Picture courtesy of Jerusalem Strategic Tribune

 

In a bold move, Israel seems to be gearing up for a possible ground invasion of Gaza, with satellite images revealing a significant buildup of troops and equipment near the border. According to insider accounts from US officials, the formations suggest an imminent military operation might be on the cards. Although Israel's true intentions remain unclear, such manoeuvres could be tactics for pressure or negotiation.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted at seizing complete control of Gaza, aiming to dismantle Hamas and ensure Israeli security. Despite these declarations, Netanyahu stated that Israel does not want to govern Gaza, only establish a security perimeter. NBC News reported that the complexities of an offensive mission remain considerable, especially with Hamas's alleged hostages complicating military plans.

 

Simultaneously, tensions between the US and Israel have spiked following a heated exchange between President Trump and Netanyahu over humanitarian aid in Gaza. Reportedly, the two leaders engaged in a shouting match regarding the reported starvation in the region. After Trump contradicted Netanyahu’s assertions, a diplomatic mission by Steve Witkoff, US special envoy to the Middle East, was called to assess the situation and search for resolutions.

 

Witkoff’s trip focused on humanitarian efforts and assessing the Israeli stance, facing international criticism over the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF). The GHF's activities, challenged by large crowds and UN boycotts, have struggled to effectively reach Palestinians in need. More than 1,000 Palestinians have reportedly died seeking food at designated distribution sites, exacerbating the dire circumstances.

 

The international community has increased pressure on Israel, with countries like the UK, France, and Canada considering recognising a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. The looming spectre of a military offensive remains treacherous, with high risks due to Hamas's entrenched positions and potential hostage-related uncertainties. All eyes are focused on Israel's next moves as the situation remains tense.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from NBC News 2025-08-09

 

It is incumbent upon the entire planet to shun Israel, isolate them, stop doing business with them, and make them into the total pariah state that they should be. The Israeli government have turned the nation into a terrorist state. 

 

Shame on them, didn't they learn any moral lessons from the Holocaust? 

7 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Shame on them, didn't they learn any moral lessons from the Holocaust? 

 

There is no parallel there.  The Jews were innocent victims of the Nazis genocidal tendencies.  Hamas is guilty of atrocities against Israelis and should be eliminated.  And Palestinians voted Hamas into power in 2006, showing their support for the Jew-hating terrorists.  Had they voted for Fatah things would be very different now.

55 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

It is incumbent upon the entire planet to shun Israel, isolate them, stop doing business with them, and make them into the total pariah state that they should be. The Israeli government have turned the nation into a terrorist state. 

 

Shame on them, didn't they learn any moral lessons from the Holocaust? 

An utterly disgraceful comment.

5 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

An utterly disgraceful comment.

I dunno, I agree with Mike. They have a grievance and rightfully defend themselves from potential annihilation  from the likes of the scumbag Iranian regime, but are hamfisted and have a huge chip on their shoulder with the rest of humanity. I don’t know why they’ve pussy-footed around with Gaza and just nuked the place to start with. I mean, at this point what’s the difference other people have been made to suffer. 

There is no doubt that Israel has completely lost the plot. It is no longer about defense, it is about pure unadulterated aggression. 

 

In recent weeks, two significant developments have dominated the news from Gaza. One is the daily deadly violence surrounding the operations of the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a highly controversial Israeli- and US-backed initiative to replace the United Nations-led system of delivering aid to what has been called the “hungriest place on earth.”

 

The second, related, development is the widespread hunger and even starvation of Gaza’s 2.1 million people. This crisis, ongoing since 2024 and made even more severe by Israel’s March-May 2025 total blockade on food, fuel, water, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies into the ravaged coastal enclave, has unfolded against the backdrop of Israel’s 21-month-long military campaign in Gaza.

 

Far from being a “humanitarian response operation” to address the forced starvation of Gazans, GHF’s food distribution since its late May 2025 launch has been humiliating, totally inadequate to the scale of the crisis—and, most alarming, deadly.

 

The widespread killings are unprecedented in an aid-delivery context, even in a war zone. The specter of starving civilians walking long distances, often through active combat zones, trying to reach the few GHF hubs only to be shot by Israeli troops is a daily recurrence.

 

Some of GHF’s American contractors reportedly also have used live ammunition against Gazans trying to reach food handouts. Indeed, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, called GHF a “death trap.”

 

Israel has badly damaged or destroyed residential buildings, entire neighborhoods, public institutions, and basic infrastructure across the entire Gaza Strip. Some ninety percent of the Gaza population has been forcibly displaced, often multiple times. All this created a humanitarian catastrophe that has left Gaza, in the words of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as “hell on earth.”

 

Israel aims to forcibly displace—through massive aerial bombardment, intensive ground offensive, and repeated evacuation orders—the entire Gazan population and concentrate Gazans into three small “humanitarian zones” in the remaining 25 percent of the Strip. On May 5, 2025, Israel launched a major military operation, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots,” to execute its strategy.

 

Israel is using intensified airstrikes and ground operations across the Gaza Strip; expanding the security buffer zone inside Gaza by razing all existing structures and forcing the population to relocate; and taking direct control of food aid distribution in Gaza through the use of armed private contractors—hence GHF.

 

In July 2025, a new WFP assessment found that nearly one in three people in Gaza was not eating for days at a time.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s capacity to domestically produce food has been nearly destroyed by the war. An April 2025 assessment by the FAO and the UN Satellite Center found that less than 5 percent of the Gaza Strip’s cropland area remains available for cultivation.

 

There are at least three reasons to doubt that Israel will achieve its goals. First, as described earlier, Israel’s attempt to control humanitarian aid to Gaza has turned its sponsored-GHF distribution sites into killing fields. Second, Israel’s intent to facilitate “voluntary emigration” (a euphemism for expulsion) from Gaza to other countries has, so far, found no takers willing to receive displaced Gazans. Third and most important, the Israeli military plan to confine 2.1 million people within 25 percent of the enclave’s land, thus increasing the pre-war population density (already one of the highest in the world) fourfold, from about 6,000 to 24,000 people per square kilometer (0.39 square mile), is spatially inconceivable. 

 

Some excerpts were found here. 

https://share.google/e4WnhSBWLsDfX2gRx

Personally with their history I fully understand the reaction point taken the Palestinians have been payed back  in spades ….enough is enough get your hostages out and every time one of those hammas criminals becomes known to you KILL IT..with that being said this herding starving humans around and killing them has to stop.NOW!DO NOT CONFLATE that with support for hammas.its time to stop this slaughter.

1 hour ago, Zaphod Priest said:

 

There is no parallel there.  The Jews were innocent victims of the Nazis genocidal tendencies.  Hamas is guilty of atrocities against Israelis and should be eliminated.  And Palestinians voted Hamas into power in 2006, showing their support for the Jew-hating terrorists.  Had they voted for Fatah things would be very different now.

The world seems to have a serious case of amnesia, or choosing not to remember/ignore the horrors of the 30's-40's of the last century, whereby, not only Jews suffered, but millions of others, how many millions more have to die this time? 

50 minutes ago, Keeenok Powell said:

The final solution.

I wish it was, but it's not going to be until the bad people of this world will be gone.

17 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Spoken by an Israeli sycophant. Someone who is comped, cooked, a sus, and an influence peddler. 

Thank you, and have a nice day.

 It took me a while to understand your style of writing, weird sentence structure, with no commas or full stops, having said that, some countries want to recognise Gaza as a ''state'', a state with declared terrorists as a government? a state that at the moment gets all of its infrastructure supplied by Israel, a state that none of the other Arab countries wants to know of? you'd think that the first to recognize Gaza a state would be any of the world's 49 Muslim/Arab countries wouldn't you ?

17 minutes ago, ezzra said:

The world seems to have a serious case of amnesia, or choosing not to remember/ignore the horrors of the 30's-40's of the last century, whereby, not only Jews suffered, but millions of others, how many millions more have to die this time? 

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

It is incumbent upon the entire planet to shun Israel, isolate them, stop doing business with them, and make them into the total pariah state that they should be. The Israeli government have turned the nation into a terrorist state. 

 

Shame on them, didn't they learn any moral lessons from the Holocaust? 

You are the one in need of a lesson in morality. Gaza can end this anytime it wishes. All it has to do is to release the hostages and agree to a ceasefire. Gaza has refused to enter into any form of ceasefire. Why is the burden placed on Israel? Israel should have gone in full strength a year ago, accepted the collateral  damage, and left after a few months of intense destruction of  Gazan military assets. You can't make an egg dish without cracking open a few eggs.

22 minutes ago, Tug said:

Personally with their history I fully understand the reaction point taken the Palestinians have been payed back  in spades ….enough is enough get your hostages out and every time one of those hammas criminals becomes known to you KILL IT..with that being said this herding starving humans around and killing them has to stop.NOW!DO NOT CONFLATE that with support for hammas.its time to stop this slaughter.

It took me a while to understand your style of writing, weird sentence structure, with no commas or full stops, having said that, some countries want to recognise Gaza as a ''state'', a state with declared terrorists as a government? a state that at the moment gets all of its infrastructure supplied by Israel, a state that none of the other Arab countries wants to know of? you'd think that the first to recognize Gaza a state would be any of the world's 49 Muslim/Arab countries wouldn't you ?

25 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Spoken by an Israeli sycophant. Someone who is comped, cooked, a sus, and an influence peddler. 

You are  always quick to affix a label with those you disagree with. Ask yourself why Hamas has little support in the arab world other than with the usual financiers of terrorism, and enjoys its greatest support on western university campuses and with western based social action groups. Answer how there is so much support for Hamas and Gaza, and no support for the victims of genocide in Darfur, the victims of ISIL, the young boys and girls kidnapped by Islamic militias in Africa. You have accepted the Hamas propaganda blindly. No matter what Isreal could or would do, people like you would have always condemned it, so it might as well carry on because the result will be the same.

 

Just now, ezzra said:

It took me a while to understand your style of writing, weird sentence structure, with no commas or full stops, having said that, some countries want to recognise Gaza as a ''state'', a state with declared terrorists as a government? a state that at the moment gets all of its infrastructure supplied by Israel, a state that none of the other Arab countries wants to know of? you'd think that the first to recognize Gaza a state would be any of the world's 49 Muslim/Arab countries wouldn't you ?

Sorry for my lousy grammer and thanks for taking the time to slog through it.I think the Palestinians would obviously have to denounce hammas better yet help hunt down the criminals that brought this slaughter down on them.i wish I had the magic answere ezzra I truly do,I just can’t abide by the continued slaughter of a defeated enemy.

48 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

I dunno, I agree with Mike. They have a grievance and rightfully defend themselves from potential annihilation  from the likes of the scumbag Iranian regime, but are hamfisted and have a huge chip on their shoulder with the rest of humanity. I don’t know why they’ve pussy-footed around with Gaza and just nuked the place to start with. I mean, at this point what’s the difference other people have been made to suffer. 

A. Israel, unlike others, has scruples and dignity for human life, had Israel really wanted, Gaza would have been obliterated from the face of the earth long time ago,

B. Israel has given many chances for peace talks, but with every passing day Hamas got more and more emboldened seeing the hypocrisy of the world, that only 2 years ago Israel was the darling of the world and Hamas was/still is, the villains of the world,

what have changed? is Hamas the good guys now?

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Shame on them, didn't they learn any moral lessons from the Holocaust? 

The cost of survival?

 

Full invasion is the only way to stop famine. Gaza people will eat again within days.

12 minutes ago, ezzra said:

It took me a while to understand your style of writing, weird sentence structure, with no commas or full stops, having said that, some countries want to recognise Gaza as a ''state'', a state with declared terrorists as a government? a state that at the moment gets all of its infrastructure supplied by Israel, a state that none of the other Arab countries wants to know of? you'd think that the first to recognize Gaza a state would be any of the world's 49 Muslim/Arab countries wouldn't you ?

To correct your ‘Gaza State’ strawman, 147 Nations recognize ‘Palestine’ as a State, France is about to join them and the UK has it under serious consideration.

 

“a state that none of the other Arab countries wants to know of”

 

The following ‘Arab’ / Muslim majority nations recognize Palestine:

 

Saudi Arabia, Jordan Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria Libya, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Pakistan… et al.

 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, Tug said:

Sorry for my lousy grammer and thanks for taking the time to slog through it.I think the Palestinians would obviously have to denounce hammas better yet help hunt down the criminals that brought this slaughter down on them.i wish I had the magic answere ezzra I truly do,I just can’t abide by the continued slaughter of a defeated enemy.

It’s not the slaughter of a ‘defeated enemy’ 

 

Its the slaughter of the civilian population of a defeated enemy.

got no sympathy, all this could end today if they handed over the remaining hostages and agreed to  elections  without Hamas whov'e done nothing but squander and oppress  since they came to power

5 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

It’s not the slaughter of a ‘defeated enemy’ 

 

Its the slaughter of the civilian population of a defeated enemy.

that cling onto the hostages which would have avoided almost all of this

There's no convincing people who sees Jews as the source of evil in this world, and lord only knows that this forum is not short on those, (wasn't use to be like this back in the days) and those who still harbour disdain and loathing for Jews just because they're Jews, probably from education and indoctrinations since they were young.

9 minutes ago, Peter Crow said:

The cost of survival?

It didn't had to be like this, but one day in October 2 years ago has changed everything. Gaza was flourishing with wealth and good life, 10 of thousands of Gazan were employed in Israel bringing billins back home, they enjoyed free travel and access in Israel to just about service like Israelis did. so I ask? is better fro them now? are they happy with the conditions of living they're at now and the loss of thousands of husbands' fathers and sons who fought for the Hamas for never to returned? are they now?

5 minutes ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

that cling onto the hostages which would have avoided almost all of this

The civilians are not holding hostages.

 

Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization, the Palestinian civilians are also subjected to their brutality.

 

Slaughter and starvation of the civilian population of Gaza and the theft of their land and destruction of civilian infrastructure constitutes collective punishment and a host of other war crimes.

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The civilians are not holding hostages.

 

Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization, the Palestinian civilians are also subjected to their brutality.

 

Slaughter and starvation of the civilian population of Gaza and the theft of their land and destruction of civilian infrastructure constitutes collective punishment and a host of other war crimes.

Those civilians  that voted them in.

48 minutes ago, ezzra said:

The world seems to have a serious case of amnesia, or choosing not to remember/ignore the horrors of the 30's-40's of the last century, whereby, not only Jews suffered, but millions of others, how many millions more have to die this time? 

 

Not amnesia, at least as far as I'm concerned.  However, the topic is Israel, hence the focus on the Jews and Hamas dislike of them.

Of course, other groups suffered, such as homosexuals.  Hamas would be equally keen to murder gay men in the name of its "god".

9 minutes ago, ezzra said:

There's no convincing people who sees Jews as the source of evil in this world, and lord only knows that this forum is not short on those, (wasn't use to be like this back in the days) and those who still harbour disdain and loathing for Jews just because they're Jews, probably from education and indoctrinations since they were young.

Who here is arguing that Jews are the source of evil in this world?

 

Here’s a thought.

 

Perhaps Israel have gone way too far in the prosecution of their war against Hamas, and perhaps the fact that Palestinians civilians are being slaughtered, starved and their land taken from them is the cause of people across the world being critical of Israel’s actions in this war.

 

 

 

 

5 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The civilians are not holding hostages.

 

Yes, they are.  The hostages have been billeted with civilian families.

23 minutes ago, Peter Crow said:

Full invasion is the only way to stop famine. Gaza people will eat again within days.

 

There is another way:  for Hamas to disband itself.  That would be faster and would avoid the inevitable deaths that would be associated with invasion.