Earlier today, Hamas militants carried out the deadliest attack on the invading Israeli forces since October 7, killing 24 soldiers in an explosion. The Israeli military announced that its ground forces had encircled the southern city of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest, which suggested a major advance, but this response from Hamas is undoubtedly a setback for the genocidal intentions of the apartheid state.
Reports indicate that the Israeli soldiers died when the blast from a rocket-propelled grenade set off a string of explosives they were laying. Soldiers were planting explosives to blow up several civilian homes in the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza. If you’ve seen any of the countless videos of the Israeli military casually demolishing Palestinian infrastructure, they tend to destroy things as dramatically as possible. So the Palestinian resistance fighters used the logic of the IRA and struck knowing they only had to be lucky once.
Unsurprisingly this response of resistance against open genocide is being reported as the ‘deadliest’ because 20+ soldiers were killed as they committed a war crime. Yet when 25,000 Palestinians are murdered by the Israeli military, it’s recognized as a ‘decline in deaths’ by the New York Times. Meanwhile, Israeli forces were reported to have killed at least 65 people in their attacks on Khan Younis yesterday.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu doubled down and promised to press ahead until “absolute victory,” (whatever the hell that means) even as a growing number of Israelis are unconvinced over whether it’s possible to crush Hamas or free the scores of remaining hostages. For the record, up until this point, more than three months into this conflict, the Israeli military has yet to rescue a single hostage from captivity. Just something to consider.
Side Items
Teacher Pay Scam: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in North Carolina “accidentally” gave hundreds of teachers bonuses that they must now pay back(!!!). As if these teachers don’t deserve to be paid three times what they’re making, they now have the option to either “repay the bonus in a lump sum from their February check or choose a payment plan with deductions over three months”. The state of this country (or any country for that matter) is evident from how it takes care of the educators
More Fog, More War: I really enjoyed reading this piece by Séamus Malekafzali on the strange and lethal decision by the US and UK to airstrike Yemen in response to their humanitarian efforts. The article is a good summary of the undying quest of western governments and media to separate the ongoing Houthi blockade in the Red Sea from its actual stated goal: to bring about a permanent ceasefire in Gaza