ottoman Empire did not turn Jews away from Jerusalem when, beginning in 1492, they were driven out of Spain along with settler colonialist Muslims. Other Jews built communities throughout the broader Middle East – for example in Iraq, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, and Yemen.
Then, in the aftermath of World War II, the Holocaust, and the founding of the State of Israel, Arab governments expelled their Jews, close to a million of them, inadvertently demonstrating the necessity of Jewish self-determination in a small part of the ancient Jewish homeland.
The descendants of Jewish refugees from Muslim lands now constitute roughly half of Israel’s citizens. Add to that Arab Muslim Israelis and it turns out that the overwhelming majority of Israelis don’t have ancestors who ever set foot in Europe.
The 10/7 pogrom was not just predictable, it was predicted. In 2009, Ze’ev Maghen, an expert on Islamic history at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, wrote that Iran’s rulers were “casting an entire people as a parasitic infestation,” with the intent to “create an atmosphere in which the massacre of large numbers of Jews and the destruction of their independent polity will be considered a tolerable if not indeed a legitimate eventuality.”
And now such prominent media figures as Karen Attiah, Global Opinions Editor of the very establishment Washington Post, minimize the terrorist atrocities of 10/7, ignore the genocidal intent against Israelis, and accuse Israelis of “genocidal intent against Palestinians.”
For the record: The populations of both Gaza and the West Bank have been growing over recent decades. During this same period, however, much of the media, elite universities, and most international institutions have succumbed to a cult of anti-Israeli, antisemitic, and anti-Western ideologues. What happened to the decent people? They’ve been marginalized. And they doubtless feel vulnerable.
These are not hopeful thoughts, but until we acknowledge all that’s broken, the long, difficult process of repair cannot begin.
*Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times.

Putting the Hamas Massacre, and Hamas Denials, in Context
Matthew Levitt, Delaney Soliday/The Washington Institute/October 26/2023
The group’s own documentation of atrocities belies its claims that it did not target civilians.
Hamas leaders are beginning to understand the implications of executing one of the worst acts of international terrorism on record. This is why they now deny that their operatives attacked civilians in southern Israel on October 7. Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, for example, rejected such accusations, stating, “We have nothing to apologize for.” This is a far cry from the bloodcurdling speech by another Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, on the day of the attacks, when he crowed about the group’s “dazzling triumph” and described it as the “ultimate jihad” that would end in “victory or martyrdom.”
Mashal is desperately attempting damage control as the world comes to terms with Hamas brutality. The assault on Israeli civilian communities is an indelible stain, permanently branding the group as baby killers, not freedom fighters. Unfortunately for Mashal, Hamas itself produced some of the most damning evidence of its atrocities, including documents found on the bodies of attackers instructing them to kill and kidnap civilians, footage from the GoPro cameras they wore to document their carnage, and videos and photos posted on the group’s Telegram channels during the attacks.
The Hamas Attack in Context
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after viewing evidence of the attackers’ brutality, stated that it “brings to mind the worst of ISIS.” The secretary was painfully blunt in describing the attack: “Babies slaughtered. Bodies desecrated. Young people burned alive. Women raped. Parents executed in front of their children, children in front of their parents.” The dead include citizens of at least thirty-five countries. Hamas kidnapped over 200 people from some twenty-two countries, including children as young as ten months old. On October 23, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) updated the number of hostages in Gaza from 203 to 222 but have not released information on the additional nineteen hostages’ nationalities. Hamas claims the number is closer to 250.
By any measure, the attack is one of the worst acts of international terrorism on record. Hamas operatives, aided by small numbers of terrorists from other groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, murdered some 1,400 people in Israel and wounded over 4,200. Regardless of Hamas’s framing, the number killed on October 7 is similar to the number who died when al-Qaeda crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center’s south tower two decades ago: 1,385 of the nearly 3,000 deaths caused on 9/11, according to the Global Terrorism Database.
Very few terrorist attacks have killed that many people, other than the April 1994 attack by Hutu extremists in Rwanda, who killed 1,200 Tutsi civilians seeking shelter in a church outside Kigali, and the Islamic State’s June 2014 massacre of an estimated 1,700 unarmed Iraqi Shia military personnel fleeing Camp Speicher after the group seized control of Tikrit.
The Hamas attack is also unusual in the number of hostages taken. In this regard, Hamas joins the Taliban, which in January 2018 seized 160 hostages during its siege of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan; Boko Haram, which in April 2014 kidnapped 276 girls from a secondary school in the village of Chibok, Nigeria; Chechen terrorists, who in September 2004 took 1,200 hostages, most of them children, in the Beslan school siege in North Ossetia; and the Lord’s Resistance Army, which in October 1996 kidnapped 139 students at a Catholic boarding school in Aboke, Uganda.
The Hamas attack was also devastating for the United States: at least thirty-two Americans were killed and at least ten are missing (Hamas released two Americans on October 20). Not since 1979, when Iranians seized sixty-six Americans, have so many U.S. citizens been taken hostage in a single incident. And not since Hezbollah al-Hejaz (aka Saudi Hezbollah) bombed the Khobar Towers in 1996—an operation that killed nineteen and wounded 372—have so many Americans died in a single attack on foreign soil. The FBI’s extraterritorial squad will now be opening a staggering number of international terrorism cases related to the Hamas attack.
Hamas’s Self-Indictment
As the depravity of the attack became clear, Hamas began to feel the pressure of comparisons to the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and other notorious terrorist groups. Speaking a few days after the assault, Hamas deputy secretary-general Saleh al-Arouri insisted his group did not target civilians and claimed kidnapped Israelis were taken by random Palestinians who followed Hamas into Israel: “The truth is that our mujahideen do not target civilians...It is inconceivable that they would perpetrate the kind of crimes mentioned by the occupation, like rape, killing children, or killing civilians.”
But all these things they did, and Hamas has provided some of the most damning evidence. When asked about the massacre at the Tribe of Nova music festival, a Hamas spokesman described documentation of the event as a “fake story.” But these denials fall flat given images Hamas posted on its Telegram channels as the attack was unfolding, footage from its operatives’ GoPro body cameras and phones, and the detailed instructions they carried directing them to attack civilians.
Hamas used Telegram to amplify the attack’s impact (largely because it is banned on most other mainstream platforms), posting videos from the perpetrators and glorifying their acts. In one clip, a Hamas operative points his phone at the body of a dead Israeli whose blood is running down the sidewalk and says, “Time for photographs.” On October 7 alone, the official Telegram channels of Hamas and its Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades released 110 and 50 items, respectively, of textual, pictorial, and video propaganda highlighting the attacks.
Additional GoPro footage recovered by first responders documents terrorists preparing to launch an RPG into a civilian home, shooting out the tires of an ambulance, and killing a woman taking shelter in her living room. One video documented a Hamas terrorist gunning down a civilian running for safety, shooting the man in the back of the head and then firing twice more once his body hit the pavement. Footage reviewed after the massacre shows two Hamas members moving a body from the street into a nearby vehicle, rifling through the victim’s belongings, and taking what appears to be a cell phone from the scene. Hamas used stolen phones to hijack victims’ social media and WhatsApp accounts, from which it live-streamed attacks, issued threats to families, and called for further acts of violence.
Documents found on the bodies of dead Hamas attackers include detailed intelligence reports on targeted civilian communities and operational instructions. These documents underscore that the attack was no rogue operation and that Hamas planned from the outset to target civilians. For example, one document marked “top secret,” which was found on Hamas operatives who attacked Kibbutz Kfar Saad, included clear instructions to “kill as many people as possible” and “capture hostages.” The document specifically instructs the two Hamas combat units attacking the kibbutz to target elementary schools and a youth center. The plan called for holding hostages in the kibbutz dining hall and preparing to bring some of them back to Gaza. In a video interview released by the IDF, one captured fighter revealed that “whoever brings a hostage back [to Gaza] gets $10,000 and an apartment." The IDF also released Hamas “abduction manuals” that instructed militants how to target, capture, and subdue hostages.
Hamas cannot whitewash the fact that its operational plan explicitly called for killing as many civilians as possible, kidnapping many more, and forcibly taking them to Gaza. By massacring civilians and taking hostages, Hamas all but guaranteed that Israeli forces would take the fight to Gaza, where the group frequently uses the citizenry as shields. President Biden was right: “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination...Its stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed with no regard to who pays the price.”The group’s efforts at damage control speak volumes. Hamas sees that it is being criticized for its barbarity, so it is lying in an attempt to pin the blame elsewhere. But many countries around the world—not least those whose citizens were killed, injured, or kidnapped—may forever see the group in a new, more dangerous, light.
*Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Fellow and director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute. Delaney Soliday is a research assistant in the Reinhard Program.

Why Egypt Won’t Open the Border to Its Palestinian Neighbors
Ghaith al-Omari, David Schenker/The Washington Institute/October 26/2023
Cairo has understandable concerns about unsustainable refugee flows, Sinai terrorist threats, and longer-term Palestinian political aspirations, all of which need to be taken into account when pushing for humanitarian corridors into Gaza.
Egypt has re-emerged as a pivotal actor in the Middle East thanks to the Israel-Gaza War. Its revived influence was epitomized by the summit Cairo convened on Saturday for a number of Arab and European leaders. Although it didn’t produce a unified statement from the parties, underscoring the challenges of finding common ground, it was the crucial player in drawing top leaders together after several Arab countries refused to meet with President Joe Biden earlier in the week.
Egypt’s importance is not just as a leader among Western-allied Arab countries, however. The country is a critical partner for the Biden administration on all issues related to Gaza because its control of the Rafah crossing—currently the only point of entry into the embattled Gaza Strip since Israel closed all crossings on its borders after Hamas’ October 7 terror attack—allows Egypt to dictate and leverage the terms by which humanitarian assistance can enter the Palestinian territory.
It’s understandable if Washington, which provides Egypt with over $1 billion per year in military assistance, is frustrated that Cairo isn’t allowing American citizens and other nationals to exit Gaza via the crossing, as Egypt has seemingly made their departure contingent on the entry of aid. It’s also understandable if humanitarian groups are frustrated that Egypt won’t open its border for a humanitarian corridor to let out hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Gazans who are trying to take refuge in the south of the Gaza Strip, which Rafah sits on, as the most intense fighting rages in the north.
But Egypt’s positions reflect serious, and legitimate, concerns. First and foremost is the fear of a massive refugee flow if the crossing were opened. A decade after the Syrian civil war started, Egypt claims to host 9 million refugees from different countries, with no horizon of repatriation for most in sight. For Egypt, a deluge of Palestinian refugees would not only pose humanitarian and economic challenges—Egypt is currently experiencing a devastating economic crisis—but also security and political ones.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in uncharacteristically explicit remarks, on Wednesday warned that transferring Palestinians into Sinai will turn the peninsula into a launching pad for attacks against Israel, eliciting Israeli reprisals, triggering war between the two countries and upending the longest peace between Israel and any Arab country. Additionally, the movement of Palestinian refugees out of Gaza would evoke memories of the mass displacement that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948. Egypt fears that such an eventuality would bring an end to any future prospect of Palestinian-Israeli peace based on a two-state solution, instead bringing a diplomatic void and inflaming Arab public opinion.
This concern is so widely and deeply held in the region that, even as Palestinian civilian casualties mounted after October 7, other Arab countries supported Egypt in its vehement opposition to opening the Sinai for refugees. Indeed, after concluding a tour to several Arab capitals, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Al-Arabiya TV that he heard “from virtually every...leader that I’ve talked to in the region that that idea is a nonstarter, and so we do not support it.”
Additionally, Egypt has privately held that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is ultimately Israel’s problem, and that the latter should bear any political or territorial costs of its resolution. During the Trump administration, an American proposal to build infrastructure in Sinai to serve Gaza was roundly rejected by Cairo, which saw it as a potential slippery slope that could draw it into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Egypt is also concerned that opening the crossing could allow in Hamas and its sympathizers. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sisi’s most serious domestic political rival. And Egypt has faced Islamist terror in the Sinai Peninsula since the 2011 revolution that toppled the Mubarak regime.
For all these reasons, shortly after Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, Egypt sealed the border. By 2018, according to Human Rights Watch, Egypt had razed the entire Sinai city of Rafah on the Egyptian side of the borders, destroying thousands of homes and displacing 70,000 persons, to create a nearly mile-wide buffer zone to prevent the movement of weapons and terrorists in tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. To emphasize the point, Egypt even flooded those tunnels. Two years later, in 2020, Egypt built a 20-foot reinforced concrete wall that reaches 16 feet below ground.
This wall has helped ensure the war in Gaza doesn’t spill over into Egypt. Like other Middle Eastern states, however, what is happening in Gaza is having an impact within Egypt, where there is a significant reservoir of support for the Palestinians. For the first time since the Mubarak days, the Egyptian government has organized anti-Israel protests to try to come out ahead of public opinion on supporting the Palestinians and better control the demonstrations.
The very staunch US support for Israel, which reflects longstanding American policy, sharpened further by the brutal nature of Hamas terror and Biden’s own convictions about it, has inevitably created additional tensions in the Arab world. The view that the US is complicit in the human suffering in Gaza is widely held in the Arab world, partly out of compassion and partly out of political opportunism. This, naturally, complicates Egypt’s engagement with the US and helps explain why the meeting with Biden last week was canceled, after (later disproven) reports of Israel targeting a hospital in Gaza circulated.
However, the delicate way the US approached the cancellation, framing it as a response to the period of mourning announced by the three Arab countries and expressing sympathy for the victims, helped ease pressure on Sisi, who would have been criticized by his public for appearing with the US president at such highly charged times, and was no doubt appreciated in Cairo. Subsequent US policy, focusing on delivery of aid into Gaza, also signaled support for Egypt’s position, buying some goodwill from Cairo.
Still, if Washington is committed to the objectives of both supporting Israel in its campaign to degrade, if not eradicate, Hamas and at the same time providing critical humanitarian support to Palestinian civilians, the US will need to coordinate with its Arab allies. For reasons of geography, history and diplomatic heft, Egypt is the linchpin.
*Ghaith al-Omari is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute. David Schenker is the Institute’s Taube Senior Fellow and director of its Rubin Program on Arab Politics. This article was originally published on the CNN website.