1) At the Fathom Journal, Anne Herzberg discusses ‘Hamas Exploitation of Hospitals for Hostage Taking: The Legal Imperative to Investigate Aiding and Abetting of War Crimes’.
“The fact that Gaza’s hospitals were used to conceal hostages is egregious. Whether hospital staff were involved, and whether other actors were informed of these events, including UN agencies and NGOs, requires investigation and accountability by the UN, governmental donors, the ICRC, and other international aid organisations funding and operating at these hospitals. Should sufficient evidence be acquired, perpetrators should be prosecuted under domestic statutes and universal jurisdiction. Not only do the hostages and their families deserve justice, but the need to preserve the protected status of hospitals and medical workers, a core concept in international humanitarian and criminal law, and the integrity and credibility of the entire humanitarian aid system, is at stake.”
2) Writing at Time Magazine, Jehad al Saftawi tells how Hamas built a tunnel under his family home in the Gaza Strip.
“My family evacuated to the south shortly after Oct. 7. Months after, we received photos of our house and neighborhood, both of which are in ruins. I may never know if the house was destroyed by Israeli strikes or fighting between Hamas and Israel. But the result is the same. Our home, and far too many in our community, were flattened alongside priceless history and memories.
And this is the legacy of Hamas. They began destroying my family home in 2013 when they built tunnels beneath it.”
3) MEMRI provides a compilation of ‘Hamas In Its Own Words Since The October 7 Attack’.
“Since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, MEMRI has translated dozens of announcements, statements, and interviews by Hamas leaders and officials.
They include Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif’s October 7 announcement of Operation Al-Aqsa, on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV, and interviews and statements by Hamas officials…”
4) Michael Oren discusses ‘The Core Conflict and the Jews’.
“Linkage meant, simply, that while the Middle East was rife with violence of every stripe, the core conflict was not between Sunnis and Shiites, Iranians and Arabs, and even between the Arabs themselves, but between Israelis and Palestinians. Solve that—so the advocates of linkage held—and all the region’s other disputes would cease. And the core cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not Palestinian rejectionism and terror, but rather Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and the expansion of Israeli settlements.”
5) The ITIC documents ‘Support for Hamas in France since the Outbreak of Operation Iron Swords’.
“The pro-Hamas demonstrations and protest marches in France are organized by collectives of groups representing the local Palestinian community, Muslim movements and far-left organizations (including anti-war and anti-establishment movements) and political parties. The collectives are an example of Red-Green Alliance activity, a strong partnership of far-left and Palestinian organizations, including groups affiliated with Hamas. Organizations and activists participating in the protests expressed support for the October 7th, 2023 attack and massacre, and the continued Palestinian armed terrorist activity, while accusing Israel of “genocide in the Gaza Strip.””
6) At the INSS Pnina Sharvit Baruch and Tammy Caner explain ‘The Decision of the Court in The Hague’.
“It is important to recognize that the court proceedings are part of an overall campaign against Israel in the international arena, which is conducted in parallel to the military campaign on the battlefield. Both have the same goal of bringing about the destruction of the State of Israel: physically, through military action and politically, by denying its right to exist. The main course of action in this campaign is to delegitimize Israel by presenting it as a country that violates the most basic principles of the international system and thus pressure Israel’s allies to terminate their support to Israel, either political or military.”
7) The FDD provides a briefing on UNIFIL.
“Despite a mandate to maintain international peace and security, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has repeatedly failed to secure the Israel-Lebanon border and support the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to curb the terrorist organization Hezbollah. UNIFIL’s 10,000 peacekeepers from 48 countries have looked the other way as Iran-backed Hezbollah has grown to more than 45,000 fighters equipped with an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles. Since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, UNIFIL has proven incapable of preventing Hezbollah from attacking Israel from Lebanon with rockets, guided missiles, and drones.”
