Further thoughts on the hostage rescue: their survival was almost miraculous
Here’s a much more detailed description of the Israeli hostage rescue. I’m sure important facts have been left out for security reasons, but enough have been revealed to give a fuller picture than the one we got earlier.
That fuller picture makes it seem almost a miracle that the hostages and their rescuers got out alive. Maybe it actually was a miracle, depending on your belief system.
I suggest you please read the whole thing now, because I’m going to discuss some of my reactions and observations.
(1) When I had just the bare bones of the story, before I had read the article, one thing I wondered was – in the firefight that occurred during the rescue of the three male hostages, when the head of the operation was mortally wounded – how did the Israeli troops somehow manage to protect the hostages and themselves while carrying his body out of the building and bringing him home? The article doesn’t explain exactly how that was done, but it does make clear that he was carried out of there on a stretcher, and that there were medics as part of the original team. So not only did the Israelis prepare for that sort of contingency, but they used precious time and resources to make sure no one was left behind to the tender mercies of the savage Gazan crowd. This was all done under extremely heavy fire.
(2) Prior to reading the article I had already heard of some of the intelligence work prior to the rescue, involving a team of Israelis posing as Arabs and speaking fluent Arabic with a Gazan accent. It had struck me, and not for the first time, that the reason the Israelis could successfully pull that off was that the members of the team probably were Arabs – Israeli Arabs, that is. About 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs, and I’d wager that most of them have no desire for Hamas to take over Israel and take away the freedoms they enjoy there.
(3) The article makes it crystal clear that the type of combat in which the Israeli team had to engage was enormously difficult and more dramatic than most movies. They were met with an unexpected amount of armed resistance not just on the streets of Gaza as they were trying to get the hostages through the town. but even when they first entered the home where the hostages were being kept.
(4) The hostages had to be very brave, as well, during this operation.
(5) Every single story I’ve read about the hostage rescue operation refers to the site where the hostages were being kept as the “Nuseirat refugee camp,” and that includes the one I’m writing about now. Words matter. The Palestinians and the UN and the NGOs have managed to use these sort of terms to conjure up the image in the readers’ minds of a bunch of makeshift tent cities, full of squalor and lacking basic facilities. But the vast majority of dwellings in the permanent “refugee camps” of Gaza are not like that. They are towns, with shops and homes and all the usual accouterments that towns contain. We should stop calling them “camps” because they are not camps. For that matter, most of the people in them are not “refugees”; they are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of people who for the most part chose to leave Israel when the UN created the original two-state solution that the Arab world rejected in favor of trying to destroy Israel. And lastly, they’re not really “Palestinians,” they appropriated that term back in the 1960s:
When I read the early stories of the hostage rescue, I wondered, “Damn! How did they pull that off?”
Now I’m wondering, “Damn! How did they pull that off?”
Speaking of refugee camps, there are between 2 and 3 million Palestinians living in refugee camps in Jordan, third and fourth generation just like the ones in the occupied territories. Mysteriously, these Palestinian “refugees” and their living conditions, civil rights, economic opportunities, etc in Jordan never seem to make the news in the US media.
Every single story I’ve read about the hostage rescue operation refers to the site where the hostages were being kept as the “Nuseirat refugee camp,” and that includes the one I’m writing about now. Words matter. The Palestinians and the UN and the NGOs have managed to use these sort of terms to conjure up the image in the readers’ minds of a bunch of makeshift tent cities, full of squalor and lacking basic facilities.
–neo
Yeah. I recall all that repetitive “open-air prison” rhetoric describing Gaza. Here’s a stock photo of Gaza Beach.
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/gaza-beach-gm1271161900-373847019
Not too shabby. It reminds me of seaside Daytona Beach where I grew up.
Imagine how great Gaza Beach could have been if Hamas hadn’t spent billions of dollars in aid money digging tunnels and attacking Israel.
Throw in some classy casinos and they could have turned it into the Arab French Riviera.
Regarding the “camp” terminology and the suggestion of acres upon acres of tents, that was indeed the impression I had until very recently, too. So the propaganda works.
This story reinforces the fact that the local population knew Israelis hostages were there, and where they were. The fear of Hamas and the hatred of Jews are so strong that there are practically no “civilians” in Gaza, as one of the released hostages said.
Also, in spite of extensive operations, there are still lots of tunnels hiding Hamas fighters.
The fear of Hamas and the hatred of Jews are so strong that there are practically no “civilians” in Gaza
I’m struggling to think of a war involving an unfree country of which this could not be said. Certainly we had to deal with the perfidy of civilians, and combatants hiding behind civilians, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Plenty of countries with less respect for human life than Israel have the same problem with the people they’re fighting, and they’re jumping for a chance to use the argument that their enemies are not “really” civilians.
So far Israel seems to be doing everything it can to minimize civilian deaths in Gaza while continuing to fight, and I hope they keep doing that.
The things being demanded of Israel are hard to believe. Can, you wage a war with kindness? Can you defeat Hamas by establishing a series of cease fires? Can Israel feel safe by leaving Gaza before Hamas is defeated? We all know the answers to those questions. Only someone who, for some reason, wants Israel to remain besieged and in danger would ask them to do the impossible.
Fight on IDF. Hamas delenda est.
J.J.:
Indeed, the people coming up with these demands are for the most part playing a cynical game because they know the demands are both impossible to fulfill and incompatible with Israel’s survival. They also know that instead of telling them to go pound sand, the Israelis will try their best to comply, out of an attempt to live up to their own high standards, among other things.
Then there are the virtual-signaling followers who are less cynical but more ignorant and gullible, who think the demands are reasonable and at any rate are showing off how virtuous and kind they are by demanding them of Israel.
Neo
Precisely. And ignorant in an honest sense. In a discussion group just after Oct 7, I noted that it was illegal under various international laws to set up to fight from among civilians. Nobody had ever heard of that, despite our losing guys to having to go easy–in a sense, reduced use of massed fires for example–on such areas for sixty years. ROE. Restricted fire zones. No fire zones.
At the Infantry School, we had classes in calling artillery. How long between calling a fire mission and getting help. Oh, said the instructor, maybe three minutes. That was cool.
Couple of weeks later, going over clearances for artillery support, how long to get clearance. Hour, maybe more. Maybe never. Had to plan ahead, get clearance for various likely spots for tomorrow’s op. Might help.
When the first IDF soldier was killed, you knew Israel was pulling its punches in accord with the law, and paying the price.
But nobody had a clue.
Richard Aubrey:
And the MSM could explain those things whenever they report on the war. But they don’t. Knaves or fools? Both.
I guess the doctor us now treating the Hamashite martyrs who are afflicted with Satan’s STDs, neither are in paradise.
The IDF sent them to their make.
The IDF soldier, Arnon Zamora, who was KIA was a Druze Israeli.
@ Neo: knaves propagandizing fools might be most accurate.
“So the propaganda works.” – and Philip Sells is no fool.
Israel is fighting a very uneven psyops war on top of the kinetic action.
om:
Thanks for the info that he was a Druze. The Druze have been active for Israel from the start of Israel’s statehood.
It seems very unlikely to me that Arnon Zamora was Druze.
His name and his wife’s name are Jewish names.
He was born in a Jewish town.
I’ve never seen anything about his being Druze, including in Israeli media. I suspect if he were Druze that would have been mentioned prominently.
Om, can you share where you got your information?
None of this information should have been publicized.
None of it.
But it had to be because of all the vile and odious slanders targeted against the Jewish State and its leadership, from both without and WITHIN.
For starters: Netanyahu doesn’t want to rescue the hostages? Yeah, right. Whatever…
Monstrous…but for a “good” cause. Right. (Well, good for Hamas. Good for Hezbullah. Good for Iran. GOOD FOR “BIDEN”…)
– – – – – – – –
And in other news… looks very much like the NORKS want their shite back. (Probably realized they ran out of fertilizer…)
Etc., etc….
Many Druze**, courageous fighters and loyal citizens, have died defending the State of Israel, including in the current war.
It’s entirely possible that there was some confusion on the reportage regarding Arnon Zamora, or that you’ve mistaken this paragon, whose death has severely mitigated—in spite of everything good—the hostage rescue, with another brave Druze.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/391321
** Not just Druze but Bedouin and other Arab soldiers both Moslem and Christian in the IDF (though the Druze have paid a disproportionate price due to the pact made by their Elders in the early days of the State—note that the Druze are generally loyal to the country in which they live, even within the generally tribal reality; though in some cases, the binds fray, e.g., in Lebanon during the Civil War and following, and more recently, in Syria).
Hard to believe it’s true.
But harder to believe it’s not.
…And so what one so strongly refused to suspect…
“3 weeks before Oct. 7, IDF Gaza Division warned of Hamas plan to attack, take 250 hostages;
“Report reveals Sept. 19 document that specified terror group was training for mass assault on south; ‘I feel like crying, yelling, swearing,’ says soldier involved with memo”—
https://www.timesofisrael.com/weeks-before-oct-7-idf-said-to-have-been-warned-of-hamas-plan-to-take-250-hostages/
(Still, one would very much prefer to believe that the report is a hoax…that there’s got to be some mitigating circumstance, that there’s another, more persuasive truth out there…)
Ilanna et al.:
Regarding Aron Zamora I will look up the link that I saw.
I will be out in the field (until 16:30 PST) today so it may take a while. Late today probablly. Off to work very soon (04:30 PST).
The link may be wrong or I got it wrong.
Caffeine is not my friend.
Ilhanna, Barry, neo et al.:
Yes I was mistaken about Aron Zamora!
The IDF soldier I conflated was Capt. Wassem Mahmoud KIA with 7 others by an IED(?) strike on their engineering armored vehicle in Raffa on Saturday.
Not even close.
Capt. Wassem Mahmoud, seven other IDF soldiers killed in Rafah blast
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-806330
In another post his Druz roots are detailed, I can’t find that one right now.
There was another post about it that I watched, go 10:30 min. for additional details:
BREAKING: Israel MOURNS Loss Of 10 Soldiers During FIERCE BATTLE In Rafah | TBN Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLjWIpz84yA&t=3s
I really got the details scrambled about the two soldiers!
Caffeine is not my friend.
Off to work1
Thirty armed men in a 2 bedroom apartment to stand guard duty? I find that hard to believe. To plan other operations maybe. Was there a tunnel under the building? The coming and going of two dozen people is rather hard to miss.
Joe S –
Maybe in another apartment in the same building? They would have burst out of their apartment when they heard the IDF troops enter the building.
On another note –
Regarding another group of non-Jewish Israelis –
The Israeli Bedouins have historically been ambivalent about the Israeli state, and sympathetic to the Palestinians. Hamas appears to have utterly destroyed that sympathy with the 10/7 attacks that targeted everyone in Israel.
Neo, thank you for that link. The account of the operation was much more detailed than anything I had seen previously.
From what I read this operation was a textbook example of how to conduct such a mission. First, painstaking reconnaissance. Second, careful planning and rehearsal. And finally decisive action using all necessary force.
One detail that especially impressed me was the role of the female IDF members in the infiltration and reconnaissance phase. Obviously their participation was vital for making the cover story of being displaced Gazan families believable. To do this in the face of the Hamas record of rape, torture and murder took amazing courage. Of course their male team mates showed the same but, I think, for women the threat would have been something different than simply death in battle.
Israel Update, Mike and Gadi examine the *poof!*, “The Color-revolution Fails”, (1:03:55): https://youtu.be/LDud8b-Vd7Q?si=xWzlmYUV_pnwOnuq
As it should fail.
Well so far.
Alas, it’s NOT over—it seems to be NEVER over where “Biden” is concerned—so I’m not sure one can say that it’s failed yet.
No, it’s not over (no matter how much one would like it—wish it—to be…).
Meanwhile, I’m getting a bit worked up—indeed perhaps unnecessarily—regarding the absolute stupidity of Mr. Netanyahu deciding that he MUST go to Washington. AGAIN. But that’s who he is…. Brilliant at times; abysmal at others. Wouldn’t surprise me if “Biden” decides to give him a spectacular, or at least seemingly respectable, welcome following which “he”‘ll cart him off to The Hague…. Would that be too brazen? Too “audacious”? Well, for WORLD PEACE, you gotta make those “TOUGH decisions”…(especially if there’s an election a’comin’).
– Oh, but “he” wouldn’t do THAT…
– Oh yeah?
The “Gantz” caper — it seems to me — is done, or, well and truly “over”, in the sense of “they’re over it”.
Is it too much to hope that Hollywood will make movie about this heroic rescue operation?
Barry.
Thing about intel is it calls, one way or another, for action. This action, when it’s a matter of preparation, has costs, even if it’s only strengthening forward positions.
Nothing ever happens…..
Higher has a budget. Eventually, supporting further effort up front–when nothing ever happens–runs into the budget. Suppose you have reserve units. They rotate every month. But to add strength, you need overlap, so maybe every other unit is going six weeks. Something like that. And you’re using up the Army’s reserve utilization budget, something they’ve worked out, including not having these guys at their day jobs.
It gets to be more than annoying, considering nothing ever happens.
So…you reduce or refuse to increase strength up front.
It would be one thing if the reports were ignored.
It would be another if there’s a message, “Stop sending me this uncorroborated stuff,” with a general’s signature.
Douglas Levene:
Indeed, they’ll make it – but the Gazans will be the heroes and the Israelis the villains.
I think there were two movies about the Entebbe. Recall one had some big names.