So? Israel and America have already proved they don’t need a land base in the area to accomplish what they managed with air-to-air refueling last time.
[IsraelTimes] Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tells Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during a call today that the Gulf monarchy will not allow attacks on Iran to be launched from its soil.
The Saudi prince “affirmed during the call the kingdom’s position on respecting the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that the Kingdom will not allow its airspace or its territory to be used for any military actions against” Iran, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry says in a statement.
UAE: We will not allow our territory to be used in an attack on Iran
[IsraelTimes] The United Arab Emirates stresses in a statement that it will not allow its “airspace, territory, or waters to be used in any hostile military actions against Iran,” and that it will not support any attack logistically.
The UAE Foreign Ministry emphasizes that the country believes that “dialogue, de-escalation, adherence to international law, and respect for state sovereignty” are the best way to deal with ongoing crises.
A warning shot, but not quite a shot across the bow.
[IsraelTimes] The Times of Israel’s diplomatic correspondent, Lazar Berman, asks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his press conference whether he still thinks normalization with Saudi Arabia is possible in the near future, given Riyadh’s pivot toward Turkey and Qatar and away from the United Arab Emirates.
Netanyahu says he has no wish to be an analyst of the Saudis, but he’s closely following such developments.
“We expect from anybody who wants normalization or peace with us that they not participate in efforts steered by forces or ideologies that want the opposite of peace,” Netanyahu says.
Such efforts “reject the legitimacy of the State of Israel, and nurture all kinds of forces that attack the State of Israel.”
He goes on to say that he’d be “happy to have a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia,” provided “they want normalization and peace with a secure and strong Israel.”
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/28/2026 2026-01-28 00:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1819 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
[Breitbart] The Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... terrorists of Yemen published an ominous video on Monday showing a ship on fire, captioned simply with the word “soon.”
Multiple media outlets confirming the publication of the video suggested that it could be a preview for the resumption of maritime terrorist in the Red Sea, which the Houthis engaged in for nearly two years in defense of Iran and the fellow jihadist terror organization Hamas. The Houthis, which consider themselves falsely to be the government of Yemen, “declared war” on Israel following the gruesome Hamas attack on the country on October 7, 2023. Both Hamas, a primarily Sunni terrorist organization, and the Houthis, a Shiite terrorist gang, rely heavily on financing and political support from Iran to operate.
The timing of the video, and another showing a specific commercial ship attack, follows President Donald Trump moving naval assets to the Middle East in response to the deadly repression of peaceful protests that began in Iran in December. The military confirmed on Monday that a U.S. Navy strike group traveled west in the Indian Ocean and arrived in territory controlled by U.S. Central Command. Trump himself told reporters on Thursday that a “big flotilla” and an “armada” of American naval assets was moving towards Iran in the event that Washington had to act to stop the massacre of Iranian protesters. Estimates of the death toll as a result of Tehran’s repression of the protests range from 5,000 to 35,000 at press time.
Following Trump’s confirmation of action, the Iranian regime has repeatedly threatened to go to war with the United States, erecting a massive billboard in Tehran this weekend showing images of destroyed fighter jets on an aircraft carrier. Iranian terror proxies and allies have also escalated their belligerent language towards America in the past week.
The Houthis, based in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, engaged in over 100 attacks on random ships in the Red Sea, allegedly as part of a campaign to “blockade” the Israeli economy. Many of the ships had no obvious connection to Israel or any of Yemen’s enemies, however, and on multiple instances the Houthis bombed ships linked to allies such as Iran, China, or Russia. The campaign ended this summer after negotiations with President Donald Trump preceded by extensive American military activity to limit the Houthis’ terrorist reach.
In addition to the “soon” video, which did not offer any specifics on the identity of the ship involved or when the footage was from, Houthi media also shared a longer video describing and showing alleged “never-before-seen” footage of another Houthi terror attack on a British ship, the Marlin Luanda, an oil tanker the Houthis attacked in 2024.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is secretly working to establish a permanent American presence in Venezuela. CNN reported this on January 27,citing sources. "sources"
Amid the ongoing security instability, the CIA will act in place of the official embassy, spearheading the Trump administration's plans to influence the country's future, the channel clarified. Agents are establishing informal contacts with local elites, military officials, and the opposition.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has reportedly already visited Caracas, where he held talks with Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez and military officials. According to the television channel, one of the priorities was the development of a special secure app for communicating with Venezuelan intelligence agencies, bypassing official channels.
The State Department confirmed that diplomats will "plant the flag" later; at present, intelligence is shaping the country's future.
On January 25, Rodriguez stated that Venezuelan politicians should stop following US orders and focus on internal dialogue to overcome the crisis. She emphasized that Venezuelan policy is what resolves disagreements and conflicts within the country.
[IsraelTimes] Turkey’s Foreign Ministry told the country’s parliament that it was preparing to create a buffer zone over the Iranian border if the regime in Tehran falls, according to the Turkiye daily.
First they expanded into Iraq to kill Kurds there, then into Syria following the Arab Spring in 2011 ditto, now they’re planning to absorb a slice of Iran. And nobody except their victims says boo about it.
Ankara fears a wave of refugees heading toward Iran, and diplomats briefed lawmakers that “we are making preparations for all eventualities, with our A, B, and C plans. We believe there should be a buffer zone to ensure that those who arrive in the event of a migration remain on the Iranian side.”
Turkey currently maintains a buffer zone in northern Syria.
“After the Syrian civil war, Turkey was forced to open its doors to millions of refugees, and integrating them into both society and the economy proved to be a very painful process,” says Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak of the Moshe Dayan Center. “Erdoğan was accused for years of failing to stop the waves of migration. It now appears that, in light of the lessons learned from Syria, border security will be kept tight this time.”
“We need to create more jihadis! 70,000 were killed over the past 843 days, and they need desperately to be replaced, thanks to UN brainwashing. Though how we’re to afford it without American money…”
[IsraelTimes] UNICEF says it needs $86 million for education program as school materials enter Gaza after being blocked for two years; Israel says learning kits, not textbooks, let into Strip Crayons? Flaming hoops? Mortars to practice geometry?
The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... announced on Tuesday a major push to get hundreds of thousands of children across the war-scarred 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 back to school for the first time in more than two years.
Since the start of the war sparked by the Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... -led October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, nearly 90 percent of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and more than 700,000 school-aged children have been left unable to access formal education, according to the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
"Almost two and a half years of attacks on Gaza’s schooling have left an entire generation at risk," agency front man James Elder told news hounds in Geneva.
UNICEF was now dramatically scaling up its education initiative in the territory, Elder said, in what he described as "one of the largest emergency learning efforts anywhere in the world."
The push to scale up access to education comes as aid groups have managed to bring more supplies into the besieged territory since a fragile US-backed ceasefire took effect last October. US President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... kicked off the second phase of the ceasefire last week.
UNICEF currently supports more than 135,400 children receiving education at over 110 learning spaces in Gaza — many of them in tents, he said.
But it now aims to more than double that number to include more than 336,000 children by the end of this year, and to get all school-age children back to in-person learning in 2027.
UNICEF is working on the project with the Paleostinian Authority Education Ministry and the UN agency supporting Paleostinians, UNRWA, which, before the war, was providing schooling to around half of Gaza’s children.
Israel has sought to oust UNRWA from its role, arguing that it incites Paleostinian children to antisemitism and violence and collaborates with terror groups.
For years, research has shown that some materials taught in UNRWA schools in Gaza and the West Bank included incitement to violence against Israel, delegitimization of the State of Israel, and antisemitic or racist content.
Following the October 7 attack, and during the subsequent war in Gaza, Israel stepped up efforts to shut down UNRWA, accusing employees of collaborating with Hamas and presenting evidence that some took part in the day’s atrocities and fighting against Israel.
Israel has passed legislation prohibiting its authorities and public officials from engaging with the organization and banning UNRWA operations in Israel. It has also moved to shut off water and power to UNRWA facilities.
UNICEF would need $86 million for its education program in Gaza this year — "roughly what the world spends on coffee in an hour or two," Elder said on Tuesday.
Getting children back to school "is not a ’nice to have.’ It is an emergency," he said.
He highlighted that "before this war, Paleostinians in Gaza had some of the highest literacy rates in the world."
"Today that legacy is under attack: schools, universities, and libraries have been destroyed, and years of progress erased," he said. Elder also stressed that learning in Gaza was "lifesaving."
"These centers provide safe spaces in a territory that is often inaccessible and dangerous," he pointed out, adding that they also connect children to health, nutrition, and protection services, as well as clean toilets and places to wash hands — "something too many children in shelters simply don’t have."
Children in Gaza have faced unprecedented damage to their education system, as well as restrictions on the entry of some aid materials, including school exercise books and pencils, meaning teachers had to make do with limited resources, while children tried to study at night in tents without lights, Elder said.
At least 97 percent of schools sustained some level of damage, according to the most recent satellite assessment by the UN in July.
Israel has previously accused Hamas and other terror groups of systematically embedding in civilian areas and structures, including schools, and using civilians as human shields.
UNICEF said, however, that it had managed recently to bring in more than 4,400 recreational kits and 240 School-in-a-Carton kits, containing things like pencils, pens, chalk, exercise books, and geometry sets, claiming that they have not been able to bring in such supplies for two years.
It said it expected the total number of kits brought in to surpass 11,000 by the end of the week, with nearly 7,000 others in the pipeline for the coming weeks.
A spokesperson for COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into the Gaza Strip, confirmed it had recently allowed UNICEF to bring in learning kits, though not textbooks. A COGAT spokesperson told Rooters that learning kits had been let in several times during the war, without saying how.
"It’s been a long two years for children and for organizations like UNICEF to try and do that education without those materials. It looks like we’re finally seeing a real change," Elder stated.
That’s laying it on a bit thick. To be fair, the Biden Politburo was not quite as nasty as they could have been in preventing Israel from defending itself and supporting Iran and its allies after 10/7, but that’s damning with very faint praise.
[IsraelTimes] A top aide to former US president Joe Biden accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of lying after the Israeli premier claimed that IDF soldiers lost their lives in Gaza as a result of an alleged arms embargo instituted by the previous administration.
“Netanyahu is both not telling the truth and ungrateful to a president that literally saved Israel at its most vulnerable moment,” Amos Hochstein tells the Axios news site moments after the prime minister made the claim during a press conference.
Hochstein was joined by fellow top Biden aide Brett McGurk, who told Axios, “That statement by Netanyahu is categorically false.”
“Biden left office with a ceasefire in Gaza and hostages coming home, a ceasefire in Lebanon with Hezbollah defeated, Iran in its weakest position since 1979 after two failed missile attacks thanks to the deployment of US military forces and a coordinated response that destroyed Iran’s air defenses. His commitment to Israel’s security to include US military assistance was unwavering throughout the crisis,” McGurk says of Biden.
Netanyahu has repeatedly accused the previous administration of instituting an arms embargo during the Gaza war — something Biden officials have long denied, arguing that Washington only withheld one shipment of high-payload bombs due to concerns they’d be used in densely populated areas, putting civilians at risk.
Netanyahu made the accusation in an apparent effort to explain comments he made in an interview with The Economist during which he claimed that Israel lost soldiers in Gaza because of his “refusal” to “carpet bomb” cities before the IDF invaded them on foot.
Critics of the premier pointed out that his Likud party repeatedly blasted political rival and former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz for making similar comments to foreign press while explaining the Israeli military’s efforts to avoid civilian casualties.
[IsraelTimes] Leveling an incendiary accusation at the Biden administration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charges that some Israeli soldiers lost their lives in the war against Hamas because of what he says was an “embargo” that caused Israel to run out of ammunition.
He does not specify how many soldiers lost their lives for this reason, or precisely when it happened.
The prime minister does not directly name the Biden administration, but says that the embargo ended as soon as US President Donald Trump took office.
Netanyahu has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of instituting an embargo on arms supplies to Israel, notably in June 2024. Biden has denied withholding arms from Israel, apart from a batch of 2,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs amid concerns about how they would be used in the IDF’s operations in Rafah at that time.
At his press conference, Netanyahu says Israel paid “very heavy prices” in the war in terms of the loss of soldiers’ lives. While “part of that is what happens in war,” he says, part of it stemmed from the fact that “at a certain stage, we didn’t have enough ammunition.”
Soldiers at the time were fighting in areas where artillery and air force weaponry had been used, but terrorists had remained in booby-trapped houses, he says.
“Heroes fell” because they didn’t have the ammunition they needed, he charges. And “part of that absent ammunition was because of the embargo.”
Netanyahu says he has resolved that this will never be allowed to happen again, and that is why he is determined to ensure that Israel has its own strong and independent arms industry. To that end, he says, he is aiming to shift the Israel-US relationship “from aid to partnership,” when it comes to weapons, with Israeli development and joint production, and that such a partnership could extend to allies, including India and Germany as well.
He has prioritized establishing a robust domestic army industry “for maximal independence,” Netanyahu says, “so we don’t run out of weapons or ammunition, and in the hope that we won’t have to use them.”
[IsraelTimes] Amendment to election law requires all candidates to sign pledge accepting PLO ‘national program,’ which includes recognizing Israel, two-state solution and renouncing terror
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> has signed a decree that will likely prevent Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... and other like-minded factions from participating in PA municipal elections slated for April.
The election law amendment announced on Tuesday by the PA’s central election committee will require all candidates to sign a statement accepting the Paleostine Liberation Organization’s "national program" — an apparent reference to the PLO’s resolutions, which include the recognition of Israel, the renunciation of terrorism and the pursuit of a two-state solution.
Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine and other Israeli- and US-designated terror groups seeking to participate in the Paleostinian political system have long refused to accept those PLO policies.
Analysts speculated that Abbas was motivated by a desire to prevent rival Hamas from gaining more of a foothold in the West Bank and ensuring that the PA won’t be exposed to punitive measures due to international sanctions against Hamas, PFLP and Paleostinian 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... "I think Abbas is quite worried that Hamas’s stocks are rising and that Hamas might be positioned for a good showing in Paleostinian politics," former PA official Ghaith al-Omari told The Times of Israel.
"This is also about the PA sending a message to the international community and the Americans in particular that, ’We are on your side,'" said Omari, who is currently a senior research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
While the amendment only applies to municipal elections, Omari speculated that it would likely set a precedent that Abbas would seek to apply to the parliamentary and presidential elections.
Abbas has branded 2026 as "the year of Paleostinian democracy," though dates for those elections have not been set, and the 90-year-old is in the 21st year of what was supposed to be a four-year term.
Given that written commitment to PLO policies was not a requirement in previous municipal elections, Paleostinian analyst Ibrahim Dalalsha said the amendment reflects the post-October 7 reality, with Abbas recognizing that there is little international appetite for Hamas and its rejectionist approach to the conflict.
Dalalsha — who heads the Horizon Center research group and used to serve as an adviser at the since-shuttered US Consulate in Jerusalem — said the amendment will likely spark a degree of pushback from civil society groups over freedom of expression concerns, but that is not likely to sideline the process.
With Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... unlikely to participate, the April 25 election is slated to largely feature candidates from Abbas’s Fatah party as well as hopefuls from a series of independent slates.
In addition to the 420 municipal bodies in the West Bank slated to hold votes, the PA central election committee is also aiming to put on a local election in the central 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...
city of Deir al-Balah.
The step is aimed at demonstrating that 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... and the West Bank can operate under a single political system, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — which opposes a two-state solution — has sought to undermine. Voting in Deir al-Balah will likely require cooperation with the National Government for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) — the panel of Paleostinian technocrats set to replace Hamas in Gaza at the oversight of US President Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... ...Oh, noze! Not him!...
’s Board of Peace.
The last Paleostinian municipal election was held in multiple rounds in 2021 and 2022. Abbas last announced national and presidential elections in 2021 but later canceled them. He claimed the decision was due to Israel’s refusal to allow polling places in East Jerusalem, but critics said the move was more motivated by fears of Hamas gains.
While the municipal elections will offer Paleostinians a rare opportunity to take part in a democratic political process, Dalalsha said the more significant development for Paleostinian national politics will take place in May, when the Fatah party holds its eighth General Conference. During the conference, a vote will be held to fill the party’s powerful central committee, with many of Abbas’s confidants vying for spots.
#1
Amendment to election law requires all candidates to sign pledge accepting PLO ‘national program,’ which includes recognizing Israel, two-state solution and renouncing terror
That's gotta stick in some craws... if it weren't just taqqiya.
[IsraelTimes] A memo from before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, reportedly captured by the IDF in Gaza, quotes a top Palestinian Islamic Jihad military official dismissing Hamas’s concerns that rockets launched by the terror group during a previous round of fighting in Gaza were falling short of Israel and landing inside the Strip, with deadly consequences for Gazans.
“We are in a war; even if a thousand are killed by friendly fire, that’s the price of war,” Akram al-Ajouri is quoted as saying in the document, parts of which were first published by the Kan public broadcaster this morning.
Days after the Hamas onslaught sparked the current war, a misfired Gazan rocket that Israel said was launched by Islamic Jihad landed in Gaza City’s al-Ahli Baptists’ Hospital, killing hundreds, with Hamas and many major news outlets initially placing the blame on Israel.
In a post on X, Israel’s Foreign Ministry shares the quote from Ajouri as published by Kan, and writes: “Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders acknowledged their rockets were falling inside Gaza and killing civilians. They chose to keep firing.”
“These are their values. A terrorist organization that kills its own civilians,” says the ministry.
According to Kan, the memo is a report by a senior Hamas official, code-named Ahmed, on a meeting he had with Ajouri in Beirut. The Times of Israel could not independently verify the document.
The first page of the text published by Kan indicates the meeting took place on August 28, 2022, though it’s unclear if this heading applies also to the section of the text that contains the quote from Ajouri.
The war Ajouri refers to appears to be Israel’s 2022 Operation Breaking Dawn, which was fought against Islamic Jihad for 66 hours from August 5 to August 7, when Hamas reportedly pressured its ally to reach a ceasefire. The first page of the memo alludes to Israel’s then-recent assassination of Tayseer al-Jabari, a top commander in Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, the al-Quds Brigades, who was killed at the start of the operation.
The first page published by Kan also refers to Islamic Jihad official Jihad Ghannam as having taken up a new post. Ghannam was killed in an Israeli strike on May 9, 2023, at the start of Israel’s Operation Shield and Arrow, which lasted for five days.
Hard no to the security personnel, teachers, administrators, or anyone listed in the files the IDF found on the fighter rolls or who was involved in the 10/7 invasion or housing hostages afterward. Low level bureaucrats and janitors may continue employment. Also, all in-building tunnel accesses to be revealed to the IDF for destruction, unless you want to wait for it to be destroyed from the other end. Apply to the Hamas HQ for funds to rebuild — monies to be taken from the personal fortunes of the Sinwar clan, et al.
[IsraelTimes] Terror group tells 40,000 civil servants, including 10,000 security personnel, to cooperate with new technocratic government, assures them of efforts to keep them employed
Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... is seeking to incorporate its 10,000 coppers into a new US-backed technocratic Paleostinian administration for 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... , sources say, a demand likely to be opposed by Israel.
Israel regards all elements of Hamas, including its police, as components of the terrorist organization. The coppers’ potential integration into Gaza’s new government comes as the terror group faces pressure to surrender its arms, a demand it has previously rejected.
Hamas retains control of just under half of Gaza following an October ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets... . The agreement, laid out in Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war, ties further Israeli troop withdrawals to the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza.
The ceasefire, now in its second phase, calls for the day-to-day governance of Gaza to be handed to the newly formed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a Paleostinian technocratic body with US oversight that is meant to exclude Hamas. Several other bodies will oversee Gaza under the umbrella of the Board of Peace, a group of world leaders inaugurated by Trump last week.
In a letter to staff on Sunday, seen by Rooters, Gaza’s Hamas-run government urged its more than 40,000 civil servants and security personnel to cooperate with the NCAG. It assured them it was working to incorporate them into the new government.
That would include the roughly 10,000-strong Hamas-run police force, four sources familiar with the matter said, a demand that has not been previously reported. Many of them have been patrolling the western half of Gaza as Hamas reasserts its grip in areas under its control.
It was not immediately clear whether Israel, which has adamantly rejected any Hamas involvement in Gaza’s future, would agree to the civil and security workers’ inclusion in the NCAG.
Israel draws no distinction between the military wing of Hamas and the terror group’s police and internal security forces. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the IDF, members of Hamas’s police and internal security forces participated in the terror group’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught, in which 1,200 people were massacred in southern Israel and 251 kidnapped. During the war, Israel has repeatedly targeted and killed top commanders and other members of Hamas’s internal security forces, as well as members of its political wing.
MAJOR STICKING POINTS REMAIN
Hamas’s plans for its police force and workers point to wide gaps between Hamas and Israel as Trump pushes ahead with his plans.
Last week, Trump hosted a signing ceremony to establish the Board of Peace that will serve as a transitional administration to set a governance framework and coordinate funding for the redevelopment of Gaza. The framework includes a provision barring "foreign terrorist organizations" from participating in governance.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Rooters the terror group was prepared to hand over governance to the 15-member NCAG and its chair, Ali Shaath, with immediate effect.
"We (have) full confidence that it will operate on the basis of benefiting from qualified personnel and not wasting the rights of anyone who worked during the previous period," Qassem said, referring to the inclusion of the 40,000 personnel.
The four sources said Hamas is open to the NCAG restructuring ministries and sending some workers into retirement. Mass dismissals risked chaos, the sources said.
Hamas and NCAG chair Shaath have not yet met in person to discuss governance, a Hamas official said. Shaath’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Another issue was whether Sami Nasman, the former Paleostinian Authority general assigned to oversee security under the NCAG, would be able to operate in the enclave effectively, a Paleostinian official said.
Nasman, originally from Gaza, moved to the West Bank after Hamas violent mostly peacefully routed Paleostinian Authority forces from the enclave and seized control in 2007 following a brief civil war. A Hamas court in Gaza later sentenced him in absentia, accusing him of instigating chaos. Nasman denies the charge.
POSSIBILITY OF NEUTRALIZING ARMS
The question of whether Hamas’s police force will be allowed to continue operating in Gaza is arising as Trump and Netanyahu have again called for the group to relinquish its arms as part of the ceasefire’s second phase.
Trump said Monday that Hamas helped Israel locate the body of the final Israeli hostage in Gaza, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, while reiterating his demand for the terror group to disarm.
"They worked very hard to get the body back," Trump said of Hamas in an interview with the Axios news site. "They were working with Israel on it. Now we have to disarm Hamas like they promised."
In remarks to the Knesset on Monday, Netanyahu said that the next phase of the Gaza deal "is not reconstruction."
Rather, he said, "the next phase is demilitarization of the Strip and disarming Hamas."
Trump’s administration wants to see heavy weapons decommissioned immediately, with "personal arms registered and decommissioned by sector as (the) NCAG police become capable of guaranteeing personal security," according to a document shared by the White House last week.
A US official said on Tuesday that Hamas fighters who agree would be granted some sort of amnesty.
The terror group is still believed to possess rockets, which several diplomats estimated to number in the hundreds. It is also estimated to possess thousands of light weapons, including rifles.
Hamas recently agreed to discuss disarmament with other Paleostinian factions and with mediators, sources said. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes... two Hamas officials told Rooters that neither Washington nor the mediators had presented the terror group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal.
A Paleostinian official close to the disarmament talks said the US had approached Hamas to explore potential disarmament mechanisms involving parties including Israel as well as Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , Egypt, and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , the three regional countries mediating the ceasefire.
"Hamas has spoken about the possibility of neutralizing arms, which could be achieved if there is a truce, and it is ready for a long-term ceasefire — five years or a little longer," the official said.
"But Hamas strongly believes that a serious political negotiation process must begin on Paleostinian statehood, whereby weapons and fighters would come under the authority of the State of Paleostine," the official said.
Israel’s government rejects the establishment of a Paleostinian state.
Hamas is not the only terror group in the enclave to possess arms. A source in a Gaza faction allied with Hamas said other terror groups were discussing disarmament but worried about being left defenseless.
“They took old families, not everyone, those who aren’t refugees, and took generally businessmen,” he says of the efforts to find people to sit on the committee.
“There’s a simple truth in Gaza,” says Netanyahu. “They either worked for Hamas, or they worked for the PA. If you try to look for a water engineer who wasn’t in either, you won’t find one.”
Netanyahu stresses that Israel is vetting officials to make sure those from Hamas’s military wing aren’t included.
“The important thing is, who will pay their salaries, and the most important thing is to take apart Hamas and not let the PA enter,” he says.
“Now we are focusing on completing the two remaining missions: dismantling Hamas’s weapons and demilitarizing Gaza of arms and tunnels,” the premier says.
“As I agreed with President Trump… there are only two possibilities: either this will be done the easy way or it will be done the hard way, but in any case, it will happen,” he says. “I am already hearing the statements that we will allow Gaza’s reconstruction before demilitarization. That will not happen.”
“I am hearing that we will bring Turkish soldiers and Qatari soldiers into Gaza. That too will not happen,” he adds.
“I am hearing that I will allow the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza. That did not happen, and it will not happen,” Netanyahu says, with extra emphasis. “I think all of you know that the one who repeatedly stopped the establishment of a Palestinian state is me, together with my colleagues in the governments I have led. Even today and tomorrow, we will not allow this.”
“Israel will maintain security control over the entire area from the Jordan River to the sea, and that applies to the Gaza Strip as well,” he concludes.
[IsraelTimes] A Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative who was captured by Israeli forces in Gaza City a month ago provided information that strengthened Israel’s intelligence that the body of slain policeman Master Sgt. Ran Gvili was located at a cemetery in the area, the Shin Bet security agency says.
The Shin Bet says that the Islamic Jihad operative had been involved in military activity against Israeli forces during the war, and was suspected of being “knowledgeable about the details of the burial location” of Gvili.
During his interrogation, the operative “described his involvement in transferring the body between several locations and also identified additional individuals who were aware of its whereabouts,” the security agency says.
The Shin Bet says that the interrogation led to intelligence that “strengthened the understanding” that Gvili’s body was buried at the cemetery in eastern Gaza City, where Israel had prior indications.
Over the weekend, the IDF launched a search operation at the cemetery. After forensic experts, including over 20 dentists, tested some 250 bodies, Gvili’s remains were identified.
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump’s top aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner touts the coordination between the US, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and “many cooperative Gazans” who helped locate and return the bodies of all deceased hostages from Gaza.
He doesn’t elaborate on those efforts, but Ynet reported on Friday that a Palestinian informant retrieved the body of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul from a locked refrigerator in January 2025, wrapped it in a rug and carried it on his shoulder for 1.5 kilometers to IDF troops in Gaza.
“Coordination and trust were built between individuals and organizations where none previously existed. This produced tangible results,” Kushner says in an X post.
“Helping the people of Gaza start a new chapter free from the tyranny of Hamas is a critical mission to prevent future death and destruction for Israelis and Palestinians,” he continues. “This will also eliminate a flashpoint manipulated by disingenuous actors to mobilize antisemitism and other forms of division and hatred.”
“We are trying new approaches, hoping to achieve new outcomes. This is an end, but also a new beginning,” Kushner adds.
[IsraelTimes] US military’s CENTCOM launches air exercise as Washington shifts significant forces to region to enable possible strike on Iran after regime’s devastating crackdown on protesters
The United States announced on Tuesday that it was conducting an aerial military exercise in the Middle East amid ongoing tensions with Iran.
The US Ninth Air Force — also known as Air Forces Central (AFCENT) — the air component in United States Central Command (CENTCOM) — will be conducting a "multi-day readiness exercise to demonstrate the ability to deploy, disperse, and sustain combat airpower across the US Central Command area of responsibility," AFCENT said.
The drill came a day after CENTCOM announced that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and accompanying warships had arrived in the Middle East.
The arrival of the carrier strike group comes amid ongoing speculation as to whether US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... will strike Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... following its bloody crackdown on anti-regime protests, in which thousands were killed. Trump has issued threats toward Tehran but also indicated openness to negotiations. Iran has threatened in turn to strike Israel and US targets in response.
The strike group’s arrival boosts the US’s available firepower and defensive capabilities in the region, giving Trump the option to launch an attack on Iran.
"The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is currently deployed to the Middle East to promote regional security and stability," CENTCOM said Monday.
AFCENT said Tuesday that during the drill, US forces would "deploy teams to multiple contingency locations and validate rapid set-up, launch and recovery procedures with small, efficient support packages," adding that it will "conduct all activities with host-nation approval and in close coordination with civil and military aviation authorities, emphasizing safety, precision and respect for illusory sovereignty."
"This exercise is designed to enhance asset and personnel dispersal capability, strengthen regional partnerships and prepare for flexible response execution throughout CENTCOM," the US statement read. It added that the drill will allow the Ninth Air Force "to validate procedures for rapid movement of personnel and aircraft; dispersed operations at contingency locations; logistics sustainment with a minimal footprint; and integrated, multi-national command and control over a large area of operations."
The protests in Iran were sparked by the collapse of its currency, the rial, as Iranian citizens’ savings cratered in value, pushing millions to take to the streets for over two weeks. As of Tuesday, the rial traded with the US dollar at 1,077,500 to $1, nearly its lowest-ever value.
Over the weekend, opposition-linked outlet Iran International, which is based outside Iran, said more than 36,500 Iranians were killed by security forces between January 8 and 9, citing reports, documents, and sources. It was not immediately possible to verify the report.
And a new tally from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the regime crackdown killed at least 6,126 people while many others still are feared dead. The group has been accurate in multiple rounds of unrest in Iran. It verifies each death with a network of activists on the ground in Iran.
The group identified the dead as including at least 5,777 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 86 children and 49 civilians who weren’t demonstrating. The crackdown has seen over 41,800 arrests, it added.
Iran’s government has put the corpse count at a far lower 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and labeled the rest "terrorists." In the past, Iran’s regime has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
That corpse count exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest there in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
As the regime carried out its brutal crackdown, Trump vowed that "help is on the way," and said he would take action against the regime if it began killing protesters en masse. While Trump backed down after he said Iran decided not to execute protesters, he has maintained that he may still take action against the regime. His move of significant military assets to the region could indicate a willingness to strike.
Trump has reportedly received multiple US intelligence briefings signaling that "the Iranian government’s hold on power is at its weakest point since the shah was tossed in the 1979 revolution."
Tehran has said in the past that it would target Israel and US military targets in the Middle East if Trump were to order strikes.
[IsraelTimes] Russian forces have begun pulling out of positions in northeast Syria in an area still controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces after the group lost most of its territory in an offensive by government forces.
Associated Press journalists visited one base next to the Qamishli airport today and found it guarded by SDF fighters who said the Russians had begun moving their equipment out in recent days.
Inside what had been living quarters for the soldiers was largely empty, with scattered items left behind, including workout equipment, protein powder and some clothing.
Ahmed Ali, an SDF fighter deployed at the facility, says the Russian forces began evacuating their positions around the airport five or six days ago, withdrawing their equipment via a cargo plane.
“We don’t know if its destination was Russia or the Hmeimim airbase,” he says, referring to the main Russian base on Syria’s coast. “They still have a presence in Qamishli and have been evacuating bit by bit.”
There has been no official statement from Russia about the withdrawal of its forces from Qamishli.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is expected to visit Moscow tomorrow and meet with Putin.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
