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-Latest dispatch from Mahmood OD, an arab israeli from Haifa living in the UK who follows the news in both Israel and the arabic world and gives eloquent updates in english faster than most mainstream western news media.
Mahmood OD: Isra-Hell Day (published 23 Jan. 2024)
TRANSCRIPT
Hello everyone, welcome back to another video. We've had the most disastrous day on Israeli forces since the beginning of this war, following the 7th of October.
The Israeli Army admitted that 24 of its soldiers were killed when two houses detonated with all of the forces inside them. So what exactly happened, and why is Israel detonating homes in Gaza? They're detonating blocks of properties in Gaza.
I'm going to reach that in a sec, but firstly the Army spokesperson, he admitted that it was a very painful and disastrous day for Israel this morning he admitted that 24 were killed, and you need to make a note here, these are the numbers of soldiers who died after their families were informed. So Israel doesn't publish the numbers of the dead soldiers unless they notify their families. We also have 33 wounded. Now, the Telegram accounts in Israel were going mad this morning, many people reported hundreds of people dead, hundreds of Israeli soldiers in Gaza, and the IDF spokesperson he also said that people need to be considerate of the families and the people who lost loved ones, and they shouldn't spread rumours, so they were worried about the fact that people were already spreading rumours about the numbers of soldiers who died.
So what exactly happened? Israeli soldiers from Brigade 261 accompanied by engineering corps, they were planting explosives in 10 residential blocks of flats in Gaza. I'm going to get to why they're actually ruining these blocks in a sec. They were planting these devices, and all of a sudden a Palestinian resistance fighter from Al-Qassam brigades went out from a tunnel, most likely tens of meters away. Israel said that they went out from the bushes somewhere, and he targeted an Israeli tank. When he targeted the Israeli tank, apparently all of those explosives detonated, making a massive explosion. 24 were killed, 33 are wounded and 11 were in a critical condition.
These numbers don't include the soldiers with dual citizenship. Israel doesn't count them as Israeli soldiers who were killed, because they have a dual citizenship. So they could be from
Britain, or in any other part, but the fact that they're admitting to this number, the fact that we are having rumours of hundreds being killed, and the fact that Israel doesn't usually admit the real numbers of soldiers that are killed, all prove that this is the most difficult and lethal day since this war began.
We had joint press conferences for the first time in several weeks with Benjamin Netanyahu (b. 1949), Benny Gantz (b. 1959) and Yoav Gallant (b. 1958), to show a united front in front of the Israeli population, and obviously this event, it came down as a massive blast on the Israeli society. Many people are criticizing Israel, the whole campaign, the fact that so many people are dying, still over 107 days after this war started.
And it didn't just end with this disaster. Another Hannibal directive event took place today. Al-Qassam brigades reported that they targeted another Israeli tank with Yassin 105 RPG missile. Israeli rescue forces tried to rescue the soldiers who were remaining, who were wounded after they attacked this tank, and Hamas continued to attack them. After the Israelis saw that they are unable to rescue the soldiers, they landed multiple bombs from airplanes and killed all of their soldiers. This was confirmed by the Palestinian resistance. So, you're talking about further killings of IDF Soldiers by the IDF yet again.
This isn't the first time: Killing them in tunnels, running over them, killing them in friendly fire, we've had a report the other day, that one in five Israeli soldiers who were killed in Gaza was killed due to friendly fire; imagine that. Imagine the accuracy and competency of this Army, and we're seeing it yet again today with this tank event in Gaza.
Now, with regards to wiping down whole blocks: Why is Israel destroying blocks? Previously they had air strikes, and they were destroying civilian buildings to make life hell for the people of Gaza and to expel the population of Gaza, but now that they're done with the first round of taking down buildings from planes, why are they taking down civilian buildings, whole blocks with tens of dozens of houses in them?
Well, we've had an interview with Daniella Weiss (b. 1945). Daniella Weiss was a former mayor in Kedumim settlement [and a notable figure in the extremist Gush Emunim settlement movement since the 1970s], and she's the current director of an organization called Nahala. Nahala is a settler organization.
[Note: Nahala is the present-day successor to the Gush Emunim settlement movent that Daniella Weiss founded together with Moshe Levinger (1935-2015) in 2005. You can see her own presentation of the Nahala settler movement from 2015 on YouTube]
Now, this woman is a real far right activist, far, far, right in Israel. She works on building settlements and outposts in multiple parts of the West Bank, and now she has a plan for Gaza, which clarifies why the IDF is taking down these whole neighborhoods.
She was asked in that interview in Arutz Sheva; Channel 7, about the day after in Gaza. She said that their purpose is to make life hell for the Palestinians. They need to create a human crisis so that the Palestinians in Gaza can leave. She said that eventually, Egypt, Turkey and the EU will have to take these refugees; like they took Syrian refugees, and that some of them might go to America, some of them might go to Southern America; across the world. They need to go, and leave Gaza, and she showed maps in that interview; 3D maps of new settlements in Gaza over the ruins of the homes in Gaza that the IOF destroyed during their genocide campaign. And when she was pushed about the actual population living in Gaza, she said outright: I'm not thinking about the Arabs, I'm thinking about the Jews, I'm thinking about Israel, I'm thinking about the Jewish people, these people need to leave because Gaza is ours, it's part of Israel.
So this is clarifying, and thankfully we have these people who actually say things as they are. I mean, we've got hints from the Israeli political and military leadership that they're going to return Gaza to the Stone Ages, that they're going to make Gaza uninhabitable, that they're treating them as human animals, but when you also see these people with organizations with
maps, with plans about the day after in Gaza, the whole picture starts to be clear, and these people are preparing the settlers to go and buy property; so they're promising them in their brochures, that now you're going to have a home with a sea view, because the West Bank, they don't have sea view, it's mostly mountains and valleys, but now this woman is promising the settlers that they're going to have a sea view over the ruins of Gaza.
And that's one of the main reasons that Israel is targeting so many blocks and civilian buildings, when there's no real need to, because if you talk about the tunnels; the Palestinian
resistance already proved that they can get out from the rubble, even from destroyed buildings - as a matter of fact, all of the videos that they show, and that they have shown for the past 3 months show that they're going out of ruins. They're getting out of tunnels, going into destroyed homes and attacking the Israeli IOF forces.
Israel isn't making it easier for its soldiers in Gaza by destroying these places, because in urban warfare it's much more complicated to fight an enemy on ruins. You would rather have Block C, where you're going, everything is intact, and then have urban warfare, but when you're ruining everything, the resistance fighters have more dynamics when it comes to hiding; popping out, popping back in, and it's much more difficult for the Israeli Army to identify them. So there is no real military reason for this destruction. Clearly, these people ARE preparing for the day after, and they ARE preparing for their delusions and fantasies of establishing more settlements in Gaza; enforcing and expelling the Palestinian population, saying that the countries of the World will have to accept these people.
We're also having more criticism as to what happened on the 7th of October. Channel 13 [See the the program mentioned here: Military’s 7 October claims refuted by Israeli journalist ]; they released images of Israeli soldiers, some of them participate in having tours with journalists from the World about what happened, according to them, on the 7th of October, and they brought one soldier claiming that there was a massacre for babies, that babies were hung on ropes, and that there was a Holocaust survivor, apparently telling them about all of these horrors that happened on the 7th of October, and the news reporter was criticizing him, saying that the spokesperson, an executive spokesperson of Be’eri denied that there were any massacres of babies, or that babies were hung, and imagine, these people are bringing journalists and reporters from across the world, giving them that narrative, a false narrative, a facade narrative, a manipulation propagandist narrative that some people still repeat to this day on mainstream media and online; those who are slaves to the Zionists of course, and it's getting criticism from Israel, I mean, we've had them publishing images of the tanks in Be’eri, they published images of the helicopters shooting on the revelers in the festival, which all confirm that the big massacres, the REAL massacres of civilians on the 7th of October have happened from the Israeli forces, and I spoke about them many times previously in several videos, so there's more and more criticism happening from Israel, and it's also hinting that the distrust in the mainstream narrative is growing day after day; people have no trust in mainstream media altogether, but to try and keep some sort of faith in mainstream media they're posting these criticisms, and people are clearly not believing the political leadership, and also, and more importantly; they're not believing the military leadership, especially when it comes to deliberate killings of Israeli hostages in Gaza; whether it's through the gas tunnels, whether it's through bombings, previously, or when it comes to the recent Hannibal directive implementation on the tank with wounded soldiers that Israel failed to rescue.
We also had a very intense day in Lebanon. Today; Hezbollah attacked the Meiron Command Center in Northern Israel; they attacked it previously as retaliation for [the assassination of] Saleh al-Arouri (1966-2024). The Meiron is one of Israel's main command bases in the country. They have one in the South, Mitzpe Ramon, and they have one in Meiron, which is in charge of the surveillance and control of everything to do with the Israeli forces and uavs across the region in the northern part of Israel; so anything to do with Syria, with Lebanon, with Turkey, with the Eastern Northern part of the Mediterranean, and some other parts in the Gulf, some Gulf States as well.
So they attacked it again, now last time they attacked it, they launched 62 missiles, all of which landed, and we had confirmed hits, and today we saw the same thing confirmed, landings and Hezbollah declared that this is a retaliation to the assassinations that are happening in Lebanon against senior figures, so they're clearly sending Israel a message that we are still retaliating for those assassinations, and it didn't just end with the previous attack, they also attacked one of the main command centers in Safed a couple of weeks ago as part of their retaliation campaign for the assassinations, and Israel also published images of direct targeting of that base.
So, it's intensifying, it's not reducing, and yesterday we had the Israeli defense minister saying that we will continue even if Hezbollah stop the war to create a new security reality and allow our citizens to go back to the North. So, they're having massive problems with citizens going back to settlements where they were evacuated from. I mean, the Israeli spokesperson, the IDF spokesperson today said that in Gaza they still have resistance movements active in the borders of Gaza. He said that they were individuals, but they were still active, and that the IDF is still carrying out attacks against them to make it secure for the people of the South to go back, and none of these people are trusting the Israeli authorities; some of them are saying, we're not going to come back ever; many of them already purchased houses in Central Israel, and it's similar with the North: You're talking about a quarter of a million people unwilling to go back to their homes, on top of the Israelis who already fled the country: We have 2.5 million now who fled Israel, AND you're talking about these people inside of Israel, refusing to go back to these settlements, and some of them are very crucial to the Israeli economy, whether when it comes to agriculture, production factories, many of them are in the South because there are massive spaces of lands, and they're used for many production industries in Israel - So; they're facing a massive crisis when it comes to these people, and they're putting a pressure on them to reach a solution when it comes to eliminating the threat, or any potential of another seventh of October happening again to them.
The last thing that I wanted to talk about is an interesting interview we had today from Al Jazera with Sami Abu Zuhri who is a senior Hamas official. He was talking about a new discussion regarding a deal; a ceasefire deal. Now, in my video yesterday I spoke about a Mossad proposal to the Israeli War cabinet to try and reach a ceasefire. Obviously Hamas declared that they're not going to negotiate under fire; that for there to be any hostage deal, that Israel must COMPLETELY stop this war, withdraw from Gaza, keep Hamas in power as well, and Israel obviously doesn't want to do that, because it would be a complete humiliation for them; I mean, from the beginning of this war, I said that Israel's target of eliminating Hamas is a recipe for failure. They've done this previously, in 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014; they didn't eliminate Hamas and Hamas were much weaker from a military equipment and sophistication perspective, so in this war, when they said we want to eliminate Hamas, they wrote their destiny.
It's a recipe for failure, we're almost 110 days in this war, and Hamas is still, and the other resistance movements, are conducting VERY hard attacks on Israel, and they're proving that they're so sophisticated, they still channel weapons to Gaza and they're still attacking Israel in ANY part that it has people in, soldiers in, across all of the Gaza Strip.
So this deal that I spoke about yesterday, it was proposed by the Mossad to the war cabinet, they didn't release details of this offer, however from what Sami Abu Zuhri is saying, this could well be the proposal that the Mossad gave to the war cabinet. Obviously they're trying to reach some sort of an agreement, they can't continue this mess in Gaza, but they don't want to be seen as if they're completely submitting to the Hamas conditions, similar to what they've done in the temporary ceasefire we've had over two months ago.
So what is this deal exactly? Well, apparently there's a proposal for a two-month ceasefire where many Israeli hostages from Gaza will be released, and many Palestinian hostages and prisoners in Israel will be released from prison, INCLUDING many senior ones. Now, the key thing here, is the longevity of the ceasefire and the level of prisoners that Israel is going to release.
So is Hamas and the Palestinian resistance, are they going to show flexibility when it comes to this? Because previously, they said we need to END the war, the war must be ENDED, and Israel must withdraw from Gaza. Now, this could be a way out for Israel, they're obviously saying that it's going to be a long-term campaign, everything we're seeing is showing that this is going to be a long-term campaign; a war of attrition or an ongoing campaign battle where people are just going to try and eliminate each other. When it comes to Israel, they still persist on demolishing Hamas; but when it comes to Hamas, they're not backing down, they want their historical rights, and their rights that they deserve, for the Palestinian people, and they're getting more and more support, they're proving that their defensive measures are VERY, VERY high quality, and their leaders are already there; Israel wanted to release the hostages; they haven't released one single Israeli hostage who's alive, at least, as a matter of fact, they killed over 70 of them; they're killing their own soldiers by going in to Gaza - I mean, they knew they're going to be annihilated in Gaza when they went in, because they were already attacked so SEVERLY in the 2014 War when they went in partial invasions, not as intensive as they did this time, but now they're feeling the WHOLE bitter truth of trying to attack Gaza, because they prepared for this day very well; the Palestinian resistance, and they're showing no signs of weakness, and this is coming at the same time that [Pentagon press secretary] John Kirby (b. 1963) made some interesting statements: He said today that the future of Gaza will be without the Hamas leadership. Okay, now obviously what the US Administration say, it doesn't represent Israel; Israel, we clearly have a disagreement between them and the Biden Administration; they tried to reach a complete ceasefire by the end of December, max mid-January; we’re way past that, and Netanyahu is very stubborn, and there's clearly differences between him and the American Administration.
However; John Kirby saying that the future of Gaza will have no Hamas leadership; he previously said, the White House released some statements a few weeks ago, saying that you can't eliminate Hamas, so this is signalling that they’re potentially happy to agree that parts of Hamas will remain in Gaza, maybe with the Palestinian Authority, but the leaders of Hamas need to leave Gaza, which is obviously not going to happen, they're trying to create friction between some of the members of the Palestinian resistance and their leadership, and obviously seeing as they failed in reaching them, they're trying to kind of propose a deal for them to leave Gaza, which is is NOT going to happen, however, the situation when it comes to the recent offer that the Hamas official spoke about, it hasn't been rejected by Hamas, and they said that we're open to any offers, and we also didn't have lots of information from Israel, apart from the fact that Netanyahu said, we have our own initiatives, we don't wait for Hamas to do something, to do a proposal, but we have our own initiative.
So this could be Israel's latest initiative that was potentially proposed by the Mossad yesterday to the Israeli War cabinet, and in the next few days, potentially tomorrow or the day after, even, we will see if there's any potential for this coming to fruition; and these were the main things that I wanted to talk to you about today, I hope I added some beneficial information for you and I will see you soon in the next video; take care.