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Trump, breaking with Netanyahu, acknowledges ‘real starvation’ in Gaza. Reddit discussion.
This makes him the first right winger I've seen say anything about starvation after something happened recently that made lots of places start talking about it, maybe the move to GHF food distribution? I can't really trust the UN when they talk about it, since they may have been still pissed that Israel cut UNRWA out, plus I heard it was only two dedicated Gaza writers putting out statements of that kind. I can't really trust leftists when they post about it, because they fail to show me their homework and seem to argue a very motivated stance. But Trump talking about it... I don't know about that either. He has spoken off the cuff before. But it brings me to ask: how bad is it? What footage did he see and is it reflected in the data?
Supposing that there is starvation: is that Israel's intention? What is Israel's strategy going forward? I thought that making camps to move civilians into was a good idea, and then once everyone's out, painstakingly clear the whole place, but I think that the international community wouldn't accept that because it's technically ethnic cleansing. There isn't actually anything the international community would be satisfied by except for total ceasefire and return to October 6th. But I don't actually know what the intention is, is the intention to draw Hamas out of hiding to get to the food somehow? I have a hard time discerning what is true about the war and what isn't.
That's pretty much it. You can spend hours looking up historical practice around sieges, I don't know what else you expect to find.
Sounds simple but comes across as a bit ignorant of the facts.
2 is kind of wrong. The IDF controls a ton of the territory, and I think if it wanted could make that 100%. This from April says they control over 50% and its way more now.
3 also ignores the biggest and most universal problem of all armies: logistics. Hamas barely even counts as an army anymore, they are full on hiding. When was the last time they launched an offensive action? It happens but is rare. 456 in two years is not a lot. Most of them are IED deaths like the linked example. Sometimes you get ambushed. Here is a recent one. 5 soldiers killed. They were attacked by under a dozen Hamas members.
There are two million people in Gaza. Civilians! Hamas is in some sense more like a rounding error. Let that sink in. Some math here about Israel can’t make up its mind about how much Hamas is left, but not much… unless they recruit starving people which they will obviously. Thus no clear end state.
However the point I want to make more was about your claim 3. Hamas will indirectly obtain aid. But directly? By force? Seems doubtful for a group in hiding. Logistics! If the IDF were to try seriously, they could distribute food to civilians themselves. And if so Hamas could hardly take large amounts without being noticed. In fact most of the hard reporting we have indicates that gangs, here formed somewhat as a mutual survival pact, are the ones stealing some food, when it happens!
And let’s call it like it is. I’d say 20k Hamas are left on the high end like IDF sometimes thinks, and 2 million civilians, that’s literally 1 in 100. If 100 hostages are barricaded somewhere with a gunman (who isn’t even trying to kill them, just human shields), do you starve the 100 because maybe 1 will get some food? Obviously not. The wartime thing is an excuse and doesn’t fit the facts on the ground overall. It’s literally not a siege, what’s the last siege you heard of where the besieges control three quarters of the city already?
If it's really 100 hostages to each Hamas, I'd have long expected actually-starving Gazans to bum rush every gunman then immediately declare a total and unconditional surrender.
Then again, that's kind of the core problem. They're hungry, but they're not actually "surrender hostilities and return the hostages"-hungry.
So aggregate action is always harder than individual action. If the IDF offered food and a trip out of Gaza for the family of anyone who accurately reported Hamas hiding spots I bet they would win fast. Also the people are some degree of starving, so it makes fighting harder, and they may not have the weapons or chance to fight effectively at all. (Could some hungry Gazans really do better than the IDF at killing Hamas?) If Hamas is bunkered down in literal bunkers and tunnels, you can’t do shit even if you have a mob. Still the point remains that they are ultimately civilians and should this be treated like bystanders and in an ideal world as equal value as humans, like any other human.
Despite in some sense being victim blaming (it’s a toxic relationship, everyone is at least a little toxic, Hamas can be monsters and Gazans can be victims both) if we look at surveys support is dropping albeit slowly. But over focusing on the Israeli hostages is probably a poor framing since most seem to believe giving up the hostages would do nothing to stop the war. In fact a large number oppose disarmament because they think it wouldn’t stop the war either (distrust, basically). Thus fatalism is on the rise in Gaza (martyrdom is shrinking interestingly and isn’t the majority view). To be fair when asked if they would evict Hamas to stop the war, this was interesting to me, it’s still like 2/3 no and 1/3 yes. So I think it’s fair to blame Gazans to some extent absolutely yes.
Knowing where Hamas are hiding has never been the IDF's problem. It's been trying to target Hamas members while causing as little collateral damage as possible, given that Hamas invariably hides among large clusters of civilians. But for something closer to your example, the Israelis have for almost a year been offering $5 million to any Gazan willing to return a hostage (I assume helping to return a hostage carries a similar reward). As far as I'm aware, they've had no takers.
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