ffs, I told myself that I'm gonna take a berth from this thread but it seems to be the only place where I can voice my opinions without having to fear for... I don't know exactly. my life? my friendships?
Where I'm at right now is a mixture of things that are impossible to comprehend:
1) in about 40 minutes I'll drive an hour south to the funeral of my family member, hoping that the Hamas rockets will 'only' hit the very very south and that I'll be OK.
2) I'm also watching lectures about how to help people who've been in the war zones so at to not develop PTSD, being a social worker myself.
3) I'm really really sad and constantly on the verge of a breakdown. Yesterday I somehow felt fine because the end of the world didn't come on the Israeli side at least. now I'm down again.
4) Ground invasion is imminent. I've been told by multiple sources who I know personally, people who all served/serve in the Israeli army in mid-to-high combat and intelligence positions, that there are effectively two Gaza's. one is the upper city we all know, the one that Israel demolishes right now senselessly. The civilians are there, the Hamas infrastructure is there so far as missiles go, and some Hamas fighters are indeed there to operate the launches etc.
At the same time, not only that there are tunnels beneath the ground which we all know for years before this war, and that's where the kidnapped Israelies are more than likely held...
Apparently there is an entire city below the ground, and it's estimated that there are tens of thousands of Hamas fighters there- the figure I heard was 50,000- waiting for the Israeli troops. This is where Hamas is at. Civilians are cannon fodder. There will also be Iranian commando soldiers over there, seeing as there are already videos of some of the people who invaded Israel on Saturday speaking Farsi rather than Arabic.
And there, in the underground city- surprise surprise... They apparently have enough food, water and electricity for months and months.
Where did the donations money go? yep. I put this bit in bold because I didn't know any of that, so I figure most of you don't too.
I can only assume that Israel is cleansing everything in sight in upper Gaza, with no regard for any lives,
so that it's more convenient to enter underground Gaza.
Still, it's going to be absolutely horrible, so many soldiers and civilians will die, with the end goal of eliminating Hamas. I wonder whether it's doable.
My best friend whom I spoke about earlier, plus another good friend of mine, are both part of "elite IDF units" that specialize in tunnel demolition, tunnel-fighting and whatnot. I can't help but think that they have a huge chance of dying.
6) Yesterday they were looking for German and French Israeli speakers to do spokesmanship for Swiss tv channels. I speak both rather well, especially German. I told the woman who was trying to recruit speakers that I could do it and will happily present an Israel-supporting stance on certain things, but I'm never going to speak as if there's no distinction between Hamas and the ordinary Palestinian. She still hasn't responded to me but I don't expect much, and it's probably for the best;
I've seen a couple of interviews by ex-prime minister Bennet who does them independently seeing as the Israeli spokesmanship office doesn't function at all. Whenever someone asks him about the babies in incubators or the people that are connected (wrong word surely?) to respiration machines who will die because of the shortages in electricity, he retorts with "How can you ask me that??? We're fighting Nazis".
If I did interviews presenting a balanced view as much as possible, with my full name there to be seen, I'd have been surely doxxed by Hamas sympathizers and also would have been ostracized, be accused of treason, and might even be called to get arrested by some.
7) 1M people to be evacuated from their homes in 24 hours. yeah right. No regard to human lives whatsoever.
grim grim grim grim.
