Al-Aqsa Flood: Day Two
Picture: Mahmoud Ajjour / The Palestine Chronicle / Taken October 7, 2023 – On Sunday, numerous videos all coming from several sources belonging to Palestinian Resistance groups, have shown footage of Israeli soldiers killed, wounded, under siege in their own military camps, or captured, the writers say.
By Palestine Chronicle Staff
The United States could announce new military support for Israel later on Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. In an interview with CNN, Blinken said that they are “looking at specific additional requests that the Israelis have made. I think you’re likely to hear more about that later today”.
“President [Joe] Biden’s direction was to make sure that we’re providing Israel everything it needs in this moment to deal with the attacks from Hamas,” Blinken said.
Washington gives Israel at least $3.8 billion (about R71.7 billion) annually in military aid.
“It is no secret that Israel is the world’s leading recipient of US aid since World War II,” Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud wrote in a recent article.
“According to data provided by the US Congressional Research Service, Israel has received $146 billion of US taxpayers’ money as of November 2020,” Baroud said.
Occupied Palestine woke up Saturday morning [October 7, 2023] to the news of a major military campaign launched by the Palestinian Resistance, targeting various Israeli cities and settlements, The Palestine Chronicle reported in an article earlier on Sunday.
Sources in the Resistance say that the well co-ordinated attack is a response to the Israeli army and settlers’ violence in the West Bank and the killing of a large number of children.
What do we know about the number of Israeli soldiers killed and captured by Palestinian Resistance?
Numerous videos are circulating on social media, all coming from several sources belonging to Palestinian Resistance groups, namely Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. The footage showed Israeli soldiers killed, wounded, under siege in their own military camps, or captured.
All of this is part of Hamas’ “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, carried out swiftly and on multiple fronts since Saturday morning. But there are no specific numbers, or even rough estimates of how many Israeli soldiers killed, wounded or captured by the Resistance. Yet, some details are finally emerging.
In The Hundreds
A source in Hamas told Aljazeera Net that the “losses in the ranks of the (Israeli) occupation are unprecedented and confirmed that the number of the Israeli dead is estimated in the hundreds”.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also revealed that the initial Resistance attack included clashes with Israeli soldiers in 50 different military bases across border towns and settlements in southern Israel. “The field capability and the military organisation in which the members of the Al-Qassam Brigades appeared, stunned the Israeli occupation, and shocked its commanders and soldiers,” he said, adding that all of the claims are well documented by the Resistance.
That interview also gives us a sense of how many Palestinian fighters entered Gaza early Saturday. According to the source, over 1,000 elite fighters; half of them are back in Gaza, while the rest are still fighting inside Israel.
Shocking
What about those captured? “Most of the officers of Israel’s Southern Command were captured, including the commander of the Gaza Division,” a high-ranking Israeli army general.
Soon, Al-Qassam will be ready to negotiate a prisoner’s exchange from a position of power: perhaps all of your prisoners, for all of our prisoners, the source said.
We have enough Israeli prisoners to make it “possible to release all prisoners and (empty) all occupation’s prisons”, the source said.
“Any negotiation process in this regard will not take long, given the size of the military ranks of the Israeli prisoners (who are held by) the Resistance,” the source said.
The Israeli occupation government will not accept that “a number of its most prominent military commanders remain in the hands of Al-Qassam”, he added.
Meanwhile in a video on Sunday, Abu Obeida has renewed a call to arms. The video has been circulated on X, formerly Twitter.
BREAKING | Abu Obeida, Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson, called on Palestinians "in all areas" to "join this battle, which will be immortalized in history and cherished by future generations," in new message.
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) October 8, 2023
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Abu Obeida, Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson, released a new message on Sunday, calling on all Palestinians to join the battle.
Abu Obeida said that Palestinian fighters “continue to engage in fierce and heroic clashes (…) on multiple fronts”.
He added that this battle “will be immortalised in history and cherished by future generations”.
On Sunday, Sputnik reported that the Israeli government “has invoked Article 40 of the Basic Law”, an official announcement that the country is now “in a state of war”.
“Last night, the security cabinet approved the war situation and, to this end, the taking of significant military steps, as per Article 40 of Basic Law: The Government. The war that was forced on the state of Israel in a murderous terrorist assault from the Gaza Strip began at 06:00 yesterday (Saturday, 7 October 2023),” the [Israeli] government said in a statement.
With additional reporting from Sputnik