Gaza resistance sends political, military messages in sixth prisoner swap, with Jon Elmer

so this is the resistance report for day 53 it is ceasefire day 33 I'm reporting on Exchange 6 uh which took place on Saturday February the 15th in con Unice we can maybe pull up the map here tomorrow um for this uh so we're talking here we're looking at the map of the full Gaza Strip there has been six exchanges up till now and they have happened at eight different sites from the far north in Northern jabalia um you can see there on the map the nsim corridor which was evacuated um the Israelis withdrew from that on day 22 uh two Saturdays ago um but we left it on there for people who have been watching the resistance report for this entire war and we've had that Corridor marked on there um divide in Gaza not allowing people to move from the north to the South back and forth so the Israelis have pulled out of that Corridor we left it on there just so you could get your uh bearings U the other exchanges were in Gaza City there was two in Gaza City downtown there was one in the Gaza City Port um there was one that I reported on last week on the show uh in Dar alala um and now in conun this is now the third Exchange in conun and the first time at a separate site if we look at the next map we can see the uh zoom in on conun the uh tesalan is marked there just above the Philadelphia Corridor tesalan is where uh Yahya Sinar was killed uh in on October 16th uh unbeknownst to the Israelis who were just uh targeting the building that he was in because they were um killing people for moving in an area that was supposed to be cleansed uh according to their language but um what we're seeing here uh on this map is conun and the Exchange took Place Northeast um of conun City conun refugee camp is on the west side of the city between the city um and the Sea you can see further to the left of conun you can see almasi that is the safe area that was set up almasi is just a tiny fishing Village that used to be completely encircled by the gush settlement until 2005 and there was no we've been saying this all throughout the war there was no infrastructure for people to live in almasi there was no roads um they were living on Sand Dunes um and so just to give people um let people get their bearings uh of the area that we are talking about and of note in this exchange these three captives were um taken from near Oz which is just um it's a little bit dark uh the the Israeli side of the maps a bit dark but it's just across from huzza um there so it's like right on the border of con Yunis and these captives have spoken out and they we've heard from them and they said that they were moved uh directly to conun they never left conun and they only moved sites um a couple of times underground they were underground uh the whole time so this entire War the entire genocide um the battle in conun that went on for six and a half months uh took place right on top of them the Israelis um the captives never moved more than a few hundred several hundred meters at most in this entire time from the day they left their houses to the day they returned um so that's just uh something to note um and this is uh these exchange this exchange exchange six which took place on Saturday um was that brought the number to 19 uh captives in six exchanges so far um and again these are exchanges that could have happened this is still phase one the humanitarian exchange is the exchange that Kasam uh was willing to go through with in November of 2023 but Israel wanted to go back to war and knowing now what we know from the past uh week since you last saw me reporting on this um we know that Israel has named uh two more of the captives um deceased um and that will bring them number for stage two negotiations uh Phase 2 negotiations will be apparently over 30 or 31 captives and those are presumed to be soldiers and reservists who are not part of the humanitarian exchange uh in November so uh interesting to note that and we are going to show the video here that Kasam released and same as always I have removed the um the the captives the prisoners uh you can see them in many places uh we're going to follow the third Geneva Convention still and YouTube guidelines and we're doing that with the Palestinians that are released as well um so we're seeing in this video again another secured site in conun um very calm uh the one Exchange in conun at the same site which is near uh hiya sinar's house Northeast of conun the um this third exchange happened here um and crowds of people curious about uh the captives that were uh such a part of their story of the destruction um and the Curiosity um that has been stopped there's no people getting close as you can see from that shot but there's still hundreds of gam Fighters and um these are three dual Nationals released one of them the Russian was held by sarel kuds Islamic Jihad uh and the other two by Kasam and um they're handed off to the Red Cross um the part of this video is that there was many minutes of the captives in the video they come up on the stage they took a microphone and they spoke they spoke when they were released uh when the kassam shadow unit went to them in the tunnels and said you're being released um they spoke to them there and Kasam has made a show of the captives um because uh they speak about their good treatment um their relatively good treatment they are definitely living underground and all of the challenges that come with that but they were treated well like Kasam said they eat what we eat um and they were treated that way and that's to juxtapose with what we're seeing from the release of the Palestinian um prisoners that are in Israel and this week uh during this exchange Israel dressed everybody up in uh t-shirts that said we with a star of David massive Star of David on it that said this is Israel's prison service doing this that said in these t-shirts we do not forget and we do not forgive um and they were released the Prisoners the Palestinian prisoners released in all kinds of terrible shape abused tortured threatened with death before they left they were beaten as they were being released um and many went straight to hospital and so we haven't been showing that footage either for similar reasons just um deeming it unfair to them to be coming right out of prison um even though the scenes are incredible of the crowd so happy and nor showed a bit of one in um earlier in the war or early in the show sorry um of a captive who was taken from Gaza and the captives that were taken from Gaza they have no charges there's not even a pretext um that there's going to be a charge to those people they were captured as bargaining chips taken to torture camps in southern Israel um and so even the ones who were released um from the security prisoners um they were also given bracelets that said the Eternal people do not forget I will pursue my enemies and catch them it said and so in this video we saw an hourglass on the table we saw lots of symbolism this is the most um the most that we've seen um of of the stage here we just watching it one more time um you can see again captured weapons you see The Hourglass that was given to one of the prisoners to take to his family uh to take to one of the other families that were always in the um the host what they call hostages Square in Tel Aviv um you can see the truck arriving through pure destruction and I'm going to break down each part of these uh of this video in detail because the video goes quickly and there's all kinds of messaging and symbolism you see there Israeli weapons you see the the document here that's handed over to the Red Cross that's not for nothing either because this is the red cross's first time seeing these people and there's a formal uh process going on here where the document has to be signed the num the names of the people have to be released and they're traded for people in Israel who are getting uh released and so you can't just uh throw three people on a truck and move on this is done very professionally um and very properly for um for what we're talking about here for the release uh of these captives and the same thing going on on the Israeli side the Israelis are trying to get people to sign uh statements saying they won't return to political activities and whatnot so it it there is a lot of show but many of these details are absolutely necessary detail s like that sign off and I'll get more into that uh in a bit so let's look at number two this is the stage um and this is the most elaborate stage setup we've seen um in these exchanges again there's been uh exchanges at six separate sites at eight separate sites um through the six exchanges and this is the most elaborate one we're seeing and you see um along the um the skirt of the um stage you see we cross swiftly which is actually saying we pass passed through like a ray of sunlight or a Sunbeam um we passed through and that's an interesting um statement there that's written and it's written over what you see beside there are the settlements and military bases and very specifically the bases around conun so again we're seeing the local um brigades uh focusing on local uh issues here but there's also International the messaging is international here to the Arab world there's messages to the Israelis there's messages to Palestinians r large there's to gazin and there's to local people in conun so each of those settlements that you see below the um we we pass we crossed swiftly which is uh we passed through like a ray of sunlight or a Sunbeam uh shows the settlements and bases that were overrun and those bases are the bases that the conun Brigade and the Rafa Bri um in particular uh assaulted on uh October 7th as part of the raid uh on the military positions in the Gaza envelope so just a subtle little thing but that's not all of the bases that's just the ones that the uh that the conun Brigade um was tasked with including riam which is riam is the main base that multiple um battalions uh and Noba forces hit that was the Gaza command the gods of division command base so uh interesting detail on that and the line that we passed through like a ray of sunlight um that's from a 1970 Lebanese resistance song that used to the song is sung in the future tense that we will pass through rather than the past tense of uh Kasam saying we passed through um but just to give you a sense of that Lebanese resistance song uh from 1970 so years uh of History here um 55 years of History we we will pass through like a Sunbeam no barrier can stop us we will cross as if God's hands are throwing with our hands we will we will remain here in place because we have a meeting in our Jerusalem so that line that's just a simple line doesn't explain where it comes from is actually a really potent resistance song um one that was used in hasbalah videos from 1999 and then again in 2006 when hasbalah did cross over um in during the uh attack that captured Israeli soldiers um after the capture of gilad Shalit in Gaza um in July of 2006 that began the July War uh in Lebanon so there's a history to that to that line um and if we look at number three I'll just break these down so you can see them better um so you see the two fight Fighters standing around the destruction it's all destruction around here in conun I mean it's all destruction everywhere in Gaza um but the fighter standing beside the destruction there and what we see is the this is the left side of the stage and it says no migration except to Jerusalem and this is of course a response to Trump uh literally six days before this handoff so you have a resistance song from the 1970s and you have something responding to something that happened literally within the week of this handoff and if you look you'll see Yahya Sinar there sitting on his couch on his chair with his back face and he's looking through the destroyed house um and through the hole in the destroyed house is Jerusalem the old city of Jerusalem with a Palestinian flag um just rich with symbolism um in that choice there and that's just one uh part of the stage um and the next part uh number four uh if we look at the top it says we are your soldiers o Jerusalem bear witness and so if we look in detail look below you can see the old city of Jerusalem there um but you see the fighters that are moving towards Jerusalem are carrying the flags of the Arab world um along with Palestinian Flags but sending a message to the Arab world um uh directly uh over the uh holy sites in Jerusalem and um and the Palestinian place in them in there was Flags in the crowd of this event as well there was a um there's always nasrala posters in the crowd um there was Yemen's aner La leader Abdul Malik Al huti um posters and a fatti shikaki poster he's the founder of Islamic Jihad and you can see up on the top there you can see two Islamic Jihad Flags there in between uh or framing the uh Hamas flag there so this was um a handoff as I said the Russian was held by uh Islamic Jihad this whole time uh he was not turned over to the shadow unit um and number five um we see the martyrs and we've seen the martyrs uh in each location when we uh when there was The Exchange in Northern jabalia camp we saw Ahmed gandur who is the Northern Division uh Commander um when it was in Gaza City we saw Gaza City commanders Daryl Bala last week we saw marwin Isa and Iman nol who were Central um U Central Division commanders for uh Kasam and Maran Isa is the operations Chief um here we're seeing at the top of course that's Muhammad alde he is the uh Chief of Staff of the cassam brigades he was killed uh presumably killed in July um in an Israeli strike along with um the commander of the conun Brigade Rafi Salama who is right beside him there on the right we also see the deputy um th this is the announcement those two we knew the rest of these are the announcements of the deaths of these Fighters we didn't we didn't know these Fighters uh had died but that second one is shaii barud he is the Deputy Chief of Cam's Military Intelligence um then we have the commander of the western Battalion of the conun uh Brigade um tyer mubasher um and he his Battalion along with NBA forces uh raided the riam site where the Gaza division uh was based and he died in that battle um taking the Gaza division base which kassam did they overran the base and took control of it and Israel didn't regain control of that base they attacked the base and killed uh everybody inside their own soldiers and Kasam Fighters that were inside um also one of the founders um that you see there is Muhammad radwan he is one of the founders of the military manufacturing Department of Kasam the indigenous weapons uh units of Kasam and also the head of the Kasam uh air Division and that is essentially their drone Force Chief um Samar Abu Daka and uh that is the same name not the same person uh Samar Abu Daka was the uh veteran Al jazer camp cameraman 20 years working in Gaza uh with while D Dadu uh and while Dadu was injured in that attack and so was samur um Abu Daka this was in mid December and his story is a brutal story um um he was wounded seriously wounded and the Israelis from a drone strike and the Israelis wouldn't allow medical attention to come to him um and he bled out over 5 hours and three paramedics in two different ambulances were killed by the Israelis trying to come and rescue him so that is also a samur Abu Daka but a different one than you see in the bottom right there who is the um Kasam uh Commander for their drone unit um so again we're learning about these through these posters these are all communist based um Kasam military personnel um and so just again you see International statements local statements uh and everything in between um and uh yeah let's do number six is uh the we crossed um we crossed into the into the Gaza envelope and you can see closer the the settlements and the settlements and the bases are interwoven that's the way the Gaza envelope is set up we we talked to Elan Pape it was a great interview we just had with him if you are just picking up the show now you should go back and listen to that but when we had him on a year ago he was talking about the Gaza envelope and the way that it was built essentially built to entrap the Gaza Strip and to have military bases all the way along um the Gaza U borderline it's not a border as Yahya senoir said it's a fence around a ghetto um but the settlements and the military bases um are the key part you build the military base and then you attach a civilian settlement to that um so that's what we're seeing uh we're seeing here and this is the only part of the sign that's written all in Hebrew because it's directed at uh an Israeli audience and just to note while we're on this that the Israeli military yesterday said that the October 7th inquiries of which there are 41 and have been delayed for six months because nobody wants to take accountability and show during the war um the failings of the military on October 7th the command failing uh the failure of their soldiers who we know ran and hid in their um bomb shelters during the raid um that the reinforcements waited outside of the settlements while the battles were going on with armed settlers inside the settlements um they remained outside of the settlements for up to 17 hours in some cases and we know what happened in on October 7th because of the um settlers there communicating through WhatsApp groups and doing interviews but we haven't still heard from the military about the failings about their command failings about the failure uh just to to go in and fight uh Kasam inside the settlements um and all of the information from the bases has been covered by a military censor so these uh October 7th inquiries by the Israeli military were supposed to be published 6 months ago they were promised 6 months ago 6 months ago and they are only going to be begun to be released in the coming months um and at this point um hery halevi the chief of staff of the Israeli military he's stepping down uh on March 5th and so uh the people who should have been um should have resigned for the uh the round defeat that they suffered on October 7th their failures um and the the military success of the C raid um this has all been pushed back uh for essentially for propaganda reasons and to protect those generals um from uh consequence but we will read um in those apparently those 41 um inquiries will be posted um and will be public publicly available after they show them to the settlements themselves and I think that um you'll definitely see me reporting on those in the coming months um let's look at number seven this is a video video of how Kasam rolled up to this uh event uh rolling up in in the hundreds and you can see them all hanging off their trucks here if you're listening on uh our radio on our podcast show we're looking at uh truckloads of fighters in their fatigues carrying uh American and Israeli weapons um you can see some of the some people asked about the those Chef hats that the kassam fighters are wearing uh those are called mitznefet they are uh essentially to camouflage the helmet or camouflage the shape of your head as those kassam Fighters didn't have helmets there's another one of them there um those are known to be Israeli they're um essentially a sunny climate it's it makes sense for Kasam to use them too and they use them um so we're seeing that and again just seeing inforce hundreds of kassam Fighters holding this stage and looking very much uh not defeated and if we look at number eight this is the these shots are very important because um on Al jazer on the morning of this um ex Israeli Air Force Colonel Yuri droy um told Al jazer English that quote every Israeli eyeball is glued to their television screens right now and this is I've said this in the previous exchanges but this is the one time and um Dr Pape talked about it in the interview is that this is the one time time that the Israelis actually see what's happening in Gaza because um Dr Pape was saying that they don't see they don't see anything from Gaza on their news um they're not seeing what we see internationally the military censor and just the lack of will of their news media aren't showing what happens in Gaza so these exchanges are actually in many cases the first time they're interacting uh with the fighters and the environment in Gaza and so they take these these aren't just propaganda scenes of riding up these are messages directed straight to the Israelis who for the first time are watching um and as this ex uh Air Force Commander said every eyeball is glued to the television and they're looking at something that Israel believes it was successful in this war by destroying everything in Gaza destroying the homes the schools the Health Care System um but they failed to defeat the fighters and you can see in these images um how clear that is in the next image you'll see these Fighters arriving uh on that's on the uh on the back of a truck captured in the Gaza envelope from the Israeli Defense Forces um from their base it was captured from the Israeli military base um and during this event uh just after this event happened it happened in the morning and in the afternoon the chief of staff of the Israeli military hery halevi he went out on a boat for a photo op with flotilla 13 which is Israel's most highly trained Naval uh they're Naval Commandos but Israel's most Elite Force um and he told uh he had a a photo up and a and a made a statement to the press and to and to the fighters that he said don't be upset I know you're upset and phased and bothered by the footage of kassam operatives in uniforms at these release ceremonies but he said when we go back to fighting they will realize who we are so they're obviously upset about uh what they're looking at their Fighters believe that their soldiers believe they failed in this war these are images that they thought that they were fighting to remove and they're getting them in the opposite of that and their War goals have failed um Gad eisenkot who is known for the dhia doctrine the um the war crime doctrine that says to attack when you're when Israel is attacked um you destroy all the civilian infrastructure in the state which is essentially um that was from the 2006 uh Lebanon war and it was used in 2014 in Gaza but what happened in Gaza this time went Way Beyond the dahia doctrine but um G Gad eisenkot is Infamous for that and he spoke on Israeli television this week um and he's a former Chief of Staff um and he said uh Hamas still exists and has 24,000 Fighters the Strategic Compass of this state is completely disrupted speaking of Israel none of the war's objectives have been achieved and the captives have not been returned uh hamas's military capabilities and governance infrastructure have not been destroyed security has not been restored to the residents of the Gaza envelope and the Prime Minister cannot claim that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel those were the four goals of Israel's war return the captives destroy Kasam destroy the government and make Gaza no longer a threat those were the four objectives of the war and they failed and joria Ison he is Fame Infamous for the General's plan which was to ethnically cleanse Gaza starve them and ethnically cleanse them uh and he wrote in yedo Aron note uh a large Israeli newspaper this week um that Israel has failed to achieve all of its goals in Gaza Israel has failed in three and a half of the four goals he said because of some of the prisoners returning is has failed in three and a half of the four goals we have not demolished hamas's military power we have not overthrown the Hamas government we have not managed to return the residents safely to their homes in the Gaza envelope and we have not returned all of the abductees um the fourth goal we have partially succeeded he said um but Jia isone said uh Hamas has conversely achieved all of its military goals um let's look at number 10 here this is the shadow unit I I gave you a bit a bit of a briefing on the shadow unit this is them arriving in that uh black Dodge Ram that was captured from the Israeli military through the visual Vis visible destruction all around them and the Kasam Shadow unit is the organization that was set up in 2006 by Muhammad Al sinir Yahya sinar's younger brother and Muhammad alde um after the capture of the Israeli military tank Gunner no gilad Shalit at Karam shalom in the South um along the southern border uh between Gaza and um Israel and he was captured in a tunnel operation um and that exchange the Shalit exchange or Waffa Al arar that was 1,27 Prisoners released from Israeli jails 280 of them life sentences including Yahya sinir um so the shadow unit takes this very seriously and is in the process this exchange will become the largest Exchange in the history of the Israel Palestine conflict previous uh other significant exchange that was larger than the Shalit exchange was the Ahmed jabriel exchange Ahmed jabriel is pflp popular front for the liberation of Palestine GC General command Commander um and he had captured a number of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon um and he released three Israel soldiers in May 20 1985 for 1,150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails among those 380 with life sentences and those that were released made up the backbone of the first inata including uh Hamas leader shik Ahmed Yasin who found who created the um Kasam brigades and Hamas um and zad nakala who is the uh Islamic Jihad saral K's founder um so these prisoner exchange are very significant in this phase phase one of this exchange that we're living through today um there will be more than 19900 um prisoners released 737 of them from Israeli jails and 1,00 Gaza who were like I said before captured with no charge um and used as bargaining chips and tortured and 300 life sentences just in the humanitarian phase and the second phase for for the soldiers will be a much higher price than what we're seeing if we look at number 11 you can see this is the this is the shadow unit um arriving in the truck that as soon as this truck pulls up Israeli media goes a light with there's the truck that was captured um so they they show up on that truck um and that really bothers the Israelis because that's what the Israeli military uses behind the lines they use those pickup trucks they don't use armored vehicles they use armored vehicles at a base but behind that they travel uh in those trucks so each base has those trucks and everybody is a soldier in Israel and everybody knows that those are the trucks so um it was a strong message by uh Kasam to do that and stage two negotiations like I said next week is supposed to begin um next week is supposed to be the Saturday two days from now is supposed to be the last um of stage of phase one of the exchange and and Phase 2 negotiations have basically not even begun um but Kasam did offer as Nora pointed out in the uh news report today they did offer on all for all deal all prisoners for all prisoners one time not not dragged out in pieces offered to end the war full ceasefire full withdraw you take your prisoners we take our prisoners Clos the case um halil Alaya who is the main negotiator um for Hamas and likely um to become their overall Chief uh during their next elections he he gave the three points a complete ceasefire and achievement of lasting calm the full withdrawal of occupation forces from the Gaza Strip and the completion of a prisoner exchange for the second phase all in one go and we are we are ready to agree on it and ready to agree on it as a single package and Hamas has offered that a number of times including a immediately after the War Began on October 7th and a number of times in between um then and now but they're offering it again if we look at number 12 you just see again captured Israeli weapons uh tavore x95 Rifles made by the uh Israel weapons Industries um these are the most prominent of the captured weapons I showed you the neev uh light machine gun uh squad automatic weapon last week in darlala I believe we saw it again in on Unice today and we're seeing various um formations of M16s that were also captured by the Israelis and they always like to show those in these um moments and number 13 gets to what I was talking about earlier um because this is not show this is technical this is the part where um the Practical details that are necessary because uh the Red Cross is not coming to see people in The Secret locations the Handover certificate that you see on the right has captive name captive name captive name there was three in this one um and it says approved by Cam's military leadership as procedure for the swap deal um and again so this next week will be the last uh exchange they moved it should have been two more weeks but uh uh Kasam has offered to release all six living um from from phase one on Saturday two days from now in order to get from Israel what it has so far far renegon from the deal and that is principally heavy machinery only six of 500 that were promised in the deal have entered Gaza the heavy machinery is to open the roads um it's to dig out bodies that were you know the 10 10 to 15,000 bodies that are under the rubble um to move the rubble of people's houses and start rebuilding um that heavy machinery is required because part of Israel's war was to go around and Destroy from each municipality um each of these heavy machines were destroyed uh early on in the war they destroyed these heavy machinery and also tents only 4% of 200,000 tents have entered and zero trailers of the 60,000 trailers that were supposed to so Israel is supposed to now because um Kasam offered to speed up the last stage to get to this um that quid pro quo is supposed to be uh that the heavy machinery and the tents and the trailers are supposed to be arriving today people have begun to line up for tents as we speak um so we'll see if that happens and like I said before phase two what we know now by all the information that we didn't have throughout this process but we do have now is that there are 31 uh about 31 living captives still held and the presumption is that they are soldiers and reservists um because they were not not part of the humanitarian Exchange in Phase One okay and just to round out the resistance report I wanted to juxtapose uh what we're seeing here with number 14 and take a look at this this was the Israeli Ministry of Defense um they released this video on Saturday um the same day as this exchange this is showing the port at ashod this is just a little bit north of Gaza it's uh an area where people who live in Gaza were uh expelled from and you can see hundreds of trucks lining up this is the delivery of 1,800 Mark 84 bombs these are the 2,000 pound bombs that Israel used to destroy Gaza with and these are being this shipment is arrived it arrived on Saturday um and you can see them loading it and Israel really leaned into this fact that these shipments were coming and this is was released by trump it was held back by Biden about the Rafa invasion um it was kind of a tokenistic gesture to as if to say they Israel wouldn't drop 2,000 PB bombs if they didn't have them but they do have them this is their uh restocking them so they still use 2,000 bombs uh pound bombs in Rafa but the Trump administration had released these along with 132 D9 armored bulldozers um from uh caterpillar that are desperately needed according to yedo arono um and so here we're looking at the trucks and it's just important to note that the incoming Chief of Staff who will replace hery halevi on March uh when he resigns on March 5th um is alel zamir and he he is currently right now uh the def Ministry of Defense director General and in his uh qualifications for becoming uh Chief of Staff um the Israeli military touted that during his tenure as defense Ministry director General zamir played a key role in securing military aid orchestrated the air and sea supply lines and brought critical weapons shipments to Israel amid a increasing International pressure and embargos total dependence as Dr Pape talked about just a few minutes ago on the interview um Israel is totally dependent right now at a time in a way that they haven't been uh in many years um this is part of 76,000 tons uh weapons that have arrived 678 flights and 129 ships um to transfer weapons the largest transfer in Israeli history and the government in Gaza um from that previous image where you see all the trucks lined up it took so many trucks to unload um all of the bombs that the government uh media office in Gaza said that the trucks entering Gaza were down by 30% coinciding with the arrival of the new shipment of bombs and this is hundreds of trucks because each shipping container on the back of each truck can only carry 16 of these Mark 84 2000 pound bombs they carry them um there's only 16 per truck they carry them 8 by two and 4x4 so um again hundreds of trucks and you juxtapose that that that's what Israel is celebrating that they're getting American weapons in massive shipments um and you just compare that with the resistance in Gaza that has been besieged for 20 years fighting on their own um and according to those Israeli generals according to me according to many observers um the the besieged territory is the one who won the war um so that is the resistance report for this week day 33 of the ceasefire I will cover prisoner Exchange number seven on next week's show [Music]