By Douglas Murray, NY POST Nov. 15, 2023, 1:40 p.m. ET
On one hour’s notice, the IDF yesterday morning gave permission for a small number of journalists to go into Gaza with its forces to see the full scale of the war that Israel is waging against the terrorists of Hamas.
We entered through the same part of the fence that the Hamas terrorists broke through on the morning of October 7 to carry out their massacres.
Today this opening is one of the routes that the Israeli military is pouring through as it continues its relentless assault on the terrorist group.
Almost as soon as we got into Gaza, we came across evidence of the intense fighting that has been going on in recent days.
One of the first villages we came to had been almost destroyed in the fighting.
But the Israelis had just found something interesting here. It was one of the entrances to the vast underground tunnel network that Hamas has spent years constructing beneath Gaza.
Each of these entrances connects to the vast underground tunnel network in which Hamas is hiding.
The Israelis also believe that it is in the tunnel system beneath our feet that the 240 Israelis kidnapped are likely being held.
Many of these tunnel entrances are booby-trapped by Hamas. Several Israeli soldiers were killed just a few days ago trying to open one such entrance.
Yesterday, as we were there, the IDF showed that it is taking no chances.
Several detonation experts carefully winched a large amount of dynamite down through the entrance to the tunnel and, after getting us to stand behind a nearby destroyed building, they blew it up.
The massive explosion shook the ground under our feet.
Soon we got back into our vehicles and started to enter deep into Gaza. All around there were the explosions and firing we had been told to expect before we went in.
The Israelis were still carrying out airstrikes in the northernmost part of the Strip and great plumes of smoke could be seen rising up after each strike.
There was other firing too: tank shells and anti-tank munitions, as well as intermittent firefights between the two sides using heavy machine guns and other artillery.
But we pressed on to our destination. Our aim was to get to Salah al-Din Road. This has become one of the main routes for the citizens of Gaza to move south.
Every day thousands of Gazans move this way. Twenty-five thousand moved this way the day before. Fifty thousand the day before that.
As we approached the highway, we were warned about the ongoing military activity here. Fire can come from all sides.
Hamas itself has been trying to stop the Gazans leaving the north of the Gaza Strip.
It wants to avoid a hand-to-hand fight that is just between the IDF and Hamas. As a result, Hamas has actually been gunning down civilians trying to flee.
Roadways like this one have been strewn with the bodies of Gazans trying to follow the IDF’s warning to move south so that Hamas can be isolated in the north.
The resulting scene I saw was of course a tide of human misery. But it is a misery brought upon the people of Gaza by Hamas when it decided to break into Israel on October 7 by land, air and sea.
Around 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered that day. The largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. And the Israelis do not intend to forget it or allow Hamas to remain in the Gaza.
Especially not since Hamas’ leaders have said they wish to repeat the October massacre again and again.
At Salah al-Din Road, we got the first glimpse of the tide of Palestinians leaving their homes and moving south. Men, women and children were standing in line as the IDF stood guard.
This is the “humanitarian corridor” that the Israelis have set up to allow Palestinians to leave the zone of the most intense fighting and get to safety.
The process is an incredibly delicate one and every movement has to be carefully watched.
The Israelis have three objectives. The first is to allow safe passage for innocent Palestinians who do not want to get caught up in the war.
The second is to prevent Hamas terrorists — let alone their leaders — from spiriting themselves away among the local population.
The third is to avoid any of the 240 Israeli hostages being taken deeper into Gaza along this route.
As a result, the messages broadcast out at the crowds by megaphone were in Arabic and Hebrew.
The messages in Arabic advised the people to raise their hands if they understood the messages and to move slowly forward past the checkpoint. Some of the Palestinians waved white flags.
A number of young men were pulled out of the crowd and put aside for a secondary check. Young men of fighting age are clearly of interest to the Israelis and need more checks than most to ensure they are not bringing weapons to extend the war to the south.
It is truly remarkable how convinced the progressives of the world are that Israel is bad and Palestinians are victims.
This victimhood ideology is completely pathological. Would people say that the members of Hitler’s panzer division were victims because Hitler didn’t allow anyone to disagree with his policies?
Did anyone tell the Allies they were committing genocide? Did anyone say to the Allies, “you have to have a cease fire or you will be guilty of war crimes”?
There has never been a time when a country, which was the victim of genocide, (which is what October 7th was), was BLAMED by the international community instead of the other way around.
The international response of criticism of Israel and the demand for a delusional two state solution at the end of this war are simply unacceptable.
Americans BY A LOT support Israel. Only a small number of people by contrast want Israel destroyed. What is worrisome is that instead of having a nation of educated college students we have a nation of indoctrinated college students who are ignorant and rooting for team genocide.
That has got to change.
And there is going to be no TSS. It was dead before October 7th and it is even more dead now. Biden can keep insisting on it until the day he dies, it isn’t happening. The Israeli people will never let the PA run anything anymore, nor will they let Hamas run anything. Nor should they delegate the security of Gaza to an anti-Israel biased international group.
I think there are 2 articles by Tony Badran that are important here:
one is the need for Israel to deport all those Palestinians who celebrate their death:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/deport-violent-radicals-what-now
And the other is looking into the role of the US in damaging Israel’s intelligence in the lead up to this war:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/america-leaves-israel-eyeless-in-gaza
Since IDF holds a 20 km sea shore , it can provide these people with a sailing cruise towards Turkey which will be eager to show the world how much they really support their muslim brethren .