Right now, X is full of stories about an Israeli strike on the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza, with people wailing about the absence of cancer facilities for Palestinian children. In fact, this particular hospital closed in November 2023, citing a lack of fuel. But do watch the video. The size, pattern and color of the explosion make it clear that something was going on in, or under, that building that was not related to providing cancer treatments to children.
So, when they tell you about all the civilians that Israel has killed (for which they are taking Hamas’s word) ask yourself, what were those guys doing in the middle of a cancer hospital? And then ask yourself, who, exactly, “restarted” the war?
It was not Israel.
The Israeli Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee had assessed that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had rebuilt a serious percentage of their military strength. True, frontline terrorists, engineers and rocket specialists were replaced in some measure by newer recruits lacking in experience. But, at the same time, intelligence information showed that Hamas was organizing to mount a large-scale ground attack on Israel.
The bombings prompted renewed “outrage” over Jerusalem’s unwillingness to absorb another “first strike.” Israel does not have to wait to be attacked, and, after Oct. 7, it will likely never again fail to act on the threat of invasion.
The first targets Israel went after were members of the Hamas hierarchy. Among those eliminated in Gaza were Hamas’s “prime minister,” the director-general of its interior ministry, the head of its internal security services and the director-general of the Hamas-run justice ministry. This is what the Israeli government meant when it said Hamas would have neither military nor governing power.
Hundreds of civilians were reported killed in the first few minutes, this allegation is similar to the phony casualty figures that emerged in the early hours and days during the battle of Jenin in 2002 amid Operation Defensive Shield. Initially, reports were that more than 1,000 people were killed, but that was later reduced to just 50; 36 of whom were Palestinian militants. And more recently, in early 2024, there was a rather dramatic change in U.N. casualty figures in Gaza during the Swords of Iron War.
By the way, Israeli assessments were correct. Hamas was regrouping, and even fired rockets at Tel Aviv this week from the southern Gaza Strip—you know, the place that former U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken told them not to go?
As Israel returns to fight on the ground in Gaza—not a happy thought at any level—it will, at least, find its path easier as the Trump administration expedited delivery of bulldozers and heavy bombs to the Israel Defense Forces, tools that are essential for destroying tunnels.
Israel will do what the government of Israel determines is necessary to secure its borders and its people, eliminate Hamas’s power in Gaza, and force the terrorist entity to return the remaining hostages. [Just an aside, but not really, it needs to be said that “bring them home” is the wrong mantra. There is no way to “bring” them. Hamas must “send them home,” with the onus on them.]
But there’s another war currently being waged as the United States responds to Houthi forces in the Red Sea.
The Houthis are Iran’s proxy force. In violent rebellion against the recognized government of Yemen and, according to Genocide Watch, having killed “an estimated 233,000 people by 2023, decimated the country’s economy, infrastructure and basic services, creating the world’s most severe humanitarian crisis.” Despite that crisis, the United Nations has suspended food aid to Yemen more than once after its personnel were kidnapped by Houthi terrorists. Note the hypocrisy as this is the same United Nations that has spent more than a year moaning about phony famine in Gaza.
The Houthis have also announced they are in charge of who can access the Red Sea.
Set Israel aside for a moment. Through their actions, the Houthis have reduced traffic through the Suez Canal, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, by more than half, costing Egypt money it can ill afford to lose. It has also had a direct impact on Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Sudan and Djibouti. That last is home to the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier.
And, of course, the Houthis have been firing their Iranian-supplied rockets and missiles at American ships. The U.S. Navy reported this month that since the end of 2023, there have been “174 attempted engagements against U.S. Navy surface assets and 145 attempted engagements against commercial shipping. No attempt against a U.S. Navy target has been successful to date … .”
Now, put Israel back in.
The United States and Israel are fighting both a single war and multiple wars as they work toward the freedom of navigation for themselves and the world, and the security of their people and their borders. In the middle of both wars—and the ongoing wars in Syria and Lebanon—is Iran.
It is, and it isn’t one war. But the bottom line is that Iran’s ability to control events and threaten regional and international partners must be taken out of the equation. This starts by stopping Hamas and Houthis.
