Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Terror group says senior operative killed in Israeli special forces op in south Gaza

2025-05-20

As of late Monday morning.

[IsraelTimes] Palestinian media says undercover troops apprehended wife and children of Popular Resistance Committees commander in Khan Younis; IDF rebuffs report of hostage rescue operation

A senior Paleostinian terror operative was killed in an Israeli operation in the southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip early Monday morning, as the Israel Defense Forces denied that the effort was an attempt to rescue Israeli hostages.

The military wing of the Popular Resistance® Committees, a small terrorist organization operating in the Gaza Strip, announced the death of Ahmad Sarhan, following reports that the senior figure was killed in an Israeli commando raid this morning. The organization said Sarhan was responsible for the group’s "special operations." It claimed that Israeli commandos killed Sarhan after failing in an attempt to arrest him.

Media outlets in Gaza reported earlier in the morning that Israeli special forces entered Khan Younis and killed Sarhan. According to the reports, the force entered the heart of the Paleostinian city in disguise, including some troops dressed as women. During the operation, Sarhan’s wife and children were apprehended, the reports claimed.

The Popular Resistance® Committees is considered the third-largest terror organization operating in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas
Hamas

..always the voice of sweet reason...
and Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
. In recent years, the group has operated under Hamas’s directives.

Amid the incident at dawn, a wave of heavy ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s was reported around the Khan Younis area, including Nasser Hospital. Videos from the Strip showed large strikes in quick succession in the area, followed by the sounds of helicopter gunships, shelling, small arms fire, and other explosions. There were unconfirmed Paleostinian media reports of casualties.

Initially, a report from Saudi news channel al-Arabiya, picked up by Hebrew-language media, claimed that the Israeli forces entered the area as part of an attempted hostage rescue operation. In response, the IDF issued a vague statement hinting that no such operation took place.

"The IDF is in the midst of Operation Gideon’s Chariots and is operating in all areas of the Gaza Strip," the military said, referring to its intensified offensive launched late last week.

"Following the reports, there is no change to the situational assessment," the statement added.

The special forces exited the city without taking on any casualties, according to Hebrew-language media.

Paleostinian media published images purportedly showing a wagon left behind by the Israeli forces. The photos showed what appeared to be a wagon of the kind usually pulled by a mule or cycle of violence, and often used by displaced Gazooks to move their belongings. Inside, however, was a secret hollow section where Israeli troops or equipment may have been hidden, or which possibly could be used to hold suspects.

IDF DECLARES ALL OF KHAN YOUNIS A COMBAT ZONE
The IDF announced Monday that all Paleostinians living in and around the large southern Gaza city of Khan Younis must leave their homes as it prepares to launch an "unprecedented attack" on the area. The evacuation order, covering all of Khan Younis as well as the suburbs of Bani Suheila and Abasan, marks the first major evacuation order since the IDF launched an expanded offensive in the Strip, with Israeli leaders warning they intend to conquer the whole territory to smash Hamas.

Media outlets in Gaza published footage showing large numbers of residents leaving the Khan Younis area on foot. According to Al Arabiya, thousands of residents have already begun evacuating. In recent weeks, there has been relatively low compliance with IDF evacuation orders in Gaza, according to both residents’ testimonies and UNRWA data on the number of evacuees.

Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38...
Israeli warplanes struck over 160 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military said, after Paleostinian media outlets reported that dozens of aerial bombardments were conducted across the territory overnight. According to the IDF, the targets included cells of operatives, anti-tank missile launch sites, tunnels, a weapons depot, buildings used by terror groups, booby-trapped structures, and a command center. Strikes were reported in and near Khan Younis, in Gaza City in the north, and in the area of Deir al-Balah in the central Strip.

Hamas-run authorities in Gaza said Israeli attacks on Monday have killed at least 52 people. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 136 bodies were brought to Gaza hospitals over the past 24 hours, along with 364 maimed.

In one of the latest operations, the military said it demolished a tunnel in Rafah used by Hamas operatives in an attack that killed two soldiers earlier this month. In the attack on May 3, Hamas operatives set off a bomb in a tunnel shaft in Rafah, killing Cpt. Noam Ravid and and Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror, who served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit. After setting off the earth-shattering kaboom, the operatives fled through the tunnel, which was some 200 meters long, the army said. Troops mapped out the tunnel in recent days and demolished it. The IDF said that during the demolition of the tunnel, troops killed another cell of Hamas operatives, which was hiding inside the underground passage.

IDF front man Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press statement from the Gaza border on Sunday evening that five divisions were now operating inside the Strip.

"We are entering a new stage in the fighting. During the operation, we will increase and expand our operational control in Gaza while bisecting the Strip and moving the population for its safety in all the areas where we operate," he said. "Unlike before, we are now focusing on the offensive effort in the Gaza Strip...until the defeat [of Hamas] in the areas where we operate."

Israeli officials had warned that the major offensive would be launched if no hostage deal was reached with Hamas by the end of US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
’s visit to the region on Friday. Hostage talks were still ongoing, and the military said it was only carrying out the preliminary stages of the offensive. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said, "The IDF will allow flexibility for the political echelon to advance any hostage deal."

"A hostage deal — this is not a halt; it is an achievement," Zamir stressed during a visit to Gaza on Sunday. "We are working toward it."

According to Israeli officials, the offensive would see the IDF "conquer" Gaza, raze the vast majority of buildings and retain the territory for the foreseeable future; attack Hamas and prevent it from taking control of humanitarian aid

supplies; and move Paleostinians from Gaza’s north to its south.

More from the Times of Israel about the deader:

The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports that Ahmad Sarhan was responsible for the abduction of Arbel Yehoud and for holding her captive in Gaza.

It was also reported that the IDF troops involved in the raid attempted to arrest Sarhan, but he confronted the soldiers, and was shot and killed.

There is no comment from the IDF.

All courtesy of Fred:

[X]

Eliminated ❌️

Ahmed Kamel Sarhan, a senior terrorist commander in the Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, was liquidated by the IDF in Khan Yunis.

Womp womp 💥 pic.twitter.com/Jh0jqjbRWU
— Nazi Hunters (@HuntersOfNazis) May 19, 2025

Zionist forces besiege Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Israeli occupation forces (IOF) laid siege to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip on Sunday evening, as military vehicles and bulldozers advanced amid heavy gunfire.

Eyewitnesses said that IOF tanks encircled the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and began to fire directly at the building.

Sources reported that there were 55 people inside the hospital, including four doctors and eight nurses, in addition to dozens of patients who were unable to move and could not be evacuated during the morning attack. ''Communication with medical staff and the sick inside the hospital has been cut off,'' the sources said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the cheese factory, all the pieces finally fell together in Fluffy's mind...
the director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir al-Bursh, said that ''Israeli tanks and bulldozers are surrounding the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.''

''A number of patients were maimed due to IOF shooting directly at the hospital. We appeal to the world to intervene immediately to protect the medical staff, patients and the maimed inside the hospital,'' al-Bursh added.

Health sources at the Hospital confirmed that the IOF did not inform the hospital of any evacuation orders nor did they issue any warnings before the bombing began, affirming that ''there are no military targets inside the hospital.''

The medical staff currently inside the hospital appeal to the international community and human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
organizations to intervene urgently to stop this attack and save their lives.

On Sunday morning, a health official said the occupation army surrounded the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, with drones amid direct shooting in the area.

The hospital director, Marwan al-Sultan, said in a statement that Israeli drones fired at the hospital's intensive care unit, affirming that one patient was injured after shots were fired in the hospital vicinity.

The Paleostinian Ministry of Health said the occupation army has been intensifying its targeting and siege of the Indonesian Hospital since dawn Sunday, days after the European Gaza Hospital was put out of service.

Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza confirms at least 500 people killed in past few days alone
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Director General of Al-Shifa Medical Complex announced on Monday that the hospital has received more than 500 martyrs and more than 1,000 wounded in the past few days.

This comes at a time when all hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip have ceased operations and the health sector is facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster amid a bloody military escalation by the Israeli occupation forces against the Gaza Strip.

The complex director explained in his statements that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating dangerously with the arrival of large numbers of wounded and sick people amid a severe shortage of basic medical supplies. This crisis has already led to the death of some patients due to the lack of adequate care.

He pointed to the massive human losses resulting from the recent escalation, noting that the enormous pressure on the complex greatly exceeds its capacity, preventing it from providing the necessary medical care, whether for critical cases or for newly injured patients.

Good morning, Gaza. 👋

pic.twitter.com/t5RS5mPHv6
— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) May 19, 2025

🚨 Breaking: Senior H×mas terrorist Mahdi Kawara eliminated today.

A crater is all that remains. pic.twitter.com/4QpnM5cL5c
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) May 19, 2025

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

One soldier seriously wounded, 60 terrorists killed in Jabalya, Gaza

2024-05-17

[Jpost] One soldier was wounded and is in serious condition after an encounter with terrorists in Jabalya, in the northern Gaza Strip, the military announced on Friday.

This comes after the IDF reported ramping up operations in Jabalya and Rafah, intensifying operational control, and striking terror targets.

Israel Air Force fighter jets struck weapons facilities and eliminated terrorists who launched mortar shells at IDF troops.

The IAF struck several military structures in Gaza, as well as terror cells, anti-tank positions, and additional terrorist infrastructure.

ELIMINATING TERRORISTS EN MASSE
In continued operations in the Gaza Strip, the 7th Brigade successfully eliminated more than 60 terrorists over the previous days in Jabalya, leading to continued fighting in the city center, the IDF added.

The groups of terrorists were eliminated both via ground operations and airstrikes. Meanwhile, firefights continued throughout the city.

The 101st battalion uncovered a weapons warehouse that hosted dozens of long-range rockets. They also uncovered rocket parts, explosives, and other weapons.

The warehouse was found just 10 meters away from a shelter complex, the IDF noted. Numerous terrorists were hiding in the complex, and the IDF subsequently arrested at least 20.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Gaza terror group publishes clip of hostage Ohad Yahalomi

2024-01-21

[IsraelTimes] The military wing of the Popular Resistance® Committees publishes a video of an Israeli hostage who appears to be maimed.

The clip released last night by the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades

...the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, and very fond of things that go boom: rockets, roadside bombs, blowing up vehicles. The PRC split off from Fatah in 2000 because they objected to the Palestinian Authority (the PLO in an off-the-rack suit) making nice-ish with Israel. Yet another terror group financed by Iran, they’re the third largest jihadi organization in Gaza after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad...

shows Ohad Yahalomi being treated for an injury and speaking to the camera.

There is no information indicating when the video was filmed.

While he was still alive, for what that’s worth. Possibly he still is.

On October 7, Yahalomi, 49, was shot in the leg after he engaged in a shootout with button men in his house in Kibbutz Nir Oz, before being kidnapped. His son Eitan Yahalomi, 12, was taken hostage separately, and was released in late November.

Terror groups in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip have previously issued similar videos of hostages they are holding, in what Israel says is deplorable psychological warfare.

Hamas
Hamas

...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
is believed to be holding the vast majority of the remaining 132 hostages taken on October 7 in Gaza, although some are held by other terror groups.

Hamas has also been holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas's deception‐and our self-deception

2023-10-15

(JNS) Last Sunday, senior Hamas terrorist Ali Baraka told the tale of how Hamas duped Israel and the U.S. into complacency.

In an interview with RT (formerly Russia Today), Baraka said, "In the past couple of years, Hamas has adopted a ’rational’ approach. It did not go into any war and did not join Islamic Jihad in its recent battle, [i.e., its missile assault on Israel in August 2022].

"We made them think Hamas was busy with governing Gaza, and that it wanted to focus on the 2.5 million Palestinians [there] and had abandoned the resistance altogether. All the while, under the table, Hamas was preparing for this big attack."

In other words, Hamas pretended it was a credible partner for negotiations, and that the only problem was Palestinian Islamic Jihad, its Iranian-founded spin-off.

One of the frustrating aspects of Baraka’s admission is that there was nothing new about Hamas’s deception. Deception is an integral part of the jihadist doctrine, going back to the days of Muhammad. Just as important, and frustratingly, even those who are unaware of—or willfully blind to—the centrality of Islamic jihadist doctrine and beliefs for Hamas, should still have been familiar with Hamas’s tactic.

It comes right out of the PLO’s playbook.

Five days after Hamas’s slaughter of more than 1,300 Jews in southern Israel, and on the eve of his meeting Friday in Amman with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, P.A. chairman and PLO/Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas released a statement.

"We reject the practices of killing civilians or abusing them on both sides because they contravene morals, religion and international law."

Abbas’s statement is notable for many reasons. It doesn’t name Hamas. It draws a moral equivalence between Israel’s counterattack in Gaza and Hamas’s orgiastic rape, torture, murder, immolation and kidnapping of babies, children, women and men. And it came after five days in which Abbas and the rest of Palestinian Arab society did nothing but celebrate and defend Hamas’s atrocities while blaming Israel for the crimes against humanity Hamas conducted against its people.

In his speech on Oct. 10, President Joe Biden intimated that Hamas isn’t representative of the aspirations of the Palestinian Arabs. In his words, "Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination."

The subtext was clear. Hamas is the bad guy. The Palestinian Authority is the good guy. And if that weren’t apparent as Biden spoke, Blinken’s decision to meet with Abbas made the point explicit.

FATAH AND HAMAS
For five days, Abbas had nothing but praise for Hamas and condemnations for Israel. As Palestinian Media Watch reported, the day after Biden’s speech, Abbas issued a statement of solidarity with Hamas. On Oct. 11, Abbas promised that the P.A. will "stand by our people, the Gaza Strip will not be alone."

The PLO’s ruling Fatah faction (which Abbas also leads) gave gushing praise to Hamas. As MEMRI reported, on Oct. 9, Fatah’s Central Committee praised Hamas for its slaughter and called for national unity—that is, unity between the P.A. and Hamas.

The goal, Fatah stated, is "to rally in a real and conscious fashion around the possibility of national unity, unity in the struggle on the ground, political and diplomatic unity with all means possible to us in order to wage this campaign in a united fashion."

Fatah also called for all Palestinian Arabs to join Hamas’s jihad against Israel.

"The public must answer calls to confront and stand up to the aggression and crimes in Gaza and the West Bank and to escalate all the conflict zones with the occupier [Israel] throughout our homeland Palestine, in order to defend our people and stand with our residents in the Gaza Strip."

Fatah’s terror franchise, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, posted Koranic calls to jihad on its Telegram pages that are indistinguishable from Hamas’s propaganda. Quoting the verse from the Koran calling for the annihilation of all Jews that Hamas uses in its charter, Fatah exhorted, "Strike the sons of apes and pigs ... slaughter everyone who is Israeli."

Following along the lines of "diplomatic unity" that the Fatah Central Committee called for, the P.A. is serving as Hamas’s foreign ministry. On Tuesday, its U.N. ambassador Riyad Mansour wrote a letter to the Security Council accusing Israel of carrying out "war crimes," and called its decision to stop providing Gaza with free water and electricity "nothing less than genocidal."

On the ground in the Palestinian Authority, the crowds greeted the news of Hamas’s atrocities with jubilation. Celebrations, victory marches and public parties were held from northern Samaria to the South Hebron Hills. Palestinianb Aras mocked the Jewish victims on their social media accounts and celebrated their mass murder. In Huwara in Samaria, a pizzeria posted an advertisement featuring a Holocaust survivor grandmother who is now a hostage in Gaza, holding a pizza. (It was destroyed by the IDF, ed.)

SUFFICIENT TO CONVINCE BLINKEN
The fakery of Abbas’s milquetoast condemnation of Hamas’s atrocities is self-evident when seen in the context of his actions and statements and those of the P.A., PLO, Fatah and the Palestinian Arab public. But it was clearly sufficient to convince Blinken that it is reasonable to meet with him and continue to base U.S. policy on the fiction that the P.A. represents a moderate force within Palestinian Arab society that is willing to peacefully coexist with the Jewish state.

Abbas’s lies and deceptions are his modus operandi just as they were the modus operandi of his predecessor Yassir Arafat and their comrades in the PLO and Hamas. It is a testament to Abbas’s confidence, and his contempt for the U.S., that he felt strong enough not to bother with a full-throated fake condemnation of Hamas.

In the P.A.’s early days in the 1990s, Arafat would routinely condemn Hamas terror attacks against Israel in English and then call for the Palestinian Arabs to slaughter the Jews through jihad in Arabic. Just months after the P.A. was formed in Gaza and Jericho in 1994, Arafat sent his security chief Mohammed Dahlan to negotiate a cooperation pact with Hamas. The deal that was forged gave Hamas a free hand to slaughter Jews so long as the PLO wasn’t implicated.

At the same time, Dahlan was the head of the PLO’s negotiations team on military affairs with Israel. He charmed his Israeli interlocutors by speaking to them in the pigeon Hebrew he learned in Israeli prison, where he was jailed on terrorism convictions in the 1980s. They viewed Dahlan as a moderate, as the tough guy who would take out Hamas for Israel. Dahlan smoked cigarettes with IDF generals at the same time that he closed a cooperation deal with Hamas terror master Mohammed Deif.

In times of calm, Hamas and the P.A. operated separately. And U.S.-funded and trained P.A. security services gave Israel valuable intelligence that led to the break-up of many Hamas cells. But in times of terror offensives, they worked together. The most murderous terror group that operated during the 2000-2004 Palestinian terror war (aka the Second Intifada) was the so-called "Popular Resistance Committees." It was composed of terrorists from Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Now they call them Joint Commands in Gaza, and the Lions something-or-other in the West Bank — united in effort, regardless of the name on the t-shirt.

Hamas’s pretend separation from Islamic Jihad, and its use of Islamic Jihad to persuade Israel and the U.S. that it had moderated, was the same trick.

THE LIE OF PALESTINIAN MODERATION
Israel and the U.S. have refused to acknowledge that they have been played by the P.A. the same way they were played by Hamas for the past two years, and Hamas was able to deceive Israel and the U.S. for two years because they wanted to be deceived. Israel’s generals wanted to believe that the Palestinian Arabs aren’t implacable foes. They can be appeased. We don’t have to defeat them.

And the Biden administration, like most of its predecessors, wanted to believe the deception—and to still believe it in the P.A.’s case—because they want to believe that Israel is to blame for the violence waged against it. The lie of Israeli culpability is the foundation of 50 years of U.S. Middle East peacemaking efforts. The lie of Palestinian Arab moderation is the rationale for 50 years of near-continuous U.S. pressure on Israel to concede territory to the Palestinian Arabs. It has been the justification and rationale for the U.S. opposition to any effort by Israel to defeat the PLO on the battlefield.

The constant assertion "There is no military solution to the Palestinian conflict with Israel" is predicated on the notion that there is a political solution.
There IS a political solution - Arab countries should take their own back.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas has an Islamic Jihad problem in the Gaza Strip

2022-08-07

See here for links to all of today’s posts on Operation Breaking Dawn.

[JPost] Sometimes, your "deniable" liability becomes your liability. Curb your dog
Regardless of how and when the current round of fighting ends, it’s clear that the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad organization has managed to reassert its status as the second largest and most influential terror group in the Gaza Strip.

It’s also obvious that Islamic Jihad has become a major threat not only to Israel, but to Hamas as well. Similarly, it has also become a real threat to the Palestinian Authority, especially in the northern West Bank.

In the past several years, Islamic Jihad has been openly challenging Hamas by operating as a state-within-a-state in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders have always displayed intolerance towards rival groups in the coastal enclave.

Even more disturbing for Hamas is the fact that a number of other armed groups have joined Islamic Jihad in firing rockets at Israel in the past 24 hours. These groups are affiliated with Fatah, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Popular Resistance Committees and Nasser Salah a-Din Brigades.

The fighting in the Gaza Strip shows that Hamas is no longer the sole decision-maker on matters related to military confrontations with Israel. It further illustrates that Islamic Jihad is capable of acting as an independent military force without having to coordinate with, or receive permission from, Hamas.

A statement published by the armed wing of Islamic Jihad on Saturday boasted that the terrorist groups were united in confronting the Israeli "aggression" on the Gaza Strip.

The statement, nonetheless, does not seem to reflect the reality on the ground, namely that Hamas has still not joined Islamic Jihad and its allies in the current round of fighting.

By Saturday afternoon, there was still no indication that Hamas was keen on joining the fighting. Statements issued by Hamas leaders offered nothing but lip service to Islamic Jihad and the other terrorist groups.

A terse statement by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that he "affirmed during contacts with the Egyptian intelligence heads that what happened in the Gaza Strip is the responsibility of the occupation state alone." Haniyeh, in addition, "stressed the need to stop the bombing targeting the Gaza Strip."

Another statement released by Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum also failed to offer any hint that his group was planning to join the fighting. "The resistance, with all its military arms and factions, is united in this battle, will defend our people in the Gaza Strip with everything it possesses, and will defeat the occupation as it defeated it in all the battles," said Barhoum.

At this stage, it’s obvious that Hamas does not want Islamic Jihad to drag it into another all-out confrontation with Israel. Hamas’s biggest fear is that another war could trigger a revolt against its regime by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who paid a heavy price during last year’s military confrontation with Israel.

Hamas is now hoping that Egypt and Qatar will be able to achieve a new ceasefire between Israel and Islamic jihad. Although it is doing its utmost not to get involved in the fighting, Hamas is apparently worried that if the fighting escalates and the number of casualties rises in the Gaza Strip, it will no longer be able to continue sitting on the fence.

In the past, Hamas found itself in the same position that Islamic Jihad is in now, when it created a state-within-a-state under the rule of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority’s failure to rein in Hamas in the 1990s ultimately saw the Islamists seize control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 after toppling the Palestinian Authority.

Paradoxically, Israel’s military strikes against Islamic Jihad serve the interests of Hamas by undermining the organization that poses a threat to its rule over the Gaza Strip. But Hamas’s failure to assist Islamic Jihad could also prove to be counterproductive, especially in wake of increased voices criticizing the rulers of the Gaza Strip for their neutral stance.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades announced that one of its militants has died from wounds suffered by an IDF airstrike during the May conflict

2021-06-17

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades announced that one of its militants has died from wounds suffered by an IDF airstrike during the May conflict. #Gaza #Israel pic.twitter.com/c97swPxje8
— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) June 15, 2021

Lingering agony is good.

Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades is the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, and very fond of shooting off rockets as well as roadside bombs and blowing up vehicles. The PRC split off of Fatah because they objected to setting up the Palestinian Authority making nice-ish with Israel. They may be supported by Hezbollah, but definitely are the third largest jihadi organization in Gaza after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas arrests 5 suspects in raid on PA television offices in Gaza

2019-01-06

[IsraelTimes] Terror group says perpetrators are former Paleostinian Authority employees whose salaries had recently been suspended

Authorities in the Gazoo Strip tossed in the calaboose
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
five men on Saturday on suspicion that they had trashed the headquarters of the Paleostinian Authority’s television station in the territory a day earlier, the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run interior ministry said.

It said the five were former PA employees whose salaries had recently been suspended.

The PA, which on Friday had blamed Hamas for the incident, did not immediately comment on the arrests.

The raid on the offices of the Paleostinian Broadcasting Corporation in Gazoo City was conducted by gunnies, who caused damage to equipment, according to station staff quoted by the official PA news agency Wafa.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the incident.

The Paleostinian Broadcasting Corporation is funded by the West Bank-based PA, which has a longstanding dispute with the Hamas terror group, and the building houses offices for Paleostine TV and the Voice of Paleostine radio station.

Separately on Saturday evening, five people were maimed in an kaboom in Rafah in the southern Gazoo Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

Local media reported the blast emanated from the home of Mohammed Talal al-Ajani, the Rafah Brigade commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gazoo terror group. The kaboom, apparently triggered by explosives, was said to have caused a fire and damage to neighboring buildings.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian protesters, wound dozens more in N Gaza Strip

2018-09-25

[PRESSTV] Israeli soldiers have rubbed out a Paleostinian and maimed some 50 others who had held a protesting rally along the northern coast of the besieged Gazoo Strip in a bid to break the decade-long blockade on the impoverished sliver.

According to a brief statement by Gazoo Health Ministry, the protester, whose identity has not been disclosed yet, lost his life after Israeli troops began shooting live rounds and tear gas canisters at crowds of Gazooks, who had held a rally against the prolonged siege along the coast of al-Wahe district in the northwestern borders of the enclave.

Hundreds of Gazook demonstrators had gathered in the area on Monday afternoon to participate in a boat protest setting off from the Gazoo seaport against the siege, but Israeli navy obstructed the protest’s way off the shore by shooting at them.

The International Committee for Breaking the Siege, which organized the march, called upon the "free world to save the Gazoo Strip," whose fishermen are under crippling fishing limits.

Since inhabitants of Gazoo began staging weekly border protest rallies on March 30, the Israeli regime’s forces have killed more than 180 people and maimed thousands of others.

Ynet adds:

Paleostinian Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) member taking part in the violent "March of Return" protests on the northern Gazoo border fence near Kibbutz Zikim was rubbed out by IDF fire Monday, Gazoo health officials said.

The IDF said thousands had taken part in the demonstration, throwing burning tires, rocks and bombs at the troops on the other side of the border fence. Soldiers responded with riot dispersal measures according to rules of engagement, a military front man said.

In addition, around 10 Paleostinian boats sailed off the coast to challenge the blockade over the strip, drawing warning shots from the Israeli navy. There were no reports of Paleostinian casualties.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

2 Palestinians wounded by IDF fire during riots along Gaza fence

2018-02-24

[IsraelTimes] Army says 350 demonstrators take part in violent protests, plant flag along border amid heightened alert after last week's kaboom

A few hundred Paleostinians violently protested along the Gazoo border Friday amid a heightened alert by the Israeli military.

The IDF said some 350 demonstrators took part in the riots at five different locations along the border, burning tires and throwing rocks toward soldiers.

Two "inciters" were shot by soldiers for "posing a threat to IDF troops and the security fence," the army said. There were no reports of injured soldiers.

In one incident a Paleostinian flag was hung upon the border fence, according to Hadashot TV news. During rioting last week, ~~bandidos~~ turbans from the Popular Resistance Committees put a flag on the fence, under which they hid an improvised bomb.

The following day, when IDF troops from the Golani brigade and the combat engineering corps approached the fence to remove the flag, the bomb detonated, wounding four soldiers, two of them seriously.

The IDF has now eased the open-fire regulations in response to the heightened tensions, allowing soldiers to use lethal fire to prevent similar approaches to the border fence in future, Channel 10 reported on Friday. Snipers were stationed along the border for the purpose, along with other forces.

The move comes after Israeli officials warned that the IED attack crossed a red line, and "the gloves will be off" in the next encounter between rioters organized by Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", and IDF troops.

Separately Friday, the IDF said 950 Paleostinians held violent protests at 14 locations in the West Bank.

The protesters burned tires and threw rocks and molotov cocktails at IDF troops and border policeman, who responded with riot dispersal means, the army said.

The IDF said it was aware of one Paleostinian reported injured in the festivities.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IAF destroys Gaza Hamas tunnel in overnight blitz

2018-02-20

No word on the fate of those who were in the tunnel at the time...

[Ynet] Defense minister confirms Israeli jets took out a Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", attack tunnel near strip's southern tip; fresh strike comes in wake of rocket fired Sunday into Israel.

Israeli jets attacked overnight Sunday a Hamas attack tunnel in southern Gazoo near the Kerem Shalom crossing after a rocket fired from the Strip went kaboom! Sunday evening in an open area in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman confirmed Monday afternoon that the jets had destroyed the tunnel.

A statement issued by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit shortly after the Israel Air Force (IAF) struck the target indicated that the fresh attack had been launched in response to Gazoo’s rocket fire.

"Hamas is responsible for everything that happens in the Gazoo Strip, above and below ground," the statement read. "The army will continue to act to ensure security for the citizens of Israel using all means at its disposal."

According to Paleostinian officials, the attack was carried out in the area where a destroyed airport is located in Dahaniya, close to the Israeli border.

The strikes homed in on an open area, where a comparatively large number of missiles were fired by the IAF. One official in Gazoo told Ynet that more than ten missiles were fired in the area.

A Code Red alert sounded Sunday evening in Sderot and several towns in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council after rocket fire from the Gazoo Strip was spotted, only hours after an earlier rocket landed on the roof of a residence of the region. There were no casualties and no damage was caused.

In addition to sporadic rocket fire that has plagued southern Israel in recent months, tensions were further heightened on the border when two soldiers were maimed Saturday afternoon when an bomb was set off near an IDF patrol around the border fence in the southern Gazoo Strip, opposite the Ein HaShlosha kibbutz.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday that the Popular Resistance Committees organization was behind the bomb set off near an IDF force on Saturday on the Gazoo border, which left four soldiers maimed.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF attacks 18 Gaza targets after rocket hits Israeli home in south

2018-02-19

[Ynet] After detonation of bomb near Gazoo border, IDF carries out attack against 6 Hamas targets in Gazoo, including offensive tunnel, weapons manufacturing facility, military complex; in retaliation, rocket launched from Gazoo hits roof of Sha'ar HaNegev home; IAF continues to pound terror targets overnight Saturday.

The IDF attacked 18 terror targets in the Gazoo Strip overnight Saturday, just hours after the Israeli Air Force attacked six Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, targets all across the Gazoo Strip, including an offensive tunnel running from the Zaytun neighborhood in Gazoo towards Israel.

Returning fire, a rocket launched from the strip landed on the roof of a residence in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. The family was home, but no one was harmed as the rocket failed to explode.

The rocket was launched mere hours after four IDF soldiers were maimed‐two seriously and two moderately‐when an bomb detonated near the border fence. The IDF responded to the rocket's launch by again attacking a Hamas outpost in northern Gazoo.

Amos, whose home was hit while he, his wife and their three children were home, said, "A huge miracle happened to us. Fortunately, our house's roof is heavily cemented and so the rocket couldn't get through."

Later Saturday, A group of at least four Paleostinians attempted to infiltrate the Israeli communities south of Gazoo through Rafah. IDF forces picked up on the attempt and opened fire on the infiltrators using tanks and other means. Paleostinian reports said two Paleostinians were maimed by tank fire and were taken to a hospital.

Egypt has been appealing to both sides to prevent further escalation. Hamas's leadership notified Egypt on a visit to Cairo it had no interest in escalation in the strip, as per a Paleostinian source in Gazoo.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said Hamas terror targets were hit in Gazoo, including a military complex on the former grounds of the evacuated Netzarim settlement "belonging to Hamas's unique military alignments, including weapons manufacturing sites." A Hamas military complex near Khan Yunis was also attacked.

Hamas responded to the IDF's attacks by saying Israel will be held responsible for the escalation in Gazoo, and then later claimed to have targeted the air force's planes with antiaircraft fire‐the first time Hamas admitted to targeting the army since Operation Protective Edge.

The air force reportedly attacked Hamas outposts in eastern Gazoo, as well as a rocket launch nook or an armament storage facility not far from the Karni crossing. Attacks have not yet targeted Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
. An IDF tank fired at an observation post in the southern strip earlier.

A situation assessment was held Saturday evening following the kaboom with the participation of Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, GOC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin and other IDF top brass.

"We consider any point in which a flag, bag or rock is is placed to be suspicious," the army said, adding, "This is an extremely serious terror incident that may destabilize the region. The device, which included a pipe and was part of a flag, was place on the Paleostinian side of the fence with the kaboom's main casualties coming from a Combat Engineering bomb removal squad, who seemed to have protection.

"The device belonged to rogue organizations and not Islamic Jihad. Hamas is responsible for the incident because it brought protesters to these 'spontaneous' demonstrations during the past few weeks, which are then utilized for terror."

The IDF noted a growing trend of escalation in the protests organized by Hamas near the border fence, which have included use of weapons such as frag grenades. The demonstrations were "unacceptable manipulations," as per the army.

A subsequent Ynet article adds:

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday that the Popular Resistance Committees organization was behind the bomb set off near an IDF force on Saturday on the Gazoo border, which left four soldiers maimed.

"Until we eliminate them, the score remains unsettled. It will take two days, a week, or two weeks. We'll eliminate anyone behind the attack's execution," Lieberman told Ynet on Sunday morning.

Speaking about Israel's retaliatory moves in Gazoo, the defense minister said, "We hit 18 terror targets, 18 quality targets, almost all of which belong to Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,. This is perhaps the most significant and widespread strike we carried out since Operation Protective Edge. Hamas is the ruler, and we consider Hamas to be responsible for everything that is done in the Gazoo Strip and from the Gazoo Strip."

Palestinian teenagers killed in Israeli air raids

More on the four Gazans who tried to infiltrate via Rafah:

[Al Jazeera] Two Paleostinian teenagers were found killed in the southern area of the besieged Gazoo Strip, following two waves of Israeli air raids.

The two bodies of the two 17-year-old boys were retrieved in the city of Rafah on Sunday morning, Ashraf al-Qudra, front man for Gazoo's health ministry, confirmed.

At least two other Paleostinians have been maimed, one of whom is at death's door, and are currently treated in a medical facility in Rafah.

The official Paleostinian news agency WAFA reported that missiles launched from an Israeli F-16 attack aircraft damaged several civilian homes.

Added just before the midnight rollover:

After mere hours of quiet, rocket fired at Israel from Gaza

Islamic Jihad are idiots who need to get the last word.

[Ynet] A Code Red alert sounded Sunday evening in Sderot and several towns in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council after rocket fire from the Gazoo Strip was spotted, only hours after an earlier rocket landed on the roof of a residence of the region.

The rocket went kaboom! in an open area in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. There were no casualties and no damage was done.

Congrats, guys — you managed to hit the country you were aiming at, for a change.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas security chief hurt in Gaza ‘assassination bid’

2017-10-28

[IsraelTimes] Tawfiq Abu Naim, director general of the internal security forces, said to be in moderate condition after kaboom in his car; Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, sources say Islamic State button men main suspects.

The head of Hamas security forces in the Gazoo Strip was injured Friday when his car went kaboom! in what the Hamas interior ministry called "a failed liquidation attempt."

It did not immediately give details of the source of the kaboom, in central Gazoo.

"Tawfiq Abu Naim, director general of the internal security forces, survived a failed liquidation attempt Friday after his car was blown up in the Nusseirat refugee camp," a ministry statement said.

"He was moderately maimed and was treated in hospital," it added. "The security services immediately began investigations to discover the circumstances of the incident and to catch the perpetrators."

The incident comes at a time of tension within Gazoo as its Hamas rulers are to start handing over power to the West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority of Fatah leader and Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas

... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
Both Hamas and Fatah condemned the incident and blamed it on "enemies" trying to undermine the reconciliation. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
neither named the enemies, an unusual step for Hamas, which routinely blames Israel for such events.

A Hamas source told the Ynet news site that Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
affiliated Death Eaters were the main suspects.

As part of the Paleostinian unity deal that was brokered by Egypt, Hamas has had to crackdown on the IS button men who have been active on both sides of Gazoo’s border with Egypt have been fighting a bitter insurgency in the Sinai that has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers.

Abu Naim has been leading the recent Hamas efforts against IS.

However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
the Popular Resistance Committees, a group of smaller terror groups in the Strip, blamed Israel, saying "the fingerprints of the Zionists are clear."

Abu Naim was a former prisoner that Israel freed with hundreds of others in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More