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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza reports American company’s distribution complex destroyed, food packages looted; Gaza was overexcited — distribution quickly recommenced, 95 aid trucks entered Strip
2025-05-28
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Gazans overrun Strip’s new aid center; operator says distribution has resumed - over 400,000 meals thus far
[IsraelTimes] IDF confirms it fired shots into air, not at center itself; US-backed aid group says centers have given out 8,000 food boxes; UN says mechanism far from reaching aid targets

Thousands of Paleostinians on Tuesday overran one of the newly established aid distribution sites in southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
’s Rafah, only hours after the military announced the new aid mechanism, backed by Israel and the United States, began operating for the first time.

Footage posted to social media showed crowds surging into the area and taking boxes of food.

The IDF, which secures the area around the facility, confirmed that troops fired warning shots outside the compound, but denied reports claiming it opened fire from a helicopter or towards the center itself.

A military source said an Israeli Air Force helicopter was operating over the sea at the time of the incident, but not anywhere close to the distribution site.

Asked about the overrun of one of GHF’s Rafah distribution sites by thousands of Palestinians on Tuesday, the US official downplays the incident, insisting that it lasted 20 minutes.
"Control over the situation was established, food distribution operations are expected to continue as planned, and the safety of IDF troops was not compromised," the military added.

According to Paleostinian reports, the American security personnel charged with securing the area expeditiously departed at a goodly pace. There were no reports of casualties in the incident.

The newly created Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sought to downplay the incident, saying that its American security subcontractors fell back in order to allow "a small number" of people to take food.

"The needs on the ground are great. At one moment in the late afternoon, the volume of people at the SDS was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazooks to take aid safely and dissipate," GHF said in a statement.

Before the break-in, GHF said that "approximately 8,000 food boxes have been distributed so far. Each box feeds 5.5 people for 3.5 days, totaling 462,000 meals."

GHF claimed its operations have returned to normal.

The military announced earlier that two out of four of the recently established sites began operating for the first time, initially delivering food packages to thousands of Paleostinian families.

However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
 an Israeli security official also tried to downplay the incident, telling the Ynet site that none of the aid had been looted.

The newly opened aid centers are operated by the GHF, an American organization that is backed by Israel, designed to bypass the UN and traditional aid agencies in a bid to keep the supplies away from Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
The UN and other international organizations withheld much-needed backing of the GHF, arguing that its aid initiative violates humanitarian principles by requiring Gazooks to walk long distances in order to receive aid and limiting distribution to southern Gaza, a move that would forcibly displace the Paleostinian population.

Footage purportedly shows thousands of Paleostinians overrunning one of the aid distribution sites in southern Gaza's Rafah a short while ago.

Three of the distribution sites are located in the Tel Sultan area of southern Gaza’s Rafah, while the fourth is in the Netzarim Corridor area, south of Gaza City. The two sites that began operations on Tuesday are in Rafah.

"The establishment of the distribution centers took place over the last few months, facilitated by the Israeli political echelon and in coordination with the US government," the IDF said in its first official comment on the aid sites.

"This process coincided with an ongoing dialogue and cooperation with the IDF, through the Southern Command and COGAT, as well as international aid organizations, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and the American civilian security company," it said.

The IDF said it will "continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip, while making every possible effort to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of the Hamas terrorist organization."

Images showed aid boxes included bags of rice and dried beans, as well as flour, oil, salt, and canned vegetables, many of them in Israeli packaging.

"I am so scared because they said the company belongs to Israel and is a mercenary, and also because the resistance [Hamas] said not to go," he said in a message on the chat app WhatsApp.
Even before the chaos on Tuesday, Paleostinians voiced wariness over the new program.

"As much as I want to go because I am hungry and my children are hungry, I am afraid," said Abu Ahmed, 55, a father of seven. "I am so scared because they said the company belongs to Israel and is a mercenary, and also because the resistance [Hamas] said not to go," he said in a message on the chat app WhatsApp.

Hamas, which has in recent months faced protests by many Paleostinians who want the devastating war to end, has warned residents against accessing GHF sites, saying Israel was using the company to collect intelligence information.

"Do not go to Rafah... Do not fall into the trap... Do not risk your lives. Your homes are your fortress. Staying in your neighborhoods is survival, and awareness is your protection," a statement published by the Hamas-linked Home Front said.

"These schemes will be broken by the steadfastness of a people who do not know defeat," it added.

"Before the war, my fridge used to be full of meat, chicken, dairy, soft drinks, everything, and now I am begging for a loaf of bread," Abu Ahmed told Rooters via a chat app.

As the mechanism began operations, Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), said the GHF was a distraction from what is needed, such as the opening of crossing points.

Additionally, Juliette Touma, communications director of the UN Paleostinian refugee agency, said the UN does not know what is being distributed.

"We don’t have any information," she said. "We know what’s needed, we know what’s missing, and we are very, very far from that daily target."

Senior US official hails GHF, blasts UN for refusing to get behind aid distribution effort
[IsraelTimes] The Trump administration hails the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, while blasting the UN for refusing to cooperate with the group’s new aid distribution initiative, hours after thousands of Palestinians overran one of its sites in Rafah.

“Aid is getting to the people in need, and through their secure distribution system, Israel is kept safe and Hamas empty handed,” says a statement to reporters attributed to a senior administration official.

The official appears to cite GHF’s figures, stating that roughly 8,000 boxes of food have been distributed in the foundation’s first two days of operation, with each box feeding 5.5 people for 3.5 days, totaling 462,000 meals.

The Trump official says GHF is managing to operate in Gaza, despite attempts by Hamas to place blockades on aid trucks. “GHF is a threat to Hamas’s longstanding system of looting the assistance intended for the people of Gaza.”

“The UN and other aid agencies were wrong to criticize,” the senior Trump administration official says, making no mention of Tuesday’s mass-looting incident in one of the two distribution sites GHF has begun to operate. “These organizations echoed Hamas talking points rather than praising those who are delivering results.”

While GHF was only registered this year, the Trump official says the project was born during the Biden administration but was dropped due to “bureaucratic incompetence.”

The Trump administration was impressed by the idea, though, and got behind it. “We support bold, out-of-the-box efforts to make life better for Gazans. GHF is doing exactly that. And we’re proud to back their incredible mission,” the official says.

US will renew push for countries to fund GHF once it demonstrates results — official
[IsraelTimes] The Trump administration plans to renew its push for countries and international organizations to fund the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation once its new aid distribution initiative proves to be a success, a US official tells The Times of Israel. The US official acknowledges that European countries and other nations approached earlier this month about backing GHF did not respond “favorably.”

“Countries are used to doing what they have always done,” the US official says.

However, the US official is unfazed by the initial negative response from countries, who have refrained from bankrolling GHF to date.

“The United States is a leader in innovation and once GHF works, others will want to share in its success,” the official adds.

Asked about the overrun of one of GHF’s Rafah distribution sites by thousands of Palestinians on Tuesday, the US official downplays the incident, insisting that it lasted 20 minutes and that over 400,000 meals were fed as a result of the foundation’s work.
Twenty minutes? Golly.

Israel says 95 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Tuesday
[IsraelTimes] The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announces that 95 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip today.

Israel resumed aid deliveries to Gaza last week, after a pause since March 2. Since then, 755 trucks of aid have entered the Strip.

Today’s trucks include food, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs, COGAT says.

The aid underwent an inspection first by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Earlier, COGAT said some 400 truckloads of aid were awaiting collection on the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza round-up: Over 200 Hamas positions were destroyed in the last 48 hours
2025-05-27
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Families massacred in their sleep as Israel bombs Gaza school
[NEWARAB] The Israeli military massacred at least 33 people and injured more than 55 others on Saturday when it struck a school sheltering displaced families 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...
 City.
It’s a Hamas command-and-control center with built in human shield, and Hamas is delighted at the propaganda-worthy number of dead bodies.
The Fahmi al-Jarjawi School, located in the al-Daraj neighbourhood, had been repurposed as a refuge for people forced from their homes by Israel's months-long assault. Many of the victims were burned alive as they slept.
The IDF warned everyone to leave the area, as it was going to be hit, but they chose to stay — or perhaps Hamas held them there at gunpoint, that part is not quite clear.
. The Israeli army claimed the school was being used by bully boyz to plan attacks on Israeli forces and civilians, but it has provided no evidence. Eyewitnesses and local sources confirmed the building was functioning solely as a shelter with no murderous Moslem presence.

The latest massacre has deepened the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where UN agencies say shelters are dangerously overcrowded and no area is safe from Israeli fire.

According to the Education Cluster, 88 percent of Gaza's school buildings, 496 out of 564, have been hit or damaged by Israeli attacks since 2023, including 275 government schools, 161 UNRWA schools, and 57 private schools. These strikes have killed and maimed thousands.
Hamas clearly needs a great many command
and control centers.

Death toll in Israeli strike on Gaza school-turned-shelter reaches 36, Hamas-run authorities say
[IsraelTimes] The death toll in an Israeli strike on a Gaza City school-turned-shelter has risen to 36, Hamas-run authorities say.

The Israel Defense Forces said the early-morning strike on the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi school targeted “key terrorists” in a command center.

The strike apparently sparked a number of blazes.

IDF reissues wide evacuation warning for entire Rafah, Khan Younis area in south Gaza

IDF says over 200 strikes carried out in Gaza over past 48 hours; terror operatives, weapons depots targeted
[IsraelTimes] The Israeli Air Force carried out over 200 strikes in the Gaza Strip over the past 48 hours, the military says.

The IDF says the targets included terror operatives, weapon depots, anti-tank and sniper positions, tunnel shafts, and other infrastructure.

In southern Gaza, the military says troops struck a building used by Hamas as a weapons depot, an observation post, and another structure used by the terror group. Troops also directed drone strikes on several operatives spotted in buildings near the forces, the IDF says.

In northern Gaza, the IDF says a strike carried out by a fighter jet destroyed a building where members of Hamas’s Nukhba force were operating.

IDF says 3 rockets fired from Gaza; 2 fall short in Strip, 3rd is intercepted before crossing border
[IsraelTimes] Three rockets were launched from the southern Gaza Strip a short while ago, the military says.

The IDF says two of the projectiles fell short in Gaza, and the third was intercepted by air defenses before crossing the border.

Sirens did not sound in any border communities amid the attack.

There are no reports of injuries in Gaza from either the two projectiles that fell short or the interception.

IDF: ‘Key terrorists’ targeted in strike on Gaza school-turned-shelter; 25 said killed
[IsraelTimes] The Israeli military says it carried out a strike overnight against “key terrorists” who were embedded within a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood.

According to Palestinian media, at least 25 people, including children, were killed in the strike on the Al-Jarjawi School.

The IDF says that the school was being used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as a command center.

“The command and control center was used by the terrorists to plan and gather intelligence in order to carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops in the area,” the military says.

The military says it took “many steps” to mitigate civilian harm, including by using a precision munition, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.

IDF says troops killed Gaza terror operatives who fired mortars at them
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says it “eliminated” a cell of terror operatives that launched several mortars at troops during operations in the northern Gaza Strip today.

According to the military, several mortars were fired at troops of the 401st Armored Brigade, without causing any injuries. After just one minute, the troops identified the cell behind the attack, which had withdrawn to a building.

The troops then called in an airstrike on the building, killing the members of the cell, the IDF adds.

IDF division completes Rafah operations, pushes into Khan Younis in new offensive
[IsraelTimes] The IDF’s 36th Division is advancing in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis as part of a new offensive against Hamas, the military announces.

In a statement, the IDF says the division recently completed its operations in Rafah, and is now pushing into new areas in Khan Younis.

The division has established the so-called Morag Corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis in recent weeks.

In the past week, the IDF says the division’s forces killed dozens of terror operatives and destroyed hundreds of infrastructures, including observation posts and tunnels.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Ex-hostage says Hamas captors sprayed him in the face with pest spray, intentionally starved him
2025-05-26
[IsraelTimes] Freed hostage Omer Wenkert recalls the conditions of his captivity in Hamas’s tunnels worsening with the Israeli offensive on Rafah, in southern Gaza, in May 2024.

“They intentionally starved me,” he tells the Bar Association conference, adding that he was fed half a pita a day for two or three weeks.

“Around the entry to Rafah, [there was] intentional starvation, and intentional abuse,” he says. “They did things that seriously endangered my life, for fun.”

“One of them brought insect repellent, stood me up at the end of the corridor, and sprayed me in the face, with my eyes open,” Wenkert recalls, adding that his captor ensured everything the captive would touch was also sprayed.

“He also decided to hit me with an iron rod,” he adds.

Wenkert says he was alone for six and a half months, saying his captors would “approach me once in a while.”

He says that around the 80th day of his captivity, he was moved from one underground corridor to another, which he describes as “a dark room with a little lamp.”

“They tried to drive me crazy — to damage my sense of time,” he says. “When they put down food for me, they told me to turn around, so they could leave. Bathing was once in 50 days, with a little bottle. Only after nine and a half months did I bathe for real.”

The tunnel he was kept in for most of his captivity was “about 90 centimeters (35 inches) wide, and about 9-10 meters (29-32 feet) long,” with a hole as a bathroom, he recalls.

“I was on a small mattress, with my back against the wall. I was there for 420 days, I think,” he says.

On June 13, 2024, his captors brought fellow hostages Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal to the same corridor in which Wenkert was kept. They are both still held in Hamas captivity, 597 days since their abduction on October 7, 2023.

“My mental situation settled down [with their arrival], but it became more crowded; we split food and water, the physical conditions worsened — but the abuse stopped,” Wenkert says.

Wenkert was released on February 22, 2025, after 505 days in Hamas captivity, as part of a hostage release, ceasefire, and prisoner release deal between Israel and the terror group that ultimately collapsed after its first phase.

IDF strikes on Hamas compound nearly killed Edan Alexander in captivity, dad reveals

[IsraelTimes] Less than a month before he was eventually released, bombing caved in tunnel where US-Israeli citizen was held, injuring him, though he managed to dig himself out, father says
Related:
Omer Wenkert 03/16/2025 ‘Hamas never stopped digging’: Ex-hostage warns tunnel network under Gaza still growing
Omer Wenkert 03/12/2025 Freed hostage Omer Wenkert says he always knew when truce talks failed because captors would take it out on him
Omer Wenkert 02/26/2025 Released hostage says Ben Gvir’s comments worsened conditions in captivity

Related:
Edan Alexander 05/21/2025 Israel will seize more of Gaza if Hamas doesn’t free hostages, IDF chief warns
Edan Alexander 05/21/2025 PM recalls top members of Doha negotiating team, citing ‘Hamas refusal’ of hostage deal
Edan Alexander 05/21/2025 US says it wants Gaza war to end, but denies threatening Israel if it doesn’t comply

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas authorities say at least 23 killed in strikes across Gaza; IDF doesn’t comment
2025-05-26
[IsraelTimes] Medics say local journalist, senior rescue service official and a pregnant woman among dead; army says soldier seriously injured in altercation with a comrade in north Gaza

Israeli military strikes killed at least 23 Paleostinians across 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 on Sunday, including a journalist, a pregnant woman, and a senior rescue service official, according to local Hamas
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
-controlled health authorities. The Israel Defense Forces did not comment on any of the strikes.

The latest deaths in the campaign resulted from separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north, and Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

Israel has stepped up its air campaign in Gaza in recent days, saying on Saturday that it struck 100 targets across the territory, targeting terror operatives and sites. The military says it takes steps to minimize harm to civilians, while noting that terror groups operate from within Gaza’s civilian population.

In Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, a strike hit a tent housing displaced people, killing a mother, her two children and another relative, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Civil defense front man Mahmud Bassal said five people were killed in a strike on a home in Jabalia, in the north.

He added some people were still under the debris, as "the civil defense does not have search equipment or heavy equipment to lift the rubble to rescue the maimed and recover the deaders."

Also in Jabalia, local journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda and several family members were killed by an Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
 that hit his house earlier in the day, according to the Hamas-run civil defense agency.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, Abu Warda’s death raised the number of Paleostinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, to 220. Israel has repeatedly alleged that journalists killed in strikes were actually terror operatives who posed as news hounds; it maintains that Hamas uses hospitals, schools, shelters, and aid infrastructure as cover for terror activities.
Given that the IDF collected Hamas’s HR file cabinet contents ages ago, if they say so it’s because they have proof.
Two more people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in an attack targeting tents that sheltered displaced people around Nuseirat in central Gaza, Bassal added.

Also in Nuseirat, medics said that an airstrike killed Ashraf Abu Nar, a senior official in the territory’s civil emergency service, and his wife in their home.

The Israeli military did not respond to request for comment on any of the airstrikes in Gaza on Sunday, but did say that a recent strike in the Strip killed a Hamas terrorist who infiltrated Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught. The IDF said Ahmad Osama Hassan Al-Lahouni, who served in Hamas’s naval commando unit, was killed in a strike carried out jointly by the Southern Command, Israeli Air Force, Intelligence Directorate, Navy, and Shin Bet. Lahouni had infiltrated the Kerem Shalom area on October 7, according to the IDF.

ATTEMPTS TO LOOT HUMANITARIAN AID TRUCK IN GAZA
Later on Sunday, media outlets in Gaza published footage showing dozens of people attempting to loot a truck carrying humanitarian aid in downtown Gaza City.

The video showed crowds trying to unload aid from the vehicle before gunfire is heard, prompting the crowd to disperse. Whether the truck ultimately reached its intended destination or was looted remains unclear.

A similar incident was reported Saturday in Khan Younis, where, according to reports, dozens of people surrounded another aid truck and took its contents.

On Saturday, a UAE-affiliated aid organization announced that of the 24 trucks it had sent into Gaza in recent days carrying humanitarian supplies — primarily flour and baking materials — 23 were stolen and never reached their intended destinations, such as bakeries or storage warehouses in the Strip.

The armed wing of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in separate statements Sunday that fighters carried out several ambushes and attacks using bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces operating in several areas across Gaza. The military did not refer to any such incidents.

The military has stepped up its Gaza operations in recent days in what it has described as a renewed push to destroy Hamas, calling for the evacuation of civilians from large swaths of the enclave, including the entire city of Khan Younis in the southern Strip.

Gaza’s health ministry said Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in the territory since the latest ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,939 — a figure that cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 420.

Red Cross says 2 of its members killed in strike on Gaza home
How close to 100% probability that both were also middle management on the Hamas payroll? And that they were doing something warlike at the time they were airstruck?
[IsraelTimes] The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announces that two of its staff members, Ibrahim Eid and Ahmad Abu Hilal, were killed in a strike on their home in Khan Younis yesterday.

According to a statement from the ICRC’s delegation in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Eid was employed as a weapon contamination officer, while Abu Hilal was a security guard at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah.

“We extend our profound condolences to their families, friends, and colleagues. Their loss leaves a deep hole in our hearts,” the statement reads.

The ICRC condemns the rising civilian death toll in Gaza, describing the killings as “intolerable” and reiterating calls for a ceasefire. They also demand the “protection of civilians, including medical humanitarian relief, and civil defense personnel.”

The IDF has yet to respond to a request for comment on the incident.

Hamas-run authorities say 20 killed, dozens wounded in strike on Gaza City school-turned-shelter
Translation: The IDF destroys yet another Hamas command-and-control center with built-in human shields. How many of the shields were being held there at gunpoint versus the number of Hamas relatives who thought it a perk until that moment?
[IsraelTimes] Hamas-run health authorities in the Gaza Strip say at least 20 people were killed and dozens were wounded when an Israeli strike hit a school housing displaced people a short while ago.

Medics say the dozens of casualties in the strike on the school, at Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City, included women and children, although these figures could not be verified.

Some of the bodies were badly burned according to images circulating on social media, which Reuters cannot immediately verify.

There is no immediate comment from the IDF.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF aims to capture 75% of Gaza Strip in 2 months in new offensive against Hamas
2025-05-26
[IsraelTimes] Palestinians to be pushed into three small zones, as new aid delivery mechanism set to start Monday; military says no change to collateral damage policy in airstrikes

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that it aims to occupy 75 percent of 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 territory within two months as part of its new offensive against the Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
 terror group.

Israel on March 18 resumed its attacks against Hamas with a surprise wave of Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s, ending a two-month ceasefire. The IDF has since deployed five divisions to the Strip — amounting to tens of thousands of troops — and is poised to launch a wide-scale ground offensive aimed at defeating Hamas’s military wing and its civil rule in Gaza, should the terror group not agree to release the hostages it is holding.

When the major ground offensive is launched, the Paleostinian population will be pushed into three small zones in Gaza: a new "safer zone" in the Mawasi area on the southern Strip’s coast, where Israel previously declared a "humanitarian zone"; a strip of land in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat, where the IDF has not operated with ground forces; and the center of Gaza City, to which many Paleostinians returned during the ceasefire earlier this year.

According to the IDF’s current estimates, some 700,000 Paleostinians are residing in the Mawasi area, 300,000-350,000 are in central Gaza, and around one million are in Gaza City.

This means that Gaza’s 2 million population will be pushed into an area amounting to just 25% of the Strip when the IDF launches its expanded ground operation.

The IDF will then capture, clear of Hamas infrastructure, raze most buildings, and hold for the foreseeable future the rest of Gaza, including all of Rafah, Khan Younis, and the towns north of Gaza City.

According to the IDF’s plans, which were seen by The Times of Israel, it should take just two months to capture 75% of Gaza from the moment the operation goes ahead. Currently, the military is in control of about 40% of the Strip’s territory.

Military officials have said that the IDF is shifting its focus away from trying to eliminate as many terror operatives as possible — which had been the focus from the beginning of the war — and instead is centering on capturing territory and destroying Hamas’s infrastructure.

The terror group constructed in Gaza an estimated 900 kilometers (559 miles) of tunnels, yet so far, only 25% of them have been destroyed, according to the military. The IDF has argued that its main focus has been on Hamas’s attack tunnels and those used as command centers or for weapons manufacturing — the majority of which have been destroyed — rather than the numerous tunnels that the terror group uses to move around the Strip.

The army believes that Hamas can indeed be defeated by destroying its military wing — including all of its infrastructure — along with targeting its civil rule, capturing the territory, and preventing it from controlling the humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Defeating Hamas would enable the release of the remaining 58 hostages the terror group is holding — just 20 of whom are believed to be alive — the IDF has argued.

Still, Israeli political officials have not held any meaningful discussion on who would run Gaza "the day after" Hamas.

On Sunday, during a visit to Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said the fighting against Hamas was "not an endless war."

"We are intensifying our activity in accordance with the orderly plan. Hamas is under tremendous pressure; it has lost most of its assets and its command and control," Zamir said during a tour of Khan Younis with Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor.

The IDF has said that the aid entering Gaza before the collapse of the ceasefire was being used by Hamas to stay in power. Much of the aid would be captured by the terror group, and it would either use the consignments of supplies itself or sell them to the population at increased prices, to pay for the salaries of its operatives and to recruit more members.

Hamas has been struggling to pay salaries in the past few months, according to the IDF, since Israel halted the entry of aid on March 2, after the first phase of the latest ceasefire and hostage release deal concluded.

A new humanitarian aid delivery mechanism is set to start operations on Monday morning, though it has come under criticism and skepticism from aid groups.

The IDF has helped set up four aid distribution hubs in Gaza for the mechanism, which will be operated entirely by a private American security company, while the military provides the outer layer of security.

Updated imagery of what appear to be the new humanitarian aid zones, from where Israel plans private US contractors will distribute to Gazooks.

Three of the sites are in the Rafah area, which will serve those in Mawasi and possibly also those in central Gaza; and a fourth site is in the Netzarim Corridor area of central Gaza, for Paleostinians in Gaza City or those in the northern portion of central Gaza.

A representative of a Paleostinian family will come to the distribution hub and collect a five-day supply of food from the American company. The IDF expects that each hub can serve 300,000 people per week. Aid trucks carrying supplies for hospitals and flour for bakeries would continue to be sent into Gaza for the time being.

No change in collateral damage policy, IDF says

The military said Sunday that since the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip, it had struck over 2,900 targets, killing at least 800 terror operatives, among them some 50 bigwigs and mid-level commanders, and over a dozen gunnies who participated in the October 7 onslaught.

The numbers refer to terror operatives whose deaths have been confirmed by name and ID number, though the military estimates that many more have been killed.

Hamas claims that over 3,785 Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The figure has not been verified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The IDF said there have been no recent changes to its airstrike policy, including what sort of collateral damage and how many civilian casualties are permissible during operations in Gaza.

According to the IDF, there has also been no change to the amount of collateral damage in strikes in practice, and the combatant-to-civilian deaths ratio has remained relatively the same throughout the war, with two to three civilians killed for every dead Hamas terror operative.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel targeted Muhammad Sinwar in rare moment when he had no hostages around him — report
2025-05-24
[IsraelTimes] TV report says Hamas chief made mistake of meeting with top commanders without his usual protective ‘hostage belt’; when Israel was sure no captives were present, it bombed

The strike that targeted and possibly eliminated Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
 leader Muhammad Sinwar 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...
 earlier this month was made possible when the terror chief made the rare mistake of moving without a defensive "hostage belt" protecting him, according to a Friday report.

Channel 12 aired new details on the massive strike on Sinwar and other top Hamas officials in a Khan Younis tunnel on May 13 that is currently believed to have killed Sinwar, the de facto commander of Hamas in Gaza, following Israel’s killing of his brother Yahya last October.

The network said Muhammad Sinwar was almost always surrounded by hostages throughout the war, as Hamas leaders realized this was a strong deterrent against Israeli liquidation attempts. And indeed, Channel 12 said Israeli intelligence had long tracked Sinwar but repeatedly ruled out potential strikes on him when presented with the opportunity due to fears there were hostages in his vicinity.

"No risks are taken if there’s even a one percent chance that hostages are in the area," a security source told the network.

The report said Sinwar became even more careful following the death of his brother in a firefight with Israeli forces, and that only a very small number of people knew his location at any time, echoing a report Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.

However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
 for unknown reasons, Sinwar decided on May 13 to meet with the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas’s military wing, Mohammad Shabana, as well as other senior commanders, without his usual escort of hostages.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Hamas and Arab officials who said the meeting of tap-ranking Hamas figures was convened to discuss their approach to talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal, among other matters.

Presented with this opportunity, the Israeli Air Force immediately began preparing for a strike, the report said, though top officers expected it would likely be called off due to fears of harming hostages.

However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
 when ironclad intelligence arrived that no hostages were present, the IAF was given the green light, jets were scrambled, and the bombing went ahead.

The strikes targeted an underground command compound below the European Hospital. The Hamas-run health ministry reported 16 dead and over 70 maimed in the strike, though there was no immediate word if Sinwar was among the casualties.

The IDF later bombed the area several more times, in an apparent attempt to prevent anyone from approaching the tunnel and aiding the terror operatives.

According to the officials cited by the Wall Street Journal, Hamas recovered Sinwar’s body a day after the strike and temporarily buried it in another tunnel, with the intention of moving his remains to a more suitable grave once the fighting ceases.

Saudi channel al-Hadath reported that Sinwar’s body was was recovered along with the remains of 10 of his aides. Hamas has not confirmed this.

Israel has also not confirmed that Sinwar was killed, but Defense Minister Israel Katz said that "according to all the indications Muhammad Sinwar was eliminated."

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 Yahya was killed by IDF troops, he became the de facto leader of the terror group in the Strip.

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

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

He was locked away
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
 by Israel in the 1990s for nine months and spent an additional three years in a Paleostinian Authority prison in Ramallah, from which he escaped in 2000. In 2006, Sinwar was part of the Hamas cell that kidnapped 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, which was sparked when the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

On Thursday, Paleostinian media reported that Zakaria Sinwar, brother of Yahya and Muhammad Sinwar, succumbed to wounds sustained in an Israeli Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
 on Saturday night.

Zakaria, a lecturer at the Islamic University in Gaza, was initially said to have been killed in the strike, but media reports later said he had been critically injured.
Related:
Muhammad Sinwar 05/22/2025 Report: Hamas found Muhammad Sinwar’s body in tunnel, informed the family
Muhammad Sinwar 05/19/2025 Netanyahu says Qatar negotiators also discussing end to Gaza war if Hamas disarms
Muhammad Sinwar 05/19/2025 Israel airstrikes kill at least 100 in Gaza amid ceasefire talks, incl. 3rd Sinwar brother

Related:
European Hospital: 2025-05-18 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
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
Related:
Yahya  05/22/2025 Resuming Control of Gaza Is a Terrible Idea. But What the Hell Else Can Israel Do?
Yahya  05/21/2025 Israel will seize more of Gaza if Hamas doesn’t free hostages, IDF chief warns
Yahya  05/21/2025 Iran-Backed Houthi Terrorists Declare ‘Maritime Blockade' of Israel's Haifa Port

Related:
Zakaria Sinwar 05/19/2025 Netanyahu says Qatar negotiators also discussing end to Gaza war if Hamas disarms
Zakaria Sinwar 05/19/2025 Israel airstrikes kill at least 100 in Gaza amid ceasefire talks, incl. 3rd Sinwar brother

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
A diplomatic storm: Self-inflicted PR damage complicates Israel's uphill battle
2025-05-23
[Jpost] How much damage can words do? Israel’s internal rhetoric is intensifying global condemnation and playing into the hands of those fueling anti-Israel sentiment.
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
— H.L.Mencken
The barrage this week came fast, hard, and from all directions.

But it wasn’t missiles from Lebanon or drones from Iran that pounded Israel this time. Instead, it was a diplomatic onslaught: waves of condemnation, sanctions, and outrage from capitals across the globe, most notably in Europe.

The trigger: images of hungry children in Gaza flooding the airwaves, a wildly exaggerated claim by a senior UN official that 14,000 babies would die in Gaza if aid did not reach them in 48 hours, and Israel’s vow to intensify the fighting to free hostages and destroy Hamas.

A harsh statement signed by the leaders of Britain, France, and Canada, punitive threats – some already acted upon – and the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington all underscored a dangerous reality: Israel is not only fighting the war in Gaza but also a battle for legitimacy on the world stage.

The UK froze trade negotiations, the EU initiated a review of its association agreement with Israel, and foreign ministers queued up to censure. Yet, ironically, some of the sharpest blows came not from Israel’s enemies but from Israelis themselves.

PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu tried to project calm at his first press conference since December.

“European countries will not influence us or cause us to abandon our core objectives: securing Israel’s future and safety,” he said. Israel, he asserted, would continue to aggressively pursue its war aims until Hamas is dismantled, the hostages are returned, and Gaza no longer poses a threat.

“We will do what is necessary to complete the war,” he said, adding that, in the end, Israel will have complete security control over the enclave.

Even as he dismissed European pressure, Netanyahu acknowledged the power of another force: images. Specifically, the images of hungry Gazan children and food lines that are dominating global headlines and eroding US political support.

Despite Hamas still holding 58 hostages, 20 of whom Netanyahu said were alive, and even with ongoing concerns about aid being intercepted by terrorists, Netanyahu reversed a policy in effect since March 2 and authorized renewed humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Why the shift? Because the White House requested it –
I would vote for Donald Trump again, but this particular triangulation is shameful. Cowardly. He knows the situation and the ramifications, but chose to put his thumb on the scale for the side that created Elias Rodriguez, refusing to stand up against the lies.
and because, as Netanyahu conveyed, even Israel’s closest allies could not bear the optics.
Cowards.
“Our best friends in the world,” Netanyahu said in a short video Monday explaining the new policy, “senators I have known as unstinting, enthusiastic supporters, who I have known for dozens of years, are coming to me and saying this: We give you all the assistance to complete the victory – arms, support to destroy Hamas, defense in the UN Security Council. There is one thing we cannot stand: We cannot take pictures of starvation, mass starvation. We won’t be able to support you.”

To retain international backing, Israel had to confront the humanitarian crisis; Netanyahu said: “To achieve victory, we have to solve the problem.”

IT’S A SOBERING message. Even in a war started by Hamas with its barbaric October 7 attack, optics and false narratives (such as 14,000 babies dying within 48 hours) are shaping the battlefield.

If the original logic in withholding the aid was to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages, the new approach suggests the opposite: resuming aid is essential to preserving international support needed to sustain military pressure on Hamas.

However, as the statements from some European capitals and Canada made clear – statements issued, ironically, the very day aid resumed – the intensified military campaign does not enjoy international legitimacy. But the move may help temper US criticism.

Critics on Netanyahu’s Right called the reversal capitulation. Critics on his Left said it was yet another example of incoherent policy. Both may have a point. But there’s another way to interpret it: tactical recalibration in a shifting geopolitical landscape.

At the core lies a truth too often ignored abroad: Hamas could end the humanitarian crisis immediately by releasing the hostages. It chooses not to because, for Hamas, the suffering of its own civilians is a weapon, not a liability.

“People have forgotten October 7,” said President Donald Trump during his Mideast tour, which ended last Friday in the UAE. “It was one of the most violent days in world history.” He’s right. And many have also forgotten that Gaza’s agony continues because Hamas refuses to yield, free the hostages, and surrender.

This war isn’t fought only in Rafah’s tunnels and in the alleys of Khan Yunis. It is also being waged in Washington’s corridors, at the UN, and on the world’s television screens.

Israel may have the upper hand militarily, but in Europe’s halls of power and in the court of global opinion, it is faltering. Some are arguing – with no small degree of justification – that Israel’s minimal public diplomacy suggests it has all but abandoned that front.

Adding to the public diplomacy challenge is that some of the damage is self-inflicted.

On the Left, Yair Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff and head of the Democrats Party, accused his own country this week of “killing babies as a hobby.”

On the Right, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke at a conference earlier this month of postwar Gaza where its “desperate” civilians will all be in the south, “understanding there is no future, no purpose, and nothing left for them in Gaza” but to seek relocation and start new lives elsewhere.

These voices may lie on the ideological fringes, but their words shape how the world sees the conflict.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Report: Hamas found Muhammad Sinwar’s body in tunnel, informed the family
2025-05-22
[IsraelTimes] Hamas representatives two days ago informed the family of Muhammad Sinwar, the commander of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, that he was killed in a tunnel in Khan Younis, the Saudi-owned, London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports.

According to the report, which comes eight days after the IDF targeted Sinwar in a series of airstrikes, Hamas special forces arrived at the tunnel in Khan Younis that had been attacked, discovered Sinwar’s body, and additional forces were later sent to retrieve it and bury him temporarily.

The report also states that Hamas confirmed that also killed in the strike on the tunnel were Rafah Brigade Commander Muhammad Shabana and a battalion commander from the Rafah Brigade whose name is not mentioned. The outlet reports that Sinwar and Shabana entered the tunnel three days before the strike.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
UN says it has ‘collected and dispatched’ 90 truckloads of aid into Gaza
2025-05-22
[IsraelTimes] Announcement that distribution of humanitarian goods has started comes after UN officials accused Israel of preventing collection of supplies; rockets fired from Gaza land in Strip

The United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
 on Wednesday confirmed that it collected and began distributing around 90 truckloads of aid into 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...
, marking the first aid distribution in the besieged coastal territory since early March, after UN officials claimed they were unable to pick up supplies at the border with Israel.

Three days after Israel announced it would allow in limited aid, the United Nations on Wednesday "collected around 90 truckloads of goods from the Kerem Shalom crossing and dispatched them into Gaza," Stephane Dujarric, front man for UN Secretary-General 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...
, said in a statement.

The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) earlier announced that 100 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. COGAT said the aid delivery came "following the recommendation of professional IDF officials and in accordance with the directive of the political echelon."

The trucks contained flour, baby food and medical equipment, according to COGAT.

The aid underwent an inspection first by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing.

COGAT did not address the UN allegations that the IDF had prevented the collection of aid on the Gaza side of the border.

Nahid Shahaiber, a major transport company owner, said 75 trucks of flour and over a dozen more carrying nutritional supplements and sugar were inside the southern area of Rafah and witnesses said trucks carrying flour had been seen in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Also Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said three rockets were launched from northern Gaza, setting off sirens in the border communities of Zikim and Netiv Haasara.

All three projectiles fell short in Gaza, the army added.

No injuries were caused in the attack, after which the IDF’s Arabic-language front man issued evacuation orders for residents in parts of northern Gaza.

Over the weekend, the IDF launched a major new offensive dubbed "Gideon’s Chariots" launched over the weekend, which Israel says seeks to destroy Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...
 and seize and retain the whole territory, while relocating Paleostinians across the enclave.

On Tuesday, IDF chief Eyal Zamir threatened to ramp up the campaign even further if Hamas did not agree to Israel’s demands that it release the hostages and give up power.

"It will face intense firepower," he said. "We will expand the ground maneuver, conquer additional territory, clear and destroy the terror infrastructure until it is defeated."

Israel is seeking to pressure Hamas into freeing 58 hostages remaining in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be alive, and demands that the group relinquish power before ending the war.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled a high-level negotiating team from Doha, where talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal appeared to be stuck.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Here's the Smoking Gun: UNWRA Knew About Oct 7 in Advance
2025-05-20
[PJMedia] Hillel Neuer this weekend posted the smoking gun: the UN’s Paleostinian "humanitarian" agency knew in advance of Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
’s Oct. 7 terror invasion — and Hamas meant to torpedo any chance for peace between Israel and 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...
United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
 Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) chief Philippe Lazzarini posted Sunday that throughout the war 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...
, "one of the most dreadful updates I regularly receive is the corpse count on UNRWA staff. Today, that corpse count has surpassed the gruesome milestone of 300."

Lazzarini also made this highly questionable claim, given what we know about the veracity of Hamas's casualty figures: "The vast majority of staff were killed by the Israeli Army with their children & loved ones: whole families wiped out."

The loss of innocent life is always regrettable — and, in war, often inevitable. Assuming they happened at all, given Hamas’s habit of inflating civilian death numbers. But I will not weep for the loss of UNRWA personnel.

You might wonder why I don't mourn the loss of these "humanitarians." Sit tight.

Regulatory capture is when a government agency meant to regulate an industry ends up serving the interests of that industry instead of the public. It doesn't happen all at once, of course. An agency is set up with the best of intentions, at least ostensibly, but lobbying and the "need" for industry expertise eventually turn the regulator into just another arm of the industry it’s supposed to oversee.

So what do you call it when a UN relief organization over time becomes run and staffed by people whose ambition is terrorism instead of humanitarianism? I don’t know about you, but I still call it terrorism. Because when you’re enabling mass murder, I don’t care about technicalities.

Here's UNRWA's pure evil, courtesy of Neuer:



According to Neuer's translation, the minutes cite Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar saying, "There is no doubt that the Saudi-Zionist normalization agreement is progressing significantly... [opening] the door for the majority of Arab and Islamic countries to follow" and that an "extraordinary action" was required to derail Arab-Israeli peace efforts.

And Another Thing: This is the year that Data Republican (small-r) taught us about something I think we should term "mission capture." That's when NGOs end up doing privatized versions of the things government shouldn't do or doesn't want to be seen doing, instead of charitable or humanitarian work. Granted, many NGOs are established for that very reason.

Oct. 7 quickly followed — and UNRWA's own Suhail al-Hindi was present at the meeting where the need for an "extraordinary action" was floated.
Related:
UNRWA: 2025-05-10 IDF says it razed major tunnel in Rafah after Hamas operatives provided location, struck 60+ targets across Gaza while overnight the IAF hit dozens in the Morag Corridor; 2 IDF soldiers killed in fighting Thursday
UNRWA: 2025-05-10 Former hostage decries Pulitzer given to Gazan writer who legitimized their abduction
UNRWA: 2025-05-09 Israel shutters UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem, in line with ban on aid agency
Related:
Suhail al-Hindi 04/23/2017 UNWRA Gaza union head, accused of Hamas ties, no longer employed by agency
Suhail al-Hindi 03/07/2017 Incestuous: Top UN staffer in Gaza said elected to Hamas leadership
Suhail al-Hindi 02/27/2017 UNRWA suspends employee allegedly elected to Hamas leadership

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
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