Hamas launches war on Israel

[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...a8c111ce&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]

Originally Posted by Skybird

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]

Originally Posted by mapuc

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

[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...872cd2b4&ei=72

[Otto Harkaman]

[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!??)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.

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??! but there's a 'mole' somewheres

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.

[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...

[Otto Harkaman]