User talk:Irtapil/PS SaintPaulOfTarsus

= conversation with SaintPaulOfTarsus =

Just saw you are on a break, I supposed this gives me time to catch up on what you wrote. Irtapil (talk) 11:23, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

I hope you don't mind i copied this to my own user space so i don't lose it if you archive it. Reply here or in your page, whichever you prefer. Irtapil (talk) 03:51, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

from user:irtapil
I came here to talk about but i spotted some interesting things on ypur user page on the way. Irtapil (talk) 17:40, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

what do the flags indicate on your list?

 * 🇮🇱 Battle of Zikim
 * 🇮🇱 Battle of Sufa
 * Are they just the location? or the winner?
 * Though i suppose for war battles, those are usually the same after the battle.
 * Irtapil (talk) 17:41, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I suppose they indicate the location, though I didn't put much thought into it. SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 04:51, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

They edit protected a TALK PAGE?
Irtapil (talk) 17:41, 4 December 2023 (UTC)


 * They really did! You can read about the decision here. SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 04:49, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
 * It sounds awful but might actually be a good idea, or at least better than the alternatives. Some of the talk pages are having stuff archived WAY too fast. Or people just are deleting posts, which seems VERY wrong? Edit protecting it is probably much less bad than that? People don't spend time writing comments that just get deleted, and they might look for somewhere better to communicate where it will get seen?
 * Maybe there needs to be a notice directing people towards the talk pages of the more specific pages? If there is a problem on the main page, it is likely to be replicated on the more detailed pages? and the discussion there is less noisy.
 * Is there an article "List of pages about the 2023 Israel Hamas war"? There's the List of engagements during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, but that's not intended to list every page, it had a different purpose. Unless you want to count Bearing Witness (2023 film) as a major military offensive… which actually kind of works? But in getting the proper page name for that i found what i was looking for … Outline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war… I'll add that above.
 * Can we include that in the info box for the 2023 Israel-Hamas war talk page? Somewhere as close as possible to where it says the talk page is edit locked?
 * Irtapil (talk) 15:01, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

The Siege of Gaza City Belligerents

 * Regarding what you said on the Siege of Gaza City talk page. I am messaging here partly because things often get archived to quickly on talk pages.
 * My Comment from Inclusion of al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and National Resistance Brigades as belligerents
 * I agree it should include all the groups involved, but that needs citations?
 * al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are only in the West Bank, as far as i know? Do you have a reference for them being involved in Gaza? They might be doing something in the West Bank in support, but that doesn't really count as belligerents in the siege itself. Do you have a citation for them doing the attack in al Nasr?
 * Kita2b Abu Ali PFLP are definitely involved. They are constantly announcing that they are shelling the neighboring settlements in retaliation, a bizarre thing to claim if they are not? and one of the refugee camp airstrikes even seemed to be aimed at one of them
 * I think the national resistance brigades DFLP were in 7 October attacks so probably are too.
 * Irtapil (talk) 17:03, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I definitely agree the other groups should be included, but it needs citations, can you help find some?
 * I think the citations on the other articles refer to PFLP and DFLP involvement in 7 October?
 * I found a possible reference for the airstrike aimed at a PFLP leader, but it's in one of my literally hundreds of open tabs… somewhere.
 * Pretty much every battle or other endangerment says just Hamas too. Currently Kita2b Abu Ali seem to be just shooting from a distance, no idea what anyone else is or was doing? But everything just being Hamas seems unlikely and unrealistic.
 * Irtapil (talk) 17:50, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Dear user @Irtapil:
 * Appreciate your comments on my talk page. Was pleasantly surprised that all those notifications in my inbox weren't a result of me angering somebody but quite the opposite really. As for your concerns regarding Gaza militant groups:
 * Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades: It is a common misconception that this organization is only present in the West Bank. On the contrary, they are alive and well in the Gaza Strip. You can read here to learn more about how they are now operating independently of Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas as of 2023. As for my sources that they are in Gaza fighting against the IDF, I've mainly been citing the reports of the Institute for the Study of War, including on the talk page comment that you noticed (this is where my knowledge of the Al Nasr incident originates). I'd reference the group's own Telegram channel if I could, where they regularly claim attacks within Gaza, but that would fail WP:RS. I've been on something of a crusade throughout talk pages to have this group's participation in Gaza recognized, with varying levels of success. Most often my requests get ignored. See: 1 2 3
 *  Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine's National Resistance Brigades: In the comment you responded to, I also reference the Institute for the Study of War, who confirms the groups activities in combat in Gaza.
 *  Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades: I am aware of the PFLP's continuing strikes on targets outside the Gaza Strip, but surprisingly after an extensive search I couldn't find any evidence that they had directly participated in combat operations within the Strip against the IDF unlike the other groups, who regularly claim ambushes and anti-tank strikes against Israeli vehicles and similar attacks. This may have changed since, as I've been less active since around mid-November.
 * Agree with you that most reporting, including here on Wikipedia, is oversimplified in terms of Hamas not fighting alone by any means. This undercoverage is what sparked my interest in the minor players. SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 05:16, 5 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Are you on Mastodon? Irtapil (talk) 05:08, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Not currently on Mastodon but I hope to be at some point during the next year. SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 15:04, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
 * What's the delay? I'd offer an invite but i think the servers are currently mostly open to new members. Irtapil (talk) 05:32, 11 December 2023 (UTC)
 * WP:BUSYLIFE.SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 05:46, 11 December 2023 (UTC)


 * The weirdest bit THE PFLP KILLED BIBI's BROTHER when he thwarted one of their plane hijackings… it now seems implausibly bizarre that Bibi is just over simplifying? He's doing more like Jacinda Ardern does with the Christchurch shooter. But already it seems like not mention them is because a group of Marxists founded by a Christian clashes badly with "Hamas are ISIS". They're a small pay off the resistance, but it's still bizarre to ignore them completely. Irtapil (talk) 05:14, 7 December 2023 (UTC)


 * Do you have a link for the specific ISW paper or article? Irtapil (talk) 05:56, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes, I'll repost the articles I linked in the comment on the talk page. They're pretty lengthy articles so you can Ctrl-F "Martyrs" and "Democratic" to find the relevant sections.
 * https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-november-5-2023
 * https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-november-9-2023
 * https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-november-11-2023 SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 15:06, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

draft 3 - sorry I'm messy - bare with me

 * I really don't know what to think about Al-Aqsa Martyrs and Fateh. There are contradictory claims and both sides of it have motives to distort it. To me it looks like an "arms-reach" / "plausible deniability" arrangement? Like the USA and (until a particular private jet crashed) Russia did with private military contractors? Or like Ukraine did with the pre-Wagner incident of Russians invading Russia, the RVC and the white-blue-white guys invaded Belgorod, and Ukrainian officials just said "they're Russian citizens" and such.
 * But WHERE they are is much more definitive than that.
 * Telegram channels don't just fail at RS, I think they'd probably count as "originally research"? I got told earlier today that an Arabic-English dictionary would count as such. But a lot of the telegram channels get quoted pretty much verbatim by TV stations and news sites, and those count as reliable secondary sources.
 * e.g. Today, after two months of them seemingly yelling into the telegram void, Kitaeb Abu Ali rocket attack videos got republished by Al Jazeera - I think only their Egyptian channel - and a somewhat dubious-looking Qatar-based TV station whose content is full of 🔻 icons.
 * The somewhat dubious looking channel is https://www.youtube.com/@AlarabyTv_News It seems to be a proper news network rather than just a YouTube channel https://www.alaraby.com/ but my impression is it would not be very reliable. It gives me the same vibe as Fox News in the USA, or Republic TV in India (if you're not famished with Republic
 * I'm only seeing West Bank stuff for Kitā2b Al-Aqsa Matyrs? clashes in Jenin, obituary from Qalandia Camp, a battalion in Jalazone. They're in the war, but not in Gaza? But I've not looked that far.
 * Huzzah! I think I found Al Nadi? … but I think it's a suburb in Jalazone, in the West Bank, not the more well-mapped neighbourhood in Gaza City, there's also an Al-Nadi neighbourhood in Cairo, it seems to be a common name. "A military report issued by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - Jalazoun Camp … our fighters were able to target the occupation forces storming our camp land with a heavy barrage of bullets in the Al-Nadi neighborhood at 4:53, causing serious injuries among the soldiers." signed كتيبة الجلزون which the robot reckons is "Al-Jalazoun Battalion", I can tell that says "(something) of Jalazone" but I've never seen that word for battalion before. I should probably not trust the robot too much, and I cannot find a map of Jalazoun that shows neighbourhoods, but that sounds very much like the localised Camp Battalions in the West Bank.
 * Al-Aqsa Matrys have quite flamboyantly religious rhetoric? Compared to them Al-Qassam sound like Richard Dawkins.
 * Irtapil (talk) 05:56, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
 * As for the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades' operations in Gaza, in addition to the links in my previous comment above, please see these excerpts from more recent articles by the Institute for the Study of War:
 * Iran Update, November 13: Palestinian media reported that the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades—the self-claimed militant wing of Fatah— fired mortars at the Israeli army in an unspecified location in the southern Gaza city axis.
 * Iran Update, November 13: An IDF combat team continued raids on the outskirts of al Shati Refugee Camp, focusing on destroying military infrastructure in the heart of the civilian population including schools, universities, mosques, and homes. The al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades artillery unit launched mortars at the Israeli army operating in the vicinity of the camp.
 * Iran Update, November 15: The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade fired 60mm mortars at IDF armor and infantry near the al Maqousi area, west of Sheikh Radwan on November 15.
 * Iran Update, November 20: The al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades—the self-proclaimed militant wing of Fatah—and al Quds Brigades conducted a combined operation attacking three Israeli armored vehicles and soldiers in the Sheikh Radwan area southwest of Jabalia refugee camp.
 * Iran Update, November 22: The al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade—a self-affiliated militant wing of Fatah—has conducted attacks on Israeli ground forces in the Gaza Strip and fired rockets into Israel.
 * Iran Update, December 6: The al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade—a self-affiliated militant wing of Fatah—claimed that its fighters targeted an Israeli tank with an anti-tank munition east of Khan Younis.
 * Perhaps it is problematic for you that I'm only citing ISW articles. That would be fair, but I am not really sure what other reliable source is reporting on this level of detail on the Palestinian factions. As we've discussed, oversimplification to Hamas is prevalent. At least in English-language sources, that is. There would certainly be more evidence of the group's operations in Gaza from Arabic-language texts, but as a non-native I do not have the free time to try to look for that at the moment, though this will be in my near future, as I plan to significantly expand the Wikipedia article for the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades after becoming extended-confirmed. For some reason, the article lists no meaningful activities after 2007.
 * As for [ Katibat / كتيبة ] :
 * Though not an Arabic speaker by any means, I can confirm to you that the machine's translation of [ كتيبة ] as "battalion" is correct here. My vast prior experience observing and researching the war in Syria, which bordered on the obsessive-compulsive, has made me intimately familiar with this word as it was very commonly used among militant organizations there. The word you're familiar with, [ kitā2b ] should be the plural form of this word, [ katibat ]. Why the singular form typically gets translated as "battalion" but the plural typically gets translated as "brigades" is beyond my knowledge. SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 15:52, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
 * sorry, i got interrupted / side tracked. Irtapil (talk) 21:09, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
 * This time I'll try to respond a bit at a time, instead of leaving a messy draft. I think the only thing I was planning to add was a proof read and some extra links.
 * I really don't know any English military terminology. I'm usually more interested in the politics than I am in the violent parts of international conflict. I still haven't got around to doing the homework I assigned myself of reading the pages for brigades and battalion in English.
 * I have a very small and topical Arabic vocabulary, mainly location names, political terms, religious terms, and military terms. Which increasingly doesn't overlap with my English vocabulary.
 * From the Romanisations I've seen them use, it's كَتائب Kata2b not كِتائب Kita2b in Palestinian Arabic, but it's fairly likely that Syrian Arabic is different. (But, on the third hand, I keep accidentally pronouncing it with a كِ anyway because it is very similar to the word for Book in Urdu and Hindi, Kitab. I know a tiny amount of nearly a dozen languages, but not a useful amount of anything except English.)
 * As far as I can gather كتيبة seems to mean "camp guard", usually connected to a specific city / refugee camp, and كتائب Kata2b / Kataeb is a multi regional milirary wing of a party. And if كتائب is the plural of كتيبة that makes a lot of sense, each Kitaeb has multiple local Kteebah constituents.
 * The ة suffix is derived from a ت but I never see it transliterated as T, unless that word is weird? And it's usually a suffix for feminine nouns, which might explain why "she" pops up in some bizarre places in machine translations?
 * Most of the the factions only have one كتائب - except the PFLP seems to have an offshoot? Unless that's a division of another PLO party and I'm just muddled?
 * Then there's Saraya Al Quds (probably misspelled there?) the word where another editor told me a dictionary was "original research".
 * I completely gave up on understanding the war in Syria, though I'm somewhat backtracking into it now. All I have got so far is that the Palestinians seem ideologically closest to the Kurdish Marxists, but historically close to the Syrian government, which currently means Assad Jr. … which seems fairly unpleasant, but that war really seems like a "there are no good guys" (even more than most wars are like that). Except possibly the Kurdish Marxists, but they're friends with the USA, but… as I say, last time I gave up.
 * Side track, there is a word which seems to mean female fighter that I'm wondering if you know anything about… but I'll get back to that later, on this device if I change tabs I lose what I'm writing.
 * Irtapil (talk) 08:06, 9 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Allow me to preface everything I'm about to say with a disclaimer that I have no formal background in Arabic or linguistics whatsoever, and all my responses on those topics have no basis in anything except patterns I've observed over the span of approximately 6-7 years of on-and-off study of the Syrian and Iraqi wars. My Arabic vocabulary is likely even smaller than yours.
 * I am fairly certain you are correct regarding the first "vowel" - it's كَتائب Kata2b rather than كِتائب Kita2b - and this is likely the case in Iraqi (Kata'ib Hezbollah), Lebanese (Kataeb Party), and Syrian dialects of Arabic. My use of Kita2b was based on your earlier use of Kita2b, meaning I was just too rusty to catch the subtle mistake.
 * Fun fact: Kitab is also the word for book in Arabic. See ahl al-kitab, the people of the book: a religious term collectively referring all followers of the Abrahamic religions: Muslims, Christians, and Jews.
 * As for the ة suffix, I have seen it romanized as -at infrequently, and I've always preferred -ah, but in the case of كتيبة I think katibat is probably a more common romanization than katibah, which for some reason "just looks wrong." See the Syrian-Uzbek radical organizations Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad and Katibat al-Imam al-Bukhari.
 * As for battalions and brigades, there's not much I have to say other that in my experience, a brigade typically consists of multiple battalions and never the other way around.
 * In the Syrian context, سرايا saraya, in a technical sense, would refer to "companies," with its singular form being سرية sarayah. A company would typically be a quite small unit and multiple such units would form a battalion. A company would sometimes be associated with a particular weapon: for example, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham would frequently ascribe the sniper operations on the front line to the "sniper company," anti-tank operations would have been attributed to the "anti-tank company," and so on. However, in other cases, the word would not have the traditional military implication of small, specialized sub-units and could refer to much larger groups; consider the Defense Companies (Syria), which used the word سرايا but whose manpower was estimated at over 50,000. An acquaintance in Aleppo told me to disregard the battalion/company/brigade paradigm in cases like these.
 * Additionally, especially earlier in the insurgency stage of the war, I found that katibat كتيبة was used simply to refer to "a group of armed men," typically of a rather small size not comparable to the Western definition of battalion, which usually number at least several hundreds.
 * Parts of rebel-held northern Syria are now under the control of Turkish-backed criminal organizations branding themselves as لواء, liwa meaning brigade, and فرقة firqa(h) or furqat meaning division, terms I have not seen in Palestine. The لواء are made up of كَتائب, many of which are basically the armed gangs loyal to the warlords, who are also rotated to perform front-line duties every now and then, and their sizes are variable. In some cases the word كتيبة has been applied to incredibly small groups of under ten men.
 * SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 08:44, 9 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I think I sometimes see ar: فرقة which is also used for musicians. But not often. Sorry I am way behind on catching up with this. Irtapil (talk) 03:44, 17 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Interestingly the words in Hebrew seem to be recognizably similar. I thought I was just guessing imaginatively from my tiny vocab, trying to read a thing in Hebrew, but it turned out it was the name of a unit previously stationed within Gaza.
 * Weirdly started with ח which is closer to خ and is the letters Israelis (mis)spell "(k)hamas" with. Apparently there's a little dot / apostrophe they should use to indicate the right letter ח' ≈ ح in Arabic loan words, but nobody bothers. The set ( ق خ ح ح ه ة ) is a weird jumble, or at least confusing, but i think ك is usually כ in Hebrew. But the word was a Hebrew word, not a transliteration, just noticeably similar. So far, I prefer יידיש Yiddish to Hebrew, mainly because I know a lot of German and lack the attention span for vocab.
 * Irtapil (talk) 18:02, 30 December 2023 (UTC)
 * it was he: חטיבת גבעתי חטיבת ≈ ختيبت ≈ كتيبة aka Givati Brigade
 * Irtapil (talk) 11:41, 1 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @SaintPaulOfTarsus, I keep meaning to fund citations to fix the name of Al-Quds Brigades  /  Saraya Al-Quds  - at least in the intro line as an alt name, but too many things to do. Irtapil (talk) 15:34, 10 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @SaintPaulOfTarsus
 * I was skeptical cos I thought you'd got it yourself from just machine translated trlelegtam, and the only stuff I could see was west back but there were a few place names on both sides of the country.
 * "Perhaps it is problematic for you that I'm only citing ISW articles." Not for this sort of thing. For just who was where, seems reasonable enough. If it disagreed with other sources, I'd be low on trusting it, but broadly agrees.
 * If it agreed with the propaganda narrative of "only at war with Hamas" I'd be skeptical. But the info seems to broadly line up with the Arabic language news media and what the militant groups are announcing themselves. If anything it contradicts the Israel-USA party line.
 * WHAT DOES "ONLY AT WAR WITH HAMAS" EVEN MEAN!?
 * It will be very weird if after being shot at by Al Aqsa they decide Fatah are the only non banned political party? But maybe even a Fattah puppet is over optimistic, the plan seems to be total obliteration if Palestine.
 * Irtapil (talk) 10:42, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Do they have anything about 7 October itself? "Al-Qassam claimed" isn't citable but "Murican think tank saw it on telegram" is? The military targets keep disappearing on the grounds of no RS. It's surreal, hamas and Israel are telling completely non overlapping stories about the evebts. A big messy complicated event, but the lack of overlap is so strange to watch.
 * Irtapil (talk) 10:42, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Or anything on when ISIS expanded through Syria and killed a lot of Palestinians in a refugee camp at the edge?
 * Irtapil (talk) 10:42, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Who's side are the Kataeb Mujahadeen on? Do they even exist?
 * Irtapil (talk) 10:42, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @SaintPaulOfTarsus, I was going to ask if Fatah and Hamas are on the same side in this, but I think this is a yes? I recognised Ahmad Saadat (PFLP) but not Marwan Barghouti (Fatah). Irtapil (talk) 15:45, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

Al-Ahli suspects…
…and Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion kinda buries the lead, but i think i screwed up my attempt to fix that. Irtapil (talk) 17:50, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

New Topics that weren't on old talk page
I'll write further stuff here to avoid redundancy? Can you see this? Irtapil (talk) 11:03, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

Massacre of soldiers at Kerem Shalom crossing
this one was on your talk page, but i moved it down to this section, since you hadn't replied yet. Irtapil (talk) 11:19, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

Can you help me find some reliable references for a Massacre of soldiers at Kerem Shalom crossing on 7 October 2023? is there a wiki article for it? Irtapil (talk) 03:42, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

What were the PFLP blokes up to?

 * I can't work out what the PFLP were doing on 7 October? Somewhere between posing for photos and then running away and them being the ones actually beheading that baby (the 40 that turned out to be "maybe one"). Bizarrely there was a very similar accusation specifically against them just a few years earlier… I have that news article, in one of my literally thousands of open tabs.
 * I've seen clips of Kta2b Abu Ali guys, wearing insignia (unusually for the day), claiming to be attacking "military assets east of Khan Yunis" (so southern) and "border chrckpoints", which may or may not be the same thing.
 * Irtapil (talk) 11:19, 17 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I am not able to locate any information regarding the PFLP's activities on 10/7. Could you share where you found that they were in the Khan Yunis area? SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 15:59, 23 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I thought I replied sorry. I have rightly even billion unsaved edits open.
 * It was something direct from them, probably telegram.
 * Irtapil (talk) 14:27, 30 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Looked through the Telegram and found them saying they were "east of Gaza city" and "east of Khan Yunis" on October 7th. The latter was accompanied by a video at the border fence. Having a hard time finding this substantiated in RS. SaintPaulOfTarsus (talk) 02:30, 31 December 2023 (UTC)
 * @SaintPaulOfTarsus
 * Yeah, there's almost nothing saying so was where. over page on here somewhere quotes the PFLP website, political wing moderately more respectable than telegram, but not exactly rs.
 * There's a glimpse of a guy in a red headband in one of the rather graphic attacks on military bases. hard to tell, seems unlikely pij or hmas would wear something resembling that? but could be either secular group. Irtapil (talk) 03:57, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * I thought i worked it out, because they are probably the mysterious 'other group" who had the Bibas family (at least the mum and kids), so maybe they were at that kibbutz, but the IDF claim that Hamas handed over hostages … that story seems mildly weird, and is only "IDF says" so back to zero info really.
 * I have this hunch that they want Ahmad Saadat and the Israeli side are very much not wanting to give them that. Hamas have ben trying to free him since 2006.
 * Can't tell if Israel are abiding saying b that to avoid public demand to exchange Saadat, or if I'm just latching into random details.
 * Irtapil (talk) 04:05, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Has there been any respectable news about the hostage Karaeb Abu Ali said died? Palestine chronical said he was a soldier … which makes zero sense, he was middle aged but all the soldiers they captured alive were teenage conscript?
 * But the alleged dead soldiers they took us weird. Trying to fake me hostages i suppose. Or just thinking bodies with something given both religions are very particular about funeral rituals?
 * It must be extremely stressful for the families given there are a lot who the IDF and Gaza disagree about being alive.
 * 04:11, 8 January 2024 (UTC) Irtapil (talk) 04:11, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @SaintPaulOfTarsus
 * Surposedly Hmas didn't tell the other till his hours before. But there's yearning videos that include hostages taking with the joint force
 * It must be outside Gaza too because they have tanks to practice on. And it exactly matches some of the stuff they did, just less blood.
 * I actually think a lot of the more polished Al Qassam videos must be filmed in Lebanon. Like the one that ends "tell Aviv will burn and Al Quds will be free".
 * Irtapil (talk) 04:29, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * @SaintPaulOfTarsus
 * Surposedly Hmas didn't tell the other till his hours before. But there's yearning videos that include hostages taking with the joint force.
 * It must be outside Gaza too because they have tanks to practice on. And it exactly matches some of the stuff they did, just less blood.
 * I actually think a lot of the more polished Al Qassam videos must be filmed in Lebanon. Like the one that ends "tell Aviv will burn and Al Quds will be free".
 * https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UYVyWYvCDjE&si=vDdp04mkcd67xPBM
 * Is it every supposed to show Gaza? It's ambiguous.
 * I'm surprised nobody seems to try and geolocate those? At least not that I've seen. But they're in this weird hey area of "is it even supposed to be read"? It's kinda a glossy high production TV advert?
 * Irtapil (talk) 04:37, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Irtapil (talk) 04:37, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

Well therrs a rumoir to Google.
from an incredibly shonky looking Twitter account... Something I'd assume was completely fictional, but easy enough to check... The image shows אורון שאול on a prison door, which seems to be that name, but Hamas are prone to misspelled Hebrew... Irtapil (talk) 15:10, 30 December 2023 (UTC)


 * Well someone's lying… Deaths and ransoming of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin 'I think this one is tentatively going in the too hard basket. The message it quotes from Al-Qassam strongly implies they have him alive, but it doesn't actually say that.
 * They do this weird "not lying" thing, where they give ambiguous statements where the most immediate interpretation seems like it might not be the true one.
 * The most creepy being hostages dying "as a result of Israeli airstrikes" or similar wording (when they initially threatened to execute hostages in retaliation for airstrikes on civilians in Gaza) and hostages being "killed by IDF weapons" (a week after them showing off a lot of IDF guns they managed to steel).
 * And their classic several gazillion IDF tanks "damaged or destroyed", when I'm sure most of those have barely scratched paintwork?
 * The first two seem like the ambiguity might be supposed to add to the great? but the last sonds like it might be then trying to follow the letter of the law when it comes to religious prohibitions against lying. If I remember right the only lie that is حلال is being allowed to lie to a non Muslim, telling them you are not a Muslim, if you think they may harm you for being one … awkwardly that reminds me of the "Jews in the attic" exception in most ethics discussions on lying … but a bit more self focused. I assume the direct analogy would be even more permissible by extrapolation.
 * Overall, Hamas usually lie like Australian politicians, while the IDF lie like Putin. Which is to say the former tell deliberately VERY misleading statements that are technically "not lies*, while the latter just tell comlete fictions, as if to just show off how much nonsense they can get away with? Like in 2014 when there were no Russians invading Crimia?
 * Irtapil (talk) 15:35, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

We have a new talking head: Comrade Abu Jamal
Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades spokes-dude. I'm not sure about Comrade, I spent a whole day trying to fathom that in Arabic once. Will not very sensibly. Irtapil (talk) 09:17, 31 December 2023 (UTC)

Syria got weird…


I can kinda see why you found it interesting, Syria got weird.

Or that might be Iraq?

Found it in Foreign fighters in the Syrian Civil War and War in Iraq

I just gave up.

Irtapil (talk) 01:49, 9 January 2024 (UTC)


 * https://lor.sh/@irtapil/111542707199845200
 * actually that was also Iraq…
 * Irtapil (talk) 01:51, 9 January 2024 (UTC)