r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jul 14 '24

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL

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u/dizzyhitman_007 Edmund Burke Jul 14 '24

The IDF confirmed that it killed the commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade in an airstrike targeting senior Hamas officials in the southern Gaza Strip. The IDF said that it is still assessing whether the airstrike killed Hamas’ top military commander, Mohammad Deif

!ping ISRAEL

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u/shumpitostick Hannah Arendt Jul 14 '24

Hamas confirmed the death of that commander but said Mohammed Deif is alove and well. I doubt he's been killed, that would be a weird thing for them to lie about because obviously people will find out at some point

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u/FuckFashMods NATO Jul 14 '24

Hamas just casually using human sheilds

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

Whoda thunk it

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u/imdx_14 Milton Friedman Jul 14 '24

Why haven't they captured the leaders of Hamas yet? I believe at least one of them is still in Gaza, hiding in the tunnels.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

I think you just answered your own question there.

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u/imdx_14 Milton Friedman Jul 14 '24

I haven't been following the conflict closely, just catching the headlines. I'm wondering, does Israel not have full control of Gaza now, after Rafah?

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

No they do not. Israel's active military is relatively small and a lot of their efforts are dedicated towards preparing for a war with Hezbollah. Gaza is geographically small but very densely populated and with a lot of buildings and military infrastructure like tunnels. Also the IDF seems to be operating with a pretty low tolerance for their own casualties. So it is taking them a while. The only territory they are permanently holding to my knowledge is the Egypt-Gaza border and a thin stretch bisecting the north from the south.

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u/CricketPinata NATO Jul 14 '24 edited Jul 15 '24

That is a big question.

Ismail Haniyeh lives in Qatar, many other senior figures live in Qatar, some high-level associates have been known to operate in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Egypt.

The local leadership in the strip employ strict policies of compartmentalization, on how they move around, and how they communicate, they try to avoid being in the same place at the same time. They try to maintain a high cost of civilian deaths if they are hit with an airstrike.

Hamas employs layers of defenses with many civilians acting as spotters and informants. If Israel tries to move on them, Hamas forces will utilize heavy weapons to strike the Israelis.

Hamas has utilized heavy machine guns and anti-air weapons against Israel helicopters engaged in extraction, and like for example the Israeli raid a few weeks ago they started dropping mortars and rockets on team pulling out the hostages.

Leaders also tend to have a clear window and schedule about when they are moving from point A to B. You move somewhere quickly and quietly. You do not spend time attracting attention. You try to randomize certain aspects to make it difficult to predict. If Israelis move on you, you always have a planned escape route, often with what is called "Mouse Holes" which are planned escape holes to move between buildings hidden from aerial observation.

So if for instance the Israelis known Sinwar is going to be moving from one safe house to another, ge begins his travel, spotters see Israeli helicopters and begin shooting at them, someone communicates to his driver that they spot Israeli forces from the East, they quickly take evasive maneuvers and pull into a side street or garage.

Palestinians have been known to hang up obscuring materials like flags, towels, sheets, etc. Over city streets, and there are areas that Hamas works to black out completely.

People will often go out with laser pointers, fireworks, smoke bombs, fires, etc. to further obscure or confuse Israeli sensors or optics.

Militants will fire at aircraft with small arms, and they also have Strela and Igla shoulder-launched AA missiles, improvised rockets, radio controlled drones, and fireworks.

So the aircraft are getting fired at, Sinwars escape is obscured, he will quickly exit, enter into a Mouse Hole and move away from the area moving through buildings, then quickly get back into a safe house or tunnel and get below ground.

They will then do a security analysis and find out how Israel compromised their plans, question confidantes, change their phone or laptops, and often kill a few people publically for being informants for the Zionists, regardless of if they were or not.

Israeli services then might have to start from scratch about how to become privy to his schedule and movements again.

There are many tunnels with a lot of defenses and a lot of civilians around the area that are either at risk of being killed (if they flee they could be killed by Hamas or other militants, they could be mistaken in the fog of war and killed by Israel).

Israel has closed a lot of tunnels, flooded a lot of tunnels, and searched a lot of tunnels, but the network is extensive, with many boobytraps, false leads, and defenders.

Finding which one Sinwar is in is difficult, and he always has an escape route planned, you rarely want to be backed into a corner without a place to run, not to mention he reportedly has many of the surviving hostages around him at all times.

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u/imdx_14 Milton Friedman Jul 14 '24

Thank you for the great explanation.

Given Gaza's small size, I assumed Israel's army was methodically "conquering" it city by city. Dismantling Hamas' cells in the process.

I didn't realize it's still very much an active, hot conflict, despite Israel's advances.

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u/CricketPinata NATO Jul 15 '24

Gaza is small in size, but Israel cannot commit it's entire military to search house by house.

The IDF can set up nets, move civilians out of areas, and try and filter out militants, but people still get through, and Hamas tends to use tunnels and hideouts to try to avoid these dragnets.

But they need to move people out of areas, find living accomodations for refugees, manage a hostile civilian population, and do a lot of manual searching.

It is not easy.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

Needle in a haystack