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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Soldier killed in blast, as IDF pushes into central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah for 1st time
2025-07-22
[IsraelTimes] Staff Sgt. Amit Cohen killed in Khan Younis; hostage families alarmed by new ground offensive; undercover troops said to nab Hamas health official in Rafah

An Israeli soldier was killed by a kaboom in southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced, as troops began ground operations in the Deir al-Balah area in the Strip’s center for the first time since the beginning of the war.

The soldier was named as Staff Sgt. Amit Cohen, 19, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Holon.

According to a preliminary IDF investigation, Cohen was killed by a blast from Israeli military munitions that detonated inside a building in Khan Younis. The explosion also seriously maimed an officer in the 13th Battalion, the IDF said. The military said it was further investigating the cause of the earth-shattering kaboom, including the possibility that it was an "operational accident."

Cohen’s death brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 455.

Earlier Monday, media in Gaza reported that IDF tanks had pushed into the southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah. It is one of the few places in the Strip where the IDF has, until now, not operated with ground troops because it believed Hamas to be holding hostages there, though it has conducted Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in the city. Hamas has vowed to execute captives if the IDF approaches.

As a matter of policy, the IDF has said it avoids ground operations in areas of Gaza where it believes Hamas to be holding hostages or cannot rule out the presence of captives, in order not to endanger them.

The push into the southeast of Deir al-Balah was being led by troops of the Golani Infantry Brigade, along with tanks and combat engineers, according to military sources. The ground operations came after Paleostinian reports of artillery shelling and airstrikes overnight and on Monday morning in the area.

A day earlier, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for several zones in the southwest of Deir al-Balah, where many Paleostinians had sought refuge. According to United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
figures, between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area when Sunday’s evacuation order was issued.

Sunday’s announcement told civilians to head south to the Mawasi area on the coast, where at least 600,000 Paleostinians were already massed.

The expanded military operation commenced as global criticism mounted over the war and the US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. At the same time, negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release deal were ongoing in 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...
. Should those talks prove fruitless, the IDF is proposing a further intensification of the fighting, even as it acknowledges burnout among troops after more than 21 months of war.

Deir al-Balah resident Abdullah Abu Saleem, 48, told AFP that "during the night, we heard huge and powerful explosions shaking the area, as if it were an earthquake," which he attributed to "artillery shelling in the south-central part of Deir al-Balah and the southeastern area."

"We are extremely worried and fearful that the army is planning a ground operation in Deir al-Balah and the central camps where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering," he said.
Why? They told you where they will be. The IDF is very trustworthy about suchthings.
Local medics said tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others. At least 130 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Monday.

The ministry’s figures cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Also on Monday, Marwan al-Hams, an official in the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, was reportedly detained by an undercover Israeli force outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip. Hams is the director of Yusuf al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, and also serves as the head of all field hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas health ministry said that Hams was on his way to visit the ICRC hospital in Rafah when an Israeli force “abducted” him after opening fire, killing one person and wounding another civilian nearby.

Medics said the person killed was a local journalist who was filming an interview with Hams when the incident happened.

An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC hospital had admitted and treated patients injured in the incident but would not comment further on their status in order to protect their privacy. It said it was “very concerned about safety and security” around the field hospital.

The IDF did not immediately comment on the incident.

Negotiations over a 60-day ceasefire that would see the release of about half the hostages are continuing in Qatar, though difficulties reaching Hamas’s Gaza leadership are reportedly slowing the process. Should those talks fail, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was drawing up plans for an expansion of the fighting. A Channel 12 news report that quoted sources familiar with the proposal described it as “the plan for taking over Gaza,” and said it was an alternative to the controversial “humanitarian city” in Rafah pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, which Zamir opposes.

Global criticism of the war, and reports of a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, mounted on Monday. In a call for the war to end, 25 countries zeroed in on criticism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began operating aid distribution sites in May under American and Israeli backing.
25 governments out themselves, which will not give them their preferred result.
Hundreds of people have been reported killed around the sites, according to Hamas officials. Israel has acknowledged deaths near aid sites and has confirmed that troops have fired warning shots when crowds have gotten too close, but says the death tolls, which mostly come from Hamas-run authorities, are exaggerated.

The UN’s World Food Program, in a rare condemnation, said a crowd surrounding its aid convoy in northern Gaza on Sunday “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.” It said “countless lives” were lost. Hamas authorities reported nearly 80 dead from Israeli gunfire in the area of the convoy, which is unrelated to the GHF aid distribution sites.

Responding to the reports, the IDF said it had fired “warning shots to remove an immediate threat posed to the troops” in northern Gaza, but denied the steep death toll, insisting that the “reported number of casualties does not align with the existing information.”

An Israeli reservist told the Wall Street Journal that soldiers fired at aid-seeking Palestinians who veered off approved paths even though some of them were carrying white flags. The report, published Monday, said that Israeli soldiers fired on Palestinians who strayed from the paths or came too close to the troops.

“We have an unwritten rule that if you are worried and they get too close and you see that it could be something that puts you and your team at risk, you don’t take that risk,” the reservist said.

A spokesman for the GHF, Chapin Fay, said Monday that it was willing to deliver food to Palestinians for the UN, which he says “has given up distribution altogether.” He added that “desperation levels” in Gaza are rising.

“We can get their aid into Gaza safely and securely and have offered to help repeatedly, but they continue to reject our offers,” Fay said in a media briefing. The UN has argued that it will not cooperate with the GHF, as its distribution mechanism has placed Palestinians at risk.

[X]

Footage shows renewed protests in Gaza against Hamas, in support of ceasefire
[IsraelTimes] Media outlets in Gaza published footage showing several dozen people, including children, protesting earlier today in the Khan Younis area against Hamas and in support of ending the war. In the footage, protesters can be heard chanting “Hamas out.”

One demonstrator is seen holding a sign reading “Stop the war,” while another sign says “Stop exploiting the blood.”

The demonstration appears to be the first in Gaza against the terror group, since it violently suppressed a series of protests in March and in April.



Related:
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-20 Director of Nuseirat police among those killed in Gaza strike, 98 dead in past 24 hours
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-11 Permanent ceasefire hinges on demilitarising Gaza: Israel
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-11 Five killed in bombing at Gaza school
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hostage protester, 73, attacked, car drives into crowd at Tel Aviv demonstration
2025-07-22
”I couldn’t help it, y’r honor. His face cried to the Heavens for punching.”
[IsraelTimes] Bnei Brak resident arrested for suspected attack on elderly man, demonstrators say no police presence amid repeated instances of violence at protest outside military HQ

A 74-year-old protester was attacked by a motorcyclist Monday during a demonstration calling for a hostage deal, outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Shortly afterwards, a car appeared to drive into a crowd of protesters, lightly injuring several people, according to the Haaretz news site.

The elderly demonstrator, who was transferred to Ichilov Hospital, had been blocking Begin Road alongside other protesters outside the military complex, as participants read aloud the names of the hostages still held by terror groups in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip.

According to Hebrew reports, the demonstrator was repeatedly punched by the assailant, who drove off after the beating.

The maimed protester told Haaretz that he had been walking with signs between the cars on the road when the man came up to him on his cycle of violence.

"I stopped him, he told me to move, I said I wouldn’t move, he got off the scooter. I told him not to touch me. He started punching me — I didn’t understand what was happening," he recounted to the daily.
"What was happening" is you were an asshole and faced consequences
Police said in a statement that one suspect, a 21-year-old resident of the overwhelmingly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, has been arrested and taken for questioning.

Some five minutes after the motorcyclist’s assault, protesters told Haaretz, another driver tied to ram his car into them.
The protesters have clearly worn out their welcome. The next election should be interesting over there.
Some twenty seconds of the incident were captured on camera by the daily’s photographer, showing the car moving toward the protesters, and protesters banging on its windows and making noise around it.

“A car continued to drive into us, tried to run us over. We walked back, and it continued to drive, until we managed to bring the police here,” one demonstrator, Tina Bekenstein, told the newspaper.

There were no reports of serious injuries.

The incidents took place amid an unusual absence of police, Haaretz reported, adding that there has been a gradual limiting of police presence in recent weeks, amid demands that the demonstrators obtain a permit before gathering.

Officers reportedly arrived after the attack on the motorcyclist.

After the two incidents, police declared that the protest was illegal, and called on demonstrators to stop blocking the road.

MK Naama Lazimi, of the left-wing The Democrats party,
…the latest reincarnation of the labour socialists, if I recall correctly, named after their American supporters…
said in a statement that she reached out to the police a month ago saying protesters’ safety was being threatened.

“I warned against a trend of escalating violence against protesters, and I emphasized that the absence of police presence harms the physical security of the participants [in the protests],” she said at the time, in a letter to police chief Daniel Levy, according to the statement.

Levy has not responded to her letter, she said.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that it “totally condemns the attack on protesters for the hostages in Tel Aviv.” It was not immediately clear which of the incidents the forum was responding to.

“We want to send our big thanks, from the bottom of our hearts, to all the activists for the hostages, and we remind them, and everyone, that an overwhelming majority of the nation stands with them, and their holy work,” the statement said.

“No act of violence by a few people will make us forget the simple truth — the nation is with the hostages,” it said.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Source: Hamas negotiators unable to reach group’s Gaza leaders, slowing hostage talks
2025-07-22
[IsraelTimes] Sign-off needed from Hamas chiefs in Strip, who source warns may become even harder to reach as IDF expands offensive into Deir al-Balah; progress made in aid talks with Egypt

Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
’s negotiators in Doha have been unable to reach the terror group’s leaders in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
since late last week, preventing talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal from moving forward, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Monday.

Last week, Israel submitted updated maps showing its proposed redeployment of troops during the 60-day truce under discussion. The maps had mediators bullish about the chances for an agreement as they envisioned Israel coming down from previous demands to remain in control over larger swaths of Gaza territory, Arab diplomats told The Times of Israel at the time, adding that they expected Hamas to approve the Israeli maps.

But Hamas deliberations on the updated Israeli proposal have continued since Thursday without a response, the source said Monday, lamenting the daily loss of Paleostinian lives in the Gaza Strip that have taken place in the interim.

The source added that Israel’s decision to enter the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah for the first time since the start of the war may further harm efforts to reach Hamas leaders when seeking a response to developments in the Doha negotiations.

With frustration growing from mediators over the perceived foot-dragging by Hamas, the source indicated that Hamas would likely issue a statement declaring that it is still conducting internal deliberations on the Israeli proposal in a positive manner.

While talks in Doha have stalled, a separate track of negotiations has been taking place in Cairo between Israeli negotiators and Egyptian officials that have focused on advancing a new mechanism for aid distribution during the ceasefire under discussion.

The source said Monday that those talks have been progressing well and that a meeting was being planned for Tuesday between Egyptian, Israeli and UN officials to discuss the new mechanism.

The goal is to move away from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, while still satisfying Israel, which argues that Hamas has exploited existing UN distribution mechanisms to divert aid, the source said.

The US- and Israeli-backed GHF has been heavily criticized for forcing Gazooks to walk long distances, often coming under deadly fire as they cross IDF lines in order to pick up aid.

An Arab diplomat separately told The Times of Israel on Monday that despite the delay in Hamas’s response, mediators are still optimistic about the chances to reach an agreement in the coming days, given the softened Israeli stance on its troop redeployment and Hamas’s willingness to forgo its demand for an upfront Israeli commitment for a permanent ceasefire.

However,
a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth...
Channel 12 cited unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations who were less optimistic, saying that another week or possibly two may be needed due to the delays.

The network said Israel was threatening to pull its negotiating team from Doha if talks did not advance.

With the talks failing to yield a breakthrough, Israeli troops on Monday began ground operations in the Deir al-Balah area, one of the few places in the Strip where the IDF has, until now, not operated with ground forces because it believed Hamas to be holding hostages there, though it has conducted Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in the city. Hamas has vowed to execute captives if the IDF approaches.

Amid the IDF advance, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it was "shocked and alarmed" at the decision and demanded the government explain the rationale behind it.

The IDF has long said it doesn’t operate in areas in which it knows that hostages are located, though, former captives have testified to having come under Israeli fire that nearly lost them their lives. Six hostages were executed last year in Rafah after troops unknowingly approached an area near where they were being held.
Link


Arabia
Israeli enemy warplanes drones conduct series of airstrikes on Yemen's Hodeidah port
2025-07-22
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Israeli enemy warplanes on Monday carried out a series of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s on Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
's Hodeidah port on the Red Sea.

According to the Yemen Press Agency (YPA), there were no immediate reports of casualties or significant damage after the airstrikes.

The Israeli occupation army said the targets included ''engineering vehicles, fuel containers and naval vessels.''

The strikes came in response to recent Yemeni missile and drone attacks on Israeli targets.
The Times of Israel adds:
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the Arclight airstrikes destroyed "military infrastructure of the Houthi terror regime" at the western Yemen port, after attempts were made by the Houthis to repair areas previously targeted by Israel in response to missile and drone attacks.

Monday’s sortie marked the thirteenth time that Israel has attacked Yemen, located some 1,800 kilometers away.

Unlike previous attacks, Monday’s airstrikes did not involve dozens of fighter jets, refuelers, and spy planes. Rather, it was carried out by IAF drones, military officials told The Times of Israel.
Drones? Fascinating.
It marked the first Israeli strikes on Yemen since July 7. In the interim, the Houthis have launched six ballistic missiles and at least two drones at Israel, attacks that caused no damage or injuries.

The targets in Monday’s bombardment included "engineering equipment working to restore port infrastructure, fuel tanks, and vessels used for military activity and [attacks] against the State of Israel and ships in the maritime area near the port," the military said.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the IDF was "forcefully enforcing any attempt to restore the previously attacked terror infrastructure."

"The IDF identified continued activity and attempts by the Houthi terror regime’s forces to restore the terror infrastructure at the port; therefore, components used to advance this activity were targeted," the military said.

Hours after the strike, a drone launched at Israel from "the east" was intercepted by the IAF, the military said, adding that no sirens sounded, "according to protocol."

The drone was likely launched from Yemen, according to preliminary IDF assessments.

The Houthis last attacked Israel on Friday night with a ballistic missile that was intercepted.

Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
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 oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, the Houthis in Yemen have launched 62 ballistic missiles and at least 15 drones at Israel. Several of the missiles have fallen short.
Related:
Hodeida port: 2025-07-08 Ambrey says concrete docks at Yemen’s Hodeida port sustain damage after Israeli strikes
Hodeida port: 2025-06-11 IDF shoots down Yemen missile; multiple interceptors launched as it breaks up
Hodeida port: 2025-03-17 Day 2: US airstrikes ''took out'' multiple Houthi terror leaders, US Navy airstruck Houthi drones and captured cargo ship, Houthis claim 53 toes up after 47 airstrikes
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Yemeni forces launch drone attack on five Israeli military sites in occupied Palestine; IAF says shot it down
2025-07-22
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
i Armed Forces carried out a military operation targeting multiple Israeli sites, including Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the Eilat Port, Ramon Airport, and a vital target near Ashdod in occupied Paleostine.

The Yemeni Armed Forces issued the following statement:

''In support of the oppressed Paleostinian people and their dear Mujahideen, in response to the crime of genocide perpetrated by the Zionist enemy against our people 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 oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, and in response to its recent aggression on the port of Hodeidah.

The UAV force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a qualitative military operation targeting Lod Airport and another military target in the areas of Yaffa, the Umm al-Rashrash Port, Ramon Airport, and a vital target in the Ashdod area in occupied Paleostine.

The operation successfully achieved its objectives, thanks be to Allah.

Great Yemen, the Yemen of those who trust in Allah, has been subjected to brutal aggression over the past months. With Allah's help, it has succeeded in confronting it and steadfastly confronting it.

With reliance on Allah, it is prepared to confront any hostile actions in the coming period aimed to preventing it from fulfilling its religious, moral, and humanitarian duty toward the oppressed Paleostinian people.

We continue and are committed to providing support and assistance to the oppressed Paleostinian people.

Our operations will not be ceased until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.''
They’re so cute when they say things like that, but the IAF says there was only one drone, and they shot it down.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Head of anti-Hamas Gaza militia says it’s backed by vast tribal network, not by Israel
2025-07-21
[IsraelTimes] Yasser Abu Shabab tells British media he’s just an ordinary Palestinian trying to help his people, dreams of Strip being open to world, including Israel, after the war

The leader of a Gazook militia operating in an area under Israeli military control said on Sunday in an interview with British media that his group is not funded or armed by Israel, describing himself as "just an ordinary Paleostinian person who cares about his own people."

Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
has accused Yasser Abu Shabaab of being a criminal, a looter, and a traitor, and earlier this month demanded that he turn himself in to the terror group for prosecution.

"Hamas either accuses their [opponents] of being traitors working with Israel or being criminals. I am neither of these," Shabaab told the Sunday Times. "I was an ordinary construction worker before the war. I have no military training. I am just an ordinary Paleostinian person who cares about his own people."

He added that if a ceasefire is reached between Israel and Hamas, he and his group will need "international protection" from the terror group that rules Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, which he said would likely use the pause to crack down on internal dissent.

According to Abu Shabaab, Hamas has killed 52 members of his family, including his brother.

He denied accusations by the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
that his group was looting aid entering Gaza, or that he had direct involvement with Israel. He said his group was funded and armed by supporters within his tribal network.

The comments contradicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s confirmation last month that Israel had given weapons to the group. The decision to start arming the group was made without the approval of the security cabinet, forgoing normal procedure. It was instead led by security bodies, with Netanyahu’s approval, defense sources said at the time.

"I’m from the Tarabin family. We are a big tribe that extends not only to Gaza, but also to Egypt, to Jordan, and even into some Gulf countries. Notable members of our family contributed money, and we used this money to buy products from the markets in Gaza and give it to needy people from our community," Abu Shabaab told the Times.

"When I saw our people were suffering from the fact Hamas was stealing aid and was bringing this war with Israel upon the Gazooks, leaving our people struggling and displaced, the idea sparked to create a safe zone for our people where we don’t fight," he added. "So my tribe and my family started to distribute aid to people who were in need."

According to the report, the "most prominent wealthy member" of the Tarabins is Ibrahim al-Arjani, a Sinai-based Egyptian businessman who made millions from charging Paleostinians fees for using the Rafah crossing to flee the war in Gaza.

When asked if his militia could manage the Rafah Crossing after the war, Abu Shabaab said: "Of course."

But "first we need to defeat terrorism," he said, adding that his "ideal" vision for postwar Gaza is "one open to the world, to Egypt, Arab countries and Israel."

"Many of my family members live in Israel in a good situation without any discrimination," he said.

Abu Shabaab has been seen operating in southern Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis, and represents the first significant internal armed opposition movement to Hamas’s rule over the Strip’s residents.

According to Hamas sources who spoke with the Lebanese al-Akhbar outlet last month, the militia comprises some 300 people, of whom Abu Shabaab personally recruited around 50. They alleged that the remaining 250 members were recruited through the Paleostinian Authority’s intelligence service.

The group emerged in Rafah in May 2024, following the IDF incursion into the Strip’s southernmost city, the Hamas sources said. They told al-Akhbar that the al-Qassam Brigades have "already started carrying out direct liquidations" of members of Abu Shabaab’s gang, and that its continued existence has fast become a "central issue" for the terror group.

The Hamas sources did not offer proof of Abu Shabaab’s alleged ties to the Ramallah-based Paleostinian Authority, and al-Akhbar did not verify any of the terror group’s claims.

According to the sources, some members of the group belong to an bad boy Salafi faction that had run-ins with Hamas prior to the war as well.

This is not the first time that Netanyahu has been involved in or accused of propping up militias and terror groups to undermine a common enemy.

Various reports over the years have indicated that Israel’s policy under Netanyahu was to treat Hamas as an asset that could be used to weaken the Paleostinian Authority.

Israeli forces have operated inside the Gaza Strip for some 21 months, since the Hamas-led terror onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, 50 of whom are still held captive.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 454.

During this time, more than 58,000 people have been killed in the Strip, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Related:
Yasser Abu Shabaab 07/13/2025 The Palestinians: It's Complicated
Yasser Abu Shabaab 07/03/2025 Responding to Trump, Hamas says Gaza deal must ‘clearly lead to complete end’ of war, while fighting continues
Yasser Abu Shabaab 06/28/2025 Weakened Hamas faces rebel clans, doubts over Tehran’s backing after Israel-Iran war

Link


International-UN-NGOs
Israel refuses to renew visa for another senior UN official over alleged anti-Israel slant
2025-07-21
[IsraelTimes] Citing ‘biased and hostile conduct,’ FM Sa’ar says permit for OCHA official Jonathan Whittall will not be renewed; Israeli official says he will leave country ‘in the near future’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar confirmed on Sunday that he had ordered officials not to extend the visa of a senior United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
official due to his alleged anti-Israel bias.

Jonathan Whittall, the head of the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the West Bank and Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, was residing in Jerusalem and splitting his time between the capital and the Gaza Strip.

"There’s a limit to every scheme," Sa’ar wrote in a Hebrew-language post on X.

"Following a biased and hostile conduct against Israel — which distorted reality, presented falsified reports, slandered Israel, and even violated the UN’s own rules of neutrality — and in accordance with the recommendation of professional bodies, I instructed not to extend the visa of the head of OCHA’s office in Israel, Jonathan Whittall," the foreign minister said.

Earlier Sunday, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Whittall would conclude his position and leave Israel "in the near future."

The official pointed to statements made by Whittall last month that the conditions near aid distribution sites in Gaza are "created to kill," and that "what we are seeing [in Gaza] is carnage. It is weaponized hunger. It is forced displacement. And it’s a death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
for people just trying to survive."

UN front man Stephane Dujarric said last week that visas for all three leaders of the UN agencies active in Gaza — OCHA; the human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
agency OHCHR; and the agency supporting Paleostinians in Gaza, UNRWA — had not been renewed in recent months.

"Visas are not renewed or reduced in duration by Israel, explicitly in response to our work on protection of civilians," said OCHA chief Tom Fletcher earlier this month to a UN Security Council meeting.

He described conditions in Gaza as "beyond vocabulary," with food running out and Paleostinians being shot while seeking something to eat. He accused Israel of failing in its obligation under the Geneva Conventions to provide for civilian needs under its rule.

Fletcher noted that "56 percent of the entries denied into Gaza in 2025 were for emergency medical teams — frontline responders who save lives."

Israel’s UN mission responded that it is "looking into the issue" of Whittall’s visa and criticized UN agencies like OCHA and UNRWA for abandoning neutrality, citing alleged bias and ties to Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
Israel has been sharply critical of UNRWA, even before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror assault in southern Israel — accusing the agency of colluding with Hamas and teaching anti-Israel hatred, which UNRWA denies.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Masses of Gazan Civilians Just Meters from IDF Soldiers – The Order: “No One Fires!”
2025-07-21
[X] Amid claims that the IDF fired at civilians in the jihadist occupied Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
strip, in areas where humanitarian aid is distributed, the IDF Arabic-language spokesperson tonight released footage of an incident that occurred earlier today in which hundreds of Gazook civilians looted a humanitarian aid truck that had entered the Strip.

The masses of Gazooks stood just a few meters from the soldiers, who were on alert and ready to open fire to push them back — but the soldiers ordered one another: ''No one opens fire!''

The IDF Arabic spokesperson wrote:

''There is no famine, no deliberate killing, and no intentional harm to those seeking aid. There is only Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
propaganda, with media outlets spreading lies to salvage what's left of the defeated Hamas.''

Hamas officials say at least 73 Gazans killed, most near aid site; IDF: Toll exaggerated

[IsraelTimes] Army confirms firing ‘warning shots’ near UN aid convoy, as GHF denies involvement; Israeli strikes kill 2 commanders of Hamas-linked terror group involved in Oct. 7 hostage-taking

At least 85 Gazooks were killed Sunday in the Gazoo Strip, the vast majority of them while seeking out aid at distribution sites near Gaza City, the territory’s Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
-run health ministry said, with Israel disputing the corpse count.

The largest toll was in northern Gaza, where at least 79 Paleostinians were allegedly rubbed out trying to reach aid that had entered through the Zikim Crossing with Israel, the ministry said.

The remaining six were killed in the southern part of the Strip, according to the ministry.

It was not immediately clear whether the victims were killed by the Israel Defense Forces or armed gangs or both. But some witnesses said that Israeli troops shot at the crowd.

Responding to the reports, the IDF said it had fired "warning shots to remove an immediate threat posed to the troops" in northern Gaza, but denied the steep corpse count, insisting that the "reported number of casualties does not align with the existing information."

The army has been implicated in near-daily shooting incidents near humanitarian aid sites in recent months.

The UN World Food Program said 25 trucks with aid had entered via Zikim for "starving communities" when the convoy encountered massive crowds.

A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
because they were not allowed to comment on the incident to the media, claimed Israeli forces opened fire toward crowds who tried to take food from the trucks. Footage taken by the UN and shared with the AP showed Paleostinian men running as automatic gunfire was heard.

"Suddenly, tanks surrounded us and trapped us as gunshots and strikes rained down. We were trapped for around two hours," said Ehab al-Zei, who had been waiting for flour and said he hadn’t eaten bread in 15 days. He spoke over the din of people carrying the dead and maimed. "I will never go back again. Let us die of hunger, it’s better."

More than 150 people were maimed Sunday, with some of them at death's door, according to hospital tolls cited by the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

The killings in northern Gaza did not take place near aid distribution points associated with the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which hands out food packages to Paleostinians.

Following the reports, the GHF stressed that the shooting took place near a UN aid convoy, rather than near any of their distribution hubs, which have seen hundreds of people killed in recent months by Israeli fire while trying to access the sites, according to witnesses and health workers.

"Like most violent mostly peaceful incidents, this incident is not linked to GHF, despite what was falsely implied by Al Jazeera," the group insisted, adding that it hoped "news hounds will cover these incidents with the same scrutiny GHF receives."

Health ministry front man Zaher al-Wahidi said Israeli gunfire also killed another six Paleostinians in the Shakoush area, hundreds of meters north of a GHF hub in the southern city of Rafah. The GHF said it was not aware of any incident near its site.

Separately, seven Paleostinians were killed while sheltering in tents in Khan Younis in the south, including a 5-year-old boy, according to the Kuwait Specialized Field Hospital, which received the casualties.

FOOD RELIEF GROUP FORCED TO SCALE BACK OPERATIONS
On top of the regular shooting incidents Gazook aid-seekers have faced over the past few months, food has been spread thin in the war-torn enclave.

The World Central Kitchen organization, which works to provide fresh meals in disaster-stricken areas, said Sunday that it had depleted all supplies in its Gaza warehouses and that its aid trucks were stuck at the border.

As a result, the organization was forced to halt operations in kitchens that were serving hot meals. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
its teams in Gaza are continuing to bake bread and distribute water to residents, the group said. It added that on Saturday, it served 80,000 meals to residents of Gaza.

The entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza has been a point of conflict between Israel and aid organizations since the start of the war. Aid groups have accused Israel of obstructing deliveries, while Israel repeatedly claims the organizations fail to meet necessary conditions for safe food distribution, such as compliance with specific aid routes in the Strip.

Last week, the GHF announced that UN-affiliated organizations had not delivered food to Gaza for over a week, and that the GHF was currently the only group bringing humanitarian aid into the territory. This appeared to no longer hold true, however, given the Sunday reports of the shooting near a UN aid convoy which had entered Gaza via the Zikim Crossing.

Ambulances in front of three major hospitals in Gaza sounded their alarms simultaneously Sunday, in an urgent appeal to shed light on the hunger crisis in the territory. The Hamas-run health ministry posted pictures on social media of doctors holding paper signs about malnourished children and lack of medication.

Al-Wahidi said that at least nine children under 5 years old had died of malnutrition as of Sunday, since Israel’s complete blockade on aid entry in March, which was lifted in May after over two months.

In northern Gaza, Shifa Hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya said that the hospital recorded 79 people who died of malnutrition in the past month.

Israeli strikes continued to pound the Gaza Strip overnight Saturday into Sunday. Large explosions in northern Gaza were visible from Israel as plumes of fire shot into the sky.

Two senior Mujahideen Brigades operatives killed in southern Gaza strike, terror group says

By EMANUEL FABIAN
Two senior members of the Mujahideen Brigades were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis yesterday, the terror group announces.

The Mujahideen Brigades is a relatively small Hamas-allied terror group in the Strip. According to the IDF, the group was responsible for the abduction and murder of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir; Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein; and Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta.

The terror group says the strike in Khan Younis killed Azmi Mohammed Qdeih, a commander responsible for the Gaza City area; and Raed al-Saqa, a commander responsible for the southern part of the Strip.

The strike also killed several members of their families, the terror group says.

The IDF has not yet commented on the strike.

The leader of the Mujahideen Brigades was killed in a strike last month, along with another senior member of the terror group. Another Mujahideen Brigades operative involved in burying the bodies of slain hostages was killed in a separate strike last month. eeèe>IDF STRIKES COMMANDERS OF HAMAS-LINKED TERROR GROUP
Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard...
the Mujahideen Brigades announced Sunday that two of its senior members were killed the day prior in an Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The Mujahideen Brigades is a relatively small Hamas-allied terror group in the Strip. According to the IDF, the group was responsible for the abduction and murder of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir; Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein; and Thai hostage Nattapong Pinta.

The terror group said the strike in Khan Younis killed Azmi Mohammed Qdeih, a commander responsible for the Gaza City area, and Raed al-Saqa, a commander responsible for the southern part of the Strip. It also killed several members of their families, the terror group added.

The IDF did not immediately comment on the strike.

The leader of the Mujahideen Brigades was killed in an IDF strike in June, along with another senior member of the terror group. Another Mujahideen Brigades operative involved in burying the bodies of slain hostages was killed in a separate strike, also in June.

The IDF reissued evacuation orders for all of northern Gaza and parts of Gaza City, as the military continued its offensive against Hamas in the area.

In a statement, Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, warned "all those who have returned or intend to return to the areas of Beit Lahia, Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, Shejiya, Daraj, the Old City, Tuffah, [and] Zeitoun" that those areas are "dangerous combat zones."

"The Israel Defense Forces are operating in these areas with very great force," he said.

Three IDF divisions are operating in the northern Gaza Strip area, mostly in Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Gaza City’s eastern neighborhoods.
Link


Great White North
‘I’m afraid to go home’: Canadian IDF soldiers fear fallout from war crimes probe
2025-07-21
[IsraelTimes] Canada’s probe into the Israel-Hamas conflict doesn’t explicitly target Israelis, but its unclear scope has alarmed Jews amid rising international lawfare against soldiers

When Nati Hubberman was given back his phone in March after weeks of reserve duty on Israel’s northern front, he was inundated with messages from friends about a website he’d never heard of.

"People were texting me saying, ’Watch out, your name is on it,’" he said. "It" was FindIDFSoldiers.net, a site created in February by Davide Mastracci, a Canadian journalist who has harshly criticized Israel, accusing it of orchestrating a "planned genocide in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Mastracci, an editor for an outlet called the Maple, aimed to identify Canadians who had fought for the Israel Defense Forces, either during the current war or previously. At the time, Hubberman said, the exposure felt disturbing but marginal.

Then, in June, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that it had opened an investigation into "matters related to the Israel-Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
armed conflict," with the possibility of uncovering "a perpetrator of core international crimes — such as genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity."

In previous years, the RCMP has conducted similar investigations relating to crimes against or by Canadians in the context of other foreign conflicts, including in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. But this is the first time Canadian authorities have launched a war crimes-related probe connected to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict — a development that has generated particular anxiety within Canada’s Jewish community, which has documented a rise in antisemitism since the October 7, 2023, attack.

The RCMP stated that its investigation wasn’t focused on "any community or group." But to Hubberman and others, the target appeared clear: Canadian IDF soldiers.

’A LOT OF MISLEADING INFORMATION’
News of the investigation prompted anxiety among Jews in Canada, with Iddo Moed, Israel’s ambassador, telling the Canadian Jewish News that he was "flabbergasted" and "concerned" by media reports on the probe. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a leading Canadian Jewish organization, likewise called reports of the investigation "deeply concerning."

But in the weeks since, Canadian Jewish leaders have been told that Canadian-Israeli soldiers are not under criminal investigation — and that the initiative began with a focus on Hamas’s crimes.

"There was a lot of misleading information when it first broke," said David Cooper, CIJA’s vice president of government relations. "People thought this was a targeted investigation into IDF soldiers — it’s not."

Cooper said CIJA has been in regular contact with the RCMP, which he said has "confirmed to us on multiple occasions" that no criminal investigation is currently underway.

He added that the RCMP’s involvement began with "investigations into Canadians that were murdered by Hamas" — a focus CIJA has urged the Canadian government to maintain.

"Hamas’ atrocities are well documented, including the murder of multiple Canadian civilians in Israel," read a statement by Noah Shack, CIJA’s interim president, on the day of the RCMP announcement. He encouraged "anyone who has information on Hamas’ crimes against humanity — including murder, torture, sexual violence, and abduction — to submit this evidence to the RCMP’s portal once in place."

Shack added, "Any suggestion that Israeli-Canadians should be targeted for their service — particularly in a war of self-defence waged by a close ally of Canada — not only represents a cynical distortion of the law, but fuels the violent mostly peaceful hatred faced by Israelis and Jews in North America."

Tensions between Jerusalem and Ottawa have also escalated in recent months. In May, Canada joined the United Kingdom and La Belle France in threatening "concrete actions" if Israel refused to stop the war in Gaza and allow in more aid. Canada has also instituted a halt to arms sales to Israel and has voted against it in the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
"It wasn’t like this when I was a kid. Canada was a great place. Antisemitism was nominal," Hubberman said. "Now, there are protests outside my parents’ synagogue."

A GROWING TOOL, A WIDER NET
At least one Canadian-Israeli soldier has sought legal representation from Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, the former head of the IDF’s military prosecution in the West Bank.

While he declined to comment on the specifics of his client’s case, Hirsch warned that the broader trend signaled by the RCMP probe raises serious concerns regarding Canadian-Israeli relations.

"I’m not surprised by the investigation," said Hirsh, who is now director of the Initiative for Paleostinian Authority Accountability and Reform at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. "It seems to be the continuation of a stance that the government of Canada has adopted: while feigning friendly relations with Israel, they are simultaneously accusing Israeli soldiers of war crimes."

If the Canadian government does begin investigating specific IDF soldiers, it will join a growing list of countries where such investigations have been initiated. As of January, the Foreign Ministry identified at least 12 legal complaints targeting Israeli soldiers over alleged war crimes in Gaza, filed in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Serbia, Ireland, and Cyprus, according to Hebrew media reports.

In most of those cases, the soldiers under investigation were Israeli nationals traveling abroad, not citizens of the countries pursuing the complaints. By contrast, the RCMP investigation referred to an "appropriate nexus to Canada," potentially meaning either those who committed crimes against Canadians or Canadian citizens who may have themselves committed crimes during the Israel-Hamas war.

Most of the complaints in other countries have not led to investigations, and none have resulted in arrests, but they have raised diplomatic concerns in Jerusalem.

One of the groups fueling the investigations is the Hind Rajab Foundation, which tracks IDF soldiers abroad, collects open-source material and submits legal complaints to foreign governments, often in countries where probes have been opened, though not in Canada. Dyab Abou Jahjah, one of the organization’s leaders, trained decades ago with Hezbollah, according to The New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

In January, a reservist who had survived the Nova music festival massacre was urged by Israeli authorities to leave Brazil after the country’s Federal Court ordered police to open a war crimes investigation against him, according to Brazilian media reports. A month earlier, another Israeli soldier quietly fled Cyprus under similar circumstances, after the Hind Rajab Foundation filed a complaint against him with the International Criminal Court.

"In some cases, it seems that simply being in Gaza at the time is being treated as grounds for suspicion," Hirsch said. "That has no precedent whatsoever. You will find no tribunal that would charge a soldier under that definition, just for being a member of the armed forces."

He added that the accusations against IDF soldiers rely heavily on open-source material — media reports, social media posts, and politically motivated NGO findings, often taken out of context.

"If Canada is signalling a willingness to rely on social media evidence and NGO reports as a basis for criminal investigations, that should concern anyone who cares about due process," Hirsch warned.

Still, Hirsch believes prosecutions in Canada are unlikely.

"War crimes require a systematic policy of attacking civilians. That is not what the IDF is doing. Professionally and objectively evaluated, I don’t think there is a prosecution in the world that could come to a different conclusion," he said.

He added that if soldiers engage in unlawful behavior, the Israeli military justice system investigates and prosecutes legitimate cases of misconduct.

Hubberman’s father, a lawyer who has worked with the RCMP, reassured him that the RCMP agency conducting the investigation had never made an arrest and that the probe is largely a political show.

But rather than feeling relieved, Hubberman said it only underscores a deeper shift taking place in the country of his birth — where he feels that he is increasingly seen as a criminal on par with those who committed the atrocities of October 7.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli occupation issues new evacuation orders in central Gaza as fighting continues amid Hamas foot-dragging on negotiations
2025-07-21
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Israeli occupation army issued new evacuation orders today, Sunday, calling on all individuals present in the southwestern area of Deir al-Balah and those living in tents to evacuate the area immediately.

In a statement, the occupation army said that the evacuation orders targeted Paleostinians residing in blocks 130, 132—134, 136—139, and 2351.

The statement explained that the occupation army continues to carry out intensive military operations aimed at destroying the Paleostinian resistance's capabilities and infrastructure, noting that the scope of operations has expanded to include areas not previously targeted.

IDF set to begin ground operations in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah for first time

[IsraelTimes] has held captives in city, which saw hostage release in February; 2.7 kilometers of tunnels destroyed in Jabalia, other terror infrastructure razed in Beit Hanoun

The Israeli military said Sunday that it was set to begin ground operations in Deir al-Balah for the first time since the start of the war, issuing an evacuation order for Paleostinians in the southwest of the city in the central Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip.

"The IDF continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terror infrastructure in the area, as it expands its activities into an area where it has not operated before," the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, said on X.

The expansion into Deir al-Balah was announced as fighting continued across the Strip, and alongside ongoing ceasefire negotiations in 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...
, where Israel has accused Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
of dragging out its response to an Israeli proposal.

Deir al-Balah is one of the few places in the Strip where the military has not yet operated with ground troops because it believed Hamas to be holding hostages there, though it has conducted Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in the city. Hamas has vowed to execute captives if the IDF approaches.

The IDF has avoided ground operations in areas where it believes Hamas to be holding hostages, in order not to endanger them.

Because of the relatively light fighting in the Deir al-Balah area, refugees from other parts of Gaza have sought shelter there, and most buildings remain standing.

Sunday’s announcement told civilians to head south to the Mawasi area on the coast, where hundreds of thousands of Paleostinians are already massed. According to IDF estimates from May, some 350,000 Paleostinians reside in all of central Gaza. It is unclear how many are in the newly evacuated zone.

Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, the pilot and the copilot had both hit the silk.

Jack! Cynthia exclaimed. Do you know how to drive one of these things?

Jack wiped some of the blood from his knuckles.

No, he said. Do you?...

overnight, the IDF demolished Hamas infrastructure in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, amid an ongoing offensive against the terror group there. A video from the Israeli border community of Netiv Ha’asara showed a large explosions that shook the region just after 3 a.m..

Also on Sunday, the IDF said it demolished 2.7 kilometers’ (1.7 miles) worth of tunnels in recent operations carried out by the 401st Armored Brigade in the area. The underground passages were some 20 meters (66 feet) deep, according to the military, and were destroyed by combat engineers.
Related:
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-11 Permanent ceasefire hinges on demilitarising Gaza: Israel
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-11 Five killed in bombing at Gaza school
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-03 Threats or nuisance? After years of cooperation, some Gaza clans rise up against Hamas
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Only a few thousand show up for the weekly pro-hostages/anti-Bibi protest
2025-07-20
[IsraelTimes] Thousands of Israelis rallied Saturday evening for the release of the hostages held by Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
, calling for an agreement that would free all the remaining captives amid negotiations on another temporary ceasefire deal that would see only some of the hostages returned from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Speaking Saturday to some 2,000 people at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, freed hostage Doron Steinbrecher urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war, secure a hostage deal and "make Israel great again."

"Six months ago, I saw the sun for the first time after 471 days in the tunnels," Steinbrecher, who was released from Hamas captivity as part of a truce-hostage deal in January, said at the weekly rally. "Six months ago, I drew my first breath that wasn’t all fear."

The demonstration began earlier in the evening with a moment of silence for the 893 IDF soldiers killed during and since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.

The silence was pierced by a quarrel that ignited on the square’s southern edge, where left-wing protesters typically gather ahead of Saturday-night demonstrations with signs decrying "war crimes" and "genocide" in Gaza. A man bearing an Israeli flag emblazoned with an anti-government logo yelled at the left-wing activists that they should be "embarrassed" and appeared to almost come to blows with one of them before others separated them.

After the moment of silence ended, the rally’s MC, an attorney who heads the anti-government group Mothers on the Front, launched into a tirade against Haredi exemptions from mandatory military service.

During her speech, the left-wing activists left to attend a silent vigil on Kaplan Street for Paleostinian children killed in Gaza.

Protesters then joined with hostage families marching from three separate demonstrations. The participants in the rallies at Hostages Square, Begin Road and Habima Square marched on to a large demonstration outside the US Embassy Branch Office on Hayarkon Street.

A similar demonstration was held outside the US Consulate General building in Jerusalem.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Barred from working in Israel, West Bank Palestinians pay a price for Gaza’s war
2025-07-20
[IsraelTimes] With permits down to 11% of pre-October 7 levels, laborers once dependent on Israel for decent wages are drowning, even as robust trade ties keep the intertwined economies afloat

For 30 years, Mohammad Abu Zahra, a Paleostinian from the southern West Bank, worked in construction in Israel. It was a relatively well-paying job that brought in a far higher salary than similar labor did in the West Bank.

Then, on October 7, 2023, the work stopped. As part of its response to the Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
-led invasion from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, Israel sharply restricted the entry of West Bank Paleostinian workers, a step that carried severe consequences for the approximately 2 million Paleostinians living there.

More than 21 months into the war, the number of permits has not bounced back. Perhaps most significantly, Israel banned Paleostinian workers from the construction industry — by far their largest labor sector in Israel.

"How do we get by? Only God knows," Abu Zahra told The Times of Israel. "There’s no income at all — zero. I haven’t worked in two years. We sold our gold, sold construction equipment, borrowed from friends, wrote postdated checks."

The steep reduction in permits, which was never formally explained by the government, is believed to be predicated on security concerns after thousands of Paleostinians streaming across the Gaza border carried out massacres in Israeli communities on October 7.
"Is believed". Really? That needs an explanation?
The October 7 attack reinvigorated distrust in Paleostinians for many Israelis, which was coupled with suspicions that Gazooks who had entered Israel in the past had provided intelligence to attackers regarding the communities they had worked in.

But the decision to severely limit permits marked a change: In the past, defense officials had insisted on keeping them in place even after attacks originating in the West Bank. Indeed, terror incidents involving Paleostinians with permits to work in Israel, who must undergo an intensive Shin Bet vetting process, have been exceedingly rare.

At the same time, small numbers of West Bank Paleostinians without permits have continued to find their way into Israel, whether to work or carry out attacks — or sometimes both. The assailants in a fatal January 2024 attack in Ra’anana had been working illegally in Israel in the period leading up to the rampage, and that attack is just one of several acts of terrorism inside Israel committed by Paleostinians from the West Bank during the Gaza War, despite heavy IDF deployment there.

OUT OF WORK, OUT OF MONEY
Before the war, roughly 100,000 West Bank Paleostinians worked inside Israel, and another 40,000 were employed in Israeli settlements and Israeli-controlled industrial zones in the West Bank.

Today, that number has shrunk to just 11 percent of what it was before October 7. In Israel, only around 7,000 Paleostinians are allowed to enter each month, all classified as essential workers in sectors such as hospitality or food manufacturing. Another 9,000 work in settlements or nearby industrial zones.

The effect has been especially in construction. According to the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which manages civilian affairs in the West Bank, 90% of Paleostinians working in Israel before the war were employed in construction. Data presented by the Finance Ministry in January 2024 showed that Paleostinians made up 29% of Israel’s construction workforce before October 7.

Because the Paleostinian economy in the West Bank is so much smaller than Israel’s, similar jobs are hard to come by locally. And Israeli jobs pay much better.

The average monthly salary in the West Bank is about NIS 1,431 (roughly $430). By contrast, Israel’s minimum wage, which applies to legal Paleostinian workers, is more than quadruple, at NIS 6,247 (about $1,890). Skilled Paleostinian construction workers can earn NIS 8,000 (about $2,380) or more per month.

ECONOMIC BARRIERS
The hardship has pushed many Paleostinians to take risks and enter Israel illegally to find work, sneaking through openings in the West Bank security barrier, hiding in vehicles, or purchasing forged medical permits that allow their holder to enter Israel. While such practices existed before, the number of unauthorized entries has spiked dramatically in recent months.

Israel’s security services estimate that since the post-October 7 permit cut, around 40,000 Paleostinians per month are entering Israel illegally to work, twice the prewar figure. These workers are typically paid in cash, often under the table, and lack the legal and regulatory protections afforded to other employees.

A May report from the Paleostinian Central Bureau of Statistics, which, unlike its Israeli counterpart, also accounts for illegal employment, found that 18,200 Paleostinians are working without permits inside Israel or in West Bank areas under Israeli control.

For many, the higher wages make such jobs worth the risk.

One such worker, who asked to remain anonymous for his safety, told The Times of Israel that he had entered Israel illegally seven times over the past two years. With the Israeli income, he can support his family as well as relatives who work for the Paleostinian Authority, which has cut salaries due to its own financial woes.

"I went to Israel for 20 straight days, then returned home for two or three months, then went back again when the debts piled up," he said. "The last time I went was in March. If things get worse and I can’t bring home food, I’ll go again. A man risks his life to feed his family."

To cross the border, he either pays for a permit on the black market or sneaks through a hole in the fence. The maneuvers, he said, risk arrest or worse.

TRADE TIES
Despite the economic shock, financial ties between Israel and the West Bank have proven remarkably stable. Before the war, according to 2022 data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Paleostinian areas were the country’s third-largest export market.

That stability was not inevitable. During the Second Intifada, from 2000 to 2005, large-scale violence in the West Bank and Israel led to a collapse in trade volume between Israelis and Paleostinians. It took four years for Paleostinian exports to return to pre-intifada levels, and two more years for imports to do so.

During the current conflict, Paleostinian inflation has remained relatively low, and the volume of trade between Israel and the West Bank, including both imports and exports, has remained at prewar levels.

Goods from Israel have hovered between 55% and 60% of Paleostinian imports over the past two years, according to official statistics. Israeli exports to the West Bank fell by 30% in late 2023, immediately after October 7, but mostly recovered within six months. By mid-2024, they were just 15% below prewar levels.

Figures from the Paleostinian Central Bureau of Statistics also reflect a heavy dependency on Israel: In 2024, 87% of all declared Paleostinian exports went to Israel or were exported abroad via Israeli intermediaries, and about 60% of imports came from or via Israeli importers.

According to analyst Shaul Arieli, who heads the Tamar Research Group, Paleostinian imports from Israel tallied approximately $4.8 billion in 2024, while exports to Israel totaled around $2.3 billion.

According to the Paleostinian Monetary Authority, the regulatory body overseeing banks operating in the Paleostinian territories, inflation in the West Bank stood at 5.2% at the end of 2023, mainly due to the immediate economic shock of the war. But inflationary pressures eased in 2024, with the rate dropping to just 1.1% in the final quarter of the year.

The resilience of trade is a product of the deep interdependence of the Israeli and Paleostinian economies. Both share the same currency, the new Israeli shekel, and in addition to the trade and labor relationship, thousands of Arab Israeli citizens study at West Bank universities, visit Paleostinian cities, shop at Paleostinian stores, and stay in local hotels.

Such close ties, however, also have their pitfalls: For the last several weeks, Paleostinian banks have refused to accept deposits in shekels from their clients, owing to Israeli limits on how many shekels they are allowed to exchange.

MORE WORK, FEWER WORKERS
The intertwining of the economies means that the lack of permits is also having a deleterious effect on the Israeli economy.

According to figures released by Israel’s Finance Ministry in January 2024, the absence of Paleostinian workers from the construction sector has led to a projected 35% drop in monthly output — equivalent to NIS 2.4 billion ($715 million).

In agriculture, where Paleostinians made up around 12% of the workforce before the war, monthly output has declined by 19%, amounting to losses of approximately NIS 400 million ($119 million). More recent data has not yet been published by state authorities.

Tomer Tzaliach, vice president of the Israeli Contractors Association, told The Times of Israel that the construction industry is still struggling to recover.

"We lost 90,000 Paleostinian workers in construction. Over the past two years, approximately 50,000 foreign workers have arrived, mostly from India and Sri Lanka. That means we’re still short about 40,000 workers to return to prewar levels."

Tzaliach noted that even with the relatively high wages earned by Paleostinians, they are still much cheaper to employ than foreign nationals.

"A foreign worker costs us, as contractors, twice as much as a Paleostinian one. You can’t hire them directly; it has to go through manpower corporations, and those come with heavy fees. You have to fly them in, post guarantees, pay government fees, and provide housing in Israel, which we don’t have to do with Paleostinian workers. A Paleostinian laborer costs about NIS 700 per day; a foreign one costs around NIS 1,500."

Projects are also taking longer, he said, with the backlog compounded by the need to rebuild homes and buildings damaged in the wars with Hamas, Hezbollah, and most recently, Iran.

"We estimate that construction projects are being delayed on average by four to five months, partly because sites were completely shut down for months at the start of the war, and partly because of the manpower shortage," he said. "On top of that, we’re dealing with rebuilding damaged buildings in the Gaza border region and the north, and following the war with Iran."

"That’s a huge amount of work — and we don’t have the workforce," he added.

He noted that small contractors, particularly those working on residential buildings with more complicated designs than uniform high-rises, have suffered the most, as they heavily relied on skilled Paleostinian labor. "Paleostinians are better at this kind of detailed construction than, for example, Chinese workers," he said.

Amos Nadan, an expert on the Paleostinian economy and head of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told The Times of Israel that the decades-long Paleostinian economic dependency on Israel is no accident.

"The security-based thinking that led to this economic entanglement is rooted in a mistaken belief that economic dependency would reduce tensions," he said. "But, in my view, this dependency has fueled tension over the years. If the Paleostinian economy were able to function independently and export directly to overseas markets or Jordan, we’d be in a completely different place."

THE MONEY’S IN THE (WEST) BANK
While only 6% of Paleostinians who worked inside Israel have returned to their jobs, the recovery has been a bit stronger in West Bank settlements and industrial zones under Israeli control, where more than 20% have returned to work.

Because the West Bank is designated as a military zone under Israeli law, authority over Paleostinian work permits there lies solely with the Israel Defense Force Central Command, rather than with the politicians who make up the government’s security cabinet.

Though many settlements barred or sharply curtailed Paleostinian workers in the wake of the October 7 attack, work in industrial zones in the West Bank continued almost uninterrupted.

In the weeks after October 7, Israeli employers in the West Bank appealed to the military to reinstate some workers, and the IDF agreed in some instances while imposing security conditions, such as restricting night shifts and requiring workers to stay away from residential areas.

Mohammad Salah, a Paleostinian laborer employed in the Atarot industrial zone near Jerusalem, told The Times of Israel that he continued working throughout the war, albeit under stricter conditions.

"Things aren’t like they were before the war," Salah said. "You can wait two or three hours at checkpoints on your way to work. The guards at the entrance to the industrial zone carry out humiliating checks. You’re not allowed to leave the factory once you’re in — if they see you outside, they’ll revoke your work permit for two or three weeks."

Even with the permit cuts, Israel still relies to a significant degree on Paleostinian labor, legal or not. Nadan told The Times of Israel that this reliance flows from political and security concerns, rather than economic logic.

In addition to providing cheap labor for Israelis, he said, Paleostinian employment pumps money into the West Bank, which disincentivizes violence.

"In purely economic terms, it would make more sense for Israel to bring in workers from countries like China or Romania, who come for two or three years and leave — with no political baggage," he said. "But that’s not the calculation. If Paleostinians can’t work, people will go hungry. Hunger breeds desperation. That leads to more recruits for Hamas and more hostility toward Israel. At that point, the discussion shifts from economics to security and politics."

Nadan argued that, if the question were purely economic, Israel and the Paleostinian territories would have been better off separating their labor markets. "There’s no reason Paleostinians must work in Israel, and no reason Israel must employ them," he said.

Much of the current Israeli-Paleostinian economic structure dates back to the Oslo Accords, he said, a more than three-decade-old treaty that was meant to be temporary. The accords envisioned political separation followed by economic independence. Nadan thinks the two can go hand in hand.
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