Before I get into the meat of this newsletter, I want to bring you an update from my friend’s son now fighting in Gaza. His son said that if Israel stops fighting in Gaza before removing Hamas then nothing will have been accomplished, “and they might as well leave [Israel].” As for his and his fellow soldiers’ emotional outlook, all lost friends at the Nova party or elsewhere on October 7, or in the fighting since, but they are in good spirits, and determined to finish the mission. They will deal with their emotional loss later.
This young man is a tanker—he and his fellow crew members don’t leave their tank for days at a time. They pee in a bottle and defecate in a plastic bag placed in a helmet that they then throw outside their tank. The same is true for a female medic in their commander’s tank—except when she evacuates her wastes the men turn around.
These are just a few of hundreds of thousands of Israelis called to service with a clear purpose—the elimination of evil on the border of their nation. It is a fight they don’t want, a fight they did not start, but a fight they are determined to win.
However, to succeed, the IDF needs us to ensure it has the time to complete its mission—the end of Hamas governance in Gaza and the elimination of its military capability while also creating pressures which promote freeing the hostages. The IDF is well on the way to achieving its aims.
But Hamas has one powerful weapon left—the death of Gazans in such numbers that the cumulative emotional weight prompts overwhelming political pressure on Israel to accept a ceasefire.
Hamas has no chance of winning on the ground the battle now being waged unless it can gain a ceasefire. A ceasefire would allow Hamas to continue to exist. That would be a defeat for Israel and a victory for Hamas and the evil it represents. It would also further encourage Israel’s other enemies to use human shields and incentivize terrorist organizations around the world to resolutely do the same to further their causes. This would eventually cause the death of vast numbers of innocents worldwide—far more than we are now seeing in Gaza.
Hamas and its backers funnel their emotional onslaught into a suggestion that Israel is committing genocide. Those spewing that spittle can do so with very few words and images because it’s not hard to kindle emotion that overtakes reason. Unfortunately, far too many are falling for this macabre turn of the truth. Especially some in the diaspora where there is no necessity to persevere but where it is easy to pontificate criticism without offering alternative solutions grounded in reality. And dangerously for Israel, rebutting mindsets formed by understandable emotional reactions to loss of innocent life takes much effort for those taking on that task and the willing attention of those who have fallen for the propaganda. A tall order since an opinion once formed is difficult to change.
I now will take the time. I ask you to give me your attention. Not because I think you have fallen for Hamas’ artful lies, but so you will be better equipped to rebut those that throw those lies at you.
And, I’m now convinced, rebutting attacks on Israel’s conduct takes something more than facts—it requires an equally emotional message that focuses on the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 and its promise to to do so again, and again, and again. Those acts must never be forgotten. They must stay with us to ward off the passage of time and the emotional images that even righteous wars produce. That is why in this article I will go into some detail as to what Israeli women experienced that day. Not just for the history of what happened, but as a warning for what will happen again if Hamas is not permanently removed from Gaza.
The Oxford definition of genocide is “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular race or nation.” The United Nations definition of genocide is an “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Both definitions require intent. Based on these definitions, genocide is exactly what Hamas did on October 7.
I will not go into everything that happened on that terrible day because I know all reading this are at least generally aware. But I do want to be clear about a few facts:
Hamas planned to kill as many Israeli civilians as it could on October 7. It succeeded in killing approximately 845 plus more than 350 soldiers, police, and security personnel. The civilians were targeted, hunted, and in many cases burned before Hamas’s savages killed them. Some were decapitated. Some had limbs cut off. Many were forced to experience emotional and physical torture before death and their bodies were desecrated after their demise. The murdered soldiers, police, and security personnel were not hiding behind Israeli civilians—they were in the field actively trying to defend them or protecting or operating bases they were stationed at.
Hamas kidnapped and removed to Gaza about 240 civilians and military personnel. There, they were mistreated and it is now becoming clear, many were killed.
Hamas’ minions engaged in purposeful and systematic rape of women they killed or kidnapped. Some documentation found suggest that the attackers received instruction to engage in those heinous acts. Multiple interrogations of captured Hamas terrorists confirm that rape was part of the plan. So does the fact that there were so many instances of extreme sexual violence perpetrated by so many in so many different, widely-separated locations. Those acts and testimonies included:
A woman surrounded by “eight or ten fighters beating and raping her” before she was shot and killed. “When they finished they were laughing;”
Many women found in little or no shredded clothing, their bodies bloodied particularly around their underwear, “and some women shot many times in the face as if to mutilate them. There seems no doubt what happened to them.”
A survivor who said she watched a terrorist who had cut off a woman’s breasts and played with them after he had raped her.
“One young woman came in with no legs: they had been cut off. We saw several severed heads, one with a large kitchen knife still embedded in the neck.”
A combat medic told the AP that he came across half a dozen bodies of women and men with possible signs of sexual assault when he reached one of the attacked communities. One girl had been shot in the head and was lying on the floor, her legs open and pants pulled down, with what looked like semen on her lower back . . . other bodies had mass bleeding around the groin with limbs at distorted angles.
A doctor who treated some of the 110 released hostages told the AP that at least 10 men and women among those freed were sexually assaulted or abused, but did not provide further details.
The extent and intent of Hamas’s intentional savagery on October 7 clearly fits the definition of genocide. There is no doubt Hamas had the intent to kill and grievously harm Israelis because of who they are.
So too, is Hamas’ use of its own people as Human shields a form of genocide. There is no dispute that this is a war crime. There is also no dispute that Hamas utilizes human shields on a massive scale in an attempt to protect its forces with clear knowledge that this will result in the deaths of many of the noncombatants. Hamas habitually and callously:
Prevented and impeded the flight of civilians from areas designated by the IDF as combat zones.
Imbeds rocket launchers, weapons, and military personnel in and under schools, mosques, hospitals, and residential areas—including homes and rooms used by children.
Fires rockets and munitions at the IDF in Gaza and Israeli citizens in Israel from locations where Gazan civilians are present, sometimes in massive numbers.
This is, and was, all done with the intention of maximizing Gazan civilian casualties.
When Hamas soldiers shoot at Israelis they know they are forcing the IDF to fire back in self-defense. When that response kills civilians, Hamas sees that as a victory. It is their martyrdom that Hamas hopes will turn the tide of public opinion against Israel. It is their deaths that Hamas views its best weapon. It is their loss of life that Hamas has weaponized. In effect, it is a masterplan to intentionally kill their own people.
Similarly, when Hamas locates its military stores and headquarters where civilians congregate by choice or due to Hamas’ insistence, Hamas is well aware that the IDF must then risk choosing between civilian casualties and failure of mission. The Laws of War contemplate civilian casualties, only requiring that the anticipated loss of life be proportional to the military gain. Hindsight is irrelevant. It is what is known at the moment that matters. Thus, the IDF is often faced with a difficult choice—risk potential civilian casualties or fail to prosecute its mission. Either decision benefits Hamas.
Hmm - To constitute genocide, there must be deliberate killing of a large group. Hamas intends for many of the Gazan civilians it deliberately places in harms way to be killed. Think not? Then why doesn’t Hamas offer civilians shelter in its rabbit warren of tunnels? Why does Hamas consistently fire rockets, store its supplies, and shoot from civilians areas when it knows that the IDF must respond or fail to meet its battle objectives? Why does Hamas prevent civilian evacuations? There is only one answer—civilian deaths serve Hamas’ purpose, not Israel’s.
Simply put, Israel does not have any intent to kill civilians. That, in of itself, precludes using the word genocide to describe the IDF’s actions. In fact, Israel fully realizes that the more Gazan non-combatants that die, the worse the world will view it. It acts to reduce the number killed while Hamas tries to increase those numbers.
And, if Israel were interested in killing all or most Gazan civilians, it has the capacity to do so on many orders of magnitude greater than combat operations have done to this date. Israel has full control of the skies. It could carpet bomb Gaza as did the United States carpet bomb Germany and Japan in World War II. As did the Syrians and Russians drop barrel bombs, gas, and other munitions on Syrian non-combatants. But Israel has not.
What Israel has done is act in a manner designed to minimize civilian casualties in an environment where Hamas tries to maximize them. Those acts include:
Empowering military lawyers who answer to the Attorney General, not the IDF’s chain of command, to sign-off on each planned strike as meeting the requirements of the Rules of War.
Warning civilians by leaflets, phone calls, texts, and knock on roof miniature explosives that give a last chance to evacuate.
A history of cancelling airstrikes due to last-minute intelligence concerning the prospect of civilian casualties.
Establishing Humanitarian Corridors and areas for Civilians.
Sending Equipment to Hospitals in Combat Zones.
Now fine-tuning the process by warning people in smaller sections of communities that they need to evacuate.
Therefore, using genocide and Israel in the same term warps reality. Neither element of the term “genocide” applies to Israel’s conduct and both are required to use the term appropriately—something Israel’s enemies conveniently ignore, so driven are they to drive a false narrative.
Still, despite Israel’s best efforts, there will be lots of civilian casualties. This is the byproduct of a crowded urban setting laced with tunnels and an unscrupulous enemy devoid of any concern for human life—including that of their own people. Years ago, when operations led by the United States against ISIS in Mosul and Raqqa caused thousands of civilian casualties, one commentator called it “death by a thousand proportional strikes.” Sadly, true, and unavoidable if ISIS, embedded in the civilian population, was to be eliminated.
And, of course, there is what we don’t know but have reason to question. The casualty figures provided by the Hamas led Gaza health Ministry are suspect. Perhaps not so much in numbers (but maybe yes)—but certainly by differentiation between who was killed and by what. Of the eighteen thousand or so purported deaths, present estimates are that perhaps seven thousand were Hamas fighters. Many more were likely killed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets fired at Israel that fell short. We know that at 471 deaths were caused by just one such rocket that fell short at Al-Shifa hospital. But that was one of 1,100 terrorist rockets that fell short in Gaza (10 percent of the 11,000 fired from Gaza into Israel).
Think about that for a moment. Up to 1,100 untargeted rockets fired by Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fallen into Gaza’s heavily concentrated population. It would not shock me that a substantial number of civilian casualties, perhaps a third or more, were caused by those misfires rather than by the IDF’s far more accurate fire which makes great effort to minimize civilian casualties.
Thus, the true number of noncombatant deaths to this date felled by IDF fire (which of course was triggered by Hamas’ actions on October 7), after subtracting the number of Hamas terrorists killed and those killed by Hamas fire, is more likely several thousand than eighteen thousand.
Still, the loss of non-combatant lives, especially the lives of children, is horrific. But there is one easy way to stop that. Hamas could surrender. Or, it could choose to fight from areas where civilians are not present. Or, it could help move civilians from embattled regions to safer ones. But Hamas will not. It intends for its fellow people to die.
So, when you see images of dead children and bodies strewn on the street, you are right to be angry. But be angry at the cause. And accept that destroying that cause is a necessity because otherwise the nightmare of October 7 will be harbinger of worse to come. Not just in Israel, but throughout the world wherever evil walks and sees the lives of the helpless as its protector.
Israeli troops operating in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Nov. 29, 2023. Credit: IDF
How the IDF is reducing civilian casualties in Gaza—Written by Yaakov Lappin for the Jewish News Syndicate—December 5, 2023.
Israeli soldiers at the forensic center in the Shura military base near Ramle, where hundreds of dead bodies arrived since the October 7 Hamas onslaught, October 24, 2023. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)
With US focus on Gaza, Iran’s nuclear centrifuges keep spinning—Written by Eric Mandel, Director of the Middle East Political Information Network—December 1, 2023
Israel’s Struggle with Hezbollah—A War Without Endis now available in eBook and hardback format on Amazon and IngramSpark. This compelling narrative explores Hezbollah’s origins and cancerous growth, traces Israel’s response, and reveals Israel’s present readiness to meet Hezbollah’s challenge.
Cliff, this piece needs and deserves to be published in the US mainstream press.