Israel is preparing for a ground assault upon Hamas in Gaza, which will not be easy, given the use that will be made of vast underground tunnel networks, which are more sophisticated than those used to great effect by the Vietcong against the US forces in the Vietnam War. Hamas has had much more time to construct an underground world, literally, complete with hospitals, and massive quantities of supplies, as it prepared for this battle over years.
And, while the IDF can destroy Hamas eventually, war on another front with Hezbollah is almost certain and the IDF have evacuated more towns and villages near the northern border in anticipation of a second war. This war will be even more dangerous as Hezbollah is far better equipped, thanks to Iran, with more military tech than the rag bag armies of Hamas, with at least 150,000 missiles that can be fired into Israel. The weapons from Iran get transported to Syria, and the IDF has bombed the airports at Damascus and Aleppo three times recently to slow up the supply. Thus, Syria is involved now, inevitably. And in turn Iran will also engage at some point. It is generally thought that the US will actively engage to prevent the mass missile attacks that Hezbollah will launch. Thus, it seems the Israel- Hamas war will morph into an all-out Middle East War.
The wild card in this is China, which has already sent six warships to the Middle East, and has claimed that Israel is acting beyond self-defence:
No doubt, when American forces are stretched thinner, that will be the time China attacks Taiwan, to control the advanced micro-chips of the world. The world is sliding into World War III. In all of this, the Ukraine seems unimportant, and expendable.
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/fighting-has-erupted-on-multiple
“It is becoming clear that Israel is going to have to battle enemies on multiple fronts, and that means that this war is going to look a whole lot different than a lot of people thought that it would. If the fighting could have been confined to just Israel and Hamas, there still would have been a lot of death and destruction, but everyone knows that Hamas is no match for the IDF. But if Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and the Palestinians in the West Bank all jump into the conflict, all of a sudden this becomes a war of national survival for Israel, and in such a scenario it is much more likely that weapons of mass destruction will be used. So it should deeply alarm all of us that fighting has now erupted on multiple fronts.
On Sunday, IDF troops clashed with Hamas terrorists inside the Gaza Strip…
Hamas fighters and Israeli forces engaged in limited clashes inside Gaza on Sunday as the Israeli military ramped up airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave ahead of what its spokesperson described as the “next stage” of its war on the militant group.
Hamas claimed its fighters had destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush near the Gazan city of Khan Younis, forcing Israeli troops to retreat without their vehicles. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed its forces had been operating inside Gaza during the incident, and said an IDF tank struck militants who had fired on its troops.
The episode appeared to be one of the first skirmishes between the two sides on the ground inside the strip since war broke out after Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel which killed more than 1,400 people. On October 13, the IDF said it had carried out raids inside Gaza.
According to the IDF, this raid was part of the preparation for a full-blown ground invasion.
And I think that we are very close to the moment when that full-blown ground invasion will be launched.
Meanwhile, the Israelis have evacuated more towns and villages near the northern border in anticipation of a war with Hezbollah…
On Sunday, the defense minister confirmed that another 14 towns and villages have been told to evacuate, in addition to the 28 initially ordered to do so last week. “According to the IDF and Defense Ministry, the 14 communities being added to the list are: Snir, Dan, Beit Hillel, She’ar Yashuv, Hagoshrim, Liman, Matzuva, Eylon, Goren, Gornot HaGalil, Even Menachem, Sasa, Tziv’on and Ramot Naftali,” Times of Israel details.
Evacuating those areas is a wise move, because fighting along the northern border just continues to escalate…
Fears mounted Sunday that the Israel-Gaza war could swell into a wider conflict amid rising cross-border attacks on Israel’s north from Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and expanding Israeli airstrikes across the region.
On Sunday, Hezbollah released video of a particularly disturbing attack on the Biranit barracks that happened on Friday…
Israel sees Iran-backed Hezbollah as its most serious threat, estimating it has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.
Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus accused the group early Sunday of “escalating the situation steadily.” He said the recent cross-border skirmishes had produced both Israeli troop and civilian casualties but did not provide additional details.
Hezbollah on Sunday posted a video of what it said was a Friday attack targeting the Biranit barracks near the Lebanon-Israel border, the command center of the Israeli military’s northern division. Footage shared by the group showed an overhead view of a strike on what it described as a gathering of soldiers.
Fighting Hamas and Hezbollah at the same time would be difficult enough, but it appears that Israel will be forced to tangle with Syria as well.
Iran sends enormous amounts of weapons and supplies to Hezbollah by flying them into airports in Syria, and on Sunday the IDF bombed the international airports in Damascus and Aleppo for the third time in ten days…
Syria said it was forced to shut down international airports in Damascus and Aleppo because of the Israeli strike. The Syrian Transport Ministry said landing strips at both airports were damaged by missiles and one civilian worker was killed and another wounded at Damascus International Airport. Israel has carried out several strikes in Syria since the war began, citing the need to prevent Hezbollah and other militant groups from bringing in arms from Iran, which also supports Hamas.
We have also seen clashes directly along Israel’s border with Syria in recent days, and I fully expect an intensification of fighting in that area during the week ahead.
On top of everything else, fighting has also erupted in the West Bank…
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed at least five people there early Sunday, according to the local Health Ministry. Two were killed in an airstrike on a mosque in the town of Jenin, which the Israeli military said belonged to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who had carried out several attacks and were planning another one.
Can the IDF handle enemies coming from all directions at once?
I don’t know.
We shall see what happens in the days ahead.
But I think that it is quite likely that if Hezbollah enters the war the U.S. military will intervene.
Over the weekend, we learned that the Biden administration has decided to send even more air defense assets to the region…
The U.S. will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and additional Patriot air defense missile system battalions to the Middle East, the Pentagon said on Saturday, in response to recent attacks on U.S. troops in the region.
The United States has sent a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East in recent weeks, including two aircraft carriers, their support ships and about 2,000 Marines.
The Biden administration had been trying to delay a full-blown ground invasion of Gaza for a couple of reasons.
Number one, there was hope that negotiations could secure the release of more of the hostages.
Number two, there was hope that diplomacy could keep Hezbollah out of the war.
But now the time for talk is ending, and the IDF is gearing up for a major ground campaign in Gaza.
Once that happens there will be no turning back, so brace yourselves for what is coming next…”
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20080/china-encircling-america
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/will-israel-use-nuclear-weapons-against
“Even though it was Israel that was attacked by Hamas, we are already seeing a massive explosion of anti-Jewish hate all over the world.
Over the weekend, thousands of pro-Hamas protesters caused havoc in the heart of New York City…
Anti-Israel protesters and police clashed in Brooklyn after thousands flooded a predominantly Arab and Middle Eastern neighborhood Saturday night.
The protest in Bay Ridge saw thousands of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators chant ‘move, cops, get out the way. We know you’re Israeli-trained’ as they descended on the community, stopping traffic and lighting fires in the process.
Part of the procession, billed online as Flood Brooklyn for Palestine, began to clash with NYPD officers as night fell, video shows – as their numbers swelled to an estimated 5,000 over the course of the day.
Over in London, approximately 100,000 pro-Hamas demonstrators chanted slogans as they marched to the office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak…
About 100,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in central London on Saturday, marching through the British capital to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel two weeks ago.
Chanting “Free Palestine”, holding banners and waving Palestinian flags, the protesters moved through London before massing at Downing Street, the official residence and office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The British will pay a great price for allowing so many radical Muslims to migrate into their country.
In fact, nations all over the western world will come to deeply regret their immigration policies, because we are going to see a tremendous amount of violence in the days ahead.
And anyone that is associated with Israel is going to be a potential target.
On Saturday, the president of a Detroit synagogue was found dead just outside her own home. She had been stabbed multiple times…
The president of a Detroit synagogue was found stabbed to death outside her home Saturday morning, police and the synagogue said.
The Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue put out a statement later in the afternoon identifying the victim as board president Samantha Woll.
Detroit police responded to a 911 call of an unresponsive person around 6:30 a.m. and found a body outside a home on Joliet Place. The woman, who was not immediately identified by investigators had suffered multiple stab wounds, police said.
Evil is growing all over the world.
And what we have experienced so far is only just the beginning.”