On 7 October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel completely out of the blue. I could not believe it when I heard the news. Israel’s security service and intelligence is one of the best, if not the best, in the world. For me, it was an outrage that the attack by Hamas was not detected and anticipated; I have no doubt that behind Hamas is Iran, and this has been in preparation for at least a year.

More than 200 Israeli and other nationalities, mainly women and children, have been taken as hostages by Hamas into Gaza. Amid shocking images of terrified Israeli civilians and soldiers – some bloodied, others hooded and with their hands tied – being dragged away by Hamas militants, the whereabouts and fate of the captives has become one of the most pressing issues for military planners.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, has confirmed that a “significant number” are being held hostage. Officials in the US and UK were urgently investigating claims that several Americans and one British citizen are among the captured. According to reports, while most hostages were taken by Palestinian armed factions, some Palestinian civilians who also entered Israel may have been taken captives too.

Lt Conricus stated that some hostages were alive while others were presumed dead, in line with the practice of Gaza’s militant factions of taking human remains to exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Make no mistake, Hamas has taken the hostages both as a human shield against Israel’s counterattack, as well as an insurance policy and bargaining material as the conflict evolves.

My heart and support is with Israel to do what should have been done decades ago! Israel was the one who wanted to make the peace in that area but were thwarted by the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Subsequently, the US and UK foreign policy stance with Libya, Iraq and then the war in Kuwait de-railed further negotiations.

You have to have in mind that Hamas is no match in its fight against the Israeli army, even when orchestrating simultaneous attacks with their Hezbollah comrades from Lebanon and Syria. Behind both militia stands Iran, who remain “pissed off” because the US killed Osama Bin Laden and still have “unfinished business” after 9/11.

Iran has a few, but significant, “friends” in Russia, China and North Korea. The war between Israel and Hamas is a perfect distraction to move the World’s eyes from Europe to the Middle East, away from the Russia Ukraine war. Concurrently, China is contemplating its appetite to go after Taiwan; not to mention North Korea’s desire for a chunk of South Korea.

From my point of view, the US made a big mistake not so long ago when they offloaded” $6 billion of frozen assets back to Iran in exchange for 5 hostages. If we put 1+1 together, my assumption would be that Iran paid Putin half of this money in exchange. Putin’s economy gets the financial injection and ammunition for its war with Ukraine, while Iran gets the nuclear weapon. Similarly, with North Korea.

It is tragic that Hamas killed over 1200 Israeli’s, which is yet another holocaust for Israel. The entire population of Israel (9.7 million) is similar to the population of London; to understand the scale of this atrocity, comparing the killing of 1200 Israelis to the UK population equates to over 8,000 British people massacred in one day. And all this has happened without any provocation from Israel. 

What will happen next?

Make no mistake, there will be a war, a long one and perhaps even a fatal one. Hamas and their supporters will be hiding again, as usual behind the innocent people.

The blame here has to be shared with all the Palestinian people living there. They have known for years that Hamas made an entire labyrinth under their houses in Gaza, where their major command centres are under the hospitals, schools and mosques. Why is that? Simply because Hamas believe that Israel will not attack hospitals…

So, why did the Palestinian people allow this underground city and not say to Hamas to go and dig somewhere else and not in “their” land?