The war in Israel

The situation in Israel is significantly worse than I initially imagined. The Messenger writes about what is going to happen to all of the people in the Gaza Strip:

Israel’s defense minister on Monday declared a “complete siege” on Gaza, as Hamas rockets continued to fall on Israeli cities.

“There is no electricity, there is no food, there is no water, there is no fuel,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced at a briefing.

Power and fuel supplies to the Hamas-ruled territory had been cut off since Saturday, Israel’s energy minister, Israel Katz, told reporters. Now, he said, drinking water to Gaza’s 2.1 million people would be stopped as well.

“I instructed that the water supply from Israel to Gaza be cut off immediately,” Katz said.

People cannot survive for more than about 2 days without water. Everyone in Gaza will be brought to their knees in a few days, unless there is some way to get water in.

The WaPo gives some history about why the situation became so bitter and apparently hopeless:

Since winning an election in the Gaza Strip in 2006, Hamas has repeatedly attacked Israel with rockets and mortars, emerging as a defiant adversary. Israel has retaliated with its superior firepower and a punishing blockade, restricting imports and movement of civilians in a strategy of collective punishment. The blockade and recurring Israeli strikes have contributed to Gaza’s poor infrastructure and living conditions. Israel declared a full siege of the enclave on Monday, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promising “no electricity, no food, no fuel” and calling Hamas "savages.”

Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, a 25-mile-long, densely populated enclave of more than 2.1 million people. Hamas emerged as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood during the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 1987 against the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. It was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric. Its military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was established around 1991.

It is committed to armed resistance against Israel and aims for the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, along the borders before the Six-Day War in June 1967, during which Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced as a result.

In October 1997, the United States designated Hamas a terrorist organization. The group has used explosives and rockets along with suicide bombings and kidnappings to target Israel.

Why did Hamas attack Israel now?

The coordinated attack by Hamas caught Israel by surprise but comes after months of worsening tensions over violence at al-Aqsa Mosque — a deeply revered Muslim holy site in the heart of Jerusalem — as well as the punishing blockade and occupation of Palestinians. Once-fringe Jewish supremacists and settler leaders have been given key positions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, further inflaming tensions.

Palestinian anger also reached a boiling point in May 2021 over the evictions of families from a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem, leading to clashes between protesters and Israeli forces that prompted Hamas to launch rockets at Israeli cities.

Even worse than all of that, there may be a new front in the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon attacking Israel in the north:

Oct 8 (Reuters) - Israel and Lebanon's powerful armed group Hezbollah exchanged artillery and rocket fire on Sunday following the deadliest attack in years by Palestinian gunmen on Israel.

On Saturday, a multi-pronged attack by Palestinian gunmen on Israeli towns left around 500 Israelis dead, with more than 300 Palestinians killed in Israel's retaliatory bombardment.

The scale of the attack prompted fears that a wider conflict could break out between Israel and other factions opposed to it in the region, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, an armed party backed by Iran that has previously clashed with Israel.  

Hezbollah on Sunday said it had launched guided rockets and artillery onto three posts in the Shebaa Farms "in solidarity" with the Palestinian people.

"Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you," said senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine at an event in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh on Beirut's outskirts in solidarity with the Palestinian fighters. 

To blunt authoritarian radical right propaganda smearing Biden about the war The Hill reports:

$6B in frozen Iranian funds remain unspent in wake of 

Hamas attack, Blinken says

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the $6 billion in Iranian funds expected to be unfrozen in the U.S. prisoner swap with Iran have remained unspent, pushing back against suggestions that the Biden administration’s deal may have contributed to Hamas’s recent attacks on Israel.

“The facts are these — no U.S. taxpayer dollars were involved,” Blinken said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “These were Iranian resources that Iran had accumulated from the sale of its oil that were stuck in a bank in South Korea. They have had from day one, under our law, under our sanctions, the right to use these monies for humanitarian purposes.”

“From one account to another in another country to facilitate that use,” Blinken continued. “As of now, not a single dollar has been spent from that account.”  

U.S. officials said the funds were to be used only for food, medicine and other humanitarian goods, a point Blinken emphasized Sunday.

“And, again, the account is closely regulated by the U.S. Treasury Department, so it can only be used for things like food, medicine, medical equipment,” Blinken said. “That’s what this is about.”

One can only hope that Blinken is not lying. The radical right as gone completely nuts in blaming Biden for the outbreak of this war and supporting it with that $6 billion. Those lies are now fully embedded in the minds of the radical right rank and file. Truth cannot counteract that.

Al Jazeera reports:

The Israeli army says some 100,000 reserve troops have amassed near the fence with Gaza.

Here are the latest casualty figures as of 2pm local time (11:00 GMT):

Gaza

• Killed: At least 560
• Injured: At least 2,900

Occupied West Bank

• Killed: At least 16
• Injured: At least 80

Israel

• Killed: At least 800
• Injured: At least 2,243 

Sixteen years of Israeli blockade

Gaza has a population of about 2.3 million people living in one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Located between Israel and Egypt on the Mediterranean coast, the strip is about 365sq km (141sq miles).

Since 2007, Israel has maintained strict control over Gaza's airspace and territorial waters and restricted the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza.

Following Hamas's attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to turn Gaza into a “deserted island” and warned its residents to “leave now”.

Land area = 141 sq mi

This looks like the end of it for the Palestinians. The survivors are going to be living in conditions not much better than the stone age, assuming some are still allowed to live there.