In 2002 during the Second Intifada between Israel and Palestine I took this photo early one morning as the sun began to rise above Nablus. The man on his donkey was off to prepare his olive grove for olive picking, his family would catch up later bringing lunch…the not so holy, holy land sadly.
During an 18 month stay helping news teams to cover the extremely bloody Second Intifada between 2001 to 2003 I covered the ground inside Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank extensively. Most of the time the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) would stop news teams from moving into areas that they occupied, stating that it was “a closed military area.” In other words they didn’t want news coverage of their operations shown to the world.
However, there was always a way in, there weren’t enough troops to cover all of the ground, and it was often easy to find another entry point by probing in from another direction.
This was for me, an ex special forces soldier of almost 20 years SAS experience, was like watching a David versus Goliath moment in modern times. Except in this scenario David was the Palestinian and Goliath was now the Israeli. It took me 5 minutes of being on the ground to realise that although the Israeli military had the best of the best in military hard ware, including an army, navy and an air force, all paid for by the US tax payer, they still were not that professional…and the Palestinians knew that. The Palestinians hardly have a working police force, never mind an army, navy or air force. Yet when ever there was an uptake in Palestinian factional aggression, the Israelis would crush the Palestinians with their US paid for military might…tanks, artillery, F16 jets, attack helicopters etc…telling the world that they had the right to defend themselves…even well inside Palestinian land!
The Israelis had the upper hand every time, they had it before the Second Intifada, and they’ve had it since. They have touts in all of the refugee camps (you can only imagine just how these people are recruited), overall they receive great intelligence both human and machine. I’ve been witness on the ground more than once to what the Palestinian factions do to the touts should they be compromised…and it’s not pretty.
So, today has been 22 days since the tragic and bloody Hamas (and no doubt their affiliates) terrorist operation into Southern Israel, from around, through and over the Gaza border defences, and across a large swathe of open flat sandy ground used by the Israelis as a buffer.
I know from my time in Gaza, and speaking to the Palestinians, IDF and other Israeli security organizations in the southern region of Israel, that the same intelligence touts exist inside the Palestinian refugee camps inside Gaza as they exist in the West Bank. That is also backed up with other forms of intelligence and surveillance from the air land and the sea, not just inside Gaza but also along the border and into Southern Israel to protect those Israeli communities placed there.
Given that we’re 20 years on from my time on the ground during the biggest and bloodiest conflict until now, I can guess that given the smaller but still bloody conflicts that have taken place in between over the years, that Israel would have boosted greatly their human and machine intelligence and surveillance methods. And in addition their quick reaction forces capabilities, in particular that by air, such as attack helicopters to intercept an attack by Hamas types on the ground, troop carrying and evacuation helicopters for the Israeli civilian wounded and vulnerable that live close to the Gaza border defences.
In my opinion as an ex special forces operator, it would take some doing executing such a daring operation inside any Middle Eastern country, never mind Israel. Then return in broad daylight with over 200 mixed civilian and military hostages from young children to the old and frail.
With not many minutes, but many hours to respond in most circumstances, this appears completely inconceivable to me that the “immediate” Israeli response could be so slow and so absolutely inept.
THE BIG RESPONSE TODAY APPEARS TO ME TO BE NOTHING BUT REVENGE…or is it something else?
Firstly the title, taken from the Israeli press conference post the 7th October attacks, and used by almost every news outlet in the West…Israel Hamas War? I don’t believe it’s a war, not yet anyway, as it’s not between two nations’ military, as Palestine doesn’t have a military. Therefore it’s a conflict, an ongoing conflict that’s been up and down for decades, and right now on day 22, it appears a conflict between the Israeli military led by the Israeli government v the Palestinian people to get to Hamas. It’s not just the Gaza Strip that’s been lit up, even though the Western media are covering it from outside the Strip and inside Israel. But the West Bank has had a large uptake of Palestinian deaths from illegal Israeli settler aggression and IDF incursions too, over 100 to date.
If you want to eradicate a terrorist organization (which I don’t believe you can militarily, which I’ll keep mentioning again and again, as I have in the past already in other posts), you have to cut the head from the body…and right now the head sits quite comfortably in Doha, Qatar…as did the Afghan Taliban too, before their men took back Kabul. So flattening Gaza and killing more children than have been killed in all conflicts around the world since 2019 is definitely not the answer, if indeed the aim is to eradicate Hamas and get back the Israeli hostages both civilian and military.
Could this be to finally push all of the Palestinians out of Gaza completely? I don’t think that Egypt on it’s southern border will accept that. I don’t think the Regional actors will either, and neither will most of the Palestinians themselves, given that that’s how they arrived in Gaza in the first place…displacement.
In 2002 I was speaking with an Israeli newspaper journalist about Gaza, the fact that it’s an open prison in a strip of sand, and why are they not given their freedom? Back then there were also Israeli settlers located in the Gaza strip and a large IDF presence there, even within an ongoing conflict. One thing he mentioned has stayed with me until now!
Off the Gaza Strip shore, there are large gas reserves, and under International law they belong to the Palestinians. I believe that since Hamas took over the governing of Gaza, the Israelis have illegally claimed those reserves for themselves. However, moving the Palestinian population to the south of the Gaza River, and ideally for Israel into Egypt, would allow those reserves to legally belong to Israel, or in the least stop a Hamas led authority from benefitting economically…if Israel remained in the north of Gaza, claiming the rubble of Gaza city for themselves…this is of course more food for thought?
One thing is for sure, like our own “troubles” against the IRA, the fight against the Taliban, the fight against AQ, the fight against ISIS…all of these “terrorists” will continue to survive by simply blending back into the civilian population either locally or otherwise. They are civilians that have picked up the gun, then the explosives, then the rocket as they have progressed over time. The ideology can never be defeated militarily…never. This is not military versus military. These people resort to such vicious tactics in order to even things up they say. There ultimately has to be dialogue, and it has to be with ALL localized sides that have a dog in the fight…with a proper peace envoy, someone or a team of people from a country that has no political or economic ties to either side.
Right now, a people without a country to call their own are being blown into pink mist…in some cases whole families and extended families, fathers, mothers, children and babies, all in the name of targeting Hamas. When not only do the Israelis know, but the world knows that this type of targeting is completely illegal let alone immoral, and it has no end game whatsoever of eradicating an ideology. As I’ve said many times in the past, you kill one innocent civilian, you radicalize five more…no matter the side!
The two state solution has now evaporated into pink mist, like the children of Gaza…I’m shocked and stunned by the leadership of the West’s one sided response, especially my own country’s government, and their absolute lack of humanity.
Anything that they say tomorrow in order to “even things up” is way too late in my humble opinion.
To get from the dreadful successfully executed operation of the Hamas terrorist group into Southern Israel, to where all sides are today with the people of Gaza being slowly driven south from their own homes, and thousands already wiped off the face of the earth as I write this, is shocking and shameful for all involved…and trust me there are a lot of “proxies” involved too on all sides.
If both the Gaza and Israeli leaderships continue to act like barbarians from a different century, then the security of all in the Middle East, and even globally is now very much in doubt.
If there was ever a time for those in the UN to unite (instead of using the UN for their own political games) then it is right now, for the sake of humanity.
Bob Shepherd 
Spot on sadly
As I said to my elderly father today
There’s a massive difference between defence and offence.
Israel has the right to defend itself but how does it have the right to obliterate a mostly civilian population. If we had done the same in N Ireland when the IRA were hiding amongst the civilian
Population the USA would have been sending even more arms to them.
As you say, there’s something else going on!
A very good point that the world’s media appears to be missing or maybe ignoring. Who knows where this will end, we already have Palestinian supporters marching on the streets of London.