Israel/Palestine events

[crazyinsane105]

Second massive IED attack on a Merkava in recent days. Looks like a change in tactics by Hamas. My guess is that they  are also recovering enough unexploded munitions around Gaza to construct these IEDs as this wasn’t a thing early on 

[Mighty_Zuk]

21 minutes ago, crazyinsane105 said:

Second massive IED attack on a Merkava in recent days. Looks like a change in tactics by Hamas. My guess is that they  are also recovering enough unexploded munitions around Gaza to construct these IEDs as this wasn’t a thing early on 

IEDs were definitely a thing throughout the war, especially in its early days.

[crazyinsane105]

57 minutes ago, Mighty_Zuk said:

IEDs were definitely a thing throughout the war, especially in its early days.

But as big as these ones? These seem to have several hundred pounds of explosives rigged. Earlier ones were quite small in comparison 

[Mighty_Zuk]

1 minute ago, crazyinsane105 said:

But as big as these ones? These seem to have several hundred pounds of explosives rigged. Earlier ones were quite small in comparison 

Perhaps. Hezbollah in 2006 used even larger ones, and Palestinian factions in Gaza before 2005 did as well. Several hundred kgs of IED weight were a norm once.

[crazyinsane105]

Just saw another video of a third Merkava being targeted by a massive IED in Gaza.

Looks like the militants have decided massive IEDs are better than than their tandem warhead RPGs

[Mighty_Zuk]

3 hours ago, crazyinsane105 said:

Just saw another video of a third Merkava being targeted by a massive IED in Gaza.

Looks like the militants have decided massive IEDs are better than than their tandem warhead RPGs

The IDF is re-entering areas it left months ago. This allows employing larger amounts of IEDs. 

You can't really plant new IEDs in an active war zone.

[crazyinsane105]

First attack was a combined IED and RPg attack against a Merkava. Doubt it was successful. 
 

Second attack was against an armored bulldozer which left the vehicle immobilized and later destroyed. 

[crazyinsane105]

15 minutes ago, Mighty_Zuk said:

The IDF is re-entering areas it left months ago. This allows employing larger amounts of IEDs. 

You can't really plant new IEDs in an active war zone.

Well, the issue is that there is so much rubble and destruction, planting IEDs unnoticed is significantly easier as well. Especially the extremely large ones 

Edited October 23, 2024 by crazyinsane105

[crazyinsane105]

Seems like another Merkava taken out of action, as it is being hauled away at the end. Unsure if the helicopter was medivacing casualties from the tank or from another area

[crazyinsane105]

Another massive IED vs Merkava 

 

[Mighty_Zuk]

In major blow to Hamas, Israel passes legislation banning UNRWA from operating in areas under Israeli control (East Jerusalem) and from coordinating with Israeli agencies and persons (in Gaza and J&S). 

Investigations against UNRWA employees will continue.

I'd say the right thing to do would be to simply add UNRWA to the list of terrorist organizations and arrest all their personnel in and around Israel, but this is also a step in the right direction. 

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-826525

[crazyinsane105]

EFP IED against Merkava 

Unsure if EFP has the capability to go through side armor of a Merkava 

 

[bojan]

Depends where it hits, but most side projection if tank has heavy skirts should be +/- reasonably safe from it. OTOH, there are always (un)lucky shots.

[Mighty_Zuk]

Troops on the ground report that the Merkava and Namer are resilient against these EFPs.

[crazyinsane105]

Looks like Netanyahu has given Gallant the boot. Are things in Gaza going that bad where the defense minister is being replaced?

[Yama]

According to news, they have always butted heads on various issues, and Netanyahu has probably for long wanted to get rid of him.

[Mighty_Zuk]

1 hour ago, crazyinsane105 said:

Looks like Netanyahu has given Gallant the boot. Are things in Gaza going that bad where the defense minister is being replaced?

It's unrelated to Gaza.

Gallant, in his speech, said he and Netanyahu disagreed on 3 things:

Ultra orthodox draft, focus on return of hostages, and an inquiry into October 7th. All these he supported, and Netanyahu was against.

But beyond that, Netanyahu is managing a crisis with his ultra orthodox allies, who demand socialist policies to exempt them from various taxes and levy taxes on regular people to fund these, as well as exemption from military service, in exchange for keeping him in power.

Gallant opposed these, and said he's vote against any law that exempted ultra orthodox from service. Today he ordered the IDF to issue 7,000 draft notices to ultra orthodox.

To outsiders, Israel seems like it's focused on Iran or Gaza or Lebanon, but really it's hard focused on the issue of ultra orthodox draft.

[Ol Paint]

 Spain apparently denied docking to the US-flagged Maersk Denver.

Quote

https://maritime-executive.com/article/maersk-line-vessel-diverts-to-morocco-due-to-allegations-in-spain

One of the container vessels operating for Maersk Limited, Limited, the U.S. subsidiary of the shipping company, diverted to Morocco over the weekend following activists’ protests in Spain alleging the vessel is carrying military supplies to Israel. The vessel was also met with protests while it was in the port of Tangier Med as the company questioned the change in policies after months of similar port calls.

Maersk confirmed in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Spanish authorities denied docking privileges at Algeciras to the Maersk Denver (6,200 TEU vessel registered in the United States) on its current voyage from New York to the Middle East. This came after activist groups last week asserted that Maersk Line ships making port calls in Spain were carrying military supplies to Israel violating Spain’s ban on the transshipment of arms to Israel through its ports.

“To gain clarity for future operations, we have consulted the Spanish authorities to understand why entry was denied for cargo no different than previous shipments that have routinely been transshipped through this port without incident,” a Maersk spokesperson told AFP.

Maersk said that it understands that it is Spain’s discretion to change its criteria while emphasizing that the cargo it was carrying is all legal. Further, they said that “cargo to be transshipped through the port does not include any military weapons or ammunition.”

 

Doug

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

But I gather it was allowed to dock in North Africa....

[Mighty_Zuk]

Good thing there are many more ports along the way where the ship could dock. 
Less payment to the Spanish idiocratic regime that abandons its citizens is also good. I hope Spain can have competent leadership soon so that I can visit. Beautiful country, from what I heard.

Edited November 12, 2024 by Mighty_Zuk

[urbanoid]

Hint: a country doesn't need a competent leadership for a tourist to visit.

[RETAC21]

6 minutes ago, Mighty_Zuk said:

Good thing there are many more ports along the way where the ship could dock. 
Less payment to the Spanish idiocratic regime that abandons its citizens is also good. I hope Spain can have competent leadership soon so that I can visit. Beautiful country, from what I heard.

Stupid people do stupid things, I don't know what the basis for denying anything was, but Maersk has a terminal at Algeciras which why the ship was scheduled to stop there and then move on. Instead it will go to Tanger Med and do its thing there, so the practical effect is just PR, which is what the local government cares about.

[Mighty_Zuk]

37 minutes ago, urbanoid said:

Hint: a country doesn't need a competent leadership for a tourist to visit.

I don't want to be subject to a pogrom like in Amsterdam a couple days ago, thank you.

[ink]

On 11/12/2024 at 10:07 AM, Mighty_Zuk said:

I don't want to be subject to a pogrom like in Amsterdam a couple days ago, thank you.

Hahahaha!

Pogrom my ass. Anyone who knows even one thing about Maccabi fans, let alone what actually happened in Amsterdam, will find this post impossibly funny... Like I do.

[sunday]

Any thoughts about this?

Look up youtube video with id iX30OQobMXk

Trying to post the address results in a 403 error

Edited November 14, 2024 by sunday