As the war in Gaza entered its ninth month, Israeli forces finally managed to free four of its some 130 captives held in the besieged coastal territory, and during the process massacred over 200 Palestinian civilians. Praising the operation as a “daring” achievement, the US government didn’t bother to mention the simultaneous massacre, as it appears that the temporary “humanitarian aid” pier constructed by the American military was just exploited for military purposes.
What Just Happened?
Touted as a major victory by the Israeli regime, on Saturday special forces soldiers reportedly disguised themselves in civilian clothing and were driving a humanitarian aid truck in order to infiltrate the Nuseirat area in central Gaza. Shortly after entering the densely populated civilian area, close to a street market and inhabited buildings, the Israeli forces were discovered by Hamas fighters from its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, who ambushed them. Israel then used warships, attack helicopters, drones, fighter jets, and sent in military re-enforcements on the ground
Although all the details of what transpired are yet to be released, Israel has admitted that a special forces commander, Arnon Zamora, was killed during the raid and initial reports from the Hebrew media at the time were asking people to pray for the lives of their soldiers after a “security incident”. Zamora was the commander of a Yamam special forces unit, which is connected to the Israeli border police, while it was also reported that the Shin Bet (Israeli internal intelligence force ) participated, while the army was deployed around the area.
According to a report in Israeli ‘Now 14 News‘, two separate buildings that were inhabited by civilians, were raided and were 200 meters apart from each other; one containing three captives and the other containing the fourth. The report confirmed that at least one Israeli soldier was wounded at the site of one of the civilian buildings, which was not reported by the Israeli army at that time. Now 14 News also noted that a helicopter landing was attempted but failed and that the Israeli special forces had to enter the building in another way. This rings true with a testimony collected by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor who reported that:
“…the Israeli army used a ladder to enter the home of Dr. Ahmed Al-Jamal. The army immediately executed 36-year-old Fatima Al-Jamal upon encountering her on the staircase. The forces then stormed the house and executed her husband, journalist Abdullah Al-Jamal, 36, and his father, Dr. Ahmed, 74, in front of his grandchildren. The army also shot their daughter, Zainab, 27, who sustained serious injuries.”
In an initial testimony documenting the killings committed by the Israeli army in the Nuseirat camp today, the @EuroMedHR reported that the Israeli army used a ladder to enter the home of Dr. Ahmed Al-Jamal. The army immediately executed 36-year-old Fatima Al-Jamal upon… pic.twitter.com/DjfjerIZTf
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) June 8, 2024
While an Israeli special forces unit was caught up in an ambush, another entered the buildings to reach the four captives. Yet, as the clashes broke out, Israeli forces sent missile strikes into surrounding civilian populated buildings and a packed market place, which ended up inflicted one of the largest massacres thus far during the eight month war. Reports indicated that civilians weren’t only killed by a massive series of airstrikes and bullet fire from drones, but also from soldiers on the ground. The assault left “mangled bodies of men, women and children strewn around a marketplace and a mosque“, as a local paramedic described the scene as being “like a horror movie”, according to reports cited by Reuters.
Although the time line for the rescue mission on the Israeli side has been kept vague, we do know that they used humanitarian aid trucks as a military cover and that they transported the four re-captured captives through the nearby American built temporary “humanitarian aid” pier. While we don’t yet have confirmation that the fake aid truck used had originally passed through the US pier, it seems very plausible, especially as the pier was just re-connected to Gaza on June 7, a day prior to this operation taking place. It is extremely suspicious to say the least, that this pier just so happens to be reconnected to land the day prior and it is supposed to be used only for aid transfer purposes. Clearly the pier has now become a valid military target, where US forces operating it collaborated with the Israelis to complete a military operation in which over 200 civilians were killed.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, The New York Times revealed that “a team of American hostage recovery officials stationed in Israel assisted the Israeli military’s effort to rescue the four captives by providing intelligence and other logistical support”. An unnamed US official also told Axios that “the U.S. hostage cell in Israel supported the effort to rescue the four hostages”, without providing any further details as to whether any US forces were actually deployed on the ground.
The response of US President Joe Biden was to commend the Israeli operation, not even mentioning the massacre that his forces clearly were aware of and to an extent participated in, while US National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, hailed it as “daring”.
An interesting aspect of this was why a single captive would be held in one building, while three others were held elsewhere, which has sparked many theories online. In a communique later issued by the spokesperson of the Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, it was revealed that Israeli forces had ended up killing other Israeli captives during their mission, yet the specifics have not been clarified at this point, by either side.
What This Means?
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has praised the military operation in both Hebrew and English, delivering his usual on the so-called heroics of “the most moral army on earth”. However, what was interesting about his statement released in English was his tone and body language, he did not seem uplifted in the slightest and it appeared as if he was nervous about something. He also said about the captives that “we expect Hamas to release them all”, which was interesting, as it suggests he has let go of hopes that all of them would be released by force.
At this time, it is important to recognize that this operation was the first successful rescue operation of its kind during the entire war. Upon the initial ground entry into the Gaza Strip after October 7, the military took one Israeli back who was not being kept by any armed group and was located in an open area. Later, in February, two captives were freed by the Israeli military in what they claimed was a similarly daring operation, however, it was later revealed by Al-Mayadeen News that the whole narrative was a fabrication and the captives were being guarded by a civilian family that sought to strike a private deal with Israel. This time, this was an operation that reportedly involved clashes with Palestinian fighters that freed prisoners by force, instead of a glorified handover or stumbling upon a captive.
Because of the nature of the military operation, it has now given the Israeli PM a political boost and even saved his war government from falling into ruin. A member of the Israeli opposition, Benny Gantz, was just about to leave the unity war government that same day, but cancelled his announcement after the operation. What the re-capturing of the four prisoners also does, is establish an “acceptable” civilian death toll to inflict, in order to attempt one of these missions, in the eyes of their Western allies. Especially as the US military had its own level of involvement, the civilian massacre of around 210 killed and 400 wounded, was not even significant enough to Western officials for them to bring it up. This also goes for much of the corporate media, that praised the release of the four living captives and in most cases did not place any real attention on the massacre.
This also buys more time for the Israeli government to continue its war in the Gaza Strip. Despite having invaded the Rafah area over a month ago, they still have not deployed their forces into the built up areas of the southernmost Gazan city. If they choose to do so, they can now take even more time than previously planned and even provide a justification for future massacres based upon getting away with this prisoner release operation. The Israeli public has been temporarily distracted by this and are celebrating it as a great win, unaware of the likely case — in the event that reports from on the ground are true — that they actually lost more soldiers than they returned in captives during the operation, in addition to the fact that there is a high likelihood they did kill some of the other Israeli prisoners during this assault.
Regardless, this is the single biggest military victory that Israel has achieved during the war, which has now entered its ninth month. On the face of things, this is the embodiment of the dramatic failure of what likes to present itself as the strongest military power in West Asia. Yet, looking at the picture holistically, this couldn’t have come at a better time for Benjamin Netanyahu and has given him a lifeline due to the emotional reaction it has triggered from the Israeli public; who, regardless of the reality of the operation, view this as a major victory.
Let’s talk about this. pic.twitter.com/70LKYhk1rc
— Arya – آریا 🇮🇷🏴 (@AryJeay) June 8, 2024
Another element that we can look at here, is that following medical examinations it was determined that all four former-prisoners were in kept good health. As per the photos/videos of her, Noa Argamani, who was used by Zionist propagandists to try and convince the world she had possibly been raped and tortured, she appears to have even gained weight in captivity. No signs of torture, beatings or sexual abuse have been reported. On the other hand, the recent revelations about the rampant rapes against Palestinians in Sde Teiman concentration camp that was set up for kidnapped civilians from Gaza, in which one was even reportedly left to die after suffering an extreme case of rape with a burning iron rod.
Unfortunately for the civilians of the Gaza Strip, this operation will only aid in prolonging their suffering and has revealed the true extend of American involvement in Israeli warcrimes against them.
