The Hamas Trap. (Not Finished)
After the gruesome Hamas attacks on Israeli communities of October 7, an occasional news commentator discussing Israel's retaliation would look confused and make the observation that Hamas must have known that Israel was going to retaliate.
A Black Lives Matter group defended Hamas terror as 'desperate act of self-defense' that 'must not be condemned'.
The actions of Hamas's leadership were not those of desperate people. Hamas leaders are rich. Hamas had the money to build a tunnel systems that cost billions of dollars. It had the money to stockpile so many weapons that it can fill the skies of Israel with rockets day after day without let up. The cumulative wealth of Hamas’s top leaders abroad is estimated at $11 billion, and they do not hide their taste for the high life. Hamas’s leadership openly embraces its lavish lifestyle, staying at five-star hotels in Qatar and Turkey and flying internationally on private jets. They are not acting out of desperation for the welfare of the Palestinian people either. If they were desperate for the Palestinian people they wouldn't siphon off all their money to support their rich lifestyles and building a tunnel infrastructure of death for Israel. If they were compassionate they wouldn't take away humanitarian aid for civilians that is brought into Gaza. If they cared about the civilians of Gaza they wouldn't hide behind them and shoot rockets from hospitals and schools. If they cared about the civilians of Gaza they would not have taken actions on October 7, that they knew would result in Israel dropping bombs on Gaza.
The actions of Hamas leaders are not actions of "desperate self defense". Most of those leaders are safely ensconced in 5 star hotels in Qatar living the high life. Their terrorist army is protected by bomb proof tunnels hundreds of feet underground. Hamas doesn't care if civilians in Gaza get bombed, they want them to get bombed. It makes for great propaganda against Israel, propaganda that is very effective as can be seen by the enormous demonstrations against Israel all over the world. More than that they want Israeli soldiers to enter the giant trap that is Gaza. That in addition to sadism and hatred, was why their attacks on October 7 were so gruesome, they wanted to guarantee that Israeli soldiers would enter Gaza and march into the Hamas tunnels of death.
Palestinian terrorists have a long history of setting traps. When I was a child in Israel 50 years ago, I was warned not to touch toys or backpacks laying around in parks because they often had bombs in them. Not content with the massacre of October 7, Hamas left such booby traps behind in Israel. Knowing that Israelis are anxious to save the child hostages they kidnapped, Hamas used booby trapped children's toys and piles of children's clothing to lure Israeli soldiers to their deaths in Gaza. Hamas placed a blue-tooth speaker near the toys and played dialog in Hebrew through the speaker to convince the the IDF that there were hostages nearby. Hamas even tries to lure Israeli soldiers into booby traps by playing recordings of babies crying and Israeli kids screaming "save me save me".
Israel fought 4 wars with Hamas before October 7. Each time Hamas became more powerful. Each time it had more rockets that could travel further. October 7 was worse than any other war in terms of casualties for Israel.
setting up traps to kill as many Israelis as possible. The first part was laid before October 7. It was the booby trapped tunnel network of Gaza. The second part was to lure Israeli soldiers into Gaza. That was waht the gruesome attacks of October 7 were for. Gaza is one giant trap. Access points to the tunnels are booby trapped. Hamas plays the sounds of babies crying to lure Israeli soldiers who are trying to rescue the hostages.
Hamas actions were part of a brilliant but very gruesome plan. Hamas with help from Iran created a deadly system of hundreds of miles of tunnels several stories below the surface of Gaza. They made those tunnels up to 200 feet deep so that Israeli airial bombardment could not destroy them and so that Israeli tunnel detecting equipment would not be able to detect and find them. They created many hidden access points. Their tunnels and surveillance cameras and drones with hand grenades and weapons that can destroy tanks give them a huge advantage over anyone who enters Gaza and tries to fight them. They can pop up at an access point behind an enemy, take them by surprise and shoot them. This is resulting in a lot of Israeli deaths.
I think Hamas's plan was to draw Israeli soldiers into their traps in Gaza. By committing unspeakable atrocities and massacring entire Israeli communities they insured that Israel would respond. They wanted Israeli soldiers to enter their lethal traps in Gaza. They may have also wanted the bombings. Hamas may have assumed that Israeli bombings would not be able to destroy the majority of their tunnels and that they'd be safe inside them from Israeli bombings. The world always turns against Israel every time it bombs and that may be what Hamas wants. Hamas's goal of destroying Israel probably exceeds any concern for their own civilians. So from their perspective they want Israel to bomb and in so doing turn the world against itself.
Hamas is not a desperate heroic group fighting against oppression. It is a genocidal group for whom hatred of Israel and the desire to conquer it exceeds any other motivation.