[IMPORTANT] Hamas launches foot assault against settlements.

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Aaah, right.

Comes right down to one of my favourite movie quotes of all time: "What's the answer to 99 out of 100 questions that start with "Why?"" Answer: "Money."

Makes sense, I guess.

If you're not in an area under threat of bombing/violence then *shrug* whatever. But the whole place doesn't seem that big on a map, so, I'd guess there's no super safe place ?

IF I lived somewhere where bombs could fall And I could leave for a safer more desirable place I think I'd make an exit strategy and then execute on it. Rather be poor somewhere else with a much higher probability of survival - especially if I was going to be relatively poor staying put where I might get bombed, anyways.

Like anywhere for anything it probably takes a while to save up before you can leave. Similar here of those who decide to leave for economic reasons.. it takes people a while to save up the money they need for moving costs, renting/buying a home elsewhere, having some $ to exist on while seeking/starting a new job in a new part of the country etc. So many people where I live are pretty broke so even if they have an exit plan to peace out to Alberta somewhere, unless they're going to totally wing it sleeping in their car in the Summertime or live with addicts in a homeless shelter it takes some time to save up the money it costs to gtfo out of town and start over elsewhere.

No bombs falling here, though. Bombs falling = higher incentive to save & escape.

yup..yup.. this is what the Israelis are counting on ..! Sad but true ..? And its ALL. about the Money !

I meant the reason boo doesn't leave is that it's cost prohibitive, not that someone is making money. What money are you suggesting the Israelis are counting on ? It reads as if they're going to make money.

I did post a thread about a video that claimed Israel is wanting to make money from off shore gas reserves, but apparently the host of the video is a known bogus bullshitter so maybe not.

I don't think Israel's incentive in all of this is money. It's more about power and control.. and not having neighbours they don't want. I don't think there's some financial gain in it for them Unless maybe they're planning some long term real estate development in Gaza or something ? I dunno.

And if Israelis are bombing in hopes that people with No Money up and leave and go somewhere else then they're kinda stupid.. you can't buy a plane ticket and pay for visas and living expenses in other countries without money. On some visas (student, I think) to come to Canada you have to prove you have more than $20,000.00 CDN in the bank and are able to support yourself while you're here. There are still ways for poorer people to come but even if they got a visitor visa and then came and applied for jobs and found an employer willing to hire them and do the Labour Market Impact Assessment paperwork etc etc they'd still have to have $ to fly here, exist here, fly home, wait for the work visa, then fly back again. (possible loophole workaround to avoid some flights until the loophole is closed) Sooo, anyways, whether Canada or Dubai or anywhere else when you have $0 in a relocation budget guess how far you can get? Yep; nowhere. Doesn't really make sense that Israel would be expecting people to just hit the airport and leave lol (is there even an air strip in Gaza?)

I know they're pushing for Egypt to let them cross the border there and hoping they'll just walk away I guess.. but I don't think anyone has any serious hopes of people just scattering the globe. No funds for that.

The Israeli army and Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, have again traded fire across the border.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah on Tuesday launched a drone attack on an Israeli command base. Israel retaliated with air strikes, while it is also reported to have killed three Hezbollah members in a targeted strike. The rise in attacks across the Israel-Lebanon border is stoking fear that the war in Gaza threatens to spark a regional conflagration.

Hezbollah said that it had targeted the “enemy’s northern command centre in the city of Safed with several drones” in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah field commander Wissam al-Tawil in Lebanon on Monday, as well as an attack on Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut last week.

Al-Tawil was the deputy head of a unit in the elite Radwan force and is the highest Hezbollah fighter to be killed in the fighting since the war on Gaza began on October 7.

Al-Arouri was killed in a drone strike, presumably by Israel, on January 2 in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan, reporting from Israel’s northern border town of Shlomi, said sirens had sounded for several hours across the 120km (75 miles) border between Lebanon and Israel.

We heard drones fly overhead for more than an hour. We also heard some jets screaming,” she added.

Shlomi is now a “ghost town”و Khan reports, with thousands of people having evacuated amid the fighting.

“The Israelis have been talking about pushing Hezbollah back from the border and bringing tens of thousands of residents who evacuated this area back. It’s a complete ghost town. This is really pushing both sides to the brink of war,” she said.

Security chiefs have warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times in recent days that the West Bank is on the brink of a major eruption in violence, Israeli television reported Monday.

According to Channel 12 news, the warnings were relayed by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other senior military commanders, who said Israel risked a new front in the West Bank amid the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and ongoing clashes on the northern border with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

Besides Netanyahu, the report said the other members of the war cabinet — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz — were also warned of the prospect of major unrest in the West Bank.

The heightened concern comes on the heels of Israel’s withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues that belong to the PA in addition to refusing to allow some 150,000 Palestinian workers return to their jobs in Israel and the settlements, the report said, noting Netanyahu’s refusal to hold security cabinet votes to reverse both decisions, given pressure from his far-right coalition partners.

“We may end up with a third Intifada [in the West Bank] because of the discontent resulting from the economic difficulty and lack of entry of workers to Israel,” the IDF commanders were quoted as saying.

Security chiefs have warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times in recent days that the West Bank is on the brink of a major eruption in violence, Israeli television reported Monday.

According to Channel 12 news, the warnings were relayed by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other senior military commanders, who said Israel risked a new front in the West Bank amid the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and ongoing clashes on the northern border with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

Besides Netanyahu, the report said the other members of the war cabinet — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz — were also warned of the prospect of major unrest in the West Bank.

The heightened concern comes on the heels of Israel’s withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues that belong to the PA in addition to refusing to allow some 150,000 Palestinian workers return to their jobs in Israel and the settlements, the report said, noting Netanyahu’s refusal to hold security cabinet votes to reverse both decisions, given pressure from his far-right coalition partners.

“We may end up with a third Intifada [in the West Bank] because of the discontent resulting from the economic difficulty and lack of entry of workers to Israel,” the IDF commanders were quoted as saying.

Also Monday, the Axios news site reported that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed rebuffed a request from Netanyahu for Abu Dhabi to pay unemployment benefits to the Palestinian workers who Israel has refused to allow to return to their jobs since the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group’s onslaught on October 7.

“Ask Zelensky for money,” bin Zayed reportedly told Netanyahu, sarcastically suggesting that the Ukrainian president could foot the bill with all of the international support Kyiv has been getting since Russia’s invasion.

The notion that Arab countries will come in to rebuild and pay the bill for what’s currently happening is wishful thinking,” an Emirati official told Axios.

MBZ couldn’t believe Netanyahu thought the UAE would be willing to pay for a problem that was created due to Israel’s decision not to allow the workers in, a source familiar with the matter told the news site.

Why on Earth is Israel withholding tax revenues that belong to the PA???? The PA isn't Hamas.

Is Netanyahu’s government TRYING to provoke violence among West Bank Palestinians just so Israel can have an excuse to kill them all and/or take even more Palestinian land???

Why on Earth is Israel withholding tax revenues that belong to the PA???? The PA isn't Hamas.

Is Netanyahu’s government TRYING to provoke violence among West Bank Palestinians just so Israel can have an excuse to kill them all and/or take even more Palestinian land???

Israel appear to be so intent on not letting Gazan Palestinians return to their homes, they are now looking for other countries for them!

Right, so accusations of ethnic cleansing of Gaza being the plan all along for Israel have increased in light of some insane rhetoric from the Israeli government which they’ve aimed at their chief financiers and military arms suppliers the US, who somewhat surprisingly given their conduct have come out saying Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and Israel can’t have it.

But more than that there is now concrete evidence of Israel having been engaging in conversations with other nations to take Gazan ‘emigrants’ as they refer to them anyway, deals being done to find a new home for people they forcibly displace, against international law, so that they are never allowed back into Gaza again. Israel is planning it’s own Rwanda deal basically, we’ve been watching this play out for weeks, from the refusal to let Gazans travel north again following the weeklong ceasefire in November, to the herding of people like cattle in the south of Gaza where they were told they’d be safe, to being attacked there as well. It is obvious Israel want the Gazan’s gone and together with their deportation plans, they are now pretty much blatantly admitting it too.

In a just world Bibi would wake up blindfolded, naked and in a burlap sack in Gaza.

The specificity of a "burlap sack" gave me a good lol.

That stuff is itchy and I'm not above being petty.