Hamas launches war on Israel

[Jimbuna]

An audible sigh of relief in the Middle East

The latest round in the region's most dangerous rivalry appears to be over, for now.

Israel still has not officially acknowledged that the attack in Iran in the early hours of Friday morning was its doing.

Meanwhile, Iran's military and political leaders have downplayed, dismissed and even mocked that anything of consequence happened at all.

The accounts over what kind of weaponry was deployed on Friday and how much damage was caused are still conflicting and incomplete.

American officials speak of a missile strike, but Iranian officials say the attacks, in the central province of Isfahan and in northwest Tabriz, were caused by small exploding drones.

"The downed micro air vehicles caused no damage and no casualties," Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian insisted to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

But these simple quadcopters are Israel's calling card – it has deployed them time and again in its years of covert operations inside Iran.

This time their main target was the storied central province of Isfahan, which is celebrated for its stunning Islamic heritage.

Of late, however, the province is more famous for the Natanz nuclear facility, the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre and a major air base, which was used during Iran's 14 April attack on Israel.

It is also an industrial heartland housing factories which produce the drones and ballistic missiles that were fired by the hundreds in Israel's direction last Sunday.

So a limited operation seems to have carried a powerful warning – that Israel has the intelligence and assets to strike at will at Iran's beating heart.

It is a message so urgent that Israel made sure it was sent before, rather than after, the start of the Jewish Passover, as was widely predicted by Israel watchers.

US officials have also indicated that Israel targeted sites such as Iran's air defence radar system, which protects Natanz. There is still no confirmed account of its success.

So this attack may also be just an opening salvo. But it was, for the moment, an unintended 85th birthday gift to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel's official silence gave Iran's ultimate decision-maker vital political space. Tehran did not have to invoke its new rule that whenever its arch-enemy strikes, Iran will hit back hard, with the risk of sparking a perilous escalatory spiral.

Iran is also basking in what it sees as its new projection of power.

Hardline President Ebrahim Raisi did not even mention these most recent events in his Friday speeches.

For the Islamic Republic, it is all about what it dubs Operation True Promise – its unprecedented onslaught against Israel in the dead of night last Sunday. He hailed what he called his country's "steely will".

Iran has prided itself for years on its "strategic patience", its policy of playing a long game rather than retaliating immediately and directly to any provocations.

Now, it is invoking "strategic deterrence". This new doctrine was triggered by the 1 April attack on its diplomatic compound in Damascus, which destroyed its consular annex and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including its most senior commander in the region.

Iran's supreme leader was under mounting pressure to draw a line as Israel ramped up its targets during the last six months of the grievous Gaza war.

No longer just striking Tehran's assets, including arms caches, buildings, bases and supply routes on battle grounds like Syria and Lebanon, Israel was also assassinating top-ranking officials.

A decades-long hostility, which had previously played out in shadow wars and covert operations, erupted in open confrontation.

Whatever the specifics of this latest tit for tat, there is a more fundamental priority for both sides: deterrence – a more solid certainty that strikes on its own soil will not happen again. If they do, there is a cost to pay, and it will hurt.

For the moment there is an audible sigh of relief in the region, and in capitals far and wide.

Israel's latest move, under anxious urging from its allies to limit its retaliation, will have eased this tension, for now. Everyone wants to stop a catastrophic all-out war. But no one will be in any doubt that any lull may not last.

The region is still on fire.

The Gaza war grinds on, causing a staggering number of Palestinian casualties.

Under pressure from its staunchest allies, Israel has facilitated the delivery of greater quantities of desperately needed aid, but the blighted territory still teeters on the brink of famine.

Israeli hostages have still not come home, and ceasefire talks are stalled. Israel still warns of battles to come in Hamas's last stronghold in Rafah – what aid chiefs and world leaders say would be yet another untold humanitarian disaster.

Iran's network of proxies across the region, what it calls an "Axis of Resistance" stretching from Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon through Iran-aligned militias in Iraq and Syria, to the Houthis of Yemen, are at the ready, still attacking daily.

In the last few weeks, simultaneously everything and nothing has changed in the region's darkest, most dangerous days.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68861607

[Jimbuna]

Hamas 'moving goalposts' in hostage talks, US says - as 'they want full-scale regional war'

The US has accused Hamas of "moving the goalposts" in hostage and ceasefire deal negotiations.

In a press briefing, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the militant group had made demands which Israel "moved some way to meeting" before they were changed.

"It certainly does seem like Hamas is more interested in a full-scale regional war," he said, adding that it had declined a "very significant proposal" that had been tabled.

Mr Miller said Washington would continue pushing for an agreement because it was in the interests of Israel, the US and the wider Middle East.

"It takes two to make an agreement, and right now Hamas has signalled that they don't want an agreement," he said, saying the ball was "in their court".

[Jimbuna]

No justification for Hamas to leave Doha while hostage talks continue, Qatar says

We've more now on those reports that Hamas is planning to move its main political office from Qatar after more than a decade there.

Qatar has said there is no justification to end the presence of an office for Hamas in the capital of Doha while ceasefire talks continue.

Earlier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said he did not believe the militant group would make the move (see post at 10.53).

Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said his country was still committed to mediating hostage release and ceasefire discussions but that "frustration with attacks" on its efforts had prompted it to reassess its role.

[Skybird]

Isn't it almost fascinating to see how completely the ideological left and anti-Israel lobby has succeeded in making sure that almost nobody never ever talks of the hundreds and hundreds of murders, tortures, rapings, mutilations anymore that started it alol and that were committed by those terorrists so many students by now uncritclala align themselves with?

[/URL][URL]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68873825 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68873825)

Attending university as a student has two purposes: 1. a job-specific education goal, and 2. a general, idealistical goal of generala humanistic education-gaining. The latter is the old Humboldt-ideal that is almost forogtten in most universities these days, even here in Germany which for long time tried to serve as the last fortress of Humboldt's ideals. But the anglosaxon commercilaisaiton of univerisites take sover here, too. The industry'S influence does the rest.

Anyway, students that waste time and maybe also stipendiums with propagating racism and enforced supression of freedom of thinking, talking, opinion and science, should get immediately exmatriculated. Always, and not just in this case. They help to run a frontal assault on science and the scientific working method itself, and turn the purpose of universities upside down, turn them into brainwashing, ideological breeding tanks. Not to mention the violent destruction of the Humboldtian ideal.

That so many universities and their "presidents" endlessly hesitate and delay to take a stand against this primitive, brutal mob shows how deep the cancer already has worked itself into the very structure of the system itself.

Gesinnungsterror.

Not science and free exchange of views and arguments - but ideologically driven compliance with the commanded thinking.



Who monitors the commanders of the new thinking...? In some years form now on you will get burnt at the stake for asking this question. Professionally ruined and socially sanctioned for it you already get now.

[Jimbuna]

Israel intensifies strikes across Gaza, orders new evacuations in north

(Reuters) - Israeli strikes intensified across Gaza on Tuesday in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, residents said, and the army ordered fresh evacuations in the north of the strip, warning civilians they were in a "dangerous combat zone".

Strikes by air and shelling from tanks on the ground were also reported in central and southern areas in what residents said were almost non-stop bombardments.

In a post on social media platform X, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee urged residents of four zones in Beit Lahiya on Gaza's northern edge to move to shelter in two designated areas.

He said the military "will work with extreme force against terrorist infrastructure and subversive elements" in the region.
The renewed shelling and bombing of northern Gaza comes almost four months after the Israeli army announced it was drawing down its troops there, saying Hamas no longer controlled those areas.

This month, Israel also drew down most of its forces in southern Gaza. But efforts to reach a ceasefire have failed, and Israeli bombardment and raids on territory where its troops have withdrawn are making it difficult for displaced Gazans to return to abandoned homes.

Overnight, tanks made a new incursion east of Beit Hanoun on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, though they did not penetrate far into the city, residents and Hamas media said. Gunfire reached some schools causing panic amongst displaced residents sheltering there.

Tuesday's bombardment came after incoming rocket alerts sounded in two southern Israeli border towns, although no casualties were reported.

The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, a group allied to Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attacks on Sderot and Nir Am, indicating fighters were still able to launch rockets almost 200 days into the war, which has flattened large swathes of the enclave and displaced almost all of its 2.3 million people.

Hamas said Israel had achieved only "humiliation and defeat" 200 days into its offensive.

Speaking in a video aired by Al Jazeera television, Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, called for an escalation in conflict across all fronts and praised Iran for its first direct attack against Israel earlier this month.

He also said Hamas was sticking to its demands in ceasefire talks for Israel to permanently end its war, pull all of its troops out of Gaza and allow the displaced to return to the north.

Israel has baulked at a permanent ceasefire, saying that would only allow Hamas to regroup.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israel-intensifies-strikes-across-gaza-orders-new-evacuations-in-north/ar-AA1nwgwc?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=c17cbb7dd3a74f9cfc2b809bd2690099&ei=251

[Jimbuna]

Hamas chiefs 'planned to INVADE Israel, kill civilians and form state'

Hamas commanders planned to invade wider Israel and divide it up between the group's leaders, killing settlers and integrating others into a Palestinian State, according to a former official in the West Bank. A former high-ranking official in Fatah, a political organisation of Arab Palestinians, told Israeli outlet Haaretz that Hamas had long planned to 'bring Israel down', going so far as to divide the territory into cantons. 'One day, a well-known Hamas figure calls and tells me with pride and joy that they are preparing a full list of committee heads for the cantons that will be created in Palestine,' Iyad (not his real name) told the outlet.

Iyad claimed he did not take talk of of 'the last promise' seriously until 2021, when he realised 'the entire leadership had been taken captive by the [Hamas leader, Yahya] Sinwar group's deranged idea of an all-out battle', per Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar. 'So strongly did they believe in the idea that Allah was with them, and that they were going to bring Israel down, that they started dividing Israel into cantons, for the day after the conquest,' he said, dubbing Sinwar an 'insane fanatic'. Iyad told the outlet that he was offered the chairmanship of the Zarnuqa committee after the planned invasion, 'where my family lived before 1948'.

He claimed to have turned down the offer to 'lead the group that would be in charge of rehabilitating the Ramle-Rehovot area' now standing in the region 'on the day after the realisation of 'the last promise''. 'You're out of your minds,' Iyad said he told the Hamas official, asking them not to contact him again. That year, Sinwar sent a written speech to the Hamas-sponsored 'The Promise of the Hereafter Conference', attended by other Palestinian groups, exploring preparations for the future administration of a wider state of Palestinian after Israel 'disappears'.

The Hamas leader said at the time the conquest of the 'state of the Zionists' was 'closer now than ever before', reiterating efforts to bring about Hamas' 'strategic vision' and plans for 'what will come after it'. Among the reported plans was a document of independence that would be 'a direct continuation of the Pact of "Umar Bin Al-Khattab" concerning Byzantine Jerusalem's surrender to the Muslim conquerors which took place apparently in 638', a new currency, and a call for a guide for resettling refugees wishing to return.

The conference also recommended rules for dealing with the Jewish population, including defining which would be killed, which would be prosecuted, and which would be allowed to leave or remain and be integrated into a new state, per American research institute MEMRI. The conference also discussed the risk of a brain drain and how to ensure 'educated Jews and experts in the areas of medicine, engineering, technology and civilian and military industry' stay - by preventing them from leaving. Sinwar said at the time that Hamas was sponsoring this conference because it is in line with our assessment that victory is nigh' and that 'the full liberation of Palestine from the sea to the river' is 'the heart of Hamas's strategic vision.'

Hamas, formed in 1987 by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, has controlled the Gaza Strip since winning the 2006 parliamentary elections and toppling rival party Fatah in a power struggle during the bloody Battle of Gaza in 2007. Fatah, the largest faction of the multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), retained control of the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank through its president and oversees a number of Palestinian refugee camps. Since the Battle of Gaza, Hamas has made a number of reconciliation attempts with Fatah, without lasting agreement.

Hamas usurped the acting authorities in Gaza in 2006 on a campaign against corruption and vowing to reclaim land taken lost to Israel since the latter's founding in 1948. The Palestinians have not held elections since then. They also won support in promises to resettle Palestinians displaced from their land and property by a series of major massacres during the 1948 war, in which some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their home and about 15,000 were killed in mass atrocities. While Fatah, a secular organisation looking to build a Palestinian state on 1967 borders, carried out thousands of guerrilla attacks on Israel, the group has worked more to negotiate with Israel in recent years, ruling out armed resistance.

However this remains controversial, with Israel granted full control of the Palestinian economy and security matters in more than 60 per cent of the West Bank. Hamas, an Islamist organisation that does not recognise Israel but ostensibly accepts a Palestinian state on 1967 borders, remains divisive for its continued use of armed resistance in efforts to - in their view - reclaim Palestinian land. The group organised its first [death] bombing in 1993, destroying a bus in the West Bank carrying Israeli soldiers, killing the attacker and a Palestinian who worked nearby. Hamas steadily refined its techniques and engaged in retaliatory attacks on Israel during periods of conflict.

The perceived resistance gained the group support from Palestinians in Gaza - though Fatah would remain more popular until the 21st century. A poll of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza late last year, after the October 7 attack, found a rise in support for Hamas in spite of the devastation of the Gaza Strip. The survey found 63 per cent also believed 'armed struggle' to be the most effective strategy for attaining independence - a ten per cent hike in three months. Only 13 per cent favoured non-violent protest and 20 per cent negotiations with Israel. Support for Hamas spikes during times of conflict and falls during peacetime, pollsters say.

Nearly 90 per cent also believed Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PNA and chair of the PLO, should resign. The narrative around the war is somewhat complicated by access to information. While nearly 80 per cent of Palestinians oppose the killing of Israeli civilians and the taking of hostages, 85 per cent said they have not seen footage of Hamas' atrocities against civilians on October 7.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-chiefs-planned-to-invade-israel-kill-civilians-and-form-state/ss-AA1nzAUz?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=757715d34d824cc2d59318c54e690efd&ei=13#image=1

[Jimbuna]

Hersh Goldberg-Polin: Gaza hostage's parents urge him to 'stay strong' after new video

The parents of an Israeli-American hostage in Gaza have urged him to "stay strong" and "survive" after Hamas released a proof-of-life video.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, is seen without his lower left arm in the short clip. It was blown off during Hamas's 7 October attack on southern Israel.

The footage is undated, but he says he has been held for almost 200 days.

In response, his mother and father appealed for more to be done to secure a new hostage release deal.

They urged Israel, Hamas and mediators the US, Egypt and Qatar to "get a deal done" to reunite "all of us with our loved ones and end the suffering in this region".

Speaking under duress in the video posted on Hamas's Telegram account on Wednesday, Mr Goldberg-Polin said he needed medical help and was critical of the Israeli government's attempts to negotiate the hostages' return.

Weeks of indirect negotiations have failed to produce an agreement, with Hamas rejecting the latest proposal for a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release of 40 of the remaining 133 hostages. At least 30 hostages are presumed dead.

Israel appears to be moving ahead with plans for an offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza, despite warnings of the potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences for the 1.5 million displaced Palestinians sheltering there.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68893885

[Jimbuna]

Gaza pier: US begins building floating base to boost aid

The US military has started building a large floating pier off Gaza's coast to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, the defence department has said.

Ships will deliver aid from Cyprus to the pier where it will be loaded onto trucks to transfer across Gaza.

The pier will be attached to the shore by a temporary causeway, which the trucks will use.

US officials say the pier will be operational by early May but there will be no US boots on the ground in Gaza.

The plan was first announced by President Joe Biden in March as part of efforts to tackle hunger in Gaza compounded by problems with aid deliveries, as Israel continues its military campaign against Hamas.

The UN has warned that famine in the Gaza Strip is "almost inevitable" and children are starving to death.

More than 1,000 US troops are expected to be involved in building the floating harbour, but the Pentagon made clear from the start that the workers would not set foot on land.

The causeway will be assembled at sea, allowing US forces to avoid stepping onto the ground.

And a British naval vessel in the eastern Mediterranean will be a floating dormitory for the American soldiers and sailors. They will live and sleep aboard RFA [Royal Fleet Auxiliary] Cardigan Bay.

A Pentagon spokesperson, Major General Pat Ryder, told a news conference on Thursday: "US military vessels... have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea."

He said that the causeway would connect to the temporary pier, "which is out at sea, and the causeway which eventually will join land and be anchored, so to speak."

The US says that once the system is operational, up to 150 trucks of aid could be delivered a day with two million meals, enough to feed almost all of the territory's 2.3 million population.

Israel has faced international criticism with accusations it is limiting the amount of aid that reaches by land Gaza's civilians in dire need of food. Israel has blamed aid agencies for the hold-ups.

Israel said it would provide security and logistical support during the construction work and the transfer of aid from the pier to Gaza's population. But aid agencies have voiced concerns over how the Israeli military will handle security, and the parties are yet to reach an agreement about it.

A senior American official told Reuters news agency that humanitarian aid to be delivered off the pier would need to pass through Israeli checkpoints on land. That was despite the aid having already been inspected and screened by Israel in Cyprus prior to being shipped to Gaza.

Israel has reiterated that it would prevent any aid getting to Hamas fighters.

But the extra checkpoints once the aid is offloaded onto trucks have raised questions about possible delays. The UN agencies have long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza and its distribution.

The World Food Programme has agreed to lead the delivery operation, but the UN agency said Israel must ensure that aid workers are not harmed.

Many aid groups are apprehensive about working in Gaza after seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed in an Israeli air strike on 1 April while driving in clearly marked vehicles with prior permission from the IDF to travel.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68904209

[Jimbuna]

Bernie Sanders
"Mr. Netanyahu, do not insult the intelligence of the American people."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzhdPsCgrjU

[Jimbuna]

'I thought just kill me quickly': Gaza hostage's 54 days in captivity

It was the third time they caught her.

Crouching in a shallow dip in the field, Moran Stella Yanai knew this time was different.

"I heard 'Coo-coo!' and we raised our heads up - the terrorists were standing [there], smiling," she said. "Everyone started to run, I jumped and broke my leg, and they caught me."

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing.

Moran had been desperately trying to hide in the sparse cover of a potato field, as Hamas gunmen raided the site of the Nova music festival, a few miles from the Gaza border.

Hours earlier on 7 October, the gunmen had burst through Gaza's perimeter fence, attacking Israeli communities.

Moran had already been caught twice by groups of Hamas followers, she said, but had talked her way out by insisting she was Arab, and not Jewish.

The third time, her captors were different.

"They didn't talk, they just grabbed me," she remembered.

"They started to throw me from one to the other, and put me in the car. Two terrorists in the front, four in the backseat, three more in the [boot], and only me on top of everybody."

As they crossed the Gaza border, Moran glimpsed the crowd on the other side of the fence, before quickly closing her eyes.

"It was like a bull being entered into a huge arena," she told the BBC. "Everybody's happy - the children, the women, the men. It was tons of people."

She felt the car stop, and the car door open.

"I felt someone trying to pull my leg... All you can think of at that point is: please let it end fast. One hit to the head, and I will not feel anything. If it's happening, make it fast."

But the car door closed again, and the vehicle began to move off, carrying Moran with it. She says she later learned that the group holding her had sold her to Hamas.

It was the beginning of 54 days in captivity for Moran. During that time, she was transferred between seven different locations, quickly learning strategies to survive.

"You really need to protect your story," she explained. "What happens in the first house stays there, and doesn't come with you to the second house [or] the third house."

Each time, she said, it was important to pretend that everything in the previous location had been fine, and that her kidnappers had been her friends.

To hint at anything sexual, she believes, would have led to the group killing both captor and captive.

At one point, she was held with another woman, who was 18 years old and kidnapped while she was barefoot and still in her pyjamas. Moran, who understands a little Arabic, remembers overhearing their captors discuss who would take the women as their wives.

She said they even found the younger woman's mother among the other hostages and brought her in, asking for permission to marry her daughter.

"When you move from house to house, you need to be 'examined' to see that you're not hiding something on you," Moran said, sarcasm tilting across her face. "It's a 'really necessary test', as they explain it to you."

She looks away, the silence growing between us.

"I always try to explain to people that 'rape' is a really big word," she said. "It's not only the act. Even when a guy stands in front of your door, and you're sitting down, and he's staring at you for 10 minutes straight, five to six times a day, every day, for 54 days. Trust me; that's a rape."

Asked whether she was the victim of sexual assault while held captive, Moran says she was not, but that she has heard from other women hostages that they were raped while in Gaza.

She described being beaten up by her captors, and the mental terror of being powerless in a situation that could change in a second.

One day, she said, they sat down to play cards with their captors.

"I was so hungry, I was trying to make them laugh so they would bring us something to eat," she remembered.

"[One of the captors] was mocking me. I got angry and said something as a joke. He runs to the other room, comes back, and points a gun to my head, yelling at me, screaming that he will kill me, will blow my head off."

After 54 days in captivity, Moran Yanai was released in a ceasefire deal last November, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel jails.

Her Hamas captors filmed the handover, where she and other hostages were seen smiling and thanking their kidnappers before boarding the Red Cross bus out of Gaza.

Many people remarked at the time that they seemed well and even happy.

"They made us smile, and say thank you," Moran said. "Nobody heard the whispers that I'm saying to the boy next to me: hold on, five more minutes, don't start to cry now, stay smiling."

It's the first time in over an hour recounting her story that Moran's composure fractures. Her tears sudden, fast and silent.

The moment she crossed the border to Egypt, she says, was the moment she had waited all those weeks in captivity to cry.

"We couldn't [cry] when they were dragging us into Gaza, we couldn't do it in the houses, and that's the first thing I promised myself - that the minute I step into my country, I'll scream as loud as I can, because nobody will take my voice anymore."

Israeli officials believe about 30 of the 133 hostages remaining in Gaza are dead. Hopes of another ceasefire deal to secure their release have dimmed.

Stories of the conditions - and sexual assaults - in captivity have gradually emerged from some of those already released.

Moran says she lost 12% of her bodyweight, and her hair, during 54 days in Gaza, and that her body was covered with scars.

It is hard for her to imagine what it's like for the hostages still held there, five months on.

"If this isn't solved, then no-one is free," she said. "I can't go back to a daily routine; I can't go back to anything."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68891217

[Jimbuna]

Palestinian leader appeals to US to stop Israel's Rafah offensive

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says the US is the only country that can stop Israel from attacking Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million people are taking refuge.

Mr Abbas, who runs parts of the occupied West Bank, said any attack could see Palestinians flee Gaza.

On Saturday Israel's foreign minister said Israel could suspend the incursion if there was a hostage deal.

"The release of the hostages is the top priority for us," Israel Katz said.

Long-running talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar have largely stalled because of the gaps between the Israeli and Hamas positions, but on Sunday Hamas said it would send representatives to Cairo to give a response to the latest proposal.

Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza, while Israel insists Hamas must be destroyed in Gaza and all hostages freed.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Mr Abbas - whose Palestinian Authority is not present in Gaza, which has been under Hamas rule since 2007 - urged the US to intervene.

"We appeal to the United States of America to ask Israel to stop the Rafah operation because America is the only country capable of preventing Israel from committing this crime," he said.

"What will happen in the coming few days is what Israel will do with attacking Rafah because all the Palestinians from Gaza are gathered there."

He added that only a "small strike" on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee the Gaza strip.

"The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people's history would then happen."

Egypt and other Arab states have previously said an influx of Palestinian refugees fleeing the war would be unacceptable because it would amount to the expulsion of Palestinians from their land.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken is due to arrive in Riyadh later on Sunday and hold talks with Mr Abbas.

The US has repeatedly said it cannot support a large-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah without seeing a credible plan to keep civilians out of harm's way.

On Sunday White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told ABC that Israel had agreed to listen to US concerns and thoughts before going into Rafah.

Meanwhile the Israeli military said its chief Herzi Halevi had approved plans to continue the war, with Israeli media saying this referred to the Rafah operation.

More than half of Gaza's population is in Rafah and conditions in the overcrowded southern city are already dire, with displaced people there telling the BBC there was a lack of food, water and medication.

Satellite pictures have shown new tent encampments being built near the Gaza coast, to the west of Rafah and the city of Khan Younis slightly further north, which has been left largely in ruins. Media reports say the tents are to accommodate people displaced from Rafah.

The current war began when Hamas attacked Israeli communities near Gaza, killing about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Israel's subsequent campaign of aerial bombardment and ground operations in Gaza has killed 34,454 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.

Over the six months of war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have entered and taken control of all of northern Gaza including Gaza City and most of central and southern Gaza including Khan Younis.

They have since withdrawn from almost all of those areas but troops remain stationed on a road Israel has built that separates northern and southern Gaza.

However Palestinians displaced to southern Gaza - where the Israeli military told them to go for their own safety earlier in the war - have been unable to return to homes further north, a key demand Hamas is making in ceasefire talks, and Israel has given no indication when they will be allowed to.

Meanwhile deadly Israeli bombardment has continued across Gaza including in Rafah, with the Israeli military saying it has been striking launch sites for projectiles.

US media have quoted unnamed Egyptian officials as saying the latest ceasefire proposal given to Hamas involved a several-week period of calm intended to lead to the end of the war in return for the release of 20 hostages.

This week Hamas's armed wing released two videos showing the first proof of life of three hostages since they were abducted last October.

In undated footage filmed under duress, Omri Miran said he had been held for 202 days and Keith Siegel mentioned the recent Passover holiday, indicating the clips were filmed recently.

It follows another proof-of-life video the group released earlier this week, showing Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who is shown without his lower left arm in the short clip. It was blown off during Hamas's 7 October attack.

Some 133 hostages are believed still to be in Gaza, of whom about 30 are thought to be dead, after a brief truce in November saw some hostages released.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68916315

[em2nought]

You'd think with the number of so called civilian deaths reported by HAMAS that we'd be seeing huge numbers of photos from overflowing cemeteries? :hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

Gaza war: US 'hopeful' Hamas will accept Israel's new ceasefire offer

The US secretary of state hopes Hamas will accept what he has called Israel's "extraordinarily generous" offer for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal.

Antony Blinken was speaking as a Hamas delegation discussed the new proposal with mediators from Egypt and Qatar.

A source close to the talks told the BBC they were cautiously optimistic.

The proposal includes a 40-day truce in return for the release of hostages and the prospect of displaced families being allowed back to northern Gaza.

It reportedly also involves new wording on restoring calm meant to satisfy Hamas's demand for a permanent ceasefire.

The Israeli government is coming under growing pressure from its global allies and the families of the hostages to agree a deal.

Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 253 others were taken hostage.

More than 34,480 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 of the hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US have been attempting for weeks to broker a new agreement that would secure another pause in the fighting and the release of the 133 hostages who Israel says are still being held, at least 30 of whom are presumed dead.

Earlier this month, Hamas rejected an Israeli proposal for a six-week truce and the release of 40 women, children and elderly or sick hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas said it was sticking to its demands for a permanent ceasefire that would lead to a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes.

The source close to the talks in Cairo told the BBC that the new proposal from Israel was significantly different from previous offers.

On Saturday, the Axios news website cited Israeli officials as saying the proposal included a willingness for the return of people to northern Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the east-west corridor that divides the territory and prevents freedom of movement.

It also included a willingness to "discuss the establishment of a sustainable ceasefire as part of the implementation of the second phase of the deal", the officials said.

Israeli officials and a diplomat meanwhile told the New York Times and Financial Times on Monday that Israel was also prepared to reduce the number of hostages released during the first phase to 33, down from 40.

Hamas has only said publicly that it is studying the new Israeli proposal, but an unnamed senior official told AFP news agency on Sunday that "the atmosphere is positive unless there are new Israeli obstacles".

"There are no major issues in the observations and inquiries submitted by Hamas regarding the contents [of the proposal]," they added.

Mr Blinken also expressed optimism at a meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, which was attended by several of his European and Arab counterparts.

"Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous, on the part of Israel. And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas," he said.

"They have to decide, and they have to decide quickly... And I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, whose country is a mediator in the Israel-Hamas negotiations along with Qatar, also said he was "hopeful".

"The proposal has taken into account the positions of both sides and has tried to extract moderation," he said. "There are factors that will have an impact on both sides' decisions, but I hope that all will rise to the occasion."

Sunday's phone call between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have focused on the negotiations.

They also discussed the need to sustain a recent increase in aid reaching Gaza and continued US opposition to a full-scale offensive on the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced people are sheltering.

Local medics and rescuers said at least 22 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on three homes in Rafah overnight.

"We demand the entire world calls for a lasting truce. This is enough," a man called Abu Taha told AFP at al-Najjar hospital, as a crowd of relatives mourned over the shrouded bodies.

There was no immediate comment on the reports from the Israeli military.

Meanwhile, children in Rafah told BBC Arabic's Gaza Today radio programme that rising temperatures were making life unbearable in the thousands of tents and makeshift shelters erected there.

"Being inside the tent does not protect me from the intense heat; it is as if I am standing directly under sun's rays," said Sarah Abu Amr, 11.

"There is no electricity to power fans or get cold water to ease the terrible effect of the heat, and there is no food, water, or anything at all to keep us hydrated."

Last week, when temperatures reached 40C (104F), a five-month-old girl reportedly died in a tent due to the extreme heat, according to the UN.

Over the weekend, there were further indications from senior Israeli generals that plans were being finalised for a major operation in Rafah, where the military says Hamas's remaining battalions and leaders are based.

But Mr Blinken - who is due to fly from Saudi Arabia to Jordan and Israel - noted that the US had "not yet seen a plan that gives us confidence that civilians can be effectively protected".

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - a rival of Hamas who is based in the occupied West Bank - said on Sunday that the US was the only country capable of preventing an assault on Rafah, which he warned would cause "the biggest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people".

Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said on Sunday that Israel's military would "suspend the operation" in Rafah if a hostage release deal was agreed.

But far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned Mr Netanyahu not to cancel the Rafah assault, saying that if he failed to destroy Hamas "the government headed by you will have no right to exist".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68920131

[Jimbuna]

US, Britain urge Hamas to accept Israeli truce proposal

RIYADH (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Hamas to swiftly accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.

Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Monday to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal which Israel presented at the weekend.

"Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel," Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

"The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly," he said. "I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision."
A source briefed on the talks said Israel's proposal entailed a deal for the release of fewer than 40 of the roughly 130 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza in exchange for freeing Palestinians jailed in Israel.

A second phase of a truce would consist of a "period of sustained calm" - Israel's compromise response to a Hamas demand for a permanent ceasefire.

A total of 253 hostages were seized in a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which about 1,200 Israelis were also killed, according to Israeli counts.

A French diplomatic source said there was a convergence on the number of hostages released in return for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but that obstacles remained on the longer term nature of truce.

"We're not far off from a deal, but that's not the first time," the source said.

Israel retaliated by imposing a total siege on Gaza and mounting an air and ground assault that has killed about 34,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Palestinians are suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine in a humanitarian crisis brought on by the offensive that has demolished much of the territory.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, also described the Israeli proposal as "generous".

It included a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners as well as Israeli hostages, he told a WEF audience.

"I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying 'take that deal'," Cameron said.

Cameron is among several foreign ministers in Riyadh, including from the U.S., France, Jordan and Egypt, as part of a diplomatic push to bring an end to the Gaza war.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/us-britain-urge-hamas-to-accept-israeli-truce-proposal/ar-AA1nSLOb?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=2b7fcc89c2ee435b846d5539e927fa7e&ei=23

[Jimbuna]

Hamas unlikely to accept peace deal

Hamas is likely to turn down Israel’s proposal for a truce as it does not include clear commitments for ending the war in Gaza, a top official from the group has said.

Souheil al-Hindi, a member of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza, said late on Wednesday that the terrorist group is likely to respond negatively to the much-touted proposal for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

He told AFP: “Hamas is open to any dialogue with mediators, whether Egyptian or Qatari, and is also open to all initiatives to end the war on the Palestinian people, but within very clear conditions that cannot be abandoned.”

“As long as there is a continuation of the war, I believe that the Palestinian resistance has spoken on this issue.”

A leaked copy of the proposal included a pledge to create “sustained calm” in Gaza once the first stage of the deal is implemented. The vaguely worded phrase is the closest Israel has come to signalling its willingness for a truce, while its leadership keeps publicly denying suggestions that it stop the war in Gaza altogether.

The remarks came amid reports that the ultimate decision on the proposal will be made by Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and one of the masterminds of the Oct 7 massacre in southern Israel.

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 on Thursday quoted a “source close to” Mr Sinwar as saying that the proposal on the table for a deal is “an Israeli proposal in an American disguise and it contains a series of booby-trapped clauses”.

The source also said exiled Hamas functionaries do not speak for the terrorist group.

Israeli media on Thursday morning cited unnamed Israeli security officials who said they were not optimistic about the outcome of the talks, despite high hopes from Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state.

Israel’s war cabinet will be meeting on Thursday evening to discuss the possible deal after a previous meeting was cancelled on Wednesday night.

Protesters and families of some of the hostages in Hamas captivity on Thursday morning rallied in support of the deal, decrying Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks that Israel would launch an offensive on Gaza’s Rafah no matter what happens to the hostage negotiations.

Families of several Israeli hostages and their supporters briefly blocked the main highway in Tel Aviv during the morning rush hour, demanding an immediate deal.

They unfurled a banner saying “Rafa or the hostages - choose life”.

Meanwhile, UN experts have recently published estimates of the damage that six months of war has done to the densely populated Gaza Strip.

A new report by two UN agencies on Thursday said at least 370,000 housing units in Gaza have been damaged, with 79,000 of them completely destroyed.

It would take until at least 2040 to rebuild all the destroyed homes, without repairing the damaged ones.

On Wednesday, the head of the UN’s mine clearing agency said there was more rubble, some of it contaminated with mines, to clear in Gaza than in Ukraine where the front line is 600 miles long – compared to just 25 miles in the Gaza Strip.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-unlikely-to-accept-peace-deal/ar-AA1o25GK?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=92a33f7bfea249ab8d4460d4cc290698&ei=26

[Jeff-Groves]

Hamas unlikely to accept peace deal

And all the University Protesters in the U.S.A. are also unlikely to accept any deals.

I say reinstate thier Loan payments!

[Jimbuna]

And all the University Protesters in the U.S.A. are also unlikely to accept any deals.

I say reinstate thier Loan payments!

Or send them over to Gaza perhaps :03:

[Jimbuna]

US pier for Gaza is nearly ready but humanitarian aid could be delayed by weather conditions

Humanitarian aid bound for Gaza may be delayed because of poor weather conditions in the region, but the temporary port facility built by the US is largely complete.

White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby on Thursday told reporters the construction of the aid pier — which is being handled by US soldiers as part of what the US Defence Department calls a Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore operation — is almost ready, after he was asked when aid might begin flowing into Gaza through the new facility. The temporary port is a major project for the American military and other allies in the Middle East.

Kirby tempered his positive news on the port with a caveat.

“There's also some weather concerns in the eastern Mediterranean, which might affect the date at which you'll be able to start receiving humanitarian goods,” he said. Kirby, who is a retired US Navy Rear Admiral, added that based on his experience, the weather in that region “can be unpredictable”.
“I understand that weather right now is as much a factor as just about anything else,” he said.

Kirby’s remarks came just a day after Deputy Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters that the “floating pier has been completely constructed and set up”.

Singh added that the “causeway” connecting the pier to the Gaza shore was “in progress” but she declined to state in detail when it might be fully finished.

“So in terms of a date of delivery, we’ve said from the beginning early May. We still believe that we’re on track to meet that, but I don’t have an exact date for you on when humanitarian aid — when we’re going to see those first trucks going into Gaza. But as soon as I have that date for you, we are of course going to keep you updated on that,” she said.

The floating platform is a complex system constructed in the sea, with a causeway for trucks carrying aid that is anchored to the beach by Israeli forces.

The US Department of Defense announced that construction had begun on April 25. The Independent has reached out for further comment on estimates about aid delivery.

Biden announced the construction of the aid pier during his State of the Union speech in March, after growing dissatisfaction among Democrats and Democratic voters with the president’s response to Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza. Pro-Palestine protests across American campuses in the past few days have only intensified questions about when humanitarian aid will reach the region.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/us-pier-for-gaza-is-nearly-ready-but-humanitarian-aid-could-be-delayed-by-weather-conditions/ar-AA1o2X44?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=63546914ad9c43af9748415128de6f67&ei=21

[em2nought]

And all the University Protesters in the U.S.A. are also unlikely to accept any deals.

I say reinstate their Loan payments!

...AND expel them. :up:

Send the Air Force to drop blank job applications on the little leftists, that will make them scurry. :D

[Rockstar]

https://i.ibb.co/yQmH4kr/IMG-3673.jpg

The black and white patterned keffiyeh all the Hamas supporters wear was designed and introduced in 1950 by British Lieutenant-General John Bagot Glubb as headdress for the Royal Jordanian Army troops drafted in the West Bank, which was occupied by Jordan at the time.

https://i.ibb.co/CnRvFWq/IMG-3672.jpg

[Exocet25fr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfQtRgcZ_I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XrwNGWF108

[mapuc]

What's going down there in Gaza is terrible no doubt about it-However the information they get(UN, EU and other)is from Hamas. Which makes one wonder how reliable these information is.

Thousands of Palestinians have been killed or wounded-But not as many as Hamas claim.

Hamas started the war and now they and sadly the citizens in Gaza has to pay the price.

If the Hamas could fight the Israelis like real soldiers and not hiding behind the women or children

Markus

[Skybird]

US government is turning zig-zagging into a new form of art. Is to be seen in its Ukraine policy as well.

[Exocet25fr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQAdNpiRE0

[Jimbuna]

Israeli ministers threaten to quit over ceasefire plan

Two far-right Israeli ministers have threatened to quit and collapse the governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to a Gaza ceasefire proposal unveiled by US President Joe Biden on Friday.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said they were opposed to striking any deal before Hamas was destroyed.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has pledged to back the government if Mr Netanyahu supported the plan.

The prime minister himself insisted there would be no permanent truce until Hamas's military and governing capabilities were destroyed and all hostages released.

However, the White House said on Sunday it expected Israel would agree to the plan.

"This was an Israeli proposal. We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal - as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal - then Israel would say yes," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told ABC News.

Before the threats of resignation were issued, one of Mr Netanyahu's advisers told the Sunday Times that many of the plan's details needed to be worked out, and there would be no permanent ceasefire "until all our objectives are met".

But senior foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk also said Mr Biden's plan was a "deal we agreed to - it’s not a good deal, but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them".

The three-part proposal would begin with a six-week ceasefire in which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would withdraw from populated areas of Gaza. The deal would eventually lead to the release of all hostages, a permanent "cessation of hostilities" and a major reconstruction plan for Gaza.

But in a post on social media on Saturday, Mr Smotrich said he told Mr Netanyahu he would "not be part of a government that agrees to the proposed outline and ends the war without destroying Hamas and bringing back all the hostages".

Echoing his words, Mr Ben-Gvir said "the deal.. means the end of the war and the abandonment of the goal to destroy Hamas. This is a reckless deal, which constitutes a victory for terrorism and a security threat to the State of Israel".

He vowed to "dissolve the government" rather than agree to the proposal.

Mr Netanyahu's right-wing coalition holds a slim majority in parliament, relying on a host of factions, including Mr Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party - who hold six seats - and Mr Smotrich's Religious Zionism party - who hold seven seats - to maintain power.

But Yair Lapid, one of Israel's most influential opposition politicians, was quick to offer his backing to the embattled prime minister. His Yesh Atid (There is a future) party holds 24 seats.

He said the prime minister "has our safety net for a hostage deal if Ben-Gvir and Smotrich leave the government".

The row came as tens of thousands of people rallied in Tel Aviv, calling on the Israeli government to accept Mr Biden's proposed plan.

Many demonstrators also demanded Mr Netanyahu's resignation and some told reporters they feared the prime minister could torpedo the proposal.

A group campaigning to bring home Israeli hostages captured by Hamas has warned that such a move would endanger the lives of those held in Gaza.

Scuffles broke out between protesters and police, who used mounted officers and water cannon to disperse the crowds. Some demonstrators were reportedly detained.

Protests have become a fixture in Tel Aviv in recent months, as families of hostages and other anti-government campaigners have held rallies calling for a hostage deal - as well as for Mr Netanyahu to step down or call an election.

In a joint statement on Saturday, mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US urged both Israel and Hamas to "finalise" Mr Biden's proposed deal.

Officials said that "as mediators in the ongoing discussions to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages and detainees", they "call on both Hamas and Israel to finalise the agreement embodying the principles outlined by President Joe Biden".

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also offered his backing to the plan, telling reporters that his government could "flood Gaza with far more aid" if Hamas accepts the ceasefire plan.

Earlier, a senior Hamas politician told the BBC it "will go for this deal" if Israel does.

In a statement after Mr Biden unveiled the plan, Mr Netanyahu's office insisted Israel's "conditions for ending the war have not changed".

It listed these as "the destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel".

The statement added Israel would "continue to insist these conditions are met" before agreeing to a permanent ceasefire.

However, the comments seemed to be vague enough for Mr Netanyahu to be able to claim that his objectives had been achieved.

Mr Netanyahu's office did not mention “total victory” - which he has repeatedly highlighted as a key aim for the war in Gaza.

This omission may allow the prime minister to reject criticism that the deal offers major concessions to Hamas.

On Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on social media that he would give Mr Netanyahu's government his "full support for a deal which will see the release of the hostages".

"It is our inherent obligation to bring them home within the framework of a deal that preserves the security interests of the State of Israel," he said
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz55y6k0p5go

[Jimbuna]

US expects Israel will accept Gaza ceasefire plan if Hamas does

The US government has "every expectation" that Israel will accept a ceasefire proposal that would begin with a six-week cessation of hostilities in Gaza if Hamas takes the deal, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

The three-part plan unveiled by President Joe Biden last week would also be a "surge" of humanitarian aid, as well as an exchange of some hostages for Palestinian prisoners before a permanent end to the war.

The proposal, however, has met with vocal opposition from some members of Israel's government.

The negotiations come as fighting continues in Rafah, which came under intense Israeli airstrikes over the weekend.

According to the UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, all 36 of its shelters in the Rafah area are empty after residents were forced to flee.

Another 1.7 million people are estimated to be displaced in Khan Younis and parts of central Gaza.

Speaking to ABC News on Sunday morning, Mr Kirby said that the US had "every expectation" that Israel would "say yes" to the proposed ceasefire deal if Hamas accepts.

"We're waiting for an official response from Hamas," he said, adding that the US hopes that both sides agree to start the first phase of the plan "as soon as possible".

During that initial six-week pause in the fighting, Mr Kirby said the "two sides would sit down and try to negotiate what phase two could look like, and when that could begin".

In a televised address last week, Mr Biden said that the second phase of the plan would see all remaining living hostages returned, including male soldiers. The ceasefire would then become "the cessation of hostilities, permanently".

On Saturday, however, two far-right Israeli ministers threatened to quit and collapse the country's governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the deal.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said they were opposed to striking any deal before Hamas was destroyed.

Similarly, Mr Netanyahu has insisted that there will be no ceasefire until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed and all hostages are released.

Mr Kirby, for his part, said that US intelligence now believes that Hamas has been militarily degraded to the extent that it can no longer repeat an attack such as that which its fighters conducted on 7 October.

"We've not said that they don't still represent a viable threat to the Israeli people. Of course they do," he said. "But they don't have the military capabilities to do what they did."

In another development on Sunday, the government of the Maldives announced it would ban Israeli citizens from the Indian Ocean island archipelago, in turn prompting a warning from Israel's foreign ministry that its citizens should avoid the country.

About 11,000 Israelis visited the Maldives last year - less than 1% of all tourist arrivals.

More than 36,000 people have been killed across Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The war began in October when Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 252 back to Gaza as hostages.

In the US, President Biden has faced growing domestic criticism over the level of US support for Israel, as well as calls to do more to encourage the warring sides to negotiate.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd11l590qqwo

[Jimbuna]

Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza reportedly kills at least 35

An Israeli air strike on a UN school packed with displaced Palestinians in central Gaza has reportedly killed at least 35 people.

Local journalists told the BBC that a warplane fired two missiles at classrooms on the top floor of the school in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp. Videos showed the destruction and a number of bodies.

Israel’s military said it had “conducted a precise strike on a Hamas compound” in the school and killed many of the 20 to 30 fighters it believed were inside.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office denied the claim and accused Israel of carrying out a “horrific massacre”.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), which runs the school, described the incident as "horrific" and said the claim that armed groups might have been inside a shelter was "shocking" but could not be confirmed.

Dead and wounded people were rushed to the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, which has been overwhelmed since the Israeli military began a new ground operation against Hamas in central Gaza this week.

The BBC is working to verify the reports about the strike in Nuseirat camp.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crggq0jygq6o

[Jimbuna]

Netanyahu to address US Congress on 24 July

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address US lawmakers in Washington DC on 24 July, congressional leaders announced on Thursday.

He will speak to both chambers of Congress - the Senate and the House of Representatives - as the Israel-Gaza war continues.

Republicans and Democrats both invited the prime minister to speak, but the date of his speech was not made official until Thursday.

Last month the International Criminal Court's prosecutor applied for arrest warrants against the Israeli leader and his defence minister, Yoav Galant, on charges related to the war.

Mr Netanyahu condemned the ICC move, saying he rejected with disgust that "democratic Israel" had been compared to what he called "mass murderers".

Mr Netanyahu said, according to a statement released by congressional leaders, that he was "very moved to have the privilege of representing Israel... to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us".

In their letter inviting the prime minister, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell - both Republicans - said they hoped Mr Netanyahu would take the opportunity to "share the Israeli government's vision for defending democracy, combatting terror, and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region".

Mr Netanyahu's visit comes as that relationship with the US has grown tense, especially among leading US Democrats.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a separate statement that he supported the invitation despite his "clear and profound disagreements with the Prime Minister, which I have voiced both privately and publicly".

"But because America's relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister I joined the request for him to speak," he said.

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has also grown more critical of Israel as the war continues and the death toll in Gaza climbs.

Mr Biden, who is running for re-election in November, has come under political pressure from his party's left flank to do more to convince Israel to limit its war in Gaza.

Some progressive leaders, such as Sen Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have said they intend to boycott Mr Netanyahu's speech in protest at Israel's conduct in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage during an attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

At least 36,470 people have been killed in Gaza in almost eight months of fighting since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Mr Biden has recently made public his administration's push for a ceasefire deal that would begin a six-week cessation of hostilities in Gaza.

The three-part plan that the president unveiled last week would see a "surge" of humanitarian aid, as well as an exchange of some hostages for Palestinian prisoners before a permanent end to the war.

The proposal, however, has encountered vocal opposition from some members of Israel's government, which has raised doubt that an agreement might be reached.

Hanoch Milwidsky, a senior member of the Knesset for Mr Netanyahu's Likud Party, told the BBC on Sunday that Israel's governing coalition was unified in opposition to the deal, which he called "completely unacceptable".

Mr Netanyahu last spoke to the US Congress in 2015, when both chambers were controlled by Republicans. He used the opportunity to criticise then President Barack Obama, a Democrat, for pursuing a deal with US allies and Iran to curtail Tehran's nuclear programme.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nnj93pe4yo

[Cyborg322]

What's going down there in Gaza is terrible no doubt about it-However the information they get(UN, EU and other)is from Hamas. Which makes one wonder how reliable these information is.

Thousands of Palestinians have been killed or wounded-But not as many as Hamas claim.

Hamas started the war and now they and sadly the citizens in Gaza has to pay the price.

If the Hamas could fight the Israelis like real soldiers and not hiding behind the women or children

Markus where on Earth do you get your evidence or fact from ?

[Skybird]

Four Israeli hostages held prison by the terrorists have been freed by a joint operation of the IDF and Israeli police - alive. The medical condition is described as "stable".

[Reece]

Good news! :up:

[Moonlight]

What's going down there in Gaza is terrible no doubt about it-However the information they get(UN, EU and other)is from Hamas. Which makes one wonder how reliable these information is.

Thousands of Palestinians have been killed or wounded-But not as many as Hamas claim.

Hamas started the war and now they and sadly the citizens in Gaza has to pay the price.

If the Hamas could fight the Israelis like real soldiers and not hiding behind the women or children

Markus

where on Earth do you get your evidence or fact from ?

Perhaps he gets the information from a source that isn't as gullible as the UN is, if you believe that Hamas or any Palestinian is telling "The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth", while discounting news from other sources other than Hamas, then you are as guilty of being as gullible as the UN is.

From what I've seen and heard from the UN over the years, they wouldn't know what the truth was if they saw it with their own eyes, so don't put any faith in what they say or you'll be sorely disappointed. :O:

Four Israeli hostages held prison by the terrorists have been freed by a joint operation of the IDF and Israeli police - alive. The medical condition is described as "stable".

Some good news at last, I would imagine that young girl has been through some harrowing times.

[Skybird]

Oh, the UN knows what the truth is, else they would not be able to intentionally sail around it and disguise it so cleverly, and hide it from the people. The UN is the textbook example of willful bias, one-sidedness, special interest group lobbyism, and manipulative corruption. Western states as a whole should discontinue their memberships in and payments to all the UN's sub-organisations.


Not to mention the joke called "security council".

[mapuc]

Perhaps he gets the information from a source that isn't as gullible as the UN is, if you believe that Hamas or any Palestinian is telling "The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth", while discounting news from other sources other than Hamas, then you are as guilty of being as gullible as the UN is.

From what I've seen and heard from the UN over the years, they wouldn't know what the truth was if they saw it with their own eyes, so don't put any faith in what they say or you'll be sorely disappointed. :O:



Some good news at last, I would imagine that young girl has been through some harrowing times.

I get it from Danish and Swedish expert on middle east and a friend who's from Palestine. He was fighting Hamas, so he had to flee to Germany and later to Sweden.

As one of the Danish expert said on tv last time there was a war between Israel and Hamas:
"Hamas can't fight the Israelis like an ordinary army, it would mean the end of them. The only way they can fight the Israelis is from civilian areas and among the civilians"
I interpreter it as he was apologizing on their behalf-the way he said it.

Markus

[Skybird]

Every sort of terror can be "whitewashed" this way.

Lets not forget that in the last war and this one again Hamas has forced people with pointed guns to not flee to not seek shelter and to not move out, and that they dleoberately caöclate with maximise the civilians' casualties to make a bog scroe fo it in their propaganda war. They deliberately put their ammo storages, command posts and infrastructure into civilian structures and hide under hospitals, kindergarden, schools.

Their leaders and fat cats live in other countries. In wealth, relative safety, and obscene luxury.

Cynism and treason towards their own people. To the max.

And still many people in the world and most of the UN hang with their eyes on their lips. Spit.

[Jimbuna]

Four Israeli hostages kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October have been rescued by the Israeli military.

Those freed are Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrei Kozlov, 27 and Shlomi Ziv, 41

Israel says the rescue was conducted in broad daylight, under heavy fire, at two separate buildings in Nuseirat, central Gaza.

Many people, including children, have been killed and injured in the area where the operation took place.

Hamas claims more than 200 Palestinians died, but the figures are not from medical sources.

News of the rescues was announced by loud speaker on Israeli beaches and cheered on the streets of Tel Aviv.

[Jimbuna]

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz quits emergency government in row over PM Netanyahu's post-conflict plans for Gaza.

[em2nought]

I have a suggestion pave paradise and put up a parking lot :D

[Jimbuna]

Netanyahu walks tightrope as US urges Gaza ceasefire deal

If diplomats have groundhog days, when they are condemned to reliving the same 24 hours, perhaps Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, felt a certain weariness as his jet approached the Middle East on his latest trip.

It is his eighth diplomatic tour of the region in the eight months since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October last year.

The politics of trying to negotiate an end to the war in Gaza and an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners were already complicated.

They are more tangled than ever now that the Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz has resigned from the war cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with his political ally Gadi Eisenkot. Both men are retired generals who led the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as chiefs of staff.

Without Benny Gantz, the Americans have lost their favourite contact in the cabinet. Now he’s back in opposition, Mr Gantz wants new elections - he is the pollsters’ favourite to be the next prime minister - but Mr Netanyahu is safe as long as he can preserve the coalition that gives him 64 votes in the 120-member Israeli parliament.

That depends on keeping the support of the leaders of two ultranationalist factions. They are Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.

That is the point at which Secretary of State Blinken’s mission collides with Israeli politics. President Joe Biden believes that the time has come to end the war in Gaza.

Mr Blinken’s job is to try to make that happen. But Messrs Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have threatened to bring down the Netanyahu government if he agrees to any ceasefire until they are satisfied that Hamas has been eliminated.

They are extreme Jewish nationalists, who want the war to continue until no trace of Hamas remains.

They believe that Gaza, like all the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan, is Jewish land that should be settled by Jews. Palestinians, they argue, could be encouraged to leave Gaza “voluntarily”.

Antony Blinken is in the Middle East to try to stop the latest ceasefire plan from going the way of all the others. Three ceasefire resolutions in the UN Security Council were vetoed by the US, but now Joe Biden is ready for a deal.

On 31 May, the president made a speech urging Hamas to accept what he said was a new Israeli proposal to end the war in Gaza. It was a three-part deal, starting with a six-week ceasefire, a “surge” of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the exchange of some Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

The deal would progress to the release of all the hostages, a permanent “cessation of hostilities” and ultimately the huge job of rebuilding Gaza. Israelis should no longer fear Hamas, he said, because it was no longer able to repeat 7 October.

President Biden and his advisers knew there was trouble ahead. Hamas insists it will only agree to a ceasefire that guarantees an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.

The destruction and civilian death inflicted by Israel in Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza during the raid to free four hostages last week can only have strengthened that resolve. The Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza say that 274 Palestinians were killed during the raid. The IDF says the number was less than 100.

Mr Biden also recognised that some powerful forces in Israel would object.

“I’ve urged the leadership in Israel to stand behind this deal,” he said in the speech. “Regardless of whatever pressure comes.”

The pressure came quickly, from Messrs Ben Gvir and Smotrich. They are senior government ministers, viscerally opposed to the deal that Joe Biden presented. It made no difference to them that the deal was approved by the war cabinet, as they are not members.

As expected, they threatened to topple the Netanyahu coalition if he agreed to the deal.

Neither Hamas nor Israel have publicly committed to the deal that President Biden laid out.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c511vl9yjwwo

[Moonlight]

The Afghanistan war took place after 2,996 civilians were killed in the USA by Al Qaeda Terrorists, 20 years it went on for, on that basis then, the Israelis should be at war with these Palestinian Terrorists for about another 8 years.

Has braindead Biden forgotten that it was him and the rest of the USA politicians who kick started all this Terrorism off in the first place, stop interfering in other countries affairs and you might stop getting a smack in the mouth from Terrorist cells that your policies have created. :salute:

[em2nought]

If Israel really wanted to cause some real confusion among the mainstream media & protesters they'd start flying a "Pride" flag. :har:

https://ak.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/1039927517/thumb/1.jpg

[Jimbuna]

UN Security Council backs US Israel-Gaza ceasefire plan

The United Nations Security Council has voted to support a US resolution backing a ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza.

The proposal sets out conditions for a "full and complete ceasefire", the release of hostages held by Hamas, the return of dead hostages' remains and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners.

Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members voted in favour of the US-drafted resolution. Russia abstained.

The resolution states that Israel has accepted the ceasefire proposal, and urges Hamas to agree to it too.

It means the Security Council joins a number of governments, as well as the G7 group of the world's richest nations, in backing the three-part plan that was unveiled by President Joe Biden in a televised statement on 31 May. Mr Biden described it then as an Israeli ceasefire proposal.

The proposal submitted by Israel to the US and fellow mediators Qatar and Egypt – reportedly lengthier than the summary presented by Mr Biden - has not been made public and it is unclear whether it varies from what the president presented. The proposal was agreed to by Israel’s three-man war cabinet and has not been divulged to the wider government. Some far-right ministers have already made clear they oppose it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not said directly whether he supports the plan as laid out by President Biden.

The resolution was approved shortly after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with foreign leaders, including Mr Netanyahu, in an attempt to build support for the ceasefire deal.

Just hours before the UN vote, Mr Blinken said his message to leaders in the region was: "If you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes."

The group has previously said it supports parts of the plan, and it released a statement on Monday “welcoming” the Security Council resolution.

Hamas emphasised its demand for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, as well as the exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The group said it is ready to cooperate with mediators and enter "indirect negotiations".

Its political leadership in Doha has yet to formally respond to the proposal, according to US and Israeli officials.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw448x7lxggo

[Jimbuna]

Hamas leader believes civilian deaths are ‘necessary sacrifices’ in Israeli war, leaked letters show

The mastermind behind Hamas’s Oct 7 attacks on Israel is stalling ceasefire talks and using the mounting Palestinian death toll to his advantage, leaked messages show.

Correspondence between Yahya Sinwar, the terror group’s military leader, and officials tasked with brokering a ceasefire with Qatari and Egyptian officials indicate he is more interested in securing his own future than peace.

“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Sinwar said in one of dozens of messages to ceasefire negotiators obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

The messages display a calculated disregard for human life and a belief on the part of Sinwar that Israel has more to lose from the eight-month war than Hamas.
More than 37,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to Hamas-controlled health authorities. The number of combatants killed remains unknown.

The messages revealed by The Wall Street Journal appear to support the view that Sinwar is willing to put his political objectives above the preservation of human lives.

In one message to Hamas leaders in Doha, he cites civilian losses in national-liberation conflicts in places such as Algeria, where hundreds of thousands of people died fighting for independence from France, saying, “these are necessary sacrifices”.

In a separate letter, sent on April 11 to Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas political leader, whose three sons were killed in an Israeli air strike, Sinwar claimed their deaths and those of other Palestinians would “infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honour”.

A recent analysis appears to show a decline in the rate of women and children being killed from more than 60 per cent in October to below 40 per cent in April, coinciding with a change in Israeli battlefield tactics.

However, the reported deaths of at least 274 Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp during the rescue of four Israeli hostages on Saturday has fuelled international anger about Israel’s handling of the war and whether it is doing enough to protect civilians.

In response, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) condemned the “cruel and cynical” tactics of Hamas’s leadership to endanger the local population by hiding hostages among them.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-leader-believes-civilian-deaths-are-necessary-sacrifices-in-israeli-war-leaked-letters-show/ar-BB1o11K5?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=ec78d8ce6659403fafc46873b2966d8d&ei=17

[em2nought]

Hamas leader believes civilian deaths are ‘necessary sacrifices’ in Israeli war, leaked letters show

I'm shocked! :har:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/cd/90/a4cd907b2af13ed2be748bf62b4bbc1a.jpg

[Jimbuna]

Gaza truce plan in balance as parties study Hamas response

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Qatar to push for agreement on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal which currently hangs in the balance after a Hamas response to the latest proposals.

Mr Blinken was said to have been up late into the night assessing the text handed by Hamas to mediators Qatar and Egypt.

The Palestinian armed group said it was ready to “deal positively” with the process but stressed the need for Israel to agree to a permanent ceasefire.

Israel’s government has not commented, but an anonymous Israeli official said Hamas’s response amounted to a rejection.

The BBC is part of the travelling press pool on Mr Blinken's visit to Doha, where he is meeting Qatari leaders to try to push the plan forward.

The glittering Gulf location belies the sense of regional crisis that he is attempting to solve with a diplomatic tour taking place at breakneck speed.

On Tuesday, Mr Blinken said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reaffirmed his commitment to the ceasefire proposal and that only Hamas stood in the way of progress.

However, Mr Netanyahu has not yet publicly endorsed the plan, which US President Joe Biden said had been offered by Israel when he outlined it 12 days ago.

The brief statement issued by Hamas on Tuesday evening confirmed it had given an official response to the latest ceasefire plan, which has garnered broad international support and was endorsed by the UN Security Council on Monday.

This reiterated a demand for what Hamas called “a complete halt of the ongoing aggression against Gaza”, and full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian territory.

A Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, said the response was “responsible, serious and positive” and that it opened up “a wide pathway” to reach an agreement.

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not release an on-record reply.

But a statement was issued by an anonymous Israeli official, who said that Hamas had “changed all of the main and most meaningful parameters” and “rejected the proposal for a hostage release that was presented by President Biden”.

The more critical reaction is now awaited from mediators, once they have studied the proposal and judged the extent of the Hamas amendments.

The US state department official said Mr Blinken despatched two senior Biden administration figures, Barbara Leaf and Derek Chollet, from the US delegation’s hotel in Jordan’s capital, Amman, to receive the document from Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, who was also staying in the city.

Qatar and Egypt said in a joint statement that they would study Hamas’s response and “co-ordinate with the parties concerned regarding the next steps”. They also pledged to continue their mediation efforts with the US “until an agreement is reached”.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 37,160 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A deal agreed in November saw Hamas release 105 of the hostages in return for a week-long ceasefire and some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel says 116 hostages are still being held, 41 of whom are presumed dead.

Mr Biden said the new proposal involved three phases.

The first would see an initial six-week ceasefire, when Hamas would release some of the hostages - including women, the elderly and the sick or wounded - in exchange for Israel releasing an undefined number of Palestinian prisoners.

A second phase would see all remaining living hostages released and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza as part of a “permanent cessation of hostilities", but the latter would still be subject to further negotiations.

In the third phase, the remains of any dead hostages would be returned and a major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence.

In an speech at a Gaza aid conference in Jordan on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Blinken said the single most effective way to address the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory was to agree an immediate ceasefire.

”When I met Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday in Israel, he reaffirmed his support and his commitment to bringing this proposal across the finish line."

He added: “Today... only one thing stands in the way of this deal happening, and that’s Hamas.”

“So my primary and first message today to every government, to every multilateral institution, to every humanitarian organisation that wants to relieve the massive suffering in Gaza: Get Hamas to take the deal.”

He asserted that Hamas “should not require much convincing” because the deal was “nearly identical” to one the group had proposed on 6 May.

While the White House is in effect trying to bounce the sides into progress on an agreement, Israel’s leadership remains deeply sceptical about it.

Far-right ministers are pressuring Mr Netanyahu to ignore Washington’s diplomacy and have threatened to quit his governing coalition and trigger its collapse if the US-backed proposal goes forward, seeing it as a surrender to Hamas.

The prime minister has not unequivocally voiced support for the plan, which he has acknowledged was authorised by his war cabinet.

The actual Israeli proposal - reportedly lengthier than the summary presented by Mr Biden - has not been made public and it is unclear whether it varies from what the president conveyed. It was presented to Hamas days before Mr Biden's speech.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0661dnmzezo

[Jimbuna]

Israel and Hamas 'committed war crimes including torture and sexual violence'

A UN probe into the Gaza war has found both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and were involved in grave violations of international law. Damning reports suggest both sides committed torture, cruelty and hostage-taking following the Hamas October 7 attack which sparked the war.

In the first 2.5 months of war, a UN commission found Israel committed a widespread, systemic attack directed at a civilian population. Israel’s alleged war crimes include starvation, arbitrary detention, and killing and maiming “tens of thousands of children.”

Both Israel and Hamas committed sexual violence and torture, and intentionally attacked civilians, according to the reports, which span more than 200 pages. Findings were based on interviews with victims and witnesses, thousands of open-source items verified through forensic analysis, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, forensic medical reports, and media coverage.

Israel previously refused to cooperate with the inquiry but it has accused it of “attempting to justify” Hamas’ actions and being anti-Israeli. Israel’s mission to the UN said Wednesday that the report did not mention continuous rocket fire on the country.

It said the UN was drawing a false equivalence between IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers and Hamas terrorists with regards to acts of sexual violence.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US continues “to do the work to make our own assessments” on whether there have been violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the war in Gaza.

He also said war in Gaza will go on after Hamas proposed "numerous" changes to an American-backed ceasefire plan - some that he said were "workable", and some not. In Qatar, he said the US and other mediators will keep trying to "close this deal". Mr Blinken's comments came as Lebanon's Hezbollah fired a massive barrage of rockets into northern Israel to avenge the killing of a top commander, further escalating regional tensions.

Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas, has traded fire with Israel nearly every day since the eight-month-long Israel-Hamas war began, and says it will only stop if there is a truce in Gaza. That has raised fears of an even more devastating regional conflagration.

Air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel, and the military said that about 160 projectiles were fired from southern Lebanon, making it one of the largest attacks since the fighting began. There were no immediate reports of casualties as some were intercepted while others ignited brush fires.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/gaza-israel-and-hamas-committed-war-crimes-including-torture-and-sexual-violence/ar-BB1o5Xtx?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=348ffa458ac845f3984854ffbb82d7ec&ei=14

[Jimbuna]

‘War will go on’ because Hamas chose not to accept peace deal, warns Blinken

Hamas has sent back an “unworkable” counter-offer to a US-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza, Antony Blinken warned on Wednesday.

The US secretary of state said “the war will go on” because Hamas was unable to agree to the plans that would include a release of hostages in exchange for a ceasefire.

He added that Hamas had “made a choice to continue the war that they started”.

The accusations come after leaked notes from Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas military leader – and mastermind of the Oct 7 attacks – suggested he was prolonging the war to improve his negotiating position.

Full details of the peace deal and the amendments demanded by Hamas have not been made public. The US says Israel has accepted the deal, but Israel has not publicly backed it.
Hamas said it had submitted a “positive” response that opened a “wide pathway” for agreement on the US-backed three-stage truce plan, prompting Israel to say it was tantamount to a rejection of the deal on the table.

A speech by Joe Biden almost two weeks ago outlined the broad proposal which would involve an initial six-week ceasefire, with Hamas releasing some hostages in exchange for Israel releasing an as yet undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners.

Phase one would then evolve into a permanent end to hostilities and the release of all hostages, before the final stage which would involve a major reconstruction effort in the devastated Gaza Strip.

It has been widely accepted that the transition between the first phase on to the path towards a permanent ceasefire would be a delicate manoeuvre where talks could become unhinged.

Mr Biden introduced the plan, which was approved by the United Nations on Monday, as an Israeli initiative, although the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, which has far-Right members, has not publicly endorsed it.

Mr Blinken, who was in Jerusalem on Monday during a diplomatic tour of the Middle East to drum up support for a peace deal, reiterated on Wednesday that Israel had backed it.

“Look, Israel accepted the proposal, Hamas didn’t ... if Hamas continues to say no then it will be clear that they have made a choice to continue the war that they started,” he told reporters in Doha, Qatar.

“A deal was on the table that was virtually identical to one that Hamas put forward on 6 May ... Hamas could have answered with a single word: ‘Yes’,” he said.

“Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted.”

“As a result, the war will go on,” he said, before adding that he would do everything he can to get a deal done.

Mr Blinken argued that the divide between the two sides could be overcome. He did not elaborate on the Hamas proposals that have been deemed unacceptable.

An official with knowledge of the talks told the Washington Post that Hamas’s amendments had included a “timeline for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.”

Two Egyptian security sources told Reuters that Hamas wanted written guarantees from the US for a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal and had concerns that the current proposal did not provide explicit guarantees over the transition of the first to the second phase.

There have been reports of a split between the group’s political leadership and its more hardline Gaza-based military leadership under Mr Sinwar. Secret messages from Mr Sinwar to his negotiators suggested he was using the mounting Palestinian death toll to his advantage.

“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Mr Sinwar said in one of dozens of messages to ceasefire negotiators obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this week, Mr Blinken said the onus to accept the peace plan was on “one guy” hiding “10 storeys underground in Gaza” to make the casting vote.

The spiralling death toll in Gaza and growing public anger in Israel over the government’s handling of the war are adding to pressure on both sides to reach a deal.

On Wednesday, a United Nations commission investigating the Oct 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing conflict in Gaza accused both Palestinian armed groups and Israel of committing war crimes.

A panel led by Navi Pillay, the former UN human rights chief, found that Israel’s conduct during the war included crimes against humanity.

The report does not carry any penalties but provides a legal analysis that could feed into future action by the International Court of Justice.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/war-will-go-on-because-hamas-chose-not-to-accept-peace-deal-warns-blinken/ar-BB1o6tVb?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=d0d69386956048b2a66a96ce2dc778f0&ei=16

[Jimbuna]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mKSUjKDBkc

[Jimbuna]

Hamas response to Gaza ceasefire proposal 'consistent' with principles of US plan, leader says

CAIRO (Reuters) -Hamas' response to the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal is consistent with the principles put forward in U.S. President Joe Biden's plan, the group's Qatar-based leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech on the occasion of the Islamic Eid al-Adha on Sunday.

"Hamas and the (Palestinian) groups are ready for a comprehensive deal which entails a ceasefire, withdrawal from the strip, the reconstruction of what was destroyed and a comprehensive swap deal," Haniyeh said, referring to the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

On May 31, Biden laid out what he called a "three-phase" Israeli proposal that would include negotiations for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza as well as phased exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Egypt and Qatar - which along with the United States have been mediating between Hamas and Israel - said on June 11 that they had received a response from the Palestinian groups to the U.S. plan, without giving further details.

While Israel said Hamas rejected key elements of the U.S. plan, a senior Hamas leader told Reuters that the changes the group requested were "not significant".
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-response-to-gaza-ceasefire-proposal-consistent-with-principles-of-us-plan-leader-says/ar-BB1ojrPw?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=5a155c1ca6bf4f4aa838d4b0e20fcd92&ei=36

[Skybird]

https://www-focus-de.translate.goog/experts/israel-zwei-staatenloesung-klingt-super-aber-frieden-scheitert-an-radikalen-palaestinensern_id_260056380.html?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de


Following the terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas and its allied militias on October 7 last year, acceptance of a Palestinian state has fallen to zero in Israel. The reason is clear: the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip was a Palestinian state that could not have survived without the support of the international community (especially UNRWA) and Israel.

But the authorities of Palestinian statehood had nothing else in mind than to eradicate the state of Israel and kill or expel its citizens (i.e. "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing"). In 1994, Israel and the PLO agreed that Palestinian statehood should not pose a threat to Israel. This continues to be the yardstick by which Israel measures whether the idea of a two-state solution can be accepted.

Many had hoped that the bitter experience of defeat and destruction in the Gaza Strip would sober the population there and finally lead them to free themselves from the grip of the radical Islamist Hamas, which propagates the theocracy and at the same time the genocide of Jews. However, the results of a recently published survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Opinion Research in the Palestinian territories, which is also funded by the EU, show that this expectation has not been fulfilled.

Two thirds of respondents thought that the surprise attack on Israel in October was the right decision. Among Palestinians, support for armed struggle against Israel to achieve a state of their own has clearly increased. Fifty-four percent were in favor of an armed struggle, an increase of eight percentage points. Around 40 percent of respondents expressed their support for Hamas, which represents an increase of six percentage points. How representative these survey results are is difficult to judge from a distance. But they at least reveal trends that are worrying.

Conclusion: As long as this extremism prevails among the Palestinian population, no matter how many Western states recognize the Palestinian Authority as an independent state. No sensible politician in Israel will embark on this adventure. And no one in the Arab world wants to have such radicalized Palestinians among them.

[Jimbuna]

Israeli PM scraps war cabinet after key departures

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved his six-member war cabinet, a widely expected decision that follows the departure of centrist opposition leader Benny Gantz and his ally Gadi Eisenkot.

Israeli media report that sensitive issues about the war with Hamas in Gaza will now be decided by a smaller forum.

Since Mr Gantz quit eight days ago over what he said was the lack of strategy for the war, there have been calls from far-right ministers to take his place.

By dissolving the war cabinet, Mr Netanyahu avoids a tricky situation with his coalition partners and international allies.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that, as far as it was concerned, it would not affect the chain of command.

Mr Gantz and Mr Eisenkot joined a national unity government with Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition days after the start of the war in October.

The two former IDF chiefs of staff announced their resignations on 9 June, with Mr Gantz saying that the prime minister’s leadership was “preventing us from approaching true victory”.

Immediately afterwards, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he had written to Mr Netanyahu to demand that he be added to the war cabinet.

On Sunday night, Mr Netanyahu reportedly informed ministers that he had decided to dissolve the decision-making body rather than bring in new members.

“The [war] cabinet was in the coalition agreement with Gantz at his request. As soon as Gantz left - there is no need for a cabinet anymore," he said, according to the Jerusalem Post, external.

Haaretz reported, external that some of the issues previously discussed by the war cabinet would be transferred for discussion in the 14-member security cabinet, which includes Mr Ben-Gvir and fellow far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

It said sensitive decisions would be addressed in a “smaller consultation forum”, which was expected to include Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri. The three men were in the war cabinet along with the prime minister, Mr Gantz and Mr Eisenkot.

The IDF's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, insisted on Monday that such moves would not affect its operations.

"Cabinet members are being changed and the method is being changed. We have the echelon, we know the chain of command. We're working according to the chain of command. This is a democracy,” he told reporters.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 37,340 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

There have been further signs of strain in the Israeli government in the past day, with Mr Netanyahu and his far-right ministers criticising a decision by the IDF to introduce daytime “tactical pauses in military activity” near the southern Gaza city of Rafah to allow more deliveries of humanitarian aid.

The pauses are meant to allow lorries to collect aid from the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing, south-east of Rafah, and then travel safely to reach the main north-south road inside Gaza. Supplies have been held back at the crossing point since Israel began an operation in Rafah last month.

But Mr Ben-Gvir decried the policy as foolish, while Israeli media quoted Mr Netanyahu as saying: “We have a country with an army, not an army with a country.”

The IDF responded by saying that the pauses did not mean the fighting in southern Gaza would stop, which created confusion over what exactly was happening on the ground.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), which is the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza, reported that fighting was continuing in Rafah and elsewhere in the south on Monday and that “operationally nothing has changed yet”.

The IDF meanwhile said that its troops were “continuing intelligence-based, targeted operations in the area of Rafah”. It added that they had located weapons, struck structures rigged with explosives and eliminated “several terrorists” in the Tal al-Sultan area.

With little sign of progress towards a full ceasefire in Gaza, there have been new warnings from the Israeli military that the lower-level conflict with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah is now threatening to spiral into a wider war.

Following a recent intensification in exchanges of fire, a key US diplomat is returning to the region to try to reduce tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce99m0n99z0o

[Jimbuna]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBUvTAobM00

[Jimbuna]

Israeli forces step up bombardment across Gaza, amid fierce fighting

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli forces pounded Rafah and other areas across the Gaza Strip and engaged in close-quarter combat with fighters led by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, residents and Israel's military said.

Residents said the Israelis appeared to by trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the enclave's southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.

Tanks were forcing their way into the western and northern parts of the city, having already captured the east, south and centre. Israeli forces fired from planes, tanks and ships off the coast, forcing a new wave of displacement from the city, which had been sheltering more than a million displaced people, most of whom have been forced to flee again.

Palestinian health officials said at least 12 Palestinians had been killed in separate Israeli military strikes on Friday.

The Israeli military said on Friday its forces were conducting "precise, intelligence-based" actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in close-quarter combat and had located tunnels used by militants. It also reported actions elsewhere in the enclave.

Some Rafah residents said the pace of the Israeli raid has been accelerated in the past two days. They said sounds of explosions and gunfire indicating fierce fighting have been almost non-stop.

"Last night was one of the worst nights in western Rafah, drones, planes, tanks, and naval boats bombarded the area. We feel the occupation is trying to complete the control of the city," said Hatem, 45, reached by text message.

"They are taking heavy strikes from the resistance fighters, which may be slowing them down."

More than eight months into the war in Gaza, Israel's advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to storm: Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the centre.

"The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations," Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.

"The city lives through a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombardment," he added.

Sofi said there was no medical facility functioning in the city, and that remaining residents and displaced families lacked the minimum of their daily needs of food and water.

Palestinian and UN figures show that fewer than 100,000 people may have remained in the far western side of the city, which had been sheltering more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May.

The military accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, an allegation Hamas denies.

"The soldiers located inside a civilian residence large quantities of weapons hidden in wardrobes, including grenades, explosives, a launcher and anti-tank missiles, ammunition, and arms," the military said in a statement late on Thursday.

Hamas' armed wing said on Thursday its fighters had hit two Israeli tanks with anti-tank rockets in the Shaboura camp in Rafah, and killed soldiers who tried to flee through the alleys. There was no Israeli immediate comment on the Hamas claim.

In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son, medics said.

In parallel, Israeli forces continued a new push back into some Gaza City suburbs in the north of the enclave, where they fought with Hamas-led militants. Residents said the army forces had destroyed many homes in the heart of Gaza City on Thursday.

Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike on a facility of the Gaza City municiplaity killed five people, including four municipality workers, the territory's Civil Emergency Service said. It added that rescue teams were searching the rubble for more missing victims.

Israel's ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killed more than 37,400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left nearly the entire population homeless and destitute.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israeli-forces-step-up-bombardment-across-gaza-amid-fierce-fighting/ar-BB1oDcTc?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=9ee185e652084782a7a11cb6867cd4da&ei=37

[Jimbuna]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBGk4oNvm8g

[Jimbuna]

Israeli army strapped wounded Palestinian to jeep

The Israeli military has said its forces violated protocol by strapping a wounded Palestinian man to the front of their vehicle during a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the incident after it was captured on video and shared on social media. An IDF statement said the man was wounded in an exchange of fire during the raid, in which he was a suspect.

The injured man's family said that when they asked for an ambulance, the army took him, strapped him to the bonnet of their jeep and drove off.

The individual was eventually transferred to the Red Crescent for treatment. The IDF said the incident would be investigated.

Eyewitnesses speaking to Reuters news agency identified him as a local man and named him as Mujahed Azmi.

"This morning [Saturday], during counter-terrorism operations to apprehend wanted suspects in the area of Wadi Burqin, terrorists opened fire at IDF troops, who responded with fire," the IDF statement said.

"During the exchange of fire, one of the suspects was injured and apprehended.

"In violation of orders and standard operating procedures, the suspect was taken by the forces while tied on top of a vehicle.

"The conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values of the IDF. The incident will be investigated and dealt with accordingly."

There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

The UN says at least 480 Palestinians - members of armed groups, attackers and civilians - have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Ten Israelis, including six security forces personnel, have also been killed in the West Bank.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjqq5n8911do

[Jimbuna]

Intense phase of Israel’s war with Hamas nearing end, says Netanyahu

Israel’s prime minister has said the most intense phase of the assault against Hamas in Gaza is coming to an end, freeing up forces to move to the Lebanese border, where escalating exchanges of fire with the militant group Hezbollah have increased fears of a wider war.

In his first public interview with a Hebrew-language network outlet in more than eight months of conflict, Benjamin Netanyahu also walked back on his commitment to a US-backed ceasefire proposal with Hamas, instead suggesting a more limited offer.

Later on Monday, however, Netanyahu insisted he was committed to the proposal.

Netanyahu made the remarks on Israel’s rightwing Channel 14 as the top US military officer warned of the risk that Iran would be drawn into a wider war with Hezbollah, threatening US forces in the region.
“We will have the possibility of transferring some of our forces north, and we will do that,” Netanyahu said in the interview, which was frequently interrupted by applause from the studio audience.

He said he hoped a diplomatic solution to the crisis could be found but vowed to solve the problem “in a different way” if needed. “We can fight on several fronts and we are prepared to do that,” Netanyahu added.

The prime minister said the offensive in Gaza would have to continue with “mowing” operations – targeted strikes aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.

He suggested he was prepared “to make a partial deal [with Hamas] – this is no secret – that will return to us some of the people”, referring to the roughly 120 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip. “But we are committed to continuing the war after a pause, in order to complete the goal of eliminating Hamas. I’m not willing to give up on that,” he added.

Hamas later issued a statement saying Netanyahu’s position confirmed his rejection of the ceasefire proposal put forward by the US president, Joe Biden.

The group said its insistence that any deal should include a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces out of the Gaza Strip “was an inevitable necessity to block Netanyahu’s attempts of evasion, deception, and perpetuation of aggression and the war of extermination against our people”.

The connection between the two conflicts – between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Israel and Hezbollah around the Lebanese border – has increasingly complicated the dynamics of a war on several fronts.

Hezbollah says an end to the war in Gaza is a precondition for it to end its firing and being open to negotiations, while Israel has said Hezbollah must withdraw from the Lebanese border as mandated by the UN security council resolution that ended the second Lebanese war in 2006.

The threat of an escalating conflict in the north, meanwhile, appears to have offered support to Hamas’s insistence that it will not agree to a ceasefire-for-hostages deal while Israeli troops are present in Gaza and offensive operations continue.

Netanyahu’s comments came amid stark warnings from international officials of the danger of the war in the north with Hezbollah rapidly spreading.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who is in Washington for talks with senior Biden administration officials, told the US presidential envoy, Amos Hochstein, that a halt of Hezbollah firing would not satisfy Israel and that the group would need to withdraw a substantial distance from the border area.

Gallant is scheduled to meet the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the CIA director, William Burns, on Monday. He is due to meet the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, on Tuesday.

The Biden administration is keen to cultivate and promote Gallant, who US officials see as the most moderate figure left in Netanyahu’s cabinet. The Israeli minister posted a picture on the X social media platform of him boarding an official US plane which he implied had been laid on to take him from New York to Washington.

Blinken, Burns and Austin will all restate the administration’s opposition to a major offensive on Lebanon, which US officials believe will be disastrous for the region. US officials admit however the US was not able to persuade the Israeli government to hold back on its offensive on Rafah, to do more to spare civilian casualties or to allow significantly more humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

The European foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Monday the conflict was close to expanding into Lebanon, days after Iran-backed Hezbollah threatened the EU member Cyprus.

“The risk of this war affecting the south of Lebanon and spilling over is every day bigger,” Borrell told reporters before a foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg. “We are on the eve of the war expanding.”

The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said the situation between Israel and Hezbollah was “more than worrying”, adding that she would travel to Lebanon soon. “A further escalation would be a catastrophe for people in the region,” she said.

Reinforcing the growing concern, the top US military officer, Gen Charles Brown, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, said Iran “would be more inclined to support Hezbollah”.

Netanyahu’s comments in his television interview were in sharp contrast to the outlines of the deal detailed by Biden late last month.

His remarks could further strain Israel’s ties with the US, Israel’s top ally, which launched a diplomatic push for the latest ceasefire proposal, including asking Arab countries to pressure Hamas – which Washington portrayed as the “holdout” – to accept.

The three-phase plan would bring about the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But disputes and mistrust persist between Israel and Hamas over how the deal plays out.

Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there is a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. When Biden announced the latest proposal last month, he said it included both.

The families of hostages have grown increasingly impatient with Netanyahu, seeing his apparent reluctance to move ahead on a deal as tainted by political considerations. A group representing the families condemned the prime minister’s remarks, which it viewed as an Israeli rejection of the ceasefire proposal.

“This is an abandonment of the 120 hostages and a violation of the state’s moral duty toward its citizens,” the group said, noting that it held Netanyahu responsible for returning all the captives.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/intense-phase-of-israel-s-war-with-hamas-nearing-end-says-netanyahu/ar-BB1oMg87?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=3d5be39a1b2c4791ae76a14a44eeddcc&ei=29

[Jimbuna]

'High risk' of famine in Gaza persists, new UN-backed report says

A UN-backed assessment says almost half a million Palestinians across Gaza are still facing “catastrophic levels” of hunger and that a “high risk” of famine persists as long as the Israel-Hamas war continues and humanitarian access is restricted.

However, the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says the available evidence does not indicate a famine is currently occurring in the north of the Palestinian territory.

The previous assessment in March had projected that one was imminent in the area.

The amount of food and other aid allowed into the north has increased since then, and nutrition, water, sanitation and health services have been stepped up, the report says.

But it warns that food availability in the south and central Gaza has been significantly reduced due to the closure of the Rafah border crossing and the displacement of more than one million people from the city of Rafah since early May, when Israel launched a ground operation there.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said the report “paints a stark picture of ongoing hunger” and showed the critical importance of sustained humanitarian access.

UN officials have blamed the situation on Israeli military restrictions on aid deliveries, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of law and order.

Israel insists there are no limits to the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza and blames UN agencies for failing to distribute supplies. It also accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv22g81djdyo

[Jimbuna]

Palestinians flee Gaza City's Shejaiya area amid heavy bombardment


Palestinians have been fleeing Gaza City's eastern Shejaiya district amid intense Israeli bombardment and a reported incursion by ground forces.

One Gaza City resident said it had "sounded as if the war is restarting", while Hamas-run authorities said air strikes had killed at least seven people.

Palestinian armed groups said they had targeted a tank and a bulldozer east of Shejaiya, where there were fierce battles during an Israeli operation at the end of last year.

The Israeli military has not commented on the reports, but it did order residents to evacuate and head southwards.

It comes days after Israel’s prime minister said that "the intense phase" of the fighting against Hamas was "about to end".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1wepdxzdy3o

[Jimbuna]

Israeli forces push deeper into southern and northern Gaza

CAIRO (Reuters) - Israeli forces deepened their incursion into two northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, and Palestinian health officials said tank shelling in Rafah killed at least 11 people.

Residents and Hamas media said tanks advanced further west into the Shakoush ‮neighbo‬u‮rhood‬ of Rafah, forcing thousands of displaced people there to leave their tent camps and head northward to the nearby Khan Younis.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Since May 7, tanks have advanced in several districts of Rafah, and forces remained in control of the entire border line with Egypt and the Rafah crossing, the only gateway for most of Gaza's 2.3 million people with the outside world.

One resident, who spoke to Reuters via a chat app, said some bulldozers in the Shakoush area were piling up sand for Israeli tanks to station behind.

"Some families live in the area of the raid and are now besieged by the occupation forces," he told Reuters.

"The situation there is very dangerous and many families are leaving towards Khan Younis, even from the Mawasi area as things became unsafe for them," said the man, who moved northward overnight.

More than eight months into Israel's air and ground war in Gaza triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Oct. 7, the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces operating in areas over which the army said it had gained control months ago. The Palestinian groups sometimes still fire rockets into Israeli territory.

Arab mediators' efforts, backed by the United States, have so far failed to conclude a ceasefire. Hamas says any deal must end the war and bring full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in fighting until Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is eradicated.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israeli-forces-push-deeper-into-southern-and-northern-gaza/ar-BB1p3C43?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=b7b5f9d32d6747a08f9fb2e366874ebf&ei=52

[Jimbuna]

US will remove Gaza aid pier due to weather and may not put it back, officials say


The pier built by the U.S. military to bring aid to Gaza is being removed due to weather to protect it, and the U.S. is considering not re-installing it unless aid begins flowing out into the population again, several U.S. officials said Friday.

While the military has helped deliver desperately needed food through the pier, the vast majority of it is still sitting in the adjacent storage yard because of the difficulty that agencies have had moving it to areas in Gaza where it is most needed, and that storage area is almost full.

The pier has been instrumental in getting more than 15 million pounds, or 6.8 million kilograms, of food into Gaza but has faced multiple setbacks. Rough seas damaged the pier just days into its initial operations, but the bigger challenge has been that humanitarian convoys have stopped carrying the aid from the pier’s storage area further into Gaza, to get it into civilians' hands, because they have come under attack.

The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/us-will-remove-gaza-aid-pier-due-to-weather-and-may-not-put-it-back-officials-say/ar-BB1p4Lw3?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=fa7b19b69b734d3d823103f61f92da8f&ei=30

[Jimbuna]

IDF eliminates dozens of terrorists in Shejaia, locates weapons near schools


IDF Division 98 forces operating in Shejaia in the last several days have eliminated dozens of terrorists, the military announced Saturday evening.

The forces also located observation posts, weapons, drones, and a long-range rocket launcher near schools in the area.

Israeli troops have been engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorists in the area and have directed strikes by Israeli air force aircraft on a number of terror targets, the IDF added.

Additionally, the Brigade 7 combat team led the division and reportedly encircled the civilian area that had been converted by Hamas terrorists into a terror compound.

Forces of the combat team of the Paratroopers Brigade began to clear and dismantle terror infrastructure and military structures in the area, including underground shafts. The IDF also noted that it had located weapons in the area.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/south-korea-sends-warning-to-russia-over-north-korea-partnership/vi-BB1oZIvH?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=4218e0a604df4a589f2a285854630d48&ei=15

[Jimbuna]

Palestinian militants fire rockets into Israel, tanks advance in Gaza


By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mohammad Salem

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday as fighting raged in Gaza and Israeli tanks advanced deeper in parts of the enclave, residents and officials said.

The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas, said its fighters fired rockets towards several Israeli communities near the fence with Gaza in response to "the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people".

The volley of about 20 rockets caused no casualties, the Israeli military said. But the attack showed militants still possess rocket capabilities almost nine months into an offensive that Israel says is aimed at neutralising threats against it.

Residents of several neighbourhoods in eastern Khan Younis, which is in southern Gaza, said they had received audio messages from Israeli phone numbers ordering them to leave their homes.

"For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the humanitarian zone," army spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on social media platform X in a call to residents and displaced people living in those areas.

Some suggested this could mean Israeli forces will return to the area, which they left several weeks ago. The Israeli military said in a statement earlier on Monday the rockets were fired from the Khan Younis area.

Violence also flared on Monday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian health ministry said a woman and a boy were killed in the city of Tulkarm during an operation by Israeli forces. A day earlier, an Israeli strike in the same area killed an Islamic Jihad member.

In some parts of Gaza, militants continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces in areas that the army had left months ago.

Israeli tanks deepened incursions into the Shejaia suburb of eastern Gaza City for a fifth day, and tanks advanced further in western and central Rafah, in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, residents said.

The Israeli military said it had killed a number of militants in combat in Shejaia on Monday and found large amounts of weapons there.

Hamas, the militant Islamist group that governs Gaza, said its fighters had lured an Israeli force into a booby-trapped house in the east of Rafah and blown it up, causing casualties.

The Israeli military announced the death of a soldier in southern Gaza without providing details. Israel's Army Radio said the soldier was killed in Rafah in a booby-trapped house - a possible reference to the incident reported by Islamic Jihad.

Also in Rafah, the Israeli military said that an airstrike killed a militant who fired an anti-tank missile at its troops.

Israel has signalled that its operation in Rafah, meant to stamp out Hamas, will soon be concluded. After the intense phase of the war is over, its forces will focus on smaller scale operations meant to stop Hamas reassembling, officials say.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/palestinian-militants-fire-rockets-into-israel-tanks-advance-in-gaza/ar-BB1pdBWY?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=774695552a9a482a8bc5758e3367d15c&ei=27

[Jimbuna]

Palestinians flee Khan Younis as Israeli forces strike south Gaza

The UN says 250,000 Palestinians in southern Gaza have been affected by evacuation orders from the Israeli military.

Many people have been fleeing areas in and around the second city of Khan Younis on foot and by car.

The Red Cross said a major hospital in the area was unable to continue functioning because so many medical staff had left along with patients, although the military said they were not subject to an evacuation order.

Gazan health officials say eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded during overnight Israeli strikes.

Louise Wateridge, an official with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) in Gaza, asked where people could go as they were forced to leave their homes once again.

“In this area, people were already forced to survive in severely damaged, destroyed, structurally unsafe buildings after the Rafah military operation,” she said.

Once again on the move - huddled on carts, motorbikes and pickup trucks - thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing towns and villages to the east of Khan Younis.

After issuing evacuation orders on Monday evening, the Israeli military mounted strikes overnight on the area from which it says around 20 projectiles were fired into Israel on Monday morning - the biggest such barrage for months.

The military said it hit targets including a weapons storage facility and operational centres of Palestinian armed groups.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that eight people were killed and more than 30 wounded.

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it carried out the rocket attack on Monday, but the military again accused Hamas of continuing to “systematically violate international law while using civilian infrastructure and the civilian population as human shields”.

Among those fleeing a possible Israeli ground assault were patients and medical staff at the city's European Gaza hospital, which is now all but deserted. The military said it did not issue an evacuation order for the hospital.

The head of the emergency department at the hospital, Dr Abdullah Hamdan, said it was the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry that said they should evacuate patients and equipment.

He said that there were around 230 patients in various departments. Many were taken to another facility in western Khan Younis, Nasser hospital, he added.

One patient being treated for cancer told the BBC that he was transferred by ambulance to Nasser hospital, but that he had not been able to get in and was now on the street.

Later on Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said so many staff members had evacuated the European hospital that it was unable to continue functioning effectively.

The ICRC said it was moving its team and patients to a field hospital near Rafah and that the staff would return to the European hospital once conditions allowed.

“As evacuations continue to affect so many people, it is critical that safe transport for those who are disabled, the elderly, and the sick is provided," it added.

Much of Khan Younis was destroyed in a sustained Israeli offensive against Hamas earlier this year.

The city to which some of its residents subsequently returned was almost unrecognizable. Nevertheless, thousands of people moved back to take refuge from Israel's offensive in Rafah.

Many have been displaced five or six times during the war.

One man told the BBC: “We no longer know where we should go next? We have no other choice now but to die in our homes because there is no place left that we have not been displaced to.”

A young boy echoed this: “We were sitting in safety and suddenly we heard the army order to evacuate the area... I want to know where we should go next? I burst into tears when I heard the news of the evacuation.”

The Israeli military has told residents to move to the west of Khan Younis to the overcrowded area of al-Mawasi - which Israel designated as a “humanitarian area” from early on in the conflict.

In recent days, Israeli leaders have said the intense phase of the war to eradicate Hamas is coming to an end, but that may be premature as Palestinian fighters continue to re-emerge in areas the army had previously cleared.

On Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed a New York Times report, external, citing unnamed current and former security officials, that said Israel’s top generals “want to begin a ceasefire in Gaza even if it keeps Hamas in power for the time being”.

"I do not know who these anonymous sources are, but I am here to make it unequivocally clear: this will not happen. The war will end once Israel achieves all of its objectives, including the destruction of Hamas and the release of all of our hostages,” Mr Netanyahu said.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Hamas was the “one exception” to international support for a ceasefire proposal outlined by President Biden at the end of May.

“We’ve been in an intense effort with the Egyptians, with the Qataris to see if we could close the gaps that Hamas created in not saying yes to a proposal that everyone, including the Israelis, had said yes to,” he said at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington DC.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd1600vl7lzo

[em2nought]

Israeli army strapped wounded Palestinian to jeep


Nobody complains when HAMAS does it. :D

[Jimbuna]

Nobody complains when HAMAS does it. :D

A good and fair point :yep:

[Jimbuna]

Israel conscription rule stokes ultra-Orthodox fury

When Israel’s ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Jewish community gathers in force you realise just how large it is.

Thousands of men and boys dressed in black and white are crammed into the streets of Mea Shearim - which is the heart of the ultra-Orthodox community - in Jerusalem for an angry protest against the military draft.

It is the latest demonstration since the Supreme Court’s historic ruling that young Haredi men must be conscripted into the Israeli military and are no longer eligible for significant government benefits.

Young men who are full-time students in Jewish seminaries, or yeshivas, tell me that their religious lifestyle is in jeopardy. They believe that their prayers and spiritual learning are what protects Israel and the Jewish people.

“For 2,000 years we’ve been persecuted, and we’ve survived because we’re learning Torah and now the Supreme Court wants to remove this from us, and it will cause our destruction,” says Joseph.

“Going to the army will make a frum - religious Jew - not religious anymore.”

“The draft does not help militarily. They don’t want us Haredim, us orthodox Jews, they don’t need us,” another student tells me, withholding his name as he does not have his rabbi’s permission to give an interview.

“They’re just gonna give us some dirty job there. They’re there to make us not Orthodox no longer.”

For decades, there has been controversy over the role of the ultra-Orthodox in Israeli society. From a small minority, the community is now a million-strong, making up 12.9% of the population.

Ultra-Orthodox parties have often acted as kingmakers in Israeli politics, giving support to successive governments headed by Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in return for continuing the draft exemption and hundreds of millions of dollars for their institutions.

This has been a long-standing cause of friction with secular Jewish Israelis who mostly do compulsory military service and pay the largest share of taxes. But the issue has now come to a head at the most sensitive time as the army faces unprecedented strain following its longest ever war in Gaza, and a possible second war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“My son has already been in the reserves for 200 days! How many years do you want him to do? How are you not ashamed?” demanded Mor Shamgar as she berated Israel’s national security adviser at a recent conference in Herzliya.

Her exasperated rant about her son - serving as a tank commander in southern Israel - was widely shared on social media.

With army leaders complaining about a shortage of military manpower, Ms Shamgar - who says she has previously voted for the prime minister’s party - believes that the government has “handled the situation very poorly,” putting its own political survival ahead of national interests on the draft issue.

“Netanyahu and his gang made a major judgement mistake on thinking they can dodge it,” she tells me. “Because once you enforce on half the population that you have to go to the army, you cannot enforce that the other half will not go to the army. It's not even secular versus religion. I see it as an equality issue. You can't make laws that make half a population, second grade citizens.”

Earlier this year, a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute indicated that 70% of Israeli Jews wanted to end the blanket exemptions from military service for the ultra-Orthodox.

Despite earlier threats, so far ultra-Orthodox parties have not left the governing coalition over army conscription. Attempts continue to push forward an older bill - once rejected by Haredi leaders - that would lead to partial enlistment of their community.

At an ultra-Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem, men of different ages are draped in their prayer shawls gathering for the morning service. Their conservative way of life is based on a strict interpretation of Jewish law and customs.

So far, just one Israeli army battalion, Netzah Yehuda, was set up specifically to accommodate ultra-Orthodox demands for gender segregation with special requirements for kosher food, and time set aside for prayers and daily rites.

But an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who works on issues of integration and is on the board of an NGO that supports the battalion, believes more compromises are possible and that a new Haredi brigade should be formed.

“It's up to the Haredim to come to the table and say, we're ready for real concessions, we’re ready to step out of our traditional comfort zone and do something proactive in finding the right framework that will allow more Haredi to serve,” says Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer.

He suggests thousands of young ultra-Orthodox men who do not currently do full-time Torah study - finding themselves unsuited to academic rigours - should be encouraged to join the army like other Jewish Israelis their age.

For the Israeli military to live up to its reputation as “the People’s Army,” Rabbi Pfeffer also calls on it to do more to build trust and improve its relationship with his community. “There are a lot of accommodations needed, but they’re not rocket science,” he comments.

So far, the process of implementing the ultra-Orthodox draft appears gradual.

More than 60,000 ultra-Orthodox men are registered as yeshiva students and have been receiving an exemption from military service. But since last week’s Supreme Court ruling, the army has only been told to draft an additional 3,000 from the community, in addition to about 1,500 who already serve. It has also been told to devise plans to recruit larger numbers in coming years.

Back in Mea Shearim, after nightfall there are some protesters who take an extreme position, throwing stones at the police and spreading out in Jerusalem to attack the cars of two ultra-Orthodox politicians who they feel have let them down on military conscription.

Historically, this is an insulated section of society that resists change but now amid rising public pressure in Israel and the possibility of widening war, change appears unavoidable.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6p24expzd5o

[Jimbuna]

Top Hezbollah commander killed in his car by precision Israel airstrike

Israel has confirmed it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in an airstrike in south Lebanon, the second such assassination in recent weeks.

Hezbollah said that “commander Mohammed Naameh Nasser”, also known as “Hajj Abu Naameh” had been killed in a strike on a car in Tyre and also announced the death of a second fighter. The Israeli military confirmed it was responsible for the airstrike.

Iran-backed Hezbollah has traded near daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza, but an uptick in bellicose rhetoric from both sides in recent weeks has raised fears of an all-out war.

Hezbollah responded to the killing of Naameh Nasser by firing 100 rockets at Israel.
Nasser is the third senior Hezbollah commander to be killed in almost nine months of hostilities.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said “an enemy drone targeted a car” in Tyre, a coastal city about 12 miles from the border.

The first source said Nasser had the same rank as Taleb Abdallah, a commander killed in an Israeli strike last month who was described by a Lebanese military source at the time as the “most important” Hezbollah commander killed to date.

That strike prompted Hezbollah to intensify its attacks on Israeli targets, firing barrages of rockets across the border in the days that followed.

In January, a security source said an Israeli strike killed Wissam Hassan Tawil, another top commander from the group.

Hezbollah announced a series of attacks on Israeli troops and positions near the border on Wednesday, while the NNA reported Israeli attacks in other parts of south Lebanon.

The commander’s death followed a relative easing of cross-border exchanges over the past week, after threats on both sides had intensified.

Fears the violence, so far largely restricted to the border area, could turn into all-out war have sparked a flurry of diplomatic efforts to lower tensions.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/top-hezbollah-commander-killed-in-his-car-by-precision-israel-airstrike/ar-BB1pm5nA?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=396c50e309dc4803aa279b7d4b0edb76&ei=27

[Jimbuna]

Hamas faces growing public dissent as Gaza war erodes support

The man in the video is beside himself, a mask of anguish radiating through his bloodied face.

“I am an academic doctor,” he says, “I had a good life, but we have a filthy [Hamas] leadership. They got used to our bloodshed, may God curse them! They are scum!”

The video - unthinkable before the Gaza war - was filmed outside a hospital, inundated with hundreds of Palestinian casualties after an Israeli operation to free hostages from central Gaza last month.

Warning: Graphic image(see link)

Seconds before the video ends, he turns to the crowd.

“I’m one of you,” he says, “but you are a cowardly people. We could have avoided this attack!”

The video went viral. And it’s not the only one.

Open criticism of Hamas has been growing in Gaza, both on the streets and online.

Some have publicly criticised Hamas for hiding the hostages in apartments near a busy marketplace, or for firing rockets from civilian areas.

Residents have told the BBC that swearing and cursing against the Hamas leadership is now common in the markets, and that some drivers of donkey carts have even nicknamed their animals after the Hamas leader in Gaza - Yahya Sinwar - urging the donkeys forward with shouts of "Yallah, Sinwar!"

“People say things like, ‘Hamas has destroyed us’ or even call on God to take their lives,” one man said.

“They ask what the 7 October attacks were for - some say they were a gift to Israel.”

Some are even urging their leaders to agree a ceasefire with Israel.

There are still those in Gaza fiercely loyal to Hamas and after years of repressive control, it’s difficult to know how far the group is losing support, or how far existing opponents feel more able to speak their mind.

But a senior Hamas official privately acknowledged to the BBC, months ago, that they were losing support as a result of the war.

And even some on the group’s own payroll are wavering.

One senior Hamas government employee told the BBC that the Hamas attacks were “a crazy, uncalculated leap”.

He asked that we concealed his identity.

“I know from my work with the Hamas government that it prepared well for the attack militarily, but it neglected the home front,” he said.

“They did not build any safe shelters for people, they did not reserve enough food, fuel and medical supplies. If my family and I survive this war, I will leave Gaza, the first chance I get.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0vewvp14zdo

[Jimbuna]

Efforts to secure Gaza ceasefire and hostage release gain momentum

By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Mohammad Salem and Maayan Lubell

CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country's team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency.

A source in Israel's negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was now a real chance of achieving agreement.

The Israeli remarks were in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were not acceptable.
A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts said the latest proposal by the militant Islamist group could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel.

He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to a permanent ceasefire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.

"Should the sides need more time to seal an agreement on a permanent ceasefire, the two sides should agree there would be no return to the fighting until they do that," the official told Reuters.

Turkey's president, Tayyip Erdogan, was quoted by Turkish media as saying he hoped a "final ceasefire" could be secured "in a couple of days", and urged Western countries to put pressure on Israel to accept the terms on offer.

HEZBOLLAH-HAMAS TALKS

Gaza health authorities say more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive launched in response to a Hamas-led attack on Israel last Oct. 7 in which Israel said 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage.

The war has displaced hundreds of thousands of Gazans and caused a humanitarian crisis. It has also fuelled tension across the region, triggering exchanges of fire across Israel's northern border with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

Hezbollah said on Friday its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and a top Hamas official, Khalil Al-Hayya, had met to discuss the latest developments in Gaza.

A Hezbollah official later said the group would stop firing as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect, echoing previous statements by the group, which says its rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel are in support of the Palestinians.

"If there is a Gaza agreement, then from zero hour there will be a ceasefire in Lebanon," the official told Reuters.

BIDEN WELCOMES NETANYAHU'S DECISION

The White House said Biden had, during their phone call on Thursday, welcomed Netanyahu's decision on resuming the stalled talks "in an effort to close out the deal".

Some far-right partners in Netanyahu's governing coalition have indicated they may quit the government if the war ends before Hamas is destroyed. Their departure would probably end Netanyahu's premiership.

Israel's Channel 7 News reported that, at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, far-right coalition partner Itamar Ben Gvir had accused security and defence officials of deciding to resume the talks without consulting him.

Hamas' new proposal responded to a plan made public in late May by Biden that would include the release of about 120 hostages still held in Gaza and a ceasefire.

The plan entails the gradual release of hostages and the pullback of Israeli forces over an initial two phases, and the freeing of Palestinian prisoners. A third phase involves Gaza's reconstruction and the return of the remains of dead hostages.

Israel has previously said it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas, which governs Gaza, is eradicated.

An Israeli delegation in Egypt on Thursday discussed details of the possible deal, Egyptian security sources said. They said Israel would respond to the Hamas proposal after discussions with Qatar which, like Egypt, has mediated the peace efforts.

In the latest fighting in Gaza, residents said Israeli tanks had pushed into the Al-Nasser neighbourhood in the northern part of Rafah, near the border with Egypt. Israel said its operations were aimed at dismantling Hamas' armed wing.

An Israeli airstrike on a house killed five Palestinians, including three children, in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Gaza medics said. Seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Gazans, who desperately need aid such as food and drinking water, reacted cautiously to the prospect of renewed talks. The only previous truce, agreed in November, lasted seven days.

"We in Gaza are people who sleep on death and wake up to death. We know that at any time we can die," Ibtisam Al-Athamna, who said she had been displaced nine times during the war, told Reuters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/efforts-to-secure-gaza-ceasefire-and-hostage-release-gain-momentum/ar-BB1ptaWa?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=67d96871d2784f6cb346c29e94dfaacc&ei=28

[Jimbuna]

Hamas accepts US proposal on talks over Israeli hostages, Hamas source says

DUBAI/CAIRO (Reuters) -Hamas has accepted a U.S. proposal to begin talks on releasing Israeli hostages, including soldiers and men, 16 days after the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, a senior Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday.

The militant Islamist group has dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before signing the agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts had said the proposal could lead to a framework agreement if embraced by Israel and would end the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
A source in Israel's negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday there was now a real chance of achieving agreement. That was in sharp contrast to past instances in the nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by Hamas were unacceptable.

A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. On Friday his office said talks would continue next week and emphasised that gaps between the sides still remained.

The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, since Hamas attacked southern Israeli cities on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to official Israeli figures.

The new proposal ensures that mediators would guarantee a temporary ceasefire, aid delivery and the withdrawal of Israeli troops as long as indirect talks continue to implement the second phase of the agreement, the Hamas source said.

Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza have intensified over the past few days with active shuttle diplomacy among Washington, Israel and Qatar, which is leading mediation efforts from Doha, where the exiled Hamas leadership is based.

A regional source said the U.S. administration was trying hard to secure a deal before the presidential election in November.

Netanyahu said on Friday that the head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency had returned from an initial meeting with mediators in Qatar and that negotiations would continue next week.

FIGHTING RAGES

Meanwhile, Israeli forces stepped up military strikes across the enclave, killing at least 29 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, and wounding 100 others, the territory's health officials said.

Among those killed in separate air strikes were five local journalists, raising the death toll of journalists since Oct 7 to 158, according to the Hamas-led Gaza government media office.

Israeli forces, which have deepened their incursions into Rafah, near the border with Egypt, killed four Palestinian policemen and wounded eight others, in an air strike on their vehicle on Saturday, health officials said.

A statement issued by the Hamas-run interior ministry said the four included Fares Abdel-Al, the head of the police force in western Rafah neighbourhood of Tel Al-Sultan.

The Israeli military said forces continued "intelligence-base operations" in Rafah, destroyed several underground structures, seized weapons and equipment, and killed several Palestinian gunmen.

Israel said its operations in Rafah aimed to eradicate the last Hamas armed wing battalions.

In the central Al-Nuseirat camp, one of the enclave's eight historic refugee camps, an Israeli air strike on a house killed 10 Palestinians, medics said.

The Israeli military said it eliminated a Hamas rocket cell that operated from inside a humanitarian-designated area. It said it carried out a precise strike after taking measures to ensure civilians were unharmed. Hamas denies Israeli accusations it uses civilian properties for military purposes.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said fighters attacked Israeli forces in several areas of the enclave by anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-accepts-us-proposal-on-talks-over-israeli-hostages-hamas-source-says/ar-BB1pw1nu?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=e427a6391b464c20855ee5dd14afa34c&ei=92

[Jimbuna]

Israel settlements drive heightens Palestinian land angst

Palestinian officials have condemned a dramatic new settlement drive by Israel in the occupied West Bank which includes retroactively authorising three outposts.

The move is set to further stoke tensions in the territory which has seen a surge in violence since the war in Gaza began on 7 October.

Palestinians claim the West Bank as part of their hoped-for future state. Settlements are widely seen as illegal under international law although Israel disagrees.

The three unauthorised outposts that have now been legalised under Israeli law were described as new neighbourhoods of existing settlements. They are in sensitive areas in the Jordan Valley and near the southern city of Hebron.

In addition, the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday that Israeli authorities had approved or advanced plans for 5,295 homes in dozens of settlements.

It also emerged this week that the Israeli government’s Higher Planning Council had approved the largest seizure of West Bank land in over three decades.

Some 12,700 dunams (5 sq miles) has been seized in the Jordan Valley and declared as Israeli state land. This year has marked a peak in the extent of declarations of state land with a total of 23,700 dunams affected.

The Palestinian president’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeinah, said the new announcements confirmed that Israel’s “extremist government is bound by the right-wing policy of war and settlement”.

He said the latest steps would not “achieve security and peace for anyone” and were meant to prevent the establishment of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

Last week, Israel’s security cabinet decided to authorise retroactively five settlement outposts built without official government approval.

The UN, the UK and other countries denounced the move as undermining hopes for the two-state solution - the internationally approved formula for peace that would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

“Israel must halt its illegal settlement expansion and hold to account those responsible for extremist settler violence,” the British Foreign Office said.

“The UK’s priority is to bring the Gaza conflict to a sustainable end as quickly as possible and ensure a lasting peace in the Middle East, through an irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.”

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment on the overall strategy for the West Bank.

However, the far-right Israeli minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in a West Bank settlement, has welcomed the recent steps. "We are building the good land and thwarting the establishment of a Palestinian state," he said Wednesday on social media platform X.

Not counting annexed east Jerusalem, about half a million settlers live in the West Bank alongside three million Palestinians. Last year, Mr Smotrich instructed government departments to prepare to double the number of settlers to one million.

Since Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War, successive Israeli administrations have allowed settlements to grow. However, expansion has risen sharply since Mr Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the head of a hardline, pro-settler governing coalition.

Last month, Peace Now released the recording of an address by Mr Smotrich to his Religious Zionism party, in which he proposes transferring the management of settlements from military to civilian officials, building a separate road bypass system for settlers, expanding farming outposts and cracking down on unauthorised Palestinian construction.

Peace Now warned that the plan would irreversibly change the way the West Bank was governed and lead to “de facto annexation”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czq61w10qwpo

[Jimbuna]

Hamas clears the way for a possible cease-fire after dropping key demand, officials say

Hamas has given initial approval for a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel give an up-front commitment for a complete end to the war, a Hamas and an Egyptian official said Saturday.

The apparent compromise by the militant group — which controlled Gaza before triggering the war with an Oct. 7 attack on Israel — could help deliver the first pause in fighting since last November and set the stage for further talks on ending a devastating nine-month war. But all sides cautioned that a deal is still not guaranteed.

The two officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations, said Washington’s phased deal will first include a “full and complete” six-week cease-fire that would see the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During these 42 days, Israeli forces would also withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza, the pair said.
Over that period, Hamas, Israel and the mediators would also negotiate the terms of the second phase that could see the release of the remaining male hostages, both civilians and soldiers, the officials said. In return, Israel would free additional Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The third phase would see the return of any remaining hostages, including bodies of dead captives, and the start of a yearslong reconstruction project.

Hamas still wants “written guarantees” from mediators that Israel will continue to negotiate a permanent cease-fire deal once the first phase goes into effect, the two officials said.

The Hamas representative told The Associated Press the group’s approval came after it received “verbal commitments and guarantees” from the mediators that the war won’t be resumed and that negotiations will continue until a permanent cease-fire is reached.

“Now we want these guarantees on paper,” he said.

Months of on-again off-again cease-fire talks have stumbled over Hamas’ demand that any deal include a complete end to the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered to pause the fighting, but not end it altogether until Israel reaches its goals of destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and returning all hostages held by the militant group.

Hamas has previously expressed concern Israel will restart the war after the hostages are released. Likewise, Israeli officials have said they are worried Hamas will draw out the talks and the initial cease-fire indefinitely, without releasing all the hostages.

Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment, and there was no immediate comment from Washington.

On Friday, the Israeli prime minister confirmed that the Mossad spy agency's chief had paid a lightning visit to Qatar, one of the key mediators. But his office said “gaps between the parties” remained.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ October attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Since then, the Israeli air and ground offensive has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The offensive has caused widespread devastation and unleashed a humanitarian crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine, according to international officials. Israel says Hamas is still holding about 120 hostages — about a third of which Israel believes to have died.

In line with previous proposals, the deal would see around 600 trucks of humanitarian aid entering Gaza daily — including 50 fuel trucks — with 300 bound for the hard-hit northern of the enclave, the officials said. Following Israel's assault on the southernmost city of Rafah, aid supplies entering Gaza have been reduced to a trickle.

Saturday's news comes as fighting and Israel's ariel bombardment in Gaza continues unabated.

In the central city of Deir al-Balah, funeral prayers were held for 12 Palestinians, including five children and two women, killed in three separate strikes in central Gaza on Friday and Saturday, according to hospital officials. The bodies of the dead were taken to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where they were counted by AP journalists.

Two of those killed in one of the strikes that hit the Mughazi Refugee camp Friday were employees with the United Nations agency for Palestinian Refugees, the organization's director of communications told the AP. Juliette Touma added that a total of 194 workers with the U.N. agency have been killed by the conflict since October.

Earlier this week, some 250,000 Palestinians were affected by an Israeli evacuation order in the southern city of Khan Younis and the surrounding areas. Most Palestinians seeking safety are either heading to an Israeli-declared “safe zone” centered on a coastal area called Muwasi, or the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.

Ground fighting has also raged in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City for the past two weeks, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Many sheltered in the Yarmouk Sports Stadium, one of the strip's largest soccer arenas.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-clears-the-way-for-a-possible-cease-fire-after-dropping-key-demand-officials-say/ar-BB1pvNi1?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=fdc30571a35c49b084919f095eb1a57e&ei=33

[Jimbuna]

Israeli minister: stopping Gaza war now would be folly

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday it would be a huge mistake to stop Israel's military offensive in Gaza now.

Smotrich, who heads a pro-settler party which is part of Prime Minister Netanyahu's governing coalition, made the comment as Israeli officials continued talks via mediators about a possible ceasefire deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

He wrote on social media platform X: "Hamas is collapsing and begging for a ceasefire. This is the time to squeeze the neck until we crush and break the enemy. To stop now, just before the end, and let him recover and fight us again, is a senseless folly."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israeli-minister-stopping-gaza-war-now-would-be-folly/ar-BB1pAVkj?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=0a6acde9a4434b3d9ff34306d4a71c90&ei=105

[Jimbuna]

Senior Hamas official killed as Israel orders fresh evacuation

A senior Hamas administration official was among four people killed in an Israeli air strike at a school in Gaza City, Palestinian sources say.

A local official told the BBC that Ehab Al-Ghussein was appointed to manage the affairs of the Hamas government in Gaza City and northern Gaza three months ago.

The Israeli army says that it carried out a strike on the area of a school building in Gaza City from which it says "terrorists were operating and hiding".

It says that it took steps to minimise the risk of civilians being harmed.

Eyewitnesses say the attack targeted the Holy Family School. A large number of people were sheltering in the building, the BBC understands.

The air strike targeted two classrooms on the ground floor, they said.

Ehab Al-Ghussein was formerly deputy labour minister in the Hamas administration and before that an interior ministry spokesman. His death is not considered to be a blow to Hamas militarily, but he was considered a significant figure in the leadership of the Hamas administration.

Many others in the Hamas administration have been killed in the past nine months.

In one Israeli airstrike last November, the deputy culture minister and the deputy speaker of the legislative council were killed, along with other government employees and officials, as well as senior police officers.

Separately the Israeli military issued another evacuation order for a central part of Gaza City.

Ibrahim Al-Barbari, 47, who lives with his wife, five children, mother and sister in the Bani Amer neighbourhood, told the BBC that dozens of families were leaving and women and children were carrying bags and heading west.

“We heard from the neighbours that we had to leave the house. We haven’t received any calls or texts from the army, but we have already started gathering our belongings in preparation for moving again.

"We have been living in a state of near famine for months."

Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that any ceasefire deal in Gaza must allow Israel to resume fighting afterwards, until its objectives are met.

He has previously defined these as dismantling Hamas's military and governing capabilities, as well as returning hostages.

Hamas officials say they are awaiting Israel's response to the latest ceasefire proposals.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce93qvvzzx0o

[Jimbuna]

Israeli air strike kills 29 people at Gaza camp for displaced

At least 29 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a tent camp for displaced people outside a school in southern Gaza, hospital officials say.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Tuesday’s strike hit next to the gate of al-Awda school in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of the city of Khan Younis.

One eyewitness described the number of casualties as “unimaginable”.

The Israeli military said it had used "precise munition" to target a "terrorist from Hamas' military wing" who had taken part in the 7 October attack on Israel. It also said it was "looking into the reports that civilians were harmed" adjacent to the school.

The strike was condemned by the European Union and Germany.

"People seeking shelter in schools getting killed is unacceptable," the German foreign ministry said in a statement on X. "The repeated attacks on schools by the Israeli army must stop and an investigation must come quickly."

The incident comes a week after the Israeli military ordered civilians to evacuate Abasan al-Kabira and other areas of eastern Khan Younis, prompting tens of thousands to flee.

Much of the city was destroyed in a long Israeli offensive earlier this year, but large numbers of Palestinians had moved there to escape the continuing Israeli operation in nearby Rafah.

The BBC has spoken to witnesses who said the area around al-Awda school was teeming with displaced people from villages east of Khan Younis, and who recounted the bloody aftermath of the strike in graphic detail.

The attack resulted in widespread destruction and the deaths of women and children, according to the witnesses.

Body parts were scattered across the site and many people staying in tents outside the school were also injured.

Al Jazeera TV posted a graphic video that it said showed the moment the missile hit the area.

A crowd of people are seen watching a football match inside a school courtyard and then running for cover following a loud explosion nearby.

Multiple screams can be heard as the cameraman rushes towards a street that is strewn with debris. Dead and wounded people also seen lying on the ground.

Ayman Al-Dahma, 21, told the BBC there had been as many as 3,000 people packed into the area at the time, which he said housed a market and residential buildings.

Describing the number of casualties as “unimaginable”, he said he had seen people whose limbs had been severed by the blast.

He continued: “They said it was a safe place - that there were water and food, there were schools and everything... Suddenly a rocket comes down on you and all the people around you.”

Mohamed Awadeh Anzeh told the BBC the area had been busy with people and market traders “going about their normal lives” when the strike hit.

He continued: “Suddenly, while we were sitting, there was a sound. It went dark... I was feeding my little child.

“I don't know what happened. Suddenly, I took him and started running... and while I was running, I saw blood coming down from my leg.”

He described a “terrifying” scene and said he had witnessed body parts strewn across the street.

Iqram Sallout said there had been no prior warning a strike could be imminent in the area, which he told the BBC had been filled with people forced from their homes by the conflict.

“There are many displaced people - you couldn’t even walk in the streets, there were many tents and people, including young people”.

He added: “The injuries we saw were severe, even among young children.”

One video from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where the casualties from Abasan al-Kabira were taken, showed more than a dozen dead and seriously wounded people, including several children, on the floor of one room.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c880k3930rmo

[Jimbuna]

Israel tells 'everyone in Gaza City' to leave

The Israeli military has told all residents of Gaza City to evacuate south to the central Gaza Strip, amid intensified operations in the north.

Leaflets dropped by aircraft instruct "everyone in Gaza City" to leave what is described as a "dangerous combat zone" via designated safe routes - marked as two roads that lead to shelters in Deir al-Balah and al-Zawaida.

The UN has said it is deeply concerned about evacuation orders being given. It is the second time since the war began that Gaza City as a whole has been asked to evacuate.

Over the past two weeks, Israeli forces have re-entered several districts where the military believes Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters have regrouped since the start of the year.

Hamas has said Israel’s renewed activity in the city is threatening to derail negotiations over a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal, which resumed on Wednesday in Qatar. The talks are being attended by the intelligence chiefs of Egypt, the US and Israel, as well as the prime minister of Qatar.

Top Hamas official Hossam Badran told AFP that Israel "is trying to pressure negotiations by intensifying bombing operations, displacement, and committing massacres".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasised Israel’s commitment to a deal as long as its “red lines are preserved”.

There are estimated to be more than a quarter-of-a-million people still living in Gaza City.

Some were observed evacuating to the south after the Israeli military dropped leaflets there urging them to leave, which an Israel official later told the BBC was a recommendation rather than an instruction.

Others, though, were not willing to leave.

"I will not leave Gaza [City]. I will not make the stupid mistake that others have made. Israeli missiles do not differentiate between north and south,” resident Ibrahim al-Barbari, 47, told the BBC.

“If death is my fate and the fate of my children, we will die with honour and dignity in our homes,” he said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received calls from some residents who were unable to leave their homes because of the intensity of the bombing.

"The information coming from Gaza City shows residents are living through tragic conditions. [Israeli] occupation forces continue to hit residential districts, and displace people from their homes and refuge shelters," it said.

In a statement issued earlier on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops had "conducted a counterterrorism operation" overnight against Hamas and PIJ fighters who were operating inside a headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) in Gaza City.

The troops had opened a “defined corridor to facilitate the evacuation of civilians” from the area before they entered the structure and “eliminated terrorists in close-quarters combat”, it added.

There was no immediate comment from Unrwa.

The IDF also said it had killed dozens of fighters in Gaza City's eastern Shejaiya district and dismantled an underground tunnel route over the past day.

Speaking in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that 60% of Hamas fighters had been killed or wounded since Israel’s offensive began. The BBC could not independently verify these figures.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy08nl4plvzo

[Jimbuna]

Israel Extends Compulsory Military Service For Men To 36 Months

Jerusalem: The Israeli government's security cabinet has approved a plan to extend compulsory military service for men to 36 months from the current 32 months, Israel's Ynet news outlet reported on Friday.
The 36-month rule will stay in force for the next eight years, Ynet reported, after a meeting of the security cabinet that took place late on Thursday.

The measure is likely to be submitted to a vote in a meeting of the full cabinet on Sunday, it said.

Israel's military commanders have said they need to boost manpower so they can sustain the war with the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza and a confrontation with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia.

In a separate initiative, Israel is planning to send draft notices to thousands of ultra-Orthodox seminary students who were previously exempt from military service.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/israel-extends-compulsory-military-service-for-men-to-36-months-report-6090607

[Jimbuna]

Israel targets Hamas October 7 mastermind ‘the Guest’ in air strike

Israel targeted the leader of Hamas’ military in an air strike on Saturday, in what would be the most significant assassination of the war if he is confirmed to be killed.

Mohammed Deif is considered one of the orchestrators of the Oct 7 massacre and has been involved in the kidnapping and killing of Israeli citizens for decades.

Known as “The Guest” on account of his reported habit of switching where he sleeps every night, Deif is also said to be the architect of the tunnel network stretching hundreds of kilometres underneath Gaza.

Saturday’s attack left over 70 people dead and more than 100 injured according to local media. Palestinian media said the strike hit a designated safe zone in Khan Younis known as al-Mawasi.
Israeli media cited military officials who said the strike targeted a building in the humanitarian zone between al-Mawasi and Khan Younis, but not in the tent camp, as Palestinian media reported.

The army estimates that no hostages were in the area.

An Israeli official told The Telegraph: “Mohammed Deif was our target and so was the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, Rafa’a Salameh. We are waiting for final confirmation on the situation, but we are optimistic.”

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, announced he had held an operational situation assessment with the heads of IDF and Shin Bet intelligence agency “in light of developments in Gaza”.

Deif was born in Khan Younis in 1967 and joined Hamas during the first Intifada. He became the leader of the terror group’s military in 2002 after Ahmed Jabari, his predecessor, was assassinated by Israel.

In the hours after the Oct 7 attack, Deif appeared in a recorded video message announcing the start of “Operation al-Aqsa Storm”.

“Enough is enough,” he said in the clip as he urged Palestinians to take up arms.

Israel holds Deif responsible for the kidnappings and murders of two Israeli soldiers, Shahar Simani and Aryeh Frankenthal, in 1994.

Deif was also behind two suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Askhelon in February 1996 where over 50 Israelis were killed. The attacks were seen as revenge for an Israeli assassination of Yahya Ayyash, a senior Hamas official known as “the Engineer”, for his role in bombings.

Deif is seen as responsible for the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, as well as strengthening Hamas’ military ties with Iran in recent years.

Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, was also targeted in the strike, according to Israeli media.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israel-targets-hamas-leader-in-strike-that-kills-at-least-70-palestinians/ar-BB1pUJn1?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=13fc01c62fe447288f1db406a50ed6ea&ei=114

[Jimbuna]

Hamas-run health ministry says 141 killed in Israeli strikes

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 141 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes since Saturday.

About 400 people have been injured, according to the health ministry's statement.

One of the air strikes hit a designated humanitarian zone in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was targeting senior Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, but there was "no certainty" that he had been killed.

An eyewitness in al-Mawasi told the BBC that it looked like an "earthquake" had hit.

Videos from the area show smouldering wreckage and bloodied casualties being loaded on to stretchers.

BBC Verify has analysed footage of the aftermath of the strike, confirming that it took place within an area shown on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website as a humanitarian zone.

Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency said that 17 people had been killed in a second Israeli strike on Saturday.

The attack is said to have targeted a prayer hall in the Shati refugee camp to the west of Gaza City. The Israeli military has not yet commented on the claim.

A Hamas official, cited by Reuters, called the attacks a "grave escalation" that showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire agreement.

The ceasefire negotiations being held in Qatar and Egypt ended on Friday without success, the BBC understands.

In a news conference on Saturday, Mr Netanyahu said he gave the order for the al-Mawasi operation to go ahead after being briefed by his general security forces.

He said he wanted to know there were no hostages nearby, the extent of the collateral damage and what kinds of weapons would be used.

He said the two Hamas leaders targeted had not been confirmed dead before promising to eradicate all of the group's senior members.

"Either way, we will get to the whole of the leadership of Hamas," Mr Netanyahu added.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, quoted by the AFP news agency, later accused Mr Netanyahu of seeking to block a ceasefire in the Gaza war with "heinous massacres".

Hamas said the claim that their leaders were targets was "false".

"It is not the first time Israel claims to target Palestinian leaders, only to be proven false later," the group said in a statement.

An Israeli military official said the strike took place in an "open area" where there were "no civilians".

He refused to say whether it was inside a designated safe zone, but said Hamas leaders had “cynically” set up in a civilian area.

The official also said he was unaware of any hostages taken during the 7 October attack on Israel being in the area.

He added that "accurate intelligence" was gathered before the "precision strike".

Speaking to Newshour on the BBC World Service, Dr Mohammed Abu Rayya, who is at a hospital dealing with the aftermath of the attack, said the majority of those injured were suffering from multiple shrapnel wounds.

He said it was like being in "hell", adding that many of the casualties were civilians, notably women and children.

Footage from the nearby Kuwait field hospital showed scenes of chaos with patients being treated on the floor.

The Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis is "overwhelmed" and no longer able to function, British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyx0qdkn45eo

[Exocet25fr]

Hannibal Directive

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/9/why-did-israel-deploy-hannibal-directive-allowing-killing-of-own-citizens

[Jimbuna]

Lammy urges immediate ceasefire during Israel visit

David Lammy has called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories as foreign secretary.

"I’m here to push for a ceasefire," he said. "The loss of life over the last few months... is horrendous. It has to stop."

Mr Lammy also urged the release of all hostages held in Gaza and an increase in the flow of aid to the territory.

The newly appointed minister held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority PM Mohammad Mustafa on Sunday.

He also met family members of hostages still held in Gaza who have links to the UK.

After the meeting Sharon Sharabi, whose two brothers Elie and Yossi were taken hostage on 7 October, said: "Mr Lammy promised to do everything to bring the hostages home. The UK government has committed to be involved in a process with all the relevant sides."

In February the Israeli military said that Yossi Sharabi was killed and that it was likely a result of an IDF air strike. It is thought his body remains in Gaza.

In his meeting with Mr Mustafa, Mr Lammy said the UK would push for peace and stability, a statement posted on X, external by the British Consulate in Jerusalem said.

They discussed the role of an effective Palestinian Authority in achieving peace and Mr Lammy reaffirmed support for Mr Mustafa’s government and its programme of reform, the statement added.

On Monday morning, Mr Lammy met Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

"It’s important that, whilst we are in a war, that war is conducted according to international humanitarian law," Mr Lammy said ahead of the meeting.

"Of course I will be pressing Israeli leaders on that subject over the coming days.”

The foreign secretary also expressed frustration over a lack of British aid trucks entering Gaza “after months and months of asking", echoing long-running complaints from aid agencies about deliveries being blocked or delayed by complex inspections imposed by the Israeli military.

He said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "appalling" and that the UK would be providing an additional £5.5m to medical charity UK-Med to fund its work in the territory.

After the meeting, Mr Herzog said they discussed "the supreme mission of returning the hostages home to their families".

"The foreign secretary made clear that his country will continue to work and demand for the release of all the hostages," he said.

Mr Herzog said he introduced Mr Lammy to the family of Tamir Adar, who was killed on 7 October and whose body was taken into Gaza, and whose grandmother Yaffa was taken hostage and released as part of the previous deals.

He added: "The bonds between the British and Israeli peoples are as strong and robust as they are historic and impactful - especially now, in facing the challenges ahead of us."

The Labour Party has recently faced a backlash from some Muslim voters over its response to the conflict, which many consider insufficiently critical of Israel.

The new government now faces decisions on several key issues, including whether to limit or stop weapons sales to Israel over the loss of civilian life.

Asked about the sales, Mr Lammy said he would "look at the assessment and the legal considerations".

"That process has begun and I hope to report to Parliament as soon as I possibly can," he added.

He also said he would make a statement about the future of UK funding to the UNRWA - the UN's main agency providing aid in Gaza - in the coming days.

The UK was among more than a dozen countries that suspended funding to the agency in January over allegations that several staff members were involved in the 7 October attack, and is one of only a few that are yet to restore it.

Labour has also pledged to recognise the Palestinian state, though has not yet said when it will do so.

Israel launched its operation in Gaza following last October's Hamas attack, which saw around 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage.

Mr Netanyahu has said Israel will continue its war until all the hostages have been released and Hamas has been destroyed.

At least 38,584 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel's offensive, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. A UN-backed assessment last month found there was a "high risk" of famine in the territory, with almost half a million people facing “catastrophic levels” of hunger.

The ministry also said at least 141 people had been killed in Israeli strikes since Saturday. Israel said one of those strikes, which hit a humanitarian zone, was targeting senior Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.

He is the head of Hamas's military wing the al-Qassam Brigades and is one of Israel's most wanted men. It is thought he was one of the masterminds behind the 7 October attacks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cye0459nkgwo

[Jimbuna]

Far-right groups that block aid to Gaza receive tax-deductible donations from US and Israel

Under American pressure, Israel has pledged to deliver large quantities of humanitarian aid into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. But at the same time, the U.S. and Israel have allowed tax-deductible donations to far-right groups that have blocked that aid from being delivered.

Three groups that have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza — including one accused of looting or destroying supplies — have raised more than $200,000 from donors in the U.S. and Israel, The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim have found in an examination of crowdfunding websites and other public records.

Incentivizing these donations by making them tax-deductible runs counter to America's and Israel’s stated commitments to allow unlimited food, water and medicine into Gaza, say groups working to get more aid into the territory. Donations have continued even after the U.S. imposed sanctions against one of these groups.

By not cracking down on these groups, Israel is showing a “lack of coherence” in its Gaza aid policy, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli nonprofit that has long called on Israel to improve conditions in the territory.

“If you’re on the one hand saying you’re allowing aid in but then also facilitating the actions of groups that are blocking it, can you really say you’re facilitating aid?” she said.

Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. State Department said it is committed to ensuring the delivery of aid, but had no comment on the fundraising efforts by the far-right groups.

Israel has said repeatedly it does not restrict humanitarian aid and that the United Nations has failed to distribute thousands of truckloads of goods that have reached the territory. The U.N. and aid groups say deliveries have repeatedly been hampered by military operations, lawlessness inside Gaza and delays in Israeli inspections.

The three groups examined by AP and Shomrim have slowed the delivery of aid by blocking trucks on their way to Gaza, either by snarling traffic or simply standing in front of the main Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.

While these organizations are not the primary impediment to aid shipments, they have received tacit support from some Israeli leaders. Israel's ultranationalist minister for national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said aid shipments to Gaza should be blocked and he supported the right of opponents to demonstrate, though he said it should not be done violently.

One of the groups, Mother’s March, has raised the equivalent of over $125,000 via Givechack, an Israeli crowdfunding site, the AP and Shomrim found. The group also raised some $13,000 via JGive, a U.S. and Israeli crowdfunding site. Donations to charitable organizations are tax-deductible in Israel and the U.S.

Mother's March does not raise the money directly. Instead, it works with an allied group called Torat Lechima that raises funds on its behalf.

Torat Lechima, whose name translates loosely as “combat doctrine,” is active in Israeli nationalist circles and works to “strengthen the Jewish identity and fighting spirit” among Israeli soldiers, according to its website. Torat Lechima continues to solicit funds for Mother's March on the JGive site in the U.S.

Until it was sanctioned last month, a third group, Tzav 9, raised over $85,000 from close to 1,500 donors in the U.S. and Israel via JGive. JGive said that donations made to Tzav 9 were frozen even before the sanctions were imposed and not delivered to the group.

All three groups, which have ties with Israel's ultranationalist far right, say Israel should not be aiding the Palestinians as long as Hamas is holding dozens of people hostage. They also claim that Hamas is stealing much of the aid, though aid groups have disputed that.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/far-right-groups-that-block-aid-to-gaza-receive-tax-deductible-donations-from-us-and-israel/ar-BB1q36Ue?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=2af7a4e7e868451d876eb491468ecdc0&ei=16

[Jimbuna]

Israeli military to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox seminary students next week

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military will next week begin the process of drafting candidates from Israel's ultra-Orthodox community, the military said on Tuesday.

The issue is especially sensitive amid the war against Hamas in Gaza and related fighting on other fronts that have caused the worst Israeli casualties in decades.

Israelis are bound by law to serve in the military from the age of 18 for 24-32 months. Members of Israel's 21% Arab minority and ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have largely been exempt for decades.

In June, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the defence ministry must end that longstanding exemption for ultra-Orthodox seminary students, creating new political strains for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli military statement said that starting Sunday "the process of issuing initial summons orders for the first call-up" ahead of the upcoming July recruitment cycle would commence.

Minor clashes erupted on Tuesday between ultra-Orthodox protesters and police as dozens blocked a main Israeli highway but were quickly dispersed.

Netanyahu's coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard the exemptions as key to keep their constituents in religious seminaries and away from a melting-pot military that might test their conservative values.

The issue has prompted protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews, who make up 13% of Israel's 10 million population - a figure expected to reach 19% by 2035. Their refusal to serve in wars they generally support is a long festering schism in Israeli society.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israeli-military-to-begin-drafting-ultra-orthodox-seminary-students-next-week/ar-BB1q6si6?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=4236337ae76b455c98cce7f671dae4b6&ei=50

[Jimbuna]

Israel pounds central Gaza, sends tanks into north of Rafah

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli forces hit areas in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least nine Palestinians, according to health officials, while Israeli tanks carried out a limited advance further into Rafah in the south.

Over the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes have killed at least 81 Palestinians and wounded 198, the Gaza health ministry said. The ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its casualty count.

In one Israeli air strike around midnight on a house in Al-Zawyda in the central Gaza Strip, eight people were killed, the health officials said.

In Rafah, where medics said two people were killed in an airstrike, tanks carried out a raid in the north of the city before pulling back, a tactic Israeli forces have used in other areas before mounting deeper incursions.

The Israeli military said troops were "continuing precise, intelligence-based operational activity in the Rafah area". It said they had eliminated what it called a terrorist cell and a launcher that had been used to fire at troops.

It said airstrikes had struck 25 targets throughout the Gaza Strip during the past day and that troops were continuing to operate in the central area, in part to dismantle structures used to observe the soldiers.

Nine months into the war, Palestinian fighters led by the Islamist Hamas group are still able to attack Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, occasionally firing barrages of rockets into Israel.

Israel's defence minister said that the military had made significant gains and the pressure was working.

"Operations in Gaza have led to the conditions necessary to achieve an agreement for the return of hostages," Defense Minister Gallant said in an overnight call with his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin.

Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage in an attack on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies.

On Tuesday, the military said it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas' military wing and killed or captured about 14,000 fighters since the start of the war, around half the fighting force estimated by the Israeli military.

At least 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive since then, Gaza health authorities say. Israel says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israel-pounds-central-gaza-sends-tanks-into-north-of-rafah/ar-BB1q9pGC?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=3eb02fdcbf86428c9b76e394b5991ed1&ei=21

[Jimbuna]

Hamas and other groups committed war crimes on 7 October, says HRW


Hamas and at least four other Palestinian armed groups committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the 7 October attack on southern Israel, the campaign group Human Rights Watch says.

A new report accuses the hundreds of gunmen who breached the Gaza border fence of violations including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, wilful killing of persons in custody, sexual and gender-based violence, hostage-taking, mutilation of bodies and looting.

It also found the killing of civilians and hostage-taking were “central aims of the planned attack” and not an “afterthought”.

Hamas angrily rejected what it called HRW’s “lies” and demanded an apology.

About 1,200 Israelis and foreigners - mostly civilians - were killed and 251 others were taken as hostages when 26 Israeli communities and towns, as well as number of military bases, two music festivals and a beach party were attacked nine months ago.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza with the aims of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.

More than 38,790 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

HRW's report does not cover alleged violations of the laws of war by Israeli forces and Palestinian groups in the conflict that was triggered by the 7 October attack.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1vdz75g6dvo

[Skybird]

Huthi drone strikes Tel Aviv.

[Jimbuna]

They'll keep pushing until Israel has had enough and retaliates perhaps ten fold.

[Jimbuna]

Israeli man killed in drone attack on Tel Aviv

A man has been killed and at least eight people injured in a drone attack in central Tel Aviv, Israel.

A block of flats was hit by what an Israeli military official said was an Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which had been modified to fly long distance.

The Houthi movement in Yemen - over 1,000 miles (1,600km) away - said it carried out the attack, and vowed to stage more. Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said an initial investigation pointed to the attack having originated in Yemen.

If the Houthis are responsible, it would mark a significant escalation in their attacks on Israel which began in the wake of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

Until now, almost all Houthi missiles and drones fired towards Israel have been intercepted. None are known to have reached Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military official said its defence forces had detected the incoming drone but had not tried to shoot it down because of "human error".

Dramatic video filmed from the beach, said to capture the moment of the attack, appears to show a drone flying in over the Mediterranean Sea and buzzing loudly. It flies over buildings before disappearing, followed by a huge explosion moments later.

Pictures from the scene of the blast, near a branch of the US embassy, show a building with its windows blown out, and damaged cars and debris on the street below.

Local media named the man who was killed as Yevgeny Ferder, 50, who moved to Israel from Belarus two years ago.

The attack happened at 03:12 (00:12 GMT) and the explosion was heard for several miles around.

The Times of Israel news site quoted the Israeli Air Force as saying the incident "shouldn't have happened", and that it took full responsibility for the failure to prevent it.

Senior military correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, Yonah Jeremy Bob, said "The Israeli defense establishment is in a state of complete shock" over the attack.

"Though the writing was on the wall, no one saw it coming from a couple thousand kilometers away," he wrote.

Following the incident, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant held a security briefing with the country's security chiefs.

"The defense establishment is working to reinforce all defense mechanisms and will bring to justice anyone who harms the State of Israel,” Mr Gallant said afterwards.

He hinted at possible retaliation, saying they had discussed "intelligence and operational activities required against those responsible for the attack”.

A military spokesman for the Houthis, Yahya Saree, said the strike had been conducted with a new drone capable of bypassing interception systems.

He declared Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial capital, "an unsafe area," and said it "will be a primary target within the range of our weapons".

The Israeli military said it was increasing air patrols, while Tel Aviv's mayor said the city was on high alert, local media reported.

Alon, a local resident, told Haaretz newspaper that when the blast happened "the whole building shook."

"My neighbours' windows shattered, so I was sure something had hit the building. It was only when I went outside that I realised that several buildings had been damaged."

The incident also came after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire across the border since Hezbollah launched rockets a day after Israel began its military offensive on Gaza in response to Hamas's deadly attack on Israel.

Hezbollah and the Houthis, which are both backed by Iran, say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c06kdk6z08lo

[Dargo]

They'll keep pushing until Israel has had enough and retaliates perhaps ten fold.And… They did.
Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen a day after drone attack on Tel AvivThe Israeli military said on Saturday that it had struck targets in the Houthi-controlled regions of Yemen, close to the port city of Hodeidah, following the months-long series of Houthi attacks on Israeli targets. Those included a drone assault on Tel Aviv Friday that killed an Israeli citizen and injured 10 others.

In what it called an operational update posted on social media, the Israel Defense Forces said the locations bombed by its fighter jets in Yemen had been military targets. A spokesperson for the Houthis posted on social media that the Israeli jets had attacked civilian facilities, oil tanks and the electrical power station in the city of Hodeidah, in an effort to pressure the group to end its support for Gaza — something the spokesperson, who goes by the online handle @abdulsalamsalah, said was a "dream that will not come true." https://www.npr.org/2024/07/20/nx-s1-5047310/israel-strikes-houthi-targets-yemen

[Skybird]

Full war with Hezbollah in the north and the Houthis in the south. Lovely scenario. They should send a message to those who arm both: Iran. Without massive US support, logistics, I think Israal cannot win this.



Interesting world map we have. Overstretched Western lines everywhere.

[Jimbuna]

Full war with Hezbollah in the north and the Houthis in the south. Lovely scenario. They should send a message to those who arm both: Iran. Without massive US support, logistics, I think Israal cannot win this.



Interesting world map we have. Overstretched Western lines everywhere.

Yes, Iran is the key to it all.

[Reece]

Nuke em! :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

[Jimbuna]

What and give Putin more encouragement to use his nukes in Ukraine?

[Reece]

Nuke them too!! :D

[Jimbuna]

Okay I'll get right on it :03:

[Jimbuna]

Israel orders evacuation of part of Gaza humanitarian zone

The Israeli military has ordered civilians to temporarily evacuate from part of its designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza ahead of what it called a “forceful operation” against Palestinian fighters who have apparently regrouped there.

The military said there had been “significant terrorist activity and rocket fire” from eastern neighbourhoods of the city of Khan Younis, external and told residents to head to the “adjusted” al-Mawasi humanitarian area.

The announcement was followed by intense Israeli strikes near Khan Younis, and video showed people running in panic with only a few bags.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 49 people had been killed and 186 injured in and around the city.

The casualties were brought to Nasser hospital, in the west of Khan Younis, which the ministry said needed donations of blood to help treat them.

Medics told Reuters news agency that tank salvoes had killed many people in the town of Bani Suhaila, just over a mile (about 2km) east of Khan Younis.

Unconfirmed reports citing eyewitnesses also said tanks had entered Khan Younis.

Much of Gaza's second city was destroyed in an Israeli offensive which ended in April, but large numbers of people returned after troops began an operation in nearby Rafah in early May.

At the start of this month, they were displaced once again after the Israeli military issued a fresh evacuation order for other eastern neighbourhoods of Khan Younis as well as nearby towns and villages, including Bani Suhaila.

They were instructed to go to the humanitarian zone - which stretches along the coast from al-Mawasi to the central town of Deir al-Balah - despite warnings from the UN that it was already overcrowded with tents and lacking basic services and critical infrastructure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgerz8we1vgo

[Jimbuna]

Israel targets Hamas commander in Tulkarm amid rising West Bank tensions

In a recent operation in the city of Tulkarm, Israel used a drone to target a Hamas commander, which was an important incident in what is becoming a larger phase of a long war against Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank.

Over the last two years, there have been more weapons smuggled to Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in the West Bank. The terrorist groups want to increase their role there and use the October 7 attacks as leverage to gain more support.

The IDF said on July 23 that along with other security forces they “conducted a joint counterterrorism operation in the Tulkarm area, as part of a series of over 50 counterterrorism operations in the area since the beginning of the war. The soldiers struck several armed terrorists in exchanges of fire and dismantled numerous explosives that had been planted underneath the roads.”
The statement reveals the threat of the terror groups in places like Tulkarm. The large number of operations, a total of fifty in nine months, illustrates the emerging threat. This means there have been almost five operations on average a month, or more than one a week.

This represents a serious escalation by the terrorists in Tulkarm that requires this level of intense response. However, it’s not just Tulkarm where the breakdown in security is happening. The Palestinian Authority is losing control or at risk of losing control elsewhere also.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/israel-targets-hamas-commander-in-tulkarm-amid-rising-west-bank-tensions/ar-BB1qwrdM?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=b4f71df151634f76b0145c2ea79554d8&ei=24

[Jimbuna]

Gaza ceasefire negotiations appear to be in closing stages, senior US official says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Negotiations on a ceasefire-for-hostages deal in the Gaza conflict appear to be in their closing stages and U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will discuss remaining gaps on Thursday, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The official, briefing reporters ahead of their talks, said the remaining obstacles are bridgeable and there will be more meetings aimed at reaching a deal between Israel and Hamas over the next week.

Hamas-led fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct.7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 captives, according to Israeli tallies, triggering a war in which more than 38,000 people in Gaza have been killed.

Hamas and other militants are still holding 120 hostages; Israel believes around a third of them are dead.

Months of stop-and-start talks have failed to produce a deal to gain release of some of the remaining hostages.

The senior U.S. official said both Israel and Hamas still have some issues to resolve but that a deal is close in which a six-week ceasefire would take place in exchange for the release of women, elderly men and wounded hostages over a 42-day period.

"It's a very different negotiation now than just a month ago when we had some fundamentally unbridgeable issues," the official said.

Biden will hold talks with Netanyahu and then later in the day Vice President Kamala Harris will have a separate meeting with the Israeli leader.

Harris has taken over as the presumed Democratic choice for the November presidential election against Republican Donald Trump, after Biden opted not to seek reelection again under pressure from Democrats concerned about his mental acuity.

The senior U.S. official said both Biden and Harris are "completely aligned" on U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza.

"The Israelis will hear full alignment," the official said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/gaza-ceasefire-negotiations-appear-to-be-in-closing-stages-senior-us-official-says/ar-BB1qBJAm?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=1cff58e1a582446a99f9475e1dc06e8f&ei=19

[Jimbuna]

Hamas obstinate on hostage deal demands, insists on full Israeli withdrawal

Hamas reaffirmed that it insisted on adopting the latest proposal it submitted to hostage deal mediators and doubled down on its demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen reported on Saturday, citing an undisclosed source.

According to the source, Hamas has demanded that Israel's withdrawal from the Strip would include the Netzarim Corridor and the Philadelphi Corridor.

This week, the Israeli news organization Maariv reported that Israel had informed Cairo that it agreed to conditions related to the Philadelphi Corridor but did not specify what those conditions were.

Previously, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a visit to the area that it was essential that Israel maintain control of the corridor.
Netanyahu said at the time that, “The understanding that our possession of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing is essential only grew stronger [during my visit].”

At the beginning of the month, Israeli state broadcaster, KAN, reported that Israel intended to construct a "buffer zone" in the area that would allow the IDF to enter and exit the area after the Rafah operation concluded.

Hamas would also not accept any new hostage deal that did not include a clear text on achieving a ceasefire, the source reportedly added.

Additionally, Al-Mayadeen's source said that Hamas is not opposed to temporarily assuming governmental administration for Gaza with a national consensus should an agreement fail to be reached regarding the governance of Gaza and the West Bank.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-obstinate-on-hostage-deal-demands-insists-on-full-israeli-withdrawal/ar-BB1qIGC6?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=c370dd800c794c7e833af061dd51024b&ei=36

[Jimbuna]

Nine dead in rocket attack on Israeli-occupied Golan - reports

At least nine people have been killed after an attack which hit a football pitch in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli media report.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said a rocket fell on the Majdal Shams area of the territory.

Most of the casualties are believed to be children and teenagers.

The IDF blamed Hezbollah for the attack but Mohamad Afif, head of Hezbollah’s media office, denied “any relation to the Majdel Shams incident” in northern Israel and all accusations [of the group’s involvement] are false”.

Israel's military and Hezbollah have been exchanging cross-border fire since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c29dydz84ngo

[Jimbuna]

Hamas sends hostage torture video with direct warning to Israeli minister

Hamas is filming the torture of Israeli hostages in an attempt to force Israel to ease conditions for Palestinian prisoners.

In one video, members of the terrorist group directly address Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister who controls prison policy, two Israeli officials told The Telegraph.

The video shows hostages being tortured while Hamas warn that harsher conditions for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel are affecting the well-being of hostages in Gaza.

In May, CNN reported that Palestinians arrested in Gaza were facing brutal conditions at the Sde Teiman desert camp in the Negev desert, some of whom were blindfolded and beaten.

A New York Times investigation also found that some 1,200 Palestinian civilians had been held at the Sde Teiman camp “without the ability to plead their cases to a judge for up to 75 days.”
Mr Ben-Gvir has made it a priority to worsen conditions for Palestinian prisoners since taking office in December 2022, causing him to clash repeatedly with the Shin Bet intelligence agency who feared it would ignite another violent conflict with Hamas.

The video is understood to have intensified the rift, with Mr Ben-Gvir said to have doubled down after viewing it.

Mr Ben-Gvir, who leads the hard-Right Jewish Power party, has been a source of friction between Israel and its closest allies due to his extreme views on the Palestinians, as well as his opposition to a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would free the hostages.

In August last year, He said the prisons had begun reducing as much as possible the “indulgences for Hamas terrorists and stopping ‘summer camp’ that was going on in the prison wings in the past.”

He also ordered the prisons to forbid inmates from making their own pita bread while limiting hot showers to three wings in one prison.

Since October 7, Israel has arrested and killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, most of whom Israeli authorities say are members of terror organisations.

One senior Israeli official who showed the video to Mr Ben-Gvir said he responded by claiming that it only gives Israel legitimacy to crack down further on Palestinian prisoners.

“Even after being warned that because of his desire for likes on social media, our hostages are suffering in Gaza and being tortured, he smiled and said he would continue,” a senior Israeli official said.

Mr Ben-Gvir told The Telegraph he was “not aware” of the allegations.

The Israeli government announced last month that it would begin reducing the number of inmates held at the camp.

The decision to phase out the camp was harshly criticised by Mr Ben-Gvir, who repeated his hard-line vis-a-vis prisoners. He said: “Why are they closing Sde Teiman? Because they are overcrowded? Prisons are overcrowded, and it is good that they are.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-sends-hostage-torture-video-with-direct-warning-to-israeli-minister/ar-BB1qLK4X?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=7c19d0e1cafc42e09eac4f8958dd3c16&ei=12

[Otto Harkaman]

Erdogan warns that Turkey may enter Israel
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned of possible military action against Israel, comparing it to Turkey's past interventions in Karabakh and Libya.
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/ausland/erdogan-tuerkei-militaer-israel-nahost-100.html?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral

[mapuc]

IDF claims it killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr
There's been some back-and-forth all day over whether or not Israel killed Fuad Shukr - one of Hezbollah's most senior military commanders - in its earlier attack in Beirut.

Now, the IDF is claiming it did kill Shukr in a "target, intelligence-based elimination" by Israeli fighter jets in the Beirut area.

Israel says Shukr was the commander responsible for the strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday which killed some 12 children and young adults.

Earlier, Reuters and AFP news agencies quoted sources saying Shukr survived today's attack.



https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cpv3107lv5et

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Hamas leader assassinated in Iran as terror group plots revenge

A top Hamas leader has been killed after a targeted attack in Tehran, with the terror group now vowing revenge over his death.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas chief, was killed while attending the inauguration ceremony of Iran's new president.

Their statement said that Haniyeh had been killed alongside a security guard in a targeted attack at their place of residence.

Haniyeh, the head of Hamas' political bureau, had been in the capital city as Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in as President of the nation.

In a statement, Hamas blamed Israeli forces on the death of Haniyeh as they announced his death 'to the Palestinian people and the Arab nation'.

Hamas officials have also now made it clear that the death of Haniyeh will not 'pass in vein', while adding they were 'ready to pay various prices'.

Musa Abu Marzouk, a member of the group's political bureau, told CNN that the killing of Haniyeh 'will not pass in vein'.

Marzouk said: 'The assassination of leader Ismail Haniyeh was a cowardly act and will not pass in vain.'

While Sami Abu Zuhri, another Hamas official, added: 'We are engaged in an open war to liberate Jerusalem and we are ready to pay various prices.'

In response to the claim made by the group that his death was the result of an Israeli raid, the Israeli military said it 'doesn't respond to reports in the foreign media'.

Meanwhile, there was no immediate reaction from the White House on the death of Haniyeh.

Iran planned to hold an emergency meeting of its Supreme National Security Council, according to The New York Times.

Israel had vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of Hamas over the group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.

At least ten members of Haniyeh's family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this year, which included his sister.

The strike hit the Haniyeh family home in Al-Shati refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, last month.

Pictures show how the building was reduced to rubble, with rescuers working at the scene.

The victims were extracted and taken to the local hospital, where white body bags were laid out on the ground and distraught mourners seen gathering.

That attack came just weeks after Haniyeh lost three sons and four grandchildren in an Israeli airstrike on their car nearby.

Before their deaths, Haniyeh was believed to have had 13 sons and daughters. The Qatar-based Hamas leader said at the time said that about 60 members of his family had been killed since the war with Israel broke out on October 7.

Haniyeh is widely considered Hamas's overall leader and has been a prominent member of the movement since 1980.

He also briefly served as Palestinian prime minister after being appointed in 2006 but was dismissed a year later after Hamas ousted rival Fatah Party.

Haniyeh was elected head of Hamas's political bureau in 2017 and the US Department of State designated him a terrorist in 2018. He has lived in Qatar for the past several years.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement on his death: 'This assassination by the Israeli occupation of Brother Haniyeh is a grave escalation that aims to break the will of Hamas and the will of our people and achieve fake goals. We confirm that this escalation will fail to achieve its objectives.

'Hamas is a concept and an institution and not persons.

'Hamas will continue on this path regardless of the sacrifices and we are confident of victory.'
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-leader-assassinated-in-iran-as-terror-group-plots-revenge/ar-BB1qVhi0?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=da60c538406e4124bb546fea72e6478b&ei=16

[Skybird]

Hot stunt!

But it is a humiliation for Iran. It must retaliate.

[Jimbuna]

Perhaps so but Israel has a long history of calling their adversaries bluff.

[Shadowblade]

Hamas leader assassinated in Iran as terror group plots revenge

nice hit :up:

[Jimbuna]

That all depends on which side your on.

[em2nought]

If they take HAMAS out while HAMAS is away on vacation in lovely exotic locations such as Iran nobody can say that they're targeting civilians in Gaza. :03:

Israel should send all of HAMAS some free vacation vouchers. :D

[Reece]

Hamas leader assassinated in Iran as terror group plots revenge
nice hit :up:
If they take HAMAS out while HAMAS is away on vacation in lovely exotic locations such as Iran nobody can say that they're targeting civilians in Gaza. :03:

Israel should send all of HAMAS some free vacation vouchers. :D
:yeah:

[Jimbuna]

A cease-fire is key to ending the region's cycle of violence, Blinken says

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appealed for “all parties” in the Middle East to avoid escalatory actions that could plunge the region into further conflict, and said Thursday that a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was the only way to begin to break the cycle of violence and suffering.

The remarks came as prayers were held by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and representatives of Palestinian militia groups for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard. Worry has spread that the shock assassination risks escalating the fighting into an all-out regional war.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, but suspicion quickly fell on Israel, which has vowed to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

The assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran and the strike against senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut could upend the attempts to defuse a Middle East powder keg, with Iran also threatening to respond after the attack on its territory. And the Israeli military said Thursday it confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July.

During a late-July visit to the U.S., Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was determined to win nothing less than “total victory” against Hamas. Asked directly by journalists on the point later, he said that Israel hoped for a cease-fire soon and was working for one.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israel-hamas-war-latest-cease-fire-key-ending-112466869

[Jimbuna]

Killing of Hamas leader 'doesn't help' ceasefire talks, says Biden

US President Joe Biden has said that the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh “doesn’t help” talks over a potential ceasefire in Gaza.

Haniyeh was killed during a visit to Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Wednesday. Iran and its allies have blamed Israel, although Israel is yet to comment on his death.

Haniyeh was Hamas’s most senior official and was highly involved in ceasefire and hostage release talks from his base in Qatar.

Mr Biden said he was “very concerned” about rising tensions in the Middle East. "We have the basis for a ceasefire. He [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] should move on it and they [Hamas] should move on it now."

Israel and Hamas recently resumed tentative, indirect talks to try to reach a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, though there have been conflicting accounts of progress.

At the end of May, Mr Biden outlined what he said were the terms of an Israeli ceasefire proposal. This has become the basis for on-off indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel since then, with Qatar, Egypt and the US acting as mediators.

Earlier this week, Israel and Hamas accused each other of obstructing progress. Hamas said Israel had introduced new conditions, while Mr Netanyahu's office said Hamas had demanded 29 changes to the proposal.

The war began in October when Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages. The attack triggered a massive Israeli military response, which has killed at least 39,480 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Mr Biden's comments were his first on Haniyeh's assassination since the Hamas chief was killed.

The US president spoke to journalists at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, ahead of welcoming home American citizens as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia.

He said he had spoken to Mr Netanyahu earlier on Thursday and had promised to protect Israel "against all threats from Iran", which has vowed to retaliate. Iran is Hamas's most important backer and is an arch-foe of Israel.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cql8ly2g10no

[em2nought]

Killing of Hamas leader 'doesn't help' ceasefire talks, says Biden

I'm sure Sleepy Joe would rather have given him a plea deal. :D

[Skybird]

The thing that makes me crazy is that Netanjahu often does the right thing in all this - but for the wrong (his personal) reasons.

[em2nought]

The thing that makes me crazy is that Netanjahu often does the right thing in all this - but for the wrong (his personal) reasons.

You seem to feel very similar about Donald and Bibi. I guess you wouldn't consider that you might be wrong and they do the right things for the right reasons? :hmmm:

Do the democrats do almost everything wrong, but for the right reasons? :hmmm:

[Dargo]

Netanyahu is forcing Iran into an all-out regional war in the hope of dragging the US into it, just so he can stay in power himself. After all, Netanyahu knows that once the war is over, his war cabinet will have to resign, and he will most likely be voted out in elections. With vindictiveness, nationalism and lust for power given free rein in Tel-Aviv and Tehran, a way out of the escalation spiral is remote. And the longer it continues, the greater the chances of accidents. Israel and Iran are stuck in a cycle of revenge.

[Skybird]

Netanyahu is forcing Iran into an all-out regional war Strange. And I always believed it were exactly the other way around.

[mapuc]

Strange. And I always believed it were exactly the other way around.

It depends on where your political standpoint is.

Markus

[Skybird]

It depends on where your political standpoint is.

Markus
Really? Terror, threats of extermination and warmongering are terror, theats of extenmrination and wamrongering, no matter your political standpoint. When you swing the barrel of a gun at my direction and shout that you murder me, than thats what it is: attempted murder, and your political convictions are irrelevant for redefining or relabelling it.

Israel lives under this Damocles sword since always, and Iran has vowed to exterminate Israel since Khomenei's return. Iran is the driving power behind Hezbollah's uparming, and a domiant suzpporter of Hamas, and it is the driving power behind terrorism in the region and terror attacks on Israel.

The war already began long time ago. And Iran is the enemy, no matter the many proxy masks it hides behind. The annihilation of the state of Israel is part of its state reason.

[mapuc]

Really? Terror, threats of extermination and warmongering are terror, theats of extenmrination and wamrongering, no matter your political standpoint. When you swing the barrel of a gun at my direction and shout that you murder me, than thats what it is: attempted murder, and your political convictions are irrelevant for redefining or relabelling it.

Israel lives under this Damocles sword since always, and Iran has vowed to exterminate Israel since Khomenei's return. Iran is the driving power behind Hezbollah's uparming, and a domiant suzpporter of Hamas, and it is the driving power behind terrorism in the region and terror attacks on Israel.

The war already began long time ago. And Iran is the enemy, no matter the many proxy masks it hides behind. The annihilation of the state of Israel is part of its state reason.

If you are against Israel and dislike what they are doing you would most likely say it is Israel who's the one forcing Iran to an all out war. This was what I meant by - It depends on where your political standpoint is.

Otherwise I agree with you in everything you wrote.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Netanyahu is forcing Iran into an all-out regional war in the hope of dragging the US into it, just so he can stay in power himself. After all, Netanyahu knows that once the war is over, his war cabinet will have to resign, and he will most likely be voted out in elections. With vindictiveness, nationalism and lust for power given free rein in Tel-Aviv and Tehran, a way out of the escalation spiral is remote. And the longer it continues, the greater the chances of accidents. Israel and Iran are stuck in a cycle of revenge.

Pretty much agree with that :yep:

[mapuc]

Israel does not have to drag USA into an all out war with Iran-They would engage Iran by them self.

However the 1 million question is-How eager are the American to engage Iran in an open conflict ?

Markus

[Jimbuna]

The US have vowed to watch the Israelis backs in each and every case and always have been.

[Jimbuna]

Hezbollah tearing itself apart looking for internal leak that led to Shukr's elimination

Hezbollah is searching for answers as to how the location of its commander Fuad Shukr became known to Israel, allowing for the terror leader’s elimination in Beirut, the Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet Al-Janoubia reported on Saturday.

Hezbollah officials confirmed to Reuters last week that the body of the commander had been discovered under rubble left by an Israeli airstrike. The IDF affirmed it had carried out the strike, adding that Shukr had been responsible for the deaths of 12 Druze children in Majdal Shams.

"The IDF knows how to operate and reach a certain window in a neighborhood in Beirut; it also knows how to attack at a certain point in the underground, and we also know how to maneuver inside very strongly," IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said after the strike.
An anonymous source told Al-Janoubia that Hezbollah's leading theory, given how religiously Shukr avoided technology that would enable his detection, is that someone within the terror group leaked his location and or that Israeli agents had infiltrated the group.

According to the source, Shukr avoided all technology that required his voice, facial recognition, or thumbprint. The terror leader also had his whereabouts heavily coordinated by security.

“The [Hezbollah] party leadership has become certain that its ranks are infiltrated by networks of Israeli agents at high levels,” she confirmed. “The party fears that Israel has complete data on the party's formations, including names, photos, phone numbers, addresses, and audio data."

The anonymous source further revealed, “The former officer in the General Security, before joining the ranks of Hezbollah, moved on the day of his assassination from one of the religious complexes in the suburb to Haret Hreik, where he had an office. Only a few security personnel knew about his movement.”

Making arrests and carrying out investigation
Hezbollah has begun arresting officials within their group who knew Shukr's location, according to the source. “Suspicions revolve around a senior security official in Hezbollah who knew where Shukr and his guest were in the targeted building, as they were waiting for a signal from him for an upcoming meeting with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, shortly before the assassination was carried out.”

The sources explained that “the security official, who was known for his tense relations with the jihadist body in the party, was placed under house arrest by investigators, and his work was suspended until the investigation was completed, and the party is keen not to expose what is happening within its ranks.”

Shukr’s elimination also raised questions on how information was gained on past eliminated terror leaders.

The sources pointed out that "the assassination of Shukr brought to the party's mind the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in the heart of the southern suburb, where it is assumed that he was coordinating and under the protection of the security committee headed by Hajj Wafiq Safa and assisted in the suburb by Hajj Ali Ayoub."

She concluded by saying, “the party’s security committee is concerned with any security movement in the suburb; even the security services do not enter it without permission and direct coordination with the head of the coordination and liaison unit, Hajj Wafiq Safa, and the network of cameras planted in the streets and buildings of the suburb is under the authority of this committee.”

Similar fears seem to have reached Iran, according to the New York Times, as dozens of arrests have been carried out in search of parties involved in the elimination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/hezbollah-tearing-itself-apart-looking-for-internal-leak-that-led-to-shukr-s-elimination/ar-AA1od6AE?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=d834e64207bf49a699239307da815384&ei=67

[Dargo]

The US have vowed to watch the Israelis backs in each and every case and always have been.In like "I watch your back you do the dying"?

[Jimbuna]

In like "I watch your back you do the dying"?

That are good on their word until they renege on it.

[mapuc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6PctWTIMr4

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Calls for foreigners to leave Lebanon as war fears grow

Several countries have urged their nationals to leave Lebanon, as fears grow of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Iran has vowed “severe” retaliation against Israel, which it blames for the death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday. Israel has not commented.

His assassination came hours after Israel killed Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

Western officials fear that Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia and political movement based in Lebanon, could play a key role in any such retaliation, which in turn could spark a serious Israeli response.

Diplomatic efforts by the US and other Western countries continue to try to de-escalate tensions across the region.

A growing number of flights have been cancelled or suspended at the country’s only commercial airport in Beirut.

The US, the UK, Australia, France, Canada, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Turkey and Jordan are among the countries to have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible.

Fears of an escalation of hostilities that could engulf Lebanon are at their highest since Hezbollah stepped up its attacks on Israel, a day after the deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, in support for Palestinians in Gaza.

Most of the violence has been contained to border areas, with both sides indicating not being interested in a wider conflict.

Hezbollah, however, has vowed to respond to Shukr’s assassination, which happened in Dahiyeh, the group’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

It came after 12 children and teenagers were killed in a strike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel blamed on Hezbollah. Israel said Shukr was the behind it.

Meanwhile there has been continuing firing between the two sides. Hezbollah said it launched drones at a military barracks in Ayelet HaShahar, northern Israel, in the early hours of Monday morning. The Israeli military said two soldiers were wounded.

It came a day after Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets at the nearby town of Beit Hillel. There were no reports of casualties from that attack.

Israel’s air force responded by striking targets in southern Lebanon. A Hezbollah fighter and a paramedic were killed in a strike on the town of Mays al-Jabal, less than a mile from the border with Israel.

In a separate development on Sunday morning, two people were killed in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Holon. The attacker, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank, was later “neutralised”, police said.

Also on Sunday, officials from the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza said an Israeli air strike had hit a tent inside a hospital, killing at least five people. The officials said 19 Palestinians had been killed across the day.

In a statement on Saturday, the US embassy in Beirut said those who chose to stay in Lebanon should “prepare contingency plans” and be prepared to “shelter in place for an extended period of time”.

The Pentagon has said it is deploying additional warships and fighter jets to the region to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies, a strategy similar to the one adopted in April, when Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation to an attack on its diplomatic compound in Syria.

It blamed Israel for that strike.

Many fear Iran’s retaliation on this occasion could take a similar form.

The UK says it is sending extra military personnel, consular staff and border force officials to help with any evacuations.

It has urged UK citizens to leave Lebanon while commercial flights are running.

Two British military ships are already in the region and the Royal Air Force has put transport helicopters on standby.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the regional situation “could deteriorate rapidly”.

In a phone call with EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell on Friday, Iran's Acting Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri Kani said Iran would "undoubtedly use its inherent and legitimate right" to "punish" Israel.

On Friday, an announcer on Iran's state TV warned "the world would witness extraordinary scenes".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israelis that "challenging days lie ahead... We have heard threats from all sides. We are prepared for any scenario".

Tensions escalated after a rocket strike on a football pitch in the occupied Golan Heights killed 12 children and teenagers.

Israel accused Hezbollah and vowed “severe” retaliation, though Hezbollah denied it was involved.

Days later, Shukr, who was a close adviser to the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in a targeted Israeli air strike in Beirut. Four others, including two children, were also killed.

Hours after that, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran, Hamas's main backer. He was visiting to attend the inauguration of Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said Israel will suffer a “harsh punishment” for the killing.

Haniyeh's assassination dealt a blow to the negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, the main hope to defuse tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border.

The war began in October when Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

The attack triggered a massive Israeli military response, which has killed at least 39,480 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80xxeqel5po

[mapuc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcXJwu41S7U

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Israeli warplanes cause sonic boom flying low over Beirut amid growing fears of wider Middle East war

Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier three times flying low over Beirut in less than 30 minutes amid fears of an imminent escalation of war in the Middle East.

Loud booms from the aircraft flying at such speed over the Lebanese capital on Tuesday sent people in the city running for cover.

Witnesses said the planes could be clearly see with the naked eye.

The provocative flights came just hours before Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was set to begin an address at around 5pm (2pm GMT) to mark one week since the killing of the Lebanese terror group’s top military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Hezbollah has promised to respond to the killing, which came just hours before the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in an operation blamed on Israel but which Israel has not confirmed or denied undertaking.
The twin killings have pushed the region to the brink of war, with Iran also vowing a painful response.

America has deployed more warships to the region.

Britain and other countries are urging their citizens to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible.

Two Royal Navy ships are in the eastern Mediterranean and the British government has been testing plans for a large scale evacuation.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the Cabinet on Tuesday that the Government stands “ready and prepared” should tensions further escalate in the Middle East.

Around 3,000 British nationals are estimated to have filled in a form to tell the UK Government about their presence in Lebanon, among a total of around 16,000 UK nationals in the country.

Military personnel and consular experts have been deployed to the Middle East to help them.

Evacuating UK nationals to Cyprus via a seabridge in an Operation Highbrow-style mission is thought to be among the solutions, if war begins.

Operation Highbrow saw 4,500 British nationals evacuated from Lebanon using warships during the 2006 Lebanon War.

Some airlines have suspended flights to Beirut and to Tel Aviv.

While some commercial flights from the Lebanese capital have sold out some places are still available.

As the Israeli planes flew low over Beirut, people at a cafe in the Badaro district scattered as the sound reverberated through the city.

Earlier, Hezbollah launched a series of drone and rocket attacks into northern Israel on Tuesday but warned that its much-anticipated retaliation for Israel’s killing of the top commander last week was yet to come.

The group, proscribed as a terror organisation by Britain and other countries, said it launched a swarm of attack drones at two military sites near Acre in northern Israel, and also attacked an Israeli military vehicle in another location.

The Israeli military said a number of hostile drones were identified crossing from Lebanon and one was intercepted.

Israeli medical officials said seven people were evacuated to hospital, to the south of the coastal city of Nahariya, one in critical condition.

The Israeli military said an initial investigation indicated the injuries were caused by an interceptor that “missed the target and hit the ground, injuring several civilians.” It said the incident was still under review.

Fears are rising that the Middle East could be tipped into full-blown war following the vows by Hezbollah to avenge Shukr’s killing, and by Iran to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of Haniyeh.

Earlier on Tuesday, four people were killed in a strike on a home in the Lebanese town of Mayfadoun, nearly 19 miles north of the border, medics and a security source said.

Two additional security sources said those killed were Hezbollah fighters, but the group had not yet posted its usual death notices.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been trading fire for the last 10 months in parallel with the Gaza war, with the tit-for-tat strikes mostly limited to the border area.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israeli-warplanes-cause-sonic-boom-flying-low-over-beirut-amid-growing-fears-of-wider-middle-east-war/ar-AA1okPe1?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=2a8c091d30e24bdc98dfff0c0caed691&ei=21

[Jimbuna]

Hamas says it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, as its new leader

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said Tuesday it has chosen Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader.

The choice of Sinwar, a secretive figure who leads Hamas' hardliners and is close to Iran, was a defiant step. Sinwar is at the top of Israel’s kill list as it seeks to destroy Hamas and its leadership after the Oct. 7 attack in which militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 as hostages.

Hamas said in a statement it named Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Iran last week in a presumed Israeli strike. Also last week, Israel said it had confirmed the death of the head of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, in a July airstrike in Gaza. Hamas has not confirmed his death.
Unlike Haniyeh, who had lived in exile in Qatar for years, Sinwar has remained in Gaza. As Hamas' leader in the territory since 2017, he rarely appeared in public but kept an iron grip on Hamas' rule. Close to Deif and the armed wing, known as the Qassam Brigades, he worked to build up the group's military capabilities.

Sinwar has been in deep hiding since the Oct. 7 attacks, while Israel unleashed its campaign in Gaza and the death toll among Palestinians, now near 40,000, rose.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-says-it-has-chosen-yahya-sinwar-mastermind-of-the-oct-7-attacks-as-its-new-leader/ar-AA1olmvs?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=7f6c8668864846dec67ea2fc236a555e&ei=31

[mapuc]

In a video I saw some days ago it was said that Iran would most likely attack Israel on their Tisha b'av day*, which is Aug. 12th

* The day of sorrow.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Those dangerous idiots can attack any day of the week but Israel will also be on alert every day of the week.

[Jimbuna]

Israeli military orders another mass evacuation in southern Gaza

The Israeli military has ordered another mass evacuation in large areas around Khan Younis in southern Gaza, saying its forces will soon operate there in response to Palestinian rocket fire.

Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, suffered widespread destruction during air and ground operations earlier this year.

Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to heavily destroyed areas of Gaza where they had fought earlier battles against Hamas and other militants since the start of the 10-month-old war.

Gaza faces a severe humanitarian crisis, with Israeli restrictions on aid and ongoing fighting limiting access to crucial medical, food and other supplies.

The Health Ministry says the death toll in the territory is nearing 40,000.

Regional tensions have soared since Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran by a presumed Israeli strike on July 31, and retaliation has been expected.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call to do everything in his power to avoid a new military escalation that he said would do lasting damage to regional stability.

World leaders have been pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, and US President Joe Biden spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday about their hopes for a deal calming tensions in the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet over the weekend that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israeli-military-orders-another-mass-evacuation-in-southern-gaza/ar-AA1osBxR?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=33b3979d0aa14be293aef4c45525c497&ei=59

[Exocet25fr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3CnGwuymIk&rco=1

[Jimbuna]

US and other frustrated mediators call on Israel, Hamas to resume Gaza talks, saying, 'no excuses'

WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar jointly demanded Israel and Hamas return to stalled talks on the war in Gaza next week, saying Thursday that “only the details” of carrying out a cease-fire and hostage release remain to be negotiated. “There is no further time to waste, nor excuses from any party for further delay,” they said in a joint statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Thursday, “Pursuant to the proposal by the U.S. and the mediators, Israel will — on 15 August — send the negotiations team to a place to be determined in order to finalize the details of the implementation of the framework agreement.”

President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatari Emir Tamim al-Thani, mediators in indirect negotiations to end 10 months of devastating war in Gaza, set the talks for Aug. 15, to take place in either Doha, Qatar, or Cairo.
A senior U.S. official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the push by mediators, said only four or five areas of disagreement over implementation remained to be resolved between the two opponents.

The official cited the timing of a planned swap of Palestinian detainees held by Israel, and hostages held by Hamas, as an example.

Egypt, the U.S. and Qatar said they have a proposal ready to present at next week’s talks to resolve the remaining issues.

Critics of Netanyahu accuse him of slow-rolling talks to end the war in Gaza, which began Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel. Israel's offensive in Gaza since then has killed nearly 40,000 people.

There was no immediate response to the offer by Hamas. Last week’s killing of its top political leader in Tehran raised tensions across the region, an escalation widely seen as a blow to cease-fire talks. The killing was widely ascribed to Israel, although Israel has not commented.

U.S. officials have said they believe Hamas can resume negotiations despite the July 31 assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, who had been presiding over the talks for Hamas.

Hamas military chief Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be sheltering from Israeli attack in underground bunkers beneath Gaza, took over as the group’s political leader. Hamas had other representatives besides Haniyeh attending the talks who can step in for the slain official, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/us-and-other-frustrated-mediators-call-on-israel-hamas-to-resume-gaza-talks-saying-no-excuses/ar-AA1ou7Qj?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=b23e24ac639449b68796ae2035220910&ei=289

[Skybird]

There is speculation that Iran may not take military retaliation if Israel agrees a ceasefire in Gaza, something like this. Now, that would be extremely cleverly playing your cards. They would be able to maintain their base in Gaza which is a poisonous thorn in Israel's flank, and invest in rebuilding Hamas down there. Long termed perspective is such that this would be far more hurtful and punishing for Israel than to send a couple of hundreds of missiles of which most would be shot down. I say most, since I dont think Israel has the defence capacities to shoot down all missiles if Iran really means serious business and wants to over-saturate Israeli anti-missile systems. Its a question of quantities. Iran probabaly also is not yet ready for a big war in the region - and if they start a major strike against Israel, there is a realistic risk that this is what they would get.

So the question is who is in charge in Teheran: the cold-blooded long-time perspective strategists wanting to keep Gaza, or the hot-blooded laserbrains thinking with their testicles who want a great rodeo and do the boom-boom-bang with everything they have.

Its disastrous that Israel still has not overcome all Hamas resistence in Gaza. That they allowed to get delayed and at times acted with hesitation and self-restraint, now will boomerang against them.

[mapuc]

Skybird wrote:
"Iran probabaly also is not yet ready for a big war in the region"
I say you could be right-I think they wait until they got their nukes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbd08gYYbnA

Markus

[Dargo]

Skybird wrote:
"Iran probabaly also is not yet ready for a big war in the region"
I say you could be right-I think they wait until they got their nukes.


MarkusIf Iran gets nukes it does not need to fight wars, it can play the nuclear bully without sending any troops.

[Jimbuna]

Id Iran gets nuclear capability Israel will have to make up its mind on the ultimate question.......nuke or leave well alone.

[Skybird]

the ultimate question.......nuke or leave well alone.
And wondering whether it will be left alone in return.

[mapuc]

I seem to recall some news clip where the Israelis Prime Minister showed a painting of a bomb and a line drawn across on the top with the number 90 and percentage. I also recall that Israel would stop Iran from reaching this goal or was it bombing Iran when they have reached these 90 % enrichment of their Uran

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Dozens reported killed in Israeli strike on Gaza school building

An Israeli air strike on a school building sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City has killed dozens of people, Hamas-run authorities in the territory say.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said al-Taba’een school "served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility" with approximately 20 "militants" operating there.

More than 60 people were killed and 47 injured, the health ministry’s ambulance service said, quoted by the AP news agency.

Earlier, the Gaza civil defence agency - a rescue service - said at least 90 people were killed. The BBC cannot independently verify figures from either side.

Israel has attacked several such shelters in Gaza in the past few weeks.

According to the United Nations, 477 out of 564 school buildings in Gaza had been directly hit or damaged as of 6 July, with at least another 14 targeted since.

Al-Taba’een school housed more 1,000 people - having recently received dozens of displaced people from the town of Beit Hanoun, after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes.

The building also served as a mosque and the Israeli strike hit during dawn prayers, witnesses said.

Jaafar Taha, a student who lives near the school, told the BBC the sound of the bombing was followed by screaming and noise.

"'Save us, save us', they were screaming," he said.

"The scene was horrific. There were body parts everywhere and blood covering the walls."

Israel's military said it had "precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the al-Taba'een school".

A statement by IDF spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said that "based on Israeli intelligence, approximately 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, including senior commanders, were operating from the compound struck at the al-Tabaeen school, using it to carry out terrorist attacks".

The spokesman said the casualty figures released by Hamas officials "do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike".

Hamas described the attack as a "horrific crime and a dangerous escalation" in Israel's "war of extermination against the Palestinian people".

Fatah, Hamas's political Palestinian rival in the West Bank, said Israel's aim was "to exterminate Palestinians through a policy of cumulative killing".

The reported casualty figures for Saturday's early-morning attack are higher than in most such strikes.

But targeting school buildings has become a regular feature of IDF operations in recent weeks, apparently as part of what it says is an ongoing effort to destroy Hamas military infrastructure.

Since the beginning of July, more than a dozen schools have been hit, according to unofficial tallies, including at one point four in four days.

Each time, in nearly identical statements, the IDF says Hamas is hiding in the schools and using them as command centres to plan and carry out attacks, something Hamas denies.

Whatever the case, these buildings are where many displaced Gazans have sought shelter, and they are paying the highest price.

Many of the schools were run by the UN before the war, and the UN has strongly condemned the strikes.

It is not clear if this incident will impact struggling efforts to agree a ceasefire deal, which were set back by the assassination of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

But Egypt, one of the mediators involved in efforts to reach such a truce, said Israel’s “deliberate killing” of unarmed Palestinians showed that Israel lacked the political will to end the war.

Jordan said it was "an indication of the Israeli government’s efforts to obstruct and thwart these efforts".

Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in an attack on Israel on 7 October, taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

That attack triggered a massive Israeli military offensive on Gaza and the ongoing war.

More than 39,600 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli campaign, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8erk37yn2no

[Exocet25fr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SsgZVfo4W8

[Jimbuna]

Kamala Harris says 'too many' civilian deaths in Gaza

US Vice-President Kamala Harris has condemned the loss of civilian life in an Israeli air strike against a school building in Gaza on Saturday.

More than 70 people were killed at the building which sheltered displaced Palestinians, the director of a hospital has told the BBC.

Ms Harris said "far too many" civilians had been killed "yet again"and reiterated calls for a hostage deal and a ceasefire, echoing comments made by the White House.

An Israeli military spokesman said al-Taba’een school "served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility", which Hamas denies.

Speaking at a campaign event in Phoenix, Arizona, Ms Harris said Israel had a right to "go after Hamas" but also has "an important responsibility" to avoid civilian casualties.

Saturday's air strike has been criticised by Western and regional powers, with Egypt saying it showed Israel had no desire to reach a ceasefire or end the Gaza war.

Fadl Naeem, head of al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said around 70 victims were indentified in the hours after the strike - with the remains of many others so badly disfigured that identification was difficult.

Israel's military said it had "precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control centre embedded in the al-Taba'een school".

A statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Security Agency said "at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists" were "eliminated" in the attack.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said “various intelligence indications” suggest a “high probability” that the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was at the Taba’een school when it was struck.

He said it is not yet clear whether the commander was killed in the attack.

The BBC cannot independently verify casualty figures from either side.

The Israeli spokesman said the casualty figures released by Hamas officials "do not align with the information held by the IDF, the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike".

Hamas described the attack as a "horrific crime and a dangerous escalation" in Israel's "war of extermination against the Palestinian people".

US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Hamas had been using schools "as locations to gather and operate out of".

"But we have also said repeatedly and consistently that Israel must take measures to minimise civilian harm," he added.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0lx2xgn55o

[Exocet25fr]

Pentagon Chief Orders Nuclear Submarine Deployment to Middle East

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240812/pentagon-chief-orders-nuclear-submarine-deployment-to-middle-east-1119729367.html

[Jimbuna]

Hamas says ceasefire must be based on group’s July response

Hamas has said a ceasefire plan for Gaza must be based on where talks were a month and a half ago rather than any new rounds of negotiations.

In a statement on Sunday night, the group called on mediators “to present a plan to implement what was agreed upon by the movement on July 2, 2024, based on [President Joe] Biden's vision and the UN Security Council resolution”.

On 2 July, Hamas issued its response to the outline ceasefire plan announced by Mr Biden on 30 May.

The details of Hamas’s response have not been made public but the group is understood to have dropped a demand for a full ceasefire at the outset rather than an initial six-week pause put forward by the president.

Negotiations resumed a week later, with Hamas accusing Israel of introducing new conditions.

Hamas sources told the BBC that the introduction of the new conditions - that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the north of Gaza, as well as the question of control of the Philadelphi corridor that borders Egypt - have been sticking points.

It has also been widely reported in the Israeli press that these new demands were made by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that they have caused friction with his negotiating team.

Last week, international mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the US urged Israel and Hamas to resume urgent discussions on the ceasefire and hostage release deal on 15 August.

The mediators said they were prepared to offer a bridging proposal to overcome differences on the implementation of Mr Biden's framework agreement.

Israel responded on Thursday, saying it would send a team of negotiators to take part in the meeting.

Hamas rejected any new proposals, but the BBC understands that the group is open to resuming talks at the point prior to which the new conditions were introduced.

On Monday, the leaders of the UK, France and Germany issued a joint call for talks to resume, saying there "can be no further delay".

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz echoed the mediators' call for ceasefire talks to resume in a joint statement.

"We agree that there can be no further delay," the statement said.

"We have been working with all parties to prevent escalation and will spare no effort to reduce tensions and find a path to stability."

The countries also called for the de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East - which have risen since the assassination of senior members of Hamas and Lebanese group Hezbollah.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed on Sunday night that he had ordered the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the Middle East which will join the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is heading to the region.

Iran previously said it will respond to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the “right time” in the "appropriate" manner and that the US bears responsibility for his death because of its support of Israel.

Iran has blamed Israel for the assassination, though Israel has not commented directly.

Meanwhile on Sunday, the Israeli military ordered thousands of Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, to relocate to what it has designated "humanitarian zones".

The relocation order followed an Israeli air strike against a school building in Gaza on Saturday, which killed more than 70 people according to a local hospital director.

Fadl Naeem, head of al-Ahli Hospital where many of the casualties were taken, said around 70 victims were identified in the hours after the strike - with the remains of many others so badly disfigured that identification was difficult.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the school "served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility", which Hamas denies.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said “various intelligence indications” suggest a “high probability” that the commander of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade, Ashraf Juda, was at al-Taba’een school school when it was struck.

He said it is not yet clear whether the commander was killed in the attack.

The BBC cannot independently verify casualty figures from either side.

Israel claims that Hamas is using civilian infrastructure to plan and carry out attacks, and that is why it has been targeting hospitals and schools - sites protected under international law.

Hamas has consistently denied the accusations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gex1rl6q5o

[Jimbuna]

US approves $20 billion in weapons sales to Israel amid threat of wider Middle East war

The U.S. has approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles, the State Department announced Tuesday.

Congress was notified of the impending sale, which includes more than 50 F-15 fighter jets, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs, 120 mm tank ammunition and high explosive mortars and tactical vehicles and comes at a time of intense concern that Israel may become involved in a wider Middle East war.

The Biden administration has had to balance its continued support for Israel with a growing number of calls from lawmakers and the U.S. public to curb military support there due to the high number of civilian deaths in Gaza.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/us-approves-20-billion-in-weapons-sales-to-israel-amid-threat-of-wider-middle-east-war/ar-AA1oKiJB?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=2eeb25b506d84085bc935718c7a9fbfb&ei=15

[Jimbuna]

Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli strikes kill at least 17 in Gaza overnight, Palestinians say

Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents.

The strikes came on the eve of new talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 10-month war. The United States, Qatar and Egypt are hoping to broker an agreement, but the sides remain far apart on several issues after months of indirect negotiations.

A top Hamas official has told The Associated Press the group is losing faith in the U.S. as a mediator in the Gaza cease-fire talks. It was not clear late Wednesday if Hamas would attend the talks beginning Thursday.

The overall Palestinian death toll in the war has almost reached 40,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

One strike hit a family home late Tuesday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It killed five children, ranging in age from 2 to 11, and their parents, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

An Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies said they had been dismembered by the blast and the 2-year-old had been decapitated.

In the nearby Maghazi refugee camp, a strike on a home early Wednesday killed four people, the hospital said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Health Ministry’s emergency service said first responders recovered the bodies of four men killed in a strike on a residential tower late Tuesday. Two more people were killed in a strike on a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, according to the emergency service.

Health authorities in Gaza do not say whether those killed in Israeli strikes are militants or civilians. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in residential areas. The army rarely comments on individual strikes.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-latest-14-august-2024-050bd6ae0fe1d4694c351ae67e6c5d2d

[Jimbuna]

More than 40,000 killed in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli military action in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

That number - 40,005 on Thursday - equates to about 1.7% of the 2.3 million population of the territory - another sobering indication of the human cost of the war.

Alongside the fatalities, satellite image analysis suggests nearly 60% of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of the war.

In the past few months, the southern city of Rafah has suffered the most damage, imagery shows.

The health ministry’s figures for the number of people killed do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

However, its breakdown of identified reported fatalities says a majority are children, women or elderly people.

This month, Israel’s military told the BBC that more than 15,000 terrorists had been killed during the war.

International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, so are unable to verify figures from either side.

In the past, figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) were widely used in times of conflict and seen as reliable by the UN and international institutions.

It only counted deaths registered in hospitals with these entered in a centralised system along with names, identity numbers and other details.

However, by late last year the MoH was unable to function effectively with overflowing mortuaries, fighting in and around hospitals and poor internet and phone connectivity.

The Hamas Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza began publishing numbers of deaths including reports given in “reliable media”.

UN agencies started to incorporate this into their data breakdowns as well as MoH figures when updates were available.

More recently, Gaza’s MoH has begun to incorporate those reported as killed in the war including by family members online in its overall tally.

However, it also counts separately the number of unidentified bodies among the total number killed.

The UN now quotes these figures, with officials attributing them and stressing that their Gaza teams cannot independently verify them due to the conditions on the ground and the high volume of fatalities.

Israel has consistently questioned the credibility of the information. In May, the Foreign Minister Israel Katz described it as “fake data from a terrorist organisation”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn49v0nzv3ko

[Jimbuna]

German ambassador to Israel demands ceasefire, release of hostages

Germany's ambassador to Israel on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, ahead of a crucial round of peace talks.

At a press conference with the British and US ambassadors in Tel Aviv, Steffen Seibert said there was "no more important duty at the moment" than to achieve the release of the hostages as quickly as possible.

"Their suffering is beyond comprehension," said Seibert, referring to the “horrible reports” from those who have been released so far.

“We also know that some will not return alive,” he added.

The next round of negotiations on ending the conflict in Gaza is due to be held in Doha on Thursday. However, on Wednesday, Hamas said it would not attend the talks.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/german-ambassador-to-israel-demands-ceasefire-release-of-hostages/ar-AA1oNQNf?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=af1f653805b64d6bae16bd02aae3ee8c&ei=52

[Jimbuna]

Biden says Gaza ceasefire deal is closer but not there yet

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday said "we are closer than we've ever been" to a ceasefire in Gaza "but we're not there yet," as talks in the region paused until next week.

"I don't want to jinx anything... we may have something. But we're not there yet," Biden told reporters in the White House's Oval Office.

"It's much, much closer than it was three days ago. So, keep your fingers crossed."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/biden-says-gaza-ceasefire-deal-is-closer-but-not-there-yet/ar-AA1oVmZ9?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=4d9c565e4a654d119a605b70d981d32d&ei=24

[Exocet25fr]

Settler attack on Palestinians in the West Bank

https://uk.ambafrance.org/Settler-attack-on-Palestinians-in-the-West-Bank

[Jimbuna]

At least 10 Syrian nationals killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon early Saturday killed at least 10 Syrian nationals, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The strike on Wadi al-Kfour in Nabatieh province is among the deadliest in Lebanon since the Hezbollah militant group and Israeli military started trading strikes on 8 October, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel and sparked the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Hezbollah maintains that it will stop its attacks once a ceasefire is reached in the Gaza Strip.

Among the dead were a woman and her two children, the ministry said. Five others were wounded, two of whom in critical condition.

An Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, said the strike in the southern province targeted a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has not immediately commented on the strikes but says it will stop its attacks on northern Israel once there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

So far, the fighting has killed more than 500 people including 100 civilians in Lebanon. On the Israeli side 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed.

In Gaza, the IDF reports that they have escalated their operations and claim to have killed dozens of militants within the last 24 hours.

Their actions targeted the Khan Younis and Rafah areas in particular, according to an IDF spokesperson.

As ground operations intensify, many parts of the Gaza strip continue to see mass displacement of Palestinians despite purported peace talks. Over 40,000 Palestinians have now been killed since the war began, says Gaza's Health Ministry.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/at-least-10-syrian-nationals-killed-in-israeli-strike-on-lebanon/ar-AA1oXk0N?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=1ed6fb019699456b891b0a7377418dc1&ei=20

[Jimbuna]

Israeli strike kills at least 17 Palestinians in central Gaza, health officials say


CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) - At least 17 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike in the central Gaza town of Zawayda on Saturday, health officials said, as Israel issued new evacuation orders, citing Hamas rocket fire nearby.

Israel also announced the names of two soldiers Israeli media reported were killed on Saturday afternoon when a roadside bomb exploded in the central Gaza Strip, and an air strike in the occupied West Bank that it said killed two senior Hamas militants involved in the killing of an Israeli.

The violence occurred before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was expected to land in Israel on Sunday and meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, amid stepped-up diplomatic efforts to conclude a deal to end the fighting between Israel and the militant Islamist group and free Israeli hostages.

Most of the people killed in Zawayda were from the same family and they included eight children and four women, according to health officials in the Hamas-administered enclave.

"They were asleep in their beds, kids and babies, then three missiles targeted their place," said Abu Ahmed Hassan, a neighbour. The owner of the house was a known merchant, he said. "There are no military activities here at all," he added.

The Israeli military said in response it had struck militant targets in an area from which rockets were fired at its troops. It said the incident was under review.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israeli-strike-kills-at-least-17-palestinians-in-central-gaza-health-officials-say/ar-AA1oYKfl?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=9b53695593a94a7fa783d4d0eb43fc21&ei=18

[Jimbuna]

These ceasefire talks have been doomed to fail – Netanyahu and Hamas have tied negotiators’ hands

Another round of ceasefire and hostage talks, this time in Doha, has ended in disappointment. This is in large part because Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is unlikely to accept any agreement that Hamas could present as a victory – and has handcuffed the Israeli mediators with conditions that appear impossible for Hamas to accept.

Beyond the substance of any potential agreement between the two sides is the emotional juice of so much of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship: the battle for national dignity and honour. Huge quantities of explosives have been dropped on Gaza by Israel since 7 October because of the humiliation felt by all Israelis, and especially Israel’s leaders and military. So much of this war over more than 10 months has been fought on both sides as a war of revenge. Nonetheless, it also has major strategic consequences for Israel, Hamas, the Palestinian people, the nations of the region, and the world’s major powers – above all the United States.
Hamas will view and present any agreement with Israel that ends the war in Gaza, leads to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the strip, and releases Palestinian prisoners, as a victory and Israeli surrender. Therefore Israeli negotiators will not agree to a full withdrawal, and are demanding long-term Israeli military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border, and a security mechanism that would ensure that armed Hamas and other military personnel cannot move from the south of Gaza to the north. In addition, Netanyahu is demanding a veto on the Palestinian prisoners who would be released in the deal, and that those serving life sentences would be deported outside Palestine for life. These additional conditions are unacceptable to Hamas.

It is also difficult to imagine that Netanyahu will make any deal with Hamas before the killing of the main Hamas leaders in Gaza, primarily Yahya Sinwar. When the Israeli military finds Sinwar and kills him, there are likely to be Israeli hostages surrounding him and the bunker may be booby-trapped with explosives. There is likely to be a fight to the death that may result in Israeli soldiers and hostages being killed as well as the Hamas leaders and their soldiers. There is also a risk that Hamas militants will kill more hostages when their leader is killed.

For most of the people of Israel, there is no victory without the return of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. Yet these negotiations make clear that Netanyahu has put his impossible goal of total victory before their safe return. Many of them may no longer be alive, whether killed by Hamas or Israeli bombs. There is a possibility that some of those bodies may never be found and returned. Historically, Israel’s ethos has been centred on the principle that no one is left behind. The world was stunned in 2011 when Israel released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners (of whom more than 300 were serving life terms for violent attacks) in exchange for just one Israeli soldier. At the time, about 80% of Israelis supported that deal and 26 members of Netanyahu’s government voted in favour of it, with only three ministers in opposition. That ethos seems now to be broken. No one can accuse Netanyahu of not wanting to bring the hostages home, but it seems quite clear that this is not his first priority. Most Israeli pundits believe that Netanyahu’s “total victory” is more about extending the war for as long as possible in order to remain in power. The prime minister is slowly rising in the polls as his base, which in good part had deserted him after the Hamas attack, begins to return.

The chances of successful Israeli-Hamas negotiations ride on the amount of leverage mediators are willing to apply to both sides as fresh talks resume next week. The US has significant power over Israel, both in the political cover that the US provides Israel in the UN and in the ability to stop the flow of bombs to Israel. The US could say that it would have Israel’s back if it were attacked by Iran or by Hezbollah, but it would no longer provide bombs for Israel to drop on Gaza. Egypt and Qatar each have significant leverage over Hamas: parts of the Hamas leadership are based in Doha, while the Rafah crossing has acted as a lifeline to the Gaza Strip. There are reported to be 160,000 Palestinians who escaped the horrors of the war in Gaza and who are overstaying their visas in Egypt. This is another point of leverage on Hamas, or on the Palestinian people.

At this point, more than 10 months into the war with more than 40,000 people killed in Gaza and more than 1,600 Israelis killed, this war must come to an end. There is no military solution to this conflict and there has never been one. There must be a new path to a negotiated end of the larger conflict, but it begins by ending this war, Israel withdrawing from Gaza, Israeli hostages coming home and the establishment of a secure border between Gaza and Egypt. That would pave the way for the creation of a responsible and legitimate non-Hamas government in Gaza, an Arab-led international force in Gaza for a limited period of time, new elections in Palestine, new elections in Israel and then a regional peace process that will bring about the two-state solution, with an end to the Israeli occupation, a free democratic Palestine, and freedom, peace and security for all.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/these-ceasefire-talks-have-been-doomed-to-fail-netanyahu-and-hamas-have-tied-negotiators-hands/ar-AA1p272X?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=154e2abd2a0741268578c42030edeca8&ei=16

[Jimbuna]

Six hostages' bodies retrieved, Israel's military says

The bodies of six hostages being held by Hamas have been retrieved from the Gaza Strip, Israel's military has said.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Chaim Perry and British-Israeli Nadav Popplewell were recovered from the Khan Younis area on Monday.

Five of their deaths had already been announced by Israel, though it was thought Avraham Munder could still be alive.

The overnight recovery operation was carried out by the IDF alongside the security agency Shin Bet.

The six men had all been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbitz Nirim, near Israel’s border fence with Gaza, during Hamas's attacks on southern Israel on 7 October.

In a statement, the Hostage Families Forum said the recovery of the bodies had provided the families with "necessary closure", adding that the return of the remaining hostages from Gaza "can only be achieved through a negotiated deal".

In June, Israel confirmed the deaths of Mr Popplewell, 51, Mr Peri, 79, and Mr Metzger, 80. The IDF stated the three men had died during an Israeli operation in Khan Younis.

In July, the IDF also confirmed the deaths of Mr Buchshtab, 35, and Mr Dancyg, 76, stating an investigation was being carried out into the deaths . Israeli media reports citing military sources stated at the time that there was a “high probability” that at least one of the men was killed by Israeli fire.

Official Israeli estimates suggest there are 105 hostages remaining in Gaza, 71 of whom are thought to be alive. Four other hostages were already in Gaza prior to 7 October, two of whom are believed to be dead.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement the bodies were retrieved after a "complex operation", adding that Israel would keep working on “dismantling Hamas".

Israeli President Isaac Herzog "we send our heartfelt condolences and a warm embrace to the families".

"We must not stop for a moment from working in every way possible to bring back all the hostages," he added.

The Hostage Families Forum called on the Israeli government to "do everything in its power to finalize the deal currently on the table".

Negotiations over a long-sought-after ceasefire and hostage release deal are ongoing, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken currently on a tour of the Middle East to push for agreement.

Mr Blinken arrived in Egypt on Tuesday, where he will meet Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and is expected to continue pushing for a deal.

On Monday, Mr Blinken said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a US "bridging proposal" for a deal, after the pair met in Jerusalem. Mr Netanyahu described the discussion as "positive".

The IDF said on Monday that it had expanded its operation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and the outskirts of the central town of Deir al-Balah.

Five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on an internet distribution facility in western Khan Younis on Monday, according to local health officials.

A medical source also told AFP news agency that three people were killed in Abasan, east of the city.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

More than 40,173 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c23lgy1k22zo

[Jimbuna]

Hezbollah fires barrage of rockets against Israel as US fails to secure ceasefire deal

More than 50 rockets were fired into the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights by Hezbollah on Wednesday after US secretary of state Antony Blinken wrapped up a Middle East tour which failed to secure a Gaza ceasefire.

The Lebanese Islamist group, an ally of Hamas, hit a number of private homes and injured at least one person.

Hezbollah said the assault was in response to an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon last night that killed one and injured 19.

As he wrapped up his ninth visit to the Middle East since the war began on October 7, Mr Blinken said that “time is of the essence” to secure a Gaza ceasefire.

He met with fellow mediators in Egypt and Qatar and on Monday had talks lasting three hours with the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. But he ended his visit without securing any major breakthrough on a ceasefire deal.
Mr Blinken said that because Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps with the militant group, the focus turns to doing everything possible to “get Hamas on board” and ensure both sides agree to key details.

“Our message is simple. It’s clear and it’s urgent,” he said. “We need to get a ceasefire and hostage agreement over the finish line, and we need to do it now.”

Mr Netanyahu accepted Washington’s so-called “bridging proposal” aimed at trying to solve sticking points and bring Israel and Hamas closer to a deal, Mr Blinken said.

Hamas called the latest proposal a “reversal” of what it agreed to previously. It accused the US of accepting what it called “new conditions” from Israel. One of the main sticking points is understood to be Hamas’s demand for a “complete” withdrawal of Israeli troops from all parts of the Gaza strip, which Israel has reportedly rejected.

Mr Netanyahu was quoted by some US press as saying he may have convinced the secretary of state that Israel should keep troops in the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.

Mr Blinken denied the claims, saying: “The United States does not accept any long-term occupation of Gaza by Israel.

“More specifically, the agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of [Israel Defense Forces] withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that.”

Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages captured in the October 7 attack, which began the war.

The bodies of six hostages, including a British citizen, kidnapped from Israel by Hamas were recovered in Gaza, the Israeli military said yesterday.

Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell and Haim Perry were found in an overnight operation.

Mr Popplewell, 51, originally from Wakefield, was taken captive alongside his mother Channah Peri, 79, from their home in Nirim during the Hamas attack. Peri was released in November.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hezbollah-fires-barrage-of-rockets-against-israel-as-us-fails-to-secure-ceasefire-deal/ar-AA1pb74T?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ENTPSP&cvid=024979f3acca4310bd1b0c1d5514d249&ei=61

[Jimbuna]

Gaza ceasefire talks 'constructive' and will continue over weekend, US says

National security spokesperson John Kirby said some progress had been made in the Egyptian capital Cairo as he pushed back against reports that the negotiations were close to collapse.

Mr Kirby said all sides needed to come together to work towards implementing a proposed agreement.

He said discussions should include Hamas representatives as part of the negotiations.

The talks have so far included negotiators from Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar, but not Hamas.

Mr Kirby said the US continues to monitor Hamas's backer Iran and was not taking anything for granted.
He added the US believes Iran is "still prepared to do something should they choose to do so".

There has been speculation this month that Iran and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah were poised to attack Israel to avenge the assassinations of two of their leaders.

US secretary of state Anthony Blinken called on Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal earlier this week.

It came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to the proposals, which would see a ceasefire and the return of Israeli hostages.

Last week, a Hamas spokesperson told Sky News that President Biden's optimism over a ceasefire deal was an effort to "keep everything sounding positive in the media".

CIA director Bill Burns and US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk are also representing the US in the talks.

"We're in Cairo. They're in Cairo. We need Hamas to participate, and we need to get down to the brass tacks of locking in these details," Mr Kirby said.

"And that's what we're focused on here in the next, coming days here over the course of the weekend."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/gaza-ceasefire-talks-constructive-and-will-continue-over-weekend/ar-AA1pjStd?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=07edb2bb3fbb462292db708512a90911&ei=48

[mapuc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwg0Nfn8cJQ

Markus

[Exocet25fr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EY2wCCqQdE

[Jimbuna]

Israel's military says it has conducted pre-emptive air strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after detecting plans for a significant attack against its territory.

Hezbollah confirms it has started "phase one" of an attack on Israel, beginning by firing a wave of hundreds of Katyusha rockets and drones towards Israel.

Hezbollah says today's operation has now been "completed and accomplished" - Israel says it has struck more Hezbollah rocket launchers.

Lebanon's ministry of health says three people have been killed there. The Israel Defense Forces says Hezbollah's rockets caused "very little damage"

It is a major escalation in tensions, and it follows the killing of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut almost a month ago.

[Jimbuna]

Israel and Hezbollah say they don't want war - but they are both ready for it

This morning's exchange of strikes between Israel and Hezbollah appears to be a significant escalation.

The Israeli military says around 100 fighter jets carried out what it described as pre-emptive strikes on Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon on Sunday morning. Hezbollah later fired rockets and missiles into northern Israel.

If that 100 figure is correct, it would be the largest Israeli attack on Lebanon since the full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Israel's strikes happened at around 04:30 local time (01:30 GMT), and it said that Hezbollah was planning a large-scale attack half an hour later, at 05:00 local time.

According to reporting by the New York Times, quoting an anonymous Israeli intelligence official, this included rocket strikes on Tel Aviv, the country’s biggest city, deep inside central Israel.

In the end Hezbollah said it had fired more than 300 rockets and missiles targeting military facilities in northern Israel, where air raid sirens have been sounding.

Across the region, the fear is this latest escalation could once again lead to all-out war.

FOLLOW LIVE: Latest updates after strikes from Israel and Hezbollah

In a statement, Hezbollah said this was the first phase of its response to the Israeli assassination of a senior commander Fouad Shukr in a strike in Beirut on 30 July.

It is widely believed Israel was behind the assassination of the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in a strike in the Iranian capital Tehran the following day.

Ever since, the region has been waiting for a response from both Hezbollah and Iran.

From Iran, it is yet to come.

But this appears to be Hezbollah’s first significant retaliation.

For weeks now diplomats have been working to try to avoid the crisis in Gaza escalating into a wider regional conflict.

The United States has warned the ongoing failure to agree a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas could see those diplomatic efforts fail.

But despite intense US pressure, talks to establish a ceasefire deal for Gaza after more than 10 months of war have led to nothing.

Israel’s military says it is ready to fight a war on two fronts: in Gaza and on its northern border with Lebanon.

But Hezbollah is a far more formidable force than Hamas.

It’s estimated it has around 150,000 rockets, some capable of reaching targets across Israel.

Its fighters, some of whom have fought in the war in Syria, are well trained and better equipped than those of Hamas.

Almost a year into the conflict in Gaza, some question whether there is appetite in Israel for another war.

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli army reservists have been called up to fight in Gaza, often serving several tours.

But many Israelis, especially those from the north, say Hezbollah needs to be dealt with.

Tens of thousands of people living there have been evacuated from their homes since the start of the war in Gaza. Many have lost their businesses.

In southern Lebanon too, tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes because of fears of Israeli strikes.

Israeli and Hezbollah leaders say they do not want another full-scale war. But both sides say they are ready for it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjw398njqj4o

[Jimbuna]

UN urges calm after Israel and Hezbollah trade strikes

UN Secretary General António Guterres has said he is “deeply concerned” after Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement mounted their biggest round of cross-border strikes since the war in Gaza began.

On Sunday, Israeli jets hit dozens of sites across southern Lebanon in what it said were pre-emptive strikes to prevent a much wider attack, and Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel.

Mr Guterres warned that their actions put civilians at risk, as well as threatening regional security and stability.

The US said it was working to avoid a further escalation in hostilities, and both sides suggested they were not interested in one.

There have been almost daily exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the day after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza on 7 October.

Hezbollah has said it is acting in support of the Palestinian group. Both are backed by Iran and proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK and other countries.

Since October, more than 560 people have been reported killed by Lebanon's health ministry, the vast majority of them Hezbollah fighters, while 26 civilians and 24 soldiers have been killed in Israel, according to authorities.

Almost 200,000 people have also been displaced on both sides of the border.

The Israeli attack on Hezbollah began before dawn Sunday, when the military said about 100 jets bombed thousands rocket launchers at more than 40 sites in southern Lebanon.

The strikes were launched after "extensive preparation" for a large-scale aerial attack by Hezbollah were detected, according to the military.

Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed in the strikes along with another fighter from the allied Amal movement.

Hezbollah said it had targeted and hit 11 military facilities in Israel and the occupied Golan Heights with 340 rockets and a “large number” of drones.

It described the barrage as a response to the assassination of senior military commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut on 30 July.

The Israeli military said it intercepted “many of the threats” launched by Hezbollah and that the projectiles which landed did “very little damage”.

However, it also said a navy soldier was killed in combat in northern Israel, with local media reporting that he had been on a patrol boat when an interceptor missile engaged a drone.

On Sunday evening, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a televised speech to his supporters that appeared to seek to draw a line under the escalation.

He declared the group’s “first response” for the retaliation for Shukr’s assassination had been completed “as planned”, although he noted that its impact was still being assessed.

"If the result is not sufficient, we will reserve the right to respond at another time,” he said.

In the meantime, he added, the people of Lebanon “can be at ease and carry on with their lives, as the country has been in tension for a month now”.

Earlier, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told a cabinet meeting that “what happened today is not the end of the story”.

“We are striking Hezbollah with surprising crushing blows,” he said. “Three weeks ago, we eliminated its chief-of-staff and today we thwarted its attack plan.”

“Nasrallah in Beirut and [Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei in Tehran need to know that this is an additional step in changing the situation in the north, and returning our residents securely to their homes.”

The UN secretary general called for “immediate de-escalation and on the parties to urgently and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities”, a spokesperson said.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan expressed hope that Sunday’s events would not lead to an all-our regional war.

"We have worked round the clock with partners and allies, moving military assets, engaging in intensive diplomacy both publicly and privately behind the scenes to avert that outcome,” he told reporters during a visit to Halifax, Canada.

Diplomats told the Reuters news agency that the two sides had exchanged messages saying that neither wanted to take things any further.

Mr Sullivan also said US officials had been “feverishly working” at talks in Cairo in recent days to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, which the White House believes is key to restoring calm on the Israel-Lebanon border.

However, there has so far been no sign of a breakthrough. Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that its representatives had left the Egyptian capital to review the outcome of the talks, which they did not attend.

Egyptian security sources told Reuters news agency that neither Hamas nor Israel had agreed to several compromises presented by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr40dz5524qo

[Jimbuna]

Israel rescues Bedouin hostage held by Hamas in Gaza

The Israeli military says it has rescued a Bedouin Arab hostage who was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen during the 7 October attack on Israel and taken back to Gaza.

Kaid Farhan Elkadi, 52, was rescued in a “complex operation in the southern Gaza Strip”, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

No further details could be published “due to considerations of the safety of our hostages, the security of our forces, and national security”, it said.

Mr Elkadi is in a stable condition and has been transferred to a hospital for medical checks.

The father of 11 is from a Bedouin village in the Rahat area, in the Negev desert.

He worked for many years as a security guard at Kibbutz Magen, where he was abducted 10 months ago.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3w67w47eego

[Jimbuna]

At least nine Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, in what Israel says is a "counter-terrorism operation"

Earlier, Palestinian officials said at least 11 people had been killed since the Israeli operation began at midnight local time.

This appears to be a major Israeli operation, with at least four Palestinian cities being targeted at the same time - Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Tubas.

It is believed to be the first time since the second intifada - a major Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005 - that several Palestinian cities have been targeted simultaneously.

Meanwhile in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says 58 people have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past day.

[Jimbuna]

Hamas does not want ceasefire, says Netanyahu after six hostages found dead

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed sorrow over the deaths of six hostages, saying the killings prove Hamas does not want a ceasefire deal.

He said he was heartbroken to hear the news of the deaths of the hostages, who the Israeli military earlier said had been “cruelly murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them”.

The Israel Defence Forces said the bodies of Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Alexander Lobanov,33, Almog Sarusi, 27, and Ori Danino, 25, were found and recovered on Saturday.

Mr Netanyahu accused Hamas of killing them in “cold blood” and said Israel would hold the group accountable. He also accused the group of scuttling ongoing ceasefire efforts.
“Whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal,” he said.

The Israeli army said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, around half a mile from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued alive last week.

All six were abducted by Hamas on October 7, Ms Gat from the farming community of Be’eri and the others from a nearby music festival.

Critics in Israel have accused Mr Netanyahu of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks – a charge he denies.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported he got into a shouting match last week with his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who accused him of prioritising control over a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border – a major sticking point in the talks – over the lives of the hostages.

Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, blamed the hostages’ deaths on Israel and the United States, saying they would still be alive if Israel had accepted a ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to back in July. He did not mention the hostages by name.

The family of Mr Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American hostage, confirmed his death in a statement on Sunday, hours after the Israeli army said it had located bodies in Gaza.

“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” it said.

“The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”

Israel’s mostly ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, said: “The heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces.”

Defence minister Mr Gallant said: “In the name of the state of Israel, I hold their families close to my heart and ask forgiveness.”

US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the news.

He added: “It is as tragic as it is reprehensible. Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”

Vice-President Kamala Harris also released a statement, saying her prayers are with the Goldberg-Polin family and condemning Hamas.

Mr Goldberg-Polin was among the hostages seized by militants at a music festival in southern Israel on October 7. He lost part of an arm in the attack.

His parents became perhaps the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the international stage, meeting with Mr Biden, and Pope Francis and addressing the United Nations.

On August 21, they addressed a hushed hall at the Democratic National Convention, where the crowd chanted: “Bring them home.”

A Hamas-issued video in April showing Mr Goldberg-Polin clearly speaking under duress sparked new protests in Israel urging the government to do more to secure his and others’ freedom.

Before the news of the deaths, Israel said it believed 108 hostages were still held in Gaza and about one-third of them were dead.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-does-not-want-ceasefire-says-netanyahu-after-six-hostages-found-dead/ar-AA1pNjXE?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=ffa045a27d48483e83cc98cdb64fc6b3&ei=13

[Jimbuna]

The UK has announced it is suspending some export licences for military equipment to Israel.

Officials say there is a clear risk that items exported to Israel might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.

But officials emphasise that this is not an arms embargo.

This comes as protests continue in Israel - including one planned outside PM Benjamin Netanyahu's residence - aimed at forcing the government to secure a hostage release deal with Hamas.

Mourners have lined the streets in Jerusalem for the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

He was one of the six people whose bodies were recovered by Israel on Saturday, sparking the current demonstrations. A total of 97 captives remain unaccounted for in Gaza.

"In this time of crisis, tragedy, we feel this pain as a nation," one of the mourners says.

[Jimbuna]

Extremist settlers rapidly seizing West Bank land

Last October, Palestinian grandmother Ayesha Shtayyeh says a man pointed a gun at her head and told her to leave the place she had called home for 50 years.

She told the BBC the armed threat was the culmination of an increasingly violent campaign of harassment and intimidation that began in 2021, after an illegal settler outpost was established close to her home in the occupied West Bank.

The number of these outposts has risen rapidly in recent years, new BBC analysis shows. There are currently at least 196 across the West Bank, and 29 were set up last year - more than in any previous year.

The outposts - which can be farms, clusters of houses, or even groups of caravans - often lack defined boundaries and are illegal under both Israeli and international law.

But the BBC World Service has seen documents showing that organisations with close ties to the Israeli government have provided money and land used to establish new illegal outposts.

The BBC has also analysed open source intelligence to examine their proliferation, and has investigated the settler who Ayesha Shtayyeh says threatened her.

Experts say outposts are able to seize large swathes of land more rapidly than settlements, and are increasingly linked to violence and harassment towards Palestinian communities.

Official figures for the number of outposts do not exist. But BBC Eye reviewed lists of them and their locations gathered by Israeli anti-settlement watchdogs Peace Now and Kerem Navot - as well as the Palestinian Authority, which runs part of the occupied West Bank.

We analysed hundreds of satellite images to verify that outposts had been constructed at these locations and to confirm the year they were set up. The BBC also checked social media posts, Israeli government publications and news sources to corroborate this and to show that outposts were still in use.

Our analysis suggests almost half (89) of the 196 outposts we verified have been built since 2019.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207j6wy332o

[Jimbuna]

US charges Hamas leaders over 7 October attack on Israel

The US has charged Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and several other prominent figures in the Palestinian group in connection with its deadly attack in Israel on 7 October last year.

The justice department said it was indicting six Hamas members with seven charges, including the murder of dozens of US citizens, conspiracy to finance terrorism and use of weapons of mass destruction.

The criminal complaint covers decades of alleged attacks by Hamas, as well as last October's unprecedented assault.

It is the first step by US law enforcement to hold accountable the ringleaders of that attack, but has been seen by analysts as partly symbolic, not least because some of those named in the indictment are already dead.

Meanwhile, Sinwar is believed to be hiding in tunnels somewhere under Gaza.

In a video statement on Tuesday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said the defendants were responsible for "financing and directing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the security of the United States".

The group also "led Hamas's efforts to destroy the state of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim", Mr Garland said.

He highlighted the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, in which the group "murdered entire families" in "the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust".

Mr Garland said: "They murdered the elderly and they murdered young children. They weaponised sexual violence against women, including rape and genital mutilation."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wj285xyp8o

[Jimbuna]

CIA director says more detailed Gaza ceasefire proposal due in days

LONDON (Reuters) -The head of the CIA, who is also the chief U.S. negotiator for an end to the Gaza war and release of hostages held by Hamas, said a more detailed ceasefire proposal would be made in the next several days.

After 11 months of conflict in Gaza, CIA Director William Burns said he was working very hard on "texts and creative formulas" with mediators Qatar and Egypt to secure a ceasefire, by finding a proposal which satisfies both parties.

"We will make this more detailed proposal, I hope in the next several days, and then we'll see," said Burns, speaking at a Financial Times event in London alongside Richard Moore, head of Britain's MI6 foreign spy agency, in an unprecedented joint public appearance.

Burns added that it was a question of political will and he hoped leaders on both sides recognised "the time has come finally to make some hard choices and some difficult compromises".

He said 90% of the paragraphs had been agreed but the last 10% were always the hardest.

"My hope is that you know, they'll recognise what's at stake here and be willing to move ahead on that basis," he said.

Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, while Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 41,000 Palestinians, Gaza's health authorities have said, largely levelling the coastal enclave.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/cia-director-says-more-detailed-gaza-ceasefire-proposal-due-in-days/ar-AA1qaeuW?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=602e3c23d16a4ab5ac6a1248a8c111ce&ei=95

[Jimbuna]

Israeli strike in Gaza humanitarian zone kills 19, Hamas-run health ministry says

At least 19 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says.

Witnesses said the strike obliterated an area crowded with tents for displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, south-west of Khan Younis, leaving huge craters in the sand.

“The bombing was incredibly intense. People were thrown into the air,” one displaced man told the BBC. “You can’t imagine the devastation.”

The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked what it called “a number of senior Hamas terrorists” operating there - a claim Hamas denied.

The military also disputed the initial death toll put out by the Hamas-run Civil Defence authority, which reported that rescue teams had recovered more than 40 bodies.

Hundreds of thousands of people from other areas of Gaza are living in dire conditions in al-Mawasi after being told by Israel to evacuate there for their own safety.

The UN says the humanitarian zone spans only 41 sq km (16 sq miles) and lacks critical infrastructure and basic services, while aid provision is limited due to access and security issues.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyx9znxl4eo

[Skybird]

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has declared Hamas militarily defeated after eleven months of war, reviving hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza.

[mapuc]

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has declared Hamas militarily defeated after eleven months of war, reviving hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas will rise like the bird phoenix

If the Palestine population doesn't put a stop for it. They are the only one who can prevent Hamas from resurface again.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Hamas will rise like the bird phoenix

If the Palestine population doesn't put a stop for it. They are the only one who can prevent Hamas from resurface again.

Markus

True that :yep:

[Jimbuna]

UN says Israeli strike on Gaza school killed six of its staff

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) says six of its employees have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school it runs in central Gaza.

Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said a total of 18 people were killed in Wednesday’s strike on al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat refugee camp, which is being used as a shelter by thousands of displaced Palestinians.

Israel's military said it carried out a “precise strike on terrorists” planning attacks from the school, and that it had taken measures to avoid harm to civilians.

UN Secretary General António Guterres condemned the strike, saying: “What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable.”

“These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, external.

Unrwa said the attack marked "the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident" since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October.

It also noted that it was the fifth time the school had been hit over the past 11 months.

In July, 16 people were reportedly killed in a strike which the Israeli military said had targeted several structures at the school used by Hamas fighters.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, hit out at Guterres' criticism.

“It is unconscionable that the UN continues to condemn Israel in its just war against terrorists, while Hamas continues to use women and children as human shields,” he said, external.

Hamas - which is proscribed as a terrorist group by Israel, the UK and other countries - has denied using schools and other civilian sites for military purposes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyn400rm68o

[Jimbuna]

Hamas ready to implement ceasefire deal without new conditions, group says

After meetings with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday, Hamas released a statement assuring its "readiness" to adopt US President Joe Biden's long-gestating ceasefire deal, originally proposed in May, as pressure grows on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring home Israeli hostages.

A Hamas delegation met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday to discuss a truce in Gaza and a potential hostage and prisoner exchange, the militant group said in a statement.

Hamas said its lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya met with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

The Palestinian goup said they had discussed "developments concerning the Palestinian cause and the aggression on the Gaza Strip" without indicating that talks had resulted in a breakthrough.
Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to secure a halt to the fighting between Hamas and Israel, with the exception of a one-week truce beginning in late November.

During the sole pause in the now 11-month war, 105 hostages were released to Israel in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners under the deal struck by mediators.

Recent rounds of mediation held in Doha and Cairo have been based on a framework laid out in May by US President Joe Biden and a "bridging proposal" presented to the parties in August.

The Hamas statement reiterated its "readiness for the immediate implementation of the ceasefire agreement based on President Biden's declaration".

Pressure for a deal has intensified after Israeli authorities announced the deaths of six hostages at the start of September when their bodies were recovered from a Gaza tunnel.

But in the face of the external calls for an agreement, both Israel and Hamas have publicly signaled deeper entrenchment in their negotiating positions.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down in his calls for Israeli control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border -- a key sticking point in negotiations -- saying it was necessary to stop Hamas from rearming.

Last week, Egypt and then Qatar rejected the charge that the border was being used to arm Hamas, accusing Netanyahu of trying to distract Israeli public opinion and obstruct a ceasefire deal.

In the statement on Wednesday, Hamas also restated its demand for Israel's withdrawal from "all Gaza territories".

The militant group also claimed it had not placed any further demands on negotiators and at the same time was "rejecting any new conditions to this agreement from any party".
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/hamas-ready-to-implement-ceasefire-deal-without-new-conditions-group-says/ar-AA1qqpdP?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=2e0dd7cea194481787796d62872cd2b4&ei=72

[Otto Harkaman]

https://youtu.be/P9VEcZOhY4c?si=Zl80K8y0_WmChgdI

[Jimbuna]

Israel vows 'heavy price' for Houthi missile strike

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Yemen's Houthis will pay a "heavy price" after a missile fired by the group landed in central Israel.

The Israeli military said the missile landed in an uninhabited area early on Sunday, but that shrapnel indicated air defence systems had failed to destroy it before it entered Israeli airspace.

It added that it was investigating how the missile was able to reach so far into Israeli territory.

The strike marks the first time a missile fired by the group has reached central Israel, which is around 2,000km (1,240 miles) from Yemen.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there had been repeated attempts to shoot the missile down on Sunday but that it most likely fragmented in mid-air.

The Houthis claimed the operation used a new type of hypersonic missile, which may help explain the failure of efforts to intercept it.

They are an armed group that seized much of Yemen in the country’s ongoing civil war and have declared themselves part of the Iran-led "axis of resistance" against Israel, the US, and the wider West.

The Houthis said in a statement that Sunday's attack was carried out in solidarity with the Palestinians and that Israel should expect more ahead of the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks.

Missile fragments landed at a railway station in the city of Modiin, causing some damage, and in open ground near Israel's main international airport on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

The damage is believed to have been caused by Israel's own interceptor missiles.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgll5268e2o

[Jimbuna]

Israel sets new war goal of returning residents to the north

Israel has made the safe return of residents to the north of the country an official war goal, the prime minister's office has said.

The decision was taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet late on Monday.

About 60,000 people have been evacuated from northern Israel because of near-daily attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.

Cross-border fighting escalated on 8 October 2023 - a day after the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip - when Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with the Palestinians.

"The Security Cabinet has updated the objectives of the war to include the following: Returning the residents of the north securely to their homes," a statement from the prime minister's office said.

"Israel will continue to act to implement this objective," it added.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the only way to return Israel's northern residents to their homes was through "military action", during a meeting with US envoy Amos Hochstein.

“The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas, and refuses to end the conflict,” a statement from his office said.

"Therefore, the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes, will be via military action.”

Gallant's comments came as speculation grew that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to replace him amid differences between the two men over the war in Gaza.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin warned of the devastating consequences of further escalation.

In a statement from the US defence department, his office said he "reaffirmed the necessity of a ceasefire and hostage deal, and that Israel should give diplomatic negotiations time to succeed, noting the devastating consequences that escalation would have on the people of Israel, Lebanon, and the broader region."

Israel has repeatedly warned it could launch a military operation to drive Hezbollah away from the border.

Hezbollah is a Shia Muslim organisation which is politically influential and in control of the most powerful armed force in Lebanon.

The group has so far made no public comments on the issue.

The latest Israeli move marks an expansion of the country's previously stated war goals:

The elimination of Hamas and its military capabilities

The return of all the hostages taken during the 7 October attack

Ensuring that the Gaza Strip no longer poses a threat to Israel

Israeli forces launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 41,220 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cglkkrj94ldo

[Aktungbby]

Submitted w/o comment??!Hezbollah hit by a wave of exploding pagers in Lebanon and Syria. At least 9 dead, hundreds injured Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously in parts of Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people — including members of the militant group Hezbollah and a young girl — and wounding several thousand, officials said. They pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack.

Among those wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. (so much for 'diplomatic immunity!??):O:The mysterious incident came amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which have exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.

The pagers that exploded had been newly acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using cell phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand the group had not used before.:oops:

At about 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, pagers started heating up and then exploding in the pockets and hands of those carrying them -- particularly in a southern Beirut suburb and the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong presence, and in Damascus, where several Hezbollah members were wounded, Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official said. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

The AP reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment. The explosions came hours after Israel’s internal security agency said it had foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to kill a former senior Israeli security official using a planted explosive device that could be remotely detonated. Experts said the pager explosions showed signs of being a long-planned operation – though the means were not immediately known. Investigators had no immediate word on how the pagers were detonated or if explosives had somehow been sneaked into each pager.

Whatever the means, it targeted an extraordinary breadth of people with hundreds of small explosions — all at once, wherever the pager carrier happened to be — that left some maimed.

One video circulating online showed a man picking through produce at a grocery store when the bag he’s carrying at his hip explodes, sending him sprawling to the ground and bystanders running. AP photographers at area hospitals said the emergency rooms were overloaded with patients. Some had missing hands or chunks blown out of their legs near the pocket area.

Lebanon’s health minister, Firas Abiad, said at least nine people were killed, including an 8-year-old girl, and 2,750 wounded — 200 of them critically — by the explosions. Most had injuries in the face, hand, or around the abdomen.

Hezbollah said in a statement that two of its members were among those killed. The Hezbollah official who spoke anonymously identified one of the dead as Ali Ammar, the son of one of the group’s members in the Lebanese parliament. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” Hezbollah said, adding that Israel will “for sure get its just punishment.”

Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the country’s ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially wounded by an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital.

Previously, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying that they could be used by Israel to track their movements and to carry out targeted strikes.

The images seen Tuesday showed signs of detonation, said Alex Plitsas, a weapons expert at the Atlantic Council. “A lithium ion battery fire is one thing, but I’ve never seen one explode like that. It looks like a small explosive charge,” Plitsas said.

That raises the possibility Israel was aware of a shipment of pagers heading to Hezbollah and managed to modify the pagers before delivery, he said.
nother possibility is an electronic pulse “that was sent from afar and burnt the devices and caused their explosion,” said Yehoshua Kalisky, a scientist and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. “It is not some random action; it was deliberate and known.”

Israel has a long history of carrying out deadly operations behind enemy lines.

In January, Saleh Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was killed in an airstrike on a Beirut apartment building blamed on Israel. In July, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s top commander in another airstrike. Hours later, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ supreme leader, died in a mysterious explosion in Iran, also blamed on Israel.

Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby-trapped cellphones and it’s widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran’s nuclear program in 2010. nuthin' new here methinks??! :hmmm: but there's a 'mole' somewheres:yep:

Tuesday's explosions came at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, a Hezbollah ally that is also backed by Iran. :ping::ping::ping::ping:

[Jimbuna]

I reckon you could say they certainly got the message.

[mapuc]

My thoughts would be-What kind of response will there come from Lebanon and/or Iran ?

Markus

[Aktungbby]

/\..."he that smiteth lath, smiteth beth" in the 'my god is better than your god' big-bang theory game...:hmmm:

[Otto Harkaman]

https://youtu.be/Gq5EGGR-y0Y?si=B6JFyZ1KU1LAH6pX

[Skybird]

I reckon you could say they certainly got the message.
:har:

WhatsApp is rumoured to be soon renamed into Who's Up :D

Anyway, I got reminded of why it might be a better idea than I thought to not leave the house with a smartphone.

In fact I am considering to turn my smartphone into an exclusively-no-SIM-card device. Never liked these things and their always-trackable, always-surveillanced, always-reachable philosophy anyway.

[Shadowblade]

I reckon you could say they certainly got the message.


yeah, good job Mossad :up:


It reminded me the scene from movie Law Abiding Citizen, where cell phone was used for this job:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYiroil336w

[Otto Harkaman]

https://youtu.be/KEbdZmcIOsI?si=s-gf-LC63O-HJ5s5

[Aktungbby]

I reckon you could say they certainly got the message.:hmmm:...inasmuch as not a few
of the 2000+ victims have 'large gashes in their torsos and/or upper thighs'; I'd rather imagine not few Hezbollah Jihadis are now 'Dezbollah'd NPQ's??! :oops: NPQ = the military designation for "Not Physically Qualified"

[Skybird]

They repeated the stunt with walkie-talkies now.

I wish they would use next our TV's. Make all TVs in European and American homes go up, dear Israel. I would really appreciate it! :D

[Aktungbby]

...there must be a 'mole' somewhere in Hezbollah's logistics/acquisitions dept? It takes time and planning to set this up...not so much for the effect casualitywise but for the longterm ad reducto absurdum to Jihadi morale. Plus, the Hezbollah have declared this a criminal act, which points up the 'double standard' alongside the rape/murder and & kidapping committed by their proxy-Hamas accomplices. In 'my-god-is-better-than your-god' warfare, there are clearly no rules!

[mapuc]

No wonder they say Mossad and other intelligent service in Israel is world best. Which they have to be.

Markus

[Shadowblade]

:)

https://i.postimg.cc/R0jCgZPp/received-1157619238633939.jpg

[fred8615]

:)

https://i.postimg.cc/R0jCgZPp/received-1157619238633939.jpg

:k_rofl:

[mapuc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgHOGWUkZyE

Markus

[Aktungbby]

:)

https://i.postimg.cc/R0jCgZPp/received-1157619238633939.jpg...most of 'em can't count that high anyway!:shucks::|\\:lol:

[Otto Harkaman]

Why 72 virgins?

The concept of "72 virgins" comes from certain interpretations of Islamic teachings, particularly in reference to the rewards for martyrs in paradise. It is commonly associated with hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and not explicitly mentioned in the Quran.

The idea is drawn from a particular hadith, which suggests that male martyrs would be rewarded in paradise with "houri", described as pure, beautiful companions. In some interpretations, these houris are understood to be 72 virgins, although the exact number and nature of these rewards have been debated by scholars.

It's important to note that many modern Islamic scholars challenge the literal interpretation of this concept. They argue that such descriptions of paradise are symbolic, intended to convey a sense of ultimate happiness, fulfillment, and reward rather than literal physical experiences. The number "72" may also have symbolic meaning, representing abundance or completeness in certain traditions.
This notion has been widely sensationalized in popular culture and media, often in a way that distorts or oversimplifies Islamic eschatology.

Any magical connection to the number 72?

Yes, the number 72 holds symbolic and mystical significance in various religious, esoteric, and cultural traditions throughout history. Here are a few examples of its mystical and "magical" connotations:

1. Kabbalistic Tradition


72 Names of God: In Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah), there is a belief in the "72 Names of God," which are derived from a particular set of verses in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 14:19-21). These names are considered to have mystical powers and are used in meditative and magical practices within Kabbalah.
Angelic Associations: There are also references to 72 angels corresponding to the names of God, who are believed to assist in spiritual and magical practices. These angels are considered powerful intermediaries between God and humans.

2. Astrological and Cosmological Significance


Precession of the Equinoxes: The number 72 is significant in astronomy and astrology due to the phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes. It takes approximately 72 years for the position of the stars to shift by 1 degree due to this slow movement of Earth's axis. This number has thus been linked to cosmic cycles and is often associated with broader astrological and mystical systems.

3. Egyptian Mythology


In ancient Egyptian mythology, the god Osiris was said to have been betrayed and killed by 72 conspirators. This number is sometimes interpreted as having a symbolic meaning related to cycles of death and rebirth in Egyptian cosmology.

4. Numerology


In numerology, 72 is often reduced (7 + 2 = 9), and the number 9 is seen as a number of completion, spiritual enlightenment, and the culmination of cycles.

5. Christian and Islamic Mysticism


In Christianity, 72 is the number of disciples sent out by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 10:1).
In some interpretations of Islamic mysticism, the number 72 represents various cosmic and spiritual truths, although this isn't as central as it is in Kabbalah or other traditions.

6. Magic and the Occult


In Western esotericism and some occult traditions, the number 72 has been used in rituals, magical squares, and other forms of symbolic magic due to its association with divine or cosmic order, stemming from its ancient mystical roots.

In these contexts, the number 72 is often seen as representing divine order, balance, and the interplay between the physical and spiritual realms. Its appearance in various religious and mystical traditions suggests a symbolic significance that transcends specific cultural boundaries.

[mapuc]

What's important here and which is also mentioned in the video I posted earlier, is that these pagers was only given to high ranked people in the Hezbollah-This is a blow, which they will need years to overcome.

A friend who is from Syria have said that most of the Lebanon's citizens don't like Hezbollah and it's not a problem for Mossad to hire people to work undercover i Lebanon.

Markus

[mapuc]

^^ I once heard in a documentary about Islam that the word for Virgin could also mean grapes.

Markus

[Reece]

^ mmm, yummy either way!! :yep:

[Shadowblade]

Why 72 virgins?
....



^^ I once heard in a documentary about Islam that the word for Virgin could also mean grapes.

Markus

:03:

https://i.ibb.co/VBVV9zY/virginians.jpg

[mapuc]

United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has condemned the pager blasts in Lebanon on Tuesday that killed at least 12 people and injured around 2,800.

Türk called the attacks a violation of international humanitarian law and called for an “independent, thorough and transparent investigation.”

CNN has learned that the Israeli military and intelligence service were behind Tuesday’s attack, but Israeli officials have not publicly commented on it, or on Wednesday’s walkie-talkie explosions.

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/lebanon-pagers-explode-hezbollah-israel-09-18-24-intl-hnk#h_6dcda7da3dd9faffa18ce9bf3dbb4c2b

Markus

[Shadowblade]

I guess that Mossad doesnt care :03:

[mapuc]

I guess that Mossad doesnt care :03:

Never gave it any thoughts that Mossad wouldn't care at all about these accusation.

I say it was a stroke of genius behind these two operation

Markus

[Skybird]

They certainly paid tribute to their reputation of being the Tal Shiar of the Middle East. :cool: The Jordanian secret service GID also has a very good reputation of being highly effective and always well-informed. But the Mossad is in a realm of its own.

[Sean C]

:03:

https://i.ibb.co/VBVV9zY/virginians.jpg


I'm a Virginian, and I approve of this message. :har:

[August]

Saw this today. If true it looks like Isreal has smacked them pretty good.

[mapuc]

Saw this today. If true it looks like Isreal has smacked them pretty good.

I think it's true. Which would most likely mean the end of Hezbollah. I can't see how they will overcome this massive blow Israel gave them.

They have to train new officers a.s.o.

What are Iran going to do about it ? Iran is at war with Israel by proxy.

Markus

[Moonlight]

Iran will do the odd Terrorist attack using some patsy like they've always done, they won't want a conventional war with Israel as that would put Iran's nuclear programs under the threat of destruction. Israel would love to give Iran a good smack in the kisser and, in doing so they'd also find out that there Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were just chocolate soldiers who'd melt away in the heat of battle.

[mapuc]

Iran will do the odd Terrorist attack using some patsy like they've always done, they won't want a conventional war with Israel as that would put Iran's nuclear programs under the threat of destruction. Israel would love to give Iran a good smack in the kisser and, in doing so they'd also find out that there Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were just chocolate soldiers who'd melt away in the heat of battle.

No that was never on my mind a direct conflict between these two countries-What I think will happen, most likely. Iran give Houthi some extra ballistic missiles and tell them to send what they got of missiles towards Israel.

We will know within the next 14 days if Houthi do a massive attacks on Israel

Markus

[Sean C]

Which would most likely mean the end of Hezbollah.


I doubt that.

[mapuc]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MT4YglnwjM

Markus

[Shadowblade]

:)


https://i.ibb.co/KmB3BfD/free-pagers.jpg

[Otto Harkaman]

https://youtu.be/Y29Mmecxq7E?si=zwsQnrouWK4E6bWs

Israel Batters Hezbollah in “Operation Northern Arrows”
https://www.youtube.com/live/mvKG38husNk?si=kPRTTKwu1xF008Kj
CBN News

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/data:image/webp;base64,UklGRtADAABXRUJQVlA4WAoAAAAQAAAAPwAAPw AAQUxQSFUDAAARoEVtmyFJeuvUWFWnOV7btm2zsbZt27Zt294d 27adp7sGdeK7iKiI6MrVZURMAP+Wt7xjnZRtM3nkHuni56ax26 fruqQ4tCJVmzVJb6YqN0HSoWnKvC5paJsUZe+QpFNSlLnBGpFP D3daOi09rd9x9ElPxTCH2TI1+zc5dFtq3pR7ULuUbLagRLJZOt p9otInl1dFXX1764KVHo+XU+ujvvuuDmD/RfLskymbqmP6JjPrMsA2M+SbZMsjv9MtQ5s16XCAnsPkbaparv 16p78zZqWR+W4jgJ59FNCzpdY475PJBWMk8+EGALXfKaQb0P3I WD1P+SaRu/BkLcB6/RRabAfspjdjdNr3rZkqvfK9ngDr9FPw7AxQL90W1O7kQUaezU/WAmw7RuE/ATwp6QS/7KGD5G3eqQHYfKSJcA/QepokreXT830jb/NeLcA+kxVzN2Bb2X94bD9JgT93A9h+gonxOcDrDp1SoiFR4LB1 APafoZjzNwDWSlyT8476FQos7AGw+VQTw1wE8JRKnmft0azQSw A2mqqorwDUFkrNaAO58Qr9ECDXR1FH5Kzn5XkMPKrQWRVA5kVF NTsBbGN8PmO1RSHFkwEOXxnnBoDWw+Q7t9fFCv26HZAbo6hvYd 8j/1O+D1mxC8BFijqoytpJgY9NCvkeoGJ8lNnbAmSnhfy4LOQE63A To9CI/aJCJycBSXfrWcV8IGPVKXjxtIA/sAfE6NsJoNvssGU/BzzlmBnBbAOQ/VrhM64IuMIxN8J92Dcr4ocbFvxOiTWinbWJiXExP/sd45gUVDwSINtPEWdUcbhfo+OPoK/bWE8p5tnA517XOZ4NMdsD7KWI5lmAnnN9PnUcFfIWQJuRMe7JW Bzsk+Stisl+y9az6hU+7VBKXuahky1u8Psee2hQcmclnjd4jHJ UzfS6xFpNgXNvWQ3//ZeWUKPFUV4bWXVezT8e24bgtb4usaDW4iGPYmvrGo9Zj25G3JM nOPSNg2dKNWWs60r8eVqe6J3qxlh61sF1xpVgX+Los1OGlj3hG yPpdQdbjnAUMtZekpZdRhmudslPZuVL3S1a37xAklnLyhc1d2f KtOL0T1/tbkH+4YJ0iUW/CetRxtkaF6zz7Mj7HBvk+J8SAFZQOCBUAAAA8AMAnQEqQABAAD 4xEIxGIhERCIAgAwSzgDsAfgAAESVp6WUHJKGcAAD+3JfX//20P60P60P+o7//+a7fNdvnY3/nNFtN2J6TKNiBCI+FpNmDEwAA
cbn.com
(https://www2.cbn.com/news)https://www2.cbn.com › news
The Christian Broadcasting Network

[Reece]

@ Shadowblade - Oh you are naughty, but I like it!! :D

[Exocet25fr]

Lebanon: UN warns of escalating horror in Middle East as ‘communications tools become weapons’


https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2024/09/97759/lebanon-un-warns-escalating-horror-middle-east-communications-tools

[Exocet25fr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE_19BR61_0

[mapuc]

Hezbollah's top leader Hassan Nasrallah have been killed

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c981g8mrl8lt

Markus

[Shadowblade]

nice kill, IDF :up:

[mapuc]

nice kill, IDF :up:

Yea! Israel can expect a very harsh response from Hezbollah, I think Israel are prepared for this.

Markus

[Reece]

nice kill, IDF :up:
Yep! :yeah:

[Skybird]

I cannot help but being impressed by the bitter, grim determination of the Israelis to see it all through, no matter the world. This attitude on how to win wars and what it means to fight for your survival is what the West has completely lost.

For Israel the need teaches the lessons, not some ideological leftist pro-Islamic mumbo-jumbo.

Absolutely possible that Netanyahu benefits personally from it, yes. If that is the price, its a small one.

Interesting to see how relatively mild and few hostile reactions Israel gets from Arab governments, considering the scale of the war. And those reactions it gets in parts are a balancing act of the governments who must weigh their own dispise for the Palestinians with the need to please their streets' public mood. Nobody should have the illusions that Palestinan Arabs are liked or welcomed amongst the other Arabs. They are outcasts amongsts their own people. And their stunt in Jordan has not been forgotten. Thats why the Jordanian secret service is the best intel service in the Arab world now.

We summarize it: Hezbollah's communications are seriously disprupted, their military leader pool has suffered very high losses and is seriously disrupted as well, and their stockpiled ammunitions and wepaons have taken a serious loss already, too - when if not now is the best time to go for them in totality? Hezbollah is not about a border dispute - they want to wipe out Israel. Nobody with a sane mind or just German hypermoralists like Annalena or a weak well-meaning doddering old man in the WH can seriously demand the Israelis to negotiate the terms of their own annihilation.

I'm sorry for the civilians, but Israel practices what I already years ago have preached: do not intentiinally target civilians - but also do not let the presence of civilians distract you from your military targets and the enemy fighters. Just go after the latter, no matter what.

Thats not nice. Thats war. We have too many illusions about simple truths. And we live by self-betraying thinking we could make war more civilized when making weapons precise and "smart", we can strike with surgical precision and no harm done to innocents.

All drivel and nonsense. War is not like this. Never was, never will be. Israel recalls something that was said by I think Golda Meir (I'm not certain) in the founding days of Israel: that the world is against Israel and Israel can only survive if convincing the world that it is a rabid dog willing to take down all the rest of the world along with it.

Now we are talking. Thats the language everybody understands.

Our little Annalena only makes funny sounds.

[Skybird]

This comment scores bullseye.

https://www-focus-de.translate.goog/politik/meinung/focus-kolumne-von-jan-fleischhauer-darf-man-sich-ueber-den-tod-eines-terroristen-freuen-ich-habe-dazu-eine-klare-meinung_id_260344731.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

[mapuc]

If you look further into the future, however, it will not knock out the Lebanese group, believes the senior researcher.

- Hezbollah is a huge movement with lots of members, and they want to find a new leader and new commanders. It is not the case that Hezbollah will be wiped out by this, but it is of course a serious weakening, she says.

https://ekstrabladet-dk.translate.goog/nyheder/krigogkatastrofer/forsker-drab-paa-hizbollah-leder-kan-faa-kaempe-betydning/10384866?_x_tr_sl=da&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=da&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Markus

[Dargo]

https://ekstrabladet-dk.translate.goog/nyheder/krigogkatastrofer/forsker-drab-paa-hizbollah-leder-kan-faa-kaempe-betydning/10384866?_x_tr_sl=da&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=da&_x_tr_pto=wapp

MarkusLike Hamas is not defeated, Hezbollah will survive this.

[mapuc]

Like Hamas is not defeated, Hezbollah will survive this.

Hezbollah is a huge terror organization who have a weak leadership for the moment. They will find a new leader and new high ranked person to lead the different sector of Hezbollah.

The next question is Iran:

Their two allied-Hamas and Hezbollah is under massive attacks.
For how long can Iran sit there and watch them being demolished ?

Markus

[Dargo]

Hezbollah is a huge terror organization who have a weak leadership for the moment. They will find a new leader and new high ranked person to lead the different sector of Hezbollah.

The next question is Iran:

Their two allied-Hamas and Hezbollah is under massive attacks.
For how long can Iran sit there and watch them being demolished ?

MarkusIran wants some kinda deal with the West so they hold back, in the meantime diplomatic channels are busy in negotiations. Iran can say to Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis go do a full strike, and it will go hot in the Middle East, but this is their major card in their diplomatic policy.

[mapuc]

Iran wants some kinda deal with the West so they hold back, in the meantime diplomatic channels are busy in negotiations. Iran can say to Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis go do a full strike, and it will go hot in the Middle East, but this is their major card in their diplomatic policy.

Not only that, they are so close to have developed their own nuke and getting this destroyed in a war with Israel and/ or USA is not what they wish.

However how much impact does Iran have on these three terror organization ?
Hezbollah have said they will revenge this and you can bet on it will be a harsh reply from them, which Israel will give a counter-response to and the spiral of war and evilness will continue.

Hezbollah have also asked their allied to help them in their fight against Israel. Wonder how many of these are going to help them.

Markus

[Dargo]

Not only that, they are so close to have developed their own nuke and getting this destroyed in a war with Israel and/ or USA is not what they wish.

However how much impact does Iran have on these three terror organization ?
Hezbollah have said they will revenge this and you can bet on it will be a harsh reply from them, which Israel will give a counter-response to and the spiral of war and evilness will continue.

Hezbollah have also asked their allied to help them in their fight against Israel. Wonder how many of these are going to help them.

MarkusIran is not the only country that has influence on Hezbollah, but with delivering the goods they have the say on when to use and how to use them like the US can restrict Ukraine. Nukes are not for use, they are to build the status quo of I have them so do not dare to attack me else I nuke you.

[mapuc]

Iran is not the only country that has influence on Hezbollah, but with delivering the goods they have the say on when to use and how to use them like the US can restrict Ukraine. Nukes are not for use, they are to build the status quo of I have them so do not dare to attack me else I nuke you.

I say the same-They will not use them against their enemies, what I think they will, is to use them as some kind of blackmail against their enemies.

Markus

[Skybird]

Like Hamas is not defeated, Hezbollah will survive this.
True, but: you can very crushingly reduce their weapons stockpile, namely their missiles and rockets arsenals. A toothless dog is just a balking but not a biting dog, it costs you some sleep at night, but not your life.

And killing the communication infrastructure and the experience pool by taking out their competent and experienced leaders buys time and hinders the enemy to regroup soon. It also disrupts interactions between and trust of several different hostile actors cooperating.

Finally, the Israelis rebuild their reputation which had suffered a bit after the Mossad was surprised completely on the wrong leg.

[Dargo]

True, but: you can very crushingly reduce their weapons stockpile, namely their missiles and rockets arsenals. A toothless dog is just a balking but not a biting dog, it costs you some sleep at night, but not your life.

And killing the communication infrastructure and the experience pool by taking out their competent and experienced leaders buys time and hinders the enemy to regroup soon. It also disrupts interactions between and trust of several different hostile actors cooperating.

Finally, the Israelis rebuild their reputation which had suffered a bit after the Mossad was surprised completely on the wrong leg.Israeli sources suggest Hashem Safieddine, the former number 2 of Hezbollah, head of the group's Executive Council and Nasrallah's cousin, has already started taking control of the group, and even planning a response through attack against cities in Israel. He will be formally named as the leader of Hezbollah after a meeting of the group's Shura council. Does not matter Israel kill him too as there are many in line to replace with same experience you can try to behead Hezbollah, but it is a hydra. And the communication infrastructure is not destroyed the old fashion ways are default backups the cells know how they need to operate they are trained for years they only need a pigeon go ahead.

[Dargo]

Iranian Officials state that a Group of Officers and Commanders with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG), including Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, the Deputy Commander of Operations for the IRGC as well as the Acting Commander of Quds Force Operations in Syria and Lebanon; were all killed in yesterday’s Israeli Strike on Hezbollah’s Central Command Bunker in Beirut.

[mapuc]

Iranian Officials state that a Group of Officers and Commanders with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG), including Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, the Deputy Commander of Operations for the IRGC as well as the Acting Commander of Quds Force Operations in Syria and Lebanon; were all killed in yesterday’s Israeli Strike on Hezbollah’s Central Command Bunker in Beirut.

Seems like the Israeli got more than a jackpot yesterday.

Markus

[Dargo]

Seems like the Israeli got more than a jackpot yesterday.

MarkusRight now, Hezbollah is hanging groggy in the ropes, perhaps it is enough that they finally choose eggs for their money. By taking out leaders and destroying hundreds of launch facilities and ammunition caches, you take out military capability. And you hand out a warning: if you attack us, you get a huge slap on the wrist. The killing of Nasrallah is undeniably a major military victory, but not necessarily a political one. So the battle is far from over, Israel will continue with airstrikes to take out long-range missiles. And perhaps a ground operation (US officials have seen Israeli military posture changes on Lebanon border (https://english.alarabiya.net/News/united-states/2024/09/29/us-officials-have-seen-israeli-military-posture-changes-on-lebanon-border)), to destroy Hezbollah's infrastructure in southern Lebanon and then withdraw. It's just not necessarily necessary. Crucial to ending the war is what happened last week: the flight of hundreds of thousands of residents from southern Lebanon and other Shiite regions of the country. Israel can now say: if our sixty thousand displaced from northern Israel cannot return, neither can your people. That is an important lever, but if there is no constructive, regional solution, everything could just look different for Israel in a few months. Israel Has Called Iran’s Bluff (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/09/iran-hezbollah-netanyahu/680070/)

[Dargo]

Deaths and injuries among members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard militia after aircraft's targeting one of their sites on the outskirts of Deir Ezzor military airport (450 km to the northeast of the capital Damascus) and on the positions of the Popular Mobilization Forces militia near the Syrian-Iraqi border. Fatemiyoun Militia Evacuates Headquarters in Deir Ezzor.

[mapuc]

IDF say they got an another high ranked person in the Hezbollah. It's
Nabil Kaouk.

Markus

[Exocet25fr]

Nabil Kaouk is killed today........!

[Shadowblade]

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have announced the elimination of Nabil Kauk, a member of the central council of the Shiite party Hezbollah


good job, IDF :up:

[mapuc]

good job, IDF :up:

With thanks from Mossad and some insider in Lebanon.

I've been told that there are people in Lebanon who don't like Hezbollah. Can't remember how many in percentage who dislike them.

Markus

[Moonlight]

I would say everyone who isn't Shia-te.

[Shadowblade]

With thanks from Mossad and some insider in Lebanon.

I've been told that there are people in Lebanon who don't like Hezbollah. Can't remember how many in percentage who dislike them.

Markus

yes, they had very good intel, where to attack :up:

[mapuc]

Looks like a landinvasion of Lebanon is on its way

Israel-Hezbollah latest: Next phase of war to begin soon, Israel says; US sending thousands of additional troops to Middle East

https://news.sky.com/story/israel-hezbollah-lebanon-war-latest-sky-news-live-12978800

Markus

[Dargo]

Hezbollah's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem declared on Monday that the Lebanese militant group will continue its fight against Israel. ‘We are ready for an (Israeli) invasion with ground troops,’ he said in a speech recorded in advance, ’and we will emerge victorious.’ Israel is ‘currently’ conducting ‘limited ground operations’ in Lebanon. The US State Department confirmed this on Monday evening, following reports by The Washington Post. ‘They have informed us that they are currently conducting limited operations targeting Hezbollah's infrastructure near the border,’ spokesman Matthew Miller said. Israeli ground operation in Lebanon may begin ‘within hours’

[mapuc]

What is their task ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnEc7tMcoK4

Markus

[Dargo]

What is their task ?

MarkusTo evacuate US citizen it takes a lot more than marines to actually get involved in this war, this is normal US policy. And there are also there to protect the oil in the region, defence for embassies and US military bases.

[Dargo]

The Israeli army has begun its ground offensive in Lebanon. It involves ‘limited and targeted’ operations against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, the army said in a statement. But on every hill they will be fired upon, so the Israeli army will have to take those hills before you know it you are in Beirut.

[Skybird]

Make hay while the sun still shines.

[mapuc]

To evacuate US citizen it takes a lot more than marines to actually get involved in this war, this is normal US policy. And there are also there to protect the oil in the region, defence for embassies and US military bases.

Take part of this war, was never on my mind. However I was thinking more like are they there to prevent Iran from doing something stupid.

Markus

[Skybird]

IDF spokesman claims Herzbollah planned ground attacks into Israel in 10-7 style.