The Israeli war on Gaza is going badly despite the intense destruction and soldiers of the Palestinians of Gaza.
The Israelis are getting hit from both the south and the north. Hezbollah fighters are launching intense rockets, burning whole geographical areas that spread 12 to 13 kilometers across Israel.
8 Killed
Meanwhile the Israeli occupation army admits to the killing of eight of its soldiers in Rafah, Saturday afternoon.
News of the killing is trending on social media with the Israeli Army Radio confirming the number of dead in an armed vehicle destroyed in an explosion.
Izz Al Din Al Qassam fighters earlier said earlier it had killed the entire crew of the armed vehicle after it was targeted by an anti-tank shell.
Among those killed is the deputy commander in the 601 Engineering Brigade according to Israeli media sources.
A Tiger vehicle
A Palestinian resistance fighter in flipflops and jeans. They come out from underground tunnels.
Al Yassin, a home-made shell, manufactured in the nooks and crannies of Gaza costs $500 according to Rozan Qabas Aal Salem, a Yemeni Jewish translator in Israel.
The destruction of the Tiger troop carrier, which is the pride of Israeli industry represents a great economic loss for each of these units, costing $3 million.
But the cost of the machine is one thing; another is the cost of the training of these elite soldiers using the most sophisticated equipment and then parish.
The training and rehabilitation of soldiers for each machine tank and other military hardware takes as much as 10 years.
In this war on Gaza, 100s of troop carriers, tanks, drones and military hardware has been lost by the Israeli army to Palestinian fighters.
A loss estimate would put the number of military hardware units stand at 1500. This is not to account for the Israeli soldiers killed in tanks and troop carriers.
Israeli soldiers kill their own
According to their own Israeli soldiers are in a fix in Gaza. The state of morale is so low that they are committing many mistakes according to Israeli journalist Israeli journalist Hallel Biton Rosen and who writes of a damining account of the war.
The Izz Al Din Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced Friday, the Israeli occupation army killed two more Israel hostages held by the Islamist organization.
https://twitter.com/AJArabic/status/1801616841548435697/photo/1
The two hostages were killed last Monday by Israeli airstrikes on the city of Rafah at the southern end of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli occupation forces do not want the return of the hostages except in coffins, says Hamas officials adding that this is because the Israeli regime is not interested in any peace talks but to continue the war on Gaza.
The two deaths mean the number of hostages held by Hamas goes down to 118 and this is not the first time Israeli warplanes targeted its own hostages.
Global boycott campaign
Meanwhile the global boycott campaign against international companies who are seen to support Israeli actions is in full swing.
Latest global purchasing survey shows 1 in 3 consumers are boycotting brand names over the Israeli war in Gaza.
The survey made by the Edelman’s public relations firm polled 15,000 consumers around the world across 15 countries that included USA, France, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, UK, India and Indonesia.
The consumer boycotting brands include Starbucks, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola with news of the Trust Barometer report currently trending on social media.
The top five consumer boycotting countries are Saudi Arabia, UAE, Indonesia, India and surprisingly Germany. In Saudi 72 percent of those surveyed said they are boycotting international brands followed by 57 percent in the UAE.
Respondents perception is the major reason for their boycott, saying they believe one side supports the other in the war on Gaza.
One commented this is a shocking surprise for the boycott’s enemies and a joyful surprise for its supporters while another said this is a reminder to the “boycotts don’t work idiots.”
The boycott campaign has been strongest in the Middle East when many consumers stopped buying products and or frequenting brand cafes with international tag names associated with Israel.
Further the campaign took off last October after McDonald’s Israell’s “franchise announced it was giving free meals to Israeli soldiers in its branches in the country,” according to Middle East Eye.
Dr Marwan Asmar is an Amman-based journalist covering Middle East Affairs
