How the capturing of Israeli soldiers in Jabaliya could change the rules of the game in Gaza
Abu Obeida, the Hamas military spokesman
The Palestine Chronicle editors write on 26 May 2024:
As soon as Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, declared the capture of Israeli soldiers soon after midnight on Sunday, a new variable was introduced to the complex scene in Gaza.
And almost instantly, history began repeating itself: Palestinians celebrated en masse and the Israeli military immediately denied such claims.
Judging by history, we have no reason to believe that Abu Obeida wasn’t telling the truth. Every statement the masked Palestinian fighter has made since the start of the war proved to be accurate, often with damning evidence of its accuracy. The Israelis, on the other hand, do not have that same track record.
Not many military analysts out there would, for example, argue that Israel is telling the truth about the actual number of its military casualties in Gaza. In fact, the scandal of numbers has been part of the confused Israeli information war since October 7. At times, Israel declared a certain number of casualties before, and without explanation, reduced the number significantly. Additionally, numbers produced by Israeli hospitals and medical sources – often communicated through Haaretz and other Israeli media – seemed entirely inconsistent with numbers revealed by Daniel Hagari and other Israeli military spokesmen.
Palestinian claims, however, have always been verified through well-documented videos, hundreds of them now, widely spread across digital media, news broadcasts all over the world and in every language.
Even the latest claim by Abu Obeida was verified by a short video and an image. The video was that of what seemed to be an Israeli soldier being pulled, clearly wounded – whether dead or alive – under a tunnel by a rugged-looking fighter somewhere, presumably in northern Gaza. The image was that of the weapons, vests and helmets of Israeli soldiers.