The armed wing of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, which Israeli and Palestinian media reports said had resulted in Israeli casualties.

Israel’s military said 10 projectiles were launched from Rafah in southern Gaza towards the area of the crossing, which it said was now closed to aid trucks going into the coastal enclave. Other crossings remain open.

Hamas’ armed wing said it fired rockets at an Israeli army base by the crossing, but did not confirm where it fired them from. Hamas media quoted a source close to the group as saying the commercial crossing was not the target.

…

Sunday’s attack on the crossing came as hopes dimmed for ceasefire talks under way in Cairo.

The war began after Hamas stunned Israel with a cross-border raid on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed, 29 of them in the past 24 hours, and more than 77,000 have been wounded in Israel’s assault, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

  • AIhasUse@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2118·
    7 months ago

    From what I’ve read online, hamas uses civilian human shields. If this is true, then what is a reasonable way to kill hamas without killing civilians?

      • DancingBearEnglish
        102·
        7 months ago

        You can tell who Hamas is because every member of Hamas surrounds themselves with 5,000 civilians wherever they go. So it’s easy really, just look for the large circle of 5,000 civilians and you know a member of Hamas is in the middle.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
          113·
          7 months ago

          So Israel is not responsible for a single child death despite bombing the fuck out of a whole lot of places in Gaza, including refugee camps?

      • AIhasUse@lemmy.worldEnglish
        711·
        7 months ago

        I don’t know if they have all been killed as human shields, but I see no reason to think that’s not possible. All hamas would have to do is to stay places that there are large groups of civilians.

        I agree the famine is awful. I’ve also heard many stories of gazan civilians hating hamas for stealing all the supplies intended for civilians. I really just don’t know which stories are true and which are false.

        I know that I’ve been hearing for years how much the palestians hate hamas and hate having them rule over them. They haven’t had any sort of elections or anything or any way to get new power there for like 30 years or something.

        I know there are lots of people in the west that want to paint hamas as some sort of freedom fighters, but this is not the impression I’ve ever been under. I see them more like a weak version of the Iranian government, no regard for the lives of their people, and wanting all those awful sexist backwards ancient warlord “religious” teachings to be the official law of the land. Just like in Iran, many people want to join the modern world in regards to human rights, but the powerful over there want to hide behind a butchered version of a “god” to make themselves keep their power.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
          135·
          7 months ago

          Sorry… you think it’s possible that Hamas used 13,000 children as human shields?

          Even Israel doesn’t make that ludicrous excuse for killing them.

          • AIhasUse@lemmy.worldEnglish
            25·
            7 months ago

            I’m not sure how you are picturing “human shields.” I don’t think it is literally holding a child in front of themseleves as if they are a literal shield like in a cartoon or something. If this is the case, then I agree with you, 13,000 does seem high.

            I’ve never been in war, but the way I am picturing it is by having military headquarters in residential places so that if they get bombed, then a bunch of civilians get bombed at the same time. When you consider how many people could live in just a single apartment building, it makes that 13,000 seem much more realistic.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
              72·
              7 months ago

              Well then maybe Israel should find a different way to get them that doesn’t involve killing 13,000 children.

              You really seem determined to not blame a single child’s death on Israel during a time when they’re bombing cities into rubble.

              • AIhasUse@lemmy.worldEnglish
                22·
                7 months ago

                I pointed out that it seemed like Hamas is reportedly using human shields and asked a question about it. I never said anything remotely similar to Israel being innocent in this. Israel has lots of blame here. They are literally blowing up innocent children. The existence of a single bad actor does not make all other actors good. I get that it makes the situation seem much easier to understand and have answers for if we push everyone to extreme sides, but I think you will end up with a more realistic mental model of this(or any) situation if you accept that the world isn’t actually so simple.

    • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      81·
      7 months ago

      i mean palestine is a small landlocked country. i don’t think it’s so much using human shields so much as that there’s just literally no where for them to go.

    • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      41·
      7 months ago

      A few ideas:

      • Precision strikes on targets that are not surrounded by civilians (especially avoiding refugee camps)
      • Raids on known targets.
      • Use of precision small arms rather than aerial bombings.
      • Working towards a two-state solution that allows the populace actual agency and ability to work constructively on building a better future, removing motivations to shelter terrorists and cutting into recruitment.

      Beyond that, it’s pretty clear from the last few decades that the “human shields” thing is just an excuse to murder civilians and destroy necessary infrastructure to prevent them from achieving anything me than a struggle to survive.

      • AIhasUse@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        Very good thoughts. It sure would be nice if there could be some sort of area where only non-combatants could go. Precision knife missles have been around for a long time now. It does seem suspicious that they are not being used in this current conflict.

        I was curious how this current war compared to other wars and conflicts in regards to civilian casualties. By the way it is often shown, I assumed it would be towards the top of the list, but surprisingly, it seems to be around the bottom. 69% of Israeli casualties have been civilians as opposed to 59% of palestian. The high end from this wikipedia list seems to be around 90%, the low end roughly 50%.

        It’s so crazy that stuff like this is still going on. I do wonder how much this particular conflict is caused by all the archaic superstition around spiritual thinking and magical land. If it wasn’t such a “holy” place I wonder if it would be so awful. Hopefully, some soon-future generation can finally discard all this “love” inspired hate.

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          2·
          7 months ago

          It’s so crazy that stuff like this is still going on. I do wonder how much this particular conflict is caused by all the archaic superstition around spiritual thinking and magical land. If it wasn’t such a “holy” place I wonder if it would be so awful. Hopefully, some soon-future generation can finally discard all this “love” inspired hate.

          Agreed. I’ve known some Israelis that were explicitly trying to shift things through volunteer work and community building. Unfortunately, there are authoritarians who are happy to use religious extremists to maintain and expand their power as well as shield themselves from being vulnerable to prosecution for crimes that they have committed.

    • Bridger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1623·
      7 months ago

      For Israel this is a win/win situation. Killing civilians is a primary goal of the IDF.