‘Children were carrying other injured children.’ Witness describes aftermath of Israeli strike on Gaza refugee camp

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/

Some choice, direct quotes from the article:

The most relevant of the document’s 36 articles can be summarized as falling within four main themes
The complete destruction of Israel as an essential condition for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Islamic law (Sharia),
The need for both unrestrained and unceasing holy war (jihad) to attain the above objective,
The deliberate disdain for, and dismissal of, any negotiated resolution or political settlement of Jewish and Muslim claims to the Holy Land, and
The reinforcement of historical anti-Semitic tropes and calumnies married to sinister conspiracy theories.

Lest there be any doubt about Hamas’s sanguinary aims toward Israel and the Jewish people, the introduction goes on to explain:
This Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), clarifies its picture, reveals its identity, outlines its stand, explains its aims, speaks about its hopes, and calls for its support, adoption and joining its ranks. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious … It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps.

this part of the covenant stresses that:
Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight.

On May 1, 2017, Hamas issued a revised charter. Gone were the “vague religious rhetoric and outlandish utopian pronouncements” of the earlier document, according to analysis prepared for the Institute of Palestine Studies. Instead, the new charter was redolent of “straightforward and mostly pragmatic political language” that had “shifted the movement’s positions and policies further toward the spheres of pragmatism and nationalism as opposed to dogma and Islamism.” Nonetheless, the analyst was struck by “the movement’s adherence to its founding principles” alongside newly crafted, “carefully worded” language suggesting moderation and flexibility.
Israel immediately dismissed the group’s effort to promote a kinder, gentler image of its once avowedly bloodthirsty agenda. “Hamas is attempting to fool the world, but it will not succeed,” a spokesperson from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office predicted.

And I'd say they were right to do so given what Hamas has done since.

I am not saying Israel has clean hands. But painting Hamas as even open to a peaceful resolution is fraught.

the closest thing Palestinians have to a government

If this really is the "closest thing" to a government they have. Then I fully understand the desire to completely demolish their intolerant antisemitic society to make sure it never can even attempt to attack again.

Going to some other resources...

Approximately 60 percent of Palestinians (77% in the Gaza Strip and 46% in the West Bank), support armed attacks against Israelis within Israel as a means of ending the occupation, while 70% believe that a two-state solution is no longer practical or possible as a result of the expansion of Israeli settlements.

http://pcpsr.org/en/node/912 (from last year)

The whole thing is a mess because Israel was created by colonizers. It seems the two are now locked into a conflict where only one state can survive. The Gaza strip is pretty clearly going to continue to be a threat to Israel that peace talks or a "two state" solution cannot resolve.

14 comments

Only the cleanest ethnicities when this is over.
Israel needs to check everyone to make sure they’re not Hamas… have they considered rounding them up and…
- Oh, you mean load them on a train!
  
  AKA ethnic cleansing. I'm sure they've considered it.
Hamas however has strongly denied the presence of one of its leaders in the refugee camp. Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the militant group, accused Israel of attempting to justify what he described as a “heinous crime against safe civilians, children, and women in Jabalya camp.”
Ah, yes, the terrorists wouldn't want any civilians, children, or women getting hurt.
Also big fail from CNN, reporting this as a current refugee camp, when it's a city named as a refugee camp, in Northern Gaza, that was ordered to evacuate.
- Ahh yes. Told to evacuate. But not allowed to go through IDF lines.
  More like scaring than warning.
- Such comic book understanding of hammas, essentially the closest thing Palestinians have to a government, and the sole force resisting genocide (albeit as rightwing theocrats).
  Yet the humane alternatives will never bee humored by israel. Grant citizenship to all Palestinians, roll back illegal settlments designed to fragment the people and enstate a 2 state solution, really anything other than leveling civilian areas because there mightaybe could be a guy with a rocket. Apply that logic to any city and we would have flattened Manhattan by the 90s.
  The average Palestinian is under 20 years old. This is one of the most powerful and right wing armies in the world making excises for killing children.
  
  https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/
  Some choice, direct quotes from the article:
  The most relevant of the document’s 36 articles can be summarized as falling within four main themes
  The complete destruction of Israel as an essential condition for the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Islamic law (Sharia),
  The need for both unrestrained and unceasing holy war (jihad) to attain the above objective,
  The deliberate disdain for, and dismissal of, any negotiated resolution or political settlement of Jewish and Muslim claims to the Holy Land, and
  The reinforcement of historical anti-Semitic tropes and calumnies married to sinister conspiracy theories.
  Lest there be any doubt about Hamas’s sanguinary aims toward Israel and the Jewish people, the introduction goes on to explain:
  This Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), clarifies its picture, reveals its identity, outlines its stand, explains its aims, speaks about its hopes, and calls for its support, adoption and joining its ranks. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious … It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps.
  this part of the covenant stresses that:
  Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of religion. Nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion. Its members have been fed on that. For the sake of hoisting the banner of Allah over their homeland they fight.
  On May 1, 2017, Hamas issued a revised charter. Gone were the “vague religious rhetoric and outlandish utopian pronouncements” of the earlier document, according to analysis prepared for the Institute of Palestine Studies. Instead, the new charter was redolent of “straightforward and mostly pragmatic political language” that had “shifted the movement’s positions and policies further toward the spheres of pragmatism and nationalism as opposed to dogma and Islamism.” Nonetheless, the analyst was struck by “the movement’s adherence to its founding principles” alongside newly crafted, “carefully worded” language suggesting moderation and flexibility.
  Israel immediately dismissed the group’s effort to promote a kinder, gentler image of its once avowedly bloodthirsty agenda. “Hamas is attempting to fool the world, but it will not succeed,” a spokesperson from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office predicted.
  And I'd say they were right to do so given what Hamas has done since.
  I am not saying Israel has clean hands. But painting Hamas as even open to a peaceful resolution is fraught.
  the closest thing Palestinians have to a government
  If this really is the "closest thing" to a government they have. Then I fully understand the desire to completely demolish their intolerant antisemitic society to make sure it never can even attempt to attack again.
  Going to some other resources...
  Approximately 60 percent of Palestinians (77% in the Gaza Strip and 46% in the West Bank), support armed attacks against Israelis within Israel as a means of ending the occupation, while 70% believe that a two-state solution is no longer practical or possible as a result of the expansion of Israeli settlements.
  http://pcpsr.org/en/node/912 (from last year)
  The whole thing is a mess because Israel was created by colonizers. It seems the two are now locked into a conflict where only one state can survive. The Gaza strip is pretty clearly going to continue to be a threat to Israel that peace talks or a "two state" solution cannot resolve.
  
  Right, terrorists invade Israel and brutally murder 1500, and Israel's response should be to give all Palestinians citizenship and land. I guess terrorism works?