Let’s define a few terms here. International humanitarian law here refers to the requirement that Israel manage their response in order to reduce and mitigate harm to the civilian population of Gaza. Here’s the link to the International Red Cross’s NOV 2021 handbook on how to do this in regard to an urban population. And you don’t get a much more urban population than the 2 million or so Palestinians in the Gaza strip. From the handbook:

This handbook guides us through the main applicable frameworks of international humanitarian law (IHL) in urban settings and assembles recommendations for commanders around topics as:

• Urban warfare doctrine, highlighting the protection of civilians as a key element of urban operations, while weighting alongside mission accomplishments and force protection within the limits of the laws of armed conflict (LOAC);
• Specific and realistic urban warfare training prior to operations, including the emphasis on practical application of LOAC by junior commanders;
• Planning of urban operations that considers human terrain and infrastructure in detail, not only as they might impact the battle but in terms of the impact of the fighting on them as well – including the priority of options to avoid and, or, mitigate civilian harm;
• Conduct whilst always operating within LOAC obligations, meaning commanders should favor means and methods which first avoid and, if not possible, mitigate civilian harm;
• Finally, the handbook also addresses partnered operations, and annexes to assist in the planning of evacuations and screenings of those people leaving an urban area.

They also produced an AUG 2023 handbook for armed resistance groups in urban environments, in case you’re curious what Hamas’s responsibilities might be:

Based on engagement with armed groups around the world and extensive analysis of their practice, the handbook focuses on practical measures in doctrine, training, equipment, planning and conduct of hostilities that mitigate civilian harm in urban warfare, in accordance with international humanitarian law (IHL) and other relevant norms.

Recommendations cover command responsibilities and operational guidance, the collection of accurate information, consideration of the civilian environment in planning of an attack, how to conduct a lawful urban operation, as well as activities and behaviors to adopt once the hostilities have ended and best training practices in IHL education, tactics, weapon handling and equipment.

The handbook also spells out the responsibilities of commanders, fighters and those supporting them, their legal obligation and the benefits to comply with IHL, even if the enemy or other groups and forces do not.

All of what is happening is separate from whether the Palestinians under occupation by the Israelis, as well as being ruled by Hamas in an authoritarian political Islam based system of governance, have a justification to revolt and seek their freedom. In the Western ethical norms for war and warfare, this discussion would be framed under Just Revolution Theory. Basically, Just Revolution Theory provides two justifications for when it is ethically appropriate to revolt. The first is when a population is being tyrannized and discriminated against by their government. It does not matter here if the population is a majority or minority of the overall population within the state and society. The second is when a population is under attack and being discriminated against by another group or groups within the same state and society and the government refuses to protect the former from the latter. While this is, of course, a western conception of ethics justifying a revolution, I don’t think many would disagree that should the Palestinians choose to undertake an actual third intifadeh, that it would be covered under the first criteria, if not by both. And that both the Israeli government, which is the formally recognized occupation authority, and Hamas, which won a single election in 2006 and has been running Gaza ever since, both fit under the government/state in this conceptualization.

What Hamas did last week, however, is not something covered under Just Revolution Theory. Trying to shoe horn Hamas’s attack, which was likely successful beyond Hamas’s planners’ and leadership’s imagination, under Just Revolution Theory is just a waste of intellectual time and energy. It isn’t even covered under the Islamic concept of jihad as a response to aggression that has conditions. From my JAN (winter) 2002 article on this topic:

Murtada Mutahhari posits that while war can be aggressive, jihad is a response to aggression that has conditions. The conditions are that the adversary must be in a state of aggression towards an Islamic community and/or that the adversary is unjustly oppressing some group, either Muslim or non-Muslim. Furthermore, jihad encompasses the defense of life, property, wealth, land, independence, and principles. The most valuable form of jihad is not in defense of oneself, but rather in defense of humanity and human rights. Those that perform this type of jihad literally and figuratively enjoin the good and forbid the evil.

You’ll find the citations in the original, which is attached here as a pdf:

Just War, Jihad, & Terrorism by Adam L Silverman

What Hamas was not able to do was draw Iran farther into the conflict:

https://twitter.com/gnuseibeh/status/1713091803434369282

Strategic deterrence does work, especially when one actually undertakes it:

https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1713345417935491137

Hamas will, however, continue to try to manipulate this situation to force the US and other states into an uncomfortable position as supporters of Israel in this current crisis by trying to draw Israel into responses that violate IHL. Such as:

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1713241560752533662

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1713241564560937332

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1713241566926557520

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1713241569476649044

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1713243294040297676

Another thing that Hamas was trying to do with their attack as PSYACT was get the worst possible actors in the US, as well as other political systems to be their true selves. Which is why we get this type of stupidity:

https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1712536996869190031

We file the above under DeStupid is as DeStupid does!

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1713259623451365643

Congressman Mast DID not serve in the IDF. He volunteered for a program intended to get credulous Americans to come to Israel for a couple of weeks, stay in a hotel and spend all day packing supplies for the Israeli military. This program appears to target white American evangelicals and they usually require the volunteers to pay their own way.

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1712958035092476152

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1712958896405410260

Congressman Mast was an Explosive Ordnance Device (EOD) NCO (staff sergeant/E6). Here are the qualifications and responsibilities for that rank:

The staff sergeant rank closely parallels that of the sergeant in duties and responsibilities. In fact, the basic duties and responsibility of all the NCO ranks never change, but there are significant differences between this step in the NCO structure and the preceding one.

The major difference between the staff sergeant and the sergeant is not, as often mistakenly believed, authority but rather sphere of influence. The staff sergeant is in daily contact with large numbers of soldiers and generally has more equipment and other property to maintain.

The SSG often has one or more sergeants who work under their direct leadership. The SSG is responsible for the continued successful development of sergeants as well as the soldiers in their section, squad or team.

Moving up the Army ranks: SSG candidates must meet the following basic eligibility criteria to compete:

Command recommendation
84 months’ time in service
10 months’ time in grade
Must graduate the primary leadership development course (PLDC)
Possess a high school diploma, GED equivalency or college degree

Congressman Mast is not someone with significant supervisory experience in the US Army, nor with any experience that was not tactical. And he definitely never served in the Israeli Defense Forces.

We’re also seeing response like these:

https://twitter.com/KarenAttiah/status/1713269697150357583

Which was to be expected. The hard left anti-Israel/anti-Zionist folks in many US political movements and groups have now run smack into the hard right antisemitic and anti-liberal democracy culture warriors. With the former giving the latter plenty of new grist for their mills.

And this:

https://twitter.com/kampeas/status/1713580103232266506

And this response:

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1713592931305611576

To this statement from President Biden:

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1713587818637689030

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713000995532226869

This, however, is a good sign:

https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1713560293106708636

And this:

https://twitter.com/Bsamuels0/status/1713593681461022739

And especially this!

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713482071908245857

https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1713494833795604946

“[Jaffa city councilor Amir] Badran stressed that in the last few days he has spoken with representatives of local Arab neighborhoods, the Islamic Council of Jaffa, the League for the Jaffa Arabs, the Orthodox Church Association, local sheikhs and imams, and various Jewish and Arab activists. They are all ‘devastated by what is happening and are committed, on one hand, to preventing violence, incitement or harassment by Arabs vis-à-vis Jews or by Jews vis-à-vis Arabs,’ he said. ‘Everyone is committed to asking their communities to show restraint, on one hand, and, on the other, are demanding that the municipality and the police ensure our personal safety, our children’s safety and the safety of our places of worship.’”

Ron Kampeas’s reporting from several month’s back on US concerns regarding Bibi’s and his coalition’s political objectives is very salient:

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden has not hidden his disdain of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned rehaul of Israel’s courts.

But bubbling beneath the surface of Israel’s political crisis is another concern: shared U.S.-Israel security interests.

As Israeli reservists pledge to boycott call-ups in protest of the controversial judicial reform legislation, experts say Israel’s enemies could see opportunity — and that the Biden administration is worried. Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is headed to Israel next week to check in on the Israeli military, reports claimed on Wednesday.

“The United States has lots of partners in the Middle East, but Israel is by far its closest and strongest partner in the Middle East,” said Shira Efron, the senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, a group that advocates for a two-state outcome to the conflict. “If Israel’s capabilities and its readiness is affected, the United States loses capabilities in the Middle East.”

The Biden administration said it was “deeply concerned” by the firing. An early version of the National Security Council statement, released to the Times of Israel, read: “We are deeply concerned by the ongoing developments in Israel, including the potential impact on military readiness raised by Minister Gallant.”

The NSC removed the phrase about military readiness from later versions of the statement — NSC spokesmen never answered questions as to why — and Netanyahu rescinded his firing of Gallant.

But even as Gallant remains in place, deep questions remain about the degree to which Israel’s searing political divide have weakened its vaunted military and intelligence apparatuses. Netanyahu — and even his son Yair, on social media — has clashed with top military brass, and reports claim the prime minister aims to shake up parts of the army’s chain of command.

Netanyahu has batted down concerns, saying that the changes to the courts that have passed are minor and that he is no longer committed to other parts of the proposed rehaul his government rolled out in January. His opponents don’t believe him and continue to flood the streets at least once a week in massive protests.

Much more at the link!

This is all incredibly important given that the Israeli security failures and what we are learning about them has led to a new set of protests.

When all else fails count on Bibi to be Bibi!

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713295830973562974

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713620306873500097

Here’s a machine translation of the Thread Reader App of Zehavi’s thread:

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713298997392081084

1./ Most of you know me from the foreign desk. The world is close to my heart and as far as the journalistic mission is concerned, it is to try to make you look outside of Israel, because the events overseas also affect what is happening here.
This week, under the auspices of the News Division, I exceeded my customs and spent most of my time in the southern towns. I felt there was a proper name to be > 

2./ On the first morning I arrived at Stunned Avenue. What happened there on Saturday surprised even the city he called the president: “Israel’s heroic line”. I came across shock, in a ghost town, in people who felt completely promiscuous, in residents who fought themselves – those with weapons and those with bare hands – in a terrorist squad that was eliminated at the police station only at the end of a bloody day. > 

3./ Horizons are tens of miles from the Strip but its streets have become terror arenas, homes for terrorist fortresses and its inhabitants for front fighters. The sidewalks of Tamar Street are full of projectiles, the walls of the buildings are perforated, but in horizons I discovered hope. “They are our heroes,” one of the residents told me about David and Rachel Edri, the country’s most famous couple > 

4./ Later that day we also reached the lanes. Desolate and locked. Only after a few rounds did we find a confectionery that sells coffee. Almond milk does not, which is a lot of optimism. “We do what it takes,” the seller told me while struggling with the coffee machine. “Leave the coffee now,” I replied. “What comes out – is good for me. The main thing is that I see some life > 

5./ I went back to Sderot. On Sunday we took a broadcast stand on the roof of the downtown settlement meeting, but now this building, on one side of which is the city and on the other the north strip, It is no longer a settlement meeting but a reserve base > 

6/ Meanwhile, the Sword Police Station has moved from a community center located near the municipality. Minister Ben Gvir was not welcomed here. “It’s your fault,” some reservists told him while making a incitement statement without answering questions > 

6/ Again and again I returned to Sderot and on Thursday, for the first time, Sderot seemed optimistic. It was veins and arteries that performed the opposite action. From around the country, they poured all the best into this heart, to Sderot. Applies, canned goods, matrana, coffee and even almond milk. The pulse of civil society returned to Sderot. Only she and no one else > 

7./ I look at these great souls. A sea of people who until a week ago felt they might no longer find something that connected them. And here, the great disaster we brought has made the people in this country the world’s largest giving army.
I really hope we can keep it the day after. 

This finally happened:

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713591222579646953

Most likely because this was happening:

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713163498157424660

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713311362242216151

https://twitter.com/AnshelPfeffer/status/1713324961257882084

https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713363511949074675

https://twitter.com/EladNehorai/status/1713482615137902755

https://twitter.com/DrShushan/status/1713291748342964617

Oy vey!

https://twitter.com/madrid_mike/status/1713328478286950848

Some thoughts to end with:

https://twitter.com/iyad_elbaghdadi/status/1713236580914041300

Open thread!