Haifa Diary
Haifa is on the "front line" in any action in the north but this blog looks at life in the shadow of danger to all of Israel
Monday, March 18, 2024
Gaza Market with Abundance of Food
Bedouin Family Member Who Rejects Hamas, Urges Palestinian Peace with Israel
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Tunnels and The Philadelphi Corridor
(With thanks to IDSF, Habitchonistim )
A smuggling industry with a turnover in the billions:
In recent years, smuggling from Egypt into Gaza has become central to the
Gazan economy and key to the strengthening of Hamas. Even today the city of
Rafah is full of smugglers, who bribe the Egyptian police and run a business
sector with a turnover in the billions.
The smuggling still continues during wartime, as war materiel and other goods flow from Sinai into Gaza every day. And there is fear that such smuggling is, or will be, accompanied by smuggling in the other direction. Senior Hamas figures are likely to try to escape into Egyptian territory, with hostages, and from there to Iran.
Control of food
distribution is to control Gaza.
Besides the problem of smuggling, absence of Israeli control at the
Philadelphi Corridor also causes a severe problem of supervision over the
humanitarian aid to Gaza. Since the start of the war, thousands of trucks have
entered Gaza with humanitarian supplies and food. The distribution of aid is
managed officially by UNRWA and by “charitable organizations,” but in practice,
behind all that management, Hamas is pulling the strings. It is important to
understand that as long as Hamas wields control over the supplies, they are
channeled first and foremost to its own purposes, and in that way Hamas
succeeds in operating more forcefully while also gaining the population’s
acknowledgement of its authority.
Israel Must Defeat Hamas in Rafah
Both the history of Rafah and its current situation show
that if Hamas is to be defeated as a governing body, the IDF must control the
Philadelphi Corridor, Israel must have full authority over the entry of all
goods into Gazan territory, and there must be a ground operation in Rafah.
Such a ground operation is indispensable, because Rafah is the last
stronghold of the Hamas leadership and the only place where its battalions
still are active as organized military units. Currently the Israeli public is
concerned that the IDF, despite attaining many, many successes, has not laid
its hands on the senior Hamas figures and has not located the hostages. The
entry into Rafah will be the decisive battle, leading us to the top Hamas
commanders and to their last military stronghold, and to the hostages.
Therefore we must enter the city, and as promptly as possible. Contrary to the
widespread conception, Rafah is not a difficult military objective. Tougher
places have already been taken, so this task is certainly doable.
Sunday, March 10, 2024
10 IDF Couples Wed Simultaneously
In a unique ceremony, ten IDF soldiers married their partners at a mass wedding in the Tel Aviv Port. It was part of Chabad of Savyon’s “Marrying the Warriors” initiative and included 10 wedding canopies. Each couple invited 100 guests. 10 glasses were simultaneously smashed.
A delegation of visitors from Canada raised over $1 million in support .
See also https://tinyurl.com/3vsy7sru
Thursday, March 7, 2024
UN Official Refuses to Disclose Sources Accusing IDF of Sexual Abuse
In its inimitable way, the UN continues to invert the truth on anything to do with Israel. Based on the concept of attack being the best form of defense, a Jordanian national and U.N. special rapporteur manages to avoid condemning Hamas for the atrocities committed on Oct 7th.
This report without any credible sources attributed to the claims gives food to the anti-Semitic activists
The following analysis is by Mike Wagenheim, JNS
Another United Nations special rapporteur is using her platform to deny
terrorist attacks against Israel.
Reem Alsalem, a Jordanian national and U.N. special rapporteur on
violence against women and girls, is an author of a Feb. 19 report listing
alleged abuses by Israel against Palestinian women and girls, including reports
of “multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched
by male Israeli army officers.”
It adds that “at least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly
raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.”
The report also alleges that the Israel Defense Forces kidnapped
Palestinian babies.
In an interview on an Israeli news program, Alsalem refused to detail even the most basic of
information about the accusations, including the identity of the accuser
or accusers, that she called “reasonably credible.”
Israeli diplomatic officials vigorously dispute the accusations and
believe the information in Alsalem’s report originated with Euro-Med Monitor, a
virulently anti-Israel NGO operating under the human rights banner and headed
by Richard Falk.
Falk is a noted conspiracy theorist and former U.N. special rapporteur,
who was deported from Israel in 2008 after arriving to purportedly investigate
Israeli crimes.
Euro-Med Monitor published its
own similar report in late February.
Falk’s appointment to the U.N.
position was controversial, given his extensive history of anti-Israel
rhetoric.
Alsalem refused to admit that
Hamas carried out sexual violence on Oct. 7, saying that she had not received
the information necessary to carry out her work. She made that claim despite an
extensive fact-finding mission and report released this week by Pramila Patten,
the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative on sexual violence in
conflict.
The report found “clear and convincing information” of sexual violence
carried out against hostages in Gaza and “reasonable grounds” to believe
Israeli women were raped at three separate locations on Oct. 7.
“We cannot rely only on digital material or material produced online or
by the media,” said Alsalem when asked if she watched Hamas’s extensive video
documentation of its Oct. 7 terrorist acts, which are widely available for
viewing.
“I’m not a technical expert on videos, so I on my own will not be able to
assess those videos. I will also need to seek technical expertise,” Alsalem
said.
She intimated that she either calls into question the authenticity of
footage of Hamas’s Oct. 7 crimes—much of it taken from the GoPro cameras by
Hamas terrorists themselves—or that she is incapable of locating and playing
videos online without expert assistance.
Pressed as to whether she believes Israeli women had been raped on Oct.
7, Alsalem would only allow: “It may have happened, indeed.”
She also initially denied that
Hamas and Hezbollah have launched regular missile attacks during the current
war. The United Nations has documented those attacks.
“At this point, I have not seen that, no,” Alsalem said.
She then conceded, when pressed, “I have seen missile attacks.”