[IsraelTimes] They were freed in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but instead of going home, 154 Palestinian ex-prisoners were exiled to Egypt, where they are confined to a hotel and kept under tight surveillance.
All of them had been sentenced by an Israeli military court to life in prison on charges of murder, belonging to Palestinian terror groups banned by Israel, and other acts of violence.
But when a ceasefire took effect in Gaza earlier this month, the group was put on buses and sent to Egypt, where authorities have put them in a five-star hotel that they cannot leave without clearance. "The HORROR!. Room service is spotty as well"
“We were separated from our families for 20 years,” Murad Abu al-Rub, a 45-year-old who spent two decades behind bars for murder, tells AFP.
Now, he is living in uncertainty and under close surveillance, far from the Palestinian city of Jenin, where he was born.
“Nothing has changed. I still can’t see my mother or my siblings,” Abu al-Rub tells a team of AFP journalists who were able to access the hotel.
Since the US-brokered ceasefire took hold on October 10, Hamas has freed all 20 surviving Israeli hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom returned to Gaza and the West Bank.
During previous truces in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, thousands of other Palestinian prisoners were freed in similar exchanges.
The vast majority of those with life sentences were exiled to Egypt, which has formal ties with Israel and played a key mediation role.
In Egypt, the 154 men are not free to move, and they have no work permits and no idea what comes next. The government has not issued any formal statement about their status.
“No Arab country wanted to take us in,” says Abu al-Rub, who was imprisoned for the killing of four Israeli soldiers in 2006.
Before Hamas’s October 7 attack, prisoners could study, play sports and attend daily discussion groups, he said, with inmates recounting a tradition of protest and rebellion in order to obtain these rights.
Palestinian, Israeli and international rights groups have documented similar claims of mistreatment, but Israel denies any such violations and says its prison service operates in accordance with the law.
According to the Palestinian Authority, nearly 11,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody, on charges related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Egypt first received 150 exiled prisoners in January, and more than eight months later, most of them are still in the same hotel, their fate undecided.
Hasan Abd Rabbo, of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, tells AFP that the men remain in Egypt with accommodation costs covered by Qatar, while talks are underway over resettlement.
He says possible destinations include Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia.
[IsraelTimes] The five-star Renaissance Cairo Mirage hotel in Egypt confirms to Israel’s Channel 12 that more than 150 Palestinian terrorists were staying at the hotel after they were released from Israeli prisons and deported under the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, but says that they are no longer there.
Earlier today, the UK’s Daily Mail tabloid reported that more than 150 deported terrorists were staying at the hotel, owned by the multinational Marriott hotel chain.
Under the terms of the ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, Israel freed some 2,000 security prisoners, including some 250 serving life sentences for deadly terror attacks. The worst of the offenders were deported.
Former prisoners seen at the hotel, according to the Mail, included Mahmoud Issa, who had been imprisoned since 1993 for his part in the abduction and murder of Border Police officer Nissim Toledano the previous year; Samir Abu Nima, who was sentenced to life in jail for a 1983 Jerusalem bus bombing that killed six people including, an 11-year-old child; and Muhammad Zawahra, who took part in a deadly 2024 shooting near near a Jerusalem-area checkpoint.
[ZERO] Amid an ongoing verbal spat and back-and-forth between Washington and Bogotá, the United States on Friday announced extensive sanctions against Colombian President Gustavo Petro, along with his family and a senior cabinet minister.
The Trump White House has accused the Colombian administration of enabling drug cartels and facilitating narcotics trafficking to North America, at a moment of immense US military build-up near Venezuela and Latin America.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that ever since Petro took office in 2022, "cocaine production in Colombia has exploded to the highest level in decades, flooding the United States and poisoning Americans."
He hailed Trump's "decisive action to protect our nation" which sends "a clear message that drug trafficking will not be tolerated."
The sanctions also target First Lady Verónica del Socorro Alcocer García, Petro’s son Nicolás, and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti - all alleged to be the Colombian leader's "accomplices."
American citizens and companies are now effectively barred from doing any business with these listed entities, and they will also see any assets held in the US frozen.
Petro has loudly denounced and rejected the accusations against his country, saying he's long aggressively fought the significant drug trade in his country.
The NY Times notes that a rise in illegal drugs out of the country has been a trend which began before Petro took office, though the cocaine trade has continued to worsen under his leadership.
"The cultivation of coca, the base product in cocaine, has soared since Mr. Petro took office in 2022. It also soared under his predecessor, Iván Duque, a conservative and close ally of Washington Republicans," the publication writes.
"In the CIA, we didn’t give a hoot about democracy. It was fine if a government was elected and would cooperate with us, but if it didn’t, then democracy wouldn’t mean a thing to us."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/26/2025 6:21 Comments ||
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#2
"In the CIA, we didn’t give a hoot about democracy. It was fine if a government was elected and would cooperate with us, but if it didn’t, then democracy wouldn’t mean a thing to us."
New: Trump is considering plans to target cocaine facilities & drug trafficking routes inside Venezuela, though he has not yet made a decision on whether to move forward with them, three US officials tell @CNN
“There are plans on the table" regarding operations on Venezuelan…
Time for Ireland’s last Jews to leave. Their homeland has become dangerously unserious.
[IsraelTimes] Catherine Connolly wins in landslide; once said Hamas ‘part of the fabric of the Palestinian people,’ then ‘utterly condemned’ terror group’s actions; accused Israel of ‘genocide’
Catherine Connolly, a veteran politician on the far left of the Irish political spectrum, was elected president by a landslide margin on Saturday.
Official results showed strong voter support for Connolly as president, a largely ceremonial role in Ireland.
At least she has no power. But she does have influence.
She won 63 percent of first-preference votes once ineligible votes were excluded, compared to 29% for her rival Heather Humphreys, of the center-right party Fine Gael.
She has drawn criticism for her views on the Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... terror group, which she said in September was "part of the fabric of the Paleostinian people." Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin criticized those comments.
Connolly later maintained that she "utterly condemned" Hamas’s actions and that its October 7, 2023, onslaught against Israel, which launched the war, was "absolutely unacceptable."
But she criticized Israel for carrying out what she said was a "genocide" in 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... , an accusation Israel adamantly rejects. She has also accused Israel of being a "terrorist state."
"If we in this Dáil can’t recognize that Israel is a terrorist state, then we’re in serious trouble," she said in a video shared on her campaign’s Facebook page in June, referring to the lower house of the Irish legislature where she served. She went on to criticize Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, its military conduct in Gaza, and other Israeli policies.
Connolly, 68, is a long-time critic of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... in overwhelmingly pro-EU Ireland. She was backed by the left-dominated opposition, was not a household name, and was underestimated by many at the start of the campaign.
An independent candidate, she built momentum as the campaign progressed, and enthused younger voters.
"I will be a president who listens, who reflects and who speaks when it’s necessary. Together we can shape a new republic that values everybody," Connolly said in a speech at Dublin Castle.
Ireland’s president is largely a figurehead, with seldom-used powers to test the constitutionality of legislation, but often speaks on the global stage and welcomes other heads of state to the country.
Many of Connolly’s views — from denouncing the EU’s plans to boost military spending to questioning the trustworthiness of the United States, Britannia and La Belle France over their stance on the war in Gaza — are well to the left of many of the parties backing her, as well as outspoken incumbent Michael Higgins, himself a critic of Israel.
Higgins has been president since 2011, having served the maximum two seven-year terms.
Connolly will be Ireland’s 10th president and the third woman to hold the post. She is a former clinical psychologist and barrister.
Although she served as deputy speaker of Ireland’s lower house after being first elected in 2016, her win was widely viewed as continuing the recent trend of choosing a more independent president based on the candidate’s values. It amounted to a stinging rebuke to the recently re-elected center-right coalition.
She also benefited from dire campaigns from the two governing parties. Humphreys was not Fine Gael’s first choice. Fianna Fail’s pick, former Gaelic football coach Jim Gavin, abandoned his bid due to a financial scandal.
A record 13% of voters also spoiled their votes, partly due to a planned protest by supporters of a conservative campaigner who failed to secure the required support from elected representatives to make the ballot.
Martin said the government was open to reforming the nomination process.
On Saturday, Martin congratulated Connolly on her "very comprehensive election victory." He said he was looking forward to working with the new president as "Ireland continues to play a significant role on the global stage, and as we look forward to hosting the EU presidency in the second half of 2026."
[GEO.TV] The Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) has announced forming its own government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir ...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there.... after President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
...former president of Pakistain, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in... reportedly greenlighted the party's decision to oust incumbent Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq.
The decision was taken following back-to-back meetings chaired separately by President Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
The meeting — chaired by Zardari at President's House in Islamabad — was attended by party chairman Bilawal, Faryal Talpur, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, and Qamar Zaman Kaira.
During the meeting, the president gave approval to bring a no-confidence motion against the incumbent prime minister, sources said. Moreover, they added that Zaradri will finalise the party's nominee for the AJK premiership after consultations.
Sources also confirmed that Bilawal, who had also served as the country's foreign minister, would formally announce government formation on Monday.
Separately, sources told Geo News that the party is considering the names of Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin and Chaudhry Latif Akbar for the slot of AJK premier.
They said that PPP had secured the required numbers to pass the no-confidence motion if the current AJK prime minister refuses to step down.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch shot Ike through the elbow. Take that, Ike! he yelled...... PPP AJK leader Chaudhry Yasin confirmed that the party had made a ''final decision'' to form its government.
''All parliamentary party members attended the meetings, which included detailed and comprehensive discussions,'' Yasin told news hounds.
He added that the decision on who would become the next AJK prime minister would be taken by the party leadership, and that Bilawal Bhutto would formally announce the name.
A separate session chaired by Bilawal Bhutto, earlier in the day, had endorsed an in-house change, with party leaders agreeing to move a no-confidence motion against the incumbent AJK premier.
Earlier, PPP leader Kaira — while speaking to journalists outside Zardari House —said that while the situation in AJK was ''worrying for all parties,'' the final decision would be made after consultation with President Zardari.
''We have heard that the PML-N has decided to sit in the opposition, but we have not been officially informed,'' he added.
Kaira said the party would hold another meeting with the president before formally announcing details to the media, noting that governments are formed when the required number is achieved.
[GEO.TV] Pakistain has handed over a comprehensive counterterrorism plan to the Afghan Taliban ...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan... as the second round of talks between the two sides concluded, sources said.
The discussions, held in Istanbul on Saturday, are part of Islamabad's efforts to establish a mechanism to curb cross-border terrorism originating from Afghan soil.
The Istanbul round follows earlier Pakistain-Afghanistan talks — mediated by 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... and Turkiye — held in Doha on October 19, where both sides agreed to a ceasefire, though border trade remains suspended. The Afghan delegation is being led by Deputy Interior Minister Rahmatullah Mujib.
During his weekly press briefing on Friday, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said that Pakistain looks forward to the establishment of a concrete and verifiable monitoring mechanism in the Istanbul talks to address the menace of terrorism emanating from Afghan soil towards Islamabad.
"As a responsible state committed to regional peace and stability, Pakistain does not seek escalation but urges the Afghan Taliban authorities to honour their commitment to the international community and address Pakistain's legitimate security concerns by taking verifiable action against terrorist entities, including the FAK/TTP and FAH/BLA," he added.
The foreign office spokesperson also termed the first round a first step in ensuring regional peace and stability. He said the Doha talks focused on immediate measures to end cross-border terrorism against Pakistain stemming from Afghanistan and the restoration of peace and stability along the Pakistain-Afghanistan border.
Answering a query, Andrabi said that there had been no major full-scale terrorist attack emanating from Afghan soil in Pakistain in the last two to three days, terming it a fruitful outcome of the first round.
The foreign office spokesperson said that border crossings with Afghanistan would remain closed, citing the security situation, stressing that saving the life of an ordinary Pak is more important than the movement of goods or trade.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2025 00:00 ||
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[1751 views]
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[GEO.TV] Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took a swipe Saturday at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, saying they "stopped working" and failed to protect Gaza s war victims.
Lula was speaking after meeting Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, ahead of a major regional summit where the Brazilian leader would likely meet US President Donald Trump.
"Who can accept the genocide that has been going on in the Gaza Strip for so long?" Lula told reporters after the bilateral meeting to deepen ties between the two nations.
"The multilateral institutions that were created to try to prevent these things from happening have stopped working. Today, the UN Security Council and the UN no longer function," Lula said.
Lula also appeared to take a swipe at Trump, saying, "for a leader, walking with their head held high is more important than a Nobel Prize."
[IsraelTimes] Leaders of militias operating in areas under Israeli control in the Gaza Strip tell Channel 12 that they oppose any involvement of Qatari or Turkish forces in post-war Gaza.
Hussam al-Astal, the leader of a militia in the Khan Younis area, charges that Turkey “supports Hamas and protects Hamas,” and says he considers both Turkey and Qatar to be “war criminals.”
He says, however, that “anyone who helps us against Hamas will be welcomed.”
“Hamas brought destruction upon Israel and upon the Gaza Strip,” al-Astal tells the Israeli news outlet. “During the war, when a gunman hid among the tents, Israel would kill him, and then people would say that Israel murdered children.
“The one responsible for the deaths of women and children in Gaza is Hamas, not Israel,” he asserts.
Rasan al-Dahini, a senior figure in Yasser Abu Shabab’s militia in Rafah, similarly charges that “Turkey is not working for peace; they openly and explicitly support Hamas.”
Responding to claims that the anti-Hamas militias would be forced to flee to Israel for safety once the IDF has fully withdrawn from Gaza, as members of the South Lebanon Army did in 2000 after the IDF left Lebanon, al-Dahini says he is from Rafah and will not leave his home under any circumstances.
He also says that the weapons obtained by Abu Shabab’s clan will not be used against Israel in the future.
[GEO.TV] US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... on Saturday warned Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... to begin returning the bodies of deceased hostages, including two Americans, within 48 hours, saying the stability of what he called a ''very strong peace'' in the Middle East depended on it.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said several countries involved in maintaining regional peace could take action if Hamas failed to comply.
''Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now,'' he wrote, adding that fair treatment of both sides ''only applies if they comply with their obligations.''
In a separate statement, Trump also said 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... was willing to send peacekeeping troops to 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... if required, as part of ongoing efforts to stabilise the region following the ceasefire.
The remarks come amid diplomatic talks involving Qatar, the US, and other regional players to secure lasting peace in the Middle East.
[IsraelTimes] US president, who meets with Qatar’s leaders, says Gulf state could send troops to Gaza
US President Donald Trump issued fresh threats to Hamas on Saturday, saying the terror group would be to blame if the ceasefire collapses and repeating Israeli assertions that the group has been choosing not to hand over the bodies of some deceased hostages despite being able to.
He warned that he would be watching Hamas’s actions “very closely” over the next 48 hours.
Trump made the remarks in a social media post, and as he met Qatar’s emir and prime minister aboard Air Force One. The Gulf state served as a key mediator of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that took effect earlier this month.
The agreement requires Hamas to return all hostages, living and dead. Hamas has so far released the bodies of 15 deceased hostages along with 20 surviving captives. The bodies of 13 others remain held in Gaza. The terror group has claimed that it is unable to access all of the bodies and does not know where some of them are. Israeli officials have reportedly said Hamas can reach most of the remaining hostages, giving varying estimates of how many may be inaccessible.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that there is currently a “very strong PEACE in the Middle East,” but that Hamas must “quickly” resume handing over the bodies to Israel, or it will start facing consequences. He also alluded to the terror group resisting disarmament, another requirement of the deal.
“Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action. Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote. “Perhaps it has to do with their disarming, but when I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations.”
“Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely,” he added.
Following Trump’s post, a senior Hamas official reportedly pledged to expand the search for the remaining deceased hostages. The Kan public broadcaster reported that Khalil al-Hayya, the terror group’s chief negotiator, said search teams would enter new areas of Gaza in order to locate hostages’ bodies. He reportedly said Hamas did not want to offer Israel any excuse for restarting the war.
Israel is also reportedly searching for their bodies within the half of Gaza it controls. According to Kan, a security official told the families of deceased hostages that the search is underway, and is based on an intelligence assessment. The official reportedly said the government is due to approve the entry of heavy engineering equipment into Gaza to aid in the search. An Egyptian team has also entered Gaza to join the search for the bodies.
On Saturday night, thousands rallied across Israel to demand the release of the remaining deceased captives, with speakers urging continued pressure on Hamas.
On Hamas?? There’s a change!
Hebrew media reported that, according to Israeli sources, two bodies are expected to be returned on Sunday.
On Saturday, Trump met with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who boarded Air Force One when it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the regional headquarters for the US military and thousands of American troops. The plane was refueling in the Gulf State en route to Malaysia. Trump hailed the emir as “one of the great rulers of the world, not just the Middle East,” and called the prime minister “my friend and a friend to the world.”
Gesturing toward the two Qatari leaders, Trump said: “We have done a lot together, especially in the last year… Peace to the Middle East, and they were a very big factor in it.”
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Trump said Qatar would contribute troops to the planned International Stabilization Force in Gaza if needed. He praised the Gulf nation as an ally and key player in regional stability.
Asked if Qatar would be willing to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force, he said: “They’ll do it at the time they need to.”
Saying the meeting “covered a lot of territory,” Trump hailed the large number of countries involved in the effort to stabilize Gaza, which he put at 59. He said these included “very substantial nations,” including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, Jordan and Egypt.
The US president declined to give a timeline for when the multinational force will be deployed to Gaza, saying this would happen “pretty quickly” and adding: “They’re doing it right now. They’re actually picking leaders right now.”
He said “everybody agrees” on the deal, attributing its success to the 12-day war in June between Israel and Iran, in which Israel and the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“A year ago it would have been very tough. I think the big thing was when we took out the nuclear power Iran,” he said. “That made a whole big difference in the Middle East. It made it possible to do the deal.”
In a warning to Hamas, Trump said that if the ceasefire collapses, the terror group would be to blame.
“I think it will hold. Well, if it doesn’t hold, that would be Hamas. Hamas will be not hard to take care of very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their word on something, so I think it’s going to hold, and if it doesn’t, then they’ll have a very big problem,” Trump said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, fresh off a trip to Israel as part of an all-out diplomatic push by Washington to keep the Gaza truce on track, was present for the meeting with Qatar’s leaders.
On the plane en route from Israel to Qatar, Rubio said that “all of Gaza will be demilitarized” and dismissed the idea that it would be divided in the long term between Israel and Hamas.
“Ultimately, the more of Gaza is demilitarized, the more of Gaza terrorism is removed from, the more of it is going to look like that green zone — and that line will move as a result of it,” he said, referring to the so-called “Yellow Line” dividing the Israeli and Hamas zones.
“That’s the long-term plan,” he said. “The Israelis have made it abundantly clear they have no interest in occupying Gaza.”
Qatar is among the key countries backing the fragile deal, along with Egypt, the United States and Turkey. The Qatari emir hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week to discuss the highly sensitive next steps in the deal, including the establishment of the peacekeeping force in Gaza and the fate of Hamas.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2025 00:00 ||
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[1796 views]
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#1
They’re sadistic killers. Did we expect that their accounting system would be reliable?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/26/2025 6:46 Comments ||
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#2
48 hours from when? Sunday Oct 26 2025 | 03:27 AM
[GEO.TV] The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American non-profit tasked with providing aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, told AFP on Saturday it stands ready to resume shipments under a US-brokered ceasefire.
The US and Israeli-backed private organisation was given the task of feeding starving Gazans in May after Israel placed tight restrictions on international agencies, but UN experts and traditional aid agencies criticised its work.
Hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid at GHF distribution sites, according to the UN human rights office and, in August, United Nations special rapporteurs called for it to be disbanded.
GHF spokesman Chapin Fay said the foundation had paused operations during the first phase of Gaza s ceasefire while the remaining Israeli hostages are being released by Hamas, and was now awaiting orders to get back to work.
"While the situation remains fluid on the ground, GHF has been instructed to remain ready to re-engage and specifically not to take any actions that would preclude us from resuming operations immediately," Fay said.
[IsraelTimes] As part of the efforts to recover the remaining 13 slain hostages held in 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... , an Egyptian team has entered the Strip with several engineering vehicles to assist with locating their bodies, an Israeli defense official said Saturday.
The move was personally approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his office told The Times of Israel.
"It is a technical team," the PMO said. "They are going in only to locate the slain hostages."
Information from both Israel and Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... on the location of dead hostages has been given to the Egyptian team to guide their search, Channel 12 reported.
Until now, Israel had not approved the entry of such teams, claiming that Hamas was capable of finding and returning the bodies itself.
According to Channel 12, Israel knows for certain that Hamas can hand over more bodies of slain hostages but is deliberately refusing to do so, and is also holding back information about their location, in direct breach of the October 9 Israel-Hamas hostage-ceasefire agreement.
Security officials have told families of some slain hostages the general area where the bodies of their loved ones are being held, the TV report said.
Israeli sources told the outlet that they expect Hamas to return two more bodies on Sunday after pressure from mediators, who told the terror group that US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... is close to declaring that Hamas is responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire agreement.
According to the network, Israel considered holding up the entry of fuel and food into Gaza in order to pressure Hamas, but senior Trump administration officials who were in Israel over the past week shot down the idea, arguing it could endanger the ceasefire. The Prime Minister’s Office denied this report.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2025 00:00 ||
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[1782 views]
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[IsraelTimes] ‘It’s made our family numb,’ says uncle of 16-year-old Mohammad Ibrahim, detained for alleged stone-throwing in February after cousin killed in West Bank settler attack Give him another year and he MAY learn how to spell "consequences"
[IsraelTimes] After two years of war, Gaza is buried under more than 61 million tonnes of debris and three-quarters of buildings have been destroyed, according to UN data analyzed by AFP.
As of July 8, 2025, the Israeli army had damaged or destroyed nearly 193,000 buildings in the densely populated territory, representing about 78 percent of existing structures before the conflict began on October 7, 2023, according to satellite analysis by the United Nations’ UNOSAT program.
In an assessment of images from September 22-23 of Gaza City, the UN agency estimates that an even higher proportion — 83 percent — of buildings there had been damaged or destroyed.
The total 61.5 million tonnes of debris is nearly 170 times the weight of New York’s Empire State Building and is equivalent to over 169 kilograms of debris for each square meter of Gaza’s small territory.
Nearly two-thirds of the debris was made in the first five months of the war, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The destruction of buildings also accelerated in the months leading up to the current ceasefire.
Eight million tonnes of debris were generated from April to July 2025, mostly in the southern part of the territory between Rafah and Khan Yunis.
A preliminary analysis published by UNEP in August warned that the debris poses a serious health risk to the exposed population. If it's moved too quickly it could cause Gaza to tip over, according to Rep. Hank Johnson
The UN agency suggests that at least 4.9 million tons of debris could be contaminated with asbestos from old buildings, particularly near refugee camps such as those in Jabaliya in the north, Nuseirat and al-Maghazi in the centre, and Rafah and Khan Yunis in the south.
UNEP also reports that at least 2.9 million tonnes of debris could be contaminated with “hazardous waste from known industrial sites”.
How much is contaminated by unexploded munitions, whether caches or IEDs deliberately set into the structure as a defense against IDF approaches?
PJ Media asks the same questions, and starts to quantify the answers. Unfortunately, except for the first two paragraphs the rest is paywalled, so I cannot see their response beyond this:
The Palestinian Authority announced a $67 billion, five-year, multi-phase plan to address humanitarian needs, infrastructure, and housing. It's not even a good start.
The UN estimates that removing the 50–60 million tons of rubble could take up to two decades. Then there's the unexploded ordinance, the massive amounts of asbestos that must be disposed of, and the burning question of who will pay for this mess.
#5
Can they redo the comparison based on the weight of the UN building in NYC?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/26/2025 9:12 Comments ||
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#6
Redid the last comment as I have nothing against the element zinc. It’s a good corrosion fighter. Any aspersions against zinc were purely accidental. I blame my white privilege.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/26/2025 9:14 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Ayandeh Bank’s assets to be absorbed by state-owned Melli Bank after racking up $2.9 billion in debts; Iranian economy minister insists customers ‘have nothing to worry about’
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... declared one of the country’s largest private banks bankrupt with its assets absorbed by the state, official media reported Saturday, in a rare move in the country grappling with international sanctions.
Founded in 2012, Ayandeh Bank had a network of 270 branches across the country, including 150 in the capital Tehran alone. But it had more recently been crippled by debt, with accumulated losses amounting to the equivalent of about $5.2 billion and roughly $2.9 billion in debts, according to the ISNA news agency.
On Saturday, queues of customers could be seen outside a former Ayandeh Bank branch in Tehran, with police also present, an AFP journalist reported.
The state-owned Melli Bank has absorbed the assets of the now-defunct Ayandeh Bank, following a decision by the Central Bank, which has given assurances that depositors will be able to recover their savings.
"The transfer from Ayandeh Bank to Melli Bank is now complete," said Melli Bank director Abolfazl Najarzadeh on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
on Saturday.
On Thursday, Iranian Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh said Ayandeh Bank customers had "nothing to worry about." "Squirrel!"
An official at the Central Bank of Iran, Hamidreza Ghaniabadi, said "bad debts" had prompted the bankruptcy.
He told Iran’s IRNA news agency that "more than 90 percent of Ayandeh Bank’s funds were allocated either to parties related to the bank or to projects managed by the bank itself," which were never repaid.
Ayandeh Bank had been behind lavish projects such as the immense Iran Mall shopping complex in Tehran, which includes an ice rink and cinemas.
In addition to Ayandeh, five other banks — Sarmayeh, Day, Sepah, Iran Zamin and Melal — are also facing difficulty, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
The United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... reimposed tough sanctions on Iran in September after months of tense diplomacy aimed at reviving nuclear talks derailed since June, when Israeli and US forces bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.
The sanctions are a "snapback" of measures frozen in 2015 when Iran agreed to major restrictions on its nuclear program under a deal that President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States... withdrew from in 2018 during his first term.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The debate over the status of religious symbols in Iran has been ongoing for many years and seemed to be perpetual. However, in early October, senior Iranian officials announced a "significant relaxation" of regulations regarding the wearing of hijabs in response to increasing public unrest.
This wasn't the first time the Iranian authorities had made such a statement, so the news wasn't a sensation. However, videos that emerged recently of Iranian girls ceremoniously burning their headscarves indirectly confirmed Tehran's serious intentions to reconsider its approach to this sensitive issue.
However, the real driver of change was not the social, but the military-political challenges that Iran has faced in recent months.
HIJAB REVOLUTIONS
Debates over the status and significance of the hijab have been raging in Iran since almost the first days of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The country's authorities have alternately tightened and relaxed legislation on the subject—by the mid-2000s, most women wore headscarves only nominally, not fully covering their hair, and opting for brightly colored fabrics.
In contrast, there were constant incidents involving abuses of power by individual "advocates" of religious observance. Iranian society, especially its female counterpart, responded with strikes and demonstrations.
The peak of tension is considered to have been September 2022, when student Mahsa Amini was killed by a religious patrol who detained her for improperly wearing a hijab.
The day after the girl's death, the country was engulfed by youth protests, informally dubbed the "hijab revolution" or "Mahsa revolution." The unrest spread to most major cities.
Although the protests didn't break any records in terms of numbers (there have been larger demonstrations in the Republic's history), they posed a serious challenge to the central authorities. Primarily because one of the symbols of the Islamic Revolution came under attack.
Nevertheless, the authorities decided to compromise with the protesters and promised to develop measures to relax relevant legislation. Furthermore, by the end of 2022, Iran's "morality police" (Gasht-e Ershad), which monitored religious observance among the Iranian population and whose actions largely provoked the "hijab revolution," was disbanded. Tehran made it a scapegoat in the recent crisis.
And although the exiled opposition frightened Iranians with news of the imminent return of "morality patrols" to the streets by mid-2024, in reality the organization was indeed disbanded, and its members dispersed to other agencies.
The idea of "all-powerful hashts" was finally abandoned by July 2024, when the country's newly elected president, Masoud Pezeshkian, officially announced that Iran's morality police would no longer "harass" women about the mandatory wearing of the hijab.
OPPOSITION ARGUMENTS
However, the topic of hijabs returned to the agenda in the summer of 2025, when Israel launched Operation Lion Force against Iran.
Taking advantage of the social upheaval, opponents of the current government (primarily monarchists) attempted to win over the hesitant electorate, including by pressing on sensitive issues such as the wearing of hijabs.
In particular, supporters of the deposed Pahlavi dynasty these days recalled the Shah's "Opening" decree (Kashf-e Hijab) of 1936, when the government banned the imposition of religious symbols on the population and embarked on a course of accelerated Westernization. Along the way, they promised that the Shah's reformist grandson, Shahzade Reza Pahlavi, would "return the country's stolen freedoms."
At the same time, the opposition tactfully omitted the fact that the deposed Shah Mohammed Reza himself laid the foundation for Tehran's current attitude towards hijabs, turning them into a symbol of dignity and resistance to the West.
Other opposition factions also tried to intervene, such as the radical leftist "Organization of Iranian People's Mujahideen." Its representatives called on supporters of the largest movements for women's religious rights (the Girls of Enghelab Street, the Mahsa Movement, and others) to rise up against Tehran and defend their rights in battle.
True, unlike the monarchists, the leftists tried to simultaneously flirt with conservative circles, promising to make wearing hijabs in the “new Iran” a voluntary matter, but not one condemned by the masses.
Opposition members from various factions also took the opportunity to take a dig at President Pezeshkian, recalling that the "Hijab and Chastity Law," adopted by his predecessors in 2023 after protests (and which significantly increased penalties for improper wearing of religious symbols), was never officially repealed by the reformist bloc.
They also recalled the much-discussed project of "help clinics" for women who refuse to wear the hijab in public places (presented at the end of 2024), in the development of which Pezeshkian allegedly had a hand.
Thus, the opposition's arguments boiled down to the fact that the Iranian authorities, despite public promises to ease pressure on women, in fact continued their previous course—but with attempts to shift the problem to a less public arena.
Official Tehran ignored the opposition's statements, but, as it later turned out, only for a while.
NUANCES OF CANCELLATION
Mohammadreza Bahonar, a member of the Expediency Council (an advisory body to the Supreme Leader, tasked with resolving disputes between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and parliament), seemed to have put an end to the saga of the hijab's status in Iran. In early October 2025, he declared that the "Hijab and Chastity Law" was no longer enforceable, and that the morality police had no right to punish women for failing to comply with the previous rules.
Bahonar also emphasized that the law had been suspended by Iran's Supreme National Security Council back in May 2025, but the decision was not covered in the press. With this straightforward argument, the Expediency Council representative inadvertently rebuffed Western arguments that the liberalization decision was a consequence of the Israeli military campaign in June 2025, rendering further promotion of this argument pointless.
In effect, Iran's top leadership has made it clear that it prioritizes the interests of the population over adherence to specific symbols. This was an important step toward "closing ranks" after the June war, as well as in light of the significantly tightened sanctions regime against the country. Given this approach, weakening the hijab's significance for Tehran is the least of its possible losses.
Iranian society, especially women, reacted enthusiastically to the news: the internet was flooded with numerous videos of women burning their headscarves to the applause of crowds. Although the videos included in the collection were filmed as early as 2022 (during the "hijab revolution"), eyewitnesses on the ground confirmed that similar actions took place in the fall of 2025.
At the same time, Iran is only just beginning to balance the secular and religious camps and restore the equilibrium that existed before 2022. While the lifting of restrictions was enthusiastically received in the capital and other major cities, in rural areas the old way of life has remained.
Furthermore, parliamentarians will soon be required to conduct a large-scale audit of legislation and social norms in order to reformulate laws indirectly related to the hijab law and thus eliminate the risk of dual interpretation of the same provisions.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
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...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 
