Hamas launches war on Israel

[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...ding-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]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Killing of Hamas leader 'doesn't help' ceasefire talks, says Biden

I'm sure Sleepy Joe would rather have given him a plea deal.

[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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?

Do the democrats do almost everything wrong, but for the right reasons?

[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]

Originally Posted by Dargo

Netanyahu is forcing Iran into an all-out regional war

Strange. And I always believed it were exactly the other way around.

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Strange. And I always believed it were exactly the other way around.

It depends on where your political standpoint is.

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

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]

Originally Posted by Skybird

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

Pretty much agree with that

[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...da815384&ei=67

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

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"?