We are now almost one year into the war and genocide in Gaza. Despite profound hardship, the Gazan Resistance continues its battles against the enemy, entirely undeterred. Despite Israeli proclamations throughout 2024 that they have cleared out Hamas from various places throughout Gaza, we still see regular attacks and ambushes against Zionist forces. Just today (Monday), Al Qassam fighters ambushed and destroyed another convoy of Israeli vehicles. The predictions early on in the war were that Israel would defeat Hamas in mere months, needing only until December, then January, and so on. This has proven very much untrue. Israel is stuck in the mud; unable to destroy their enemy due to their lack of knowledge about the "Gaza Metro" and, of course, a lack of actual fighting skill, given how many times I've seen Zionists getting shot while they gaze wistfully out of windows.
Attempts to drive wedges between Hezbollah and the rest of Lebanon are also unlikely to succeed. Hezbollah is not just a military force, it is extremely interlinked into various communities throughout Lebanon, drawing upon those communities to recruit soldiers. Throughout its history, it has provided education, healthcare, reconstruction, and dozens of other services one would attribute to a state. Amal Saad's recent suggestion of using "quasi-state actor" as a more respectful replacement for the typical "non-state actor" seems advisable. And the decentralized command structures, compartmented leadership, strong succession planning, and aforementioned community ties almost entirely neutralizes the effectiveness of assassinations. Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem has confirmed that Hezbollah's path has been set by Nasrallah, and his martyrdom will not stop nor even pause their efforts. Additionally, he confirmed that despite the recent attacks by Israel which nominally focussed on destroying missile depots, Hezbollah's supply of weapons has not been degraded, and they are still only using the minimum of their capabilities.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis. Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Spoiler - The NYT is allergic to the word "hypersonic" so they replaced it with "capable of flying at extremely fast speeds". I didn't even make that up.
[Full text] Iran appears to have used its most advanced missiles in the attack on Israel.
Photos and videos of debris from Tuesday’s missile barrage suggest Iran used some of its most advanced weaponry to target Israel.
The weaponry includes ballistic missiles and may include Fattah missiles, which experts told The Times have not been seen in use before by Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps also claimed that they had deployed the Fattah missile, which is highly maneuverable and capable of flying at extremely fast speeds, for the first time on Tuesday.
Videos verified by The New York Times show the booster section — essentially the back of the projectile, containing the motor and guidance fins — of a large, black missile stuck into the ground in a backyard in Tel Sheva, Israel. Fabian Hinz, an expert in Iranian missiles based in Berlin for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the missile’s distinctive fin pattern matches that of Iran’s Kheibar Shekan and Fattah-1 missiles.
Both types of missiles use the same booster and are therefore difficult to tell apart. But, he said, of known Iranian missiles, “These are the most advanced, no questions asked.”
And while it’s unclear how many of the approximately 180 missiles the Israeli military said Iran fired toward Israel were Kheibar Shekan or Fattah-1s, videos from several sites across Israel and the West Bank show booster sections that appear to be from those types of missiles.
Iranian news media said Kheibar Shekan ballistic missiles were used in Iran’s attack on Israel in April, after Israel struck the Iranian Consulate in Damascus. Tom Karako, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’s Missile Defense Project in Washington, said that “unlike that previous attack, however, more missiles appear to be getting through.” It’s unclear whether the type of projectile may be related to these missiles reaching Israel.
The Kheibar Shekan and Fattah-1 are both new, precision-guided missiles with ranges sufficient to reach Israel if launched from Iran. In a statement on Tuesday night, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said Fattah missiles had been used to destroy missile defense radar systems in Israel. That claim could not be independently confirmed.