December 2021: Israeli tanks go 100-200 meters inside Gaza to raze a strawberry farm while a Hamas militant prevents farmers from attacking the Israelis. How come?
🧵Explaining the Israeli-Hamas "ceasefire understandings" & why Israel never went for a formal ceasefire agreement
2\ The Israeli-Hamas "understandings" were brokered by Egypt, Qatar & UN
Hamas polices Israel's siege from the inside, prevents by force anyone from attacking Israel during periods of calm in return for Israel alleviating the blockade
Israel only partially fulfilled its promise
3\ Many attempts & proposals were made to cement "the calm" & establish a formal permanent ceasefire that'd see a mutual full cessation of hostilities in return for lifting the siege on Gaza
Israel killed the Hamas leader advancing this deal in 2012 & turned down later proposals
4\ In return for maintaining calm, Israel only gave Gazans occasional crumbs of mercy: e.g allowing 17,000 people to work in Israel, Qatari cash aid..
Gazans call these "sedatives" b/c Israel maintains "we won't allow real & long-term development in Gaza" maariv.co.il/news/military/…
5\ The situation in Gaza continued to be dire: a permanent state of non-life where the majority of the population are unemployed & living beneath the poverty line.
Israel's occasional crumbs of mercy were a tool of blackmail: e.g. keep quiet or we will re-close the fishing zone.
6\ Israel's gov perfectly understood the only way to end Gaza's plight & get more sustainable calm would be to lift the blockade & go for a formal ceasefire.
An Israeli minister proposed re-opening Gaza's airport & seaport under int. supervision. Netanyahu turned him down...
7\ One reason why Israel never went for a permanent ceasefire was that it dehumanized Gaza so much & for so long that the only acceptable way to discuss Gaza became in terms of strength & deterrence.
Israeli politicians would only compete in terms of who can be tougher on Gaza!
8\ Israel's gov also had strategic gaols of keeping Gaza on the brink & under Hamas' control, to:
Use Gaza as a scarecrow to kill any discussion about ending its occupation in the West Bank. "If we leave, Hamas will take over like in Gaza"
To push Gazans to leave permanently!
9\ Even the informal Israel-Hamas "understanding" was violated repeatedly
Israel kept shooting at farmers & fishermen almost daily
Israel kept flying fighter jets & predator drones equipped with rockets 24/7 inside Gaza with an unbearable buzzing noise that gets loudest at night
10\ Israel kept heavily restricting Gaza's imports & exports & banning people from going in/out of Gaza except for very few humanitarian exceptions.
"We allow them to keep their heads above water, but not beyond that" Israel's defence minister 2018 makorrishon.co.il/news/12431/
11\ Whenever a violent escalation erupted, mediators would rush to Gaza to restore calm & go back to the "understandings". A formal ceasefire was NEVER finalized.
That very calm was always inherently violent for Gaza's population; a slow death & permanent state of non-life.
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Israel's latest lunatic lie to justify the IDF dog that mauled an elderly woman is that Hamas kidnapped the dog in front of IDF soldiers, tamed him, trained him to attack elderly civilians & unleashed him🤡
So, here's a🧵 of the IDF using dogs systematically to maul Gazans:
March 24: Survivors of the Israeli raid on Al-Shifa Hospital & its surrounding area describe field executions, home burnings, civilians being run over by tanks, & IDF dogs mauling both the living & the dead:
March 2024: A woman who survived the Israeli raid on around al-Shifa Hospital says the IDF forces attacked homes with dogs & killed the men, including her husband's uncle & brother.
She describes bodies laying in the streets, homes burned, & being forced to flee southward.
🚨UN finds evidence of systematic Israeli sexual violence against Gazan women, CHILDREN & men!
Women being stripped down to their underwear & sexually harassed while male relatives are forced to watch
Female soldier forced boys to dance semi-naked & filmed them while laughing🧵
2\ IDF soldiers sexually harassing minor girls in front of their male relatives & forcing women at gun point to strip down to their underwear, some are groped & touched.
Women who refuse are beaten, abused, detained for days & threatened to shoot to kill their children.
3\ IDF soldiers are robbing all valuables from the women, men & children whom they force to strip down to their underwear at gunpoint.
Soldiers deliberately destroy & grafitti extremely filthy sexual insults at women's rights organizations offices in Gaza & at homes they loot.
🚨Israel is RAPING kidnapped Gazans in the Sde Teiman prison camp
A Gazan died after penetration by an electric stick
A female IDF officer ordered the rape of a senior Gazan nurse
A UN worker forced to sit on a "hot metal stick"
This is the 4th report of IDF rape this year🧵
2\ Last April, Haaretz documented this testimony of rape
"They were led to the kitchen, where they were stripped & forced to lie one on top of the other.... They were beaten with clubs & spat on. A guard then started to stuff carrots into the anus of Abu Halil & other prisoners"
3\ In Feb, UN experts reported at least two cases of Gazan women being kidnapped by the IDF & raped in detention.
The report didn't receive any significant mainstream media coverage & passed unnoticed. ohchr.org/en/press-relea…
Hamas doesn't stand to lose much, but Israel might lose dearly
Palestinian reconciliation might get even more difficult
Hamas recently pledged to cooperate with the ICC investigation, Israel rejected it out of hand as "antisemitic"
2\ Netanyahu won't be able to step a foot on any of the 124 countries in Green, including the EU. Israeli ministers & IDF general would fear going to any of these countries in case of surprise arrest warrants.
The reputational damage to Israel could lead to halting arm deals, boycotts, declining foreign investments...
World leaders won't be eager to meet & be pictured with a guy accused of crimes against humanity.
Pressure can be increased on Israel's Western patrons to act.
3\ Hamas, however, is already isolated & sanctioned by the entire West
The 3 leaders targeted by the ICC prosecutor NEVER travel to an ICC member state (or are never allowed to in the 1st place)
Daif never steps a food outside Gaza. Sinwar barely traveled to Egypt a couple of times
Haniya only ever travelled to countries that are non-members of the ICC or didn't ratify the Rome Statute (e.g. Iran, Russia, Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Malaysia, Oman, Morrocco)
A🧵debunking Israel's talking points on Rafah through the words of top *Israeli* generals & leaders on why the invasion:
Will NOT defeat Hamas
May cost the lives of all hostages
Is NOT necessary
& that Hamas is "still alive & kicking" in every city the IDF invaded & destroyed...
2\ Israel's own (under)estimates is that there's still 5,000 armed Hamas militants in Northern Gaza after 210 days
IDF General (res.) Israel Ziv admits Hamas is "still alive & kicking" in northern Gaza after everything Israel did there, including destroying & damaging over 70% of all homes!
🚨Israel is RAPING & sexually assaulting Palestinian detainees:
"They were led to the kitchen, where they were stripped & forced to lie one on top of the other.... They were beaten with clubs & spat on. A guard then started to stuff carrots into the anus of Abu Halil & other prisoners."
2\ Israel's sexual abuse of those detainees that spoke up was a routine: "Again they were stripped. This time they were kicked in the testicles. The guards would lunge at them & kick, lunge & kick, again & again. Nonstop brutality for 25 minutes. 'We are Bruce Lee,' the guards proclaimed. They shook them & shoved them around like balls from one corner of the room to the other, then moved them to their new cells in Block 6."
3\ Most Palestinian victims of Israeli sexual abuse would never speak up about their trauma out of fear of Israel arbitrarily detaining or killing them in revenge, as well as the social stigma & shame it brings