Kudos to Max Blumenthal! He and Aaron Maté are a few of the rare handful of independent reporters we have left in America. Journalism in the US has become consolidated in the hands of a few powerful media companies whose main purpose is disinforming the public. Hard hitting journalism has been restricted to only pushing the uniparty agenda of Washington.

via Moon of Alabama

The Israeli army is slowly recognizing and acknowledging that its enemies are serious fighters:

In Gaza itself, the military is amazed at the scale of Hamas’ strength in the region, building a de facto terror army stationed 50 minutes away from Tel Aviv over the past 14 years, including hundreds of thousands of weapons ranging from various types of RPGs that constitute the main weapon in targeting soldiers, advanced rocket launchers, strike drones and strike drones modeled to counter Israeli ones.This also includes mortar shells, AK-47 rifles, Dragunov sniper rifles, communication devices, operational telephone lines and explosive charges in various sizes.

The resistance is stubborn. It doesn’t give up even in areas the Israeli Occupation Forces have claimed to have cleaned:

In Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, located just yards away from Sderot, the IDF has been operating from the early days of the operation, achieving tactical successes. However, the risks still remain. Last week, Hamas terrorists came out of a mosque in the town, and new weapon caches were also discovered.The IDF is targeting Hamas commanders, and most of these terrorist cells are local and small, but as Beit Hanoun can testify, it will take months to completely clear it of enemy forces- and this isn’t the location in which Hamas is at its strongest.

The occupation forces have relatively high losses, much higher than they admit. Via Haaretz:

IDF Reports 1,593 Wounded Since October 7, but Hospital Data Is Much Higher (archived)

Making its first such announcement since Hamas attacked on October 7, Israel stated on Sunday that 1,593 Israeli soldiers have been wounded during this period.The military noted that 255 soldiers had suffered serious injuries, 446 moderate injuries and 892 minor injuries. The army released the information on the numbers of wounded soldiers and their condition after Haaretz reported two weeks ago that it had been refusing to do so.
…
As of Sunday, the number of fallen soldiers in the war that Israel had dubbed “Swords of Iron” stands at 425 (97 of whom have been killed since the launch of the ground operation. An examination conducted by Haaretz with the hospitals where the wounded soldiers have been and are treated shows a considerable and unexplained gap between the data reported by the military and that from the hospitals. The hospitals’ data shows that the number of wounded soldiers to be twice as high as the army’s numbers.

For example, Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon alone reports treating 1,949 soldiers hurt in the war since October 7 (out of 3,117 injured people treated there during the war), whereas the army reports a total of 1,593 wounded soldiers. Assuta Ashdod reportedly treated 178 patients, Ichilov (Tel Aviv) 148, Rambam (Haifa) 181, Hadassah (Jerusalem) 209 and Sha’arei Tzedek (Jerusalem) 139.

In addition, another 1,000 or so soldiers were treated at Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center, while another 650 were treated at Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer. This is a partial list, as the data does not include soldiers currently in rehab wards who have already been counted as wounded upon arrival at emergency wards and inpatient wards.

The Health Ministry has counted over 10,000 wounded.

There are likely also more dead soldiers than the occupation forces admit. Some special units, which are generally small, have taken serious hits:

Verum Reports @VerumReports – 13:25 UTC · Oct 14, 2023Israel Special forces have taken heavy losses:

Unit 5101 Shaldag: 5 KIA, 3 officers/NCOs
Shayetet 13: 2 officer/NCOs KIAs
Yahalom: 1 officer KIA
Yamam: 8 KIA
LOTAR: 5 KIA (3 officers)
Sayeret Matkal (Israel’s elite SOF): 11 KIA (10 officers/NCOs)

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Within a somewhat small but open community it is difficult to hide the real numbers.

How many will there have to be to make the Zionist less bloodthirsty?

Confirmed: 85%-90% of the men stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and paraded around in the world’s media as “Hamas terrorists” by Israel were in fact civilians.

That’s according to “Israeli security officials” as quoted in Haaretz.

IDF captures Palestinian men en masse in Gaza, indiscriminately.

All men are stripped down to their underwear, searched, blindfolded, and then loaded onto transport to be sent to filtration camps, where prisoners are checked for connections with Hamas.

Jordan’s foreign minister has claimed Israel cannot achieve military victory in Gaza and has already suffered a strategic defeat by alienating the entire region.

Speaking on Sunday at the Doha Forum – an annual gathering of diplomats in the Qatari capital – Ayman Safadi said the goal of Israel’s operation against Hamas is to oust the Palestinian population rather than to defeat the militant group.

The destruction in Gaza over the past two months “is an indication of an Israeli policy that seems determined to expel the residents” of the enclave, he said, adding that top Israeli officials, including Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have been quite candid about that intention.

Safadi brought up the Friday vote at the UN Security Council, in which the US vetoed a proposal by Arab nations urging for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. It was the only vote against, with the UK, a key American ally, being the only member of the 15-strong body to abstain.

The top Jordanian diplomat noted that despite the veto, Washington was publicly calling on Israel to change its military tactics.

“Simply put, Israel is defying everyone – its allies, international law, and the United Nations,” he said. “Israel has created an amount of hatred that will haunt this region, and that will define future generations. It harms its people as much as it affects everyone in the region.”

This is a war Israel cannot win. Israel has already suffered a strategic defeat.

The minister blamed Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and systematic obstruction to the creation of a Palestinian state as the root cause of the hostilities.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who attended the event in Qatar via video link, remarked that the US has blocked several proposals for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN. He called the unresolved status of Palestinian statehood the “single most dangerous factor igniting extremism in the Middle East.”

READ MORE: Russia explains relationship with Hamas

Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after Hamas fighters broke through the border wall on October 7 and raided several settlements and military bases in southern Israel. Israeli officials said over 1,200 people were killed as a result.

The death toll in Gaza stood at more than 17,700 as of Sunday, as updated by the local health ministry. Around two-thirds of the Palestinians killed were women and children, the report noted.

The Israelis are in panic mode. They lost the narrative and the battle. Not a good sign for the future.

The IDF continues to round up military aged men day and night.

As they admit themselves here, they don’t know who is a militant and who is not, and just arrest en-masse.

For some reason they do not allow them to get dressed again.

Half of US adults under age 30 either believe that the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany is a myth or are not sure that it happened, a new Economist/YouGov poll has revealed.

The poll, released on Friday, found that one in five Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 agree with the statement that “the Holocaust is a myth,” while 23% believe that it has been exaggerated. An additional 30% are unsure, while 51% of respondents disagree with the statement.

Overall, 7% of Americans deny that the Holocaust is real, while 16% are not fully convinced, the poll showed. Responses were divided sharply by age, with just 2% of respondents between the ages of 45 and 64 and less than 1% of those 65 and older saying the Holocaust did not happen. Americans also are divided on the issue by race, with Holocaust denial and doubts more than twice as high among blacks and Hispanics as whites. While 13% of blacks and 12% of Hispanics say the Jewish genocide is a myth, just 5% of whites agree with the statement.

Footage of street fighting in the Gaza Strip from the perspective of fighters from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and Palestinian Islamic Jihad brigades.

via RT

Gaza’s ancient Omari Mosque has been bombarded by Israeli warplanes with the landmark site sustaining widespread destruction.

Images being shared on social media and identified by RT reporters in Gaza as being of the Omari Mosque showed massive damage to the building, with only its ancient stone minaret standing. The Great Omari Mosque is considered one of the most important and oldest mosques in Palestine and the first one to be constructed in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas reacted to the incident by calling it a “heinous, barbaric crime” as cited by Reuters, and urged the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to protect historic buildings in Gaza.

Israeli warplanes bombed a while ago the Grand Omari Mosque, Gaza’s largest and oldest mosque. #GazaGenocide #IsraelTerrorism pic.twitter.com/Ng7Yekb7KD

— Palestine Info Center (@palinfoen) December 8, 2023

It would not be the first time civilian infrastructure, including cultural and heritage sites, have been targeted by Israeli Defense Forces as they carry out retaliatory strikes.

The fighting began on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure, including mosques and schools, to hide its fighters.

فيديو الاحتلال يدمر المسجد العمري الكبير ، وهو المسجد الأكبر والأقدم في مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/klOa7QKvW1

— #القدس_ينتفض (@MyPalestine0) December 8, 2023

Another place of worship, the Othman bin Qashqar Mosque in Gaza City, was hit by air raids on Thursday, Hamas said. The group also condemned the destruction of the Hammam al-Samara, a 1,000-year old Turkish-style bath in the territory.

The Palestine Ministry of Culture said Israeli warplanes had bombed eight museums since the beginning of the conflict, including the Rafah Museum, Al-Qarara Museum and the Khan Yunis Museum, in addition to destroying most parts of Gaza’s Old City, including dozens of historic buildings.

Israel has also reduced nine publishing houses and libraries to rubble and destroyed or partially damaged at least 21 cultural centers. In its latest report, the NGO Heritage for Peace found that 104 out of 195 architectural heritage sites in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. More than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed during the conflict, according to figures from Gaza health officials considered reliable by the United Nations, and much civilian infrastructure has been destroyed.