Thread by @IamArwaDamon

You might be hearing analysts compare the Israel assault on Gaza to the US-led coalition assault on Mosul to clear ISIS in 2016-2017 or Falluja in 2004. I’ve been in both those battles for extended periods of time & I’ve covered their aftermath.

It is true that both the battles of Mosul and Falluja involved:
An intense bombing campaign (ie blow it to pieces)
Warn civilians to leave .
Go in on the ground.

Here are key differences.
1. ISIS was in Mosul for 3 years. Hamas has been in Gaza for 30+. What Hamas has under Gaza makes what ISIS had under Mosul look like a little mouse maze.

2. In Falluja civilians were able to flee & many of them did in the lead up to the battle. It was very much a ton of bombs, artillery & whatever the US had at its disposal, street to street soldier’s vs armed militant when US ground forces went in. Civilian death toll : 500-800.

(2) In Mosul civilians were unable to flee. ISIS was literally holding them at gunpoint. Mosul’s civilian death toll was between 9-11,000.

(2)Hamas is not holding civilians at gunpoint in Gaza. They are trying to flee to the south, to follow Israel’s evacuation directive, but the south is also being bombed. There is no “safe” space. As I write this the civilian death toll in Gaza is 7000+

3. Neither Mosul nor Falluja was put under the sort of siege by a nation state like Gaza. There was no deliberate cutting off of aid. We did not hear of Drs having to do amputations w/o anesthesia on kids. or children w/ 50% burns not being able to get basic pain killers.

4. In the case of Mosul, when an area was bombed and/or ground forces went in, forcing the armed group out, civilians were able to flee to “safe” areas. Ie They were able to leave the battleground behind. In the case of Gaza, civilians cannot leave the battleground.

5. In the case of both Falluja & Mosul there was a deliberate “escape” route for fighters to be able to flee. They were able to “squirt” out until they ended up in more manageable numbers, in terrain that was not as familiar to them. Not a Gaza option.

6. Neither Falluja nor Mosul had the hostage dynamic. The 200+ hostages are feeling every single one of those bombs & Israel is at grave risk of killing its own. Its rather telling that the US is “urging” slow down to allow for negotiations & that Israel is moving ahead in Gaza

7. Ideology. Falluja was against Al Qaeda in Iraq, Mosul was against ISIS (what AQ would eventually become). There are differences in the “core” of what drove/drives that ideology and what Hamas emerged out of. Hamas emerged 30 years ago as a response to Israeli occupation.

(7) To “eradicate” the “ideology” of Hamas the occupation needs to end. Give Palestinians the dignity and right to live they have been asking for for more than 75 years and you will tear away at the core of what makes up groups like Hamas