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Today’s focus: The final battle of the Israel-Hamas war is launched, with a blitzkrieg to capture the Rafah crossing; Putin sworn in and orders nuclear weapons drill; Ukraine Air Force Commander reveals the mystery of the F-16, Ukraine captures two spies, foiling a kidnapping plot of Zelensky; Xi Jinping implements equipment upgrades for private enterprises, initiating a large-scale “sheep shearing”.
The long-awaited final battle of the Israel-Hamas war has finally begun. As we all know, Hamas launched terrorist attacks against Israel in October last year, killing 1200 people and taking 252 hostages. In response, Israel launched a war to eliminate Hamas, with the strategic plan to move civilians in Gaza’s north to the south, swiftly clear Hamas in the north, and then eliminate them in the south, leaving only the city of Rafah near the Egypt border.
According to Israeli military sources, there are 3 to 4 remaining Hamas camps in Rafah. Seizing Rafah has become the climax of the Israel-Hamas war, and now, the Israeli army is engaging in the battle to capture Rafah.
On May 7th, the final battle of the Israel-Hamas war kicked off in the southern Rafah city bordering Egypt. Let’s take a look at this map. This is Gaza in its entirety, here is the border between the south and Egypt, and here is Hamas’s last stronghold, Rafah. Before launching the attack, the Israeli soldiers conducted a unique prayer ceremony.
The Israeli military’s tactics have always been flexible, this time they did not siege or directly target the city center as they did in northern Gaza. Instead, they used an encircling approach, first attacking the Rafah crossing, the only transit point between Gaza and Egypt, to cut off Hamas’ escape route and external aid sources.
This place is also where Hamas launched rocket attacks on Israel the day before, resulting in the deaths of 3 Israelis. The Israeli military extravagantly attached large Israeli flags to their armored vehicles, in a clear display of contempt and defiance towards Hamas. The Israeli 401st Armored Brigade launched the attack on the evening of May 6th and by the morning of May 7th, they occupied the Rafah crossing. Let’s take a look at the live coverage of Israeli tanks entering the Rafah crossing point.
On May 7th, the Israeli military released the first battle report of the Rafah battle. The report was concise: the Israeli army attacked 100 targets, eliminated 20 terrorists, found 3 Hamas underground wells, and the Israeli Defense Forces had no casualties in the first battle in Rafah.
Just the day before Israel launched the attack, Hamas’s top political leader Haniyeh seemed to have received some message, unilaterally announcing abroad a six-week hostage exchange proposal, causing joy in the progress of negotiations between Israel and Hamas. However, Israel subsequently announced that Hamas unilaterally altered the so-called ceasefire agreement, which did not include the term “ceasefire” but demanded “Israel permanently cease military operations and hostile actions in Gaza.” The original agreement stipulated: one Israeli hostage in exchange for 33 Palestinian prisoners. However, Hamas unilaterally modified it by changing the release of Israeli hostages to “release hostages or bodies”.
Facing adversity, Hamas continued to play tricks, resulting in Israel taking swift action and launching an attack on Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed at a Holocaust memorial event on May 5th: no amount of international pressure or decisions can deter Israel’s self-defense; if necessary, Israel will rely on its own strength to eliminate enemies.
On Tuesday, Russian President Putin held an inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin. Since 1999, Putin has served as President or Prime Minister of Russia. If he completes his new term, he will surpass Soviet leader Stalin and become the longest-serving ruler in Russia since Empress Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
On May 7th, 71-year-old Putin took part in the inauguration for his eighth term as Russian President, kicking off a new six-year term. Most Western countries, including the United States, believe his re-election was not based on free and fair elections. Moreover, there were strong objections to his instigation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, leading to many countries boycotting the ceremony. On the same day as Putin’s re-election, the US Ambassador to Russia was recalled indefinitely, Germany recalled its ambassador, and the Czech Republic also officially recalled its ambassador.
The widow of Putin’s top opponent, Navlany, who has since passed away, Navlanya, said on Tuesday: “With each of Putin’s terms, everything will only get worse, it is hard to imagine what will happen when Putin continues to hold power.”
Just the day before, Putin personally ordered the Southern Military District’s air and naval forces to begin exercises using tactical nuclear weapons. On the same day, Russian spokeswoman Zakharova stated that Russia would consider the appearance of F-16 fighters on the Ukrainian battlefield as a nuclear threat. She said, “We will consider the F-16 as a means of transporting nuclear weapons. We will consider the US and NATO’s move as a provocation to Russia’s sovereignty,” which prompted an immediate response from the United States.
A US National Security Council spokesman, Kobe, responded in a typical American fashion to Russia’s nuclear threat, saying: “Your fear that European and American weapons will cause great harm to your troops is understandable. However, resorting to nuclear threats is not the best strategy to avoid this risk. The best way to prevent your soldiers from being sent to the Western heaven by our weapons is to withdraw from Ukraine.”
So, are the tense and anxious American F-16 fighters really entering Ukraine? Ukrainian Air Force Commander Olechuk finally revealed the mystery.
On May 4th, the Norwegian newspaper “Evening Post” reported that Norway was delivering the first batch of F-16 fighters to Ukraine, and the aircraft had already taken off. Following that, Ukrainian Air Force Commander Olechuk revealed a photo during the celebration of the National Air Force University’s establishment day, showing parked F-16s in the hangar. Noticeably, the Ukrainian Air Force insignia on the tail of the F-16 in the photo matched the partial image behind Olechuk, indicating the delivery of the fighters.
In his speech, he even hinted at something like this: “Since the beginning of the war, every pilot who has flown an outdated MiG fighter will envy those who have mastered the F-16s.”
Indeed, when the Russo-Ukrainian war started, Putin drew five red lines for NATO, stating that any violation would lead to the use of nuclear weapons: first, no Finland or Sweden joining NATO; second, no provision of offensive weapons to Ukraine; third, no attack on Russia itself; fourth, no bombing of the Crimean bridge; fifth, no providing F-16s to Ukraine! Now, all of these red lines have been crossed. It seems Putin needs to follow China’s lead and thicken his skin a bit, then move the red lines a bit further back.
Speaking of nuclear threats, an unusual poll initiated by a Chinese netizen caught my attention.
This poll, conducted on China’s domestic internet, asked: If only one country in the world could possess nuclear weapons, which country would you prefer it to be? The results were unexpected. China received 921 votes, Russia 82 votes, UK 442 votes, and the United States an incredible 4900 votes!
What does this mean? I’m a bit perplexed! So, the so-called “American imperialism” is so convincing and reassuring? Where have all the Chinese nationalists gone? Has the Cyberspace Administration of China started taking a vacation too? Are the mysterious and unpredictable “Auntie Yangs” out hunting for discounted eggs?
On Tuesday, the same day as Putin’s presidential inauguration, the Ukrainian Security Service presented a special “gift” to Putin. Ukraine captured two Russian spies, whose mission was to secretly plan the assassination of Ukrainian President Zelensky and other high-ranking officials.
The two captured individuals turned out to be Ukrainian National Guard Colonels who were secretly recruited by the Russian security service, tasked with finding someone closely associated with the President’s Guard to kidnap Zelensky and potentially harm him.
Last year, Zelensky had stated that the Ukrainian security services had foiled at least five Russian assassination plots against him. Another frequent target of Russian assassination attempts is Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate Chief Budanov. Ironically, on Russian social media, Budanov is reported “dead” almost every month, yet he miraculously resurrects each time – he could easily apply for a Guinness World Record.
Originally, when Xi Jinping visited Europe, such major events would have been discussed. However, I personally found it uninteresting and thought it would be more entertaining to send a “Wolf Warrior” instead. Nevertheless, before Xi Jinping pat his butt and left for Europe, he left with a mission: to have the National Development and Reform Commission push for the new round of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods exchange he proposed. So, on May 6th, during his discussions with Macron, he convened a seminar with various private enterprises, emphasizing an emphasis on environmental protection, urging them to conduct extensive equipment upgrades.
Commission Director Zheng Zhanjie said: a preliminary estimate indicates that it will create a massive market exceeding 5 trillion yuan per year. It seems to me that I see the emergence of yet another lush green “sheeple” market, not just targeting old cars and appliances for the common people but now also focusing on widespread private enterprises. Having no chance to create an opportunity means having to create a sheeple.
In recent years, in Europe, opposition to the forced scrapping mechanism for electronic products and encouragement of product repairs have become major trends. In France, visited by Xi Jinping, all domestic appliance manufacturers have been required since 2021 to provide repair coefficients for their products, allowing consumers to assess how repairable a product is before purchase, rather than resorting to rapid obsolescence. It seems that Xi Jinping’s personal visit to Europe has been quite challenging, fortunately, the situation in China domestically is very positive, not just good, but all green and flourishing. We are now waiting for Xi Jinping to return from Europe with a big scythe in hand to make a move.
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