The Daily Populous Tuesday October 15th, 2024 night edition
Authored by m.jpost.com and submitted by StealthCuttlefish

Hamas is beating Gazan civilians who attempt to evacuate to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian area from Jabalya, a Palestinian resident of Gaza told an IDF Unit 504 representative in an audio recording shared by the military on Monday afternoon.

Unit 504 is an IDF human intelligence unit.

“The problem is that when we follow the army’s instructions and try to go to Al-Mawasi, there are people who come out against us and start hitting us with sticks, telling us “go back, go back,” the Gazan civilian said to a military representative in the IDF recording.

The military reported that the development came as troops of the IDF’s 162nd Division operated against Hamas terrorists in the area.

“What should we do?” the resident asked. “We want to leave. We took our belongings and wanted to leave, and now they’re hitting us and telling us to “go home, go home,” what should we do?” IDF soldier takes position in a location given as Jabalya, in Gaza, December 2, 2023 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

In response, the IDF representative asked whether it was Israeli troops or Hamas terrorists beating the civilians with sticks.

“Hamas, Hamas,” the Gazan responded, adding that the terrorists were continuing to send civilians back to the area from which they were attempting to evacuate.

“While the IDF makes every effort to move civilians away from the battlefield, Hamas continues to make every effort to keep civilians in the line of fire,” the IDF stated.

Israeli forces have 'trapped' civilians in north Gaza, UN rights office says

Despite statements by Gazan civilians, the United Nations human rights office said on Monday it was appalled by more than a week of heavy Israeli strikes on northern Gaza where it said tens of thousands of civilians are trapped without food or supplies.

"In the shadow of the escalation of hostilities across the Middle East, the Israeli military appears to be cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip and conducting hostilities with absolute disregard for the lives and security of Palestinian civilians," the rights office said. Stay updated with the latest news! Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter Subscribe Now

It added in a statement that it had received reports that Israeli forces had erected sand mounds at a key juncture, effectively "sealing off North Gaza" and firing on those attempting to flee.

Hamas has a history of attacking dissidents

Palestinian dissidents against Hamas have routinely been attacked or murdered by members of the terror group in the past.

In September, Gazan activists and whistleblowers told the New York Times about the abusive treatment Hamas inflicts on civilians.

Amin Abed, a Palestinian who found bullets on his doorstep in response to speaking out against Hamas, told the NYT that he was hospitalized after terrorists beat him with hammers and metal bars.

“At any moment, I can be killed by the Israeli occupation, but I can face the same fate at the hands of those who’ve been ruling us for 17 years,” he said from a UAE hospital bed. “They almost killed me, those killers and criminals.”

V-r1taS on October 14th, 2024 at 16:01 UTC »

Yes, and here is what NATO have long assessed to be Hamas’ tactics in this conflict: https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.pdf

Hamas relies on the Israeli government’s aim to minimise collateral damage, and is also aware of the West’s sensitivity towards civilian casualties. Hamas’ use of human shields is therefore likely aimed at minimising their own vulnerabilities by limiting the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) freedom of action. It is also aimed at gaining diplomatic and public opinion-related leverage, by presenting Israel and the IDF as an aggressor that indiscriminately strikes civilians.

Hamas’ most common uses of human shields include:

1) Firing rockets, artillery, and mortars from or in proximity to heavily populated civilian areas, often from or near facilities which shoula be protected according to the Geneva convention (e.g. schools, hospitals, or mosques).

2) Locating military or security-related infrastructures such as HQs, bases, armouries, access routes, lathes, or defensive positions within or in proximity to civilian areas.

3) ⁠⁠Protecting terrorists’ houses and military facilities, or rescuing terrorists who were besieged or warned by the IDF. ⁠

4) Combating the IDF from or in proximity to residential and commercial areas, including using civilians for intelligence gathering missions.

By engaging in these acts, Hamas employs a win-win scenario: if indeed the IDF uses kinetic power, and the number of civilian causalities surges, Hamas can use that as a weapon in the lawfares it conducts. It would be able to accuse the IDF (and Israel) of committing war crimes, which in turn could result in the imposition of a wide array of sanctions. On the other hand, if the IDF limits its use of military power in Gaza to avoid collateral damage Hamas will be less vulnerable to Israeli attacks, and thereby able to protect its assets while continuing to fight.

Is it really that surprising that Hamas would resort to this? Might they be trying to create this reaction?

> https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/13/lebanon-hunger-starvation-malnutrition-israel-attacks

We already know Sinwar’s response to being surrounded is to surround himself with hostages and turn himself into a bomb:

> https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/02/26/sinwar-hamas-tunnels-israel-gaza/

And Iran’s response to deploying the obvious countermeasure to ballistic missile attacks on civilian population centers is to call it “dangerous escalation”:

> https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-hezbollah-mideast-latest-13-october-2024-831d0015964897d4c9d9d2046c5feb75

And here was our starting point to all of this :

> https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/12/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-war.html

That’s the foreign policy equivalent of this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARVO

This is what authoritarians and authoritarian regimes do.

TheRiddler1976 on October 14th, 2024 at 15:09 UTC »

Free Palestine from Hamas

bbjteacher on October 14th, 2024 at 13:54 UTC »

Related I just read this article penned by an anonymous writer living in North Gaza, which is worth a read as we never hear voices from actual Gazans. He explains why in the piece.

Some quotes in no particular order, but the entire thing is worth reading for more.

Israel is killing us. But Hamas is exploiting our deaths https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-10-14/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-is-killing-us-but-hamas-is-exploiting-our-deaths/00000192-8a26-d569-a3be-deafecdf0000?utm_source=App_Share&utm_medium=iOS_Native

“Hamas is exploiting the utter chaos prevailing in Gaza right now. Residents are offered neither solutions nor hope, and, consequently, are forced to yield to Hamas in order to survive.”

“Hamas claims to be the representative of the Palestinian people, presenting the October 7 terror attack and the ensuing war as benefiting the nation. But Hamas does not represent us, and since 2010 its rule is illegitimate. It sees our blood as fuel for its political ambitions and as a means of imposing its rule over all Palestinian territories. Its insistence on clinging to power in Gaza is causing the deaths of an enormous number of Palestinians.”

“We, the residents of Gaza, understand the suffering of the Israeli hostages better than anyone else in the world. They, like us, have been deprived of the most basic of rights: to decide our fates. They are being held captive underground while we are hostages above ground, in the big prison of Gaza.”

“Hamas will not surrender and will continue to sacrifice Gazans to their last drop of blood. Israel too will not stop its war as long as Hamas is in power. This means endless war. A political solution is required, with the establishment of a body that manages affairs in the Gaza Strip on the day after.”

“I wish for the release of the Israeli hostages to the same extent that I wish for my own liberation. I call on the world to relate to us just as it relates to them, as hostages, and save us from both the brutality of the Israeli occupation and from our Hamas kidnappers. This will only happen by exerting great pressure on our kidnappers and on Israel’s government so that they stop colluding against Gaza, and finally let us decide our own fate.”

“There is no atonement for the evil of a reality in which our kidnappers live comfortably in their palaces in Doha while we live in tents. If our kidnappers lived in tents, the war would have long been over. They don’t value our lives, as stated by senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad: “Even if Israel kills 100,000 of us, we won’t stop; that’s our winning card.” For them, we are bargaining chips. Israel kills us and they exploit our deaths in order to gain points and influence international opinion.”