Mohammed Deif | Mohammed Deif | Hamas | Middle East | 20030303 |
International-UN-NGOs |
Israel asks ICC to withdraw arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant |
2025-05-13 |
[IsraelTimes] Israel has asked judges at the International Criminal Court to withdraw arrest warrants it issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, while the ICC reviews Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of the Gaza war. Documents published on the ICC website late on Sunday also show Israel has asked the court to order the prosecution to suspend its investigation into alleged atrocity crimes in the Palestinian territories. The documents are dated May 9 and signed by Israeli Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam. The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Netanyahu and Gallant over alleged war crimes amid the war in Gaza. It also issued a warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif over crimes against humanity during the October 7, 2023, onslaught and beyond, but withdrew it following credible reports of his death. Israel, which rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza, is contesting the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. In April, the ICC’s appeals chamber ruled that the judges of the pre-trial chamber, which issued the warrants, must review Israel’s objections regarding the court’s jurisdiction and the legality of the arrest warrants. It is unclear what form the ordered review will take, and there are no specific deadlines set for decisions on Israel’s request that warrants be withdrawn and the investigation halted. Related: International Criminal Court: 2025-05-12 Sexual allegations against Khan spurred Israeli ICC arrest warrants, report suggests International Criminal Court: 2025-05-06 Israeli gov’t report accuses West of bolstering antisemitism by criticizing Israel International Criminal Court: 2025-05-05 ICC court case started against identified murderers of Hind Rajab — Hodhod Yemen News Agency |
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
Captured Gaza records show that Iran, Hezbollah plotted with Hamas to destroy Israel |
2025-03-18 |
[IsraelTimes] New study, based on classified documents, reveals terror group’s shift from defense to a multifront assault plan, culminating in October 7 invasion; warns Hamas will try again if it recovers In the years leading up to its invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, Hamas developed a concrete plan to destroy the Jewish state, in full coordination with Hezbollah and Iran, according to classified documents published by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. The Hamas documents reveal that in the lead-up to October 7, Iran was a critical player in funding Hamas’s plan to destroy Israel, that the Gaza-based terror group pushed for a coordinated attack from multiple fronts, and that its leader Yahya Sinwar believed that his military force could push Israel toward collapse. Hamas’s devastating large-scale attack, which caught the nation off guard, involved coordinated land, sea, and air assaults, marking a significant escalation in its long-standing goal to destroy Israel. Despite years of military buildup in Gaza and strategic shifts, Israeli intelligence had not anticipated the scale or suddenness of the attack, leaving security forces badly unprepared. Before 2019, Hamas’s military operations were primarily framed in defensive terms, focusing on strengthening its infrastructure in Gaza to withstand future conflicts, as outlined in a Hamas document titled “The Movement’s Strategy 2013-2017.” The document also discussed a “realistic plan” of “implementing popular resistance in Palestine,” by initiating an intifada in the West Bank or “mobilizing… forces… to carry out jihad,” as well as “pursuing Jews and military personnel in international forums.” However, a significant shift in dialogue emerged in 2019, with a revolution in Hamas’s thinking taking place in 2021, the internal documents recovered from Gaza show. In 2019, the terror group began to emphasize coordination with Iran’s Quds Force and Hezbollah under a “joint defense agreement,” according to a document authored by the office of then-Hamas political bureau chief Sinwar. It laid out plans for a multifront war against Israel, with the ultimate goal of “liberating al-Quds [Jerusalem].” THREE ATTACKS SCENARIOS Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021 was the pivotal moment in Hamas’s strategic evolution, according to former IDF Intelligence Research Division chief Itai Brun. The operation was an Israeli military campaign aimed at dismantling Hamas’s military infrastructure in Gaza, following escalating violence and rocket attacks from the Strip. The month after the operation, Sinwar, then-Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, and Deif’s deputy, Marwan Issa, sent a letter to Esmail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Guard Corps, requesting $500 million over two years to fund its war effort: “We are confident that by the end of these two years or during them, if Allah wills, we will uproot [Israel], and together we will change the face of the region.” Deif and Issa were killed in Gaza in separate IDF airstrikes last year. Sinwar was killed by an IDF tank shell in Rafah last October. The documents reveal that Hamas was fully committed to this proposal by 2022, with Sinwar presenting a concrete plan for a multifront confrontation with Israel in a letter to then-political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran last July, describing three possible scenarios. The first, described by Hamas as the “preferred scenario,” detailed a large-scale military campaign against Israel involving all “Axis of Resistance” actors, excluding Iran. This scenario was described as a “sudden confrontation from all fronts” with the timing “linked to one of the Jewish holidays,” specifically referring to Passover. It also mentioned “reasonable participation from Yemen, Iraq, and Syria” and “guerrilla operations beyond the Jordanian borders,” alongside Hezbollah’s full force. The second scenario — or the “intermediate scenario”— designated Hamas as the central actor in the attack. Hezbollah would only use “a quarter or a third of its power, keeping the remaining forces for deterrence and the strategic campaign,” while other “axis forces engage from the other fronts.” The third and final scenario, described as a “scenario of necessity,” placed the preponderance of the fight on Hamas’s shoulders, with Hezbollah merely playing an indirect role by allowing the “activation of [Hamas] forces with increasing efficiency from Lebanon.” The 2022 letter also discussed the possible establishment of a Hamas combat unit in Lebanon, with a minimum of 250 fighters, that could use Hezbollah’s operational networks to conduct raids into Israeli territory. In Haniyeh’s response to Sinwar, he revealed that Iran and Hezbollah ultimately endorsed the first scenario, envisioning a coordinated, multifront assault on Israel: “[The first scenario] was approved in the discussion we held with our allies; we are awaiting its final review in additional meetings, particularly with the Iranians, and we will follow up on the necessary preparations for it as outlined above.” In the months before October 7, Hamas leaders continued to discuss an attack. In April 2023, Sinwar told Hamas political bureau member Muhammad Nasser that Operation Guardian of the Walls had been a “walk in the park” for Israel in comparison to potential campaigns in the future, and that the next attack would be “so powerful that it will shatter the enemy into fragments.” OPENLY DISCUSSING THE ‘LIBERATION’ The documents align with public statements made by Hamas and its allies in the years leading up to the October 7 onslaught. In a September 2021 conference held in Gaza titled “Promise of the Hereafter – Post-Liberation Palestine,” Palestinian factions openly discussed governing the entirety of Israel’s territory, “from the river to the sea.” The concluding statement from the conference outlined the steps needed to launch the new Palestinian state, including how to deal with the Jews and the weeding out of informants to “purge Palestine and the Arab and Islamic homeland of the hypocrite scum that spread corruption in the land.” Similarly, in a May 2023 speech marking the anniversary of the IDF’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, then-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared, “Today, hope is greater than ever for the liberation of Palestine from the sea to the river, for prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque.” He further claimed that “[Israel’s] home front is weak, fragile, anxious, always ready to pack up and leave.” Nasrallah was eliminated in an IDF airstrike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut last September. IF HAMAS RECOVERS, WILL LIKELY TRY AGAIN The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center suggested that Israeli intelligence may have dismissed such statements as mere bravado rather than credible threats. The study concluded that while Hamas and its allies suffered severe setbacks in the current war that began on October 7, their ambition to destroy Israel has not disappeared. “In the long run, if Hamas recovers, it is not improbable that the movement could once again regard destroying Israel as a practical plan,” the study warned. Hamas gunmen stand in formation ahead of a hostage release in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) The assessment came at the tail end of a ceasefire that paused fighting in Gaza for some two months. The ceasefire ended early Tuesday morning, as the IDF launched a wave of airstrikes across Gaza under the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused Hamas of repeatedly refusing to release Israeli hostages and vowed a forceful response. The fighting resumed amid reports of the rehabilitation of Hamas in Gaza, with National Unity Party MK Gadi Eisenkot, alongside fellow opposition members who sit on the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, saying they had been informed that “Hamas has over 25,000 and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has over 5,000 armed terrorists.” |
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
‘Massive failure’: First troops reached Kibbutz Nir Oz 40 minutes after last terrorists left |
2025-03-16 |
[IsraelTimes] IDF probe finds over 500 Palestinians invaded border kibbutz where 386 residents were present during Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught, as understaffed security team tried to fight with no backup On the morning of October 7, 2023, over 500 Paleostinian snuffies swarmed into the unsuspecting 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 oppressionand disproportionate response... border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz. The army — plunged into complete disarray by the shock attack on dozens of towns and military posts simultaneously — entirely failed to come to the rescue, as the snuffies moved from home to home, brutalizing, massacring, and kidnapping dozens of civilians. The first soldiers to arrive at Nir Oz on October 7 did so some 40 minutes after the last terrorist left. On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces presented its probe into the attack on Nir Oz — among its detailed investigations of some 40 battles and massacres that took place during Hamas ![]() ’s October 7 onslaught, when some 5,600 snuffies stormed across the border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages to Gaza. The probe highlighted the heroism of Nir Oz’s local security team, whose few members fought on their own for about two hours before being killed or maimed, and the bravery of residents who did everything they could to protect themselves and their loved ones. It also highlighted the army’s colossal failures that allowed throngs of snuffies to overrun the kibbutz without seeing a single soldier. The probe concluded that the IDF "failed in its mission to protect" the residents of Nir Oz, largely because the military had never prepared for such an event — an Israeli community being captured by terrorists, as well as a widescale attack on numerous towns and army bases simultaneously by thousands of terrorists. Unlike other Israeli border communities attacked on October 7, the IDF did not fight any snuffies in Nir Oz, a community of around 420 residents, 386 of whom were there during the onslaught. In all, 47 people, including 41 residents and six partygoers fleeing a nearby rave, were killed in the kibbutz during the onslaught. Another 76 were kidnapped by the snuffies — 67 alive and nine who were killed that day, either in Nir Oz, en route to Gaza, or in the Strip itself. Of the 67 living hostages, 13 were killed in the Gaza Strip during the war. Currently, five hostages presumed alive and the bodies of nine captives remain held in Gaza, after 49 were released and the bodies of 13 were returned to Israel. The total number of dead from Nir Oz, including those killed in captivity, stands at 69. The hostages and dead included multiple generations of families, some of whom were killed or kidnapped by different terror organizations. The snuffies entered all but six homes in the community of around 100 houses, causing heavy damage. The surviving members of the community are now living in the Karmei Gat neighborhood of Kiryat Gat, as Nir Oz undergoes a long reconstruction process. Presenting the results of the probe to members of the kibbutz on Thursday, former IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said he "heard the harshest statement about October 7 from one of your members. "I say it in every conversation I have with commanders, so that everyone in the IDF will remember it — that the first soldier arrived at Nir Oz after the last terrorist had left," Halevi said, in audio of the meeting broadcast on Channel 12 news. "This is a terrible and damning statement, and we repeat it so that it will be etched into the consciousness of the IDF." The probe into what happened at Nir Oz, carried out by Maj. Gen. Eran Niv — the former chief of the Computer Service Directorate — covers all aspects of the attack on the kibbutz on October 7. Niv and his team spent hundreds of hours investigating the onslaught at Nir Oz. The IDF said they reviewed every possible source of information — footage taken by snuffies with body-mounted cameras, residents’ WhatsApp messages, surveillance videos, and interviews with survivors, former hostages, and those who fought to defend the kibbutz — and made visits to the scene. The Nir Oz probe was aimed at drawing specific operational conclusions for the military. It did not examine the wider picture of the military’s perception of Gaza and Hamas in recent years, which was covered in separate, larger, investigations into the IDF’s intelligence and defenses. The army is also not looking at policies set by the politicianship. That way, it avoids conflict with government leaders who have insisted such investigations must wait until after the war against Hamas ends. WHY DID SO MANY PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS REACH NIR OZ? The investigation found that an unusually large number of snuffies invaded Nir Oz, compared to other communities attacked on October 7. The probe stated that calls by then-Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif at 8 a.m. on Paleostinians to invade Israeli communities led to numerous snuffies joining in the onslaught. This was exacerbated in the Nir Oz area due to the lack of IDF troops defending the area, giving the snuffies a sense of freedom, and because of footage circulating online of an Israeli tank that was disabled on the border and its crew kidnapped. The tank became a sort of attraction for Paleostinians during the onslaught, with hundreds from the Hamas stronghold of Khuza’a reaching the area, many of whom would continue into Israel and reach Nir Oz. Of the over 500 snuffies who invaded Nir Oz, the investigation team was only able to find the body of one in the kibbutz. Hamas snuffies likely picked up the bodies of several of their comrades killed by armed civilians during the onslaught. Outside the kibbutz, on a road leading to Gaza, the bodies of 64 snuffies were found. Those bad boyz were potted by Israeli Air Force helicopters and an IDF tank. WHY DID THE IDF FAIL TO STOP THE TERRORISTS FROM INVADING NIR OZ? The investigation team stated that "the forces were not prepared, did not prepare or practice scenarios that occurred on October 7," and that they were not given any alert that morning. "Already at the beginning of the fighting, many of the commanders were maimed in the area, and the chain of command collapsed," the team said. Niv’s team also stated that the IDF was unable to build an accurate picture of what was happening in the entire area, including in Nir Oz. "The troops fought throughout the area, including along the fence and their posts, and failed to hold an assessment," the probe said, adding that at no point did troops speak with anyone in Nir Oz during the attack to understand what was happening there. The probe found that the troops "fought fiercely" in the area, without stopping for a moment even when the chain of command collapsed and many of them were maimed, successfully defending other communities, but they did not reach them all, including Nir Oz. The investigation stated that "if there had been an alert, even if it was very short notice, there is no doubt that the harm could have been reduced." According to the probe, the IDF could have done more to contact officials in Nir Oz and understand what was happening there. Additionally, the probe noted that soldiers failed to defend a nearby army base next to Nir Oz, whose troops would have been able to defend the kibbutz if their base was not overrun. The investigation also stated that it was an error for tank forces to head to the Gaza border amid the onslaught, and instead, they should have stayed closer to the communities to defend them. The understaffed local security team "fought bravely" for some two hours until it was defeated, the probe said, adding that within the context of October 7 and "without the assistance of military forces, even a larger local security team had no chance against such a large enemy force." WHY DID IDF TROOPS NOT REACH NIR OZ IN TIME? According to the investigation, Hamas’s simultaneous and widescale attack on dozens of communities and Israeli army bases on October 7 made it difficult for the IDF, on all levels — from the regional brigade to the chief of staff — to build an accurate picture of what was happening, especially with how serious the situation was in each community. Backup forces who were arriving at the Gaza border area from the north, including those who arrived at their own initiative, mostly got stuck fighting in the city of Sderot. Others who managed to push further south down Route 232 either got caught up fighting in other communities or were ambushed by snuffies at major junctions. Similarly, troops arriving from the south were also attacked and delayed at the junctions, resulting in the first troops reaching Nir Oz only after 1 p.m. Few troops were explicitly instructed to head for Nir Oz, and those who were got stuck fighting on the way. By the time a special forces team managed to push through the Ma’on Junction near the community, at around 11:45 a.m., it was far too late. Their commander was maimed, and they were also instructed to reach another community. The investigation found that there was real-time information that could have been used by IDF commanders to understand the grave situation in Nir Oz, though nothing was done with it. This included an IDF surveillance camera showing dozens of snuffies walking to and from Nir Oz — which was being viewed live at an IDF command center — and information from Israeli Air Force helicopters flying over the area. The investigation team stated that this live information indicated that there were snuffies in Nir Oz, carrying out massacres and abductions, but "such information was being received from numerous other places, and it was not possible to understand from this information that Nir Oz was in a more grave situation than other communities." "Residents of Nir Oz called for help time and time again, but their reports and calls were lost, within the chaos of thousands of messages and reports," the probe said. If the IDF had taken action on the information and prioritized Nir Oz, "it is presumed that troops would have arrived earlier and succeeded in minimizing the harm to the kibbutz and its residents," the team said. CONCLUSIONS The investigation team concluded that the IDF "failed to protect Nir Oz" and the failure was "particularly massive, partly because IDF troops were only able to reach the community after the last title='terrorists '>snuffies had already left. In fact, the snuffies carried out their atrocities in the kibbutz almost uninterrupted." The IDF’s failure to defend Nir Oz was not a tactical or moral failure, the probe stated, but rather a "systemic failure." "The forces did not fail to navigate to the kibbutz, and did not delay out of fear, nor did they choose not to fight; The failure of this incident was that the [IDF’s] command did not understand that the situation in Nir Oz was particularly grave, and that massacres and abductions were taking place there on a large scale, and therefore, did not prioritize sending forces to Nir Oz over other places," the investigation team said. The team said that there were other communities where the situation was very grave, and some where troops did not arrive on time, "but there was no other town with such a deadly combination of such a grave situation on the one hand and the absence of a military force in the community on the other." "That’s what happened to Nir Oz," it added. RECOMMENDATIONS The investigation team recommended establishing a new IDF post between Nir Oz and the Gaza Strip, as well as strengthening the local security team. It also recommended establishing a new mechanism in the IDF for building an intelligence picture when the chain of command has collapsed amid fighting, as well as other tactical changes to the military. THE TIMELINE OF THE ATTACK Before the onslaught, the Golani Infantry Brigade’s 51st Battalion was deployed to the Nir Oz area, including at a base near Kissufim, a post near Nirim, and another camp next to an agricultural research and development center south of Nir Oz known as Mopdarom. Additionally, two tanks of the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion and a Namer armored personnel carrier were stationed at another small post near Nir Oz, known as the White House. In all, there were 182 combat soldiers and 57 combat support troops stationed in the area, protecting the southern Gaza border area, including Nir Oz and several nearby communities. At 5:33 a.m. on October 7, the troops took their stations along the Gaza border in a shift change. The Hamas onslaught began an hour later. Amid an initial barrage of around 1,000 rockets — which began at 6:29 a.m. — largely aimed at Israeli military posts, Hamas snuffies broke through 114 locations along Israel’s border barrier. Six of the breaches were in the Nir Oz area, through which at 6:36 a.m. 100-130 members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force streamed into Israel — on pickup trucks, cycle of violences, and on foot — and headed for the kibbutz. Another 200-400 other terrorists, including members of Hamas, 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... , Mujahideen Brigades, and unaffiliated Paleostinians, arrived later. As the rockets were flying and Hamas snuffies were spotted approaching the border, the two tanks and APC stationed at the White House post advanced toward the Gaza border, under the assumption that they could stop the invasion. One tank positioned itself south of Nir Oz, and the second north of the kibbutz. The APC was positioned between the two. The tank in the south was quickly attacked by Hamas snuffies with RPG fire and bombs. The crew of four — tank commander Cpt. Omer Maxim Neutra, driver Sgt. Shaked Dahan, gunner Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, and loader Sgt. Oz Daniel — was then kidnapped to Gaza. Infamous footage from the attack showed Paleostinians in civilian clothing standing on and around their tank while it was wreathed in smoke and flames, and the soldiers being dragged out by Hamas terrorists. Neutra’s death was confirmed in December 2024, Daniel’s death was announced in February 2024, and Dahan’s death was confirmed in November 2023. All three were killed on October 7, 2023, according to the IDF. Cohen is believed to be still alive in captivity. At 6:38 a.m., the Hamas terrorists, using sniper rifles, took out Israeli military surveillance cameras on the border near Nir Oz. Only one camera, located further away from the border, next to the kibbutz, remained operating. Col. Asaf Hamami, the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, at 6:42 a.m. alerted the civilian local security teams in the communities in his area, and announced over the radio: "We are at war." Minutes later, Hamami and his team exchanged fire with snuffies in the adjacent community of Nirim, where he was killed and his body kidnapped to Gaza. At 6:49 a.m., a car with two partygoers who had fled from the Psyduck music festival entered Nir Oz through its main gate. They evaded the first two Hamas snuffies who arrived at Nir Oz 10 seconds later and infiltrated the community. At 6:52 a.m., a member of Nir Oz’s security team exchanged fire with the first terrorists, as other members tried to assist. Meanwhile, ...back at the barn, Bossy had come up with a new idea, one that didn't involve kerosene... at 6:55 a.m., another vehicle with fleeing partygoers from Psyduck came under terrorist fire at the entrance to Nir Oz. Two were killed. At 6:57 a.m., Hamas snuffies killed Bracha Levinson, 74, in her home, while live streaming the murder on her own Facebook page, which was seen by her family. This was the first killing to take place inside Nir Oz. At the same time, Hamas snuffies captured the Mopdarom base, located south of Nir Oz, killing five and wounding 17. The other troops were holed up amid the massive rocket fire. Also at this point, the IDF’s command and control in the southern Gaza area had entirely fallen apart, with the brigade commander killed, several platoon commanders killed or seriously maimed, and one kidnapped. At 7:06 a.m., Cpt. Omer Wolf, a deputy company commander in the 51st Battalion, called on troops to defend closer to border communities, rather than the border fence, amid the massive invasion. He was killed along with two of his soldiers near the White House post later in the morning, while successfully delaying Hamas’s invasion into Nirim by several hours. . Between 7:11 and 7:18 a.m., another two vehicles fleeing from the Psyduck festival arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz. Hamas snuffies waiting at the entrance murdered the partygoers. Terrorists at 7:27 a.m. entered the kibbutz through a southern entrance, heading for the foreign workers’ residences. Twelve Thai and Tanzanian workers were murdered, and five foreign nationals were kidnapped from there. The snuffies continued their onslaught through the kibbutz, murdering residents in their homes and setting the buildings on fire. The first kidnappings began at around 8:30 a.m. Some members of the seven-strong local security team and other armed civilians fought back from their homes, while three — Tamir Adar, Aviv Atzili, and Dolev Yehud — and other armed civilians confronted the snuffies together outside. All three were killed following a two-hour battle, ending at around 9 a.m. According to the investigation, they managed to delay the snuffies during that time, but the IDF never showed up to provide backup. Once the local security team was defeated, the kidnappings continued and ramped up. An IAF helicopter arrived at the kibbutz at 9:22 a.m. and began to carry out strikes on a route leading from the Gaza fence to Nir Oz, after identifying some 60 snuffies there. The chopper came under fire from the snuffies and was forced to make an emergency landing at the Hatzerim Airbase. At 9:55 a.m., the second tank that headed for the Gaza border in the morning arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz. One of the four crew was seriously maimed and evacuated by the APC, while another member was maimed inside the tank. At 9:57 a.m. the tank fired two shells at snuffies at the entrance to Nir Oz, though it remains unclear if any were hit, as no bodies were found there. Hamas may have taken the bodies back to Gaza, according to the probe. At 10 a.m., another IAF helicopter arrived near Nir Oz and began to open fire on snuffies along the route heading to the kibbutz from Gaza. A short while later it received orders to head to the Gaza Division base near Re’im, which was also overrun by terrorists. At 10:06 a.m., the tank that arrived at the entrance to Nir Oz received an order to leave the area and help prevent a suspected kidnapping of troops elsewhere. The tank did not enter Nir Oz but did end up killing numerous snuffies near the border fence. At 10:22 a.m., the IAF chopper returned from the Re’im base and continued strikes against snuffies on the road leading from Gaza. The IDF tank also reached this area, attempting to run over the crowd of terrorists. By 10:30 a.m., the Hamas Nukhba snuffies were returning to the Strip after being instructed by their commanders in Gaza. The other snuffies joined them and also began to leave at this time. As the tank arrived at the route outside the kibbutz, Batsheva Yahalomi, who was kidnapped from Nir Oz along with her children, managed to escape. Yahalomi, 10-year-old Yael, and almost two-year-old toddler sat on one moped with a terrorist, while 12-year-old Eitan and a foreign worker sat on the other moped with another gunman. The two mopeds veered away from one another as the snuffies saw the tank, and Yahalomi lost track of Eitan on the other moped. Yahalomi and her two daughters were able to run away, hiding for a short period. Two unarmed snuffies found them and tried to convince them to come into Gaza, but didn’t Eitan Yahalomi was released under a hostage-ceasefire deal in late November 2023. His father Ohad Yahalomi was taken hostage separately from the rest of the family and murdered in captivity. His body was returned under another deal in late February 2025. In another incident at 11:30 a.m., the IAF helicopter opened fire against a car with several snuffies in it on the road leading to Gaza. It was later revealed, based on eyewitnesses, videos from the helicopter, and surveillance camera footage, that the vehicle also had Israeli hostages in it. The gunfire killed several of the terrorists, along with Efrat Katz, a resident kidnapped from Nir Oz with her daughter and granddaughters. The others were maimed in the incident. At 12:20 p.m., the IAF helicopter carried out a strike against six snuffies outside the kibbutz. The final footage capturing a terrorist in Nir Oz is timestamped at 12:30 p.m. Members of Border Police’s Yamas covert tactical unit arrived at Nir Oz at 1:10 p.m., and members of the IDF’s Egoz commando unit arrived at 1:47 p.m. Troops of the Navy’s Shayetet 13 commando unit arrived at 2:50 p.m. The troops began searches in the community, escorting residents out. There was no fighting, as all the snuffies had already left. |
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |||||||||
‘Jordan Is for Jordanians': Israel's Neighbors Reject Taking In Palestinian Refugees After Trump Suggestion | |||||||||
2025-01-29 | |||||||||
[Breitbart] The governments of Egypt and Jordan categorically rejected the possibility of offering shelter to displaced Gaza refugees on Monday after President Donald Trump lamented the state of the Hamas-controlled region as a “demolition site” and suggested it needed to be “cleaned out” before civilians could live there in peace. Gaza has seen tremendous levels of destruction since October 7, 2023, when Hamas, a jihadist terrorist organization that controls the area, invaded Israel and conducted targeted massacres of civilians, killing families in their own homes and engaging in widespread torture, gang rape, and other atrocities. Israel declared war on Hamas the next day, with the goal of making it impossible for the Iran-backed terrorists to conduct a second similar operation. Israel lost an estimated 1,200 people on October 7. The war has resulted in the elimination of some of the most prominent leaders in Hamas, including Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, “political” chief Ismail Haniyeh, and and al-Qassam Brigades leader Mohammed Deif. Israel has also successfully dismantled much of Iran’s terrorist proxy network, including the leadership of Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon. Israel agreed to a ceasefire deal with Hamas this month that has allowed the slow return of civilians to Gaza. Given that Hamas often uses schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure to hide its terrorist operations, the war required the destruction of much of that infrastructure, meaning Gaza will require extensive rebuilding before it can sustain any large civilian population comfortably. “It’s literally a demolition site right now,” President Trump said of Gaza in remarks to reporters on Saturday. “Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there.” Trump suggested that Jordan and Egypt, Gaza’s immediate Arab neighbors, take in displaced Palestinian refugees while Gaza rebuilds. “You’re talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts, that site. And I don’t know, something has to happen,” Trump said. The president said that he had raised the possibility of Jordan taking in Palestinian refugees with the country’s king, Abdullah II, in a phone call last week, and that he would suggest to Egyptian strongman Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the same. The governments of both nations offered statements that enthusiastically rejected the possibility of offering refuge to displaced Gazans given the unlivable conditions in the Strip. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry stated plainly that the country “rejected” letting any Palestinians in, while Egypt described its opposition to helping displaced Palestinians as “categorical.” “All talk about an alternative homeland for Palestinians is rejected. We will not accept it and will continue to confront it,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi asserted on Monday. “Jordan is for Jordanians,” he continued, “and Palestine is for Palestinians. The resolution of the Palestinian issue must be on Palestinian soil.” The Jordanian House of Representatives separately insisted in its own statement, “We reaffirm our rejection of all illusions of displacement aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause at the expense of Jordan and Egypt.” “Jordan will not be an alternative homeland for attempts to displace the steadfast Palestinian people,” it added. In Egypt, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday that affirmed what it described as the “resilience of the Palestinian people on their land,” suggesting Palestinians must endure the current harrowing conditions in Gaza while rebuilding occurs. The Sisi government “reaffirmed its unwavering support for the resilience of the Palestinian people on their land and their commitment to their inalienable rights under international law and humanitarian law,” the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram reported. “The foreign ministry underscored its categorical rejection of any actions that undermine these rights, including settlement expansion, annexation of land, or the displacement of Palestinians—whether through temporary or permanent means.” Trump nonetheless repeated his assertions that he did not support Palestinians being forced to live in the “hell” of Gaza. “I’d like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence,” Trump told reporters. “When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years.” “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before,” he continued, “and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”
“I wish [Sisi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in… a rough neighborhood,” Trump said. “But I think he would do it, and I think the King of Jordan would do it too.”
Egypt is also reportedly planning street protests to oppose accepting Palestinian refugees.
“Just over the past 10 years or so, many Syrians came here to flee their war, then many thousands of Yemenis came when war broke out over there too,” an antiques dealer told the newspaper. “Then just this year, when war broke out in Sudan, the same happened and we allowed Sudanese refugees in.”
“Now is the time to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people,” he said during his most recent address to the United Nations General Assembly in September. “It is the moral duty of this international community to establish a protection mechanism for them across the occupied territories.” But, he added, “extremist” ideas like “the idea of Jordan as an alternative homeland” must be rejected. “Let me be very, very clear: that will never happen,” he promised. “We will never accept the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime.”
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International-UN-NGOs |
US House votes to sanction ICC over Israel arrest warrants |
2025-01-10 |
[IsraelTimes Nearly all House Republicans, several Democrats back legislation punishing the ICC for going after Netanyahu and Gallant, but measure will face bumpier path through Senate The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to sanction the International Criminal Court to protest its decision to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister over Israel’s campaign against the Hamas ![]() terror group 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 oppressionand disproportionate response... Lawmakers voted 243 to 140 in favor of the "Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act," which would urge sanctions on any ICC official or entities backing The Hague who advance "any effort to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies." The sanctions include blocking or revoking visas and prohibiting US property transactions. The legislation states that the US and Israel are not signatories to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, which accordingly has no jurisdiction over their conduct. Forty-five Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, whiteanything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nastyto the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... joined 198 Republicans in backing the bill. No Republicans voted against the measure, but Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie abstained, saying afterward that the House "should not get involved in disputes between other countries." The House vote, one of the first since the new Congress was seated last week, underscored strong support for Israel’s government among President-elect 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... ’s fellow Republicans, who now control both chambers in Congress. Trump will be sworn in on January 20 for a second term as president. "America is passing this law because a kangaroo court is seeking to arrest the prime minister of our great ally, Israel," Florida Republican Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a House speech before the vote. The breakdown of the vote was largely the same as the one on similar House legislation last year that failed to advance out of the Senate, though, the number of "Nos" was slightly lower amid absences due to former president Jimmy MalaiseCarter ...only the second worst president ever. Now the third worst, after Obama and Biden... ’s funeral and the wildfires in Los Angeles. The legislation still needs to be okayed in the Senate, where it will have a harder time passing, although newly appointed Republican majority leader John Thune has promised swift consideration of the act so Trump can sign it into law shortly after taking office. In order to be passed in the Senate, Republicans will need to recruit around seven Democrats to vote with them, which may be difficult given that the outgoing Biden administration has to date refrained from backing such punitive measures against the court, not wanting to delegitimize the international body whose sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... it supports. Congressional Republicans have been denouncing the ICC since it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza. The warrants effectively bar Netanyahu and Gallant from entering the ICC’s 124 member states. Neither Israel nor the US are members of the court. The charges against the two men allege that they committed the war crimes of directing attacks against the civilian population of Gaza and of using starvation as a method of warfare by hindering the supply of international aid to Gaza. Chief prosecutor Karim Khan also alleged that they committed the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts as a result of the restrictions they allegedly placed on the flow of humanitarian aid ![]() Israel has strongly rejected the substance of the allegations, insisting that it has funneled massive amounts of humanitarian aid through the crossings along the Gaza border, and that any problems with the distribution of that aid to the Paleostinian civilian population are a result of inefficient operations by the aid organizations on the ground, difficulties arising from the ongoing conflict in the territory, and the looting of aid by Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Israel has also rejected allegations that it targets civilians, insisting that civilian casualties caused by the operation have resulted in large part due to Hamas’s tactic of embedding its fighters and installations within Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. The war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led Lions of Islam stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 46,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The figure cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, of whom Israel says it has killed at least 18,000 in Gaza as of November, in addition to about 1,000 inside Israel during the onslaught. The ICC has said its decision to pursue warrants against the Israeli officials was in line with its approach in all cases, based on an assessment by the prosecutor that there was enough evidence to proceed, and the view that seeking arrest warrants immediately could prevent ongoing crimes. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, who Israel says was killed by an IDF strike in Gaza back in July. While Khan had initially sought arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continued as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintained a separate PM in the West Bank. Zapped during the 2023-24 war, to eveyone's satisfaction... , and Yahya Sinwar as well, the two were killed before the warrants were issued in November. The Republican-led House passed the act seeking to sanction the ICC in June, but the measure was never taken up in the Senate, which at the time was controlled by a Democratic majority. Related: International Criminal Court: 2025-01-02 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: January 1, 2024 International Criminal Court: 2024-12-23 Letter Signed by ‘National Security Professionals' Against Tulsi Gabbard Includes Unfounded Smears International Criminal Court: 2024-12-23 Poland Says It Will Arrest Bibi If Israeli PM Attends Auschwitz Liberation Anniversary |
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International-UN-NGOs |
ICC top judge pans ‘appalling’ US threat to penalize court over Israel arrest warrants |
2024-12-03 |
[IsraelTimes] Tomoko Akane references threat by US Senator Graham, who said Washington would sanction allies who cooperate over warrants targeting Netanyahu and Gallant The president of the International Criminal Court lashed out at the United States and Russia for interfering with its investigations, calling attacks on the court "appalling." "The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organization," Judge Tomoko Akane said in her address to the institution’s annual meeting, which opened on Monday. Akane was referring to remarks made by US Sen. Lindsey Graham ...soft-spoken senator from South Carolina, former best buddy of John MaverickMcCain. Since McCain's demise, Graham has become more outspoken, more Republican and more of a supporter of President Trump. The speech he gave in support of Brett Kavanaugh was downright manly and really cheesed off the Dems... , whose Republican party will control both branches of Congress in January, and who called the court a "dangerous joke" and urged Congress to sanction its prosecutor. "To any ally, Canada, Britannia, Germany, La Belle France, if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you," Graham said on Fox News. Graham was angered by an announcement last month that judges had granted a request from the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister along with Hamas ![]() ’s military chief Mohammed Deif — who Israel has said it killed in an ... KABOOM!... this summer — for crimes against humanity in connection with the nearly 14-month war against Hamas 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 oppressionand disproportionate response... ICC FACES CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING ARREST WARRANTS Graham’s threat isn’t seen as just empty words. US President-elect Trump'>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... sanctioned the court’s previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, with a travel ban and asset freeze for investigating American troops and intelligence officials in Afghanistan. Akane on Monday also had harsh words for Russia. "Several elected officials are being subjected to arrest warrants from a permanent member of the Security Council," she said. Moscow issued warrants for Khan and others in response to an investigation into President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... The Assembly of States Parties, which represents the ICC’s 124 member countries, will convene its 23rd conference to elect committee members and approve the court’s budget against a backdrop of unfavorable headlines. The ICC was established in 2002 as the world’s permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. The court only becomes involved when "nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute those crimes on their territory. To date, 124 countries have signed on to the Rome Statute, which created the institution. Those who have not include Israel, Russia, China and the US. The ICC has no police force and relies on member states to execute arrest warrants. The decision to warrant issues for Netanyahu and ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant has been denounced by critics of the court and given only milquetoast approval by many of its supporters, a stark contrast to the robust backing of an arrest warrant for Putin last year over war crimes in Ukraine. The two wars also have starkly different backgrounds. Leading up to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Putin expressed increasingly belligerent views toward its smaller neighbor, challenging Ukraine’s legitimacy as a state, and arguing that it was a historic part of Russia. Moscow then annexed parts of the country under its occupation in September 2022. Global security expert Janina Dill worried that such responses could undermine global justice efforts. "It really has the potential to damage not just the court, but international law," she told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Milena Sterio, an expert in international law at Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone, ...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ... State University, told the AP that sanctions against the court could affect a number of people who contribute to the court’s work, such as international human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... lawyer Amal Clooney. Clooney advised the current prosecutor on his request for the warrants for Netanyahu and others. "Sanctions are a huge burden," Sterio said. ACCUSATIONS AGAINST KHAN Also hanging heavy over the meeting in The Hague are the internal pressures that Khan faces. In October, the AP reported the 54-year-old British lawyer is facing allegations he tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her. Two co-workers in whom the woman confided reported the alleged misconduct in May to the court’s independent watchdog, which says it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan was never questioned. He has denied the claims. The Assembly of States Parties has announced it will launch an external probe into the allegations. It’s not clear if the investigation will be addressed during the meeting. Khan took the floor after Akane. He didn’t address the accusations against him or the threats against the court directly, other than to say the institution was facing "unprecedented challenges." Instead, he highlighted his office’s recent request for an arrest warrant against the head of Myanmar’s military government and said he planned to request warrants related to Afghanistan and Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... in the coming months. Late last week, six countries including La Belle France, Luxembourg, and Mexico asked Khan’s office to look into possible crimes in Afghanistan since the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... took control in 2021. While Khan isn’t obligated to open an investigation in response to such a request, historically court prosecutors have done so. The court, which has long faced accusations of ineffectiveness, will have no trials pending after two conclude in December. While it has issued a number of arrest warrants in recent months, many high-profile suspects remain on the lam. Member states don’t always act. Mongolia refused to arrest Putin when he visited in September. Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir ...Former President-for-Life of Sudan. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. He was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it... is wanted by the ICC over accusations related to the conflict in Darfur, but his country has refused to hand him over. Last week, Khan requested a warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, for attacks against the country’s Rohingya Moslem minority. Judges have yet to decide on that request. "It becomes very difficult to justify the court’s existence," Sterio said. One imagines so. |
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei: Netanyahu Must Be Executed |
2024-11-26 |
![]() The “supreme leader” of the Iranian terror state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, demanded the International Criminal Court (ICC) command the execution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in remarks on Monday. Khamenei was responding to the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Israeli former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week, responding to a request from prosecutor Karim Khan made in May. The court announced charges against the Israeli leaders for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s ongoing self-defense operations in Gaza against the Iran-backed genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. The ICC also issued a warrant for the head of the Hamas “military” wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif. Khan had initially requested warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, as well, but both were confirmed dead before the ICC decided on their cases. The Israeli government confirmed Deif’s death in August, but the ICC prosecutor’s office told the judges they could not confirm the claim, so the judges issued the warrant. Israel declared war on Hamas on October 8, 2023, after the jihadists invaded the country and conducted an unprecedented slaughter of civilians, including entire families killed in their homes, that left an estimated 1,200 dead. Hamas terrorists also abducted over 200 people and extensively tortured, raped, and abused random people within Israeli territory. Iran celebrated the massacre by organizing street parties and fireworks displays in response to the news of the mass killing by its proxy. The ICC claims that Israeli operations in Gaza to prevent a repeat of October 7 constitute war crimes and potential genocide. The Israeli government vehemently rejected the accusations, calling issuing the warrants an “antisemitic” action. Khamenei, speaking at an event on Monday, also appeared disappointed in the warrants – because they would not result in Netanyahu’s death. “The (ICC) arrest warrant is not enough, Netanyahu’s death sentence must be ordered,” Khamenei declared, according to the Iranian state propaganda outlet PressTV. The dissident outlet Iran International explained that this demand is not compatible with the objectives and powers of the ICC. “Khamenei’s demand comes as international legal bodies, including the ICC, stand firmly opposed to capital punishment,” it noted. “Khamenei’s demand comes as international legal bodies, including the ICC, stand firmly opposed to capital punishment.” The ICC was created through the Rome Statute, an international legal document, and thus has no enforcement authority in countries that are not signatories to the statute. It does not have its own enforcement mechanism and cannot legally kill people. Even countries that have signed onto the Rome Statute may not necessarily follow ICC directives. Argentina, for example, announced last week that it would not enforce any warrant against Israeli officials. “Israel faces a brutal aggression, an inhuman seizure of hostages, and the indiscriminate launch of attacks against its population,” Argentine President Javier Milei said in a statement. “Criminalizing the legitimate defense of a nation while these atrocities are omitted is an act that distorts the spirit of international justice.” In contrast, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, an ardent leftist, told reporters shortly after the ICC issued the warrant that he would enforce it if Netanyahu visited his country. “We will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts. This is just who we are as Canadians,” he said. The Iranian Tasnim news agency quoted Khamenei as declaring that “The stupid Zionists imagine that by bombarding people’s homes, hospitals, and places where people are gathered, they’re the victors. No, no one in the world considers that to be a victory.” Opponents to the existence of Israel often claim that the IDF is indiscriminately attacking Gaza, omitting that Hamas has installed terrorist infrastructure pervasively in civilian areas, using sites such as hospitals and children’s bedrooms to hide tunnels, weapons, and terrorists. |
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International-UN-NGOs |
'Anti-Semitic Decision': ICC Waits for Right Moment to Issue Netanyahu Warrant |
2024-11-23 |
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Dmitry Polyakov [REGNUM] On November 21, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant. They are accused of committing “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in the Gaza Strip. However, the ICC did not stop there. ![]() At the same time, an arrest warrant was issued for Muhammad Deif, the leader of Hamas' military wing. He is considered one of the main organizers of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack. It is noteworthy that, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Deif was liquidated this summer. All three warrants were issued by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Ahmad Khan. THE ESSENCE OF THE ACCUSATIONS The arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant are for crimes committed between October 8, 2023 and at least May 20, 2024. The ICC says it has reason to believe that the Israeli prime minister and former defense minister deprived civilians in the Gaza Strip of vital resources. "Both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population of Gaza of items essential to their survival, including food, water, medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity," the court said in a statement. Despite warnings and appeals from international organizations and leaders of other countries, Israel has provided only “minimal humanitarian assistance.” For this reason, the ICC has raised suspicions that Netanyahu and Galant may be guilty of using starvation as a weapon of war. The statement also claimed that "the alleged crimes against humanity were part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza." As for Mohammed Deif, the ICC said he is suspected of having committed “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the territory of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine since at least 7 October 2023.” These crimes include murder, extermination, torture, hostage-taking, rape and other violence. "ANTI-SEMITIC DECISION" It is important to note that the execution of the ICC order is mandatory for countries that have ratified the Rome Statute. There are 124 such countries. However, there are also those that have signed but not ratified the statute – 29 states in total. Among them are Israel, its main ally – the United States, as well as Russia, Iran and some Arab countries. It is noteworthy that the members of the European Union, friendly to Israel, have ratified the Rome Statute and are ready to implement the court's decision. Thus, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell stated that "the ICC decision is binding on all member states." The French Foreign Ministry also expressed its willingness to follow the court's principles and announced that "Paris's response to the ICC's arrest order against Netanyahu will be in line with these principles." The foreign ministries of Belgium and the Netherlands responded in a similar manner. The only EU country that does not agree with the court's decision is Hungary. Budapest said it was ready to accept the Israeli prime minister, guaranteeing his safety. The decision is explained by the fact that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long established friendly relations with Benjamin Netanyahu and supports Israel on many issues. The Jewish state, for its part, categorically disagrees with the arrest warrant issued by the ICC. A statement released by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office said the accusations against the country were false and anti-Semitic. "The anti-Semitic decision of the International Criminal Court is a modern-day Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way," the statement said. Israel considers the ICC a biased and discriminatory political body that makes false and absurd accusations. The statement also said the decision to issue the warrants was made by a “corrupt attorney general who is trying to protect himself from sexual harassment charges and biased judges driven by anti-Semitic hatred of Israel.” The case concerns the ICC's November 11 decision to open an external investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Khan, who denies any wrongdoing. THE WEST IS DISAPPOINTED Karim Ahmad Kan requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Galant back in May. However, the process was delayed due to concerns that its implementation could hinder negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of hostages. The negotiations have not yielded results in the past six months. On the contrary, the situation has become even more tense after the assassinations of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and the movement's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. The Israeli military cabinet does not seem to be stopping. Netanyahu visited Gaza this week and declared that Hamas would not be in the Strip. Moreover, the Jewish state has been conducting a destructive ground operation in Lebanon for the second month. It is probably Israel’s intransigence that has convinced the ICC that there is no point in delaying the warrant any longer. The timing was not accidental. The ICC ruling came during ceasefire talks between Israel and Hezbollah this week led by US special envoy Amos Hochstein. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he visited Beirut, where he held a series of meetings with acting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the secretary general of the Shiite Amal Party, Nabih Berri, who is acting as a mediator between Hezbollah and Western countries. At the final press conference, Hochstein said that he had managed to achieve progress in the dialogue with the Lebanese side. Immediately after, Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem appeared on television. He noted that the success of the current negotiations depended on Israel's reaction and the "seriousness" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, Qassem emphasized that the Jewish state was putting forward too serious conditions: "Israel wants to achieve through an agreement what it could not achieve on the battlefield. This is impossible." After the Beirut talks, Amos Hochstein traveled to Tel Aviv, where he held several meetings with Israeli officials, including Netanyahu. According to Arab media reports, Israel is reluctant to make concessions on fundamental issues, so the American envoy is pushing for more rounds of talks. It is significant that the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli citizens precisely at the time of Netanyahu's negotiations with Hochstein. This decision shows that Western countries are extremely disappointed with Israel's intransigence and are perhaps trying to put pressure on the country's leadership. In this situation, the reaction of the French Foreign Ministry is quite understandable. Paris is trying to actively participate in the resolution of the conflict, but its attempts to penetrate deeply into Lebanon through mediation efforts are each time met with the unwillingness of the Israeli side to compromise. Certainly, the arrest warrant signals a higher stakes in the negotiations. However, the decision could only make matters worse. With Netanyahu in a difficult position, he may refuse to compromise and take steps that will escalate the conflict, including continuing military operations in Gaza and Lebanon. |
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International-UN-NGOs | ||
ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Israeli Leaders | ||
2024-11-21 | ||
[AyPee] The world’s top war-crimes court issued arrest warrants Thursday for the leaders of Israel and Hamas, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with their war that began more than a year ago. The warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant focus on allegations Israel has used food as a weapon in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, a charge Israeli officials deny. Experts have warned that hunger has become widespread across Gaza and may have reached famine levels in the north of the territory, which is under siege by Israeli troops. The action by the International Criminal Court came as the death toll from Israel’s campaign in Gaza passed 44,000 people, according to local health authorities, who say more than half of those killed were women and children. Their count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The decision turns Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects and could further isolate them, as well as complicate efforts to negotiate a cease-fire. But its practical implications could be limited since Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court. Israeli leaders, politicians and officials across the spectrum denounced the warrants and the ICC. The new defense minister, Israel Katz, who replaced Gallant earlier this month, said Thursday’s decision is “a moral disgrace, entirely tainted by antisemitism, and drags the international judicial system to an unprecedented low.” Human rights groups applauded the move.
The decision came six months after ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan requested the warrants. The court issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza. It said it found reasonable grounds to believe Deif was involved in murder, rape, torture and the taking of hostages amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the Hamas-led attack, militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and taking some 250 others hostage. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, around a third of them believed to be dead. Khan withdrew his request for warrants for two other senior Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, who have both since been killed. Israel says it also killed Deif in an airstrike, but Hamas has never confirmed his death. The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were issued by a three-judge panel in a unanimous decision. The panel said there were reasonable grounds to believe they “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival,” including food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in September that it had submitted two legal briefs challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction and arguing that the court did not provide Israel the opportunity to investigate the allegations itself before requesting the warrants. The ICC is a court of last resort that only prosecutes cases when domestic law enforcement authorities cannot or will not investigate. Israel is not a member state of the court. The country has struggled to investigate itself in the past, rights groups say. Despite the warrants, none of the suspects is likely to face judges in The Hague anytime soon. Member countries are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that. Still, the threat of arrest now complicates any travel abroad by Netanyahu and Gallant — including to close allies of Israel, such as France or Britain, said Yuval Shany, an international law expert at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. France signaled it could arrest Netanyahu if he came to its territory. Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine called it a “complex legal issue” but said France supports the court’s actions. “Combating impunity is our priority,” he said. “Our response will align with these principles.” Israel’s opposition leaders fiercely criticized the ICC’s move. Benny Gantz, a retired general and political rival to Netanyahu, said it showed “moral blindness” and was a “shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten.” Yair Lapid, another opposition leader, called it a “prize for terror.” Soon after Israel launched its campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after the October attacks, it announced a total seal on Gaza, vowing not to let in food, water or other supplies. Under U.S. pressure, it began allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid to enter a few weeks later. The campaign has caused heavy destruction across Gaza and driven almost the entire population of 2.3 million people from their homes, leaving most dependent on humanitarian aid to survive. Israel now says it puts no limit on the amount of supplies into Gaza. Still, the flow of food and other goods is at nearly the lowest levels of the war, and the U.N. and other groups have said Israeli military restrictions are largely to blame, along with widespread lawlessness that has led to theft of aid shipments. The case at the ICC is separate from another legal battle Israel is waging at the top U.N. court, the International Court of Justice, in which South Africa accuses Israel of genocide, an allegation Israeli leaders staunchly deny. Lawyers for Israel argued in court that the war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide. | ||
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On the outs with Qatar, Hamas appears to change tack at the top, but not in Gaza |
2024-11-18 |
[IsraelTimes] The terror group is said to be led by five top officials representing its various components, but experts say that its war strategy and red lines in talks are unlikely to shift This month, 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... announced the suspension of its mediation role between Israel and Hamas ![]() concerning a potential Gazoo ceasefire and hostage release. At the same time, Doha refrained from confirming whether it would close Hamas’s office in the country, despite requests from the Biden administration to do so. Qatar has hosted Hamas officials in Doha since 2012, when the terror group moved its headquarters out of Damascus amid the Syrian civil war; Washington had urged Qatar to serve as a conduit to the terror group, much as the Gulf state had done by hosting a Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... embassy. Even if the group were expelled from Qatar, it’s not clear who the order would apply to, with Hamas’s leadership structure made suddenly opaque by the killings of its last two chiefs Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... and Yahya Sinwar in recent months. Following the losses, the terror group has reportedly opted against appointing an immediate successor. Instead, a five-member committee based in Doha is said to have taken over leadership responsibilities. According to Hamas sources speaking to AFP, the committee was set up in August following the liquidation of Haniyeh in Tehran. While Sinwar was named head of the group, the fact that he was in hiding in Gaza made communication difficult, necessitating an alternative. When Israeli forces killed Sinwar on October 16, the quinquevirate stepped in. The collective leadership structure could be a defensive strategy for Hamas, nominating five heads rather than a single chief who would immediately be in Israel’s crosshairs. But the group also appears to want to present Paleostinians with an "inclusive" leadership committee, one that spans Gaza and the West Bank and includes both political and religious figures, as it navigates a period of profound crisis for its future. "This appears to be mostly a symbolic decision to indicate that all components of Hamas are represented," said Hamas expert Guy Aviad, a former official in the IDF’s History Department, which maintains the military’s official annals. "Joint leadership is not necessarily aimed at preventing assassinations. If Israel wanted to eliminate a number of leaders, it could do so," Aviad told The Times of Israel, adding that Israel is unlikely to conduct liquidations within Qatar or ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... The current governance structure will be in place until the terror group holds elections for a new leader, which are scheduled for March next year, according to AFP. There is also speculation that Hamas may have already secretly appointed a new leader but is concealing his identity, a tactic used in 2004 after the assassinations of leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi within months of each other. A Hamas source told the BBC in October that the movement is likely to keep the identity of its new leader secret for security reasons. PARTY OF FIVE According to Hamas sources who spoke to AFP, the committee is composed of five politburo members:
Notably absent from the list is Yahya Sinwar’s brother Muhammad, considered to be the de facto commander-in-chief of military operations in Gaza, where he is believed to be. (Israel says it killed titular armed wing head Mohammed Deif.) According to experts, Muhammad Sinwar is not a political figure, making him an unlikely choice for the leadership council. Nonetheless, he still wields sizable influence within Hamas thanks to his control of Hamas’s forces in Gaza and of the Israeli hostages. STAYING THE COURSE The ability of the leadership quintet to influence actions within Gaza remains uncertain due to ongoing communications difficulties between the Strip and the rest of the world. The IDF’s monitoring of mobile communications complicates Hamas’s coordination, leading the group to rely on encryption technology or hard-to-come-by satellite phones. Despite the difficulties in communication, it appears that for the time being the new leadership has not enacted any major shifts in its strategy, whether on the military front or in negotiations for a ceasefire deal. On the battlefield, experts expect the group to continue fighting a war of attrition against the Israeli military until there is an agreement that meets its conditions: an open-ended halt to hostilities, a full withdrawal of IDF troops from the Gaza Strip, the release of Palestinian detainees in return for hostages, and guarantees that it will not be wiped out after the hostages are freed. Until those demands are met, the group is expected to keep conducting guerrilla operations with what forces it has left, while hanging onto the hostages both as a bargaining chip and a cudgel, “deepening the wound inside Israeli society” and the fracture between citizens and their political leaders, Aviad said. “Hamas will not change its principles and will not accept a deal that diverges from its conditions,” he said. “Right now, it is in a win-win situation: if it gets its way in negotiations, all the better. If not, it will keep embittering the lives of Israelis, to hold the hostages captive and spill the blood of soldiers and reservists.” The only area where the joint leadership might show some flexibility is in the details of a ceasefire deal, Milshtein said. To advance negotiations, it might agree to a staged IDF pullout, with some troops remaining after some hostages were released, but the leadership committee won’t back off the demand for all IDF troops to leave Gaza by a final stage, the expert said. Under Sinwar, the terror group had already shown some flexibility on the timing of the IDF withdrawal. A PARTIAL BREAKUP WITH HAMAS Experts concur that the expulsion of Hamas leaders from Qatar currently seems unlikely – similar rumors have circulated before. The Gulf petrostate has temporarily pulled back its involvement on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, but it benefits greatly from its role mediating between the US and groups Washington finds too odious to engage with directly. Doha is unlikely to risk surrendering that prestigious position, and will probably resume its mediating role on Gaza at some point in the future, Aviad said. However, things might change under President-elect Donald Trump, whose administration may seek to flex its muscles in the Middle East. Qatar’s recent suspension of mediation could signal its nervousness about Trump, Milshtein suggested, particularly recalling the country’s isolation during the 2017-2021 boycott by Saudi Arabia and four other Arab states. It may also be a tactic to put pressure on Hamas and demand more flexibility while the getting is good. “Doha knows that once Trump becomes president, it will be much tougher for them to mediate between the parties,” Milshtein said, referring to the pro-Israel slant that the Trump administration is expected to follow. However, it will take “enormous pressure” for Qatar to ultimately expel Hamas, Milshtein said. For instance, the Pentagon could threaten to pull out of Qatar’s al-Udeid air base, the largest US military installation in the Middle East. International pressure of this type has worked in the past. The Saudi-led boycott is considered to be the catalyst for Qatar’s expulsion of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in 2017. Al-Arouri was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut at the beginning of the year. “The Qataris know how to be more flexible and take steps when they are under pressure,” Milshtein said. “But I don’t think right now that pressure is enough.” Related: Khalil al-Hayya 11/05/2024 Hamas, Fatah said to agree to set up technocratic administration for postwar Gaza governance Khalil al-Hayya 10/27/2024 Hamas leaders rejected Israeli offer of safe passage if they freed hostages — report Khalil al-Hayya 10/22/2024 Hamas sources say Doha-based committee to head terror group after Sinwar killed Related: Khaled Mashaal 10/19/2024 Who’s next? Speculation swirls on who will take over Hamas from slain Sinwar Khaled Mashaal 10/10/2024 ‘Megalomaniac’ Sinwar ordered renewal of suicide bombings after taking power – report Khaled Mashaal 10/09/2024 Oct. 7 Anniversary: Hamas Leader Wants ‘New Fronts’ of Jihad Related: Zaher Jabarin 10/22/2024 Hamas sources say Doha-based committee to head terror group after Sinwar killed Zaher Jabarin 09/22/2024 Little-known Hamas leader seen behind resurgence of West Bank suicide bombings Zaher Jabarin 05/11/2022 Israel said prepping teams to carry out targeted killings of Hamas leaders abroad Related: Muhammad Sinwar 11/05/2024 Report: Muhammad Sinwar acting as de facto head of Hamas military wing Muhammad Sinwar 10/19/2024 Confirming Sinwar’s death, Hamas insists hostages won’t be freed unless war ends Muhammad Sinwar 10/19/2024 Who’s next? Speculation swirls on who will take over Hamas from slain Sinwar |
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Getcher Score Card Here! Can't tell the Players Widoutcher Scorecard! | |
2024-10-21 | |
![]() One by one, Israel has tracked, targeted and eliminated the leadership of its greatest regional enemies in a sprawling decapitation operation with little precedent in modern history. Why it matters: The killing of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar this past week capped an astonishing three-month streak in which a succession of top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, as well as several Iranian generals, were taken out by Israel. The series of killings, a year after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, has dealt a crippling blow to the so-called "axis of resistance" Iran has been building, arming and funding for years.
Driving the news: One of Israel's top goals since the start of the war has been to kill the leaders of Hamas and any militants involved in the Oct. 7 attacks.
When Sinwar was finally caught, it was pure coincidence.
Flashback: As the fighting with Hezbollah on the northern border escalated in the days after Oct. 7, Israel also started targeting senior commanders of the Iranian-backed Shia militia.
Two weeks later, Israel conducted an airstrike in Beirut and killed Hezbollah's top military commander, Fuad Shukr — the biggest blow to the militia since Israel's assassination of its previous military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, in 2008.
Over the next few days, Israel carried out a series of unprecedented airstrikes that destroyed large parts of Hezbollah's rocket and missile arsenals and killed many of its senior and mid-level commanders, including its head of military operations, Ibrahim Aki, and a dozen of the elite Radwan Force's top commanders. Zoom in: The attacks reached their height in late September with the assassination of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah in his bunker with many of his senior deputies.
The big picture: The series of assassinations and other military operations in the region helped restore much of Israel's deterrence, which was shattered on Oct. 7.
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After taking out Sinwar, Israel aims to lock in strategic gains before US election | |
2024-10-19 | |
Just in case. [IsraelTimes] Biden expected to use Hamas chief’s killing to pressure Netanyahu to end Gaza war, though latter may choose to wait him out as Israeli leaders seek to reshape regional orderThe killing of Hamas ![]() chief Yahya Sinwar, criminal mastermind of the terror onslaught through southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with 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 oppressionand disproportionate response... Strip, marked a major triumph for Israel. But Israeli leaders are also seeking to lock in strategic gains that go beyond military victories — to reshape the regional landscape in Israel’s favor and shield its borders from any future attacks, sources familiar with their thinking say.
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , and seizing the moment to carve out de facto buffer zones in a bid to create an irreversible reality before a new US president takes office in January, eight sources told Rooters. By intensifying its military operations against Hezbollah and Hamas, Israel wants to ensure that its enemies and their chief patron, Iran, don’t regroup and threaten Israeli citizens again, according to Western diplomats, Lebanese and Israeli officials, and other regional sources. US President Joe The Big GuyBiden ...46th president of the U.S. Too old and senile to be prosecuted, not too old and senile to set national policy... is expected to use Sinwar’s killing to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wind down the war in Gaza. But Netanyahu may prefer to wait out the end of Biden’s term and take his chances with whoever wins the election — the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris What can be, unburdened by what has been , or Republican rival Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... , with whom Netanyahu has had close ties. Before considering any ceasefire agreements, Israel is accelerating its military campaign to push Hezbollah away from its northern border while thrusting into northern Gaza’s densely packed Jabaliya refugee camp in what Paleostinians and United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... agencies fear could be an attempt to seal off northern Gaza from the rest of the enclave. The smart thing, of course, would be for Hamas to sue for peace before Israel accomplishes separation, so that Hamas might get something instead of nothing. It’s a sure bet, though, that Hamas will choose to miss this opportunity, depending on an undefined deus ex machina to reset all 10/6/2023. To be fair, President Biden is trying his best. Israel is also planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by 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 spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word Iranis a cognate form of Aryan.The abbreviation IRGCis the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either Duceor Führeror maybe both. They hate on October 1, its second-ever direct attack on Israel. Iran prefers to play puppet master rather than risk its fingers directly. "There is a new landscape, a new geopolitical change in the region," said David Schenker, a former US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs who is now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute think tank.Before thousands of Hamas-led murderous Moslems stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251, Israel had been "willing to tolerate a high-level threat," responding to rocket fire from the Paleostinian terror group and other foes with limited strikes, Schenker said. "No longer." "This time Israel is fighting on many fronts. It’s Hamas; it’s Hezbollah, and Iran is coming soon," he said. Formally announcing that IDF troops had killed Sinwar in Gaza’s Rafah, Netanyahu said in a statement on Thursday that the terror chief’s death "settled the score," but he warned that the Gaza war would continue with full force until Israel’s hostages were returned. His office said it had nothing to add. *Mic drop* Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF front man, said Sinwar’s elimination marked a "great achievement" in efforts to destroy Hamas’ military apparatus, but added there were other commanders in Gaza. On Friday, top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya confirmed Sinwar’s death and said the hostages would not be returned until Israel ended its "aggression" and withdrew its forces. Israeli forces have inflicted other big blows on its enemies: a series of high-profile strikes have wiped out Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, Hezbollah’s longtime leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> , and Nasrallah’s military deputy Fuad Shukr. An explosion in Tehran in July also killed Hamas’s then-leader Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... . Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its role in the blast. In addition, Israel says its has eliminated thousands of the groups’ fighters, captured deep tunnel networks and severely depleted their weapons arsenals. In September, thousands of booby-trapped communications devices used by Hezbollah members were detonated — an attack for which Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility. But Israel’s ambitions are broader than short-term military victories, however significant, the sources who spoke to Rooters said. BROADER AMBITION On September 23, Israel launched ground operations in Lebanon with the stated goal of driving Hezbollah back around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from its northern border, to behind the Litani River, and ensuring the Shi’ite terror group is fully disarmed after 30 years of military support from Iran. Israel says Hezbollah’s withdrawal is required by a UN resolution intended to keep peace in the area and protect residents from the terror group’s cross-border attacks. Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted after Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006, empowered international peacekeeping force UNIFIL to help Lebanon’s army keep the area south of the river free of weapons and armed personnel, other than those of the Lebanese state. Israel complains the two forces never gained control of the area from Hezbollah, long regarded as Lebanon’s most potent military force and a key player in its government. Hezbollah has resisted disarming, …that’s one way to described massively up-arming until almost every house in every village has its own rocket launcher and/or weapons stash hidden under the roof or in the spare bedroom, not to mention hidden access to Hezbollah’s tunnel network… claiming the need to defend Lebanon from Israel. Since last year, it has used the border strip as a base for near-daily attacks on Israeli towns and military posts along the border. The terror group has said its attacks, which began a day after the Hamas onslaught, are in solidarity with Gaza …solidarity is pronounced pincer movement… amid the war there. Israeli officials say the only way to enforce resolution 1701, and ensure the safe return of some 60,000 residents evacuated from northern Israel, is through military action."At the moment, diplomacy is not enough," an Israeli diplomatic source told Rooters. Given that the 2006 war was to enforce the provisions of the first Lebanon War — that Hezbollah be disarmed south of the Litani River, it certainly appears that diplomacy was never enough. Lebanese authorities say the offensive against Hezbollah has displaced more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon, mostly members of the Shi’ite community from which Hezbollah draws support.Don’t start a serious war against Israel, and you’ll get to keep your nice things. Israel has also faced international criticism over incidents in which its forces fired at UN peacekeepers’ posts, injuring several of them. A Lebanese security official and a diplomat familiar with the situation in southern Lebanon said it appeared that Israel wanted to drive UNIFIL from the area along with Hezbollah. UNIFIL’s job is to guard the region south of the Litani so that Israel feels no need to return. UNIFIL failed completely. The security official said Israeli forces were fighting for access to strategic overlook points, which are where UNIFIL bases are located."Their goal is to clean up this buffer zone," the diplomat said. This could take a few weeks, if Israel aims to clear Hezbollah positions and infrastructure from a narrow band of Lebanese territory along the border, they said, but anything deeper would take much longer at the current pace. President Biden objects to Israel bombing Hezbollah sites in Beirut. He’s not complaining about Israel plowing up the empty countryside…. On Monday, Netanyahu rejected accusations that Israel was deliberately targeting UNIFIL’s peacekeepers, but said the best way to assure their safety was to heed requests to temporarily withdraw from combat zones. The IDF says Hezbollah has been operating from sites within and adjacent to UNIFIL posts for years. The UN has said its peacekeepers will not leave their positions in southern Lebanon."We have to stand against ... every suggestion that if Resolution 1701 was not implemented it’s because UNIFIL did not implement, which was never its mandate," UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told news hounds on Monday, stressing UNIFIL has a supporting role. Supporting who to do what? Because right now it looks like they’re acting as human shields for Hezbollah, which ought not to have been the original plan. UN, US and other diplomatic envoys agree that reviving the resolution could provide the basis for a cessation of hostilities, but better implementation and enforcement mechanisms are needed. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, told Rooters on Monday that he wanted to see "a more robust mandate for UNIFIL to deter Hezbollah."What will happen to the various 7NIFIL national units should they choose not to deter and enforce? Any changes to the mandate would have to be authorized by the UN’s 15-member Security Council, and diplomats said there were no such discussions at the moment.At minimum Russia and China won’t agree to change. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said his government is prepared to deploy troops to enforce Resolution 1701 as soon as a truce takes hold. What percent of the Lebanese army is actually on the Hezbollah payroll? The US and La Belle France have said that strengthening Lebanon’s army would be crucial to this endeavor.Buy-in from Iran will also be needed, said the diplomat familiar with the situation in southern Lebanon. But they said Israel did not appear ready to start negotiating any truces. "They want to push their advantage, to be in an even stronger position to negotiate," the diplomat said. PURGING BORDERS Israel informed several Arab states last year that it also wanted to carve out a buffer zone on the Paleostinian side of Gaza’s border. But it remains unclear how deep Israel would like it to be or how it would be enforced after the war ends. Israel’s ongoing offensive in Jabaliya, an area that endured heavy bombardments early in the war, has raised concerns among Paleostinians and UN agencies that Israel wants to clear residents from northern Gaza. The Israeli military denies this and says it is trying to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping for more attacks. In May, the IDF moved into the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip running along Gaza’s southern frontier with Egypt, giving Israel effective control over all of the Paleostinian territory’s land borders. Israel has said it will not agree to a permanent ceasefire without guarantees that whoever runs postwar Gaza will be able to prevent the corridor from being used to smuggle weapons and supplies to Hamas. Iran is also in Israel’s crosshairs following the recent missile attack, launched amid Israel’s escalation in Lebanon. The Middle East has been on edge about Israel’s response, worried that it could disrupt oil markets and ignite a full-scale war between the arch-enemies. Enjoy sleeping poorly. I recommend a go bag by the bed and sleeping fully dressed with your shoes on until the bad thing happens. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last week the response would be "lethal, precise, and, above all, unexpected," although he has also said Israel was not looking to open new fronts. Iran has warned repeatedly that it will not hesitate to take military action again if Israel retaliates.The US, Israel’s chief weapons supplier, has supported campaigns against Iran-backed targets like Hezbollah and Hamas, which it has designated foreign terrorist organizations. But tensions have grown as US officials have tried to persuade Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza, curb ... KABOOM!... s on residential areas and negotiate ceasefires. Biden’s attempts to engage with Iran through indirect talks about restoring a 2015 nuclear deal, and his opposition to any strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, have also been points of tension. Israel views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat. Some diplomats suspect Netanyahu is also considering how a ceasefire might affect the election. Any breakthrough could help Harris, when Netanyahu would prefer to deal with Trump, whose hardline views on Israel, Paleostinians and Iran align more closely with his own, they say. "There is no reason for Netanyahu to stop his wars before the American elections," said Marwan al-Muasher, Jordan’s former foreign minister, now vice president for studies at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "He’s not going to give Harris any credit or gift before the polls." For now, Netanyahu appears determined to redraw the map around Israel in his favor by purging its enemies from its borders. "He put his win in his pocket and is pursuing his wars and imposing a new [regional] status quo," said the Lebanese political official. Related: Security Council Resolution 1701: 2024-10-14 25 Hezbollah launches at Israel from near UNIFIL positions in past month Security Council Resolution 1701: 2024-10-11 Senior Hezbollah figure appears to escape as Israeli strikes rock central Beirut Security Council Resolution 1701: 2024-09-30 Reports: Israel Sends Small Commando Missions into Lebanon | |
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