It wasn't just Hamas... I wrote an article (in Dutch) about all the other armed groups, apart from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, that participated in the October 7, 2023 incursions and attacks on Israeli soil (1/15) hln.be/israel-palesti…
With what we know now, it seems clear that the 'Joint Operations Room of Palestian Resistance Factions' exercises played a crucial role in preparing for what happened last weekend (2/15)
This 'Joint Operations Room' was never really taken seriously on the Israeli side and until last month Israeli media described their military manoeuvres as an "annual propaganda ritual" (3/15)
But looking back at the images of those exercises, openly appearing since 2020, there is a clear focus on training the use of tunnels, capturing buildings and taking hostages (4/15)
And looking into the individual social media channels of the various armed groups that are part of this Joint Operation Room, it becomes clear that they were all actively involved in the October 7 attacks (5/15)
Here's a picture posted by the Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades (Popular Resistance Committees) before noon that day already, showing the belongings of an Israeli soldier, including his drivers license, his bank card and his ID (6/15)
Here's a screen grab from a video posted by the Al-Quds Brigades (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) showing how they went door to door in a civilian settlement. There's another fragment in which they force an elderly man to take place on the back seat of a car (7/15)
In this video posted by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - Nidal Al-Amoudi Brigades, a militant puts his foot on the head of a corpse showing African features and wearing civilian clothes, suggesting that it wasn't a soldier (8/15)
Side note: we chose not to show the victim, but blurring the perpetrators was done by the initial distributors of all the footage that we show (9/15)
Another video from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - Nidal Al-Amoudi Brigades shows a militant sitting on top of a heavily bloodied civilian in the backseat of a car and restraining him with a kalashnikov-type weapon (10/15)
Here's footage from the National Resistance Brigades (beloning to the communist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine), showing how they captured a checkpoint on the Gaza border, but also dragged away a dead man dressed in civilian clothes (11/15)
We also found a video of the same National Resistance Brigades in which one of their militants shoots an already defenseless victim on the ground with an assault rifle (12/15)
The most disturbing images, however, were on the channel of the Mujahideen Brigades. They show the mutilated bodies of Israeli soldiers, one of whom has been beheaded. We deliberately blurred the image (13/15)
It is not clear from the images how the beheading happened. But the fact that the body is still intact suggests that the mutilation was not caused by an explosion, but wittingly inflicted (14/15)
This is just some of the available evidence that virtually every armed group present in the Gaza Strip was involved in the attacks. Which points to a disturbing radicalization, whereby it is by no means only Hamas prepared to commit the cruellest forms of violence (15/15)
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Long-running rumors that the terror cell behind the March 22, 2016 Brussels attacks actually intended to attack the European Football Championship in June of that same year in France have been confirmed with new details (1/10) hln.be/binnenland/boe…
All of this we found in the indictment for the trial that will start in October - 486 pages completed very recently. It was known already that Mohamed Abrini, one of the surviving Brussels attackers, told interrogators about such an EC plot (2/10)
He insisted that Belgium only became a target when the cell was forced to rush by the arrest of Salah Abdeslam on March 18. But the impression was that Abrini tried to minimize the enmity towards Belgium, hoping for a milder treatment there (3/10)
Here my most comprehensive profile yet of Belgian Islamic State operative Yassine Lachiri, who was arrested at the Turkish-Bulgarian border. One of the most severely convicted Belgian foreign terrorist fighters ever. A few highlights in English (1/12) hln.be/buitenland/por…
Firstly, a link to a Bulgarian report on his arrest around 11pm Wednesday evening, which states that Lachiri entered Bulgaria using a forged Belgian passport (2/12) bntnews.bg/news/zadarzhan…
As a son of the so-called "Mother of the Brussels Jihad" Fatima Aberkan, before his own departure in 2013 Lachiri was highly active in the recruitment network surrounding Khalid Zerkani, which has also led notorious terrorists such as Abdel Hamid Abaaoud to Syria (3/12)
Sometime in the 1990s, an al-Qaida scout wrote about an attack on Belgian soldiers in Somalia, in a report to Osama Bin Laden. We investigated which attack it could be - and who would be among the first Europeans killed by al-Qaida as a result (1/18) hln.be/nieuws/onderzo…
Background: Somalia was ravaged by a civil war at the time and the UN peacekeepers operating there under the name UNOSOM - mostly from the United States - included Belgian blue helmets (2/18)
The Western, and in particular American, presence motivated Osama Bin Laden to gain a foothold in Somalia - by training militias already present, regardless of their ideology (3/18)
Confirmed by multiple sources that two former #IslamicState women from #Belgium & #France have managed to escape from the #SDF detainee camp in #Roj, #Syria. It has happened two weeks ago, and both fugitives have been recaptured and imprisoned since (1/6) hln.be/nieuws/buitenl…
The Belgian is Cassandra Bodart, a convert from Jemeppe-sur-Sambre who joined IS in 2013. After two years, she wanted to leave - but she had to wait until the death of French-Algerian husband Abdel Hamid Derguiani in August 2017 to turn herself in (2/6) thenational.ae/world/mena/in-…
The French woman is Saïda El Ghazi from the Lunel region - long known as a hotspot of jihad in France. She made headlines after she accepted to be separated from her two children in June, so they could be repatriated (3/6) lepoint.fr/monde/syrie-la…
Two independent sources have ID’d two of the #IslamicState women from #Belgium escaped from #SDF camp in #AlHol months before the Turkish offensive already. They appear to be two of our most dangerous ones (1/5) hln.be/nieuws/buitenl…
Kaoutar Bioui (32), aka Umm Haniefa, is the wife of former #Shariah4Belgium headpiece Hicham Chaïb. He appeared in an official #IslamicState video shortly after the #BrusselsAttacks, executing a prisoner with a shot in the head (2/5)
Rahma Benmezian (31), aka Umm Nusaiba, is the sister of one of the women who escaped last month from #SDF camp #AinIssa and was recently caught in #Turkey after crossing the border near Kilis (3/5)
What we hear about the SDF detainee camp of Ain Issa in Syria, where almost 800 Islamic State women are said to have escaped, is that all women are virtually free since SDF has fled the scene. But not all women have left, however (1/4) hln.be/nieuws/buitenl…
Those who have renounced Islamic State since they were captured, tend to stay - because they hope that Turkish control will increase their chances to go home. They most fear Islamic State, rumored to send cars already to pick women up (2/4)
But as Ain Issa camp now appears to be a genuine war zone - “We’re completely surrounded by gunfire”, detainees say - staying there is looking increasingly perilous too. So, at the end of the day, much more women can disappear (3/4)