In the context of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict:

Settlements - refers to illegal makeshift "towns" (usually no more than a few trailers) built on lands that belong to Palestinians by right wing Israeli extremists who believe that the entire land belongs to them. As of 2006, these are strictly in the west bank.

Everything else (city, town, kibutz etc) - traditional meaning but also indicates that they are within the official internationally recognised Israeli border.

Unfortunately it seems that they will get what they want.

Israel has been bombarded with nearly 10,000 rockets, ballistic missiles and bomb carrying drones over the last month - from Gaza to the centre, Lebanon to the north and Yemen and Iran to the south. In addition there are almost daily terror attacks coming from the west bank.

There are civilian fatalities every day there. A school was recently hit and destroyed from a ballistic missile hit. Thankfully the city that was hit moved to online studies due to the threats so it was empty.

The only reason we don't see a death toll of thousands of Israelis is due to extreme defence measurements including the evacuation of more than 250,000 Israelis from the north and centre.

The whole situation is just escalating by the day and the massive attacks are fuelling Israelis rage.

Both the Houthis and Hezbollah hinted a massive attack tomorrow. Another serious hit to Israeli civilians will send this whole thing over a cliff.

Deplorable.

There were some unconfirmed reports that the reason Hamas was able to do so much damage is because 3 battalions that were supposed to guard the border with Gaza were moved to the west bank to protect these illegal settlements.

The audacity to continue doing this shit while their country is still trying to recover from the biggest terrorist attack in their history is just unbelievable.

At this point he doesn't have a choice. Hamas offered to release about a dozen hostages for a ceasefire.

The Israelis repeatedly declared that there won't be any ceasefire without the release of all the hostages.

If he accepts anything else he's most likely to loose all control.

You probably should.

Whether you agree or not, it's always a good idea to hear both sides, otherwise there's a good chance you'll end up in an echo chamber.

If their story is fabricated it'll fall apart very quickly.

Unfortunately no winners here, as is with most wars.

Yeah, but unfortunately there are a lot of vile people on social media and some claiming to be Hamas contacted her mother saying that she survived and is being treated by them.

Israel found a piece of bone from her skull and they say that she couldn't have survived.

Netanyahu is a political animal.

He doesn't care about the hostages, the Palestinians and most of the Israelis. He just barely cares about some of them.

He has one and only one objective here - to win back the 50% votes that he lost because of the terror attack. He's already blaming the army and those who protested against him, saying that this attack was made possible because of them. According to Israeli media he has PR advisors with him when selecting military objectives and targets to help him choose the best option that will win him the more votes back.

If this goes on I think that there's a chance that we'll see a military coup in Israel.

To make it perfectly clear - the fact that children are dying is reprehensible and it should be stopped. Even if one innocent child died, from both sides, it's one too many.

That being said, this is a very good example of propaganda by partial information and numbers manipulations.

The UN report in question identifies anyone under the age of 18 as a child. The Al-Qassam brigades recruit teens from the age of 16 to active combative roles (some reports suggest an even younger age).

It's impossible to know how many of these 3,257 children are actually children and how many are armed teens, and the UN report references that. The propaganda completely ignores this part and reframes this information as if more than 3,000 young and innocent children were slain.

That's why I stopped trying.

People arguing whether babies were beheaded as if they're challenging a ref call. Their team is always right and 100% just, the other is always wrong and 100% evil and no one wants to hear that the truth is always gray and complex.

It's disheartening.

Unfortunately Hamas's success was far beyond their expectations. They were left unchecked for hours and during that time chose to commit the worst type of atrocities.

In doing so, they validated Israelis fears that if the "Palestinians" could, they would torture, rape and kill every single Israeli including the elderly and children.

Israel is now a country in trauma and is driven by vengeance and fear.

Sadly, at this point, no amount of world criticism will make any difference.

The only way to prevent massive casualties on both sides is if Hamas releases the civilian hostages.

It's unclear.

Hamas clearly and obviously committed crimes against humanity (intentionally murdering civilians, raping, torturing and kidnapping).

Israel, so far, is playing in the gray areas. It's legal, according to international law, to lay siege on a population as long as it has a definitive and declared military purpose. It's illegal to do it to intentionally harm civilians or to intentionally starve them.

The main problem is that Hamas is using the Palestinians and hides amongst them. That makes the legal discussion very difficult because Israel can always say that they target Hamas and everything else is just collateral damage.

Unfortunately the Palestinians are getting f'ed from both sides here.

Israel announced right at the start that its target is to eliminate Hamas and PIJ.

Since there are:

1. About 30,000-40,000 Hamas members in the Al-Qassam Brigades and

2. About 6,000 members in the PIJ and

3. Assuming 1 civilian casualty per 3 combative casualties

Then unless something substantial changes, the death toll is expected to rise to around 50k-60k . This is really just the beginning.

You're not wrong, but with the tensions in Israel's northern border and with Hizbolla signalling that they will launch an assault if Israel moves into Gaza, releasing the hostages might just be the excuse everyone needs to de-escalate.

Al Jazeera is a Qatar funded news outlet, and the Qatari government has tight relationship with Hamas. I would take their reports cautiously.

Reuters and AP are the most unbiased it seems, but it's always a good practice to follow multiple outlets - both pro and against each side.

The same type of people that are capable of stabbing babies in their cribs.

At least in this case no one is making any excuses.

I'm not sure I understand what you tried to say here. I was referring to Hamas's leaders motivations and the current climate in Israel, not to Israel's actions in Gaza.

There hasn’t been a major attack on Israel since the “war” began

That's just incorrect.

Are you saying that the Egyptians are oppressed?

Also Hamas won the elections by a small margin, just a few percentages more than the PLO at the time. It's not like everyone in Gaza rallied behind them (at least then).

The reason that there were no elections after that is that once they won, they Putin'ed the opposition and threw all the PLO party members from the building rooftop.

Not that I know of, but it's 5am there, so maybe later on.

I see.

A few days ago a group of Israelis tortured, killed and then burned the bodies of a couple Palestinians. They said that it's in revenge of the events of 7/10.

Do you also understand and perhaps even justify it?

Hamas has food, water, medicine ready for the civilians in Gaza, waiting in trucks sitting in Egypt

The food, water and resources are in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza, not in Egypt.

And I'm saying that you're wrong. The Arab-Jewish conflict can be traced long before Israel and many Jews lived or arrive to the area before many of the Palestinians.

It's a very complex conflict, that it's currently deadlocked and unsolvable. The colonisation in the west bank is just one small part of it, and the easiest one to solve. Presenting it as if it's the main or only issue is what I meant by Americanising the conflict.

You need to get out of whatever echo chamber you're in.

They literally raided for less than a day and than ran back with hostages

That's incorrect - the Israelis continued to capture and kill them inside Israel even a week after the attack. Some of the terrorists came with provisions that were meant to last for a long time, until the area calmed down, and then to launch a second attack from the inside.

Hamas released videos from the tunnels showing stockpiles of weaponry and supplies. The hostages also testified that they showered every other day, while the rest of Gaza is essentially cut from water supply. Those water had to come from somewhere.

So by avoiding any action you would allow them to fire the rocket.

I understand and respect that.

It's a huge gray area and just one example of the complex morality component of this conflict.

Behadead babies is confirmed by numerous sources. Both the convoy and hospital have been shown to be most likely Hamas or PIJ by independent analysis. Same with 500 deaths at the hospital which analysis showed that it's unlikely to be more than a couple dozens. Tragedy and horrendous, but I don't see anyone condemning PIJ for it or calling them to stop firing rockets.

The main issue here is the burden of proof. It seems that Hamas word is taken at face value while Israel is always considered as lying. You either check facts, and then need to check the claims of both sides, or not. You either care about civilians and then need to care about civilians from both sides or not.

The last couple of weeks showed, at least to me, that many of the people that claim that they care about facts and civilians only do when it's for the "right" side.

You're mixing Gaza and the west bank.

This is about Gaza and Hamas. The IDF had no presence in Gaza for 20 years now and Israel has not displaced anyone from there since 1967.

Unless your argument is that Hamas represents all the Palestinians everywhere?

But remember you asked me, a lay person, to solve this intense geo political issue, I’m giving you my best stab at it

No, I understand and appreciate your attempt.

In this solution, do the Palestinians also get the right of return?

I stand corrected. Looks like it was an isolated case and luckily there were no casualties. It also looks like it wasn't used for attack but rather for signalling, which is not illegal under international law.

I was referring to the attack on 7/10.

You framed it as a battle in an ongoing war that been going since Israel was founded.

I answered that if we want to look at the history of the Jewish Arab conflict it can be traced to the early days of Islam.

Your response to that was false propaganda.

Really? that's odd, where did I say that?

Just one inaccuracy - there were no settlers in Gaza for nearly 20 years.

A worldwide charity that’s existed for 100 years, whose exclusive mission is trying to save children from war, is a very good example of propaganda

Absolutely, 100%. Human rights organisations are not unbiased news outlets - they have agendas and objectives. Their objectives are commendable ones, and the work they do is invaluable, but they still utilise propaganda as a means to an end. As good and important as this end is, their reports should be received with the same amount of caution and critical thinking as any report coming from anyone with an objective in this.

you say that one is too many but then you say “don’t fall for this guys, it’s not nearly that many

That's just a straw man. I never suggested that it's not that many. It can be 3,257 and it could be 0. I just pointed out the information manipulation.

Are you saying it’s ok to murder minors because they’re armed

It's never ok, but unfortunately this is war and war is shit. An ak47 in the hands of a 12 years old can kill just as well as one in the hands of a 20 years old.

Another point for you to consider is that traditionally, in the Philippines, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia, many regions of Africa and essentially wherever there were children-soldiers, the ones that indoctrinated them, trained them and placed firearms in their hands were the ones who were blamed for their deaths.

You seem to hold Israel as the only one accountable for it.

The only thing that’s really propaganda here is your comment

How so?

A child conscripted to fight in a war is still a child

I agree, but I'll copy what I answered the other comment about this exactly: It’s never ok, but unfortunately this is war and war is shit. An ak47 in the hands of a 12 years old can kill just as well as one in the hands of a 20 years old.

in the Philippines, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia, many regions of Africa and essentially wherever there were children-soldiers, the ones that indoctrinated them, trained them and placed firearms in their hands were the ones who were blamed for their deaths.

You seem to hold Israel as the only one accountable for it.

You seem to forget that Hamas is the acting government of Gaza.

First of all, sarcasm bro

Sorry mate, so many layers and seriously made wild claims that it's becoming really hard to detect..

Don't ask to be spoon fed information - that's how you get incorrect and inaccurate info.

Here, a simple google search to start with https://www.google.com/search?q=gaza+children+soldiers

The latest UN Document for Children and Armed Conflict report https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/S_2023_363.pdf , item 95 - identifies and calls to stop PIJ and Hamas from "killing and maiming and the recruitment and use of children"

This is the most official source on the matter.

1. That's just whataboutism.

2. Gaza was part of Egypt up until 55 years ago.

3. Hamas rockets are not weak, the portrayal of Children Throwing Stones from the 1990's is long gone - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi6uhOmTMWU

4. Israel didn't use Phosphorus bombs in Gaza (at least not this time). Israel didn't attack with Phosphorus bombs in Gaza. There is a record of using it for illumination and signalling, which is not illegal under international law.

5. It's not their bombs - it's them physically torturing civilians in the most horrendous ways. If you can't condemn that type of behaviour then you're clearly supporting it.

It seems that you either intentionally deflecting and lying, pushing propaganda or have no idea what you're talking about.

Mate.. that's cramping 17 million Palestinians (who some hate each other as much as they hate Israelis) together with 9 million Israelis in this tiny region that can barely support the existing population, and all that without even solving any of the legal or values parts of this conflict.

I reckon it'll be an all-v-all bloodbath..