Thomas Wictor

Yesterday a journalist called and told me that I was correct about the murders of Ismail, Mohammed, Ahed, and Zakaria Bakr. The four boys were part of a deception operation that Hamas carried out against the Israeli Defense Forces on the Gaza beach, July 16, 2014. The person told me that the foreign reporters who ran to the breakwater would not have done so unless they had permission from Hamas, they knew that the attack had ended, and there was no danger from unexploded ordnance. This has set off a ruminative loop. I can’t stop thinking about it.

Tomorrow I’ll write a post that will contain all the research I did today. It’s too late now, and I’m too tired and sad. One bright spot is that I finally learned that I was 100 percent correct about something.

My theory on the Hamas deception operation relies on the double tap. As I explained in last night’s post, a double tap is an attack that uses at least two bombs or projectiles. The target is hit once, and when people gather to render aid, investigate, or report, the target is hit again.

Here’s a classic double tap. After a car bomb exploded in Sadr City, a suicide bomber detonated himself.

I was told by an expert on the Israel-Palestinian conflict that my theory was wrong. Hamas would not carry out a double tap.

On July 16, 2014, NBC News captured the sound of a massive explosion on the beach. However, this was not an Israeli munition hitting the breakwater, because the footage shows no impact.

The breakwater and shipping container have not been struck.

TF1 News broadcast footage shot by a Palestinian cameraman that shows the immediate aftermath of the missile strike.

Although at least two cameramen filmed the missile hitting the shipping container, the footage hasn’t been released, which means something is being hidden.

The TF1 footage shows the second explosion. The first—the sound of which was caught on video by NBC News—was caused by a Hamas IED that was detonated below the terrace of the Adam Hotel.

Note the thick broken glass (red arrows) and the damage to the white metal shed.

Although the Adam Hotel is about 447 yards (400 meters) from the al-Deira Hotel, the window pane shown in the NBC News footage vibrates, indicating a hugely powerful explosion.

The NBC News footage and the damage to the terrace of the Adam Hotel convinced me that Hamas tricked the IDF into thinking that terrorists were about to carry out a double tap. After the IED drew crowds from the hotels, two terrorists in the shipping container would fire an antitank guided missile (ATGM), killing untold foreign journalists.

There was a thirty-second gap between the IED and the Israeli missile strike. I think the operators of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) saw the two terrorists in the shipping container preparing to fire their dummy ATGM, so the order was given to take them out.

The expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict told me that the IDF could not be fooled this way, because Hamas does not carry out double taps, and the press is on their side. Hamas would not want to risk alienating the press with such an attack.

Well, the point of the attack would be to blame Israel. The Israelis would deny firing, but the Palestinians would produce “evidence” of an Israeli naval shell or missile. Since the Israelis investigate at a glacial pace, and because the foreign press portrays the IDF as savages, nobody would believe it by the time the truth came out. The narrative would be that the IDF deliberately targeted reporters to keep them from telling us about Israeli atrocities.

Another aspect is the organization of Hamas’s military wing.

Given the autonomy of Hamas’s cells, it’s plausible that more militant terrorists would want to so something that the political leadership would oppose. The IDF said that it had intelligence on a specific Hamas target, and that the “perpetrators” were on the beach. I think my theory holds up well, given what we know about Hamas and what the IDF has said so far. A double agent may have warned the IDF about a rogue cell.

And then today—after much searching—I found the last piece of the puzzle (page 28).

The double tap is a favorite tactic of Hamas.

I have a lot of respect for the person who told me I’m wrong, but I’ve been studying terrorism for thirty-three years. Somewhere along the line, I read that Hamas used the double tap. Everything I read stays in my head. Sometimes I wish it didn’t.

At some point the Israelis will release a report of their investigation into what happened on July 16, 2014. My gut tells me that the IDF will say that it accidentally killed Ismail, Mohammed, Ahed, and Zakaria Bakr. I can’t understand the morality of doing this. It’ll mean that the real murderers will never pay a penalty, and it will guarantee more deception operations by Hamas.

But the IDF still says that it killed Mustafa Tamimi.

To Palestinians and their supporters, Tamimi—like the Bakr boys—is more useful dead than alive. He’ll never see justice. I may just be the only person on the planet who cares.

When I think of him, a ruminative loop begins.

Stay home today. Don’t go out. Stay home today. Don’t throw rocks. Stay home today. Don’t go out. Don’t go out. Don’t go out.