No surprise here. The only surprise would be if a cease-fire is actually put in place. Hamas and Israel blame each other for ceasefire delay https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...-have-delayed-ceasefire-agreement-2024-12-25/
It's long overdue to replace UNRWA with an effective aid organization which is not in bed with terrorists. UNRWA is a persistent challenge, not a solution - opinion It is past time to replace UNRWA - which has done less to help the Palestinians than to perpetuate the conflict - with organizations that are not rife with terrorists and terrorist enablers. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-834867 UNRWA, the United Nations Relief & Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, was a fatally flawed organization at its inception 75 years ago, and since then has become one of the most tangible expressions of the UN’s anti-Israel bias. With the start of the war in October 2023 and the subsequent harm caused to both Israelis and Palestinians by Hamas’ infiltration of UNRWA in Gaza, the situation has only become more acute. Yet too many in the international community have chosen to ignore this suffering, remaining entrenched in the unsubstantiated position that there are no viable alternatives to this aberrant agency. Although Israel's warnings that UNRWA is tainted by terrorism have been dismissed for years, after its personnel participated in the October 7 massacre, killing and kidnapping Israelis, the overlap between Hamas and UNRWA became undeniable. Very quickly, it became patently obvious to anyone willing to look that large numbers of UNRWA staff members also function as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives and commanders. Israel has provided extensive information about the agency's staffers involved in terrorism, including a list of 100 Hamas members compiled to demonstrate the scope of UNRWA's infiltration. Additional evidence uncovered by Israel contained the names of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists embedded in UNRWA’s school system as principals and teachers. Examples include that of Naji Abu Aziz, a school principal and Hamas operative involved in military manufacturing, as well as Ahmad al-Khatib, who was a deputy principal at an UNRWA school while also serving Hamas as a ground combat expert and a squad commander in its Qassam Brigades. Unfortunately, this very specific and credible data was largely ignored by UNRWA, and to date, no meaningful actions or effective countermeasures have been implemented. Similarly, the United Nations has not taken any significant action to mitigate Hamas' ongoing exploitation of UNRWA facilities in Gaza for terrorist purposes, despite the grave danger posed to both Palestinian civilians and Israeli forces. Terrorists routinely operate in what should be neutral sites, including medical facilities, using them as command centers and to launch attacks. Educational facilities have become havens for terrorists and their missiles. Infrastructures such as terror tunnels and shafts to underground arms caches are located within, or in close proximity to, UNRWA premises. A particularly egregious example would be February's discovery of a major Hamas data center located directly beneath UNRWA's main headquarters in Gaza. It is no coincidence that Hamas personnel are embedded in UNRWA to an almost unprecedented degree. This terrorist organization's survival strategy is predicated on creating enough international pressure on Israel to force it to stop defending itself. Hamas is well aware that by deliberately endangering Palestinian civilians in UNRWA sites and camouflaging terrorists as UNRWA employees, it can guarantee that international outrage will be generated. Indeed, among the Hamas documents captured by Israel was one that describes schools as “the best obstacles to protect the resistance” (Hamas’ code word for its terrorist forces). Following the UN's refusal to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem, let alone act to rectify the situation, Israeli lawmakers from across the political spectrum joined together to pass the Law to Cease UNRWA Operations, which will ban the agency from operating from Israeli territory. This certainly does not mean that Israel will stop humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip once the law comes into effect. Israel remains committed to complying with its obligations under international law and, from the start of the war, has facilitated the entry of more than 1.1 million tons of humanitarian goods (despite much of that aid being stolen by Hamas). Cooperation with various UN bodies and international organizations that are not compromised by terror will continue. Already, the vast majority of the humanitarian aid to Gaza is provided by the UN's World Food Program (WFP) and other groups, whereas UNRWA only supplies a small fraction of that aid. Those who claim that there are no alternatives to UNRWA in Gaza ignore the fact that reliance on a population-specific organization is an anomaly, not the norm. Across the globe, in times of conflict and natural disaster, relief operations are conducted by the standard UN bodies and international groups. For instance, since the conflict began in April 2023, the WFP has supported nearly 10 million people in Sudan, which the UN defines as suffering from "the world’s largest hunger crisis." This anomaly is not the product of any unique Palestinian needs that cannot be met by the usual professional organizations. Assistance to all of the world's more than 30 million refugees falls under the mandate of the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. All of them, that is, except for Palestinians. Perpetuating Palesitnians' statuses as refugees While the goal of the UNHCR is to find long-term solutions for refugees, UNRWA deliberately and artificially perpetuates the status of Palestinians as refugees. In sharp contrast to standard procedure, Palestinian refugee status is automatically inherited at birth, irrespective of the individual's situation, meaning that second, third, and fourth-generation descendants of those who fled Israel in 1948 are considered refugees even if they were born in areas under Palestinian control or live in other countries where their great-grandparents had settled. Beyond endlessly preserving the Palestinians' status as refugees for political purposes, UNRWA enflames the conflict and allows generation after generation of Palestinian children to be indoctrinated in its schools to hate Jews and love jihad. This situation can also be seen as a deliberate tool employed by Hamas to create total dependency of the Palestinian population on aid and donations while drawing a false anti-Israel narrative to justify their situation. Moreover, the sad reality is that this approach has resulted in one of the world’s most extreme examples of luck-self-sufficiency and productivity. Around 80% of the population depends on international aid, while poverty levels exceed 60%. Unemployment is alarmingly high, with 45% of the general population and nearly 60% of youth are not working, have no desire to work, and prefer to live out of handouts and aid. When a turning point in history is reached, it is reasonable to assume that long-standing assumptions will be reexamined and changes made to institutions that are incompatible with the new reality. However, in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre, the UN chose not to change UNRWA. Clearly, it is past time to replace UNRWA - which has done less to help the Palestinians than to perpetuate the conflict - with organizations that are not rife with terrorists and terrorist enablers.
The basic starting point for any ceasefire agreement is for Hamas to hand over a list of all the hostages are still alive before any consideration whatsoever to proceed with a ceasefire. Hamas official says terror group won’t hand over list of living hostages until ceasefire agreement https://nypost.com/2024/12/26/world...-of-living-hostages-until-ceasefire-official/
Ask yourself this question: If you were holding enemy hostages while your enemy was starving you, would you be feeding them?
Humans are absolutely getting dumber. Existential threats causing selective pressures that result in the survival of the fittest are lessened in developed countries. The difference between coyotes and domesticated dogs is striking. A coyote moves with focus, with purpose. The domesticated dog generally is frolicking around. Same with humans. Long term ruling class members, especially from the old world, look different, seemingly physically depreciated, than others. Some of it inbreeding, but not all I suspect. Testosterone levels are dropping. There is apparently a correlation between testosterone levels and math ability, in both men and women. Of course, there are outliers. In the US, it is not unusual for those living in dangerous neighborhoods to be physically and mentally more agile than those born in wealth, although the poor may have emotional issues. Musk is apparently often critical of MBAs, perhaps for related reasons. At least we'll have AI do our thinking for us. Grin.
I recall long ago reading intelligence of a nation could be measured by how long they survive on earth on average. Possibly difficult to judge because wars / nuclear radiation sickness can skew the statistics, think Japan or even Gaza. I personally like to think intelligence can be measured by how functional / dysfunctional people are, but again that's hard to judge, perhaps marriage breakdown rates could be an indicator, but that's difficult because some societies make divorce frowned upon as in religious beliefs, ie they prefer married couples live miserable lives together rather than divorce. Anyhow, I'm wandering off topic...
Let's catch up with the latest group of terrorists pretending to be journalists. IDF kills PIJ terrorists, including five who doubled as journalists in Nuseirat strike This came after Arab media reports on the strike, omitting any mentions by the IDF that the journalists were also part of the terror group. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-834930 Five Al Quds Today TV journalists who doubled as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists were killed in a targeted strike carried out by the Israel Air Force near the Nuesirat area of Gaza overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, the IDF said on Thursday afternoon. The IDF statement confirming the event came after Arab media outlets reported that five journalists working for the Palestinian news outlet were killed. These reports did not note their PIJ affiliations. One of the sources the IDF said it used to confirm the identity of the terrorists it struck was taken from a list of PIJ operatives discovered by Israel's military during previous operations in the Gaza Strip. The IDF listed the names of the terrorists and what their roles in the terror group were. It said most of them were "combat propagandists," meaning their role in the terror group was to double as journalists. List of PIJ operatives, including four terrorists who were eliminated overnight in Nuseirat. December 26, 2024. Who were the terrorists killed in the strike? Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali was a PIJ operative and combat propagandist. Faisal Abdallah Muhammad Abu Qamsan was the head of security for the Islamic Jihad in Nuseirat. Mohammed Ayad Khamis al-Lada’a was an Islamic Jihad combat propagandist. Ayman Nihad Abd Alrahman Jadi was an Islamic Jihad combat propagandist and former Islamic Jihad naval operative. Fadi Ihab Muhammad Ramadan Hassouna was a Islamic Jihad combat propagandist in Nuseirat. Reports on the strikes Reuters reported that Gaza health authorities said at least ten people, including the five journalists, were killed during both of Israel's strikes. The health authorities in Gaza, such as the Health Ministry and the civil services in the Strip, are operated by Hamas. The Reuters report added that the deaths occurred in two separate incidents, with the first killing five and wounding 20 in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood. The second incident reportedly killed the five journalists when their vehicle was struck in the Nuesirat area. The report also added that the van the journalists were in was allegedly marked as a media van. The IDF has yet to comment on reports the journalists were hit in a strike. Additional IDF action in Gaza The IAF conducted additional strikes in Gaza, killing senior Hamas terrorists, Israel's military said on Thursday morning. Among the Hamas terrorists killed were Muhammad Jamil Salman Basous and Muhammad Kamal Muhammad Al-Haj. The IDF said that Basous was a senior commander in the engineering unit of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade and was "responsible for supplying explosives to terrorist operatives and stored explosive materials inside his house." It added that Al-Haj served as a Nukhba company commander in the Zeitoun Battalion and carried out sniper attacks for Hamas against IDF troops. Additionally, the terrorist Mahmoud Jamil Salman Basous was killed in the strikes. Mahmoud was a platoon commander in Hamas’s Shejaiya Battalion and the brother of the aformentioned Muhammad Jamil Salman Basous. Furthermore, on Wednesday, IDF and IAF artillery reportedly struck Hamas terrorists in the area of Gaza City. The military noted that the terrorists it hit exploited the area to "plan and execute an explosive drone attack against IDF troops in an imminent time frame" but that, prior to the strike, "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians." Hamas put out the following statement following the report, saying, "The number of journalist martyrs has risen to (201 journalists) since the beginning of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, following the announcement of the martyrdom of a group of colleagues working for Al-Quds Today TV channel." "The Israeli occupation army targeted the external broadcast vehicle of Al-Quds Today TV channel, assassinating the five journalists while they were performing their journalistic duties in the Nuseirat camp (central Gaza Strip). We hold the Israeli occupation, the US administration, and the countries complicit in this genocide, such as the **United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for committing this heinous and brutal crime," the terror group said.
For those who have not been paying attention, Fatah and Hamas are at war with one another. At this point, Israel should just hand over Gaza to Fatah -- keeping in mind that Fatah promised they would killed every last Hamas member. At this point, let them finish the job. Palestinian 'social fabric' tearing: Hamas calls for mobilization against Palestinian Authority Hamas accused PA security forces of brutally coercing the Palestinian public into supporting its recent crackdown on West Bank terror groups. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-835161