Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 30-31/2023
As a Christian, how can I empathize with the Palestinian cause after it has been Islamized and embraced by Jihadist countries and organizations?/Elias Bejjani/October 30/2023
Iran's Destructive, Expansionist, Fundamentalist and Jihadist Schemes, and the Spread of its Armed Proxies Threaten Moderate Arab Countries and their Societies./Elias Bejjani/October 29/2023
A petition to reopen the Jounieh port for international travel.
PM Mikati, FM Bou Habib reject Israeli threats to Lebanon
Hezbollah death toll continues to rise
Lebanon's Hezbollah works to curb hefty losses in Israel clashes, sources say
Lebanon PM says working to avoid 'war' with Israel
Mikati says working to avoid war with Israel
Bassil: US, Iran and Hezbollah don't want to expand war
Journalists in Lebanon were 'explicitly targeted' in deadly border strike
Border skirmishes: Israel shells south Lebanon following mortar shells
Hamas, Jamaa Islamiya fire rockets from Lebanon as Hezbollah-Israel clashes continue
Geagea vows to try to spare Lebanon Gaza-like 'hell' through 1701
Nasrallah to speak Friday for first time since war eruption
Israeli army: Our forces targeted Hezbollah infrastructure on Lebanese territory
Hezbollah 'directly' targets Israeli Branit barracks with four guided missiles
Israeli army throws four flare bombs between Houla and Mays al-Jabal
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister: If Hezbollah chooses escalation, we are compelled to respond
Lebanon's tourism hit hard: Reservation rates plummet amid ongoing crisis in Gaza and the South
Walid Jumblatt expresses concerns about dragging Lebanon into war with hopes of avoiding it
Berri broaches general situation in Lebanon and region with Russian ambassador, meets "Renewal" bloc delegation, former minister Boueiz

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 30-31/2023
Hamas Uses Hospital as Terror Command Center, Israel Says
Hamas Tunnels to Egypt Played Key Role in Arming Hamas
Israel expands ground assault into Gaza as fears rise over airstrikes near crowded hospitals
Report: Paris proposes detailed political solution for Israel-Hamas war
Israel’s history suggests the clock is ticking for Netanyahu after Hamas attack failures
An Israeli ministry, in a 'concept paper,' proposes transferring Gaza civilians to Egypt's Sinai
Joly pleads for humanitarian pauses as she says time is running out to help in Gaza
Pentagon says there are no limits on how Israel uses US weapons as death toll climbs amid airstrikes in Gaza
US forces attacked 23 times in Iraq and Syria since mid-October
Ground battles rage in Gaza as concern grows for hospitals
Report: Paris proposes detailed political solution for Israel-Hamas war
Hamas releases video showing Israeli women hostages
Israel says hit military infrastructure in Syria's Daraa
Israeli tanks enter edge of Gaza, cut key road from north to south
Biden says Mideast leaders must consider two-state solution after war ends
Four killed in Israeli raid on West Bank's Jenin
Hundreds storm airport in Russia in riot over arrival of plane from Israel
Despite incendiary rhetoric, Iran walks tightrope to avoid direct Israel war
Gaza’s Christians stand their ground despite heavy bombardment

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 30-31/2023
Israel, Iran and US dragged toward war by monsters of their own creation/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/October 30, 2023
Macron keen to make a good impression in the Middle East/Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/October 30, 2023
How to Curb Tehran’s Oil Exports ..Unhindered oil revenues flowing to Tehran will harm U.S. interests/Saeed Ghasseminejad/The National Interest/October 30, 2023
Hamas built a massive tunnel network in Gaza. Here’s how Israeli ‘weasel’ forces will fight it/Rick Jervis,USA Today/October 30, 2023
Our Response to China Must Be Overwhelming, Not 'Proportional'/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/October 30, 2023
FACT FOCUS: Misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war is flooding social media. Here are the facts/The Canadian Press/October 30, 2023
How Years of Israeli Failures on Hamas Led to a Devastating Attack/Ronen Bergman, Mark Mazzetti and Maria Abi-Habib/The New York Times/October 30, 2023

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 30-31/2023
As a Christian, how can I empathize with the Palestinian cause after it has been Islamized and embraced by Jihadist countries and organizations?
Elias Bejjani/October 30/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123750/123750/
As a Lebanese Christian, and even Palestinian Christianو how can I empathize with and support those who call for the liberation of Palestine, including the throwing of Jews into the sea and the eradication of the state of Israel, especially when most countries, groups, and organizations that pursue this mission are Islamic Jihadists?
For example, Hezbollah’s name is the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, and Hamas is known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, and all the organizations claiming to be part of the resistance and aiming to liberate Palestine adhere to Jihadist concepts, cultures, and practices, as do states like the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The most dangerous curse that hit the Palestinian cause is its Islamization and the transformation of the conflict into a Jihadist war against Jews and the throwing of Israel into the sea.
Amid the current political and ideological debate about the Palestinian issue, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as the destructive war and devastation in Gaza, important questions are raised: How can a Lebanese Christian, or anyone who is Christian, including Palestinian Christians, sympathize with and support those who call for the liberation of Palestine through Jihadist means, including actions such as throwing Jews into the sea, and the elimination of the state of Israel? Especially when most countries, led by Iran, and all groups and organizations opposing Israel embrace Islamic Jihadist concepts and goals?
Answers depend on personal values and beliefs, and may vary from one person to another. However, it is essential to carefully consider the deadly and destructive consequences that have arisen due to the transformation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a Jihadist war against Jews.
The Islamization of the Palestinian cause, and its transformation into a Jihadist Islamic war has largely been rejected by the majority of countries and people worldwide, causing it to lose sympathy and support from those who are not Jihadists, whether they are states or organizations.
To correct the course of the Palestinian dilemma and return it to a national cause, rather than a religious one, the following steps are required:
First, we must recognize that there is a significant difference between supporting the rights of Palestinians and working towards a peaceful and just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and promoting violence and Jihad against Jews. Aligning with groups that embrace Jihad can be dangerous for the people of the Middle East and regional security. In this context, we need to acknowledge the facts and understand that movements and states like Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and all their likes have brought destruction, chaos, and conflicts to many countries, (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria etc), exacerbating the problem rather than reaching a permanent and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue.
Second, everyone, particularly the Palestinian people, must contemplate the positive effects of mutual cooperation and constructive dialogue among religions and cultures, rather than supporting Jihad and violence. Christians, Muslims, Jews, and people of other faiths can work together to achieve peace, tolerance, and coexistence in the Middle East and specifically, address the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In conclusion, the Palestinian cause includes legitimate rights for the Palestinians, and there are peaceful, civilized, and national ways to reach a permanent solution. Islamizing it as it stands today will not lead to solutions, neither today nor any other day.
Cooperation, dialogue, and accepting others are the keys to its success and finding peaceful solutions, which is why local, regional, and international stakeholders must earnestly seek ways to support efforts aimed at peace and justice in the region, rather than endorsing Islamic and jihadist violence, destruction, death, and devastation.

Iran's Destructive, Expansionist, Fundamentalist and Jihadist Schemes, and the Spread of its Armed Proxies Threaten Moderate Arab Countries and their Societies.
Elias Bejjani/October 29/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/123688/123688/
In the turbulent landscape of the Middle East, a sinister and destructive force has stealthily crept into the region, posing a severe threat to the very fabric of Arab moderation and stability. Iran, with its sponsorship of various Jihadist terrorist groups and proxy entities, has skillfully woven a web of influence that now stretches across several Arab nations, and its strategy bears serious implications for the entire region.
The Iranian Global Jihadist Agenda
Iran's nefarious influence in the region hinges on its persistent promotion of its Shiites' Jihadist expansionism and ideology of a satanic agenda. Through its sponsorship of extremist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and various militia factions, Iran actively fuels radicalism and terrorism. These Jihadist organizations, driven by an extremist ideology, undermine the stability of Arab nations, pushing them farther away from the path of moderation.
The Occupation of Lebanon
One of the most glaring examples of Iran's predatory agenda is its occupation of Lebanon through its terrorist and criminal proxy, Hezbollah that was once camouflaged as a resistance movement against Israeli occupation, has now exposed its deeply rooted affiliation to the Iranian scheme of expansionism and Jihadist  destructive strategy. Hezbollah, the most powerful Iranian terrorist and Jihadist proxy, has openly and boldly evolved into a well-armed and highly destabilizing force, acting as Iran's long arm in the region. Hezbollah's actions have plunged Lebanon into political turmoil, eroding its sovereignty, and sowing discord among its diverse communities. It is worth mentioning that, Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by several countries and international bodies, including the United States, Canada, the European Union, Israel, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Arab League, among others. It is considered a Shiite militant group based in Lebanon with close ties to Iran.
Iranian Schemes of Terrorism
Iran's involvement in orchestrating acts of terrorism across the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Iraq and Yemen is well understated by analysts and reputable thinking tanks' entities. From supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Popular Mobilization Militias in Iraq,  to militarily supporting the Syrian dictator, Al-Assad regime, Iran has consistently employed terror as a means to achieve its geopolitical goals. This reckless approach only deepens the chaos and insecurity plaguing the region.
The Gaza Strip and Iran's Role
The ongoing war in the Gaza Strip serves as another distressing chapter in Iran's Jihadist-expansionism playbook. While the Palestinian issue is a legitimate and crucial concern for many in the Arab world, Iran's support for its proxy, the Jihadist Hamas, has exacerbated the conflict. Iran's provision of weaponry and financial support to Hamas fuels the flames of war, putting civilian lives at risk and exacerbating the suffering of the people of Gaza.
The Urgent Need for Resistance
To counter Iran's destructive strategy and the proliferation of its evil Jihadist ideologies, Arab nations must unite and strengthen their resolve. Cooperation is essential in facing the multifaceted threat that Iran represents, that not only endangers the Arab countries' stability. In this regard, initiatives should be taken to counter extremist narratives, promote moderation, and dismantle the support networks that prop up these Jihadist entities.
Conclusion:
Iran's destructive strategy, fueled by a Jihadist agenda and a web of proxy entities, has plunged the Middle East into a state of turmoil and instability. The Arab world must stand together to combat this threat, preserve their cultural heritage, and uphold the values of moderation, tolerance, and peace that have been at the core of their rich history. Only through unity and a resolute commitment to these principles can they hope to emerge from the shadow of Iran's destructive influence and secure a brighter, more stable future for their nations.

عريضة تطالب بإعادة فتح بور جونية
A petition to reopen the Jounieh port for international travel.
Why this petition matters
In light of the inability of the government of Lebanon to decide on matters of war and peace in these uncertain times, and taking into consideration the impending closure of the Rafik Hariri International Airport should violence from the Gaza war reach the vicinity of Beirut, we, the citizens of Lebanon, demand the immediate reinstatement of the Jounieh seaport as an authorized entry and exit point for our nation.
Our freedom of movement must not be restricted to a sole port of entry into our country, particularly at this juncture when our democratically elected representatives find themselves impotent in addressing the prevailing crises. Sadly, Lebanon is held hostage as a nation, but we reject the notion that our citizens too should be held hostage.
https://www.change.org/p/reopen-the-jounieh-port-for-international-travel?recruiter=1134587321&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_medium=whatsapp&utm_content=washarecopy_37707433_en-US%3Acv_502156&recruited_by_id=d52c2610-cd8b-11ea-94a5-d377580ef89c&share_bandit_exp=initial-37707433-en-US

PM Mikati, FM Bou Habib reject Israeli threats to Lebanon
Arab News/October 30, 2023
BEIRUT: Lebanese Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has demanded an end to “Israeli provocations” on the southern border. Lebanon is “in the eye of the storm” amid the tensions in the region, he told Sky News on Monday. “If Lebanon enters the war, the whole region will be in a state of chaos, not just our country,” he said, adding that “efforts are ongoing to spare Lebanon from war.”Mikati also told Sky News that the decision to go to war “is up to Israel if it continues to violate the Lebanese southern borders.”He said that the Lebanese state was cooperating with international organizations to develop a plan in the event of war. Mikati visited Qatar on Sunday, meeting Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. The two sides discussed “the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and the region,” according to a statement issued after the meeting.
In a phone call with Australian Foreign Minister Penelope Wong, Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said that “Israeli threats to attack and destroy Lebanon are of no use.”Military operations along Lebanon’s southern border have taken place since the early morning, including sporadic artillery shelling and airstrikes.
Israeli forces had fired flares and incendiary shells over southern villages adjacent to the Blue Line, resulting in forest fires.
The Israeli army on Monday also targeted the perimeter of the Al-Raheb Israeli outpost — at the border with the Aayta Al-Shaab village — with 12 missiles, including phosphorus missiles. A missile fell in an empty region located between the villages of Aynata and Kunin for the first time since the start of military operations in southern Lebanon, which began simultaneously with Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. According to a military observer, the two villages remain within UNIFIL’s operational region. The Israeli attack reached 5 km inside the Lebanese border, said the observer.
Israeli jets raided the outskirts of the Yater village, as well as the Aayta Al-Shaab village, targeting an empty house and the perimeter of the Shebaa Farms. Israeli artillery also targeted the Al-Labbouneh region, located in Naqoura, with dozens of artillery shells and flares, causing fires.
Maj. Gen. Raymond Khattar, director general of the Lebanese Civil Defense, said on Monday that “the fire danger index is high today and distinguishing fires is hard amid the ongoing bombardment and the presence of mines and cluster bombs.”
He added: “We are coordinating with the UNIFIL forces so they can intervene to avoid endangering our members.”The Lebanese army announced on Monday that “21 missile platforms with an unlaunched rocket were found in Wadi Al-Khansaa and Al-Khraybeh — Hasbaya district — and in Al-Qlaileh – Tyre district,” adding that “they were dismantled by the competent units.”
The military observer told Arab News: “The bombing of the UNIFIL spots during the past weekend is Israel’s way of expressing its dissatisfaction with the UN.”The observer said that the UNIFIL leadership was facing difficulty in communicating with the Israeli side amid claims by the latter that the peacekeeping force was “not fulfilling its duties consisting of preventing illegal weapons in its operational region.”In other news, a Hezbollah member was killed during military operations carried out by the party on the southern front on Monday. Although operations carried out by Palestinian factions in southern Lebanon against Israeli forces have subsided, a Lebanese military group called “Fajr Al-Jouroud” has emerged in recent days.
The group identifies itself as the military wing of the Jamaa Islamiya group and announced on Sunday it had “targeted many outposts of the Israeli enemy in the Kiryat Shmona settlement and its surroundings.”The military observer said: “The operations of this group are carried out in full coordination with Hezbollah, as it doesn’t own the type of weapons used in its operations.”He added: “The presence of the group is beneficial for Hezbollah in the Sunni border regions opposing the party, as the Islamic group is a political movement that has become one of Hezbollah’s allies after being against it in the past.”The group organized a mass demonstration last Sunday, in coordination with Hamas, in downtown Beirut. Buses carrying demonstrators – including Palestinian refugees and Lebanese – from Tripoli, Bekaa and Saida, were decorated with the Palestinian flag and the Hezbollah and Hamas banners. Members of Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization accompanied the demonstrators. Hezbollah also announced that its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, will deliver a speech next Friday during a ceremony honoring fighters who died during operations. It will be Nasrallah’s first public appearance since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched. Pending Nasrallah’s statements, which Lebanese fear will be incendiary, Hezbollah Executive Council deputy head, Sheikh Ali Damoush, said that the party “is fully prepared and ready to face all the options and developments accurately, wisely and with the highest degree of national responsibility.”
Damoush added that “Hezbollah’s vision considers the requirements of conflict with the enemy, the interest of the resistance, national interest and people’s interests,” adding that “all our stances and actions are taken accordingly.”In a joint meeting held on Monday, the Saydet Al-Jabal Gathering and the National Council to End Iranian Occupation in Lebanon”recalled “Resolution 1701, which cost Lebanon 2,500 martyrs and billions of dollars in losses.”They feared the international resolution, which aimed to bring an end to the 2006 war, was “being jeopardized today by an external decision,” accusing “Iran and its militias of using Lebanon and its people as ammunition to fuel the Iranian project in the region.

Hezbollah death toll continues to rise
Long War Journal/October 30/2023
Since Oct. 9, almost four dozen Hezbollah members have been killed following the launch of an Israeli military campaign against Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip. As part of its strategy to maintain pressure on Israel’s northern front, Hezbollah has continuously attacked Israeli targets along the Israel-Lebanon border, which has led to casualties within their ranks. Hezbollah has positioned teams armed with rockets, mortars, and guided missiles to target IDF positions. While they have achieved some success in causing damage and casualties to the IDF, the placement of these teams near the border has increased the likelihood of losses due to constant overhead surveillance by Israeli military drones. For example, between Oct. 22 and 23, Hezbollah acknowledged the deaths of eleven of its members. While the group did not provide detailed information on the nature of their deaths, they likely died while operating against Israel. In turn, the IDF has capitalized on the potential impact of the increasing casualties by releasing footage of attacks on Hezbollah fighters engaged in operations.
At the present time, it seems that Hezbollah is content with deploying fighters on a high-risk operation without exceeding the threshold of initiating a full-blown conflict with Israel. Consequently, the Israelis are adopting a corresponding approach by only attacking Hezbollah members engaged in executing an attack or targeting positions that are not high value. Moreover, based on Hezbollah’s statements, it seems the fighters who have been killed in battle do not hold high-ranking positions within the military hierarchy, implying that the group is not suffering a substantial blow from the current casualties.
Lastly, Hezbollah is not the only armed group suffering casualties in southern Lebanon. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Lebanese Resistance Brigades ( an operational auxiliary of Hezbollah) have published statements acknowledging the losses of fighters carrying out operations against Israel from southern Lebanon.

Lebanon's Hezbollah works to curb hefty losses in Israel clashes, sources say
Laila Bassam and Tom Perry/BEIRUT (Reuters)/October 30, 2023
With dozens of Hezbollah fighters killed in three weeks of border clashes with Israel, the Lebanese group is working to stem its losses as it prepares for the possibility of a drawn-out conflict, three sources familiar with its thinking said.
The Iran-backed group has lost 47 fighters to Israeli strikes at Lebanon's frontier since its Palestinian ally Hamas and Israel went to war on Oct. 7 - about a fifth of the number killed in a full-scale war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
With most of its fighters killed in Israeli drone strikes, Hezbollah has unveiled its surface-to-air missile capability for the first time, declaring on Sunday it downed an Israeli drone. The missiles are part of an increasingly potent arsenal. The Israeli military, which has so far said it has lost seven soldiers on the frontier, has not commented on Sunday's reported drone incident. But Israel said on Saturday it had stopped a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon at one of its drones and that it responded by striking the launch site. One of the sources familiar with Hezbollah's thinking told Reuters that the use of anti-aircraft missiles was one of several steps taken by the Shi'ite Muslim group to curb its losses and counter Israeli drones, which have picked off its fighters in the rocky terrain and olive groves along the border. Hezbollah had made "arrangements to reduce the number of martyrs", the source said, without offering further details. Since the onset of the Hamas-Israel war, Hezbollah's attacks have been calibrated to contain clashes to the border zone, even as it has indicated a readiness for all-out war if necessary, sources familiar with its thinking say. Israel, which is waging a war in the Gaza Strip that it says aims to destroy Hamas, has said it has no interest in a conflict on its northern frontier with Lebanon. But Israel has also said it would unleash devastation on Lebanon if a war did start.
FORMIDABLE FORCE
Hezbollah, the most formidable Iranian ally in Tehran's "Axis of Resistance", has long said it has expanded its arsenal since 2006 and warned Israel that its forces pose a more potent threat than before. It says its armoury now includes drones and rockets that can hit all parts of Israel. In border clashes since Oct. 7, Hamas, which also has operatives in Lebanon, and a Lebanese Sunni Islamist faction Jama'a Islamiya have both fired rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel. Hezbollah itself has refrained from firing rockets, such as unguided Katyushas and others that can fly deep into Israeli territory, a step that could prompt an escalation. Instead, its fighters have been firing at visible targets across the frontier with Israel, using weapons such as guided anti-tank Kornet missiles, a weapon the group used extensively in 2006, the three sources said. Hezbollah's television channel, Al-Manar, has regularly replayed footage from the latest clashes showing what it says are strikes on Israeli military installations and positions visible across the border. While Hezbollah's tactics so far have helped contain the conflict, the attacks mean its fighters need to be close to the frontier, which makes them more vulnerable to Israel's military. The sources said some fighters had also underestimated the drone threat after years of combat in Syria where they had fought insurgent groups with nothing like the Israeli military's hardware. Hezbollah played a decisive role in helping President Bashar al-Assad beat back Syrian insurgents. "The technical superiority of the Israeli drones is making Hezbollah pay the price of this number of fighters," Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief at Lebanon's Annahar newspaper, said, in reference to Hezbollah's hefty death toll.
CONFLICT CONTAINED SO FAR
Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah have broadly stayed contained in a narrow band of land that runs along the border, generally staying within three to four kms of the frontier. However, Israeli shelling has expanded in recent days, according to security sources in Lebanon. They said this included a strike on Saturday on Jabal Safi, a mountainous area that lies about 25 km (15 miles) from the border. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Jabal Safi strike. Hezbollah has not commented on the reports of that strike either. The Israeli army has said it has been responding to sources of fire in Lebanon. Hezbollah lost 263 fighters in the 2006 war, when Israel hit sites all over Lebanon during a more than month-long conflict. The war erupted after Hezbollah launched a raid into Israel and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
The Hezbollah death toll of 47 this time, in such a relatively contained conflict, has shocked the group's supporters. The group's al-Manar television has broadcast daily funerals of fallen fighters being buried with military honours, their coffins covered in the group's yellow and green flag. Hezbollah released a handwritten letter from its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to media last week, saying the fallen fighters should be called "martyrs on the road to Jerusalem".

Lebanon PM says working to avoid 'war' with Israel
Acil Tabbara/AFP/October 30, 2023
Lebanon's caretaker prime minister said Monday he was working to ensure his country does not enter the Hamas-Israel war, even as Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging cross-border fire. Najib Mikati said he feared an escalation, with the border skirmishes stoking concerns that Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally, could open a new front with Israel. "I am doing my duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war" raging further south, Mikati told AFP in an interview.
Cash-strapped Lebanon is facing the possibility of war essentially leaderless, as political divisions have left the country without a president for a year, while Mikati has headed a caretaker cabinet for about a year and a half.
"Lebanon is in the eye of the storm," he added.
Mikati, who is on good terms with Hezbollah, said he has no "clear answer" about whether war loomed ahead, adding that "it depends on regional developments".
In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody conflict that left more than 1,200 people dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers.
"For now Hezbollah has managed the situation rationally and wisely, and the rules of the game have remained constrained to certain limits," Mikati said.
"But at the same time I feel like I cannot reassure Lebanese" because the situation is still developing, he added.
- 'Chaos' -
Hezbollah, which has a more powerful arsenal than Lebanon's own army, has so far restricted itself to targeting Israel's northern border region, with Israel striking back.
The Shiite Muslim movement's leader Hassan Nasrallah is set to make a televised speech on Friday, Hezbollah has said, his first such address since Hamas's October 7 assault on Israel.
Skirmishes on the Lebanon-Israel border have killed at least 62 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also four civilians including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.
Israeli officials have reported four deaths, including one civilian.
Mikati said any escalation could extend beyond Lebanon.
"I cannot rule out an escalation because there is a race to reach a ceasefire before escalation spreads in the entire region," Mikati said.
"I fear that... chaos could engulf the entire Middle East," he also said.
Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged fire with Israel almost daily over the past three weeks.
Iran-backed or affiliated groups have also launched attacks on Israel from Syria, and targeted US forces stationed in Iraq and Syria.
Lebanon witnessed a flurry of diplomatic activity at the start of the escalation, with high officials visiting the country and Mikati going on an official trip Sunday to Qatar -- which is mediating peace efforts in the Hamas-Israel war.
Qatar was playing "an important mediation role," Mikati told AFP.
"Mediation almost succeeded last Friday, but was disrupted when the Israelis began ground operations in Gaza," he said.
- Lebanese tired of wars -
On October 7, Hamas gunmen poured across Gaza's border with southern Israel and killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Israel has responded with unrelenting bombing of Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 8,300 people, also mainly civilians.
Mikati, who heads a caretaker cabinet with limited powers, urged Lebanese lawmakers to "elect a president as soon as possible".
Divided members of parliament have failed 12 times to elect a president during the past year. Lebanese were weary of conflict, Mikati said, in a country that was battered by a 1975-1990 civil war, 22 years of Israeli occupation and the 2006 war with Israel.
Despite relative calm in recent years, in late 2019 the country plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis, pushing most of the population into poverty.
"Lebanese have had enough of wars," Mikati said.
"Lebanese... do not want to enter any war and want stability."

Mikati says working to avoid war with Israel
Agence France Presse/October 30, 2023
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Monday he was working to ensure his country does not enter the Hamas-Israel war, even as Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging cross-border fire. Mikati said he feared an escalation, with the border skirmishes stoking concerns that Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah could launch its own war with Israel. "I am doing my duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war" raging further south, Mikati told AFP in an interview. Cash-strapped Lebanon is facing the possibility of war essentially leaderless, as political divisions have left the country without a president for almost a year, while Mikati has headed a caretaker cabinet for about a year and a half."Lebanon is in the eye of the storm," Mikati said. "I cannot rule out an escalation because there is a race to reach a ceasefire before escalation spreads in the entire region."
Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged fire with Israel almost daily since Hamas's October 7 assault on Israel. Iran-backed or affiliated groups have also launched attacks on Israel from Syria, and targeted U.S. forces stationed in Syria and Iraq.

Bassil: US, Iran and Hezbollah don't want to expand war
Naharnet/October 30, 2023 
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has stressed that what matters today is to “neutralize Lebanon” in the war between Israel and Hamas, noting that “Israel is besieged and the U.S., as well as Iran and Hezbollah, do not want to expand the war.”
“Resistance can be not in conflict with the issue of neutrality but rather complementary to it. We want to be in a state of self defense, not attack,” Bassil said in an interview on LBCI television. “The Shebaa Farms is occupied Lebanese territory and through its operations in it Hezbollah has emphasized Lebanon’s right to regain its land,” Bassil added, noting that Hezbollah is “abiding by the rules of engagement.”“It is the duty of the Lebanese to prevent Lebanon’s descent into war, but at the same time we do not want to drag it into defeat, and if war is imposed on us we will confront it,” Bassil went on to say. He also revealed that in his latest phone call with Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, he informed the Hezbollah leader of his concerns and at the same time sensed Nasrallah’s “keenness on Lebanon’s interest.”As for the issue of gas and oil, Bassil noted that Lebanon lies “in the same geological basin in which gas discoveries have been confirmed.” “But it is clear that it is forbidden to extract it, seeing as there is a timing for our gas and they are trying to delay us,” Bassil added.He also called for “benefiting from the war’s results and improving Lebanon’s position in the negotiations over the issue of gas.”

Journalists in Lebanon were 'explicitly targeted' in deadly border strike
Associated Press/October 30, 2023
An analysis of video evidence and witness testimonies from the scene of strikes that killed one journalist and injured six others in south Lebanon this month found that the journalists were “explicitly targeted,” the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed near the village of Alma al-Shaab while covering an exchange of fire along the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah. “Two strikes in the same place in such a short space of time ... from the same direction, clearly indicate precise targeting,” the statement said.
The analysis found that journalists had been standing and filming on a hillside for more than an hour until the strikes hit about 37 to 38 seconds apart, both coming from the east — the direction of the Israeli border. The first killed Abdallah; the second hit a vehicle belonging to an Al-Jazeera team, injuring journalists standing next to it, the statement said. It noted that the journalists were wearing helmets and vests marked “press,” and the car was marked “press” on the roof. It added that witnesses reported seeing an Israeli helicopter fly over the scene shortly before the strikes. The report did not specifically say Israel was responsible for the fire, saying the investigation was ongoing. The Israeli military did not immediately respond Sunday to an AP request for comment on the analysis. Military spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht previously said Israel was “looking into” the episode. He did not confirm whether the journalists had been hit by Israeli shelling.

Border skirmishes: Israel shells south Lebanon following mortar shells
Agence France Presse/October 30, 2023
An Israeli tank shell hit Monday a house in the town of Aita al-Shaab, causing no casualties. The Israeli army also shelled with white phosphorus and flares the Shebaa valley, Halta, Bastra and Kfarshouba after it had fired 12 shells, including white phosphorus bombs, on the outskirts of the Israeli al-Raheb post near the southern town of Aita al-Shaab. Israeli warplanes had also targeted at dawn al-Labbouneh, near the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, and fired 15 shells at al-Musheirifa. Hezbollah later announced that it has successfully targeted Israeli technical and espionage equipment in al-Metula, Ras al-Naqoura, Jal al-Alam, and al-Bayyad post facing the town of Blida "with appropriate weapons," as Israel shelled Blida, Marwahin, Ras al-Naqoura, the towns of Kfarkela and Deir Mimas, and the outskirts of Yarin and Jibbayn. Hezbollah announced Monday the death of one of its fighters, raising the death toll on the Lebanese side to at least 62 people — 48 of them Hezbollah fighters but also including Palestinian militants and four civilians. Israeli officials have reported at least four deaths, including one civilian. Hezbollah had shot down Sunday an Israeli drone over Israeli territory using a surface-to-air missile and targeted multiple Israeli army positions, as cross-border exchanges have become an almost daily occurrence since October 7. Also on Sunday, Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement its fighters in Lebanon had launched 16 rockets at Nahariya, a coastal town in Israel's Galilee region, "in response to the crimes of the occupation (Israel) against our people in Gaza". The armed branch of Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya also said it had fired "targeted rockets" at the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona, the NNA reported. There are fears that if Hezbollah were to launch its own war with Israel, the conflict could spill over into the wider region. Nearly 29,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon due to the clashes, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Hamas, Jamaa Islamiya fire rockets from Lebanon as Hezbollah-Israel clashes continue
Naharnet/October 30, 2023 
The Lebanon branch of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades on Sunday announced firing 16 rockets from Lebanon at Nahariya in northern Israel in response to “the occupation’s crimes against our people in Gaza.”The military wing of Lebanon’s Jamaa Islamiya, which calls itself al-Fajer Forces, meanwhile claimed responsibility for another rocket attack on Israel’s Kiryat Shmona, saying the projectiles targeted the Israeli army’s posts around and inside the Israeli settlement. “Our rocket salvos will continue and increase whenever the Zionist enemy insists and goes far in its aggression against our people in south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. We also stress that we are capable of expanding our responses to deter it from its aggression,” Jamaa Islamiya’s military wing warned. Both Hamas and Jamaa Islamiya are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood global network. Media reports said a building in Kiryat Shmona was directly hit with a rocket, with online footage showing the building in flames. According to some reports, the building was being used by Israeli troops, knowing that Kiryat Shmona had been recently evacuated of its residents by Israel's authorities. Hezbollah meanwhile announced shooting down an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile. The drone was flying over an area east of Lebanon’s Khiyam and was seen crashing inside Israel, Hezbollah added. In other statements, Hezbollah said it attacked three Israeli military posts on the border with guided missiles and the “appropriate weapons.” Israel retaliated by bombarding several Lebanese border areas with artillery shells, drones and warplanes. Three drone strikes were also reported on three houses in Mays al-Jabal, Maroun al-Ras and Adaisseh while a drone strike on a motorcycle in Mays al-Jabal wounded two people. The Israeli army confirmed carrying out three airstrikes against a cell and two individual militants.

Geagea vows to try to spare Lebanon Gaza-like 'hell' through 1701
Naharnet/October 30, 2023
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has described the war in Gaza as an "open hell" that he doesn't want Lebanon to experience too. "We support the people of Gaza and we are trying to spare Lebanon this hell," Geagea said, as he called again for the implementation of U.N. resolution 1701. Gegea added that, if the government fails to bear its responsibility, his party will discuss the issue in parliament in order to send a recommendation to Cabinet for it to call for an immediate implementation of Resolution 1701.

Nasrallah to speak Friday for first time since war eruption
Naharnet/October 30, 2023
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will make a televised address Friday, Hezbollah said in a statement, in his first appearance since the breakout of the war in Gaza and the confrontations in south Lebanon. The statement said Nasrallah will speak during a ceremony commemorating “the martyrs who ascended on the path to Jerusalem in defense of Gaza, the Palestinian people and the holy sites.” Hezbollah MP Hussein al-Hajj Hassan had earlier made a buzz on social media by posting a video showing Nasrallah passing in front of a Hezbollah flag without looking at the camera. “God does not break his promise,” Hajj Hassan said in the video’s caption, using a Quran verse. Around 50 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in south Lebanon since the start of the confrontations with the Israeli army on October 8 -- a day after Hamas launched its shock attack on Israel.

Israeli army: Our forces targeted Hezbollah infrastructure on Lebanese territory
LBCI/October 30/2023
The Israeli army announced on Monday that its forces carried out targeted strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure located within Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah 'directly' targets Israeli Branit barracks with four guided missiles
LBCI/October 30/2023
Hezbollah targeted the Israeli Branit barracks with four guided missiles, hitting the site directly, prompting Israeli artillery to respond with shelling near the towns of Ayta al-Shaab and Ramyeh.

Israeli army throws four flare bombs between Houla and Mays al-Jabal
LBCI/October 30/2023
The Israeli army launched four flare bombs between the towns of Houla and Mays al-Jabal.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister: If Hezbollah chooses escalation, we are compelled to respond
LBCI/October 30/2023
The Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister, Ron Dermer, issued a warning, stating that if Hezbollah in Lebanon decides to escalate tensions, Israel will be compelled to respond.
The minister expressed hope that Hezbollah would not repeat the mistakes of 2006, referring to the war between the two parties that year.

Lebanon's tourism hit hard: Reservation rates plummet amid ongoing crisis in Gaza and the South
LBCI/October 30/2023
Pierre Achkar announced in a statement that "the reservation rates expected in Lebanon's hotels before the Al-Aqsa Flood operation and the accompanying events in southern Lebanon ranged between 30 and 40 percent, but today they range between 0 and 10 percent." The President of the Lebanese Hotel Association, the Federation for Tourism Industries in Lebanon, and the National Council of Tourism in Lebanon also revealed that "even hotels in the capital, Beirut, are in a very difficult situation, with a considerable number of hotels being vacant and completely devoid of guests."
Achkar disclosed that "the tourism sector lost the Christmas and New Year season, as reservations in hotels and airline tickets were canceled," pointing out that the tourism sector will incur significant losses due to the ongoing situation. It is premature to estimate them before knowing the direction of events. He also revealed that "some establishments have closed, especially in remote areas and in the mountains," stating, "Naturally, these establishments will become seasonal since they are unable to bear the cost of energy and water supply in the absence of relatively acceptable occupancy rates."
He emphasized that the bigger problem is that the end of the war in Gaza does not mean that Lebanon will immediately resume the tourist season. The return of the tourist season requires two to three months, as businessmen, conferences, and exhibitions need time to return to the country. Most importantly, Lebanon's return to the Western tourism map will take a long time, considering that "if the events in Gaza cease, Lebanon's tourist season will not witness any significant recovery before the spring of 2024." Achkar stressed that "there are undoubtedly significant losses that have occurred, but no one can provide precise figures at this time."

Walid Jumblatt expresses concerns about dragging Lebanon into war with hopes of avoiding it
LBCI/October 30/2023
Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt emphasized his aversion to war, expressing his hope that Lebanon does not get drawn into a war that could leave nothing of the country. While he acknowledges that military actions have adhered to specific rules, he warns that this might not always be true.
Speaking on the LBCI "A Year in Void," Jumblatt stated, "Due to local considerations and my commitment to preventing Lebanon's involvement, I hope we do not enter into war. The decision to expel the Palestinians is an old Zionist Jewish one, predating any deterrent from Hezbollah."He also addressed Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, saying, "I hope Lebanon does not slide into war for the sake of Lebanon and its people. He is aware of this suffering, I believe, and self-control is required."Jumblatt reminded that the previous civil war was internal, with external constraints and a limited arena. He mentioned "the war in 2006 when certain countries tried to spare Lebanon from losses, which confined the war to specific areas. However, today, there is no one shielding us due to the Western bias toward Israel."
He regarded the Israeli army as cowardly and criminal, a situation that has always been the case. He stated, "If the war stops today, this would be a disgrace for the Israeli army, which is deemed unbeatable, and Israeli intelligence, which knows everything."
Jumblatt suggested that returning to the "two-state solution" might only be possible if the West ceases to assist Israel. In the context of discussing the Gaza-Israel war, Jumblatt pointed out that the events in Gaza reminded the world that there is still a Palestine.

Berri broaches general situation in Lebanon and region with Russian ambassador, meets "Renewal" bloc delegation, former minister Boueiz
NNA/October 30/2023
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Monday received at the Second Presidency in Ain El-Tineh, Russian Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Rudakov, with whom he discussed the general situation in Lebanon and the region, in light of the escalating Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. Speaker Berri later met with a delegation from the “Renewal” bloc, which included MPs Fouad Makhzoumi, Major General Ashraf Rifi and Adib Abdel Masih. Discussions reportedly touched on political and field developments as well as legislative affairs. Berri also received former Minister Fares Boueiz, and they discussed the general situation in Lebanon and the region as a result of the escalating Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the Lebanese border villages with the occupied Palestine.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 29-30/2023
Hamas Uses Hospital as Terror Command Center, Israel Says
FDD/October 30/2023
Latest Developments
Hamas is using Gaza’s largest hospital as a terror headquarters, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday. According to intelligence gathered by Israel and shared with other countries, Hamas has established command-and-control rooms and tunnels under Shifa hospital in Gaza and uses the medical facility to shield its terrorist infrastructure. The IDF released phone recordings and images illustrating how Hamas is using the hospital.
Expert Analysis
“Hamas has spent a decade and a half ruling Gaza and exploiting civilians there as part of its terror war against Israel. It purposely puts tunnels underneath civilian homes and near mosques and medical facilities in order to make it harder for Israel to strike at threats in Gaza. This is a war crime and illustrates the threat Hamas poses to civilians in Gaza.” — Seth J. Frantzman, FDD Adjunct Fellow
“Hamas and its allies have adopted a cynical tactic to endure Israeli airstrikes by taking shelter in the midst of Gaza’s civilian population. Recognizing that the Israel Defense Forces upholds a strict stance against attacking civilians, Palestinian terrorist groups capitalize by establishing a military network in locations with a high concentration of civilian infrastructure and homes.” — Joe Truzman, Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal
A History of Using Hospitals as Human Shields
Since Iran-backed Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2007, the group has purposefully used hospitals, mosques, and other civilian sites to hide its network of terror activities. A report published by NATO’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence concluded that Hamas frequently uses human shields while “[f]iring rockets, artillery, and mortars from or in proximity to heavily populated civilian areas, often from or near facilities which should be protected according to the Geneva Convention (e.g. schools, hospitals, or mosques).”
Violations of International Law
International law prohibits the use of hospitals for military activity. According to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, warring parties must “ensure that … medical establishments and units are, as far as possible, situated in such a manner that attacks against military objectives cannot imperil their safety.” A 1977 additional protocol says that “under no circumstances shall medical units be used in an attempt to shield military objectives from attack. Whenever possible, the Parties to the conflict shall ensure that medical units are so sited that attacks against military objectives do not imperil their safety.”

Hamas Tunnels to Egypt Played Key Role in Arming Hamas
FDD/October 30/2023
Latest Developments
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on October 26 that Hamas smuggled weapons and ammunition through tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border in the runup to its October 7 attack. The terrorists reportedly carried the materiel under the Philadelphia Route, a narrow land corridor that separates Egypt from the Gaza Strip. Hamas’s smuggling operation took place as the Israeli Air Force continued to strike Iranian arms shipments in Syria and Lebanon. Now, fears swirl that the terrorists could flee to Egypt through the same underground network.
Expert Analysis
“The United States has long turned a blind eye to Iranian smuggling through Egypt to arm, equip, and train Hamas. Like everything post-October 7, we need a reset on how we view the Egyptian-Gaza border and how we will work with the Egyptians to shut down illicit smuggling routes.” —Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor
“Hamas smuggling tunnels below the Philadelphia route raise two challenges for Israel, as they enable the illicit transit of weaponry into Gaza and may facilitate the escape of Hamas leaders, thus circumventing Israeli apprehension or attacks.” —Joe Truzman , Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal
“Israel has made it clear that one of the primary goals of the war is to demilitarize Gaza. If Egypt wants to see an end to the war, it should neutralize the tunnels that have provided a critical artery for supplying weapons to Iranian-backed terror organizations in Gaza. Cairo must also ensure that Hamas leaders don’t use those tunnels as an escape hatch to avoid the consequences of their atrocities.” —Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network
Hamas’s Tunnel Network
Hamas leverages a network of tunnels to transport military assets, store supplies, and train personnel in the hopes of avoiding IDF detection. The underground labyrinth spans hundreds of kilometers and winds through the Gaza Strip and across the borders with Egypt and Israel. A hostage freed by Hamas on October 23 described the network under Gaza as “a spider’s web.”
According to IDF estimates, each tunnel costs $3 million to dig. The tunnels are highly sophisticated, complete with telephone lines and electricity.
During the May 2021 Gaza war, the IDF reportedly destroyed over 62 miles of Hamas’s underground network. Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, claimed after the war that the group possessed over 500 kilometers of tunnels and that, at best, Israel had “only destroyed 20 percent of the tunnels.”
Cross-Border Smuggling
In addition to facilitating terrorist activity, the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza have, for years, facilitated illicit commerce. Criminals leverage the subterranean route to transport drugs and everyday goods into the Gaza Strip.
Under former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Cairo tacitly allowed Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other bad actors to exploit the tunnel system. Cairo cracked down on the underground network after current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took over in 2013.

Israel expands ground assault into Gaza as fears rise over airstrikes near crowded hospitals
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP)/October 30, 2023
Israeli troops and tanks pushed deeper into Gaza on Monday, advancing on two sides of the territory’s main city, as the U.N. and medical staff warned that airstrikes have hit closer to hospitals where tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter alongside thousands of wounded.
Video circulating on social media showed an Israeli tank and bulldozer in central Gaza blocking the territory’s main north-south highway, which the Israeli military earlier told Palestinians to use to escape the expanding ground offensive. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in the north would no longer be able to escape if the road is blocked since it’s the only useable route south.
When asked whether forces had positioned on the road, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said “we expanded our operations" but would not comment on specific deployments.
The video, taken by a local journalist, shows a car approaching an earth barrier across the road. The car stops and turns around. As it heads away, a tank appears to open fire, and an explosion engulfs the car. The journalist, in another car, races away in terror, screaming, “Go back! Go back!” at an approaching ambulance and other vehicles. The Gaza Health Ministry later said three people were killed in the car that was hit.
The Israeli advances put their forces on both sides of Gaza City and the surrounding areas of northern Gaza, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “second stage” of the war ignited by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion. Casualties on both sides are expected to rise sharply if Israeli forces expand their ground operation and end up battling Palestinian militants in dense residential areas.
Though Israel ordered Palestinians to flee the north, where Gaza City is located, and move south, hundreds of thousands remain, in part because Israel has also bombarded targets in so-called safe zones. Around 117,000 displaced people hoping to stay safe from strikes are staying in hospitals in northern Gaza, alongside thousands of patients and staff, according to U.N. figures.
The death toll among Palestinians passed 8,300, mostly women and minors, the Gaza Health Ministry said Monday. The figure is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence. More than 1.4 million people in Gaza have fled their homes.
Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas' initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.
Israeli forces appeared to be driving deeper into Gaza from the north. Video released Monday by the military showed armored vehicles moving among buildings and soldiers taking positions inside a house.
Hagari said additional infantry, armored, engineering and artillery units had entered Gaza and the operations would continue to “expand and intensify,” though Israel has stopped short of calling its operations an all-out invasion.
The military said Monday that overnight its troops had killed dozens of militants who attacked from inside buildings and tunnels. It said that in the last few days, it had struck more than 600 militant targets, including weapons depots and antitank missile launching positions. The reports of targeting could not be independently confirmed.
Hamas’ military wing said its militants clashed with Israeli troops who entered the northwest Gaza Strip. Palestinian militants have continued firing rockets into Israel, including toward its commercial hub, Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, crowded hospitals in northern Gaza came under growing threat. Strikes hit near Gaza City’s Shifa and Al Quds hospitals and the Indonesian and Turkish hospitals in northern Gaza in recent days, the U.N. and residents said Monday.
All 10 hospitals operating in northern Gaza have received evacuation orders, the U.N.’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said. Staff have refused to leave, saying evacuation would mean death for patients on ventilators.
Tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering in Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest. Israel accuses Hamas of having a secret command post beneath the hospital but has not provided much evidence. Hamas denies the allegations.
Strikes hit within 50 meters (yards) of Al Quds Hospital after it received two calls from Israeli authorities on Sunday ordering it to evacuate, the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said. Some windows were blown out, and rooms were covered in debris. It said 14,000 people are sheltering there
Israel says it targets Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate among civilians, putting them in danger.
Beyond the fighting, conditions for civilians in Gaza are continually deteriorating as food, water, medicine and fuel run dangerously low amid a weekslong Israeli siege.
On Sunday, the largest convoy of humanitarian aid yet — 33 trucks — entered the territory from Egypt. Relief workers say the amount is still far less than what is needed for the population of 2.3 million people.
The siege has pushed Gaza’s infrastructure nearly to collapse. With no central power for weeks and little fuel, hospitals are struggling to keep emergency generators running to operate incubators and other life-saving equipment. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, has been trying to keep water pumps and bakeries running. Last week, U.N. officials said hunger was growing.
On Saturday, crowds of people broke into four U.N. facilities and took food supplies in what the U.N called a sign that civil order was starting to break down amid increasing desperation.
Israel also opened two water lines in southern Gaza within the past week, according to the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs. The Associated Press could not independently verify that either line was functioning. Communications were restored to most of Gaza on Sunday more than a day without phone and internet services.
Meanwhile, domestic pressure has increased on Israel’s government to secure the release of 239 hostages seized by Hamas fighters during the Oct. 7 attack.
Hamas says it is ready to release all hostages if Israel frees all of the thousands of Palestinians held in its prisons. Desperate family members of the Israeli captives met with Netanyahu on Saturday and expressed support for an exchange. Israel has dismissed the Hamas offer.
The fighting has raised concerns that the violence could spread across the region. Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have engaged in daily skirmishes along Israel’s northern border.
In the West Bank, Israel said its warplanes carried out airstrikes Monday against militants clashing with its forces in the Jenin refugee camp, the scene of repeated Israeli raids. Hamas said four of its fighters were killed there. As of Sunday, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 115 Palestinians, including 33 children, in the West Bank, half of them during search-and-arrest operations, the U.N. said. The Israeli military said early Monday that its aircraft hit military infrastructure in Syria after rockets from there fell in open Israeli territory. Syrian opposition groups said strikes destroyed three trucks entering eastern Syria from Iraq, and soon after Iranian-backed militias fired rockets at U.S. positions in Syria. Roughly 250,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes because of violence along the border with Gaza and the northern border with Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.

Report: Paris proposes detailed political solution for Israel-Hamas war
Naharnet/October 30, 2023 
Paris has launched contacts with all those concerned with “what is happening on the ground” in the Israel-Hamas war, opening direct channels with Doha and Ankara to “explore the stances over the possibility of reaching a sustainable solution,” Lebanon’s al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.
Below is a summary of the French plan as published by the Lebanese daily:
- A ceasefire on all fronts
- The submission of lists of the captives and missing by the two sides
- A comprehensive prisoner exchange that includes Israelis captured in previous wars
- The entry of aid into Gaza without any preconditions
- Tasking the Palestinian Authority with managing all the affairs of the Gaza Strip and overseeing the reconstruction process
- Deploying Arab and Muslim forces from nations that have ties with Israel on the border between Gaza and Israel
- Launching negotiations aimed at reaching a political solution based on the two-state initiative

Israel’s history suggests the clock is ticking for Netanyahu after Hamas attack failures
CNN/Analysis by Elliott Gotkine/October 30, 2023
In his more than three decades in politics, Benjamin Netanyahu has accrued almost as many nicknames as he has election wins.
There’s “The Magician” for his uncanny ability to grab victory from the jaws of defeat. “King Bibi” for staying atop Israeli politics longer than anyone else. And, universally, though not necessarily affectionately: plain old “Bibi.” But there is another one he revelled in, and which now appears in tatters: “Mr Security.” How did it all go so wrong? It remains unclear as to how more than 1,000 Hamas militants managed to take Israel by such devastatingly deadly surprise, murdering – as President Isaac Herzog wrote – more Jews in one day than at any time since the Holocaust.
And for now, Netanyahu’s opponents are not calling for Netanyahu to step down. “I’m not dealing now with who is to blame or why we were surprised,” said former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, now leader of the opposition. “It’s not the time, it’s not the place.”
But that time and place will come. Indeed, according to Amit Segal, chief political commentator for Israel’s Channel 12, the surprise would be if Bibi’s prime ministership survives this war. “It would set a national precedent,” he told CNN. “Israeli history has taught us that each and every surprise and crisis led to the collapse of the government. That was the case in 1973 [after the Yom Kippur War] with Golda Meir, in 1982 with Menachem Begin in the first Lebanon war, and in 2006, with Ehud Olmert, in the second Lebanon War. The clock is ticking.”
History certainly provides a useful comparison: the last time Israeli intelligence failed to anything like this degree – and with so many casualties – was almost 50 years ago to the day, when Egypt and Syria invaded Israel on Yom Kippur.
That, though, was a war “that followed some kind of logic of norms and rules”, said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute. “We negotiated peace with [Egyptian] President Sadat a few years later, with majority support of the Knesset. We’re not going to negotiate any peace with Hamas. It’s a different ballgame altogether.”Some kind of negotiation – probably through intermediaries, such as Egypt – is inevitable. Even as Israel pummels Gaza with airstrikes, imposes a “complete siege” on the enclave, and prepares for a possible ground invasion to decimate Hamas, Netanyahu also needs to find a way to free the 150 or so hostages being held by the militants inside Gaza. This would have been a tall order in Netanyahu’s prime. But after 10 months of facing down protests against his controversial and divisive judicial overhaul, his corruption case – and a near-death experience – this is battered and beaten Bibi, not the vintage version. It may come as scant consolation to him that Hamas has managed to reunite Israel. “The last thing Israelis care about right now is Netanyahu’s political career,” said Plesner, who also serves in the reserves of the Israeli special forces, where he is a major. It’s also worth remembering that Bibi has been written off countless times before – only for him to return, Terminator-like, to trounce his opponents. This time, though, feels different. This time, he’s been forced into a war he didn’t choose when he may have been distracted by other things. Focusing on the judicial overhaul “didn’t help”, said Channel 12’s Segal. But this invasion by Hamas, he said, would have been planned 12 to 18 months ago – when Netanyahu was in opposition. The miscalculation, he said, was that Hamas was after economic concessions, and a softening of Israel’s blockade on Gaza. “At the end of the day it’s a Nazi regime looking to destroy us all. And you can’t live with a monster in your backyard.”Whether Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces are able to slay the monster may become clearer in the coming days and weeks. He might succeed in forming a national unity “emergency” government that would insulate him from any calls to step down. In the short term, this could marginalise what Lapid describes as the more “extreme” and “dysfunctional” elements of Netanyahu’s coalition. But even if they do move to the sidelines, their ideas may live on. Such has been the shock and anger over Hamas’ spectacular assault that Israeli voters may be open to more extreme ideas. “A certain portion of the population will expect a very, very harsh response,” said Plesner, “and it will be based on a zero-sum game: it’s either us or them.” And this time, “Mr Security” may fail to deliver.

An Israeli ministry, in a 'concept paper,' proposes transferring Gaza civilians to Egypt's Sinai
JERUSALEM (AP)/October 30, 2023
An Israeli government ministry has drafted a wartime proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and worsening tensions with Cairo. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office played down the report compiled by the Intelligence Ministry as a hypothetical exercise — a “concept paper.” But its conclusions deepened long-standing Egyptian fears that Israel wants to make Gaza into Egypt's problem, and revived for Palestinians memories of their greatest trauma — the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting surrounding Israel's creation in 1948. “We are against transfer to any place, in any form, and we consider it a red line that we will not allow to be crossed," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said of the report. “What happened in 1948 will not be allowed to happen again." A mass displacement, Rudeineh said, would be “tantamount to declaring a new war.” So far more than 8,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel went to war against Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack.
AIMED AT PRESERVING SECURITY FOR ISRAEL
The document is dated Oct. 13, six days after Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel and took over 240 hostage in an attack that provoked a devastating Israeli war in Gaza. It was first published by Sicha Mekomit, a local news site. In its report, the Intelligence Ministry — a junior ministry that conducts research but does not set policy — offered three alternatives "to effect a significant change in the civilian reality in the Gaza Strip in light of the Hamas crimes that led to the Sword of Iron war.” The document’s authors deem this alternative to be the most desirable for Israel’s security. The document proposes moving Gaza’s civilian population to tent cities in northern Sinai, then building permanent cities and an undefined humanitarian corridor. A security zone would be established inside Israel to block the displaced Palestinians from entering. The report did not say what would become of Gaza once its population is cleared out. Egypt's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. But Egypt has made clear throughout this latest war that it does not want to take in a wave of Palestinian refugees. Egypt has long feared that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians into its territory, as happened during the war surrounding Israel's independence. Egypt ruled Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when Israel captured the territory, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The vast majority of Gaza's population are the descendants of Palestinian refugees uprooted from what is now Israel. Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, has said a mass influx of refugees from Gaza would eliminate the Palestinian nationalist cause. It would also risk bringing militants into Sinai, where they might launch attacks on Israel, he said. That would endanger the countries’ 1979 peace treaty. He proposed that Israel instead house Palestinians in its Negev Desert, which neighbors the Gaza Strip, until it ends its military operations. Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said the paper threatened to damage relations with a key partner. “If this paper is true, this is a grave mistake. It might cause a strategic rift between Israel and Egypt,” said Guzansky, who said he has consulted for the ministry in the past. “I see it either as ignorance or someone who wants to negatively affect Israel-Egypt relations, which are very important at this stage.”Egypt is a valuable partner that cooperates behind the scenes with Israel, he said. If it is seen as overtly assisting an Israeli plan like this, especially involving the Palestinians, it could be “devastating to its stability."
QUESTIONS OF LEGITIMACY — AND OTHER POSSIBLE DESTINATIONS
Egypt would not necessarily be the Palestinian refugees' last stop. The document speaks about Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates supporting the plan either financially, or by taking in uprooted residents of Gaza as refugees and in the long term as citizens. Canada’s “lenient” immigration practices also make it a potential resettlement target, the document adds. At first glance, this proposal “is liable to be complicated in terms of international legitimacy,” the document acknowledges. “In our assessment, fighting after the population is evacuated would lead to fewer civilian casualties compared to what could be expected if the population were to remain.”
An Israeli official familiar with the document said it isn't binding and that there was no substantive discussion of it with security officials. Netanyahu’s office called it a “concept paper, the likes of which are prepared at all levels of the government and its security agencies." “The issue of the ‘day after’ has not been discussed in any official forum in Israel, which is focused at this time on destroying the governing and military capabilities of Hamas,” the prime minister’s office said. The document dismisses the two other options: reinstating the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority as the sovereign in Gaza, or supporting a local regime. Among other reasons, it rejects them as unable to deter attacks on Israel. The reinstatement of the Palestinian Authority, which was ejected from Gaza after a weeklong 2007 war that put Hamas in power, would be “an unprecedented victory of the Palestinian national movement, a victory that will claim the lives of thousands of Israeli civilians and soldiers, and does not safeguard Israel’s security,” the document says.

Joly pleads for humanitarian pauses as she says time is running out to help in Gaza
The Canadian Press/October 30, 2023
OTTAWA — A humanitarian agreement is urgently needed to help people in the Gaza Strip, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Monday.
In a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, Joly called for a temporary pause in hostilities in the Israel-Hamas conflict to allow more aid to get into Hamas-controlled Gaza, which is home to more than two million Palestinians.
She also said the Canadian government has an obligation to help its citizens get out. Global Affairs Canada says it is in contact with 499 Canadians, permanent residents and family members in the territory. In her speech, Joly also urged Hamas to release more than 200 hostages held in Gaza, which she said may include two Canadians who are still missing. The latest conflict began when Hamas militants launched brazen attacks on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7. More than 1,400 Israelis were killed in those attacks, the Israeli government said. Israel responded with force, showering Gaza with rockets and in recent days launching a ground offensive. More than 8,300 Palestinians have been killed in the days since, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, and it says most of them are women and children. Israeli tanks and troops were pushing deeper into Gaza on Monday, where conditions for civilians are deteriorating as food, medicine and fuel run dangerously low. On Sunday, 33 trucks of humanitarian aid entered the territory from Egypt. Relief workers say the amount is still far less than what is needed for the population of 2.3 million people. The siege has pushed Gaza’s infrastructure nearly to collapse. With no central power for weeks and little fuel, hospitals are struggling to keep emergency generators running. On Saturday, crowds of people broke into four United Nations facilities and took food supplies in what the UN said was a sign that civil order was starting to break down amid increasing desperation. In the occupied West Bank, Israel said its warplanes carried out airstrikes Monday against militants clashing with its forces in the Jenin refugee camp, the scene of repeated Israeli raids. Hamas said four of its fighters were killed there.
As of Sunday, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 123 Palestinians, including 33 minors, in the West Bank, half of them during search-and-arrest operations, the UN said. "The humanitarian situation facing the Palestinian people — facing Palestinian women and children — is dire. Extremist settlers’ attacks continue in the West Bank," Joly said in her speech. Global Affairs Canada says it has helped 65 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and eligible family members leave the West Bank since the conflict began, and it is in touch with 66 people who are still there. The Canadian Armed Forces confirmed on Monday that it has sent special forces to Canada's embassy in Tel Aviv after Global Affairs Canada requested military support to help prepare for the possible escalation of hostilities in the Middle East. Joly reiterated Canada's unequivocal condemnation of Hamas for its attacks, and said Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorism "in accordance with international law." The fears of a broader conflict have been exacerbated by clashes at the Israeli-Lebanese border, which officials say might lead to the need for an evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon.
Joly said that as the region faces this precarious moment, there is also a need to look forward to the future, supporting a two-state solution. "The tectonic plates of the world order are shifting beneath our feet, and the structures that are built upon them are fracturing," Joly said Monday. She said the world faces a generational challenge to prevent a global conflict and Canada has an important role to play in building a stable, inclusive world. That includes what she called "pragmatic diplomacy," even with countries with whom we do not agree. "As respect for the rules diminishes, empty chairs serve no one. Let me be clear: I am door opener, not a door closer," she said. "Therefore, with rare exceptions, Canada will engage." Joly warned that democracy cannot be taken for granted and Canada needs to protect its sovereignty. She said the government is committed to increasing the country's presence at the UN and other international institutions, building on Canada's history of creating international rules and institutions. "The current world order is also being questioned by people and nations, especially from the South, who challenge whether the rules reflect their reality and benefit their people," she said. "Some have expressed concerns about double standards or whether the current institutions and their decisions meet their needs or are fair."

Pentagon says there are no limits on how Israel uses US weapons as death toll climbs amid airstrikes in Gaza
Chris Panella/Business Insider/October 30, 2023
The Pentagon says there are no limits on how Israel uses US-provided weapons in their attacks in Gaza. A spokesperson said it's up to the IDF how it uses the weapons.
Israeli airstrikes have devastated the Gaza Strip, and a new ground offensive could do further damage. The US is not putting any limits on how Israel uses US-provided weapons in its bloody war against Hamas that has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and destroyed parts of the Gaza Strip, the Pentagon says as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ramps up its retaliatory attacks in the area. On Monday, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told that "we are not putting any limits on how Israel uses weapons that [are] provided," Voice of America National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin reported. "We're not putting any constraints on that," she said. "This is really up to the Israeli Defense Force," Singh said, noting that it is up to the IDF "how they are going to conduct their operations."
A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to Insider the reported comments were substantively accurate. The US has provided unwavering support for Israel since Hamas militants conducted surprise terror attacks on October 7, killing some 1,400 people, injuring another 5,400, and taking over 200 hostages into Gaza. In response to those attacks, Israel began a relentless and devastating bombing campaign in Gaza, launching strikes against the strip before beginning a ground assault last weekend, with Israeli tanks advancing on Gaza City. So far, Israel's campaign has killed over 8,000 Palestinians and injured over 16,000 more, according to numbers provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Israel, the biggest overall recipient of US aid, received expedited support after the October 7 attack, including interceptors for its Iron Dome air-defense system and precision-guided munitions. The US also sent two carrier strike groups sent to positions nearby while bolstering regional airpower to deter other parties hostile to Israel, such as Hezbollah, from escalating conflict into a larger regional war. People search for survivors and the bodies of victims through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 26, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Since Israel began its campaign in Gaza in an attempt to destroy Hamas, concern has grown over destruction in the strip and rising number of civilian casualties. The death toll and destruction has been staggering, unprecedented in any previous Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The figures coming out of the war, some of which have been called into question but nonetheless reflect a continuing tragedy, have prompted protests in support of Palestinians and calls for ceasefires in places around the world. According to Singh, the US remains vocal about Israel's need to follow humanitarian laws while it conducts its war against Hamas, saying the US continues "to advocate that humanitarian laws, the law of armed conflict, are always upheld." "We are going to continue to engage with the IDF and with the Israelis on their operations and making sure that they are, in their thinking, prioritizing civilian life," she said.
Gaza is home to over 2 million people. Many have been asked by the IDF to evacuate, but some have chosen to stay or are simply unable to leave, meaning civilians are stuck in the combat zone. The US and Israel have also accused Hamas of using Palestinians as human shields and trying to stall Israel's ground invasion of the strip using hostages. Despite the US saying it continues to prioritize Israel minimizing civilian casualties, officials have said the war will still be costly and take a heavy toll on the civilian population in Gaza. "This is war. It is combat. It is bloody. It is ugly, and it's going to be messy. And innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward," White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said at a press briefing last week. "I wish I could tell you something different. I wish that that wasn't going to happen. But it is — it is going to happen." US law stipulates that security assistance cannot be "provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights," but the language is somewhat vague and allows for flexible interpretation. Josh Paul, former director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs and Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at US Department of State, retired amid US support for Israel after the Hamas attacks and has criticized the Biden administration's response to the conflict. He told PBS recently the humanitarian review process for aid to Israel is basically nonexistent.
"There is a Leahy vetting process for Israel," he said. "It has never found an Israeli unit to be guilty of a gross violation of human rights. It's a broken system."
In the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel and during the subsequent war against the militants in Gaza, the US has repeatedly said that it supports Israel's right to defend itself.

US forces attacked 23 times in Iraq and Syria since mid-October
Ellen Mitchell/The Hill/October 30, 2023
U.S. and coalition forces in the Middle East have come under attack 23 times since mid-October, a senior defense official said Monday. Between Oct. 17-30, American troops were attacked with rockets and drones 14 times in Iraq and nine times in Syria, the official told reporters. Most of the attacks were “unsuccessful” as they were “successfully disrupted by our military,” the official noted. U.S. officials believe Iranian-backed militants are behind the assaults. “Iran’s objective for a long time has been to force a withdrawal of the U.S. military from the region,” they said. “What I would observe is that we’re still there.” To combat the attacks, Washington last week struck two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran and its proxies, destroying a weapons storage facility and an ammunition storage area used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups. The Biden administration has also worked to send a “strong” message of deterrence to Iran as concerns of a wider regional conflict escalate, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told White House media earlier Monday, as reported by CNN. “We’re certainly going to act — if we have to — to continue to protect our troops and our facilities. We have proven that we will strike and act to do that. And that’s a strong message that Iran needs to take away. We take those responsibilities seriously.”The Pentagon has also sent 900 troops to the Middle East to operate a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery and Patriot battalions, in addition to the two aircraft carrier strike groups moved to the region earlier this month. “We’ve got to make sure we send a signal to all actors, not just Iran, but all actors, certainly Iran included, that we will take our national security interest very seriously. We will protect and defend our troops. And we’ll do it at a time [and] in a manner of our choosing,” Kirby said. U.S. officials worry that Iran may use the Hamas-Israel war to open another front in the conflict, with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warning Sunday that Israel had “crossed the red lines” that “may force everyone to take action.”
Tehran funds Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both militant organizations have stated aims to destroy Israel.

Ground battles rage in Gaza as concern grows for hospitals
Agence France Presse/October 30, 2023
Ground battles raged inside the northern Gaza Strip on Monday and Israeli tanks were seen on the outskirts of its largest city in the war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Israel’s intensifying land and air campaign since Hamas’s October 7 attacks has heightened fears for the 2.4 million civilians trapped inside besieged Gaza, where the Hamas-ruled health ministry says more than 8,000 have died. Dozens of Israeli tanks rolled into the fringes of Gaza City, eyewitnesses said, after a night of heavy clashes in nearby areas where the army said it had killed dozens of “terrorists” and Hamas also reported fierce fighting.
The Israeli land forces are supported by heavy fire from fighter jets, drones and artillery that the army said had struck more than 600 targets within 24 hours, up sharply from 450 a day earlier. Concern has surged about the widening humanitarian disaster, with fears centred on Gaza hospitals inside Israeli-mandated evacuation zones where medics warn that many patients cannot be moved. The army said troops overnight “killed dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels and attempted to attack” while an aircraft struck a building “with over 20 Hamas terrorist operatives inside”.Columns of Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers were seen churning through the sand, and Israeli snipers took positions inside emptied residential buildings, in footage released by the army. Israeli tanks were later spotted on the edges of Gaza City, usually the most densely populated urban area but now emptied of many residents following repeated Israeli evacuation orders. A witness told AFP the Israeli tanks blocked the strip’s major north-south road and had been “firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it”. AFP journalists are not inside Gaza City, following Israeli warnings that the territory’s northern areas must be considered a war zone.
‘The ground shook’
It is now more than three weeks since Hamas gunmen launched a wave of bloody cross-border raids against homes, communities, farms and security posts in Israel that shocked and infuriated the nation. An estimated 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 239 people were taken hostage, according to the latest Israeli tallies. Israel has vowed to free the hostages, track down those responsible and “eradicate” Hamas, the Islamist movement that has governed Gaza since 2007. After weeks of ferocious air strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a new “stage” in a “long and difficult” war. Israel has for weeks warned Palestinians civilians to flee the northern half of the Gaza Strip, while also cutting off normal supplies of water, food, fuel and other essentials to the long-blockaded territory. The United Nations reported Sunday that civil order was starting to break down after “thousands of people” had ransacked its warehouses looking for tinned food, flour, oil and hygiene supplies. According to the U.N., all 10 hospitals in northern Gaza have received evacuation orders — despite sheltering thousands of patients and about 117,000 of the displaced. Among those being treated are intensive care patients, infants and elderly people on life support systems. The head of the World Health Organization said calls to evacuate Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City were “deeply concerning”. “We reiterate — it’s impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X. Mohamed al-Talmas, who has taken shelter in Gaza’s biggest hospital Al-Shifa, said “the ground shook” there with intense Israeli raids. Israel describes Al-Shifa hospital as a de facto Hamas “command centre” and headquarters.
‘Collective punishment’
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has warned the situation was getting “more desperate by the hour” and warned against the “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
U.S. President Joe Biden stressed in a call with Netanyahu that, while Israel has the right to defend itself, it must do so “in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law that prioritises the protection of civilians”. Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron earlier “stressed the importance of getting urgent humanitarian support” into Gaza. And the International Criminal Court lead prosecutor Karim Khan warned Israel on Sunday that preventing access to humanitarian aid could be a “crime”. Limited aid has entered Gaza from Egypt under a U.S.-brokered deal, but its volume has fallen far short of the hundreds of trucks a day aid agencies say are needed. The U.N. reported that 33 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies had entered Gaza on Sunday — bringing to 117 the total that have entered through the Rafah crossing since the resumption of aid on October 21. With increasingly fierce urban war now feared in Gaza, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari again urged Palestinian civilians to go “to a safer area” in the south, where many families now live in cars, tents or in the open. “We are gradually expanding the ground activity and the scope of our forces in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Fears for hostages
Inside Israel, where shocked residents still face daily rocket attacks, much of the focus is on the hostages abducted by Hamas. Hamas has released four and offered to free more as part of a swap for Palestinians detained in Israel. It has also claimed “almost 50” hostages were killed by Israeli strikes — a claim that was impossible to verify but has caused anguish to those praying for their loved ones to return. “We demanded that no action be taken that endangers the fate of our family members,” said Meirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of hostage Romi Gonen. Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant accused Hamas of playing “psychological games” and charged that “Hamas is cynically using those who are dear to us — they understand the pain and the pressure”. Anti-Israel anger has flared across the tense region. Washington has expressed deep concern about the war spilling over, as Israel’s enemies — in particular Iran-allied “axis of resistance” groups — step up actions across the Middle East. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has warned Israel’s “crimes have crossed the red lines, which may force everyone to take action”. The Israeli army said Monday it had “struck military infrastructure in Syrian territory” in response to launches “toward Israeli territory”. Skirmishes have intensified on the Israeli-Lebanese border with Iran-backed Hezbollah. Israel’s military said Monday that 31-year-old sergeant Yinon Fleishman, a reservist, was killed in northern Israel when his tank overturned.

Report: Paris proposes detailed political solution for Israel-Hamas war
Naharnet/October 30, 2023 
Paris has launched contacts with all those concerned with “what is happening on the ground” in the Israel-Hamas war, opening direct channels with Doha and Ankara to “explore the stances over the possibility of reaching a sustainable solution,” Lebanon’s al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday. Below is a summary of the French plan as published by the Lebanese daily:
- A ceasefire on all fronts
- The submission of lists of the captives and missing by the two sides
- A comprehensive prisoner exchange that includes Israelis captured in previous wars
- The entry of aid into Gaza without any preconditions
- Tasking the Palestinian Authority with managing all the affairs of the Gaza Strip and overseeing the reconstruction process
- Deploying Arab and Muslim forces from nations that have ties with Israel on the border between Gaza and Israel
- Launching negotiations aimed at reaching a political solution based on the two-state initiative

Hamas releases video showing Israeli women hostages
Agence France Presse/October 30, 2023
Hamas on Monday released a video showing three women from among at least 239 people that Israel says were abducted to Gaza during the October 7 attacks by the Palestinian militant group. It was not immediately possible to verify the identity of the women in the 76-second video in which one calls for Israel to make a deal for the release of all captives. Hamas said the women were "Zionist detainees".

Israel says hit military infrastructure in Syria's Daraa
Agence France Presse/October 30, 2023
Israel’s army said Monday it carried out air strikes on military infrastructure inside Syria as fears grow that its war against Hamas could spur a broader regional conflict. “A short time ago, an IDF fighter jet attacked the launchers” from where overnight attacks originated toward Israeli territory, the military said, indicating it hit “military infrastructure in Syrian territory.” The army did not provide more details, but public broadcaster Kan News said the strikes hit near the southern city of Daraa. Syria’s defense ministry said Monday Israel struck at around 1:35 am (2235 GMT) “from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting two positions of our armed forces in the Daraa countryside, causing some material losses.” The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Israel targeted “an artillery battalion” in Daraa province, in response to shelling on the nearby occupied Golan Heights. The Britain-based Observatory, which has a vast network of sources in Syria, said Hezbollah-linked Syrian and Palestinian groups were behind rocket attacks from the Daraa area. Concerns are growing about the regional fallout from Israel’s war on Gaza’s Hamas rulers. Since the fighting began, there has been a string of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria as well as increasing exchanges of fire along the Israel-Lebanon border between Hezbollah and Israeli forces. Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it was striking “Hezbollah terrorist targets in Lebanon” in response to rocket fire. Cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah have become an almost daily occurrence since October 7, when Hamas militants stormed over the Gaza border into southern Israel. Since then, Israel has responded with an unrelenting bombardment of Gaza, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has killed more than 8,000 people, nearly half of them children. Violence on the Israel-Lebanon border has killed at least 62 people in Lebanon according to an AFP tally — 47 of them Hezbollah fighters but also including four civilians, one a Reuters journalist. Israeli officials have reported at least four deaths, including one civilian. Nearly 29,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon due to the skirmishes, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Israeli tanks enter edge of Gaza, cut key road from north to south
Agence France Presse/October 30, 2023
Israeli tanks on Monday entered the edge of Gaza City and cut a key road from the north to the south of the war-torn Palestinian territory, witnesses told AFP. The witnesses said tanks were seen in the Zaytun district. "They have cut the Salahedin road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it," said one resident. Israeli forces have stepped up a ground offensive in recent days as part of its military response to the October 7 Hamas attacks, vowing to topple Gaza's Islamist rulers.

Biden says Mideast leaders must consider two-state solution after war ends
Associated Press/October 30, 2023
As the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war enters what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says could be a "long and difficult" new stage, President Joe Biden is calling on Israeli and Arab leaders to think hard about their eventual postwar reality.
It's one, he argues, where finally finding agreement on a long-sought two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict should be a priority. "There's no going back to the status quo as it stood on Oct. 6," Biden told reporters, referring to the day before Hamas militants attacked Israel and set off the latest war. The White House says Biden conveyed the same message directly to Netanyahu during a telephone call this past week. "It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, and in our view it has to be a two-state solution," Biden said.
The push for a two-state solution — one in which Israel would co-exist with an independent Palestinian state — has eluded U.S. presidents and Middle East diplomats for decades. It's been put on the back burner since the last American-led effort at peace talks collapsed in 2014 amid disagreements on Israeli settlements, the release of Palestinian prisoners and other issues. Palestinian statehood is something that Biden rarely addressed in the early going of his administration. During his visit to the West Bank last year, Biden said the "ground is not ripe" for new attempts to reach a permanent peace even as he reiterated to Palestinians the long-held U.S. support for statehood. Now, at a moment of heightened concern that the Israel-Hamas war could spiral into a broader regional conflict, Biden has begun to emphasize that once the bombing and shooting stop, working toward a Palestinian state should no longer be ignored. Until recently, Biden had put far more emphasis on what his administration saw as the achievable ambition of normalizing relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors than on restarting peace talks. Even his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in a lengthy essay that was written shortly before the Oct. 7 attack and described Biden's global foreign policy efforts made no mention of Palestinian statehood. In an updated version of the Foreign Affairs essay posted online, Sullivan wrote that the administration was "committed to a two-state solution." White House officials also say the normalization talks have always included significant proposals to benefit the Palestinians. There is no shortage of obstacles in the way of Biden's postwar vision. An independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is viewed as a nonstarter by Israel's far-right government. An ineffectual Palestinian Authority controls parts of the West Bank and has little credibility with the population it governs. Meantime, a looming U.S. presidential election could make Biden a less-than-ideal mediator in 2024. Aaron David Miller, who served as an adviser on Middle East issues to Democratic and Republican administrations, said Biden's recent emphasis on a two-state solution was an "aspirational talking point."
"The odds are very, very low," he said. "It's essentially mission impossible."
Still, Biden in recent days has been raising the issue in his conversations with fellow leaders. Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi during a Sunday phone call discussed setting the conditions "for a durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East to include the establishment of a Palestinian state," according to the White House. The call for a two-state solution arose Saturday at the Republican Jewish Coalition summit in Las Vegas, where GOP presidential contenders criticized Biden's Israel policy and what they saw as a failure by Democrats to sufficiently condemn antisemitism across the United States. One presidential hopeful, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, said Israel should feel free to abandon "the myth of a two-state solution." The White House is cognizant that Biden's calls for a two-state solution are ambitious and are perhaps not achievable in the near term, according to a White House official who was not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity. There is also a recognition that the Netanyahu government, facing public backlash for failing to prevent the Hamas attack, is focused on its operations against Hamas and is not giving much consideration to Biden's talk of Palestinian statehood. Still, Biden believes it is important for him and his team to convey "hope" and make clear that his administration backs a Palestinian state, the official said. Dennis Ross, a negotiator in the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, said it is important to start planning for down the road even though there is no end in sight for the current conflict.
"You can't go back to the point where you can ignore the Palestinians as an issue," Ross said. "It's not hopeless. When you get beyond this, it's not hopeless."
The renewed calls for Palestinian statehood also come as Palestinian American groups, Muslim advocacy organizations and some fellow Democrats have expressed frustration that Biden continues to express full-throated support for Israel at a time when the Palestinian death count is mounting and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsening.
"This is not about someone's faith," said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. "It's about finding a future for the Middle East that is more cooperative, more stable, more secure, where Israel's more integrated into the region and we're not giving up on it."Biden has expressed concern about deteriorating conditions for innocent civilians in Gaza. But his insistence that he will not dictate how Israeli forces carry out their operations could complicate his ability to maintain credibility as an evenhanded broker. U.S. Muslim leaders, at a private White House meeting with Biden and top aides this past week, urged the president to call for a cease-fire. Participants also told Biden that his silence on what they perceive as collective punishment by Israel against innocent Gaza civilians was undercutting his standing with Arab Americans and Muslims, including in states that could have a big impact on the 2024 election. They also expressed their concern to Biden over his statement that he has "no confidence" in the Gaza death count because it is tabulated by the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The ministry says more than 8,000 people, mostly women and minors, have been killed in Gaza. More than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial Hamas onslaught. Rami Nashashibi, the founder of the Inner City Muslim Action Network in Chicago and a participant in the meeting, said he told Biden that his comments about the death toll in Gaza came off as "dehumanizing." Nashashibi added that he and the other participants told the president that his comments were particularly unsettling because Biden, throughout his term, has demonstrated profound empathy with suffering people.
"I raised that with him very directly, and others in the room also did so in a way that I think was heard and acknowledged," Nashashibi said.
The renewed push for statehood could be pointed to by Biden as a sign of his commitment to Palestinian sovereignty. But his handling of the Mideast turmoil is already threatening to be a drag on his reelection prospects in 2024, and any progress that Biden can make toward a two-state solution is likely to require a second term. Some Democratic Party officials have become concerned his handling of the war could dent Biden's and the party's standing with Arab American voters as well as a younger voters who polls show have greater sympathy for Palestinian concerns than the party's older and more centrist voters. A senior Michigan Democratic Party official said Biden's handling of the war has already emerged in the state as a "huge" problem and could become more vexing if the war stretches on and the death toll in Gaza continues to rise. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive party concerns.
Biden was expected to face a tight 2024 race in the state even before the war. He won Michigan by less than 3 percentage points in 2020, and Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state by 0.3% in 2016. More than 300,000 people of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry live in Michigan. "Even if he's hurt to the tune of a few points, he's already got a very close race," said longtime Michigan pollster Bernie Porn.

Four killed in Israeli raid on West Bank's Jenin
Associated Press/October 30, 2023
Four Palestinians were killed early Monday in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, as Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians. The ministry said five other Palestinians were wounded, including two with critical injuries. Israeli media reported that there was heavy exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Jenin in a battle that included drone strikes. Violence has surged in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Gaza broke out on Oct. 7. Since then, Israeli forces and settlers killed 115 Palestinians, including 33 minors, as of Sunday, according to the U.N. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. OCHA said half of the fatalities were during clashes that followed Israeli search-and-arrest operations. On Saturday, a Jewish settler shot dead a Palestinian man harvesting olives near the West Bank city of Nablus, the man’s uncle said. This brings the number of Palestinians reported killed by settlers to seven since Hamas’s incursion into Israel three weeks ago. Tayseer Mahmoud said his nephew, Bilal Saleh, was working in the grove in the village of Sawiya with his wife and their four children on Saturday when a group of settlers attacked them. Saleh, concerned about the safety of his children, tried to leave the area but a settler shot him in the chest, Mahmoud said. Mahmoud said he didn't witness the confrontation but was close by and reached the scene within minutes of the shooting. Saleh died before he could be taken for medical care, he said. Settler leader Yossi Dagan said in a video posted to Facebook on Saturday that the shooter was accompanied by family members and fired in self-defense after they were “attacked with rocks by dozens of rioting Hamas supporters.”In addition to the killings, Palestinians in the West Bank have reported attacks on people and property, as well as denial of access to their land. The violence has gotten so intense that it has drawn condemnation from U.S. President Joe Biden. Attacks by extremist settlers, Biden said, amounted to “pouring gasoline” on fires already burning in the Middle East since the Hamas attack.
The Israeli military said it received a report of a “violent confrontation” between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, and that a Palestinian was reported killed. Police have opened an investigation, it said. This year has been the deadliest in the West Bank since the second Palestinian uprising against Israel two decades ago. Since the outbreak of the war alone, more than 100 Palestinians, including civilians, have been killed, most during military arrest raids and violent protests in the West Bank. France on Sunday condemned the deadly attacks by settlers in recent days and urged Israeli authorities to protect Palestinian civilian populations, notably in Sawiya. “Violent acts perpetrated by settlers against the Palestinian population are multiplying. They are inadmissible and must stop,” the statement from the French Foreign Ministry said.

Hundreds storm airport in Russia in riot over arrival of plane from Israel
Associated Press/October 30, 2023
Hundreds of people stormed into the main airport in Russia's Dagestan region and rushed onto the landing field, chanting antisemitic slogans and seeking passengers arriving on a flight from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, Russian news agencies and social media reported.
Russian news reports said the crowd on Sunday surrounded the airliner, which belongs to Russian carrier Red Wings. Authorities closed the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, and police converged on the facility. Dagestan's Ministry of Health said more than 20 people were injured, with two in critical condition. It said the injured included police officers and civilians. Sixty people were detained in the unrest, the Interior Ministry for the federal district that includes Dagestan said Monday. It was not clear if charges had been filed against any of them. Video on social media show some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and others trying to overturn a police car. Antisemitic slogans can be heard being shouted and some in the crowd examined the passports of arriving passengers, apparently in an attempt to identify those who were Israeli. In a statement Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel "expects the Russian law enforcement authorities to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis." Netanyahu's office added that the Israeli ambassador to Russia was working with Russia to keep Israelis and Jews safe. While voicing support for Palestinians in Gaza, the regional Dagestani government appealed to citizens to remain calm and not take part in such protests. "We urge residents of the republic to treat the current situation in the world with understanding. Federal authorities and international organizations are making every effort to bring about a cease-fire against Gaza civilians … we urge residents of the republic not to succumb to the provocations of destructive groups and not to create panic in society," the Dagestani government wrote on Telegram. The Supreme Mufti of Dagestan, Sheikh Akhmad Afandi, called on residents to stop the unrest at the airport. "You are mistaken. This issue cannot be resolved in this way. We understand and perceive your indignation very painfully. ... We will solve this issue differently. Not with rallies, but appropriately. Maximum patience and calm for you," he said in a video published to Telegram. Dagestan Gov. Sergei Melikov promised consequences for anyone who took part in the violence. "The actions of those who gathered at the Makhachkala airport today are a gross violation of the law! ... (W)hat happened at our airport is outrageous and should receive an appropriate assessment from law enforcement agencies! And this will definitely be done!" he wrote on Telegram. He called the protests a "knife in the backs of those who gave their lives for the security of the Motherland," referring to the 1999 war in Dagestan and troops currently fighting in Ukraine. Russia's civilian aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, later reported that the airfield had been cleared, but that the airport would remain closed to incoming aircraft until Nov. 6.

Despite incendiary rhetoric, Iran walks tightrope to avoid direct Israel war
Al-Monitor/A correspondent in Tehran/October 30/2023
Three weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, Iran has adhered to a strategy of caution to avoid direct engagement, translating its threats into limited attacks on US bases through its proxies.
Iran protest
The commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned on Thursday that Gaza will "devour" Israel should the latter invade the densely populated coastal enclave controlled by Tehran-backed Hamas militants.
"Upon setting boots in Gaza, they will be buried there," declared Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, using his signature anti-Israel rhetoric. To the hard-line commander, the Hamas operation "was one of the most exceptional defeats ever suffered" by the United States, Great Britain and Israel. "They will be mistaken by thinking that the Muslim world will sit back watching them destroy part of the Islamic world," he warned. Yet the IRGC chief refrained from speaking of any direct Iranian engagement, and followed Tehran's official line since Israel began pounding Gaza in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 onslaught in southern Israeli communities. From the onset of the escalating conflict, Iranian diplomats and generals have warned that the "resistance front" — the moniker they apply to their proxies scattered across the region — will come into action if Israel launches a ground offensive into Gaza.
The rhetoric has in recent days been particularly redirected at the United States, as the "accomplice" in the Israeli bombardments of Gaza. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Washington of "managing the Zionist regime's crimes" in a speech in Tehran on Wednesday. Khamenei's remarks have been followed by a series of attacks on military bases hosting American forces in Syria and Iraq. Blaming them on Tehran-controlled Shiite militias, Washington has retaliated by hitting their IRGC-run bases.
In employing those proxies, Tehran seeks to shield itself from blame while advancing regional objectives. The attacks appear to operate within certain constraints, as a message that those proxies could complicate the calculations if the United States fails to dissuade Israel from invading Gaza.
Despite being controlled by hard-liners, caution has prevailed in past critical junctures in Iran's situation rooms. Protecting the establishment was the fundamental policy of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Adhering to that approach, Khomeini's successor, Khamenei, has managed to keep wars at bay. His famous "heroic flexibility" gave the green light to moderate Iranian diplomats to clinch the 2015 nuclear deal with the West to forestall an imminent military conflict and economic collapse.
Also, when the United States killed his favored top general, Qasem Soleimani, in January 2020, Khamenei approved no direct war. He allowed only limited missile strikes on the US-run Ain al-Assad base in Iraq, leaving his loyalists wondering when the true revenge would be exacted.
On the same day as Khamenei's recent speech, US President Joe Biden told a press conference that he had warned the Iranian leader that "he has to be prepared" if Tehran continued to move against American troops.
Iran confirmed the messaging, but denied the tone. "The US messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side," declared Mohammad Jamshidi, a top aide to President Ebrahim Raisi, in a post on X. "If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages."
Hamas gains sufficient for now
Hidden in the rhetoric coming from Tehran is a concern about an existential threat to the proxies it has nurtured for decades to promote its own survival. The Hamas attacks have been hailed by the Islamic Republic as "strategic gains." Coming after a chain of Israel-blamed nuclear sabotage and assassinations inside Iranian territory, the deadly operation has been the "turning point" in Tehran's deep-running animosity with Tel Aviv. An escalation of the conflict, by contrast, will mean that Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and smaller yet diverse militia groups in Iraq and Syria will have to be dragged in. Their engagement in a potential war with Israel will also be a face-off with the world's most advanced military, the United States, protecting its most strategic ally in the Middle East. Any such confrontation could deal massive blows to the Iranian proxies, which would not benefit Tehran at a moment it is celebrating the "absolute triumph." The Islamic Republic will, therefore, go to all lengths to maintain the current status, which it has gained without having to enter a devastating, direct war with its sworn enemy, Israel.

Gaza’s Christians stand their ground despite heavy bombardment
Al-Monitor/October 30/2023
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Churches have become the latest victim of the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, leaving no safe place for the besieged Gaza population.
Twenty Palestinians, including 18 Christians, were killed in an Israeli airstrike Oct. 19 on a building near the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in the south of Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza and other local sources. The shelling brought down one of the buildings in the church’s complex where hundreds of displaced have been sheltered since Israel ordered more than 1 million people to move from Gaza’s northern part to the south ahead of its planned ground invasion. Father Youssef Asaad of the Catholic Holy Family Church, located a few meters away from St. Porphyrius, told Al-Monitor that the Israeli missile fell between the church’s service provision building and a nearby abandoned building, which led to the collapse of the service provision building on the people hiding inside the church. He said 20 people were killed, including 18 Christians who were mostly from a single family, while they were sleeping. Many other displaced suffered from severe and mild injuries, and other buildings in the church complex were cracked and damaged beyond repair, he lamented.
Asaad added that the Israeli missile left a massive hole in the church’s floor and surrounding area, which required moving the 400 displaced people sheltered inside to the Holy Family Church.
“Although they were relocated, the people are still not safe because of the ongoing airstrikes on Gaza that are targeting everything in their way,” Asaad warned.
Saint Porphyrius Church’s media officer Philip Jahshan, who was present at the church at the time of the attack, confirmed to Al-Monitor that the raid directly targeted the church’s service provision building, causing its full destruction.
The Israeli army said it struck a Hamas command center in the vicinity of the church. But eyewitnesses who spoke to Al-Monitor stressed that the building the Israeli army was referring to is abandoned and that no one was there at the time of the attack.  Ibrahim al-Suri, one of the survivors of the Israeli raid, told Al-Monitor, “The church was a direct target of the shelling, unlike what the Israeli army claimed. The building that the army claimed was targeted by the strike is deserted, and it has been a long time since anyone’s been there.”  “Unfortunately, everything in Gaza is being targeted. There is no safe place. Even places of worship and hospitals are in danger,” Suri said, calling on world countries to intervene and put an immediate end to the war that has killed over 7,300 Gazans in only three weeks.
On Oct. 20, the bodies of the Christians who died in the attack were laid out in the church courtyard for a mass funeral and were buried in a cemetery next to the church.
St. Porphyrius Church is said to be the third oldest church in the world and the oldest in Gaza, dating back to 425 AD. Adjoining buildings and rooms were added to the church complex over the years. The church also underwent a series of maintenance and restoration projects in the past years, most recently in 2020.  The church today includes several buildings, including the service provision building that was bombed. There are three entrances to the church, whose interior walls are decorated with religious inscriptions and icons.
According to historical narratives, the church was built with the support and funding of Byzantine Emperor Arcadius of Constantinople, to whom St. Porphyrius resorted to counter the attacks of the pagan residents of Gaza against the Christians. The church’s construction was completed five years after St. Porphyrius’ passing and was named after him.  There are three active churches in the Gaza Strip: Holy Family, St. Porphyrius and the Baptist church attached to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, which was also bombed last week. Palestinians accuse Israel of targeting the hospital, while the Israeli army claims the deadly attack was caused by a rocket misfire from a Palestinian faction. Hundreds of people were killed and injured in that blast.  About 1,000 Christians currently live in the Gaza Strip, down from 7,000 in 2007 when Hamas took control of the enclave. The majority of them are Orthodox and have refused move to south from Gaza City, despite the Israeli warnings and the looming ground invasion.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 30-31/2023
Israel, Iran and US dragged toward war by monsters of their own creation
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/October 30, 2023
As the Gaza carnage soars, the regionwide threat posed by Tehran-backed paramilitary hordes and their immense missile arsenals is no longer an abstract one. Hundreds of thousands of radicalized transnational paramilitaries are goading themselves into a conflict — ostensibly with Israel, but also probably dragging in the US, its allies and the region. Militias are already amassing along the Syria-Lebanon-Israel borders, where there are inexorably escalating missile assaults, skirmishes and airstrikes. Israeli military figures have long argued that a decisive confrontation with these factions would ultimately be necessary, particularly now that Israel’s leadership widely believes that Iran triggered this latest conflict via Hamas. In Gaza, more than 8,000 have been killed, including about 3,200 Palestinian children. An eruption on Israel’s northern border would bring an exponentially greater conflict, with Hezbollah boasting of having 100,000 fighters and 150,000 rockets. Iraq’s Al-Hashd Al-Sha’abi exceeds 240,000 fighters, with large affiliated forces in Syria and Yemen. And then there are 190,000 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps combatants, many already deployed throughout the region. This compares with 170,000 active Israeli military personnel and 460,000 reservists. With 300,000 Israeli forces already committed near Gaza, this illustrates why a multifront war is Israel’s nightmare scenario, particularly with the West Bank in turmoil. US intervention could become inevitable once Iranian proxies wade in: Israel cannot fight everyone at once. American nervousness about all-out conflict is manifested in the timid manner in which it passively observed 18 militant strikes against US targets in Iraq and Syria, before responding with two bashfully symbolic attacks against militant facilities on the Syria-Iraq border. White House spokesman John Kirby said: “Nobody’s looking for a conflict with Iran.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US had “no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities.” But as militia strikes continue, the US may be reluctantly sucked into an escalatory tit for tat.
Western nationals are being told to leave Lebanon. With the only currently functioning airport in Beirut issuing evacuation protocols, there is nationwide panic about being trapped in the line of fire of an Israeli invasion.
Hezbollah and Hamas’ very existence is the consequence of historic Israeli machinations
This conflict is only possible because all sides created and provoked dangerous phenomena they could not control. Hezbollah and Hamas’ very existence is the consequence of historic Israeli machinations. Hezbollah was founded in the smoking ruins of Israel’s 1982 Lebanon invasion and Hamas’ expansion was credited to Israel’s cultivation of Palestine’s Islamist movement as a counterweight to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization. Benjamin Netanyahu’s evisceration of the two-state solution decimated Palestinian moderate and intellectual opinion, leaving armed Islamists as the only entities with supposedly viable strategies for resisting occupation. Many Israeli and US columnists argue that Netanyahu and Hamas enjoyed a decades-long “symbiotic” relationship, cultivating each other for partisan political calculations. Malevolent mobs of murderous, messianic settlers, mobilized by extreme-right puppet masters, fomented boiling chaos in the West Bank that threatens to blow up in everybody’s faces. The only possible outcome of the Gaza carnage will be to provoke a desire for vengeance in entirely new generations.
Tehran has struggled to control the transnational hordes it cultivated. Capricious militia commanders such as Qais Khazali view perpetual provocation as an endlessly productive strategy, in careers built upon engineering anarchy and mayhem. Kata’ib Hezbollah has threatened attacks on the Gulf, the Houthis are launching drones over Egyptian and Saudi airspace and Iraqi militants are blocking oil supplies along the Jordan border, all fueling perfect storms of conflict regionalization. Statements from Tehran urge de-escalation, while dealing in provocation. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian gloated that paramilitaries such as Hezbollah had their “fingers on the trigger” and boasted that their next moves would be “much more powerful and deeper than what you’ve witnessed.” Iran sank decades of investment into Hezbollah, which has played a leading role in training and mobilizing other regional militias. The methodology of mass-casualty suicide attacks, exploited ad infinitum by Daesh and Al-Qaeda, was pioneered by Hezbollah in the 1980s. Tehran does not want to witness Israel dismembering and eliminating its biggest asset. Hezbollah has likewise warned that it will not stand idly by and witness the destruction of Hamas. As with other powers that manipulated Middle Eastern conflicts for their own amusement, Russia is gleefully pouring fuel on the fire, hoping that if the West is drawn into a widened conflict, Ukraine will be entirely forgotten.
As Israel’s Gaza incursions continue, Hezbollah has been mocked that, despite its “marching to Jerusalem” rhetoric, it appears highly reluctant to rush into precisely the kind of war it supposedly exists to fight. Hundreds of thousands of battle-hungry paramilitaries were likewise brainwashed that they represent the “Islamic Resistance,” tasked with liberating Palestine — whatever the actual Machiavellian objectives of their paymasters. Luckily, Hassan Nasrallah appears, for now, to be sufficiently pragmatic to take Israel’s apocalyptic threats seriously, although his efforts to displace the conflict to the Syrian border are unlikely to spare Lebanon. Nasrallah met representatives from Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, who begged him to enter the conflict, while agreeing to coordinate through a joint operations room.
In 2014, the US allowed the creation of the Iraqi paramilitary Al-Hashd Al-Sha’abi as a hands-off means of combating Daesh, in parallel with US-backed proxies in Syria. But Western powers did nothing to prevent the Hashd behemoth doubling in size, even after Daesh’s defeat, despite repeated warnings about the perils such forces posed to regional stability. Like the nastiest slasher movies fevered imaginations can conjure up, this cowardly failure to slay undead demons of past conflicts is returning to haunt us for Halloween 2023.
Opportunistic posturing and provocation by transnational militias and their paymasters offer scant comfort to Gaza’s citizens, who are being bombed and starved into oblivion. Nobody wants an expanded conflict: not Israel, not America and certainly not bankrupt Iran. But all these parties have become impotent prisoners of the escalatory cycle they and their proxy legions are energetically fueling.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Macron keen to make a good impression in the Middle East
Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/October 30, 2023
The deep hugs, pursed lips and concerned expressions have come to personify Emmanuel Macron’s visits to the Middle East. The embattled French president, who is presiding over a divided republic at home, has used his regional trips as an opportunity to grandstand on the international stage, at times as a figure of authority and at others the engaging face of the West. From his engagement in the Middle East peace process to his support for peace talks in Ukraine, Macron has demonstrated a readiness to engage in geopolitical complexities and pursue diplomatic solutions. Last week, he visited Israel, the occupied West Bank and Egypt, leaving many perplexed about whether he genuinely thought he could succeed where others have so recently failed.
Having pursued professional and political interests far removed from the Middle East before his election as president, Macron began his first term with a state visit to Morocco. In the time since, he has continued to seek out opportunities to project power in the region, such as through his differences of opinion with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his proximity to Gulf leaders, his involvement in Lebanon and his cultivation of Iraq.
As he shuttled around the region’s affected capitals last week, Macron hoped to appear front and center in the Middle East once more. Going further than US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the French president sought to position himself as a Jacques Chirac, not a Francois Hollande, by directing the diplomacy of a country whose raucous issues too often prohibit her leaders from having a global impact.
Macron is directing the diplomacy of a country whose raucous issues too often prohibit her leaders from having a global impact
In a joint statement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Macron reiterated his support for Israel, while warning of the need to avoid civilian casualties and not lose track of a political solution. Keen to extend France’s traditional “friend of both” policy in regard to the conflict, he condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as being illegal. While being supportive of an independent Palestinian state, France officially considers Hamas as a terrorist organization and calls on it to renounce violence.The president also found time to visit the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah before continuing on to regional capitals. The lack of fanfare surrounding his arrival was perhaps symptomatic of the lowering of France’s position in the region.
Relations between France and the Middle East are long-standing, with Paris having particularly close ties to the Levant. Having been closely involved in the modern history and politics of the Levantine states of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, as well as Israel and the Occupied Territories, the current crisis offers Macron the opportunity to restate France’s historical credentials. His visit built upon the president’s long-standing involvement in Lebanese affairs, through which he has argued the importance of that country’s stability to the wider region and called for an overhaul of its political life and economic management.
France seeks a role greater than that of mediator. It wants to be a diplomatic leader in the region
Regarding Syria, on which Macron has been vocal in his opposition to the Assad regime, he came to power too late to have a lasting impact on the conflict. It is in Iraq, therefore, where he has sought to have influence. Macron’s Baghdad Summit was an attempt to solidify regional cooperation. Last week’s regional visit came amid uncertainty over the summit’s next meeting, which may be canceled in light of the current events in the Middle East.
Macron’s recent diplomatic activity in the Arab world, with a visit to the Gulf scheduled for later in the autumn, comes in the light of the sustained decline in France’s influence on the African continent. Macron has attracted criticism for presiding over France’s shrinking international role, making the presence of French companies like TotalEnergies in Iraq and Safran and Dassault in the Gulf particularly important to demonstrating his ability to pursue French interests.
Through diplomatic platforms such as the Baghdad Summit, increased economic ties and the soft power projection of cultural projects like the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the French presidential envoy to AlUla and the country’s enduring custodianship of certain Catholic sites in Jerusalem, France seeks a role greater than that of mediator. It wants to be a diplomatic leader in the region.
Macron will be president until 2027 but, bound by constitutional term limits, the 45-year-old will be mid-career when he steps down from one of the world’s most powerful jobs. His efforts to bolster Europe’s influence in international affairs and his responses to international crises — marked by his “no matter the cost” policy during the COVID-19 pandemic — in parallel to his involvement in conflict resolution and peace-building initiatives, stand out as preparation for a greater calling.
*Zaid M. Belbagi is a political commentator and an adviser to private clients between London and the GCC. X: @Moulay_Zaid

How to Curb Tehran’s Oil Exports ..Unhindered oil revenues flowing to Tehran will harm U.S. interests.
Saeed Ghasseminejad/The National Interest/October 30, 2023
In a letter to President Joe Biden, a bipartisan coalition composed of 113 members of the House of Representatives asked him to hold Tehran accountable for its support for Hamas and “end Iran’s oil trade to China.” That may sound like a tall order—but it can be achieved if Biden is determined enough.
Since Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, Tehran has exported oil worth approximately $84 billion to $95 billion, with China as its largest customer. This revenue has funded Iran’s aggression abroad and oppression at home. In August 2023, Iran exported 1.7 million barrels of crude oil per day (MBPD), a level not reached since March 2019. Tehran’s average daily export in 2023 reached 1.4 MBPD by the end of September. That level represents a 61 percent increase from 2020 and a 22 percent increase from 2022.
Those increased daily export flows are reflected in the numbers for annual export flows. For example, as the World Bank notes, Iran’s overall exports declined in 2019 and 2020 by 17.3 and 12.8 percent, respectively, but then increased by 5.2 and 8.2 percent, respectively, in 2021 and 2022. With the higher export flows, Iran’s revenue flows have grown as well.
In fact, Tehran’s funds from increased oil exports over the last two years, combined with its significant increase in non-oil exports, have filled the regime’s coffers. The Central Bank of Iran’s net foreign assets—that is, its foreign assets minus its foreign liabilities—have increased by a whopping 46 percent, from $111 billion in March 2021 to $162 billion in March 2023.
Tehran’s access to its export revenue and reserves has also increased. Iranian officials have publicly boasted about their success in repatriating these funds. For example, over the last few weeks, Tehran has managed to tap into a $16 billion blocked reserve—sending $10 billion from Iraq to Oman and sending $6 billion from South Korea to Qatar. While the U.S. Treasury Department says it has reached a “quiet understanding” to refreeze the $6 billion now held in a Qatari bank, Qatar’s prime minister and the governor of Qatar’s central bank have rejected that “quiet understanding,” according to Iran International. The governor of Qatar’s central bank went so far as to mock the notion of a possible refreeze, calling it “a joke and media game.”
The combination of increased export revenue and improved access to it has enabled Tehran to intensify its nuclear and missile programs, domestic oppression, and overseas aggression. According to Reuters, Israeli security officials estimate that Tehran’s funding for Hamas has risen from $100 million to $350 million over the past year. As Tehran’s financial resources have expanded, its ability to support acts of terror and warfare has grown significantly.In response, it only makes sense to block Iran’s financial pipeline, especially the regime’s oil exports.
To reduce Iran’s access to hard currency, Washington should embark on a three-stage plan:
First, Washington should focus on disrupting Iran’s access to its revenue and reserves. The Biden administration can begin by reversing its decision to allow Tehran access to the above $16 billion. Following this reversal, the administration should prevent any further release of blocked funds in friendly jurisdictions, such as Japan, India, and Luxembourg.
Subsequently, Washington ought to prepare a designation package targeting banks that facilitate Tehran’s access to its revenue and reserves. This information must be communicated to government officials and the financial sector in Tehran’s key trade partners—Turkey, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and China—giving them the choice between aligning with the United States or with Iran. The designation package should include the threat of secondary sanctions; it must absolutely block access to U.S. financial markets and networks and the U.S. dollar.
Second, Washington should curtail Tehran’s oil exports through a five-pillar plan that targets the end-users of Iran’s oil in China, financial intermediaries that facilitate these transactions, the tanker operators and their holding companies that transfer the oil, insurers that insure these cargos, and, finally, the front companies and individuals engaged in exporting Iran’s oil. Up to this point, the Biden administration has primarily concentrated on the fifth pillar, which involves front companies. However, without addressing the other four elements of Tehran’s illicit oil export network, the administration’s efforts do not—and cannot—have a substantial impact.
Third, the Biden Administration should prepare for a campaign to seize the tankers involved in the transport of Iranian crude and the oil they carry. The activities and movements of these tankers are well-documented and known to both the U.S. government and industry observers. By confiscating these vessels and selling the oil on the market, the U.S. government can achieve multiple objectives. It gains greater control over the oil market by increasing the supply Washington controls, deprives the Tehran regime of revenue, and dismantles a crucial component of the oil smuggling network, which could be supporting other malign actors, such as Russia and Venezuela. Additionally, this action could compel China to purchase more oil from U.S. partners in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which would likely indirectly increase U.S. leverage over China. The revenue generated could then be allocated to fund projects that support the Iranian people in their struggle against the regime, such as ensuring free access to the internet or establishing a labor strike fund.
In response, Tehran will most likely retaliate. The nature of this retaliation could involve targeting U.S. forces in the region or striking oil and gas fields and shipments from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. For the United States, the imperative is a decisive response, ensuring Tehran faces substantial consequences as a means of deterrence. This has worked before. At the end of the Iran-Iraq war, the United States successfully forced Tehran to stop its tanker war by targeting the regime’s military and economic assets in the Persian Gulf.
Tehran has a lot to lose and knows it. By targeting oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, it would be indirectly challenging China, given Beijing’s reliance on the Persian Gulf for nearly half its oil supply. Beijing will most likely pressure Tehran to consider China’s strategic concerns. Targeting Saudi Arabia and the UAE will also jeopardize the rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh. Engaging in a full-scale conflict with the United States in Syria and Iraq through its proxy forces threatens the fragile stability in those countries where anti-Tehran forces are waiting for an opportunity to change the status quo. Armed with superior firepower, the United States is well-positioned to counter pro-Tehran forces effectively on both fronts and impose a heavy cost on them.
For years, Khamenei has created chaos in country after country to forge a new order that benefits him. Considering Russia’s challenges in Ukraine and Israel’s preparedness to address threats from Hamas (and possibly Hezbollah in the future), the gathering storm presents an opportunity for the United States to recalibrate the power dynamics in the Middle East, which have been tilting away from U.S. interests.
The Biden Administration must understand that funds flowing to Tehran ultimately become bullets, missiles, IEDs, and bombs used against the United States and its allies.
The time has come to cut off this source of terror.
*Dr. Saeed Ghasseminejad is a senior Iran and financial economics advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He tweets at @SGhasseminejad.

Hamas built a massive tunnel network in Gaza. Here’s how Israeli ‘weasel’ forces will fight it
Rick Jervis,USA Today/October 30, 2023
As Israeli troops push deeper into Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, the ground attack won’t look quite like the traditional door-to-door skirmishes seen in Fallujah, Mosul and other past urban clashes.
Instead, it will happen largely out of sight and underground, deep in a warren of connecting tunnels that Hamas has been digging and lining with concrete for more than a decade. The battle to control and destroy this subterranean labyrinth, estimated at more than 300 miles, will be a key strategy for the Israeli military, according to military analysts and experts – and will make the incursion into Gaza unlike any past urban conflict.
For these “de-tunneling” operations, specialized units code-named Samur – Hebrew for “weasel” – expect to squeeze through the narrow passages and find rocket-assembly lines, stores of small arms and mortars and, deeper still, Hamas’ leaders’ lodging and headquarters – much of it likely boobytrapped with homemade bombs. They may also be searching for some of the more than 200 hostages taken from Israel – who may now be hidden in those same tunnels.
“It’s going to be an undertaking like nothing the [Israel Defense Forces] has ever done,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Schwartz, who ran U.S. security coordination with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority from 2019 to 2021. “And frankly unlike anything we’ve ever done.”
Following the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that killed 1,400 people, Israel unleashed a bombing campaign that has killed more than 8,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israeli officials have said they are targeting Hamas operatives and infrastructure. The response by Israeli ground troops, now under way by degrees, will bring the next phase of the fight – including the fight for the tunnels. The Biden administration has sent some of its most seasoned insurgency experts from the war in Iraq and against ISIS to advise the Israelis, including three-star Marine Corps Gen. James Glynn, who commanded troops in Fallujah during the Iraq War. In the second battle for Fallujah in November 2004, more than 10,000 U.S. troops went house-to-house clearing the city of some 3,000 insurgents in what became the bloodiest battle of the war, where nearly 100 U.S. troops and 2,000 insurgents were killed.
A fight in Gaza may bear some similarities to Fallujah, or to Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraqi forces flushed ISIS out of a tunnel network in 2014. But in Gaza, Israeli forces face more formidable infrastructure and more challenging geography. Hamas’ tunnel system is more advanced, and its fighters are better trained, more disciplined and better equipped than ISIS, said Eitan Shamir, director of the Begin-Sadar Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv.
“It’s a major challenge,” Shamir said. “This is a very messy affair.”
And in Gaza – hemmed in by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, giving civilians nowhere to flee – a ground war is uniquely challenging, said Seth Jones, a military analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"The intricate nature of the tunnel complex in a densely-packed urban environment that is entirely fenced in makes this a fundamentally different – and in many ways more difficult – environment than what U.S. forces had to face in cities like Fallujah or Mosul," he said, adding: “The possibility of civilian casualties is much greater in Gaza.”
Building tunnels for a decade
Palestinians have excavated tunnels under Gaza for decades, initially mostly to smuggle people and goods between Gaza and Egypt, according to testimony to the United Nations by Israeli researcher Eado Hecht. Both Israel and Egypt have tightly controlled their borders to Gaza, creating a virtual blockade on the territory. In time, three types of tunnels emerged, according to Hecht: In addition to tunnels into Egypt in the south, there are tunnels that cross the border of Gaza into Israel, and tunnels that crisscross under Gaza and can be used as command posts, storage facilities and positions to launch mortars or rockets.
The tunnels have become so elaborate and extensive – Hamas leaders claimed in 2021 they stretched for around 311 miles, or nearly half the length of the New York City subway system – that the Israel Defense Forces dubbed it the “Gaza Metro,” according to the CRS report. Experts believe some tunnels drop as far as 200 feet – roughly the equivalent of a 20-story building, or a typical airport control tower, underground. Since at least 2014, the Israel Defense Forces have alleged that Hamas diverts construction supplies meant for civilian aid into tunnel-building instead.
Over the years, the U.S. has lent its expertise – and money – to help Israel locate and destroy the tunnels and develop technologies to combat them. Since 2016, Congress has appropriated $320 million in Department of Defense funding for U.S.-Israel collaboration on “detecting, mapping and neutralizing underground tunnels” in response to the cross-border tunnels built by Hamas, according to a report earlier this month by the Congressional Research Service. In 2021, crews completed an underground concrete barrier with anti-tunnel sensors along the entire 40-mile Israel-Gaza border.
The tunnels have fueled Israeli-Hamas violence before. In 2006, Hamas operatives used a tunnel to launch a surprise attack on Israeli forces and kidnap one of its soldiers, Gilad Shalit, who was held captive for five years before being traded for more than 1,000 prisoners in Israeli jails.
The 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas led to the discovery of 36 cross-border tunnels, which were mostly destroyed, Hecht said.
This time, a key challenge will be finding and rescuing the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas, including 12 Americans.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, a hostage taken and later released by Hamas, described to reporters how she was taken through a “huge network” of underground tunnels that looked like a “spiderweb.” She said hostages were made to walk for two to three hours in the tunnels, gathered and ate in a large hall and slept on mattresses in different rooms. “They told us they believe in the Quran and would not harm us,” she said. “They would give us the same conditions as they have in the tunnels.”
Remote-control robots and ‘weasel’ special forces
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said the military has opened a "second stage" in the war against Hamas by sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea.
Among the ground troops in the next phase of the war, experts told USA TODAY, will be specialized units trained to enter, clear and destroy the tunnels.
Since the 2014 Israeli-Hamas conflict, Israel has been gathering intelligence and training troops on how to locate and destroy the passageways, said Shamir of Bar-Ilan University. At the center of the effort is a highly-secretive laboratory – known simply as “the lab” – where scientists from different fields meet to try to learn tunnel locations and dream up technologies that could penetrate them. Remote-controlled robots have been developed to enter and search the tunnels. Israeli engineers have also developed technology that uses acoustic or seismic sensors and software to detect digging, similar to the science used by oil and gas companies to detect oil reserves, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Because some tunnels are so deep and are concrete-lined, they can survive heavy bombing, Shamir said. Hamas fighters are thought to have enough provisions to live several months in the subterranean labyrinth, he said.
As Israeli forces rumble into the dense urban quarters of Gaza City, Hamas fighters will use the tunnels to launch surprise attacks on Israeli troops, then melt away underground again and pop up in another location, Shamir said. They’ll also use snipers, improvised explosive devices – or IEDs – and bomb-dropping drones. Shamir said he believed Israel’s initial incursion into Gaza is more of a tactic to try to pressure Hamas into a negotiated release of the prisoners. As the military moves into denser urban areas and begins destroying tunnels, it becomes exponentially harder to rescue them, he said.
“Everyone understands the chances then are small,” Shamir said.
The task of neutralizing the tunnel advantage will fall to the Yahalom, the special forces unit of the Combat Engineering Corps, who have been training in tunnel combat. A sub-unit of the Yahalom, the Samur, or weasel, will enter the tunnels and try to disarm or destroy the passages and look for hostages.
In recent years, the Israel Defense Forces has doubled the number of soldiers in Yahalom, expanding its focus to include subterranean fighting, according to the IDF website.
“The main challenge of underground warfare is that the enemy has no above-ground signature,” the website quotes a Yahalom commander as saying. “The fact that the enemy is hidden and collecting intelligence is complicated and difficult.”
Though Israeli forces may not know the precise entrance of every tunnel, they’ve been monitoring for years where cement-mixing trucks in Gaza have been deployed to give them an idea, Edward Luttwak, an Israeli strategist and historian, wrote in a recent essay.
Israeli tunnel specialists will also be ferried by 70-ton Namer infantry combat vehicles, considered some of the best-armored vehicles in the world, he wrote. As they reach suspected tunnel sites, several Namers will form a perimeter – “an improvised fortress” – protecting the combat engineers.
“In 2014, the last time Israeli troops fought in Gaza, most were riding thinly-armored M.113s, which were easily penetrated by RPG anti-tank rockets, with some 60 soldiers killed and hundreds wounded,” Luttwak wrote. “Not this time.”
Schwartz, who coordinated training with Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces, witnessed some of the tunnel training in Israel. The Israel Defense Forces re-created what they believe the Gazan tunnels look like and sent soldiers through the maze to test weaponry and tactics, as well as unmanned vehicles and robotics. “They know what they’re going to experience,” Schwartz said of the Israeli forces. “But the magnitude of what they’re going to deal with compared with what they’ve done in the past is very different.”
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Our Response to China Must Be Overwhelming, Not 'Proportional'
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/October 30, 2023
Biden meeting Xi at this time would be a mistake.... Anything Beijing wants cannot, by definition, be good for America.
How, exactly, can Biden "stabilize relations" with a militant regime that has declared America to be its enemy?
Worse, China's regime thinks it is already at war with the U.S.
Now, therefore, is the time to use all the resources of the federal government. The Secretary of the Treasury, for instance, can designate, pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, Chinese banks to be of "primary money laundering concern." Designated banks can no longer clear dollar transactions through New York, where every dollar transaction clears. Such designations would put the large state banks out of business everywhere outside China. If large state banks were to fail, so would China's state-dominated banking system. The failure of the banking system would undoubtedly mean the end of the Chinese economy and financial system. The end of the political system would soon follow. America is about to be hit by China, so why should Washington delay taking action by trying to fruitlessly talk to a malignant Xi Jinping?
On October 24, a Chinese J-11 fighter jet recklessly maneuvered within ten feet of a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber flying in international airspace over the South China Sea, endangering the crew of the American plane. There have been provocative Chinese intercepts of U.S. planes and vessels in the global commons for decades, but now the pace of the belligerent actions has increased.
What was the response of the Biden administration?
President Joe Biden has desperately tried to arrange a meeting with Chinese ruler Xi Jinping. They have finally agreed in principle to meet next month in San Francisco during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The agreement came during the just-concluded visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Washington. Wang met with Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Biden meeting Xi at this time would be a mistake. There is nothing good that can come of this discussion.
Foreign policy experts, of course, hail the upcoming meeting. "The key word here is 'stabilization' of bilateral ties—not really improvement, but stabilization," Yun Sun of the Stimson Center told the Associated Press. "The world needs the U.S. and China to take on a rational path and stabilize their relationship, offering the region and the world more certainty."
Sun is wrong on all counts.
For one thing, Sun's goal is the same as Beijing's. The official China Daily ran this headline on October 28: "China FM Says His Visit Aimed at Stabilizing China-US Ties." Anything Beijing wants cannot, by definition, be good for America.
Moreover, improving ties for more than a few months is not possible. How, exactly, can Biden "stabilize relations" with a militant regime that has declared America to be its enemy?
Worse, China's regime thinks it is already at war with the U.S. With COVID-19, it deliberately killed more than 1.1 million Americans. Each year, it continues to steal hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. intellectual property. It maliciously attacks the U.S. almost every day with propaganda. It has continually interfered in American elections and has openly and covertly advocated the overthrow of the U.S. government. Repeated pleas from American presidents have not worked. Obviously, talking, reasoning, and negotiating with the Chinese regime have not persuaded it to stop. Neither has cajoling, "engaging," or placating it. Take the case of fentanyl, one of dozens of opioids that gangs design and make in laboratories in China. The Chinese surveillance state knows and approves of the activities of the drug gangs, and Beijing also gives them diplomatic support. Moreover, Chinese central government and Communist Party media outlets support their crimes. Even China's private companies, like TikTok, participate in this propaganda barrage. Furthermore, Chinese "money brokers," using Chinese banking apps, launder fentanyl proceeds through China's state banking system. The Communist Party of China now operates a near-total surveillance state and tightly controls all of its banks, so no one could transfer sums through their networks without the knowledge and cooperation of the regime.
Beijing, unsurprisingly, has not cooperated with American efforts to stop fentanyl trafficking. So far, federal authorities have prosecuted and imprisoned Chinese individuals handling fentanyl and other drug money. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have tried, to no avail, to talk with Xi Jinping about ending fentanyl production. Now, therefore, is the time to use all the resources of the federal government. The Secretary of the Treasury, for instance, can designate, pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, Chinese banks to be of "primary money laundering concern." Designated banks can no longer clear dollar transactions through New York, where every dollar transaction clears. Such designations would put the large state banks out of business everywhere outside China. If large state banks were to fail, so would China's state-dominated banking system. The failure of the banking system would undoubtedly mean the end of the Chinese economy and financial system. The end of the political system would soon follow.
Is this response "disproportional"? It is hard to compare the lives of Americans with the stability of relations with China. Provisional CDC statistics suggest about 70,000 Americans last year died from doses of illegal fentanyl.
In any event, it is better to take foreign policy advice from The West Wing's fictional President Jed Bartlett than from the failing Biden national security team. "What is the virtue of a proportional response?" Bartlett asked in Episode 3 of Season 1, titled "A Proportional Response." "Let the word ring forth from this time and this place, Gentlemen. You kill an American, any American, we don't come back with a proportional response. We come back with total disaster!"
Aggressors understand only one language. "The use of overwhelming force against China is absolutely necessary," said James Fanell of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy to Gatestone. "The world has witnessed the failure of the 'proportional' response in Ukraine."
"The U.S. must recognize there can be no compromise with a China that threatens us now in the Western Pacific and, left unchecked, can threaten the American homeland soon," Fanell, a former U.S. Navy captain who served as director of Intelligence and Information Operations at the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said. "We must act now to defend our interests and those of our allies."
America must defend its interests now. The Chinese regime is at this moment putting in place the infrastructure in America to attack America. There are hundreds if not thousands of Chinese males of military age, who are almost certainly saboteurs, coming through the open U.S. southern border.
In Reedley, California, near Fresno, authorities found a secret Chinese lab with at least 20 pathogens and almost a thousand mice that had been genetically engineered to spread disease.
America is about to be hit, so why should Washington delay taking action by trying to fruitlessly talk to a malignant Xi Jinping?
*Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board. F
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FACT FOCUS: Misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war is flooding social media. Here are the facts
The Canadian Press/October 30, 2023
In the days since Hamas militants stormed into Israel early Oct. 7, a flood of videos and photos purporting to show the conflict have filled social media, making it difficult for onlookers from around the world to sort fact from fiction. While plenty of real imagery and accounts of the ensuing carnage have emerged, they have been intermingled with users pushing false claims and misrepresenting videos from other events. Among the fabrications, users have shared false claims that a top Israeli commander had been kidnapped, circulated a false video imitating a BBC News report, and pushed old and unrelated clips of Russian President Vladimir Putin with inaccurate English captions.
Here is a closer look at the misinformation spreading online — and the facts.
CLAIM: Videos taken one day apart show a Palestinian “crisis actor” pretending to be seriously injured in a hospital bed one day and completely fine the next.
THE FACTS: Two different people appear in the videos. In addition, the video of the injured man in a hospital bed dates to August.
The videos are being shared to falsely claim an injured man is an actor playing a Palestinian victim.
A post on X, formerly known as Twitter, puts two videos side by side. In one, a man lies seriously injured in a hospital bed with two other men at his side. In the other, a man is talking into a camera while walking through wreckage after an attack in Gaza. The post claims the videos show the same man, with the one in the hospital taken a day earlier.
“Palestinian blogger ‘miraculously’ healed in one day from ‘Israeli bombing’. Yesterday, he was ‘hospitalized,’ today, he is walking and walking like nothing happened,” reads the post on X, with more than 9,000 likes.
But the videos show two different people and the hospital video predates the latest Israel-Hamas war.
The video of the man speaking to the camera is Saleh Aljafarawi, from Gaza. Aljafarawi posted the original video on Oct. 25 to his Instagram account. “More than 30 missiles landed in front of my eyes,” he wrote in the caption with the video. Aljafarawi didn’t respond to the AP’s request for comment. Aljafarawi also has a YouTube channel where he describes himself a Palestinian living in Gaza.
The video of the young man in the hospital bed had been online at least August with the earliest version available posted on Aug. 18, 2023, on TikTok. Another video from a different angle was shared a day earlier on TikTok.
One of the hashtags from the Aug. 18 video reads, “#Nour_Shams_Camp_”, which is a refugee camp located in the West Bank. An Aug. 25 report from the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led group, shows a photo of the same man in the hospital video. The report identifies him as 16-year-old Mohammed Zendiq, whose leg was amputated at the hospital after he was injured during July 24 clashes at the camp. Other outlets reported on the events at the time.
— Associated Press writer Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed this report.
CLAIM: A video shows a large number of U.S. Marines arriving at an airport in Israel amid the latest Israel-Hamas war.
THE FACTS: The video is from 2022 and shows soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division arriving in Romania.
The footage shows soldiers dressed in fatigues getting off of a plane at night, carrying their belongings and walking across the tarmac.
One post with the video on X, formerly known as Twitter, had more than 9,000 likes with text that reads: “HAPPENING NOW: Thousands of U.S. Marines Just Landed in Israel WW3 HIGH ALERT”
However the video doesn’t show Marines nor Israel, and it isn’t recent.
The original can be found on the Defense Department’s media distribution website, which says it shows U.S. Army soldiers arriving in Romania in June last year. “101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Soldiers arrive in Mihail Kogainiceani, Romania, June 28, 2022,” reads the video’s description.
The site says the unit was there “to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank” and conduct multinational exercises with allies across Europe.
Hours after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, the U.S. did begin moving warships and aircrafts to the region. In an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris said the U.S. has no intention to send combat troops into Israel or Gaza.
— Karena Phan.
CLAIM: A major mosque in Iran raised a black flag to call Muslims to war over Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
THE FACTS: The Imam Reza shrine said the flag was raised as a symbol of mourning for the lives lost in Israel’s strikes on Gaza. Experts on Islam and Iran confirmed the flag includes a passage from the Quran that is meant to comfort Muslims that their sacrifices will one day be rewarded.
Social media users are sharing the false claim alongside images and videos of the distinctive gold dome of the shrine — a major pilgrimage site for Shiite Muslims in Iran’s northeast that includes a mosque, library and other institutions — with a black banner flying on a flagpole.
“BREAKING: The Black Flag has been raised over Razavi Shrine in Mashhad, Khorasan province, Iran,” wrote one Facebook user who shared the image on Oct. 18, using an alternate name for the complex. “This is a call for war or vengeance.”
Others claimed the black flag and its Farsi inscription was meant to herald the coming of the Mahdi, the final leader believed to appear at the end of times to lead Muslim people.
But the black flag isn’t a call for war, and neither the flag’s text nor the shrine’s statement about the banner references the coming of the Mahdi or the end of time.
In fact, an announcement on the shrine’s English-language Facebook page on Oct. 17 specifically describes it as a “mourning flag” that was raised in response to the deadly blast that rocked a hospital in Hamas-controlled Gaza that day.
“In an unprecedented gesture and by the order of the custodian of Astan Quds Razavi, the black flag has been hoisted above the illuminated and pure Razavi dome, and drum beating will not be played tomorrow,” the post said, including #sorrow #mourning #sadness #grief and other hashtags.
Islamic and Iranian experts confirmed the flag includes a line from the Quran roughly translated as “help from Allah and an imminent victory” or “conquest from Allah and victory is near.”
That phrase isn’t traditionally used to declare war, but meant to bring comfort and hope to those struggling or engaged in battle that their sacrifice is not in vain and that Allah will grant them victory eventually, they said.
Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University in New York, said the Quranic verse, in the context of the shrine’s Facebook post, means “solidarity” with the Palestinian cause and not an outright declaration of war against Israel.
“To me it says nothing more than the obvious: the ruling government in Iran supports Hamas and the Islamic Jihad,” he wrote in an email. “Nothing more, nothing less.”
The Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based think tank founded by Israeli analysts, agreed, noting that Islamic militants tend to use a different passage from the Quran when declaring war.
The organization noted that statements from the Iran-backed Iraqi militias claiming responsibility for recent attacks on U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq open with this Quranic verse: “Permission (to fight) is given to those upon whom war is made because they are oppressed, and most surely Allah is well able to grant them victory.”
— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.
CLAIM: A video shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un saying in a speech that he blames President Joe Biden for the latest Israel-Hamas war.
THE FACTS: The video is from 2020 and the version currently circulating online features incorrect English captions. The footage actually shows Kim celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Workers’ Party; he doesn’t reference the conflict in the Middle East or Biden at any point.
In the misleading video circulating online, the English captions claim Kim says: “Under the Biden administration, conflicts erupt yearly. This year a war begins between Israel and Palestine.”
“I’m afraid that if the Biden admin does not cease to exist in the next election, World War 3 may begin,” the captions continue. “Who knows what next year’s war will be. I support Donald Trump for President in 2024. Good Luck to Mr. Trump.”
The video was shared on Instagram and TikTok, where one post garnered more than 223,000 likes.
However, the video is old and the captions are completely inaccurate.
Clips and images from the same speech can be seen in news reports from October 2020 about an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Korean Workers Party.
A transcript of the full speech translated to English by The National Committee on North Korea, a U.S.-based organization, does not mention anything about the Israel-Hamas war nor the 2024 U.S. presidential race.
Multiple Korean speakers and an expert who reviewed the portion of the speech circulating online also confirmed Kim says nothing of the sort in the footage.
Instead, Kim thanks his people and his military, saying: “The patriotic and heroic commitment shown by our People’s Army soldiers on the unexpected frontlines of epidemic prevention and natural disaster recovery this year is something that evokes tears of gratitude from everyone.”
Ji-Young Lee, a professor of Korean Studies at American University who confirmed the captions are inaccurate, noted that the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas militants did create concerns in South Korea about a similar assault from the North.
— Karena Phan.
CLAIM: The Israeli military confirmed it bombed a hospital in Gaza in a social media post written in Arabic.
THE FACTS: A screenshot circulating online shows a Facebook post from an account posing as the Israeli military. No such post exists on the military's actual social media pages and its top Arabic-speaking spokesperson confirmed his office has issued no such statement.
In the wake of the Oct. 17 deadly blast at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, social media users shared the screenshot, claiming it is from a member of the Israeli military's Arabic-speaking media relations team.
The user’s profile image bears the blue-and-white emblem of the spokesperson’s office, which features radio waves atop the Israeli military’s traditional symbol of an olive branch-wrapped sword.
The post, written in Arabic, suggests the Jewish nation said it bombed the hospital because the Gaza City medical facility lacked supplies and staff.
“Israeli official facebook post: ‘Due to the lack of medical equipment and the lack of medical staff, it was decided to bomb the Baptist Hospital in Gaza and give them euthanasia’,” wrote one user on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in a post translating the screenshot. Similar posts were also widely shared on TikTok and other social media platforms.
But the purported statement wasn’t penned by the Israeli military’s press office, its top Arabic-speaking spokesperson confirmed this week.
“Just to clarify: I did not issue any statement or comment regarding the Baptist Hospital in Gaza,” wrote Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab media branch of the Israeli military's Spokesperson’s Unit, in a post on X from Oct. 17, when the blast occurred. “All the news circulating in my name comes from the Hamas media outlets and is completely false.”
The office on Oct. 19 confirmed the post did not come from the military’s official Arabic page, saying in an emailed statement: “The IDF has made it very clear that there was no IDF strike on the hospital."
What’s more, the Israeli military’s press office doesn’t use its own logo on its actual social media accounts, unlike the fake account.
The unit’s separate Facebook pages in English and Hebrew, as well as its X account written in Farsi, for example, all use the military’s main symbol. That gold-colored emblem features the olive branch-wrapped sword with the Star of David in the background.
Meanwhile Adraee’s social media accounts, which are the main channel for the Israeli military’s messages in Arabic, feature his profile picture and a maroonlogo consisting of five swords with flames in the background as its cover photo.
The original fake account and post on Facebook also appear to have been deleted as of Oct. 19. Spokespersons for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, didn’t reply to an email seeking comment.
There were conflicting accusations of who was responsible for the hospital blast, with Hamas officials in Gaza blaming an Israeli airstrike and Israel saying it was caused by a an errant rocket launched by Palestinian militants. U.S. and French intelligence services also concluded it was likely caused by a misfired rocket. An AP analysis of video, photos and satellite imagery, as well as consultation with experts, showed the cause was likely a rocket launched from Palestinian territory that misfired in the air and crashed to the ground. However, a definitive conclusion could not be reached.
— Philip Marcelo.
CLAIM: A video shows Qatar’s emir threatening to cut off the world’s natural gas supply if Israel doesn’t stop bombing Gaza.
THE FACTS: Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, says no such thing in the widely circulating clip, which is more than 6 years old. A spokesperson for the Qatari government also confirmed that neither the emir nor any other government official has threatened to cut off exports in response to the conflict.
Many online are sharing the video of the Persian Gulf nation’s ruler, falsely claiming it shows him saying in Arabic that he’s willing to halt the distribution of its gas reserves to achieve his desired end to the latest Israel-Hamas war.
“BREAKING: Qatar is threatening to create a global gas shortage in support of Palestine,” wrote one user who posted the video on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “If the bombing of Gaza doesn’t stop, we will stop gas supply of the world.”
But Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani says nothing of the sort in the video. The 7-second clip is actually a tiny snippet from his opening speech at the Doha Forum in 2017.
Marc Owen Jones, a professor of Middle East studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Doha, the capital of Qatar, confirmed that the emir touches briefly on Palestinians in the widely shared clip, but doesn’t make any threats related to the current conflict.
Instead the emir, in his remarks, urged the international community to take more steps to address the region’s refugee crisis, news outlets reported at the time.
“The exact translation is: ‘The issue of Palestine, I’ll begin by saying it’s a case of a people uprooted from their lands, and displaced from their nation’,” Jones wrote in an email.
Qatar’s government on Oct. 16 confirmed the clip dates to 2017 and is being misrepresented.
“This is yet another case of an online disinformation against Qatar – such a statement has never been made and never would be,” wrote the country’s International Media Office in an email. “Qatar does not politicize its LNG supplies or any economic investment.”
Qatar is one of the world’s top natural gas producers. It controlled the third-largest natural gas reserves and was the second largest exporter of liquified natural gas, or LNG, in 2021, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
What’s more, the country has been working in recent years to use its sizable resources to build ties with other nations, not antagonize them, according to experts.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a Boston-based company that tracks gas prices nationwide, pointed to a deal Qatar’s state energy company just announced to supply French energy company TotalEnergies with 3.5 million tons of natural gas annually for the next 27 years.
“Qatar has been securing investment since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed Europe to find new sources of natural gas and quickly,” he wrote in an email. “They’re making deals left and right.”
— Philip Marcelo.
___ CLAIM: A video shows a BBC News report confirming Ukraine provided weapons to Hamas.
THE FACTS: The widely shared video clip is fabricated, officials with the BBC and Bellingcat, an investigative news website that is cited in the video as the source, confirm.
The clip, which includes the BBC’s distinctive block-text logo, purports to show a story from the outlet about a recent report from Bellingcat on Ukraine providing arms to Hamas.
“Bellingcat: Ukrainian military offensive failure and HAMAS attack linked,” reads the text over the video, which has more than 2,500 comments and 110,000 views on the messaging service Telegram. “The Palestinians purchased firearms, ammunition, drones and other weapons.”
But neither the BBC nor Bellingcat has reported any evidence to support the notion that Ukraine funneled arms to Hamas.
“We’ve reached no such conclusions or made any such claims,” Bellingcat wrote Oct. 10 in a post on X that included screengrabs of the fake report. “We’d like to stress that this is a fabrication and should be treated accordingly.”
Eliot Higgins, the Amsterdam-based organization’s founder, noted in a separate post on X that the claims have been amplified by Russian social media users.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a New York University professor briefly shown near the end of the video, also disputed the clip’s suggestion that he’s said the U.S. might leave NATO if the arms claims prove true.
“Entirely fake. Never said that,” the distinguished professor of risk engineering wrote in an email.
Spokespersons for the BBC didn’t respond to emails seeking comment, but Shayan Sardarizadeh, a reporter with the organization’s fact checking unit, confirmed in a post on X that the video is not real.
Ukrainian officials have similarly dismissed the notion that its country’s arms have somehow found their way to Hamas. The country’s military intelligence agency, in an Oct. 9 post on its official Facebook page, accused Russia of plotting a disinformation campaign around these claims.
Experts say there is also no evidence of Hamas making any claims about receiving arms from Ukraine, nor would it make sense for Kyiv to provide them.
“I see no reason Ukraine would do this,” said Michael O’Hanlon, director of foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “Starting with the fact that Kiev is in the business of obtaining weapons and not giving them away.”
— Associated Press writers Philip Marcelo in New York and Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv contributed this report.
CLAIM: Video of a young actor being filmed lying in a pool of fake blood shows propaganda being created for use in the Israel-Hamas war.
THE FACTS: The video is behind-the-scenes footage from the making of “Empty Place,” a short film focused on the story of Ahmad Manasra, a Palestinian who was arrested at age 13 in 2015 in relation to the stabbing of two Israelis.
Social media users on both sides of the latest Israel-Hamas war are sharing the video, each falsely alleging that it’s proof the other group is creating propaganda about their own.
In the clip, a young actor lies on a sidewalk covered in fake blood, his right leg bent backward, as a film crew works around him. Other actors mill about dressed as soldiers and in garb worn by many Orthodox Jewish men.
“See how Israelis are making fake videos saying that Palestine Freedom Fighters killed children,” reads one tweet that had received more than 5,600 likes and more than 4,400 shares as of Oct. 11.
An Instagram post claimed the opposite, stating: “These terrorists are dressing up as JEWISH soldiers to create fake videos about Israeli soldiers! Faking Propaganda!”
But neither allegation is correct. The video shows footage from the making of the 2022 short film directed by Awni Eshtaiwe, a filmmaker based in the West Bank. The scene being shot begins about 1 minute and 10 seconds into the approximately 2 minute film.
Mohamad Awawdeh, a cinematographer listed in the film’s credits as a camera assistant, posted the behind-the-scenes footage to TikTok in April 2022, around the time the film was released. A caption on the post, written in Arabic, explains that the scene being filmed in the video shows Manasra being attacked. Awawdeh posted the same footage to Instagram on June 30.
— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report.
CLAIM: Nimrod Aloni, a top general in the Israeli army, was captured by Hamas militants during a deadly incursion Oct. 7 into southern Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip.
THE FACTS: There's no truth to this claim, a spokesperson for the Israeli military confirmed. Aloni was seen Oct. 8 at a meeting of top Israeli military officials.
The erroneous claim that Aloni was one of the hostages taken by Hamas spread widely online after the militant group attacked Israel.
“Palestinian resistance fighters capture Israeli commander Nimrod Aloni along with dozens of other Israeli soldiers as the resistance fighters attacked neighbouring occupied towns and Israeli check posts near Gaza,” stated one Instagram post that received more than 43,000 likes.
But Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military's chief military spokesman, told reporters Oct. 7 that claims Aloni was captured are “not true.”
Aloni clearly appears 10 seconds into a video posted to the Israeli military’s official YouTube channel of top officials discussing the war on Oct. 8. The date can be seen on a slide in the background. The military also published online four images from the meeting. The one on the lower right shows Aloni on the far right.
The Israeli army confirmed to The Associated Press that Aloni is the man in the video and image.
— Melissa Goldin.
CLAIM: A video shows Hamas fighters parachuting onto a sports field before attacking Israeli citizens during the group’s surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
THE FACTS: While Hamas did employ paragliders to get some fighters across the border between Gaza and southern Israel, the footage of the sports field shows parachute jumpers in Cairo and has been online since at least September.
The clip shows people strapped to multi-colored parachutes descending onto a crowded sports field complex filled with children and families, many in red sports jerseys.
“Hamas paraglided amongst Israeli citizens and proceeded to massacre them,” text on the video clip reads. One post of the misleading footage on TikTok was viewed more than 38,000 times.
But this footage has been online since at least Sept. 27, when it was posted to TikTok with the location tag “Egypt.”
Details of the video also point to Egypt as the location — a person is wearing a blue shirt that reads “El Nasr SC” on the back, the name of a sporting club in northeastern Cairo.
Images of the club on Google Maps match the scene of the video — as well as several other clips of the event from the same TikTok user — with both showing a bright blue fence around a sporting ground next to a paved area with green and blue plastic seats.
The parachuters land on a larger soccer pitch surrounded by tall field lights. The field matches photos posted to the club’s Facebook page and footage of its soccer team’s matches, including a distinctive red building with a blue fence on top at one end that can be seen in the TikTok clip at around 19 seconds.
Other TikTok users shared footage of a parachuting similar scene around the same time, with “El Nasr” in the caption in Arabic.
The crowd of onlookers in the clip circulating online also doesn’t seem distressed by the arrival of the parachuters, as one might expect if they were an invading force. In fact, many women and children are seen running towards them, phones in hand taking videos and photos of the aerial display.
CLAIM: Two videos show Russian President Vladimir Putin warning the U.S. to “stay away” from the latest Israel-Hamas war.
THE FACTS: Bothvideos circulating online are months-old clips of Putin speaking about the Russia-Ukraine war, not the conflict in the Middle East, which have been miscaptioned in English.
Both videos show Putin speaking in Russian, with false English captions saying he was warning the U.S. to refrain from helping the Jewish state.
“America wants to Destroy israel as we destroy ukraine In past,” the captions on one video state. “I am warning America. Russia will help palestine and america can do nothing.” One TikTok post that shared the clip had received approximately 11,600 views as of Oct. 9.
A caption on another video of Putin, filmed in a different location, similarly reads: “I am warning america to stay Away from palestine israel war.”
But the two clips long predate the latest Israel-Hamas war and make no mention of Israel at all. The first shows Putin at a meeting of Russia’s Human Rights Council in December 2022, where, amid discussions about the war in Ukraine, he responded to a question about the country’s potential use of nuclear weapons, as the AP reported at the time. The footage was featured by multiple other newsoutlets with similar translations. In the second, Putin is speaking at a February 2023 event marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II Soviet victory over Nazi German forces in the battle of Stalingrad. In his remarks, he compared this threat to Germany’s then-recent decision to supply Ukraine with tanks, the AP reported at the time. Several media outlets also featured the footage in similar reports. In reality, Putin has condemned the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on towns in southern Israel while also warning Israel against blockading the Gaza Strip. He has cast the war as a failure of U.S. peacemaking efforts, accusing Washington of opting for economic “handouts” to the Palestinians while abandoning efforts to help create a Palestinian state.
— Melissa Goldin.
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
The Associated Press

How Years of Israeli Failures on Hamas Led to a Devastating Attack
Ronen Bergman, Mark Mazzetti and Maria Abi-Habib/The New York Times/October 30, 2023
TEL AVIV, Israel — It was 3 a.m. on Oct. 7, and Ronen Bar, head of Israel’s domestic security service, still could not determine if what he was seeing was just another Hamas military exercise.
At the headquarters of his service, Shin Bet, officials had spent hours monitoring Hamas activity in the Gaza Strip, which was unusually active for the middle of the night. Israeli intelligence and national security officials, who had convinced themselves that Hamas had no interest in going to war, initially assumed it was just a nighttime exercise.
Their judgment that night might have been different had they been listening to traffic on the hand-held radios of Hamas militants. But Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence agency, had stopped eavesdropping on those networks a year earlier because they saw it as a waste of effort.
As time passed that night, Bar thought that Hamas might attempt a small-scale assault. He discussed his concerns with Israel’s top generals and ordered the “Tequila” team — a group of elite counterterrorism forces — to deploy to Israel’s southern border.
Until nearly the start of the attack, nobody believed the situation was serious enough to wake up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to three Israeli defense officials.
Within hours, the Tequila troops were embroiled in a battle with thousands of Hamas gunmen who penetrated Israel’s vaunted border fence, sped in trucks and on motorbikes into southern Israel and attacked villages and military bases.
The most powerful military force in the Middle East had not only completely underestimated the magnitude of the attack, it had totally failed in its intelligence-gathering efforts, mostly due to hubris and the mistaken assumption that Hamas was a threat contained.
Despite Israel’s sophisticated technological prowess in espionage, Hamas gunmen had undergone extensive training for the assault, virtually undetected for at least a year. The fighters, who were divided into different units with specific goals, had meticulous information on Israel’s military bases and the layout of kibbutzim.
The country’s once-invincible sense of security was shattered.
More than 1,400 people were killed, including many women, children and old people who were murdered systematically and brutally. Hundreds are held hostage or are missing. Israel has responded with a ferocious bombardment campaign on Gaza, killing more than 8,000 Palestinians and wounding thousands more, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The Israeli military on Sunday signaled a heavier assault on Gaza, saying it had expanded its ground incursion overnight.
Israeli officials have promised a full investigation into what went wrong.
Even before that inquiry, it is clear the attacks were possible because of a cascade of failures over recent years — not hours, days or weeks. A New York Times examination, based on dozens of interviews with Israeli, Arab, European and U.S. officials, as well as a review of Israeli government documents and evidence collected since the Oct. 7 raid, shows that:
— Israeli security officials spent months trying to warn Netanyahu that the political turmoil caused by his domestic policies was weakening the country’s security and emboldening Israel’s enemies. Netanyahu continued to push those policies. On one day in July, he even refused to meet a senior general who came to deliver a threat warning based on classified intelligence, according to Israeli officials.
— Israeli officials misjudged the threat posed by Hamas for years and, more critically, in the run-up to the attack. The official assessment of Israeli military intelligence and the National Security Council since May 2021 was that Hamas had no interest in launching an attack from Gaza that might invite a devastating response from Israel, according to five people familiar with the assessments who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. Instead, Israeli intelligence assessed that Hamas was trying to foment violence against Israelis in the West Bank, which is controlled by its rival, the Palestinian Authority.
— The belief by Netanyahu and top Israeli security officials that Iran and Hezbollah, its most powerful proxy force, presented the gravest threat to Israel diverted attention and resources away from countering Hamas. In late September, senior Israeli officials told the Times they were concerned that Israel might be attacked in the coming weeks or months on several fronts by Iran-backed militia groups, but made no mention of Hamas initiating a war with Israel from the Gaza Strip.
— U.S. spy agencies in recent years had largely stopped collecting intelligence on Hamas and its plans, believing the group was a regional threat that Israel was managing.
Overall, arrogance among Israeli political and security officials convinced them that the country’s military and technological superiority to Hamas would keep the terrorist group in check.
“They were able to trick our collection, our analysis, our conclusions and our strategic understanding,” Eyal Hulata, Israel’s national security adviser from 2021 until early this year, said during a discussion last week in Washington sponsored by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank.
“I don’t think there was anyone who was involved with affairs with Gaza that shouldn’t ask themselves how and where they were also part of this massive failure,” he added.
Many senior officials have accepted responsibility, but Netanyahu has not. At 1 a.m. Sunday in Israel, after his office was asked for comment on this article, he posted a message on X, formerly Twitter, that repeated remarks he made to the Times and blamed the military and intelligence services for failing to provide him with any warning on Hamas.
“Under no circumstances and at no stage was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of war intentions on the part of Hamas,” the post read in Hebrew. “On the contrary, the assessment of the entire security echelon, including the head of military intelligence and the head of Shin Bet, was that Hamas was deterred and was seeking an arrangement.”
In the resulting furor, Benny Gantz, a member of his war Cabinet, publicly rebuked Netanyahu, saying that “leadership means displaying responsibility,” and urged the prime minister to retract the post. It was later deleted, and Netanyahu apologized in a new one.
On Sunday, Shin Bet promised a thorough investigation after the war. The Israeli Defense Forces declined to comment.
The last time that Israelis’ collective belief in their country’s security was similarly devastated was 50 years earlier, at the start of the Yom Kippur war, when Israel was caught off guard by an assault by Egyptian and Syrian forces. In an echo of that attack, Hamas succeeded because Israeli officials made many of the same mistakes that were made in 1973.
The Yom Kippur war was “a classic example of how intelligence fails when the policy and intelligence communities build a feedback loop that reinforces their prejudices and blinds them to changes in the threat environment,” Bruce Riedel, a former top Middle East analyst at the CIA, wrote in a 2017 research paper about the 1973 war.
In an interview this month, Riedel said Netanyahu was reaping the consequences of focusing on Iran as the existential threat to Israel while largely ignoring an enemy in his backyard.
“Bibi’s message to Israelis has been that the real threat is Iran,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “That with the occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza, the Palestinian issue is no longer a threat to Israel’s security. All of those assumptions were shattered on Oct. 7.”
Ignored Warnings
On July 24, two senior Israeli generals arrived at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to deliver urgent warnings to Israeli lawmakers, according to three Israeli defense officials.
The Knesset was scheduled that day to give final approval to one of Netanyahu’s attempts to curb the power of Israel’s judiciary — an effort that had convulsed Israeli society, ignited massive street protests and led to large-scale resignations from the military reserves. A growing portion of the air force’s operational pilots was threatening to refuse to report to duty if the legislation passed.
In the briefcase of one of the generals, Aharon Haliva, head of the Israeli Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate, were highly classified documents detailing a judgment by intelligence officials that the political turmoil was emboldening Israel’s enemies. One document stated that the leaders of what Israeli officials call the “axis of resistance” — Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — believed this was a moment of Israeli weakness and a time to strike.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, according to one of the documents, said it was necessary to prepare for a major war.
Haliva was ready to tell the coalition leaders that the political turmoil was creating an opportunity for Israel’s enemies to attack, particularly if there were more resignations in the military. Only two members of the Knesset came to hear his briefing.
The legislation passed overwhelmingly.
Separately, Gen. Herzi Halevi, the military’s chief of staff, tried to deliver the same warnings to Netanyahu. The prime minister refused to meet him, the officials said. Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment about this meeting.
The generals’ warnings were in large part based on a series of provocations on Israel’s northern border.
In February and March, Hezbollah had sent explosive-laden drones toward Israeli gas rigs. In March, a militant climbed over the border fence from Lebanon into Israel, carrying several powerful bombs, weapons, phones and an electric bike on which he traveled to a major northern intersection. He then used a powerful charge, apparently trying to blow up a bus.
On May 21, Hezbollah staged, for apparently the first time, war games at one of its training sites in Aaramta, in south Lebanon. Hezbollah launched rockets and flew drones that dropped explosives on a simulated Israeli settlement.
Israeli officials believed that Hezbollah was leading the planning for a coordinated attack against Israel, but not one that would prompt an all-out war.
The officials’ concerns grew through August and September, and Halevi went public with his concerns.
“We must be more prepared than ever for a multiarena and extensive military conflict,” he said at a military ceremony Sept. 11, just weeks before the attack.
Netanyahu’s allies went on Israeli television and condemned Halevi for sowing panic.
In a series of meetings, Shin Bet gave similar warnings to senior Israeli officials as Halevi. Eventually, Bar also went public.
“From the investigations we are doing, we can say today that the political instability and the growing division are a shot of encouragement to the countries of the axis of evil, the terrorist organizations and the individual threats,” Bar said in a speech.
Netanyahu’s government also ignored warnings from Israel’s neighbors. As the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, Jordan has traditionally been an important mediator between Palestinians and Israel’s government on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam. The mosque compound has seen repeated raids by Israeli forces over the years, and Hamas has said that it launched this month’s attack in part as retaliation for those acts.
But Jordan found that when Netanyahu formed a government late last year, the most far right in recent history, it was less receptive to their warnings that the incidents at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound was stirring up sentiment inside Palestinian territories that could boil over into violence, according to two Arab officials with knowledge of the relationship.
The Wrong Focus
Although security and intelligence officials were right about a coming attack, their intense focus on Hezbollah and Iran had a tragic effect: Far less attention was paid to the threats from Gaza. Since Israel’s withdrawal in 2005 and Hamas’ evolution from a purely guerrilla organization into the governing power of Gaza in 2007, Hamas had only periodic skirmishes with the Israeli military. Under four different prime ministers, Israel repeatedly decided that reoccupying Gaza and crushing Hamas would cost too many lives and do too much damage to Israel’s international reputation.
Israel knew that Hamas, which Iran supports with funding, training and weapons, was growing stronger over time. But officials thought they could contain Hamas with an extensive network of human spies, sophisticated surveillance tools that would deliver early warnings of an attack and border fortifications to deter a Hamas ground assault. They also relied on the Iron Dome air defense system for intercepting rockets and missiles launched from Gaza.
The strategy, confirmed by multiple Israeli officials, bore some fruit. Over the years, Israel’s investment in penetrating Hamas’ inner circle in Gaza allowed Israel to uncover the group’s attack plans and occasionally led to assassinations of Hamas leaders.
Strengthening Hamas
Publicly, Netanyahu used blunt rhetoric about Hamas. His election slogan in 2008 was “Strong Against Hamas,” and in one campaign video at the time he pledged: “We will not stop the IDF. We will finish the job. We will topple the terror regime of Hamas.”
Over time, however, he came to see Hamas as a way to balance power against the Palestinian Authority, which has administrative control over the West Bank and has long sought a peace agreement in Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu told aides over the years that a feeble Palestinian Authority lowered the pressure on him to make concessions to Palestinians in negotiations, according to several former Israeli officials and people close to Netanyahu. An official in Netanyahu’s office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that this had been the prime minister’s policy. But there is no question that Israeli officials viewed Hamas as a regional threat, not a global terrorist organization like Hezbollah or the Islamic State group. This view was shared in Washington, and U.S. intelligence agencies dedicated few resources to collecting information on the group. Some parts of the American government even believed that Hamas operatives could be recruited as sources of information about terrorist groups considered more urgent priorities in Washington.
Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official and now senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, recalled a meeting he had in 2015 with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials about suspected Hamas operatives inside the United States.
During the meeting, he recalled, the officials told him they were trying to turn the Hamas operatives into “assets” in the fight against the Islamic State group.
The Invincibility of the Wall
Israeli officials firmly believed that “The Barrier” — a nearly 40-mile-long reinforced concrete wall above and below ground, completed in 2021 — would hermetically seal off Gaza. There was also a surveillance system at the border based almost exclusively on cameras, sensors and remote-operated “sight-shooter” systems, four senior Israeli military officers told the Times. Senior Israeli military officials believed that the combination of remote surveillance and machine-gun systems with the formidable wall would make it almost impossible to infiltrate Israel, and thus reduce the need for a large number of soldiers to be stationed at the bases. But Hamas’ attack exposed the fragility of that technology. The group used explosive drones that damaged the cellular antennas and the remote firing systems that protected the fence between Gaza and Israel.
To get around Israel’s powerful surveillance technology, Hamas fighters also appeared to enforce strict discipline among the group’s ranks to not discuss its activities on mobile phones. This allowed them to pull off the attack without detection, one European official said. The group most likely divided its fighters into smaller cells, each probably only trained for a specific objective.
That way, the rank and file did not understand the scale of the attacks they were preparing for and could not give away the operation if caught, a European official said, based on his analysis of how the attack unfolded and from the videos the group disseminated from the operation.
Hamas may have learned such operational discipline from Hezbollah, which has long confused Israeli forces on the battlefield by dividing its fighters into smaller units of friends or relatives, according to Lebanese officials with ties to the group. If the fighters speak openly on cellphones to coordinate military operations, Lebanese officials with ties to the group said, part of their code is to speak in childhood memories — for example, asking to meet up in a field where they once played together.
Hamas claimed that 35 drones took part in the opening strike, including the Zawari, an explosive-laden drone. “We started receiving messages that there was a raid on every reporting line,” testified one soldier, who was at the Gaza Division base on the day of the invasion, in a conversation with the “Hamakom Hachi Ham Bagehinom” (“The Hottest Place in Hell”) website. “On every reporting line, swarms of terrorists were coming in,” the soldier said. “The forces did not have time to come and stop it. There were swarms of terrorists, something psychotic, and we were simply told that our only choice was to take our feet and flee for our lives.”In a conversation with military investigators two weeks after the attack, soldiers who survived the assault testified that the Hamas training was so precise that they damaged a row of cameras and communication systems so that “all our screens turned off in almost the exact same second.” The result of all this was a near total blindness on the morning of the attack. After the fighting had stopped, Israeli soldiers found hand-held radios on the dead bodies of some of the Hamas militants — the same radios that Israeli intelligence officials had decided a year ago were no longer worth monitoring.