Hamas launches war on Israel

[Reece]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

There's nothing quite like a huge overdose of hypocrisy.

You're not wrong Jim, unbelievable, Poo-tin is an absolute joke! (I would prefer to have used the word wan---)

[Jimbuna]

Hamas rejects Israel's ceasefire response, sticks to main demands

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has rejected an Israeli ceasefire proposal, saying on Saturday it had handed to mediators in Egypt and Qatar its response to the proposal it had received last Monday.

After more than six months of war with Israel in Gaza, the negotiations remain deadlocked, with Hamas sticking to its demands that any agreement must end the war.

"We.. reaffirm our adherence to our demands and the national demands of our people; with a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of the occupation army from the entire Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced to their areas and places of residence, intensification of the entry of relief and aid, and the start of reconstruction," the Islamist faction said.
Israel wants to secure the return of hostages seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war, but says it will not stop fighting until Hamas is destroyed as a military force. It also says it still plans to carry out an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians have taken refuge.

Hamas said on Saturday it was ready to conclude a prisoners-for-hostages swap deal with Israel that would see the release of 133 hostages still believed to be held in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinians jailed in Israel.
There was no official Israeli comment on Hamas’ response.

The Hamas statement came a few days after Israel killed several members of the family of the group's chief Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, raising fears among the families of hostages that it would derail efforts to secure their release from Gaza.

Speaking to Reuters in Qatar a day after the killing, Haniyeh said his group still sought a deal but accused Israel of procrastinating and evading a response to the group's demands.

Global calls for a ceasefire have been growing as the war has entered its seventh month, but there has been little sign of progress in the talks.

Hamas is demanding an end to the Israeli offensive, a withdrawal of Israeli forces, and permission for Gaza's displaced Palestinians to return to their homes.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...91b11937&ei=21

[Skybird]

https://www-focus-de.translate.goog/...en&_x_tr_hl=de

"From a purely military point of view, the Iranian attack was an outright failure," states Islamic scholar Gerhard Conrad, who was involved in a number of secret operations as a top agent of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) for many years.

Nevertheless, there is no reason to play down or trivialize the attack. Conrad told FOCUS online: "After all, it took a concerted, highly qualified military effort by Israel and its allies to successfully repel the attack."

(...)
In the view of the former secret agent, there is little to suggest that Israel will leave it at successfully repelling the attack. "The logic of military deterrence pursued so far, which does not leave even the ineffectual attempt at a military attack on Israel unpunished, stands in the way of this."


Gerhard Conrad: "Iran will most likely not be granted the satisfaction of having carried out such an attack without a reaction from its opponent. Such restraint would be seen as a 'sign of weakness' in Israel as well as in Iran and the region."


For this reason alone, a prompt military response from Israel is to be expected. Conrad told FOCUS online: "The risk of a military escalation, including the potential of Hezbollah in Lebanon, is therefore not yet off the table."

[mapuc]

From what I understand by watching the news is that the Iranian attack wasn't an all out attack on Israel, but should be seen as a smack on their fingers.

Also heard that the Israeli war cabinet has approved the response to this attack when, where and howe is unknown.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Israel says the vast majority of more than 300 drones and missiles launched by Iran were intercepted overnight.

The attacks - which drew international condemnation - marked the first time Iran has targeted Israel directly from its own soil.

It is unclear how Israel plans to respond, but war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has said it will "exact a price" for Iran's attack when the timing is right
Israeli military say there were a small number of hits on its territory, including a base in southern Israel.

Iran had been warning that it would retaliate after an Israeli strike killed Iranian military commanders in Damascus earlier this month.

US President Joe Biden says the US helped Israel "take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles"

As world leaders urged restraint, Iran warned that any "reckless" retaliation by Israel would receive a "much stronger response"

[Von Due]

Originally Posted by Skybird

...And then there is Russia. It certainly has an interest to have Western attention diverted from Ukraine.

I think this may be more significant than one would think at first glance.

[Jimbuna]

Israeli military renews warnings to Palestinians not to return to war-torn northern Gaza

The Israeli military renewed warnings on Monday for Palestinians in Gaza not to return to the embattled territory’s north, a day after Gaza hospital officials said five people were killed as throngs of displaced residents tried to reach their homes in the war-torn area.

Northern Gaza was an early target of Israel’s war against Hamas and vast parts of it have been flattened, forcing much of the area’s population to flee south. While around 250,000 people are said to be living in the north, the Israeli military has prevented most displaced people from returning throughout the six-month-long war, saying the area is an active battle zone.

The military has reduced the number of troops it has in Gaza and has said it has loosened Hamas’ control over the north, but Israel is still carrying out airstrikes and targeted operations in the area against what it says are reorganizing militants, most prominently at Gaza's main hospital, Shifa, which is in ruins after a two-week raid and fighting last month.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Palestinians should stay in southern Gaza, where they have been told to shelter, because the north is a “dangerous combat zone.”

People appeared to be heeding the new warning, especially after the violence on Sunday.

Hospital authorities in Gaza said that five people were killed by Israeli forces while trying to travel north to their homes. Their bodies were taken to the Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, hospital records showed. A further 54 were wounded in the incident, the records showed.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment and the precise circumstances behind the deaths were not immediately clear.

Anaam Mohammad, who was displaced from the northern city of Beit Hanoun and was trying to return, said the military was allowing women and children to cross, but when a group of Palestinians did not make room for them to pass, two tanks arrived and opened fire. Forces also threw smoke bombs, dispersing the crowd.

“People started to run away. People were afraid and could not take the risk and enter a dangerous area,” she said.

Ahead of the violence Sunday, throngs of people crowded a coastal road and moved north by foot and donkey cart. The returnees said they were prompted to make the dangerous journey because they were fed up with the difficult conditions they are forced to live under while displaced.

“We want our homes. We want our lives. We want to return, whether with a truce or without a truce,” said Um Nidhal Khatab, who was displaced from the north.

Northern Gaza and the return of its population is a key sticking point between Israel and Hamas in negotiations underway to try to bring about a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages taken by the militant group. Israel wants to try to delay the return to prevent militants from regrouping in the north, while Hamas says it wants a free flow of returnees.

The war has had a staggering toll on civilians in Gaza, with most of the territory’s 2.3 million people displaced by the fighting and living in dire circumstances, with little food and often in tents and no end in sight to their misery. Large swaths of the urban landscape have been damaged or destroyed, leaving many displaced Palestinians with nowhere to return to.

Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.

Famine is said to be imminent in the hard-hit north, where aid has struggled to reach because of the fighting. Israel has opened a new crossing for aid trucks into the north as it ramps up aid deliveries to the besieged enclave. However, the United Nations says the surge of aid is not being felt in Gaza because of persistent distribution difficulties.

The U.N. food agency on Monday said it managed to deliver fuel and wheat flour to a bakery in isolated Gaza City in the north for the first time since the war started.

The conflict started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel. Around 250 people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza. A deal in November freed about 100 hostages, leaving about 130 in captivity, although Israel says about a quarter of those are dead.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 33,700 Palestinians and wounded over 76,200, the Gaza Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Israel says it has killed over 12,000 militants during the war, but it has not provided evidence to back up the claim.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...548c6c2b&ei=15

[Jimbuna]

Hostage talks:

Hamas has slashed the number of hostages it is willing to release during the first phase of a ceasefire deal by more than half, from 40 down to 20, an Israeli source close to the negotiations said. This represents a significant step backward in the talks.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Hostage talks:

Hamas has slashed the number of hostages it is willing to release during the first phase of a ceasefire deal by more than half, from 40 down to 20, an Israeli source close to the negotiations said. This represents a significant step backward in the talks.

I wonder if HAMAS will release the hostages whole, or in pieces?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by em2nought

I wonder if HAMAS will release the hostages whole, or in pieces?

I suspect there aren't even forty still alive.

[Jimbuna]

US and EU eye new sanctions on Iran after attack on Israel

The United States and the European Union say they are looking at imposing further sanctions on Iran, after its attack on Israel at the weekend.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she expected to take action "in the coming days", while EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was working on it.

Israel has urged its allies to sanction Tehran's missile programme.

United Nations sanctions over the programme expired in October.

Those sanctions had been linked to a wider deal to limit Iran's nuclear programme.

However a number of countries including the US, EU and UK maintained sanctions and added new ones.

The Israeli military's chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, said on Monday that the Iranian attack would not go unanswered.

Iran's first-ever direct attack on Israel on Saturday saw a wave of more than 300 missiles and drones fired from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, with most being downed by Israel and its allies.

Tehran said the attack was retaliation for a presumed Israeli air strike on its consulate in Syria on 1 April, in which 13 people were killed.

So far, Israel appears to have countered with only a diplomatic offensive. Its foreign minister urged more than 30 countries to impose sanctions on Iran's missile programme.

It has also called for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - a major military, political and economic force in Iran - to be designated a terrorist organisation, something the US has already done but the UK has not.

Speaking on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Ms Yellen said: "With respect to sanctions, I fully expect that we will take additional sanctions action against Iran in the coming days.

"We don't preview our sanctions tools. But in discussions I've had, all options to disrupt terrorist financing of Iran continue to be on the table."

She said Iran's oil exports were "a possible area we could address", adding: "Clearly, Iran is continuing to export some oil. There may be more that we could do."

Ms Yellen said the US was already using financial sanctions to isolate Iran and disrupt its ability to fund proxy groups and support Russia's war in Ukraine - including by targeting more than 500 individuals and entities.

Existing US sanctions on Iran already ban nearly all American trade with the country.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said later that the new sanctions would target "Iran including its missile and drone program" as well as the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian defence ministry.

"We anticipate that our allies and partners will soon be following with their own sanctions," he added. "These new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran's military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviours."

Mr Borrell, the EU's top diplomat, said some member states had asked for sanctions against Iran to be expanded.

He said he would send a request to the EU's diplomatic service to "start the necessary work related to the sanctions".

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz welcomed the "positive trend towards the adoption of sanctions" in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

World leaders have urged restraint in a bid to avoid a major escalation in the Middle East, following the latest attack.

US President Joe Biden - who has repeatedly declared his support for Israel is "ironclad" - has said he believes Israel should declare victory in this episode and "take the win".

In a phone call on Tuesday evening, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a further escalation in its response.

"He stressed that significant escalation was in no one's interest and would only deepen insecurity in the Middle East. This was a moment for calm heads to prevail," a Downing Street spokesperson said.

The G7 group of the world's seven largest advanced economies was now "co-ordinating a diplomatic response", they added.

Iran has indicated that it deems the matter "concluded" unless Israel retaliates - with Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi warning that "the slightest action against Iran's interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response".

Russia - an ally of Iran - has also urged restraint, the Kremlin said on Tuesday following a call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Raisi.

"Vladimir Putin expressed hope that all sides would show reasonable restraint and prevent a new round of confrontation fraught with catastrophic consequences for the entire region," the Kremlin said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68832045

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

I suspect there aren't even forty still alive.

I think you are right. Any maybe people should pray they aren't. What released hostages described, was hell.

[Jimbuna]

Israel makes own decisions, Netanyahu says after Cameron talks

Benjamin Netanyahu has told UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron that Israel would "make its own decisions" over how to respond to an Iranian attack.

He said his government would "do everything necessary to defend itself" during talks the British government had hoped would help prevent escalation.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to retaliate to the unprecedented missile and drone assault at the weekend.

Lord Cameron told him any response should be "smart" and limited.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem after the meeting with Mr Netanyahu, Lord Cameron said he was there to "demonstrate our solidarity" after Iran's "appalling" attack.

He continued: "We hope that anything Israel does is as limited and as targeted and as smart as possible.

"It's in no-one's interest that we see escalation and that is what we said very clearly to all the people I've been speaking to here in Israel."

After the meeting, the Israeli prime minister said: "I want to make it clear - we will make our own decisions, and the State of Israel will do everything necessary to defend itself."

Mr Netanyahu's remarks will reinforce the belief in western capitals that Israel is set to take action against Iran and there is a limit to how often they can call for restraint.

Israel is more than aware of concerns in Europe and the United States about the war escalating in the region.

However, western leaders may take comfort from the fact that Israeli leaders are trying to exploit the diplomatic support they have gained after Iran's attacks, which has seen international condemnation and the promise of new sanctions on Tehran.

It is possible Mr Netanyahu may not want to destroy that alliance with an act of retaliation that plunges the region into a full-scale war.

Lord Cameron is one of several Western foreign ministers who are expected to visit Israel in the coming days as part of a diplomatic drive to prevent that from happening.

Before meeting Mr Netanyahu, Lord Cameron held talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz.

The UK foreign secretary also plans to visit the Occupied Palestinian Territories to meet Mohammad Mustafa, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.

Later, Lord Cameron will travel to a gathering of G7 ministers in Italy, where he will push for co-ordinated sanctions on Iran.

Earlier, he accused Tehran of being "behind so much of the malign activity" in the Middle East and called for other countries to adopt measures designed to restrict Iran's influence.

The US and European Union are considering further sanctions, and Israel is calling on its allies to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - a major military, political and economic force in Iran - as a terrorist organisation.

The Israeli government has repeatedly vowed to retaliate after Iran sent more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel in an unprecedented direct attack overnight on Saturday.

Almost all the projectiles were intercepted by Israel's air defence systems, with the help of the UK, US, France, and Jordan.

Iran's direct attack on Israel was carried out in response to a strike in Syria on 1 April which killed senior Iranian military figures. Israel has not publicly confirmed it was behind the attack, but is widely believed to have been.

On Tuesday evening, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to Mr Netanyahu and warned that "significant escalation will only deepen instability in the region", adding: "This is a moment for calm heads to prevail."

Lord Cameron will seek to reinforce Mr Sunak's call for restraint during his visit to Israel, and put more pressure on its leaders to do more to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza - but he is walking a delicate diplomatic line.

The foreign secretary will not want to appear to be hectoring an ally which has just been subject to an unprecedented attack on its soil.

That is why Lord Cameron is also talking about the need for Hamas to release hostages and the importance of western powers imposing yet more sanctions on Iran.

His presence in Jerusalem is a show of support and solidarity - but also an attempt to warn Israeli leaders that any significant escalation would be against their interests and the world's.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68833121

[em2nought]

It's always nice to have people who are running their own countries into the ground giving you advice.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by em2nought

It's always nice to have people who are running their own countries into the ground giving you advice.

Wasn't that long ago he spat his dummy out after losing the Brexit referendum.