Is Israel Winning The War In Gaza?

Yusuf Dhia-Allah

Jumada' al-Akhirah 19, 1445 2024-01-01

Main Stories

by Yusuf Dhia-Allah (Main Stories, Crescent International Vol. 53, No. 11, Jumada' al-Akhirah, 1445)

Hamas’s daring operation of October 7 left zionist rulers, civilian and military, shell-shocked. They have gone berserk thrashing about like wounded beasts. More than the military dimension, it is the psychological blow they have not been able to recover from. How could a guerrilla group with no tanks, artillery, planes, helicopters or heavy weapons carry out such a brilliant operation?

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers, including senior commanders were killed in their military bases and several hundred more were taken captive. These prisoners, among them civilians as well, were taken to Gaza and have become a strategic weapon in the hands of Hamas.

True, Israel has murdered more than 20,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of them women and children since October 7. More than 60 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure has also been destroyed. Schools and hospitals have been targeted. The vast majority of Gaza’s 60 hospitals have been destroyed and doctors and other medical personnel kidnapped.

If killing a large number of civilians can be called “victory”, then Israel has definitely won. Under International law, International Humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions and Genocide Convention, Israel is guilty of war crimes. These are mentioned not because the rulers of the zionist entity will ever be brought to trial. The international system is totally rigged against the innocent victims of aggression and barbarism.

In war, civilians are killed not as part of a deliberate policy but what is euphemistically referred to as “collateral damage”. The cold-blooded murder of 20,000 plus Palestinians is not collateral damage; they have been targeted deliberately. So, the question that must be asked is: to what purpose?

Immediately after Hamas’s October 7 operation, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to wipe out Hamas and ethnically cleanse all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. His defence minister Yoav Gallant said Gaza will be turned into a tent city, meaning no building will be left standing. He also called Palestinians “human animals”.

In order to make sure nobody was left in any doubt, Israeli president Isaac Herzog said there were “no innocents in Gaza”. In other words, he declared that Palestinian women and children will be killed by the Israeli war machine.

The killings have been perpetrated on an industrial but Netanyahu and his military have demonstrably failed in their primary objectives: wiping out Hamas and driving the Palestinians out of Gaza. Both have enormous implications for the Palestinians’ future. Despite suffering massive casualties, the Palestinians refuse to vacate this small strip of land. They are prepared to suffer starvation, lack of water, fuel and medicines but they will not leave.

Hamas’s resilience is even more impressive. Unlike Israel, they have no planes, artillery or tanks yet they have taken on the most ruthless military machine in the region and given it a bloody nose. The much-vaunted Israeli ground invasion that was supposed to wipe out Hamas has turned out to be a rout for the Israeli army.

In repeated encounters, Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigade fighters have inflicted massive blows on the invading zionist army. This was witnessed in northern Gaza, especially around Gaza City, and more rcently in the Shujaiya neighbourhood in the south.

Hamas has dug hundreds of miles of deep tunnels from which they operate. With no protection from the Israeli air force, this has been a master stroke of ingenuity. It was General Qassem Solaimani, the legendary Quds Force commander of Iran, who advised Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad to undertake this task.

General Solaimani was martyred on January 3, 2020 on the orders of the war criminal Donald Trump. He had just arrived on a flight from Damascus when an American drone fired two missiles at his vehicle outside Baghdad airport killing all the occupants. These included Abu Hadi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Hashd al Shaabi (the Iraqi militia). Trump will have to pay for this war crime.

In the meantime, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have made good use of the tunnels and inflicted massive blows on the arrogant zionists. The battle of Shujaiya camp needs to be recounted. Using tanks and armoured personnel carriers, the zionists invaded the Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza on December 12 in hopes of wiping out Hamas and releasing some of the Israelis captured by the resistance group.

Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades had prepared well for this encounter. Taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain, they successfully ambushed the invading Israeli forces and killed a large number of them including two senior commanders.

Even more impressive, Al-Qassam fighters captured a large number of Israeli soldiers as well as senior officers. These included the commander of the 13th Golani Division as well as the battalion commander, commander of the 669th Commando Unit, commander of the 51st Battalion and another battalion commander in the 51st Division. After the capture of military personnel on October 7, this was the biggest haul of Israeli troops and officers in a single encounter by Hamas.

Israeli Defence Minister Gallant acknowledged heavy losses among Israeli troops in Shujaiya. One senior military commander described the ambush by Al-Qassam Brigades as a painful blow. He admitted losing close friends, soldiers and fellow officers.

The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Herzi Halevi, described the ambush as “difficult and dangerous”, while Netanyahu expressed his sadness, describing the losses and the battle in Shujaiya neighbourhood as “difficult”. The zionists are loathed to admit losses. They always want to present an image of having the upper hand. Yet in the Shujaiya battle, the Israeli army suffered heavy losses including the capture of senior commanders.

Each time the zionist war criminals suffer defeat in the battlefield, they intensify their attacks on defenceless civilians. This is also what the zionists did after their crushing defeat in Shujaiya. On December 19, the much-vaunted Golani Brigade fled from Gaza, after suffering heavy losses in men and equipment.

Far from wiping out Hamas, Netanyahu was forced to begin negotiations with the resistance group, mediated through the CIA, Qatar and Egypt. Hamas has made clear that there would be no release of Israeli prisoners unless there is a comprehensive agreement on ceasefire. Whether this will materialize or not, the fact is that Hamas has come out on top in this round of fighting.

What this means for Netanyahu and Gallant is that their political careers appear to be doomed.