In a dispatch from Jerusalem, Melanie Phillips paints a grim picture of the events that unfolded during the Jewish Sabbath and Simchat Torah celebrations. Phillips argues that the act may have been carried out by Palestinian Arabs with Iranian support, but that the U.S., EU and U.K. all have blood on their hands. Here’s an excerpt from her Substack:
I am in Jerusalem. At around a quarter past eight this morning, as observant Jews were celebrating the Sabbath and the holiday of Simchat Torah, an air raid siren started its wail, followed in short order by the boom of missiles being intercepted over the city. Many more sirens wailed for several hours. We watched the sky over the city fill with traces left by the missile defence system, Iron Dome. We held our breath in case Iron Dome failed.
And what was unfolding elsewhere was infinitely worse, a sickening disaster without parallel in Israel’s history.
Hundreds of Hamas gunmen had infiltrated into the south of the country, brazenly using jeeps and paragliders to overwhelm the border fence and Israel’s supposedly sophisticated border defences.
These Hamas forces attacked some 22 villages, towns and kibbutzim along the southern border, murdering civilians and soldiers while thousands of rockets were fired across the south and centre of the country.
The Hamas gunmen killed more than 250 Israeli civilians, in a toll that will surely rise yet further, and left more than 1,450 injured.
They murdered Israelis at bus stops, in their cars and in their homes. The gunmen went from house to house, killing them and burning down their houses. Dozens of young Israelis were slaughtered at an all-night nature party. An undisclosed number have been held hostage for hours inside the dining hall at Kibbutz Be’eri.
More sickeningly still, dozens of Israelis including elderly people, women and small children were abducted from their homes or dragged out of cars, forced into Hamas vehicles and are now being held as hostages in Gaza. This is unthinkable and unspeakable.
Social media has shown videos of Hamas gunmen parading what appeared to be stolen Israeli military vehicles, including a tank, through the streets; and at least one dead Israeli soldier within Gaza was shown being dragged and trampled by a crowd screaming “God is great”.
The hostages mean that the Israel Defence Forces will now have to go into Gaza with a major ground operation, with all the awful consequences that follow.
There are also fears that Hezbollah may now unleash its 150,000 missiles from Lebanon which are targeted at the whole of Israel.
This is the stuff of Israel’s nightmares, and will almost certainly get worse. It is wrong to call this terrorism. It is all-out war against Israel. And all over this barbaric onslaught are the fingerprints of Hamas’s genocidal paymasters, Iran. …
This barbarism has been paid for by the U.S. and EU. What did they think all the money they were channelling into Gaza for “humanitarian” purposes would actually be used for? Now we have the answer.
What did the Biden administration think would be the result of appeasing, grovelling to and funding Iran, the paymasters of Hamas and Hezbollah? Now it has its answer.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: In the Telegraph, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has called for police to adopt a “zero tolerance” attitude to anti-Semitic support for Hamas. Her statement comes in the wake of outrage from anti-Semitism campaigners about the CPS’s decision to drop charges against two men accused of shouting anti-Semitic abuse during a ‘Convoy for Palestine’ in London in May of last year.
Stop Press 2: Countdown presenter Rachel Riley has shared unsettling footage on X of people in Acton celebrating in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel, with individuals dancing in the streets draped in Palestinian flags. The Telegraph has the story.
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