1) The INSS provides a useful and regularly updated resource: ‘Israel at War: An Overview’.
2) The FDD’s Jonathan Schanzer discusses ‘The Real Gaza Hospital Crisis’.
“The media firestorm over whether Israel attacked the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza is over. It was an errant rocket shot by the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad group that exploded near the compound. But another media firestorm is brewing, and it will focus squarely on the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Al-Shifa is the largest hospital in Gaza. It is also, according to numerous and credible reports, a Hamas base of military operations.”
3) At WINEP, Matthew Levitt and Delaney Soliday have been ‘Putting the Hamas Massacre, and Hamas Denials, in Context’.
“As the depravity of the attack became clear, Hamas began to feel the pressure of comparisons to the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and other notorious terrorist groups. Speaking a few days after the assault, Hamas deputy secretary-general Saleh al-Arouri insisted his group did not target civilians and claimed kidnapped Israelis were taken by random Palestinians who followed Hamas into Israel: “The truth is that our mujahideen do not target civilians…It is inconceivable that they would perpetrate the kind of crimes mentioned by the occupation, like rape, killing children, or killing civilians.”
But all these things they did, and Hamas has provided some of the most damning evidence.”
4) The Wall Street Journal reports on the potential effects of Iranian weapons smuggling.
“Long before Hamas militants burst out of their Gaza stronghold to massacre scores of civilians with handguns and assault rifles, Iran and its allies had accelerated efforts to smuggle weapons into a different part of the Palestinian territories, the West Bank.
Using drones, secret airline flights and a land bridge that traverses hundreds of miles and at least four national borders, the smuggling operation is raising the specter of a new conflagration in the war between Israel and Palestinians.”
5) At the Times of Israel Jeremy Sharon examines the question ‘Is the IDF’s ongoing Gaza operation complying with the laws of war?’.
“One issue of critical importance here is that of proportionality, a concept that is very often misunderstood and misconstrued in a simplistic manner by looking at Israeli casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, and comparing them to those of the Palestinians.”
6) At the Reichman University Institute for Counter Terrorism, Dr Shaul Shay analyses the challenges facing Jordan and Egypt in light of the war between Israel and Hamas.
“The war in Gaza poses difficult challenges to the Hashemite Kingdom, and this happens after a year in which Jordan faced internal crises and external threats (an intra-family crisis and severe economic and social pressures). King Abdullah II knows that his policy regarding the war in Gaza will have an impact on the internal situation in Jordan and the stability of his regime.”
“The war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas presents Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi with difficult dilemmas regarding the positions that Egypt should take in relation to this war and its consequences for Egypt and the entire region. […]
President Sisi’s regime is looking to handle the situation delicately ahead of Egypt’s December presidential elections in which Sisi is running amid significant public anger due to unprecedented inflation and a debt crisis that Egypt has not experienced before.”
