Al Mayadeen – October 26, 2024
Al-Qassam leader Islam Jamil martyred in Tulkarm confrontations
Several Resistance groups have announced engaging in fierce battles against the storming Israeli occupation forces.
Islam Jamil, a leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, was martyred on Saturday in the Tulkarm camp after invading Israeli forces surrounded a building and engaged in hours of confrontations in the al-Salam neighborhood.
This comes shortly after the al-Qassam Brigades announced that its fighters targeted Israeli occupation forces in the al-Salam neighborhood and at the entrance to the Tulkarm refugee camp with heavy gunfire.
On their part, the resistance fighters of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, engaged in fierce battles with the invading occupation forces in the al-Salam Neighborhood.
"Our forces are raining down heavy fire on the infantry units surrounding the besieged house," the Brigades said.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also noted that its fighters engaged in intense confrontations with the IOF around the besieged house using automatic weapons.
This comes as Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank early Saturday morning, advancing with several vehicles toward Nablus Street, adjacent to the Nur Shams camp.
IOF surrounded a house in the al-Salam neighborhood near the camp and targeted it with several Energa grenades, with no information provided at the time on the fate of those inside. The IOF also deployed additional reinforcements to the area and imposed a strict siege on it.
In a related development, the Palestinian Red Crescent announced that its teams in Tulkarm transported a Palestinian individual with a gunshot wound to the foot from the al-Salam neighborhood to the hospital for urgent medical care.
'Israel' uses parents as human shields in tactics against besieged son
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in Ramallah confirmed that the IOF targeted an apartment they had surrounded with shells in Tulkarm.
Meanwhile, the IOF are persisting with their demolition and excavation operations surrounding the besieged apartment in the al-Salam neighborhood, east of Tulkarm.
The IOF summoned the parents of one of the besieged youths, using them as human shields to pressure their son into turning himself in.
Residents reported receiving phone calls from the Israeli army, urging them to evacuate their homes in the apartment building where the besieged house is situated.
Violent confrontations erupted in the area, marked by powerful explosions and the ominous roar of low-flying reconnaissance aircraft overhead.
Al Mayadeen – October 26, 2024
By day 286 of Israeli genocide in Gaza: 42,924 killed, 100,833 injured
As the extermination of north Gaza continues, the Israeli occupation has bombarded hospitals and arrested all medical staff, leaving medical cases with no chance of receiving treatment.
The Israeli occupation continues its onslaught and massacres in the Gaza Strip, intensifying its aggression specifically in the northern part of the territory and committing atrocities that necessitate urgent intervention to save civilians.
In 48 hours only, Israeli occupation forces committed seven massacres against civilians, women, children, and the elderly, killing 77 Palestinians and injuring 289 more, Gaza'a Health Ministry revealed in its daily report.
It is worth noting that this count excludes northern Gaza, where Israeli-imposed blockades have obstructed access to hospitals, according to the Ministry.
This brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 7 to 42,924, in addition to 100,833 injuries, the Ministry added.
While some victims were able to be transported to the very few functioning hospitals in the Strip, countless others are trapped under the rubble, as civil defense crews cannot reach them due to Israeli bombardments and deliberate attacks.
Kamal Adwan Hospital under siege
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces arrested all male medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, in addition to a number of wounded and patients present inside the hospital. They also locked women in one of the rooms inside the hospital without providing them with food or water, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The Ministry appealed to all international and UN institutions, as well as relevant parties, for urgent intervention to protect the patients and medical staff working inside the hospital.
The occupation forces also set shelters for displaced refugees ablaze around Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
Jabalia and al-Nazla under heavy fire
In northern Gaza, the Israeli occupation has emptied all shelters in the northern sector, according to Al Mayadeen's correspondent, who emphasized that "the already catastrophic situation is exacerbating, with no food, medicine, or supplies left."
In its latest crimes, the Israeli occupation murdered three Palestinians and injured others as it shelled the homes of citizens in Jabalia. Additionally, another Palestinian was killed and several others were injured after occupation forces targeted a group of citizens in Jabalia's al-Nazla in the northern sector.
Several martyrs arrived at the Baptist Hospital as a result of the Israeli aggression targeting the Jabalia and al-Nazla areas, according to our correspondent. The occupation’s artillery also shelled the al-Falouja area, west of Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.
In the central Gaza Strip, our correspondent reported that "the occupation’s artillery heavily shelled the center of the al-Nuseirat camp."
He added that several homes of citizens were damaged by fire from occupation vehicles east of the al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza.
In a similar vein, Gaza's Civil Defense announced a complete halt to its operations in the north due to continuous Israeli airstrikes. Its crews remain unable to respond to an abundance of emergency calls from residents in the Jabalia and al-Nazla area, where civilian homes have been heavily bombed, attacked, and set on fire by Israeli forces.
'Israel' kills two children amid hospital siege, oxygen station strike
Gaza's Health Ministry reported that two Palestinian children died at the last operational hospital in the northern part of the territory following an Israeli raid on the facility.
In a statement released Friday evening, the Ministry confirmed that the two children, who were in the intensive care unit, passed away after the generators at Kamal Adwan Hospital stopped working and Israeli forces targeted the hospital's oxygen station.
"Two children have died in the intensive care unit after the hospital's generators failed and the oxygen station was targeted," the statement read. The Ministry further stated that Israeli forces "are searching the hospital and shooting inside the various departments."
Additionally, the statement highlighted the destruction of three ambulances and a transport vehicle, severely disrupting relief and evacuation efforts.
"The solar-powered electricity system has also been destroyed, exacerbating the crisis," the Ministry stressed.
According to the Health Ministry, 195 patients and wounded individuals are currently at the hospital, alongside 70 medical staff. The statement also confirmed that three nurses and a cleaner were injured during the attack.
Furthermore, the Ministry reported that around 600 people were inside the hospital, many of whom were detained by invading Israeli forces.
Al Mayadeen – October 26, 2024
The Resistance phase of inflicting pain
Batool Subeiti
The Israeli occupation entity's claims of inflicting significant damage on the Resistance by assassinating its leaders have been exposed as false.
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon’s recent strikes have conveyed multiple messages to the Israeli occupation entity. While the Resistance is fully capable of targeting settlers, it chooses not to, maintaining a careful balance. It operates with patience and strategic foresight, responding according to its own timing rather than reacting impulsively to the enemy's provocations. The Resistance refuses to be drawn into actions dictated by the enemy, following a clear strategy based on careful evaluation of the situation.
The Resistance has proven that if the enemy’s aggressive actions continue, there will be no sense of security within its society. The entity that brings insecurity to the region through its attacks should be prepared to face insecurity when the Resistance decides to act.
Netanyahu’s strategy appears to be hinged on gearing the settlers and military to realize this is an existential war that requires their perseverance in the face of it. What he doesn't realize is that the entity inherently wasn't created to bear this brunt. It is a society of luxury and not war.
Despite the lack of advanced aircraft or modern air force, the Resistance has developed drones capable of performing precise and difficult missions, compensating for the technological gap. The necessity of the battlefield has driven innovation, resulting in the development of tools perfectly suited to the Resistance’s defense.
The Israeli occupation entity's claims of inflicting significant damage on the Resistance by assassinating its leaders have been exposed as false. The entity fails to grasp the psychology of the Resistance—it only grows more determined under pressure, its resolve hardening with every loss it suffers.
The entity is exposed as it operates above the ground, with its facilities open to devastating strikes. In contrast, the Resistance operates as an underground force, with its assets difficult to detect. The impact on the entity's society, economy, and stability—especially its financial and investment sectors—far outweighs any damage it could hope to inflict on the Resistance's own infrastructure.
The Resistance's ability to target the heart of the entity, including critical areas like the capital and Gush Dan, would signal the collapse of the entity's capabilities. This is especially true following evacuations in the north and instability in the south. Each phase of the Resistance's strategy unfolds according to a carefully concealed plan. As Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah stated: "You will see, not just hear." The stage of pain, as declared by Sheikh Naim Qassem, is imminent, with action speaking louder than words.
The entity has announced its goals in this war yet has failed to achieve any. Its aim to return settlers to the north remains unfulfilled, and even Netanyahu himself has been evacuated from his residence at the center of the entity. Lebanon signifies a repeat of the Israeli occupation entity’s failures in Gaza all over again, except worse. Netanyahu has managed to rally more support for the continuation of this war, due to setting larger goals. However, these goals are far from attainable. Setting larger goals and not meeting them causes more disintegration and weakness inside the occupation entity.
The actions of the Resistance, and not the falsehoods promoted by the entity and its allies, are what dictate the course of events and are the real substance. The Resistance will not be lured into traps. It possesses advanced weapons and capabilities the enemy does not even know about. The strategy of lost security is something the entity cannot endure, whereas the Resistance and its people are accustomed to living without security.
As former Israeli military intelligence chief Tamir Hayman recently stated, "We are on the brink of disaster and failure in the absence of thinking about ending the Lebanon war." The enemy's intelligence gaps prevent it from understanding the nature of the Resistance or the type and timing of the strike that awaits. The myth of the "strongest army" has been shattered, proving the entity's forces to be cowardly when truly tested.
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/blog/the-resistance-phase-of-inflicting-pain
Al Mayadeen – October 26, 2024
Netanyahu has gravely miscalculated invading Lebanon
By Tom Fowdy
Insurgent forces always have a completely different mindset than the armies of sovereign states, in that they are motivated by ideology and a desire to defend their homeland or people to a far greater degree.
Throughout history, there has been one recurring theme: Wars and invasions are frequently started on the basis of miscalculations. The story is always the same, the attacker believes that they have assembled a “master plan” which if executed correctly, will pre-emptively and decisively cripple the enemy in a knockout blow, handing them a swift and relatively bloodless victory, avoiding a long and destructive war. Whether it be the German plan to conquer the Soviet Union in 1941, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, or even the recent Ukraine war, these “master plans” place so much confidence in the supremacy of their own objectives that they tend to fatally underestimate the resolve of their opponents and thus the broader consequences of their actions, leading to catastrophic wars that they ultimately lose control of.
This historical cycle is happening again in Lebanon: Benjamin Netanyahu erroneously miscalculated that he could pre-emptively wipe out the leadership of Hezbollah through a series of covert actions and decapitation strikes, and that by doing so he could subsequently launch a ground invasion into the country and sweep aside what he assumed would be a leaderless, disorientated, and broken militia in a state of chaos with no organised resistance.
This would, as he thought, allow for the destruction of Hezbollah and its “infrastructure” once and for all. These assumptions have in fact aged poorly, as the IOF has found that it is meeting heavy resistance and has suffered losses, with Hezbollah also successfully drone striking a base on October 13th.
Why is it a miscalculation?
First, history again shows even the most formidable powers have struggled in wars against highly motivated militia or guerilla forces, even when they had the privilege of occupying the country in question. As the experience of the United States in Vietnam and Afghanistan has shown, carpet bombing the enemy may produce mass civilian casualties but it seldom wipes out their opponents, who are often organised asymmetrically and desperately rather than in tangible lines or columns. This is not about bombing tanks or trucks.
Secondly, such wars are not truly about zero-sum control of territory. When you are an insurgent force, your primary goal is to defeat your enemy through a prolonged war of attrition, and your mode of organisation gives you the ability to move fluidly, operate inside their territory, and strike covertly.
Thus, even if the IOF occupy southern Lebanon, the war doesn’t “end” and Hezbollah “aren’t defeated”, but rather they become locked into a quagmire. Hezbollah after all, are not a “sovereign state” opponent, they are a sub-state resistance movement and political actor within Lebanon, and their organisation is scattered throughout the country. While Netanyahu and the IOF have vowed to “destroy their infrastructure” and “clear the border area”, this is a nonsensical objective, because the span of the war they have opened up, and what they would need to do, far exceeds their claims of their “limited objectives.” This is already evident through the mass bombing of Beirut, the mounting civilian casualties, and United Nations peacekeepers being attacked in collateral damage.
Thus, rather than a limited border war, as was misleadingly marketed to the Western mainstream media, Netanyahu has already fallen into the trap of a huge cat and mouse, or a “whack-a-mole” game, which is hugely costly and simply unsustainable. Likewise, the resolve of Hezbollah is also fatally underestimated.
Insurgent forces always have a completely different mindset than the armies of sovereign states, in that they are motivated by ideology and a desire to defend their homeland or people to a far greater degree, making them undeterred by the risk of death. Again, Afghanistan and Vietnam are critical historical examples of this. A state entity may forcibly conscript young men, but insurgent forces are often voluntary by extreme motivation.
Hence, even one year on, the IOF have not even been able to destroy Hamas within the tiny confines of the Gaza Strip, even with its borders blockaded. Did the destruction of every building in sight end the conflict in Netanyahu’s favour? Or decapitating elements of their leadership?
When this is viewed in context, what chance do they have in the much larger and mountainous expanse of Lebanon? In which case, we can only conclude that Benjamin Netanyahu has gravely miscalculated in invading this country.
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/netanyahu-has-gravely-miscalculated-invading-lebanon
Al Mayadeen – October 26, 2024
Collapsing Empire: US Outgunned, Outnumbered, Outproduced
Kit Klarenberg
The “disconnect” between the Pentagon’s operational and industrial planning identified by RAND will endure. So too US military impotence.
On July 29th, Pentagon-funded “think tank” RAND Corporation published a landmark appraisal of the state of the US Army and Washington’s 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS), produced by a Congress-created Commission of “non-governmental experts in national security.” Its findings are stark, an unrelentingly bleak analysis of every aspect of the Empire’s bloated, decaying global military machine. In brief, the US is “not prepared” in any meaningful way for serious “competition” with its major adversaries - and vulnerable or even significantly outmatched in every sphere of warfare.
The 2022 NDS was released in October that year, with much fanfare. Its contents bombastically proclaimed to offer a bold, comprehensive roadmap for how the US national security state, and all its divisions, would evolve and adapt to “dramatic changes in geopolitics, technology, economics, and our environment.” Promising to safeguard Washington’s hegemony for “decades to come,” the Strategy’s introduction loftily declared that the Pentagon was obligated to the US military and public alike:
“To provide a clear picture of the challenges we expect to face in the crucial years ahead - and we owe them a clear and rigorous strategy for advancing our defense and security goals… From helping to protect the American people, to promoting global security, to seizing new strategic opportunities, and to realizing and defending our democratic values.”
Fast forward to today, and the RAND Commission’s appraisal of the NDS couldn’t be more scathing. The Pentagon’s comprehension of the economic, military, and political threats to “US interests” posed by China and Russia, and the pair’s emergent, world-defining partnership - to the extent they were even acknowledged at all - is found to be hazardously defective, if not non-existent. And the NDS’ proposals for overcoming these issues, and maintaining the Empire’s worldwide dominance, are judged to be at best woefully inadequate, at worst outright delusional.
‘Multiple Adversaries’
The NDS did get one thing right - China and Russia represent major threats to the Empire, and actively “seek to undermine US influence” worldwide. Beijing particularly was branded a “pacing challenge” economically and militarily, given the extraordinary speed and scale of its scientific and technological innovation and growth. However, the NDS assumed Washington maintained major ‘edges’ over its rival, and widening those gaps further was promptly and readily achievable. To say the least, the RAND report begs to differ:
“We believe the magnitude of the threats the US faces is understated and significantly worse… In many ways, China is outpacing the US… in defense production and growth in force size and, increasingly, in force capability and is almost certain to continue to do so… [Beijing] has largely negated the US military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment. Without significant change by the US, the balance of power will continue to shift in China’s favor.”
This dire situation is greatly magnified by China’s “no limits” partnership with Russia, signed in February 2022, and explicitly “aimed at challenging US leadership internationally.” The pair’s burgeoning alliance with the Global South, specifically Iran and North Korea, exacerbates things yet further. Alliance and collaboration between these countries means they are all growing “bolder”, in turn undercutting Washington’s “force planning and force structure… designed to deter aggression by others, when the US is involved in conflict elsewhere.”
This ever-germinating union of disaffected countries - stultifyingly dubbed “An Axis of Growing Malign Partnerships” by RAND - means “efforts to isolate and coerce these states through international means - such as sanctions, embargoes, and censure - will be far more difficult.” Even more gravely, it “increases the likelihood that a conflict with one would expand to multiple fronts, causing simultaneous demands on US and allied resources”:
“At minimum, the US should assume that if it enters a direct conflict involving Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea, that country will benefit from economic and military aid from the others… This new alignment of nations opposed to US interests creates a real risk, if not likelihood, that conflict anywhere could become a multi-theater or global war… As US adversaries are cooperating more closely together than before, the US and its allies must be prepared to confront an axis of multiple adversaries.”
Partnership between Beijing and Moscow has only deepened since February 2022. In the words of Stockholm’s Institute for Security and Development Policy, “the world order has become much more unfavorable and hostile in the Russian and Chinese conceptions, and has warranted closer ties and unwavering mutual support.” Their alliance’s revolutionary geopolitical ramifications were abundantly clear when the NDS was published that same year. Yet, that document made zero reference to the “no limits” relationship whatsoever.
The obvious prospect that the US waging war against one of the pair would inevitably mean war with the other - a threat now all the deadlier due to the alliance expanding - was similarly unconsidered. The Empire is extremely fortunate no such conflict has come to pass in the two years since the NDS was published. As the Commission report spells out in forensic detail, Washington would be almost completely defenseless in such a scenario, and likely defeated nigh on instantly.
Multiple passages slam the US military’s lack of “readiness” for a major conflict. Recent “crises”, including the Zionist entity’s genocide in Gaza, “have led to unplanned force deployments to Europe and the Middle East, creating high demand for ‘stressed’ force elements with multiple requirements across theaters, such as air defense and aerial refueling.” In tandem, “constant demand for presence operations, exercises, and security cooperation activities has exacerbated readiness challenges, especially when paired with the training requirements to prepare for great power competition and conflict.” Meanwhile:
“The US Navy is also suffering from readiness issues stemming from its high operational tempo, aging ships, shipyard backlogs, and crew fatigue. Continued mishaps at sea and in military aviation pose risks to troop safety and are symptomatic of a decline in readiness, reflecting both a lack of experience and the increased complexity of the future warfighting mission. The steady demands of campaigning on a smaller military force - and an even smaller number of responsive, modernized, and combat-credible forces - has stressed force readiness.”
‘Affordable Cost’
It’s not just being spread too thinly on the Grand Chessboard that means the Empire’s military machine “lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.” Munitions, or lack thereof, are a fatal susceptibility. “Extraordinary” levels of “consumption and demand” for US weapons “by allies and partners in Europe,” combined with the Zionist entity’s rapacious appetite for heavy bombs, have left Washington’s own stockpiles “already inadequate for a high-end conflict.”
Renewing those stockpiles, let alone equipping the Empire for future war, won’t be easy. The RAND Commission found Washington’s “defense industrial base” is completely “unable to meet the equipment, technology, and munitions needs” of the US, let alone its allies. “A protracted conflict, especially in multiple theaters, would require much greater capacity to produce, maintain, and replenish weapons and munitions” than is currently in place, the report observes. Rebuilding that capacity “requires greater urgency and resources,” and “should remain a top priority” for the Pentagon.
For decades, the US military “employed cutting-edge technology to its decisive advantage for decades.” This “assumption of uncontested technological superiority” on the Empire’s part meant Washington had “the luxury to build exquisite capabilities, with long acquisition cycles and little tolerance for failure or risk.” Those days are long over though, with China and Russia “incorporating technology at accelerating speed,” and “even relatively unsophisticated actors” such as Yemen’s Ansar Allah “able to obtain and use modern technology (e.g. drones) to strategic effect.”
The Empire already isn’t keeping up, and in any future war, will need “to continue to develop, adopt, and iterate new technologies at greater speed and scale and at an affordable cost,” while simultaneously replenishing “existing munitions” for a “protracted” period, “to keep pace with warfighter needs.” Current Pentagon research and development and procurement systems were judged by the Commission to be wholly inadequate for the task. And America’s “defense industrial base” is today crumbling, riddled with a myriad of deleterious issues:
“These shortcomings include the deteriorating condition of defense depots, contract maintenance performance issues, and underproduction of spare parts, among many others. The result is a US military that is minimally operationally ready today but is unlikely to be ready for tomorrow…. [The US] is unable to produce the weapons, munitions, and other equipment and software needed to prepare for and engage in great power conflict. Consolidation and underinvestment have led to too few companies, gaps in the workforce, insufficient production infrastructure, and fragile supply chains.”
To address these problems, the Commission calls for enormous amounts of money to be spent domestically on “the capacity to build” munitions, “the recapitalization of armories,” and “advanced manufacturing and further stockpiling of munitions. Meanwhile, the Pentagon “needs to work with other countries to expand production capacity for munitions,” while ensuring “it can buy all munitions at sufficient scale to deliver the desired operational effects.”
Of course, the Empire already blows exorbitant sums on keeping its existing outgunned, outnumbered, outproduced military machine, which wouldn’t survive first contact with an actual war, operationally. Doing so requires printing astonishing volumes of dollars, in turn producing such high inflation that arms suppliers are now rejecting Pentagon contracts and tearing up from existing ones, as they have become “money-losers”. Washington’s response? The US defense budget now allocates over $1 billion in newly-printed money to compensate them for inflation-related losses.
We have entered a strange, late-stage Empire era, comparable to the Soviet Union’s Glasnost, in which elements of the US imperial brain trust can see with blinding clarity Washington’s entire hegemonic global project is stumbling rapidly and irreversibly through its final acts, and announce so publicly - but their insight does not translate into evasive governmental action at home. The RAND Commission report elicited no mainstream coverage whatsoever, proof positive there isn’t a concomitant effort to manufacture consent for its radical, far-reaching prescriptions.
Were we living in a unipolar age, a multipronged PR campaign would immediately ensue to convince Americans of the righteousness of the Empire’s mission, and the necessity of investing in US “defense” to the tune of billions, if not trillions. The media’s silence on the Commission’s findings definitionally reflects an omertà among the US political class. The “disconnect” between the Pentagon’s operational and industrial planning identified by RAND will endure. So too US military impotence.
Anadolu Agency – October 26, 2024
Turkish defense industry firms export to record 178 nations in 2024
Contracts worth $6.2B to be inked at Istanbul defense, aerospace expo, including $4.6B in export deals, says Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkish defense industry companies exported products to a record-breaking 178 different countries this year, the country's president said on Friday.
"In 2024 alone, our defense industry companies achieved a remarkable record by exporting products to 178 different countries," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the SAHA International Defense and Aerospace Expo 2024 in Istanbul.
During the event, also known as SAHA Expo, contracts worth $6.2 billion will be signed, including $4.6 billion in export agreements, Erdogan said, adding, “This is noteworthy.”
“We will utilize the capabilities we gained from the TURKSAT 6A and IMECE (satellite) projects in the preparation and execution of our lunar mission,” Erdogan added.
