Israel Conducts 'Targeted Raid' Into Gaza Strip

Facts

• Israeli tanks and troops conducted what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described as a 'targeted raid' of the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Thursday. The IDF — whose troops returned to Israel after the attack — said it struck a number of Hamas positions in the incursion, adding that the operation was part of preparing the border area for the 'next stages of the war.'¹
• The IDF also said that it conducted an additional 250 air strikes in the last 24 hours — all of them, it alleged, against Hamas targets. In one of the strikes, the IDF claimed that it had struck a Hamas rocket launcher located near a mosque and kindergarten, claiming this was 'further proof that Hamas deliberately uses civilian sites for terror purposes.'²
• Israel's attacks came shortly after US Pres. Joe Biden — in a press conference during Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's visit to the White House on Wednesday — expressed strong solidarity with Israel, but called on the country to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, adding that Israel needed to do 'everything in its power to protect innocent civilians.' He also condemned reports of 'extremist' Israeli settlers in the West Bank targeting Palestinians, adding that such assaults had 'to stop now.'³
• Biden also cast doubt at casualty figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry, which stood at more than 6.5K killed on Wednesday while reiterating that Israel should avoid collateral damage. 'I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,' Biden said. The US-based Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Biden to apologize and said it was 'deeply disturbed' by the comments.⁴
• Hours before Israel's self-described 'targeted raids,' Biden also dismissed reports that he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on a ground invasion while Hamas still holds hostages. Meanwhile, in a national address on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel is 'preparing for a ground incursion,' adding that the 'when, how, how many' will not be detailed in order to save soldiers' lives.⁵
• At the UN on Wednesday, the Security Council failed to pass two resolutions on the Palestine-Israel conflict: the first, submitted by the US, garnered 10 votes, but was vetoed by Russia and China; a rival resolution, proposed by Russia, gained an insufficient total of four votes, but was nonetheless vetoed by votes from the US and UK. On Thursday, an emergency meeting of the UN's General Assembly will be held.⁶

Sources: ¹The Times of Israel (a), ²The Times of Israel (b), ³NBC, ⁴Reuters, ⁵The Guardian and ⁶AA.

Narratives

• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by The Times of Israel. Everyone in Israel — including Netanyahu — will have to answer for the failures that led to the Hamas attacks in Israel. But that is for after the war. Now, Israel must fight for its existence. Now is the time for the country to join in unison to inflict a crushing defeat on Hamas that wipes the terror group out of existence. The black day of Oct. 7 must never be repeated again.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Al Jazeera. Amid a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the United Nations has so far failed to protect Palestinians in the region. America's resolution called for a 'humanitarian pause,' but this falls way short of the immediate and lasting ceasefire necessary. Thousands of Palestinians will be killed if the UN doesn't soon resolve its inability to agree.

Predictions