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Abduljabar al-Marwani Abduljabar al-Marwani Yemeni Islamic Jihad Arabia 20030130  
  Abduljabar al-Marwani Yemeni Islah Party Arabia 20030130  
Abu Marwan Abu Marwan Iraqi Insurgency Iraq 20060703 Link
Abu Marwan Al Suri Abu Marwan Al Suri al-Qaeda India-Pakistan 20060422 Link
Abu Marwan al Suri Abu Marwan al Suri al-Qaeda India-Pakistan 20060424 Link
Abu Marwan al-Suri Abu Marwan al-Suri al-Qaeda India-Pakistan 20060421 Link
Marwan Abou Sami Marwan Abou Sami Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Syria-Lebanon 20030504  
Marwan Abu Ras Marwan Abu Ras Hamas Middle East 20030907  
Marwan Al-Shehhi Marwan Al Shehhi al-Qaeda Europe 20050818  
  Marwan Al-Shehhi al-Qaeda   20040101  
Marwan Alshehhi Marwan Alshehhi al-Qaeda in Europe Europe 20030813  
  Marwan Alshehhi al-Qaeda Home Front WOT UAE Deceased 20010913  
    One of the 9-11 hijackers
Marwan Barghouti Marwan Barghouti Fatah Israel-Palestine 20020410  
  Marwan Barghouti Palestinian Authority Israel-Palestine 20020404  
  Marwan Barghouthi Fateh Israel-Palestine 20020423  
  Marwan Barghuti Fatah Middle East 20020622  
  Marwan Barghouti Fatah Tanzim Israel-Palestine 20020213  
Marwan Bargouti Marwan Bargouti Palestinian Authority Israel-Palestine 20020402  
Marwan Isa, Marwan Isa, Hamas Israel-Palestine 20050904  
Marwan Kanafani Marwan Kanafani Palestinian Authority Israel-Palestine 20050713  
Marwan Zaloum Marwan Zuloum al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Isreal-Palestine 20020423  
  Marwan Zaloum Tanzim Middle East 20021210  
  Marwan Zaloum al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Isreal-Palestine 20020507  
  Marwan Zaloum Wadi Hariyah-Abu Sneina gang Middle East 20021210  
Marwan Zalum Marwan Zalum Fatah Tanzim Israel-Palestine 20020430  
Marwan al-Shehhi Marwan al-Shehhi al-Qaeda Europe Saudi Deceased Cannon Fodder 20040224  
    9-11 killer
  Marwan al-Shehhi al-Qaeda in Europe Europe 20031211  

Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian Support for Hamas Remains High
2025-05-29
[Spectator] Some Palestinians reject terrorism and Hamas, but a new poll shows they appear to be outnumbered.

A recent poll conducted by the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) from May 1-4, 2025, highlights the reality of Paleostinian public opinion amid the ongoing 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 oppression and disproportionate response...
 Strip, now 19 months in from its start with the Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
-led attack on October 7, 2023.

The survey, covering 1,270 respondents (830 in the West Bank, 440 in Gaza) with a margin of error of ±3.5 percent, reveals strong support for Hamas, the October 7 attack, and "armed struggle." Most Paleostinians oppose Hamas’s disarmament, do not believe Hamas committed atrocities on Oct. 7, and believe the decision to attack Israel that day was "correct."

This poll challenges the dubious claim that all Paleostinian civilians are innocent. Parents who teach their children it is okay to kill Jews are complicit with the terrorist holding a gun. And indeed, many of these children did grow up to become terrorists. This was proven on October 7, 2023, when a terrorist called his parents, bragging he had killed Jews and knowing he would receive his family’s support.

And this support has not changed drastically. Paleostinian civilian support for Hamas’s October 7 attack still stands at a disturbing 50 percent and it was even higher in the past — 54 percent in September 2024 and 71 percent in March 2024. In Gaza, 38 percent of "innocent" Paleostinians still view the attack as "correct," compared to 59 percent in the West Bank. Notably, 87 percent of respondents deny Hamas committed atrocities against Israeli civilians, despite video evidence.

According to the poll, most Gazooks (51 percent) blame Israel for their suffering, followed by the U.S. (28 percent), while only 12 percent primarily blame Hamas. Although Hamas launched a major war against Israel, Hamas’s popularity still stands at 32 percent (it was 36 percent seven months ago) and even remains higher than Fatah’s (21 percent), the more "moderate" of the two parties.

In hypothetical legislative elections, Hamas would garner 43 percent of the vote among participants, while Fatah holds steady at 28 percent. In Gaza, Hamas’s support is stronger (49 percent) than in the West Bank (38 percent). Marwan Barghouti, a terrorist in Israeli prison, remains the most popular leader, securing 50 percent of voters in a presidential race against Hamas’s Khaled Mashal (35 percent) and Paleostinian Chairman the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
 (11 percent).

The poll reveals complex sentiments in Gaza. Nearly half (48 percent) of Gazooks support recent anti-Hamas demonstrations demanding the group relinquish control, though 54 percent believe these protests are driven by "external hands." Opposition to disarming Hamas is strong, with 85 percent in the West Bank and 64 percent in Gaza rejecting it as a condition to end the war. Similarly, 65 percent oppose expelling Hamas’s military leaders.

The question is, why? Innocent people are not supposed to support terrorists. Why do the Paleostinians?

Interestingly, 43 percent of Gazooks express willingness to emigrate postwar, and 49 percent would apply to Israel for emigration assistance, despite Egypt and Jordan rejecting U.S.-backed displacement proposals.

Satisfaction with Hamas’s performance still stands at an unbelievable 57 percent (43 percent in Gaza, 67 percent in the West Bank), outpacing the PA (23 percent), Fatah (24 percent), and Abbas (15 percent). Among regional actors, although 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 Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
s continue to indiscriminately attack Israel’s civilians — Arab and Jew alike — by firing ballistic missiles, the Paleostinians highly approve of their attacks (74 percent), followed by Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
 (45 percent) and Hezbollah (43 percent).

Additionally, the United States, which has worked around the clock to get Paleostinians humanitarian aid, received a disturbingly low approval rating of just 3 percent. Shockingly, Paleostinians gave China (26 percent) and Russia (21 percent) a much higher approval rating.

Paleostinians living in the West Bank (88 percent) say they would rather remain rather than flee to Jordan. What this means is that even with fears of Israeli counter-terrorism operations, Paleostinians understand life is better on the Israeli side of the Jordan River.

With regard to the two-state solution, support remains stable at 40 percent, rising to 61 percent when framed as a Paleostinian state on 1967 borders. Support for armed struggle is an incredible 41 percent.

Looking at these numbers, it is difficult to make the case that the Paleostinian people are a peace-loving nation. According to the data revealed by this poll, Paleostinians support Hamas, want the terrorist group to remain armed, and want to kick the Jewish people out of the Old City of Jerusalem and bar them from the Western Wall.

This is not peace. This is bullying and a desire to erase the Jewish people’s connection to their ancestral homeland, while supporting a Moslem Brüderbund terrorist group responsible for the destruction of Paleostinian life in Gaza and the deaths of thousands.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran-backed Palestinian terror groups said to leave Syria under pressure from Sharaa
2025-05-24
[IsraelTimes] Flight of pro-Assad factions comes amid Trump’s demand that the new regime crack down on Palestinian terrorism as a condition for sanctions relief

Leaders of Iran-backed Paleostinian terror groups in Syria close to former president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Leveler of Latakia...
 have left the country under pressure from the regime of Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the ouster of the Iran-backed strongman in December, Paleostinian sources said Friday.

The armed factions’ flight comes amid a White House demand that Sharaa crack down on Paleostinian terror groups as a condition for the removal of Washington’s sanctions on Damascus. There have also been unconfirmed reports that Syria’s new regime has held indirect talks with Israel on potential normalization between the two countries, despite Israeli leaders’ deep suspicion of Sharaa due to his jihadi past.

The crackdown did not appear to affect the Syrian presence of 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...
-based Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
, which is also backed by Iran, nor that of Fatah, the secularist faction that dominates the West Bank-based Paleostinian Authority.

The leader of one Iran-backed Paleostinian group, who left Syria after Assad’s overthrow, said on condition of anonymity that "most of the Paleostinian factional leadership that received support from Tehran has left Damascus" to countries including Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel...
. Another faction leader still in Damascus confirmed the development.

The first faction leader said "the factions have fully handed over weapons in their headquarters or with their cadres" to the authorities, who also received "lists of names of faction members possessing individual weapons" and demanded that those arms be handed over.

A third Paleostinian faction source in Damascus said that after Assad’s overthrow, "we gathered our members’ weapons ourselves and handed them over, but we have kept individual light weapons for protection... with the [authorities’] authorization."

In Yarmouk, a Paleostinian refugee camp in the Damascus suburbs that was devastated during Syria’s civil war, factional banners usually displayed at the entrance were gone and party buildings were closed and unguarded, AFP photographers said. Factional premises elsewhere in Damascus also appeared closed.

Many Paleostinians fled to Syria in 1948 following the creation of Israel, and from the mid-1960s Syria began hosting the leadership of armed Paleostinian factions. Iran-backed Paleostinian groups enjoyed considerable freedom of movement under Assad.

Washington, which designates some of the factions as terrorist organizations, last week announced it was lifting sanctions on Syria. The White House had earlier said the new Syrian regime would have to comply with demands, including suppressing terrorism and preventing "Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and its proxies from exploiting Syrian territory."

According to the White House, during a meeting in Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
 last week, US President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
 gave Sharaa a list of demands that included deporting "Paleostinian terrorists."

The Iran-backed Paleostinian factions in Syria, along with other terror groups from Lebanon, Iraq and 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...
, are part of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance®, which is openly committed to Israel’s destruction. Some Axis members fought alongside Assad’s forces when civil war erupted in Syria in 2011.

In neighboring Lebanon, a government official told AFP that the disarmament of Paleostinian camps, where factions usually handle security, would begin next month based on an accord with visiting Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....>
, who also met with Sharaa in Damascus last month.

’UNWELCOME’
The Iran-backed Paleostinian groups in Syria "did not receive any official request from the authorities to leave Syrian territory" but instead faced restrictions, the first faction leader told AFP.

Some factions "were de facto prohibited from operating," or their members were arrested, he said, adding that the new authorities have seized property from "private homes, offices, vehicles and military training camps in the Damascus countryside and other provinces."

Syrian authorities did not immediately provide a comment to AFP when asked about the matter.

Earlier this month, officials from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command (PFLP-GC) said Syrian authorities briefly detained factional chief Talal Naji.

In April, 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...
 said Syrian official Khaled Khaled and organizing committee member Yasser al-Zafri were tossed into the calaboose "without explanation." A source from the group told AFP on Friday that they were still detained.

The second Paleostinian faction leader, from a group that has remained in Damascus with limited representation, said there was "no cooperation between most of the Paleostinian factions and the new Syrian administration."

"The response to our contact is mostly cold or delayed. We feel like unwelcome guests, though they don’t say that clearly," he added, also requesting anonymity.

A Hamas official in Gaza told AFP that it had "channels of communication with our brothers in Syria."

Hamas has minimal representation in Syria, having left the country after the civil war there began. Hamas’s ties with the Assad regime had deteriorated amid the terror group’s support for opposition demands.

Yarmouk camp resident Marwan Mnawar, a retiree, said that "nobody knows what happened to the factional leadership," adding that "people just want to live, they are exhausted" by the conflict and factional infighting.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Terror group says senior operative killed in Israeli special forces op in south Gaza
2025-05-20
As of late Monday morning.
[IsraelTimes] Palestinian media says undercover troops apprehended wife and children of Popular Resistance Committees commander in Khan Younis; IDF rebuffs report of hostage rescue operation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to Israeli officials, the offensive would see the IDF "conquer" Gaza, raze the vast majority of buildings and retain the territory for the foreseeable future; attack Hamas and prevent it from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies; and move Paleostinians from Gaza’s north to its south.
More from the Times of Israel about the deader:
The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports that Ahmad Sarhan was responsible for the abduction of Arbel Yehoud and for holding her captive in Gaza.

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

There is no comment from the IDF.

All courtesy of Fred:
[X]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF launches sweeping new Gaza offensive; Palestinians say dozens killed in strikes; Md Sinwar’s body found in Kahn Younis tunnel w/10 dead aides last week
2025-05-18
[IsraelTimes] Gideon’s Chariots offensive involves seizing control of ‘strategic areas,’ officials say; troops said advancing on Deir al-Balah, where ground forces have not operated since Oct. 7

The Israel Defense Forces announced late Friday that it has launched the first stages of a major offensive 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, dubbed "Gideon’s Chariots," that will seek to "seize strategic areas" of the Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
-run Strip, where authorities reported dozens killed in heavy Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s overnight and on Saturday morning.

In a statement, the military said it had "launched extensive attacks and mobilized forces" over the past days, "to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza, including the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas."

"IDF troops in the Southern Command will continue to operate to protect Israeli citizens and realize the goals of the war," the military added.

Paleostinian media reported on Saturday that IDF ground troops had advanced overnight toward central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah. According to the reports, heavy artillery fire and airstrikes were carried out in the eastern Deir al-Balah area as the forces advanced.

Deir al-Balah is one of the few areas of the Strip where Israel has not sent ground troops since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. Ground forces have previously operated on the outskirts of the town, but not deep inside it.

Social media users posted pictures of what they said were leaflets the IDF had scattered in the area of the town, instructing residents to flee. It was not immediately clear if the leaflets were genuine.

The reported leaflet featured the IDF logo on one corner and a Star of David captioned "righteous conquest," in Arabic, on the other corner. Over a background that showed a sea parted over destroyed buildings, the leaflet quoted a Koranic verse about the "Parting of the Sea," and below it a message: "Residents of Gaza, the Israeli army approaches."

According to Israeli officials, the operation would see the IDF "conquer" Gaza and retain the territory, attack Hamas, prevent the terror group from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies, and move Paleostinians from Gaza’s north to its south.

An Israeli defense official said earlier this month that the operation would not be launched before the end of Friday of US President Donald Trump
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets...
’s four-day Middle East tour.

The tour coincided with the resumption of Gaza truce-hostage talks 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...
 following the US-brokered release of Israeli-American captive soldier Edan Alexander. The talks have made little progress amid Israel’s refusal to end the war until Hamas is defeated.

HAMAS AUTHORITIES SAY DOZENS KILLED IN AIRSTRIKES
Airstrikes were reported Saturday in the areas of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and Jabalia, in the Strip’s north. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, said Saturday morning that the medical center had since midnight received “58 martyrs, while a large number of victims remain under the rubble.”

Sultan said the situation at the hospital was “tragic and catastrophic after its surroundings were targeted again this morning, causing the collapse of ceilings and cracks in the walls.”

“The operating rooms and intensive care units are completely full, and we are unable to receive any more critical cases,” he said.

He added there was “a severe shortage of blood units, medicines, medical and therapeutic supplies, and surgical procedures.”

Doctors had been forced to source blood for transfusions from other patients and even from themselves “due to the impossibility of donations from citizens due to malnutrition,” said Sultan.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s civil defense agency said 10 bodies had been brought to Gaza hospitals following strikes Saturday morning.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that three people were killed and four wounded in drone strikes east of Khan Younis, while three others were killed and several wounded in the bombing of a house in Jabalia.

An attack on an apartment northwest of Khan Younis killed three people, while one person was killed and five wounded, “including a girl, a young woman and a pregnant woman,” in a strike on a tent west of the city, he added.

More than 300 Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since Thursday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the war so far.

The tolls 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.

Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 terrorists inside the country during the October 7 onslaught, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

UN CHIEF ‘ALARMED’ BY EXPANDED GAZA OFFENSIVE
Speaking at an Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
 summit in Baghdad on Saturday, United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
 chief António Guterres
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...
 expressed astonishment at Israel’s expanded operation in the besieged Strip.

"We need a permanent ceasefire, now," said Guterres. "I am alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations and more."

His comment followed a statement by UN aid chief Tom Fletcher rejecting a US-backed proposal to deliver aid to Gaza without it going to Hamas.

“To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time. We already have a plan,” he said, adding that the UN has a proven plan and 160,000 pallets of relief ready to enter the Palestinian enclave now.

Fletcher enraged Israel’s mission to the UN this week after he told the body’s security council to act “to prevent a genocide” in Gaza. Israel has angrily rejected the accusation that it is perpetrating a genocide.

Israel halted the flow of aid to Gaza on March 2, hours after the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal’s first phase expired amid Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to negotiate the second phase, which would have required an end to the war. On March 18, Israel resumed hostilities in Gaza with a surprise series of deadly airstrikes.

Following the 42-day first phase and the release of Edan Alexander on Monday, terror groups in Gaza still hold 58 hostages, at least 35 of whom have been confirmed dead, including a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war.

IDF says it demolished 2 km ‘strategic’ Hamas tunnel in Gaza
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says it demolished a 2-kilometer-long Hamas tunnel during recent operations in the northern Gaza Strip.

The military describes the tunnel as “strategic.” It was located and destroyed by troops of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade and Yahalom combat engineering unit.

Report: Body of Hamas leader Muhammad Sinwar found in Gaza tunnel struck by IDF
[IsraelTimes] The Saudi channel Al-Hadath reports that the body of Muhammad Sinwar, the de facto commander of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, was found in a tunnel in Khan Younis where the terror leader was targeted by the Israel Defense Forces last week.

According to the report, the bodies of 10 of Sinwar’s aides were found with him.

It is also reported that there is evidence that the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas’s military wing, Mohammad Shabana, was also killed in the strike.

Israel has not confirmed the deaths of either Sinwar or Shabana.

The strikes on Tuesday targeted an underground command compound below the European Hospital where Sinwar was believed to be sheltering. The IDF later bombed the area several more times, in an apparent attempt to prevent anyone from approaching the tunnel.

Sinwar, a senior Hamas military commander, is the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the IDF in southern Gaza last October.

Following the killing of Hamas’s top military commander, Muhammad Deif, last July, Muhammad Sinwar took charge of the terror group’s military wing. Later, after Sinwar’s older brother was killed by IDF troops, he became the de facto leader of the terror group in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials have described Muhammad Sinwar as obstinate with regard to negotiations with Hamas for the release of hostages, and an obstacle to reaching a ceasefire deal.

The younger Sinwar is also wanted for terrorist actions against Israel and has been active in Hamas for decades.

He was jailed by Israel in the 1990s for nine months and spent an additional three years in a Palestinian Authority prison in Ramallah, from which he escaped in 2000. In 2006, Sinwar was part of a Hamas cell that abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He also previously commanded Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade.

Most of Hamas’s leadership has been eliminated by Israel during the ongoing war.
Related:
European Hospital: 2025-05-16 Israeli attacks on Gaza kill 84 over 100 as ceasefire talks continue, IDF hits dozens of terror targets, Gazans whine
European Hospital: 2025-05-15 At least 90 Palestinians massacred in past 24 hours
European Hospital: 2025-05-14 Hamas' Muhammad Sinwar reported zapped in Gaza, eliminated
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
As new Syria emerges, nightclub attacks awaken fears of return to sectarian repression
2025-05-16
[IsraelTimes] Despite official condemnation, deadly assaults on Damascus nightlife by regime loyalists add to mounting concern that Islamist rulers will not make good on promises of tolerance

On April 29, around 20 gunnies stormed into Layila al-Sharq, a popular nightclub near central Damascus. According to reports, the men began attacking patrons, sending them fleeing into the night.

In video of the incident, scores of frenzied clubgoers can be seen trying to escape the scene as the attackers shove and beat them.

Six days later, three button men entered the al-Karawan nightclub, located some three blocks away, and began shooting, killing a young woman employed by the club as a dancer and wounding two others.

In both instances, the attackers were wearing clothes identifying them as members of the new Syrian regime’s security forces.

The assaults have sent a chill through the cosmopolitan capital, compounding fears that personal freedoms could shrink under the rule of the Islamists who ousted former leader Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
 from power last year.

"People are scared," a Syrian told The Times of Israel via WhatsApp, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
 due to security concerns. "Damascus is almost empty in the evenings now, and that’s not normal. The button men entered the restaurant and opened fire indiscriminately. These are restaurants that have operated for years."

For decades — even during Syria’s 14-year civil war — restaurants, nightclubs, and bars have operated in Damascus, offering the capital’s largely secular population, including its sizable Christian community, places to drink, dance and mingle.

After Assad’s fall in early December, clubs, bars and other nightlife spots briefly shut down. Though they quickly reopened, the owners told Arab and international media they feared operating under an bad boy Islamist regime.

The new Syrian leadership responded quickly to the attacks on the nightclubs. Damascus Governor Maher Marwan, who was appointed by President Ahmed al-Sharaa after the fall of the Assad regime, condemned the attacks. Marwan, who is considered close to al-Sharaa, had previously served with the rebel administration in Idlib for over a decade.

The Syrian Interior Ministry announced within days that members of the Syrian security forces had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack on Layila al-Sharq.

But the button men behind the more serious attack on al-Karawan remain on the lam. Syrian police who arrived on scene following the attack were too late to catch the shooters, according to a regime TV station. No arrests have been announced.

Some Damascenes see the Islamist regime as unwilling to truly crack down on violent mostly peaceful fundamentalists within their ranks.

"The government claims these are rogue fighters," a resident of the capital said. "But if you’re really a government trying to build a non-Islamist state, you need to arrest people like this. The jihadists want to shut down all alcohol-serving venues and restaurants in Damascus."

SECTS AND VIOLENCE
The nightclub attacks are only the latest of a series of violent mostly peaceful attacks by regime-linked figures that have cast doubt on the new leadership’s commitment to multicultural tolerance.

Despite emerging from the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
s, Sharaa and his allies have attempted to portray themselves as moderates under whom women and ethnic and religious minorities will be protected.

Those proclamations were put to the test on Christmas eve just weeks after Sharaa took power, as masked men set fire to a Christmas tree in the Christian-majority city of al-Suqaylabiyah in central Syria on December 24. Other attacks on churches were also reported around the holiday.

Some Christians protested, but Christmas ceremonies mostly went ahead as planned and the events swiftly faded from the public eye.

In March, however, regime fighters from the country’s Sunni majority began slaughtering members of the country’s Alawite minority in Dire Revenge for an attempted attack on security forces by Assad loyalists. Some 1,700 people, mostly unarmed civilians, were reported killed in the ensuing massacres, with many viewing the bloodletting as a display of the new leadership’s true intentions.

A commission of inquiry ordered by Sharaa is expected to submit its findings in the coming months, but doubts remain about whether any higher-ups will be held accountable.

Sharaa referenced the massacre during a May 7 meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, portraying it as an expected result of decades of oppression under the Alawite Assad family, which had privileged some members of the community.

"We know that the post-revolution and postwar period is difficult," Sharaa said. "Sectarianism was used as a weapon against Syrians for 45 years... In recent months, we’ve seen a tragic example of gunnies exploiting this situation."

In recent weeks, the approximately 600,000-strong Druze community has also found itself in the crosshairs. Armed Druze and Sunni factions have clashed in recent weeks in what appears to be a religiously motivated conflict, with Druze reporting civilians being targeted and killed.

Israel, home to its own sizable Druze community, stepped in on April 30, carrying out a dronezap on what it said was a gathering of bad boy fighters who had attacked Druze civilians and were preparing to kill more members of the community. Jerusalem described it as a "warning strike."

Several maimed Druze from Syria have also been allowed into Israel for medical treatment.

NEW SYRIA, OLD PROBLEMS
These groups were forced to coexist under the dictatorship of the Assad dynasty — first Hafez al-Assad, then his son Bashar, who was tossed in December 2024 — a dramatic change that risks reawakening old demons and threatens the safety of the entire country.

Seeking reintegration Syria into the international community and financial support to rebuild the country after years of war, Sharaa has courted closer ties with both the West and moderate Arab states, projecting internal stability and a commitment to Western values of tolerance and protection for minorities.

In February, he launched a national dialogue in which a vision for a "New Syria" was drafted. The conference emphasized liberty as a foundational societal value, alongside freedom of opinion and expression.

Women’s rights were highlighted, as well as protections for children, support for the disabled, and the development of the younger generation.

The conference also called for the elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race, religion, or belief, and for equal opportunity for all.

By Middle Eastern standards, Syria represents something of a melting pot, featuring a diverse mix of ethnic and religious communities.

According to the CIA World Factbook, only 50% of Syria’s population is ethnically Arab; the rest are groups like Druze and Kurds.

Religiously, about 74% are Sunni Moslems, with the remainder being Shiites, Christians, Alawites, and others, though nothing remains of a once-large Jewish community.

Forced into a single border by history, the groups have maintained a sometimes-uneasy stasis for the last century, much of it under the iron-fisted dictatorship of the Assad family.

Unshackled from their brutal rule, Syria is still vulnerable to new paroxysms of interethnic and interreligious fighting. Though there have not been any more attacks on nightclubs, unrest of all sorts remains a daily risk — whether due to violent mostly peaceful regime actions against civilians or festivities among various religious and ethnic groups.

With each new attack on minorities or symbols of liberalism, skepticism will continue to mount over whether the jihadist fundamentalists newly in charge will hold the country together by keeping it true to the inclusive vision for the New Syria, or by returning to the oppressive ways of their predecessors.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Sheikhs' Calls: Why Türkiye Closed Skies to Israeli Aircraft
2025-05-05
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] A new flashpoint has erupted in Syria, this time centered on the Druze, an ethno-religious minority largely concentrated in the disputed Golan Heights.

A series of armed clashes between Druze militias and government forces has provoked the expansion of the conflict and the involvement of external players.

And at the same time, it gave Turkey and Israel a new reason to compete for influence in Syria.

COLD WORLD
Relations between the Druze communities and the new Syrian authorities can be described as tense. Damascus keeps a suspicious eye on this minority, especially after the "As-Suwayda Military Council", representing one of the Druze factions, tried to declare autonomy with the prospect of secession in February 2025.

At that time, the conflict was resolved only thanks to the intervention of third parties, and the parties reached an agreement on peaceful coexistence and the integration of local militias into the new armed forces.

Nevertheless, there are still many figures in the ranks of yesterday’s rebels who believe that the “cold peace” with the Druze is not beneficial to the country and that the problem of “hidden separatism” needs to be solved radically.

And very soon such a pretext presented itself. On April 29, an audio recording containing anti-religious attacks and allegedly made on behalf of the southern Druze was distributed on the Internet.

Moreover, the authorship was attributed not to an ordinary fighter, but to a local spiritual authority, Sheikh Marwan Kiwan. And although Kiwan quickly disputed the authenticity of the recording, the accusations were enough to stir up anti-Druze forces.

By the end of the day, several hundred fighters, identifying themselves as "government forces," arrived in the city of Jaramana, where the sheikh lived, to detain Kivan and bring him to trial. However, the operation ended in nothing: the loyalists suffered losses and left the settlement.

FIGHTING IN THE SUBURBS
Two days later, fighting began in the city of Ashrafiya Sahnaya, located near the Syrian capital, the reason for which was the same ill-fated audio recording. Supporters of official Damascus fired at several objects of the local community, the Druze responded with raids on the headquarters of the Syrian special services.

Unlike the incident in Jaramana, the fighting in the Damascus suburbs was bloodier. Both sides lost at least twenty fighters. The clashes killed Druze Sheikh Wahid al-Balu, who had previously acted as a mediator between the communities and the new authorities.

The situation was assessed differently in the capital. If the first clashes with the Druze were "put on the back burner", then the new escalation was perceived as a manifestation of a systemic threat.

Official Damascus not only called the Druze rebels, but also brought fresh army forces with armored vehicles to Ashrafiya Sahnaya. In addition, fighters from the Saraya Ansar al-Sunna group were transferred to the city, participating in the "pacification" of unrest among the Alawites and distinguished themselves by extrajudicial executions.

The appearance of “gray” field commanders in the clash zone was an alarming sign and indicated that Damascus was planning to deal with its opponents harshly and without regard for Geneva morality.

In light of the current events, the spiritual leader of the Druze in Syria, Hikmat al-Hijri, called on the international community to send troops into Syria to prevent genocide of minorities “according to the Alawite scenario.”

His call was supported by other spiritual authorities, such as the leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Muafak Tarif. The latter used his influence and connections to raise a wave of protest among the Israeli Druze and force official Tel Aviv to pay attention to the call of its neighbors.

And, as subsequent events showed, Tariff's actions had an effect.

THE ISRAELI RESPONSE
Following military clashes between the Druze and official Damascus, Israel (which in the first days after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime brought troops into Syria to create a buffer zone) remembered the security guarantees given to local sheikhs.

Israeli aviation has increased its activity in the Syrian skies many times over, carrying out about thirty airstrikes in different parts of the country in less than a week.

The targets of the attacks were the headquarters of the new army, air defense facilities and communications centers, as well as airfields. Tel Aviv intended, if not to decapitate, then at least seriously batter the Syrian forces in order to weaken their onslaught against the Druze. At the same time, the armored forces of the Israeli army, stationed in the disputed Golan Heights, also began to move.

Following the call of the Druze sheikhs, they advanced at least several dozen kilometers into Syrian territory for the first time since February. New checkpoints appeared on the highway leading to Damascus.

More transparent hints followed, in particular, Israeli planes carried out a night strike in the immediate vicinity of the presidential palace in Damascus.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that the strike near the residence of the first person is a “clear signal to the regime.” In fact, Tel Aviv has issued an ultimatum that it will not allow threats to the Druze community.

TURKEY'S INTERVENTION
Turkey is the only Syrian ally that has chosen to respond harshly to the increasing Israeli airstrikes; Damascus' other partners have limited themselves to expressing concern. On orders from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has closed its airspace to Israeli aircraft.

Erdogan's statements were not taken seriously by Tel Aviv at first, due to the Turkish leader's penchant for sharp populist attacks. However, after Ankara refused to make an exception for the government aircraft "Zion Wing", on which the Israeli prime minister was supposed to fly to Azerbaijan for the summit, Netanyahu became convinced of the seriousness of the threat.

An alternative route bypassing Turkey (via Greece and Bulgaria) would have doubled the distance to Azerbaijan, which was an unpleasant surprise for Tel Aviv. As a result, the Israeli prime minister postponed a multi-day visit to Baku, which was supposed to begin on May 8, citing the difficult situation near the borders.

The postponement of the visit to Azerbaijan indirectly indicates that Turkey has closed the channels of informal communication with Israel through Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev. The latter occupies an “equidistant” position between Ankara and Tel Aviv and has previously acted as a behind-the-scenes mediator in resolving tensions between them several times.

This, in turn, indicates that the Turks are not indifferent to the fate of the Syrian creature and, if the situation worsens further, Ankara will be ready to think about a more serious confrontation with the Israelis.
Thinking and doing are two different things. Doing requires the confidence that Mossad never sold pagers and cell phones where Turks could get hold of them…

Related:
Druze 05/04/2025 IDF says it is ready to protect Druze villages from Syria
Druze 05/03/2025 Leb: 2 men who attacked Sunni imam in Baalshmay arrested
Druze 05/03/2025 20 major airstrikes were carried out in Syria by the Israeli Air Force

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria's new cabinet draws criticism over controversial appointments, Syrian Kurds reject it altogether
2025-03-31
[Rudaw] Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday appointed a 23-member cabinet, including four members from minority groups. However, the appointments have raised eyebrows as ethnic and religious groups say they were not consulted during the appointment process. The cabinet also includes figures who have been blacklisted by the UN and the US over ties to extremist armed groups.

Following a swift offensive, a coalition of opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, headed by Sharaa, in early December toppled the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Sharaa was appointed as Syria’s interim president in late January, after which he vowed to form an “inclusive transitional government that would reflect Syria's diversity.”

Upon announcing the new cabinet, Sharaa on Saturday stated, “at this historic moment, we mark the beginning of a new phase in our national journey” and “advance toward the future we deserve with strong will and unwavering resolve.”

THE SOVEREIGN PORTFOLIOS
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani retained his position in the new cabinet lineup. Born in 1987 in Hasaka, Shaibani holds a Bachelor's in English literature from Damascus University and a Master’s in political science and international relations from Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. He is pursuing a doctorate in International Relations. Shaibani was a founding member of the Idlib-based Syrian Salvation Government in 2017 and served on HTS’s Shura council - a traditional Islamic council that provides guidance based on religious principles.

Syria’s Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra will also continue in his role. A native of Hama province, Abu Qasra was born in 1984. He played a key role in the armed opposition against Assad and the HTS-led offensive that toppled him. He holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering from Damascus University and a master’s degree from Idlib University. Sharaa promoted Abu Qasra to Major General in late December.

Meanwhile, the ministry of interior has been assigned to Anas Khattab, a senior member of the Syrian opposition and founding member of the al-Nusra Front, which rebranded itself as the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in 2016 when it split from al-Qaeda, and then again to HTS in 2017, when it merged with other factions. Khattab’s name is not far from controversy as he was listed by the UN on its terrorism lists in September 2014 and by the US in December 2012.

Another controversial figure that was assigned the Justice portfolio is Mazhar al-Wais. He is a top HTS judge who headed the Sharia Commission in Syria’s eastern regions. The commission was established following the split of al-Nusra Front from the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2013. He was one of HTS’s religious leaders and headed the Supreme Judicial Council of the Syrian Salvation Government.

MINISTRIES LED BY MINORITY MEMBERS
Despite a majority Sunni Arab ministers, Sharaa’s new cabinet reportedly includes members from other Syrian ethnic and religious components.

Mohammad Turko, reportedly a Kurd from the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northeast Syria (Rojava), was appointed as minister of education. Born in 1979, Turko holds a law degree from Damascus University and a doctorate from Leipzig University. He has written on child rights, citizenship, and education and has taught at several universities in Syria.

Hind Kabawat, a Christian woman, was named Minister of Social Affairs. She holds degrees in economics, law, and a Master’s in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University in the US. Kabawat has been a prominent figure in the Syrian opposition since the 2011 uprising, holding leadership roles in the High Negotiations Committee and Geneva Negotiations Office between 2015 and 2022. Following Assad's fall in 2024, she became a member of the National Dialogue Conference preparatory committee.

Amjad Badr, a Druze, was appointed Minister of Agriculture. Born in 1969, Badr holds a doctorate in Agricultural Economics from Aleppo University.

Ya’rub Badr, an Alawite, was named Minister of Transport. Born in 1959, he earned a doctorate in Transportation Sciences from Paris and served as the Regional Advisor for Transport and Logistics at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). He also served as Syria’s Minister of Transport from 2006 to 2011.

Despite the inclusion of some ministers from different backgrounds, the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) on Sunday criticized Syria’s newly-formed government for “allowing a single faction to maintain control,” saying that the country’s ethnic and religious groups were neither involved in nor consulted in the distribution of ministerial portfolios.

The Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES) warned that any government that does not represent Syria’s plurality will not be able to properly manage the country, stressing that it will not adhere to the decisions of the newly-appointed government.

OTHER MINISTRIES
The remaining ministers appointed are as follows:

Minister of Communications Abdul Salam Haykal holds a degree in Political Science and International Relations from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Minister of Information Hamza al-Mustafa, born in 1985, holds a degree in political science. He was notably dismissed from his Master’s program in Syria during the Assad era over his support for the Syrian uprising. He later earned a master's degree from the Doha Institute and a doctorate in social science from the University of Exeter

Minister of Education Marwan al-Halabi, born in 1964, specializes in Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Surgery and has earned postgraduate diplomas from universities in France. A professor at Damascus University, he served as Head of the Department of Anatomy and Editor-in-Chief of the Damascus University Journal for Medical Sciences.

Minister of Tourism Mazen al-Salihani, born in 1979, holds postgraduate degrees in Business Administration and Project Management and has led major hotel and resort developments in the Middle East, including in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

Minister of Energy Mohammad al-Bashir, born in 1983, holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Aleppo University and a Master’s in Sharia and Law from Idlib University. He worked at the Syrian Gas Company before joining the revolution in 2011. He served as Prime Minister in the Syrian Salvation Government and later in the interim government.

Minister of Economy Mohammad al-Shaar has worked in financial regulation and international banking and has taught economics at George Washington University.

Minister of Local Administration and Environment Mohammad Anjarani, born in 1992, is a mechanical engineering graduate. He joined the Syrian uprising upon its debut and was arrested in 2011. He later held key administrative positions in the Syrian Salvation Government.

Minister of Finance Mohammad Barniyeh, born in 1967, is a graduate of Damascus University’s Faculty of Economics. He pursued further studies in the US at Kansas State and Oklahoma State universities. He trained at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and worked as an economist at the Arab Monetary Fund.

Minister of Sports Mohammad Hamoud, born in 1976, previously led the national basketball team to the Asian Cup qualifiers. He also worked in developing sports infrastructure in Idlib.

Minister of Culture Mohammad Saleh, born in 1985, studied Linguistics at London Metropolitan University and earned a master’s in translation from Westminster University. He worked in journalism, including at Qatar’s al-Jazeera Network.

Minister of Religious Endowments Mohammad Shukri, born in 1961, holds a doctorate in Sharia and Law from Beirut. He served as a preacher at Imam al-Shafi’i Mosque in Damascus.

Minister of Administrative Development Mohammad Skaf, born in 1990, holds a Master’s in Administration and a degree in Applied Mathematics. He has worked in public administration and budget management in northern Syria.

Minister of Health Musab al-Ali, born in 1985, is a graduate of Homs University’s Faculty of Medicine. He specialized in neurosurgery at Aleppo University before working in Germany. He is currently a consultant neurosurgeon.

Minister of Public Works and Housing Mustafa Abdulrazzaq, born in 1989, is a civil engineering graduate. He has worked in public administration and infrastructure projects in northern Syria.

Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh, born in 1984, has a background in business administration. He played a leading role in founding the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) and has represented the organization at major international forums, including the UN Security Council.

THE PREMIER
While heads of ministries have been named, a prime minister has not been appointed as Sharaa is expected to lead the executive branch.

In mid-March, Sharaa signed a 53-article constitutional declaration that centers on Islamic jurisprudence, which stipulates that the country’s president must be a Muslim and sets a five-year transitional period for the country. It also maintains the name of the country as the Syrian “Arab” Republic.

The interim constitution further grants Sharaa exclusive executive power, authority to appoint one-third of the legislature, and the ability to appoint judges to the constitutional court, the body responsible for holding him accountable.

The constitutional declaration has been criticized by Kurds, Christians, and Druze in Syria for consolidating power in Sharaa’s hands and not reflecting the diverse aspirations of the Syrian people. These communities have urged amendments to the interim constitution, warning that they would not participate in the new government without them.

Rojava says won’t implement decisions of new ‘exclusionary’ government in Syria

[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) on Sunday criticized Syria’s newly-formed interim government as “exclusionary” and “failing” to uphold diversity, stressing that they would not abide by its decisions.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday announced his new 23-minister cabinet, which includes ministers from his former government.

The Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES) on Sunday rejected the new cabinet, claiming that it “resembled its [caretaker] predecessor in failing to take Syria's diversity into consideration and allowing a single faction to maintain control.” It warned that any government that does not represent Syria’s plurality will not be able to properly manage the country and pull it out of its crisis.

The DAANES further noted that they will not adhere to the decisions of the new government in Damascus.

“We will not be concerned with implementing and executing decisions issued by it, as this insistence on repeating past mistakes will harm Syrians and will never launch a comprehensive political process that can provide solutions to the pending issues, problems, and crises Syria is experiencing,” their statement read.

The Kurdish-led administration has previously criticized other actions taken by the interim government in Damascus, accusing it of marginalizing Kurds and other minorities.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria swears in new transitional government four months after ousting Assad
2025-03-30
[IsraelTimes] Members of minority groups including a Christian woman, a Kurd, and and an Alawite given cabinet positions as Damascus aims to convince West to lift crippling sanctions

Syria’s new transitional government was sworn in Saturday, nearly four months after the Assad family was removed from power and as the new authorities in Damascus work to bring back stability to the war-torn country.

The 23-member Cabinet, which is religiously and ethnically mixed, is the first in the country’s five-year transitional period and replaces the interim government that was formed shortly after Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now...
 was removed from power in early December.

The Cabinet does not have a prime minister since, according to the temporary constitution signed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa earlier this month, the government will have a secretary general.

The government includes new faces apart from the ministers of foreign affairs and defense, who have been kept in the posts they held in the interim government. Syria’s new Interior Minister Anas Khattab was until recently the head of the intelligence department.

"The formation of a new government today is a declaration of our joint will to build a new state," Sharaa said in a speech marking the formation of the government.

Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said his main goal will be to build a professional army "from the people and for the people."

The government did not include members of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces or the autonomous civil administration in northeast Syria. Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi signed a breakthrough deal earlier this month in Damascus on a nationwide ceasefire and the merging of the US-backed force into the Syrian army.

Among those whose names were announced late Saturday night was Hind Kabawat, who became the first woman appointed to the new government.

Kabawat, a Christian activist and vocal opponent of Assad since the start of the civil war in 2011, was named minister of minister of social affairs and labor.

Raed Saleh, who for years headed the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, was named minister for emergency disasters, and Damascus-based Syrian Kurd Mohammed Terko was named minister of education.

Mohammed al-Bashir, who has headed Syria’s interim government since Assad’s fall, was named minister of energy. He will mainly be tasked with restoring the electricity and oil sectors that were badly damaged during the 14-year civil war.

The new government’s main mission is to try and bring a decisive end to the war and bring stability to the country, which witnessed festivities and Dire Revenge killings earlier this month along the coastal region that is home to members of the minority Alawite sect, to which Assad belongs. The violence left more than 1,000 people, mostly Alawites, dead.

Most of Syria’s bad boy groups now running the country are Sunni Moslems, but the presence of members of minority sects including an Alawite, as well as a woman, is a message from Sharaa to Western countries that have been demanding that women and minorities be part of Syria’s political process.

The announcement of a religiously mixed government aims to try to convince Western countries to lift crippling economic sanctions that were imposed on Assad more than a decade ago. The UN says that 90% of Syrians are below the poverty line, while millions face cuts in food aid as a result of the war.

Hours before the government was announced, the US State Department cautioned US citizens of the increased possibility of attacks during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which it said could target embassies, international organizations and Syrian public institutions in Damascus. It added that methods of attack could include, but are not limited to, individual attackers, armed button men, or the use of bombs.
Rudaw has more names:
  • Anas Khattab - Minister of Interior,

  • Asaad al-Shaibani - Minister of Foreign Affairs,

  • Murhaf Abu Qasra - Minister of Defense,

  • Marwan al-Halabi - Minister of Higher Education,

  • Hind Kabawat - Minister of Social Affairs,

  • Mazhar al-Wais - Minister of Justice,

  • Mohammed al-Bashir - Minister of Energy.
Link


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.”
Link


International-UN-NGOs
ICC cancels warrant for Hamas military leader Deif, weeks after group confirms death
2025-02-27
[IsraelTimes] Court says ‘sufficient and reliable information’ that Muhammad Deif was killed last July, will reissue warrant ‘should information become available that Mr. Deif is still alive’.

The International Criminal Court on Wednesday scrapped an arrest warrant issued against Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
’s late military chief Muhammad Deif, who was killed in an Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
 last year.

The decision by The Hague-based court came after prosecutors earlier this month told its judges they had "sufficient and reliable information" that Deif was killed last July 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...
"As a result, the Chamber decides to terminate the proceedings against Mr Deif and renders the arrest warrant... against him without effect," presiding judge Nicolas Guillou said in a written decision.

Hamas did not confirm Deif’s death until late last month when the group issued a statement announcing the "martyrdom" of the shadowy leader.
"He's always smelled like that"
Judge Guillou added the order was "without prejudice to pursuing again, should information become available that Mr. Deif is still alive."

Hamas did not officially confirm Deif’s death until last month, more than six months after his killing in a July 13, 2024 airstrike, with the terror group previously denying he had been killed.

Deif, along with Hamas’s Gaza leader Sinwar, was an architect of Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel, when thousands of bully boyz broke through the border and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while taking 251 people hostage to Gaza.

He had topped Israel’s most-wanted list since 1995 for his involvement in the planning and execution of a large number of terror attacks, including many bus bombings in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Until the July strike, Deif had survived seven Israeli attempts on his life over the years, some of which had maimed him.

Despite the IDF announcing that it had killed Deif in August, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for him on November 21 along with warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

The ICC listed the charges against Deif as crimes against humanity of murder, extermination, torture and sexual violence as well as war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture, hostage-taking, outrages upon personal dignity and sexual violence.

Netanyahu and Gallant were both charged with war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally targeting a civilian population, and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts during the war in Gaza.

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 were 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 ICC was established in 2002 as the permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression.

The court’s 125 member states include Paleostine, Ukraine, Canada, and every country in the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, but dozens of countries don’t accept the court’s jurisdiction, including Israel, the United States, Russia, and China.
Related:
Muhammad Deif 02/25/2025 German election winner says he’ll ensure Netanyahu can visit despite ICC warrant
Muhammad Deif 02/14/2025 US bars entry to ICC chief over arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant
Muhammad Deif 02/08/2025 Slain Hamas deputy chief Marwan Issa given Gaza burial

Related:
International Criminal Court: 2025-02-25 German election winner says he’ll ensure Netanyahu can visit despite ICC warrant
International Criminal Court: 2025-02-24 New study: There was no famine in Gaza… according to famine review groups’ own data
International Criminal Court: 2025-02-20 Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: February 19, 2024
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hostages Sagui Dekel-Chen, Sasha Troufanov and Iair Horn slated for release on Saturday, to be traded for 369 Paleo jailbirds; PIJ shares video of Troufanov
2025-02-15
[IsraelTimes] Dekel-Chen to meet his daughter for first time; Horn’s brother, kidnapped while visiting for Simchat Torah, not on list for 1st phase

The Prime Minister’s Office announced on Friday that it had received the names of three male hostages — Sagui Dekel Chen, Sasha Troufanov and Iair Horn — slated for release from captivity 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...
 on Saturday, as part of the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange under the ongoing ceasefire agreement with the Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...
 terror group.

Hamas notified Israel of the identities of the three hostages set to be released via Egyptian and 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...
i mediators, having backed down on Thursday from a threat to delay the next release of captives. Hamas had accused Israel earlier in the week of failing to meet its aid obligations under the truce. Israel had rejected the charge and threatened to resume the war.

In a statement welcoming the announcement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum noted the "shocking footage of hostage survivors" released last week and "the latest signs of life" that relatives of captives still held in Gaza have received recently from Israelis freed under the truce deal.

"We must reach a comprehensive and immediate agreement, without gaps or delays, to return all hostages — the living for rehabilitation and the dear departed for proper burial," the forum said in a statement.

Israel had in recent days appeared to endorse US President Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
’s demand that all hostages be freed promptly, rather than just the three set for the next release, but was vague on the matter.

Jerusalem is reportedly still pushing for further live hostages to be released in the upcoming days, but a senior Arab official told The Times of Israel on Thursday that it was unlikely the terror group would deviate from the original timeframe of the agreement.

Three hostages released by Hamas last weekend — Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami — came back gaunt, malnourished and suffering from serious health issues.

The release of the next three hostages, who were all kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, was expected to begin on Saturday morning, though the timing had not been confirmed as of Friday night.

TROUFANOV WAS ABDUCTED WITH HIS FAMILY, HIS FATHER WAS KILLED
Russian-Israeli citizen Troufanov, 29, was taken hostage along with three members of his family — grandmother Irena Tati, mother Yelena (Lena) and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen — from their home in the Gaza border community. His father Vitaly Troufanov was killed during the onslaught.

Hamas released the three women in November 2023 as part of a week-long truce.

Yelena Troufanov arrived on Friday at the site where she will be reunited with her son. She became observant over the past year, and came to the location near the Gaza border a day early to avoid traveling on the Sabbath.

"I ask you all to light Shabbat candles with joy," she said in footage posted to social media. "Make a wish that all our hostages come home soon, and that there will be peace, quiet and calm in the land of Israel for the nation of Israel."

According to a biography released by his family, Sasha Troufanov works as an engineer in Amazon’s cloud division. His family immigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union 25 years ago.

Moscow has pushed for Troufanov’s release multiple times since he was kidnapped, including since the January ceasefire was announced.

The Russian-Israeli is being held by the 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...
 terror group, which indicated it had agreed to the release.

Sapir Cohen recounted seeing armed holy warriors seize a bleeding Sasha on October 7, whose last words to her were "No, no." In May 2024, Paleostinian Islamic Jihad released a video of Sasha, followed by another in November 2024, after his second birthday in captivity.

Another propaganda video was released on Friday night which showed Troufanov walking on the coast of the Gaza Strip, as well as fishing. He is also seen writing a note, apparently thanking his captors, something Hamas and Islamic Jihad have forced hostages to do before releasing them. The Troufanov family asked Israeli media not to publish the video or stills from it.

The last two Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza by the PIJ, Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Mozes, were handed over to the Red Thingy in an uncontrolled and dangerous event outside the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, surrounded by hundreds of masked button men and large, seething crowds.

Israel has warned strongly against such an event recurring.

Hebrew media reported that the three men were expected to be handed over in at least two different locations on Saturday — Troufanov from Khan Younis and Dekel-Chen and Horn, who are being held by Hamas, from one or two other locations in Gaza.

DEKEL-CHEN CONFRONTED THE TERRORISTS
US-Israeli citizen Dekel-Chen, 36, saw Hamas-led title='terrorists '>holy warriors entering Nir Oz and was among the first to raise the alarm. He was last heard from at 9:30 a.m. on October 7, 2023, according to his father, Connecticut-born Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a Hebrew University professor who also lives at Nir Oz.

Sagui was working in the kibbutz’s machine shop when the attack began, his family said. After ensuring his wife and children was safely in their home’s secure room, he confronted the holy warriors and was taken captive.

Sagui’s mother, Neomit, was taken captive along with her neighbors in an electric cart that was headed toward Gaza when an IDF helicopter shot at the holy warriors and driver. Neomit, injured, made her way back toward the kibbutz, and was eventually rescued and evacuated.

His then-pregnant wife Avital and two young daughters also survived the massacre in Nir Oz. His third daughter, Shachar, born two months later, celebrated her first birthday in December without her father.

"There’s no way for us to know if he’s even aware that his wife and two — now three — daughters survived the massacre at Nir Oz," the hostage’s father told The Times last month. "I think that alone must be torture."

According to a biography provided by his family, Sagui is a social and business entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of the Bikurim Youth Village and an avid tennis player. Friends and family know him as creative, honest, and humble.

IAIR HORN, ABDUCTED ALONG WITH HIS BROTHER
Argentinian-Israel citizen Horn, 46, was also kidnapped from his home on October 7, as Hamas holy warriors swarmed through the kibbutz, killing or kidnapping a quarter of the southern community’s residents.

His younger brother, Eitan Horn, 38, who was visiting from Kfar Saba for the holiday weekend, was also kidnapped and is still held in Gaza. He is not on the list of "humanitarian" cases — women, children, elderly individuals and the infirm — slated for release in the first stage of the ceasefire.

According to a biography provided by his family, Iair is known for organizing Purim parties and managing the kibbutz pub, and is an avid fan of Hapoel Beersheba football club. Friends and family describe him as someone who loves life and is deeply connected to his family and kibbutz community.

Following the announcement of the three civilian hostages set to be freed, the Hamas prisoners’ media office said Israel would release 369 Paleostinian prisoners on Saturday as part of the exchange, including 36 serving life sentences.

The remaining 333 prisoners slated were detained in Gaza after October 7, over the course of the war.

As of Friday, under the terms of the ceasefire that went into effect last month, 17 hostages are still slated to be released under the deal’s first stage, nine of whom are believed to still be alive.

Recent weeks have seen the terror group release 16 Israelis and five Thai hostages under the arrangement, which also requires Israel to free some 2,000 Paleostinian security prisoners, including hundreds of holy warriors serving life sentences and lengthy terms for attacks.

But serious doubts remain over subsequent stages of the deal, which have yet to be negotiated.

Seventy-three of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

369 Palestinian detainees to be released today, including Ahmed Barghouti, serving 13 life terms for deadly Second Intifada terrorism
[IsraelTimes] The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group says Israel will today release 369 Palestinian inmates in exchange for hostages Sasha Troufanov, Iair Horn and Sagui Dekel-Chen, with 24 of them expected to be deported.

The vast majority, 333 people, are “prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after October 7,” the group says.

Among the most prominent of those set to be released is Ahmed Barghouti, 48, a close aide of Fatah chief and Second Intifada terror leader Marwan Barghouti, who was arrested alongside Marwan Barghouti in 2002.

Ahmed Barghouti has been serving 13 life sentences for carrying out a series of terror attacks during the Second Intifada that killed 12 Israelis. He is reportedly set to be deported abroad via Egypt.

Islamic Jihad releases propaganda video of Sasha Troufanov receiving ‘release’ papers
[IsraelTimes] The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has released another propaganda video of Sasha Troufanov ahead of his release this morning.

The video shows Islamic Jihad terror operatives handing Troufanov a document with the “decision to release him.”

Troufanov is seen being held in a tunnel in the video.

Troufanov’s family has requested that media outlets not publish the video or stills from it.

Islamic Jihad has issued multiple videos of Troufanov during his captivity, including one last night showing him walking on Gaza’s coast.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Slain Hamas deputy chief Marwan Issa given Gaza burial
2025-02-08
[IsraelTimes] Issa was killed by Israel in March 2024; one terror operative says: ‘Do not think the resistance has ended with the assassination of the great leader’

Hundreds of Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
 operatives and onlookers gathered 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’s Bureij camp on Friday for the funeral of Marwan Issa, the slain deputy leader of the terror group’s armed wing.

Brandishing assault rifles, fighters from the group’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades packed the narrow streets of the central Gaza camp for the funerary procession. Their eyes were the only visible feature behind black masks.

The Israeli military said it killed Issa in a March 2024 Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
. Hamas only confirmed his death on January 30 amid an ongoing ceasefire with Israel in Gaza.

The group also announced the death of Hamas military chief Muhammad Deif, whom Israel said it had killed in a July 2024 airstrike, as well as several other fighters and commanders.

Issa’s coffin, draped in the green Hamas flags and adorned with pictures of the slain deputy, was carried aloft by operatives during the procession. Friday prayers before the burial were held in a sports stadium in the camp.

"Do not think that the resistance has ended with the liquidation of the great leader Marwan Issa," said an operative from the 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...
 terror group, whose members were also out in force at the funeral.

"We have many resistance fighters and heroes, and we are constantly preparing for you," he added.

Israel accused Issa of being one of the organizers of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which started the Gaza war. On that day, thousands of marauding turbans swept across the border and attacked numerous Israeli communities and bases, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 to Gaza.

Israel also targeted the heads of Hamas during the war. 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...
 was assassinated in Tehran in July 2024, with Jerusalem taking responsibility in December, while Yahya Sinwar was killed by troops in Gaza in October 2024.
Related:
Bureij camp: 2024-11-18 3 soldiers killed in northern Gaza Strip; hostage holders said incommunicado
Bureij camp: 2024-06-21 Three Palestinians killed, dozens injured as Israeli forces pound Gaza neighbourhoods
Bureij camp: 2024-01-08 Another busy day for the IDF in Gaza as attention moves to center and south
Related:
Marwan Issa 01/31/2025 Six months later, Hamas officially admits Muhammad Deif killed by Israel

Marwan Issa 12/02/2024 Hezbollah killed his son. Now he’s suing Iran for him – and 46 other American victims
Marwan Issa 10/13/2024 Reports: Hamas delayed Oct. 7 attack to enlist Iran, Hezbollah; plotted 9/11-style bombing

Link



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