From day one into the invasion of Gaza by the Israeli army, speculations started to circulate about the possible capabilities of what is no called “the paper tiger” against the background of the epic defeat of October 7.

For many commentators, it was as clear as daylight that Israeli army cannot start/continue a long war and foreign aids, specifically from the United States, amounts to a significant portion of its active-duty battle equipment. There were also reports, from day one, about the possible participation of American troopers, U.S. marines for example, in a possible ground attack against Gaza Strip.

It was clear that the war command room in Tel Aviv was enjoying the accompany of American advisors, and in line with policies the U.S. was dictating to keep the course of the war in favor of Israel and its own, many European countries rushed to send military into the region to join an unannounced military coalition.

But, despite all this, no one was ready for the bombshell a Spanish newspaper dropped today, revealing a very unpleasant condition the coalition is suffering from. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo published a report today, still not officially confirmed to this moment, disclosing the presence of “mercenaries” among the Israeli army troopers amid its invasion of Gaza.

In an article titled “They pay very well, good equipment and quiet work”, Spanish El Mundo published sensitive information about Israel attracting mercenaries “who were fighting in Ukraine”! Although many believed that the war in Palestine would drastically affect the situation in Ukraine, it was not imaginable that one of the side effects of this war for Zelensky’s regime might be losing mercenaries who are now immigrating to Palestine to fight for Israel.

El Mundo interviewed a Spanish mercenary, Pedro Diaz Flores who is widely known for belonging to and fighting along with the Neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia, Azof battalions. Fighting in Ukraine last week, he was seen in a photo with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) yesterday; something which was largely ignored by mainstream media and roughly even noticed in social media platforms.

Although it may appear to be employing the same strategy which was tested on the battlefield of Ukraine (and dramatically failed by the way), using forces other than its own, for IOF, is yet another proof of the fragile structure of the paper tiger these days. This could find different and much more disturbing meanings if we consider the turbulence deep within the structure of IOF which had started months ago by refusal of the IOF reserve units to attend service. This is a fact that finds its way to the top every now and then from between the dense lines of news and reports covering the war on Gaza one-sidedly.

In the latest instance, a rhetoric war broke out once again between the sitting prime minister, Netanyahu, and the leader of Israel’s opposition, Yair Lapid. Earlier today, Netanyahu commented briefly (probably hoping no one will notice) about the possible scenarios regarding the October 7 operation by the Palestinian Resistance and said, “after the war, it is necessary to review the link between intentions of Hamas Leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and the faces of refusal [of the reserve units and others] during the anti-judicial reforms demonstration”.

Understanding this as an effort by Netanyahu to take down with him everybody who could be considered a possible target, Lapid reacted quickly and responded in a meeting with the members of the fraction of his party: “immediately after the tragedy of October 7, we decided to not work on finding the guilty until the war is ongoing. We [decided to] not deal with the question of who was responsible and the question of competence, but as we remain silent, Netanyahu abuses our silence and keeps blaming others for his own failures. I tell him from this tribune: Stop!”.

The flames of war have still been hot enough to convince the Israeli public that today is not the day to let their deep disagreements inflict further damage to their dismantling social structure, but its only a matter of days, if not hours, before this argument loses credibility and streets of Tel Aviv and elsewhere are once again flooded with angry disappointed crowds who don’t even know what they want any more.

Bold but Decorative

• The king of Jordan, Malek Abdullah, published a post on his X account today a stilted story about how the “brave air force of Jordan” have successfully delivered a cargo of urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza “by airdropping it at midnight”. “This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza. We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren”, he added. But what first seemed to be a bold move and a complicated military/diplomatic stunt by Jordan at the direct order of King Abdullah, rather quickly, turned out to be something not only Israel already knew, but had agreed with in advance. A few hours after the post, an Israeli official posted that the aid to Gaza by Jordan was delivered after the permission of Israel and in accordance with authorities. Since then, there has been absolute silence about the operation.

Message Received

• Few hours after the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) committed another war crime, this time on south of Lebanon, by targeting a civilian car carrying a family which resulted in martyrdom of three teenager Lebanese girls, an elderly Lebanese woman, and wounded the mother of the family severely, the Lebanese Resistance (Hezbollah) responded furiously by plowing parts of the occupied city of Qiryat Shemona with a barrage of rockets. The issue was noted by Israeli media, including Yedioth Ahronoth, understood as a clear message by Hezbollah that “civilian for civilian” equation is still intake. “Hezbollah continues to uphold its promise and establish the equation of civilian for civilian. Just hours after the Israeli army struck a civilian vehicle in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets towards Qiryat Shemona and claimed responsibility for it”, the Hebrew newspaper reported. The article also reviewed the situation in the occupied cities and settlements of the north within the immediate vicinity of the border with Lebanon, claimed that “It is impossible to bring back the settlers to the north, and the Radwan forces are still on the fence”. Not long after the exchange of fire, Israeli outlets widely reported about a statement issued by the municipality of Qiryat Shemona, announcing that “due to the escalating security situation, requests that those who remain in the settlement to leave it immediately”. The Israeli Channel 13 reported in Hebrew that “The atmosphere is very tense in the northern settlements adjacent to the border fence with Lebanon. All the inhabitants of these settlements have left”.