English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 07/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; & will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Book of Revelation 21/01-12.14: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.’Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. It has a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates are inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites; And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 06-07/2024
Gantz urges targeting Lebanon's infrastructure, increasing military pressure
Israeli sonic booms rattle Lebanese capital after Hezbollah launches drones
Five Hezbollah members dead in ‘vacuum bomb’ attacks; 17 Israelis injured in drone attack
Six Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli strikes on Mayfadoun, Odaisseh
Hezbollah drone attack on Nahariya wounds at least 7
UN peacekeepers on Israel-Lebanon border 'fundamental', says chief
Bou Habib says govt asking Hezbollah to be careful in its response against Israel
Lebanon receives emergency medical supplies from WHO
De-escalation efforts persist ahead of expected Iran-Hezbollah response
Air France and Transavia extend Beirut flight suspension
China urges citizens to take 'caution' in Lebanon travel
A preemptive strike on Iran and Hezbollah - the strategic vs the tactical/Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/August 06/2024
Lebanon aims to ensure Hezbollah response to Israeli attack does not cause wider war
Residents shocked, angry after at least 18 injured in Hezbollah drone strike in Nahariya area of Western Galilee/Yair Kraus, Hassan Shaalan/Ynetnews/August 06, 2024
Sayyed Nasrallah Speech: Hezbollah Response Inevitable despite Israeli Calming Notices

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 06-07/2024
US sends ship-based Navy fighter jets to a base in the Middle East to help protect Israel
The US Navy is on its fourth aircraft carrier as its warships react to fighting in the Middle East
Palestinian officials say 12 dead in Israel West Bank raids
Hamas names Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, as its new leader in show of defiance
Israel FM calls to ‘swiftly eliminate’ new Hamas chief Sinwar
Egyptian FM holds phone call with US secretary of state
US destroys Houthi missiles, drones, drone boats in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden
Jordan’s King Abdullah speaks with European, Canadian and Egyptian leaders on Gaza
Putin asks Iran to avoid civilian casualties in Israel response, sources say
Defense, intelligence heads meet with air force pilots, intelligence soldiers over Iran crisis
Israeli minister says it may be ‘moral’ to starve 2 million Gazans, but ‘no one in the world would let us’
Iran prepping attack on Israel in response to Hamas leader assassination in Tehran
‘Going to a very bad place’: Israeli reservists who refuse to return to Gaza cite military’s destructive approach
Iran executes man accused of murder during Mahsa Amini unrest
US personnel injured in rocket attack on Iraq base
Kamala Harris chooses Tim Walz as Vice Presidential running mate

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on August 06-07/2024
UNRWA Is Complicit in Terror; Disband It/Gregg Roman/The Middle East Forum Observer/August 6, 2024
Mourning the Children Killed in Majdal Shams/Hillel Kuttler/The Tablet/August 06, 2024
What kind of future awaits Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran?/Jonathan Gornall/Arab News/August 06, 2024
Hamas And Al-Jazeera, A Decades-Long Symbiotic Relationship/Yigal Carmon and Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/August 06, 2024
Trump is Finished. His Demented Antics Show he Does Not Believe he'll Win/Hanibaal Atheos/Lebanon Iznogood/Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Israel prepares for several scenarios as it waits for Iran, Hezbollah retaliation/Itamar Eichner/Ynet News/Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 06-07/2024
Gantz urges targeting Lebanon's infrastructure, increasing military pressure
Jerusalem Post/August 06/2024
Benny Gantz called for intensified military action on Lebanon amid rising tensions, praised the Druze community, and advocated for national unity. Benny Gantz, chairman of the National Unity Party, called for a dramatic escalation in military pressure on Lebanon on Tuesday, including targeting its infrastructure, in response to recent terrorist attacks and escalating tensions along Israel’s northern border. Gantz delivered his remarks at a tribute conference for the Druze community in Tel Aviv. “We are stronger than our enemies. Israel has security superiority and strong regional alliances that will withstand any attack. But our use of force must not be wasted,” Gantz stated, emphasizing the need for decisive action to restore normalcy in northern Israel. He argued for a strategic increase in military pressure on Lebanon to allow life in the North to return to normal. Gantz also highlighted the role of international actors in achieving long-term security for the region. “We must leverage the tension and involvement of international actors to achieve results that will provide security for the residents of the North,” he added, underscoring the importance of global cooperation. The speech came amid a series of violent incidents, including a terrorist attack in which 12 teenagers from Majdal Shams were killed, and a stabbing attack at the Tunnels Checkpoint south of Jerusalem, where a border police officer was lightly wounded. The attacker, identified as Mohammed Razak Ibrahim Hamash, was eliminated by IDF troops. Gantz assured broad political support for responsible military operations. “The government will have broad backing, even from the opposition, for any offensive and responsible action,” he said. Reflecting on the Druze community’s contributions, Gantz praised their resilience and achievements despite numerous challenges. “Despite language challenges, living in the periphery, and lack of resources, the Druze education system achieves unprecedented successes,” he noted. Consensus and legislation amid Gaza conflict. Gantz’s call for national consensus and legislative changes to enshrine the value of equality in Israel’s Basic Laws comes at a critical time. He pointed to recent events, such as the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which has intensified the conflict in Gaza and fueled regional tensions. “The next government that needs to be formed, which I intend to form, must be a government of national consensus, and make the significant social correction in the state,” Gantz asserted. He concluded by sharing a poignant moment from a visit to the family of fallen Druze soldier Lt.-Col. Salman Khabbaka, expressing pride in the Druze community’s dedication and sacrifice.

Israeli sonic booms rattle Lebanese capital after Hezbollah launches drones
Reuters/August 06, 2024
BEIRUT: Israeli warplanes swooped low over the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, setting off a series of sonic booms that rattled windows across the city minutes before the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah was set to give an address.
The loud booms sent residents rushing to open their windows to prevent the glass from shattering, or standing on their balconies to get a glimpse of the planes flying over. There was no comment from the Israeli military.
In the capital’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, members and supporters of the Lebanese armed group had gathered to watch a televised speech by its leader to mark the one-week anniversary of Israel’s killing of a senior military commander. As he began, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the sonic booms were intended to provoke those gathered for the memorial. The strike that killed commander Fuad Shukr was the second time Israel had struck the southern suburbs in 10 months of hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli military that are taking place in parallel with the Gaza war. Hezbollah earlier on Tuesday said it launched a swarm of attack drones at two military sites near Acre in northern Israel and also attacked an Israeli military vehicle in another location. The Israeli military said a number of hostile drones were identified crossing from Lebanon and one was intercepted. Israeli medical officials said seven people were evacuated to hospital, to the south of the coastal city of Nahariya, one in critical condition. The Israeli military said an initial investigation indicated the injuries were caused by an interceptor that “missed the target and hit the ground, injuring several civilians.” It said the incident was still under review. Reuters journalists saw one impact site near a bus stop on a main road outside Nahariya. The Israeli military said in a statement sirens sounded around Acre, but that turned out to be a false alarm. It said its air force struck two Hezbollah facilities in south Lebanon. Fears are rising that the Middle East could tip into full-blown war following vows by Hezbollah to avenge Shukr’s killing, and by Iran to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of the head of Palestinian militant group Hamas. A Hezbollah source told Reuters that “the response to the assassination of commander Fuad Shukr has not yet come.”Earlier on Tuesday, four Hezbollah fighters were killed in a strike on a home in the Lebanese town of Mayfadoun, nearly 30 km (19 miles) north of the border, medics and a security source said.

Five Hezbollah members dead in ‘vacuum bomb’ attacks; 17 Israelis injured in drone attack
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/August 06, 2024
BEIRUT: Confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli army continued to escalate and grow in intensity on on Tuesday. Five members of Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a three-story building in the village of Mayfadoun in Nabatieh district, which was carried out with the involvement of the Israeli Security Agency, commonly known as the Shin Bet. Three of the dead were said to have “responsibilities” within the party. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, called on “the international community to stop the Israeli attacks and threats against Lebanon,” warning that “the Israeli aggression in Beirut’s southern suburbs has heightened fears of confrontations that could lead to a full-scale war.” In a message posted on social media platform X, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee confirmed that “air force warplanes, guided by intelligence from Shin Bet and military intelligence” attacked a military building in the Nabatieh area used by Hezbollah forces on the southern front. Smoke could be seen rising from the target of the Mayfadoun strike, which was said to have been reduced to a concrete skeleton. Security reports indicated that the Israeli army used “highly destructive vacuum bombs,” more formally known as thermobaric weapons, which are particularly lethal to anyone caught in the blast zone. In another post, Adraee said Israeli warplanes also carried out an airstrike “on a Hezbollah military building” in the town of Khiam. In response, Hezbollah launched a series of operations that caused emergency sirens to sound in Western and Upper Galilee, Acre and Haifa, where explosions were heard for the first time in this conflict. Israeli media reported that armed drones hit a vehicle and military base in Nahariya, causing injuries. Israeli Army Radio said “17 people were injured in a Hezbollah drone attack” on Nahariya and the outskirts of Acre. Hezbollah said the attack was “a response to a specific aggression,” which seemed to confirm that there would be further retaliation to the targeting of Mayfadoun and Khiam, and that this was separate from its response to the assassination of senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in a southern suburb of Beirut last week. The Lebanese people continue to fear that the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel will continue to escalate into a full-blown war. Their concerns were articulated by Mikati, who said: “The recent Israeli aggression in the southern suburbs of Beirut has exacerbated the complexities of the current circumstances and heightened concerns about possible confrontations that could lead to a comprehensive war. “The threats posed by Israel towards Lebanon are part of a psychological warfare strategy aimed at the Lebanese populace. Regrettably, some people are exacerbating this situation by discussing potential dates for attacks and justifying their objectives. “It is widely acknowledged that the fundamental solution lies in halting Israeli aggression and assaults, as well as stopping the aggression against the Palestinian people and giving them their legitimate rights.”He added: “We will spare no effort to halt the Israeli aggression and threats, and restore stability to Lebanon. Additionally, the relevant government agencies are actively engaged in various fields to keep pace with all developments.” Hezbollah said several members were killed in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, including Hassan Mansour from Jebchit; Ali Mustafa Shams Al-Din, said to have been born in 2003, from Majdal Selm; and Hussein Ali Yassin, born in 1993, from Sultaniyah.

Six Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli strikes on Mayfadoun, Odaisseh
Naharnet/August 06/2024
Israeli warplanes raided Tuesday the southern village of Mayfadoun in the Nabatiyeh district, killing five Hezbollah fighters. Another person was injured in a separate strike on al-Khiam and a child was wounded in artillery shelling on al-Wazzani. Lebanon's health ministry said an "Israeli enemy raid on a house in the town of Mayfadoun", near the southern city of Nabatiyeh, killed five people. Requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, a security source told AFP "they were all Hezbollah fighters". Hezbollah announced five fighters had been killed, without specifying where they died. The Israeli military said its air force "struck a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Nabatiyeh" that was being used "to advance terror attacks" against Israel. Israeli warplanes later raided a region between Odaisseh and Rab Tlatine in south Lebanon, killing one person and wounding another. Hezbollah, for its part, said it targeted a building used by Israeli soldiers in Avivim in northern Israel, in response to Israeli attacks on civilians in south Lebanon. The group later targeted a group of soldiers in the Berkat Risha post with Burkan rockets, the al-Marj post with artillery shells, and an armored personnel carrier in the occupied Shebaa Farms. Israeli strikes had killed three people Monday, two Hezbollah fighters and a paramedic. Since last week, tensions have soared as Iran and Tehran-backed groups, including Hezbollah, vowed revenge for the killing of Hamas's political leader in Tehran and Israel's killing of the Lebanese group's military chief in Beirut.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. The twin killings have raised fears of full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah, which last went to war in the summer of 2006.

Hezbollah drone attack on Nahariya wounds at least 7
Associated Press/August 06/2024
Hezbollah attacked Tuesday with an array of suicide drones an Israeli town near the border between Akka and Nahariya, wounding at least seven people, in response to the killing of one of its fighters in an Israeli airstrike. Sirens sounded in Nahariya before a loud blast was heard and smoke began rising from an intersection. Earlier, an Associated Press reporter saw a drone flying over the city. The reporter later saw emergency crews rushing to the scene.Gal Zaid, spokesperson for Galilee Medical Center, said it was treating one severely wounded person and four others with mild injuries. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating seven wounded in three locations in Western Galilee. Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israel on Tuesday, including the drone attack that the group said targeted a command center in a barracks north of the coastal town of Akka. Hezbollah said the attack was in response to the Monday "assassination" of Ali Jamaleddine Jawad whom Israel said was from the group's elite Radwan unit. Jawad was killed in a drone strike on his motorcycle in the southern village of Ebba. Hezbollah confirmed that he was killed "on the road to Jerusalem" without giving details about his job within the group. The Israeli military said a number of drones entered from Lebanon, one of which was intercepted. It said several civilians were wounded near the coastal town of Nahariya, some 6 kilometers south of the border, without giving a precise number. It later said an initial inquiry indicated that one of its interceptor missiles "missed the target and hit the ground, injuring several civilians", adding that "the incident is under review." Hezbollah has launched near-daily drone and rocket attacks along the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in what it says is an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has responded with airstrikes, one of which killed four people in southern Lebanon earlier Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities.

UN peacekeepers on Israel-Lebanon border 'fundamental', says chief
Agence France Presse/August 06/2024
U.N. peacekeepers on the Israeli-Lebanese border have never been more crucial, the force's global chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said Tuesday, as fears soared of an escalation in the Middle East. Worry has grown of a wider regional conflict, especially after the killing, blamed on Israel, of a top Hamas leader in Iran and an Israeli air strike that killed a Hezbollah commander in the Beirut southern suburbs last week. The role of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, was today "more important than ever", Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told AFP. "It's the only liaison channel between the Israeli side and the Lebanese side in all its components, such as Hezbollah," he said. "It's fundamental because it allows us to clarify certain things and avoid misunderstandings... miscalculations, uncontrolled and unwanted escalations," he said. UNIFIL, which has around 10,000 troops based in south Lebanon, was also key in informing all sides "when, for example, there are people who have been wounded or even killed in the area and someone needs to go in to rescue them or remove the bodies". The troops also continued to carry out regular patrols "in liaison with the Lebanese army", he said. Lacroix said the peacekeepers were staying in place for now, and only if it became impossible for them to carry out their mission or if there were "very, very serious threats" to their security would their presence be reconsidered. The peacekeeping force had already seen several of its members wounded, and damage done to some of its camps, he said. In the past, UNIFIL patrols have occasionally faced harassment, and in December 2022 an Irish soldier with the force was killed and three colleagues wounded when their convoy came under fire in south Lebanon.
'Absolutely terrible risk' -
The U.N. peacekeeping chief said a Gaza ceasefire was key to de-escalation on the Israeli-Lebanon border. "What we want is a cessation of hostilities in Gaza as well as between Lebanon and Israel straight away, because each day that goes by brings its batch of victims, destruction and displacements, and it cannot last," he said. "Every day that goes by also compounds an absolutely terrible risk of uncontrolled escalations, of conflagrations in the entire region." Almost 10 months of cross-border violence has killed at least 555 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed including 12 children in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights. "Probably, after what has happened in the past days, the chances of progress towards a Gaza deal, at least in the short term, are weak," he added.
"But it is hoped that a cessation of hostilities in Gaza would lead to the same thing between Israel and Lebanon."Once a ceasefire was in place, both sides would have to return to a "substantial negotiation process" to finally implement U.N. Security Council resolution 1701. That decision ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and called for the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in the country's south. Lacroix said he was optimistic the U.N. Security Council would renew UNIFIL's mandate, which runs out at the end of the month, for another year.

Bou Habib says govt asking Hezbollah to be careful in its response against Israel
Naharnet/August 06/2024
Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib on Tuesday said the Lebanese government is trying to prevent Hezbollah from launching a harsh response against Israel that might trigger a wide war. “We are working so that any response does not lead to an all-out war,” Bou Habib said during a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty for his part condemned the brazen Israeli attack that killed Hezbollah military chief Fouad Shukur and six other people in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah has vowed a “real” and “well-thought-out” response to the killing.

Lebanon receives emergency medical supplies from WHO
Agence France Presse/August 06/2024
Lebanon has received 32 tons of emergency medical supplies from the World Health Organization for "treating war wounds" in efforts to increase readiness for "escalation in the Israeli aggression on Lebanon", a health ministry statement said. Health Minister Firas Abiad said another supply shipment was due to arrive in the coming days. Lebanon is ill-prepared for war, with public services including the health sector hit hard by a more than four-year-long economic crisis that has also pushed many medical professionals to emigrate. The cross-border violence since October has killed at least 550 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, including the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.

De-escalation efforts persist ahead of expected Iran-Hezbollah response
Agence France Presse/August 06/2024
Diplomatic pressure has mounted to avert an escalation between Iran and Israel following high-profile killings that have sent regional tensions soaring. United States President Joe Biden, whose country has sent extra warships and fighter jets to the region in support of Israel, held crisis talks on Monday with his national security team. The head of the U.S. military command covering the Middle East, General Michael Kurilla, arrived in Israel and met Israel's military chief Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi for a security assessment, an Israeli military statement said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged all sides in the Middle East to avoid "escalation," his spokesman said. U.S. news site Axios earlier reported that Blinken told his counterparts from the G7 nations that any attack by Iran and Hezbollah could happen as early as Monday.
- 'Playing with fire' -
A European diplomat in Tel Aviv said "a coordinated response" from Iran and its proxies was expected but de-escalation efforts persisted. "We're telling them they have to stop playing with fire, because the risk of flare-ups is higher than at any time since October 7," he said, declining to be named as he was not authorized to speak on the issue. The Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation is to meet on Wednesday at the request of "Palestine and Iran," to discuss developments in the region, an OIC official said. Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said his country is "preparing for any scenario both offensively and defensively". In the northern port city of Haifa, shop owner Yehuda Levi, 45, told AFP that Israelis are used to conflict, but facing a multi-pronged attack "is a little tricky". "It's difficult, but we believe we're a strong country. We're going to win this war." Turkey on Monday joined multiple nations calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. Numerous airlines have suspended flights to the country or limited them to daylight hours. Germany's Lufthansa, which has already suspended flights to the region including Tel Aviv, said its planes would avoid Iraqi and Iranian airspace until at least Wednesday. Royal Jordanian Airlines said it would be operating three flights this week to transport nationals out of Beirut.
'Act urgently' -
The United Nations' rights chief Volker Turk called on "all parties, along with those states with influence, to act urgently to de-escalate what has become a very precarious situation". Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in a joint statement Monday "agreed to make every effort to avoid a regional escalation". Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of countries. French President Emmanuel Macron also appealed for "restraint" in the Middle East, during conversations with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In Tel Aviv on Monday thousands of Israelis gathered to mark the fifth birthday of child hostage Ariel Bibas, and to call for the liberation of him and his family. Netanyahu repeatedly promises to bring the hostages home but is facing a growing chorus of sceptics who worry he's not interested in a ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, which U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators have for months been trying to reach. "The hostages have no time and it seems like some people in Israel, including the prime minister, are taking their time," said Gil Dickman, whose cousin Carmel Gat is among the captives. As the region braced for further escalation, Hezbollah and Israel kept up their near-daily exchanges of fire. The Lebanese health ministry said three people were killed Monday in Israeli strikes on the country's south. Israel's military said it had struck militants operating a drone in the Mays al-Jabal area.Hezbollah later said two fighters had been killed, one from Mays al-Jabal. Tehran has said it expects Hezbollah to hit deeper inside Israel and no longer be confined to military targets. Far from the Lebanese border, the Israeli military said around 15 rockets had crossed from the southern Gaza Strip into Israel on Monday, with medics reporting one injury.

Air France and Transavia extend Beirut flight suspension
Agence France Presse/August 06/2024
Air France said Tuesday that its flights and that of its low-cost subsidiary Transavia to Beirut will be suspended through at least Thursday because of fears that the Gaza war could spread. The resumption of flights to Lebanon's capital, which have been halted since July 29, "will be subject to a new assessment of the local situation," the airline told AFP. The two French airlines first stopped servicing the route after Israel vowed to retaliate following rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Tensions have soared further in the past week as Iran and its allies vowed revenge for the high-profile killings of Hezbollah's top military commander Fouad Shukur in Lebanon and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, both blamed on Israel. Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israeli forces across the border between Lebanon and Israel. Air France said it "is constantly monitoring developments in the geopolitical situation of the territories served and overflown by its aircraft, to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security." The airline added "the safety of its customers and crews is its number one priority." Air France said customers with reservations for flights to or from Beirut scheduled before and including August 18 to postpone or cancel their trip free of charge. German carrier Lufthansa has suspended flights to Beirut, Tehran and Tel Aviv until August 12. Air France said its flights to and from Tel Aviv are operating normally.

China urges citizens to take 'caution' in Lebanon travel
Agence France Presse/August 06/2024
China's embassy in Beirut urged citizens to "travel with caution" should they visit Lebanon, warning they face "higher security risks" as fears of a regional conflict soar. In a statement issued Monday evening Beijing time, the embassy warned citizens the situation in the country was "grave and complex".
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Embassy in Lebanon remind Chinese citizens to closely monitor the evolution of the local situation and to travel with caution in Lebanon in the near future," the embassy said on its official WeChat account. As Israel's war against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza nears the 11th month, the Tehran-aligned "Axis of Resistance" is widely expected to retaliate after the killing of two senior figures. Palestinian armed group Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last week in an attack blamed on Israel, which has not directly commented on it. The killing came hours after an Israeli strike on Beirut killed the military chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, Fouad Shukur. Hezbollah and Israel have continued near-daily exchanges of fire. Multiple nations called on Monday for their citizens to leave Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based.Beijing's embassy also advised Chinese to "remain very vigilant" should they travel to the country. "If Chinese citizens insist on going (to Lebanon) despite the warning, they may face higher security risks," it cautioned.

A preemptive strike on Iran and Hezbollah - the strategic vs the tactical - analysis
Yonah Jeremy Bob/Jerusalem Post/August 06/2024
Israel appears to be in a defensive posture to maintain the benefits of US and allied defensive assistance, but it is open to narrow tactical and limited attacks to prevent imminent strikes.There is non-stop talk of Israeli preemptive strikes on Iran and on Hezbollah, given that Jerusalem has been waiting since the July 31 killings of Hezbollah’s military chief and Hamas’s political chief (while he was in Tehran) for an expected massive retaliation from Lebanon and from the Islamic Republic. As time has dragged on and the certainty of retaliation also grows, more and more analysts have asked why Israel should wait to be hit with unprecedented power from these two enemy states if it can instead hit them first and reduce the effectiveness of the expected attacks. With rife speculation about what preemptive strikes might look like, The Jerusalem Post dug into the issue and found that a variety of factors must be treated differently in the IDF’s thinking, rather than be lumped together. First, there is much more IDF support for preemptively striking Hezbollah than for preemptively striking Iran. Many IDF officials have wanted to strike Hezbollah since October 11, and Lebanon is a much smaller and closer territory, and one that the IDF can relatively easily enter with ground forces simultaneously with a massive air attack. Also, while Hezbollah in some ways can strike Israel’s northern areas with greater likelihood of success by virtue of being so close to the Jewish state’s border, its weapons are still far less powerful and sophisticated than Iran’s huge arsenal of ballistic missiles. This does not mean that Israel will preemptively strike Hezbollah, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is generally firmly against such a strike, and even the defense establishment is less sure about it now than they were on October For one thing, Israel has much less international support now than it did four days after the October 7 massacre of Israelis and others in southern Israel.
How can Israel eliminate all, or most, of Iran's aerial threats?
Iran is also a huge territory and it is unclear whether an Israeli preemptive strike could eliminate all or even most of the Islamic Republic’s aerial threats before they could hit Israel. This is especially true now that Tehran is already highly mobilized, such that there would be no major strategic surprise advantage.
According to this thinking, while the benefits of preemptively striking Hezbollah might debatably outweigh the costs, this is less likely with Iran, and a preemptive strike might only be a tactical advantage that would make an even harsher Iranian response more likely. There are also questions about what kinds of targets to hit preemptively. It would be quite a different matter for Israel to make a narrow preemptive strike on a single or small series of Hezbollah or Iranian rocket or missile launch sites that were literally about to fire on Israel. Such attacks could be seen by the US as limited self-defense that would not give Hezbollah or Iran any additional “right” or motivation to make their retaliation larger, nor would it necessarily make a general war more likely. In contrast, a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities or sources of power for either Hezbollah or Iran, which was not connected to an imminent attack, would be seen by the US as an aggressive move that could make a general war more likely. Such attacks could reduce US and allied concrete support for Israel’s defense against retaliation from the Jewish state’s enemies. This is why Israeli sources are emphasizing a need to get American sign-offs on intelligence of imminent attacks by Iran and Hezbollah. Overall, Israel appears to be in a defensive posture in order to keep the benefits of US and allied defensive assistance, but with some openness to narrow tactical and limited attacks to prevent imminent strikes, especially from Hezbollah, with even such tactical attacks being less likely against Iran – given that its distance also gives more time to shoot down any aerial threats.

Lebanon aims to ensure Hezbollah response to Israeli attack does not cause wider war
Reuters/August 06, 2024
DUBAI: Lebanon is working to ensure any response to the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut does not trigger total war in the Middle East, its Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Tuesday. Tensions in the region have spiraled in the last week following the killing in Tehran of Palestinian militant group Hamas’ leader, and an Israeli strike on Beirut’s suburbs that killed the senior commander Fuad Shukr. Hezbollah said last week that the Iran-backed group will respond in a studied manner. Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct.7 and ignited a war in Gaza.

Residents shocked, angry after at least 18 injured in Hezbollah drone strike in Nahariya area of Western Galilee
Yair Kraus, Hassan Shaalan/Ynetnews/August 06, 2024
Hezbollah launched a barrage of drones that caused damage and many injuries, including one person in critical condition, in the Nahariya area; Residents complain: 'There are not enough shelters'; IDF says the interceptor missed the explosives-laden droneand hit the ground
"We heard the whistle of the drone, suddenly there was an explosion." Residents of Nahariya and the surrounding area of the Western Galilee reacted with shock to the Hezbollah drone attack south of Nahariya, which critically injured a 30-year-old man and injure 17 others. An eyewitnesses said at noon on Tuesday that "all the communities in the north are suffering", and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to find a way to halt the attacks, including invading Lebanon. At least two unmanned aerial vehicles penetrated Israeli territory, following a series of alarms that were triggered in communities in the Western Galilee, including Nahariya and Acre. One of the unmanned aerial vehicles was intercepted, and the other exploded at an intersection near the town of Mazra’a. The injured were evacuated to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya with shrapnel injuries, as well as those who suffered from anxiety and head injuries. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, and said that it had launched a "swarm of drones" in response to an Israeli strike south Lebanon town of Mayfadoun near Nabatieh, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Lebanon's border with Israel, reportedly killing at least five men. Hours later, sirens sounded in the areas of Sha'al and Kela Alon and the IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanese territory. No injuries were reported. The siren was activated as a result of the launch of the interceptor toward the target and due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception. Israel Fire Services are currently operating to extinguish fires that were ignited in several areas by fallen shrapnel from the interception. Avi Ezran from Nahariya told Ynet that he was at the intersection when the drone exploded. "I approached the traffic lights and saw people on the ground. I stopped the car and suddenly I hear an alarm and see a UAV in front of me, at a height of six or seven meters. It started swinging and after that we heard a boom, from an intercepted or a fall.
Did you realize that you were under attack by Hezbollah?
"I thought it had started but I didn't understand what happened here, and the alarms don't stop."
Ten months into the war, what are your feelings?
"This is what I have to say to the government. Right now you are a failed government. I am nervous. My children are suffering, all of Nahariya, all of the north, all of the communities in the north are suffering. We must solve this problem. Please. Bibi will solve this problem for us. All our businesses are closed, we have nothing to in town, what to do? Tell us, Bibi, what to do?"
What is your requirement?
"We demand that we enter Lebanon. I am a 49-year-old human being, an engineer, now volunteering for the reserves. Take me now, I am ready to enter Lebanon. Nasrallah only understands force. The people know that. Who can get up in the morning when you don't know if you are coming back? What is that? "Every day, 12 of our children are killed." (The massacre in Majdal Shams). Residents shocked, angry after at least 18 injured in Hezbollah drone strike in Nahariya area of Western Galilee
Hezbollah launched a barrage of drones that caused damage and many injuries, including one person in critical condition, in the Nahariya area; Residents complain: 'There are not enough shelters'; IDF says the interceptor missed the explosives-laden droneand hit the ground
"We heard the whistle of the drone, suddenly there was an explosion." Residents of Nahariya and the surrounding area of the Western Galilee reacted with shock to the Hezbollah drone attack south of Nahariya, which critically injured a 30-year-old man and injure 17 others. An eyewitnesses said at noon on Tuesday that "all the communities in the north are suffering", and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to find a way to halt the attacks, including invading Lebanon.
At least two unmanned aerial vehicles penetrated Israeli territory, following a series of alarms that were triggered in communities in the Western Galilee, including Nahariya and Acre. One of the unmanned aerial vehicles was intercepted, and the other exploded at an intersection near the town of Mazra’a.
The injured were evacuated to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya with shrapnel injuries, as well as those who suffered from anxiety and head injuries. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, and said that it had launched a "swarm of drones" in response to an Israeli strike south Lebanon town of Mayfadoun near Nabatieh, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Lebanon's border with Israel, reportedly killing at least five men.
Hours later, sirens sounded in the areas of Sha'al and Kela Alon and the IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanese territory. No injuries were reported. The siren was activated as a result of the launch of the interceptor toward the target and due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception. Israel Fire Services are currently operating to extinguish fires that were ignited in several areas by fallen shrapnel from the interception.
The injured were evacuated to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, most with shrapnel injuries(Photo: Yair Kraus)
Avi Ezran from Nahariya told Ynet that he was at the intersection when the drone exploded. "I approached the traffic lights and saw people on the ground. I stopped the car and suddenly I hear an alarm and see a UAV in front of me, at a height of six or seven meters. It started swinging and after that we heard a boom, from an intercepted or a fall.
Did you realize that you were under attack by Hezbollah?
"I thought it had started but I didn't understand what happened here, and the alarms don't stop."
Ten months into the war, what are your feelings?
"This is what I have to say to the government. Right now you are a failed government. I am nervous. My children are suffering, all of Nahariya, all of the north, all of the communities in the north are suffering. We must solve this problem. Please. Bibi will solve this problem for us. All our businesses are closed, we have nothing to in town, what to do? Tell us, Bibi, what to do?"
The Hezbollah drone in the sky over Nahariya
What is your requirement?
"We demand that we enter Lebanon. I am a 49-year-old human being, an engineer, now volunteering for the reserves. Take me now, I am ready to enter Lebanon. Nasrallah only understands force. The people know that. Who can get up in the morning when you don't know if you are coming back? What is that? "Every day, 12 of our children are killed."Maor Amsalem , a resident of Krayot, happened to be driving at the time of the explosion. "There was alarm after alarm. On the third we already got it, and of course we listened to the instructions."
Did you see the UAV?
"Really, a meter above me. We heard a whistle and then there was an explosion. All the parts flew, glass, stones, everything just flew in all directions and luckily we were standing across the road and survived. I personally came out with a miracle."
How do you feel now? Did you think that would be the case after ten months?
"I am shaking. I never imagined it would come to me. I said it would be fine, I'm at home with two children. If you don't listen to the instructions and stay in the car, that's not what you should do."
A eyewitness to the explosion told Ynet that he saw a woman who was hit and was evacuated from the scene. "She was injured in her leg and was in shock." When asked about his feelings about the fact that the war had also reached Mazra’a, a place relatively far from the border, he replied that "the feelings are not good. Me and my daughters, they are all screaming. I have a daughter, five years old, she screams all day. The situation is difficult, the situation is not good."
Nassim Nas , a resident of Mazra’a, shared that after 10 months of war "we have to end it, 10 months is too much". When asked how he thinks the problem can be solved, he replied: "I don't know how to do it. We little people don't know how to do it. Let's hope it will be all right."
Coral , who was slightly injured and arrived at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, said: "I was driving on the road with my child (three months old) and the drone fell right next to us. My rear window was shattered by a shard and we pulled over. Thank God we are fine. I arrived from the direction of Krayot and did not hear the siren. It was a great miracle."The IDF announced later on Wednesday that "an initial inquiry indicates that an interceptor missed the target and hit the ground, injuring several civilians. The incident is under review."
Hezbollah said it aimed its fire at a military base near Acre after an Israeli strike Monday on the South Lebanon town of Mayfadoun near Nabatieh, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Lebanon's border with Israel, reportedly killing at least five men. According to a report in the Saudi Al-Hadath channel, a senior member of the Iran-backed group was among the dead.
Mazra’a does not have enough shelters: 'We have no safe places'
Against the backdrop of the Hezbollah attack, the residents of Mazra’a harshly criticized the lack of shelters to protect against the missiles and drones launched from southern Lebanon. "The residents of the village live in great danger, while Nahariya, which is a minute away, enjoys shelters that are sufficient for all residents," they noted. "The village has a shelter at the school and another one at the community center, but this is only enough for a very small number of people," Mohammad Awad, a resident of Mazra’a, said. "We are facing a danger that threatens our lives and we have no safe places to protect us from the missiles. Today the explosions were very close to us, if it had happened in a residential neighborhood we would have seen victims, injuries and very significant damage."
Another young man said that "our village is a minute away from Nahariya, and there are shelters to protect everyone, just because it's a Jewish city, while we Arabs don't seem to deserve these services." According to him, "the responsible authorities must provide shelters and raise this issue not only in times of war, but also in calm days without any wars."

Sayyed Nasrallah Speech: Hezbollah Response Inevitable despite Israeli Calming Notices
Al-Manar English Website./August 06/2024
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stressed on Tuesday that Hezbollah response to the Israeli crime of assassinating the martyred Islamic Resistance commander Sayyed Fuad Shokr in Beirut’s Dahiyeh is inevitable regardless of all the consequences. “We are keen on the Lebanese national interests, but no one can ask us to act with the Zionist aggression on Dahiyeh as a a normal incident in the context of the ongoing battle.”Addressing Hezbollah ceremony held at Sayyed Al-Shuhada Complex in Beirut’s Dahiyeh to commemorate the martyred commander Sayyed Shokr one week after his martyrdom, Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that the “Israeli” enemy is the one that chose to escalate the confrontation with Lebanon and Iran. Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that Hezbollah response may be individual or coordination with the Resistance Front, affirming that the Islamic Republic and Yemen are committed to responding to the Zionist aggression. “Our response is certainly coming and will be strong, impactful, and effective. There are still days and nights ahead of us, and we await the battlefield.”Today we speak with responsibility about a future that we will build together through our patience, endurance, reliance on God, and the blood of our martyrs, Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding that the enemy’s resources in the north can be targeted within half an hour. Commenting on the war possibilities, Sayyed Nasrallah clarified that, after the aggression on Beirut’s Dahiyeh, the Israelis notified Lebanon via the Americans that they do not seek an all-out military confrontation. “The enemy’s calculations for going to a broad war are complex, and when it wants to go to war, it does not need a pretext, Sayyed Nasrallah underscored. “The Americans are asking for more time to work on stopping the war in Gaza, but who can trust the Americans, who have been hypocritical and deceitful for the past ten months?”“Our drones reached east of Acre, and one of the Iron Dome missiles failed to intercept one of the targets and fell in Nahariya, where 19 people have been injured so far,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, “The enemy’s army is obligated to clarify the situation in Nahariya as it must respond, while it did not acknowledge the attack in Majdal Shams because it targeted our Arab Syrian Druze brethren, reflecting misinformation and a divisive project.” Hezbollah, Iran, and Yemen are obligated to respond, and the enemy anticipates this response considering every sign of it as part of the retaliation, according to Sayyed Nasrallah who added that the Resistance acts carefully, courageously and deliberately. Affirming that the enemy’s week-long waiting is part of the punishment, Sayyed Nasrallah said, “In the past, the enemy was positioned with one and a half feet near the Lebanese border; today, the threat from Hezbollah and Iran has made entire “Israel” stand on one and a half feet.Iran was obligated to respond after the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus and is now also committed to fighting following the assassination of martyr Haniyeh in Tehran, although it is not required for Iran and Syria to enter the combat directly, Hezbollah leader maintained. “Iran and Syria are required to provide the resistance groups with all kinds of support, away from any direct engagement in the battle.” Sayyed Nasrallah addressed that anti-resistance parties in Lebanon, stressing that they must fear any Israeli victory in the current battle. “The Resistance does not need your support, but just avoid backstabbing it.”
We are in a battle with a broad horizon
Hezbollah Secretary General also called on the resistance in Gaza and the West Bank, from the perspective of shared blood, fight, and future, and to honorable people, for more patience and steadfastness, urging the support fronts in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen to continue supporting Gaza despite the sacrifices. Sayyed Nasrallah further called on Arab countries to wake up to the danger threatening the region. What if ‘Israel’ emerges victoriousز Sayyed Nasrallah warned that if Netanyahu’s government succeeds in Gaza and the West Bank, it means that Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian cause will be in great danger. The true project of Netanyahu and his allies is to make Jordan a substitute homeland for the Palestinians, Sayyed Nasrallah underlined. “If the resistance in Gaza is defeated, which it will not be, ‘Israel’ will not leave any Islamic or Christian sanctities, and there will be no Palestine, Jordan, or its ruling regime, or Syria extending to Egypt.”“Confrontation and resistance are required, without hesitation or submission; this is a humanitarian and religious duty,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, “Every honorable person must confront, and the goal of this battle is to prevent ‘Israel’ from winning and to eliminate the Palestinian cause. This confrontation has a significant historic prospect for victory.”Sayyed Nasrallah maintained that the assassination of leaders Shokr and Haniyeh is an Israeli achievement, but that it does not change the nature of the battle and has made the enemy’s position more difficult. “Operations in the West Bank have escalated, reverse migration has increased, and there has been damage on all fronts.” Sayyed Nasrallah underlined that the United States has been silent for 31 years, and that its current talk about establishing a Palestinian state is false and hypocritical because any vote on a Palestinian state in the Security Council is met with an American veto. “The US pretends to be dissatisfied with Netanyahu’s conduct during the war and claims to pressure him, but this is a lie as they are supplying him with tons of weapons.”
Israel’s diminishing power
Hezbollah Chief maintained that the American defense of “Israel” indicates that it is no longer as powerful or prestigious as it once was. “When Iran and Hezbollah spoke of retaliating against ‘Israel’ for its atrocities, the US affirmed its commitment to defend the Zionist entity,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, “The occupation relies on the United States and Western countries for protection as it is unable to defend itself.” “Israel” is no longer as strong as it once was; during Operation Protective Edge, several countries defended the Zionist entity, Sauued Nasrallah added. “Israel, which fought in 1967 and 1973 with the strongest armies in the region, is now fearful of Iranian and Hezbollah responses and seeks Western countries to defend it.”
Gaza and West Bank
Sayyed Nasrallah mentioned that Netanyahu does not want a ceasefire in Gaza and insists on this in every negotiation round, aiming to displace the people of Gaza.“The Israeli position is against a Palestinian state even in Gaza, viewing it as an existential threat, even if recognized only internationally for Gaza.”“The plan for the West Bank, following the Flood of Al-Aqsa”, involves displacing its inhabitants through killing, operations, and airstrikes. The West Bank is being bombed by air and drones, with the aim of expanding settlements and displacing Palestinians towards Jordan, officially annexing it.”Sayyed Nasrallah highlighted the international silence about the remarks of Israeli minister of finance Bezalel Smotrich who said “its is moral all people in Gaza”.“Israeli ministerial remarks about nuking Gaza and Knesset’s resolution on rejecting a Palestinian state reflect the essence of the ongoing battle.”
The Israeli enemy has annexed Golan Heights and Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms in order complete the entity’s map-from the river to the sea, Sayyed Nasrallah said. “There is a Zionist project that denies the possibility of a Palestinian state, while the resistance front seeks a unified Palestine from the sea to the river. All interim projects will dissolve as they have no future and are unrealistic.”
Martyr Sayyed Mohsen
“We meet today to honor one of those men who have proven true to what they pledged to Allah, Sayyed Nasrallah started his speech. Martyr Fuad Shokr, Sayyed Mohsen, is one of the key leaders behind the victory in 2000, Sayyed Nasrallah said. “During the July War, the main operations room was under his command, and he played a crucial role in rebuilding and enhancing our capabilities after the war.”“In managing the Lebanese support front, Sayyed Mohsen would follow up, lead, direct, and continue the work. Sayyed Fouad was one of the strategic minds in the resistance and an exceptional tactician.” “Intellectually, Sayyed Mohsen had extensive religious knowledge, as well as a broad general culture and excellent expressive abilities. Sayyed Mohsen was a educator who shaped men and had a profound impact on those around him.” The martyr leader Sayyed Fouad Shukr is from the founding generation of the resistance, and in addition to that, he is one of the founding leaders, Sayyed Nasrallah said. Commenting on the Zionist act of creating sonic booms over Dahiyeh just before the speech, Sayyed Nasrallah said, “The enemy may resort to breaking the sound barrier over the southern suburbs to provoke and scare those present at the ceremony. If that happens, we will respond with the appropriate slogan.”We acknowledge the magnitude of the loss, and the martyrdom of Sayyed Mohsen is a significant loss, but this does not shake us or stop us, Sayyed Nasrallahs stressed.
Source: Al-Manar English Website.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 06-07/2024
US sends ship-based Navy fighter jets to a base in the Middle East to help protect Israel
Lolita C. Baldor/WASHINGTON (AP)/August 6, 2024
About a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier have flown to a military base in the Middle East, as part of the Pentagon’s effort to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard U.S. troops, according to a U.S. official. The F/A-18s and a E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft took off from the carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday, said the official. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the increased military presence in the region as officials worry about escalating violence in the Middle East in the wake of the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran. The Navy jets' land-based deployment is expected to be temporary, because a squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets is enroute to the same base from their home station in Alaska. The roughly dozen F-22s are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. It’s not clear how long all of the aircraft will remain together at the base, and that may depend on what — if anything — happens in the next few days. The troop movements come as U.S. officials released more details about the rocket attack that hit a military base in Iraq on Tuesday, injuring American personnel. Officials said five U.S. service members and two contractors were hurt when two rockets hit the base. The officials said five of those injured were being treated at the al-Asad airbase and two were evacuated, but all seven are in stable condition. They did not provide details on who was evacuated. The rocket attack is the latest in what has been an uptick in strikes on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed militias. It comes as tensions across the Middle East are spiking but is not believed to be connected to the Hezbollah and Hamas killings. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. In recent weeks, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed launching attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria after a lull of several months, following a strike on a base in Jordan in late January that killed three American soldiers and prompted a series of retaliatory U.S. strikes. Between October and January, an umbrella group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had regularly claimed attacks that it said were in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and were aimed at pushing U.S. troops out of the region.

The US Navy is on its fourth aircraft carrier as its warships react to fighting in the Middle East
Jake Epstein/Business Insider/August 6, 2024 .
The US on Saturday dispatched an aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, to the Middle East. It's the fourth US carrier sent to respond to ongoing crises in the Middle East since October. The change has come as the region braces for a potential attack on Israel by Iran and its proxies. The US Navy is sending another aircraft carrier to the Middle East. It's the fourth sent to respond to ongoing crises in the tumultuous region in the past 10 months. With this move, more than a third of the carrier fleet will have been involved at one point or another. The Pentagon on Saturday announced that the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which was recently in the Pacific, was moving into the Middle East amid a broader shake-up of the US military's force posture in the region. The change has come as the US, its allies and partners, and the broader Middle East brace for a potential attack on Israel by Iran and its proxies. They've blamed Israel for the stunning assassination of Hamas' political chief in Tehran, Iran's capital, last week and vowed to take revenge for the killing. It's not immediately clear when the Lincoln and the other ships in the carrier strike group will arrive in the region. When they do, the strike group will be the fourth to be deployed to the Middle East or nearby Eastern Mediterranean since Hamas staged its brutal October 7 attack in Israel, igniting a war and fueling regional tensions. A large ship at sea on the right and a smaller ship in the background on the left.  The massacre triggered a retaliatory war in Gaza and sparked conflict involving other Iranian proxy groups across the region, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and various militias in Iraq and Syria. The US, in October, initially directed the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean to prevent the fighting from spiraling and signal its support for Israel. A carrier strike group consists of a carrier, its air wing, and other warships such as destroyers and cruisers. It's a tremendous and flexible show of force that provides lots of firepower for both offensive and defensive operations. The US also deployed the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean as regional tensions flared. It then pivoted to the Middle East to defend merchant shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from Houthi attacks. The Ford returned home in January. And after months of battling the Houthis in what has been described as the Navy's most intense combat operations since World War II, the Eisenhower finally left the Middle East in June, returning to the US. The carrier was replaced last month by the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, which was previously operating in the Indo-Pacific region, where the US doesn't currently have a forward-deployed carrier presence. Now, the Lincoln carrier strike group is set to replace the Roosevelt, which was operating in the Persian Gulf as of last week, according to the USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker. It's unclear where the Roosevelt is headed next.
"The United States' global defense is dynamic and the Department of Defense retains the capability to deploy on short notice to meet evolving national security threats," a Pentagon spokesperson said on Saturday. The Pentagon said the US was dispatching additional warships capable of intercepting ballistic missiles to the US Central Command and US European Command areas of responsibility as tensions soar between Israel and Iran and its proxies. US warships helped down Iranian ballistic missiles during Tehran's massive attack on Israel in April. It's unclear what a retaliatory Iranian attack could involve, but analysts say Iran and its proxies could modify that strike package as they continue to signal their intent to retaliate against Israel in the coming days.

Palestinian officials say 12 dead in Israel West Bank raids
Reuters/August 06, 2024
WEST BANK, Palestine: Israeli forces killed at least four people in the volatile city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, medics said on Tuesday, following a night of violence in which four others were killed in clashes near Tubas, close to the border with Jordan. The Israeli military said it conducted two separate air strikes in the West Bank, hitting armed militants, but gave no details. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that four people were killed in the strikes against two vehicles in Jenin, one of the most explosive flashpoints in the West Bank. Another person was critically wounded. The strikes came during an operation in Jenin in which footage shared on social media showed a column of armoured personnel carriers entering the city and armoured bulldozers digging up roads. With Israel bracing for an expected Iranian response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, the West Bank violence underscored the multi-front security challenge facing Israeli forces, 10 months after the start of the war in Gaza. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the start of the war, many of them armed fighters but many also stone-throwing youths or uninvolved civilians. At the same time, at least 13 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinian attackers. On Tuesday, a female border guard was wounded in a stabbing attack by a Palestinian man using a screwdriver during an inspection of a bus at a chackpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The attacker was shot dead, the police said. Overnight, the Palestinian health ministry said at least four Palestinians were killed and seven others injured by Israeli fire in the town of Aqaba, close to the city of Tubas. Two of the injured were in critical condition. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the clashes occurred after Israeli forces surrounded a house in Aqaba and clashed with a group of young men.

Hamas names Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, as its new leader in show of defiance
The Associated Press/August 6, 2024
Hamas on Tuesday named Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader in a dramatic sign of the power of the Palestinian militant group's hardline wing after his predecessor was killed in a presumed Israeli strike in Iran. The selection of Sinwar, a secretive figure close to Iran who worked for years to build up Hamas' military strength, was a defiant signal that the group is prepared to keep fighting after 10 months of destruction from Israel's campaign in Gaza and after the assassination of Sinwar's predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh. It is also likely to provoke Israel, which has put him at the top of its kill list after the Oct. 7 attack, in which militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 as hostages. The announcement comes at volatile moment. Fears are high of an escalation into a wider regional war, with Iran vowing revenge against Israel over Haniyeh's killing and Lebanon's Hezbollah threatening to retaliate over Israel's killing of one of its top commanders in an airstrike in Beirut last week. American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to salvage negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza, shaken by Haniyeh' killing. Hamas said in a statement it named Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau to replace Haniyeh, who was killed in a blast that Iran and Hamas blamed on Israel. Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility. Also last week, Israel said it had confirmed the death of the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, in a July airstrike in Gaza. Hamas has not confirmed his death.
In reaction to the appointment, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya televsion, “There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him.”
Israel's killings of multiple senior officials in Hamas over recent months left Sinwar as the most prominent figure in the group. His selection signals that the leadership on the ground in Gaza — particularly the armed wing known as the Qassam Brigades — has taken over from the leadership in exile, which has traditionally maintained the position of the overall leadership to navigate relations with foreign allies and diplomacy. Haniyeh, who had lived in self-imposed exile in Qatar since 2019, had played a direct role in negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza through U.S., Qatari and Egyptian negotiators — though he and other Hamas officials always ran proposals and positions by Sinwar. Speaking to Al-Jazeera television after the announcement, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said Sinwar would continue the cease-fire negotiations. “The problem in negotiations is not the change in Hamas,” he said, blaming Israel and its ally the United States for the failure to seal a deal. But he said said Sinwar's selection was a sign the group's will had not been broken. Hamas “remains steadfast in the battlefield and in politics," he said. "The person leading today is the one who led the fighting for more than 305 days and is still steadfast in the field.”Hamas' allies Iran and Hezbollah issued statements praising Sinwar's appointment.
Hamas' representative in Iran, Khaled Kaddoumi, called Sinwar a “consensus choice” popular among all factions and involved in the group’s decision-making throughout, including in negotiations. In a voice message to the AP, he said Sinwar knows the political aspirations of the Palestinians for a state and the return of refugees but he is also a “fierce fighter on the battlefield.”Mediators have been struggling to push through a U.S.-backed outline for a deal, but talks have hit obstacles, particularly over its centerpiece terms — a release of all of Hamas' remaining hostages in return for an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Hamas has demanded guarantees from mediators that an initial cease-fire will continue until terms for that exchange are worked out. Israeli leaders have threatened to resume fighting to eliminate Hamas after an initial partial hostage release.
Speaking Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “Escalation is not in anyone’s interest, it will only only lead to more conflict, more violence, more insecurity, ... It is also critical that we break this cycle by reaching a cease-fire in Gaza. That, in turn, will unlock possibilities for more enduring calm, not only in Gaza itself but in other areas where the conflict could spread.” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday at a press briefing that she had no comment on the announcement of Sinwar's appointment.As Hamas' leader inside Gaza since 2017, Sinwar rarely appeared in public but kept an iron grip on Hamas' rule over the territory. Close to Deif and Qassam Brigades, he worked to build up the group's military capabilities. In one of his few appearances, Sinwar ended a public speech in Gaza by inviting Israel to assassinate him, proclaiming, “I will walk back home after this meeting.” He then did so, shaking hands and taking selfies with people in the streets.
He has been in deep hiding since the Oct. 7 attacks, which triggered Israel's campaign of bombardment and offensives aimed at destroying Hamas. The death toll among Palestinians is now nearing 40,000, most of the population of 2.3 million has been driven from their homes, and large swaths of Gaza's towns and cities have been destroyed. In May, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant against Sinwar on charges of war crimes over the Oct. 7 attack, as well as against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's defense minister for war crimes. Hugh Lovatt, an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the European Council on Foreign Relations. said the elimination of other top figures cleared the way for Sinwar. “Two weeks ago, few would have expected Sinwar to be the group’s next leader despite the strong influence he exerts from Gaza,” he said. The killing of Haniyeh, a relative moderate, “not only opened the path for Sinwar to claim full control of Hamas, but also appears to have tipped the group into a more hardline direction,” he said.

Israel FM calls to ‘swiftly eliminate’ new Hamas chief Sinwar
Saeed Al-Batati/Arab News/August 06, 2024
AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: The US military has destroyed a number of Houthi drones, remotely operated boats and ballistic missiles aimed at ships in international commercial channels. The US Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday morning Yemen time that its forces had destroyed three drones fired by the Houthis from Yemen over the Gulf of Aden, as well as another drone destroyed in a Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory. The US military also destroyed one drone boat, a drone, and an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Houthis in the Red Sea before they could reach their intended targets along the critical maritime route. “These weapons presented a clear and imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. This reckless and dangerous behavior by Iranian-backed Houthis continues to threaten regional stability and security,” the US Central Command said in the statement.
In Sanaa, the Houthis did not claim credit for fresh assaults on ships in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, as they regularly do hours or days after they strike ships. On Saturday, the Houthis restarted a two-week hiatus in their anti-ship campaign by shooting missiles at a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden. According to the Joint Maritime Information Center, the Liberian-flagged cargo freighter Groton came under two missile attacks on Saturday afternoon while traveling east of Aden, Yemen’s southern port city. In a statement issued by the militia’s military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, the Houthis claimed that the Groton was targeted because the ship’s parent company violated their ban on going to Israeli ports. Houthi attacks on ships have been halted since July 20, when Israeli jets targeted oil storage facilities and other targets in Hodeidah, a Houthi-held city in western Yemen. Despite their frequent threats to retaliate for the Israeli bombings, the Houthis have not claimed any further assaults on Israel or its ships in the past two weeks. Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship, sunk two others, and launched dozens of missile, drone and drone boat attacks on commercial and naval ships in international shipping lanes off Yemen, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israel’s war in Gaza. Meanwhile, Rashad Al-Alimi, the chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said on Monday that his government reversed its harsh economic actions against Sanaa banks to promote “people’s interests.” In a surprise move that sparked outrage in Yemen, the Yemeni government agreed to a UN-brokered agreement with the Houthis to lift sanctions on banks in Sanaa and allow Yemenia Airways, the country’s national airline, to increase flights from the Houthi-held Sanaa airport to Jordan, Egypt and India, reversing previous strong pledges to punish banks in Sanaa that refuse to relocate their headquarters to the government-controlled Aden, the interim capital. “We are in an economic fight, and the Presidential Leadership Council has decided with full conviction that these choices may need to be reversed in order to prioritize the interests of the Yemeni people above all other interests,” Al-Alimi said in an interview with state-run Hadhramaut. The Yemeni leader also said that his government had accepted the UN-brokered peace plan, known as the roadmap, to end the war in Yemen, and praised the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen for assisting the Yemeni government and ally troops in liberating Yemeni regions from the Houthis. “We agreed to the roadmap and now the ball is in the Houthis’ court, who continue to resist peace,” he said, adding: “If it hadn’t been for Operation Decisive Storm and the Yemenis’ resistance and sacrifices, the militia would already dominate all of Yemen.”

Egyptian FM holds phone call with US secretary of state
Gobran Mohamed/Arab News/August 06, 2024
CAIRO: Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Badr Abdelatty held a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Middle East. Abdelatty briefed his US counterpart on the discussions he held with the foreign ministers of Iran and Lebanon, as well as those of several European states, regarding the regional escalation, the recent Israeli assassinations, and the fallout, which threatens to expand the scope of the conflict in an unprecedented manner.The foreign minister stressed the necessity of all parties exercising self-restraint, sparing the region from the dangers of instability, and called on his US counterpart to pressure Israel into ceasing its aggression and engaging seriously in the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza. The two parties discussed the ceasefire negotiations and the Egyptian-Qatari-US efforts in this regard, agreeing to continue coordinating in order to reach a ceasefire agreement as soon as possible and defuse the crisis.'

US destroys Houthi missiles, drones, drone boats in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden
Saeed Al-Batati/Arab News/August 06, 2024
AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: The US military has destroyed a number of Houthi drones, remotely operated boats and ballistic missiles aimed at ships in international commercial channels. The US Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday morning Yemen time that its forces had destroyed three drones fired by the Houthis from Yemen over the Gulf of Aden, as well as another drone destroyed in a Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory. The US military also destroyed one drone boat, a drone, and an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by the Houthis in the Red Sea before they could reach their intended targets along the critical maritime route. “These weapons presented a clear and imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. This reckless and dangerous behavior by Iranian-backed Houthis continues to threaten regional stability and security,” the US Central Command said in the statement. In Sanaa, the Houthis did not claim credit for fresh assaults on ships in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday, as they regularly do hours or days after they strike ships. On Saturday, the Houthis restarted a two-week hiatus in their anti-ship campaign by shooting missiles at a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden. According to the Joint Maritime Information Center, the Liberian-flagged cargo freighter Groton came under two missile attacks on Saturday afternoon while traveling east of Aden, Yemen’s southern port city. In a statement issued by the militia’s military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, the Houthis claimed that the Groton was targeted because the ship’s parent company violated their ban on going to Israeli ports. Houthi attacks on ships have been halted since July 20, when Israeli jets targeted oil storage facilities and other targets in Hodeidah, a Houthi-held city in western Yemen. Despite their frequent threats to retaliate for the Israeli bombings, the Houthis have not claimed any further assaults on Israel or its ships in the past two weeks. Since November, the Houthis have seized a commercial ship, sunk two others, and launched dozens of missile, drone and drone boat attacks on commercial and naval ships in international shipping lanes off Yemen, claiming to be acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israel’s war in Gaza.Meanwhile, Rashad Al-Alimi, the chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said on Monday that his government reversed its harsh economic actions against Sanaa banks to promote “people’s interests.” In a surprise move that sparked outrage in Yemen, the Yemeni government agreed to a UN-brokered agreement with the Houthis to lift sanctions on banks in Sanaa and allow Yemenia Airways, the country’s national airline, to increase flights from the Houthi-held Sanaa airport to Jordan, Egypt and India, reversing previous strong pledges to punish banks in Sanaa that refuse to relocate their headquarters to the government-controlled Aden, the interim capital. “We are in an economic fight, and the Presidential Leadership Council has decided with full conviction that these choices may need to be reversed in order to prioritize the interests of the Yemeni people above all other interests,” Al-Alimi said in an interview with state-run Hadhramaut. The Yemeni leader also said that his government had accepted the UN-brokered peace plan, known as the roadmap, to end the war in Yemen, and praised the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen for assisting the Yemeni government and ally troops in liberating Yemeni regions from the Houthis. “We agreed to the roadmap and now the ball is in the Houthis’ court, who continue to resist peace,” he said, adding: “If it hadn’t been for Operation Decisive Storm and the Yemenis’ resistance and sacrifices, the militia would already dominate all of Yemen.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah speaks with European, Canadian and Egyptian leaders on Gaza
Arab News/August 06, 2024
LONDON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II, in separate phone calls on Tuesday, spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The king discussed international efforts towards regional deescalation, according to Jordan News Agency. King Abdullah warned against a regional expansion of the Israel-Hamas conflict, stressing the need to safeguard security and stability in the region. He also highlighted the importance of reaching an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as protecting civilians and preventing a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation. King Abdullah also discussed the same issues with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday, Jordan News Agency said. The Jordanian and Egyptian leaders both agreed on the need to achieve peace in the Palestinian territories on the basis of the two-state solution, guaranteeing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Putin asks Iran to avoid civilian casualties in Israel response, sources say
Reuters/August 06, 2024
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for a restrained response to Israel’s suspected killing of the leader of Hamas, advising against attacks on Israeli civilians, two senior Iranian sources said.The message, according to the sources, was delivered on Monday by Sergei Shoigu, a senior ally of the Kremlin leader, in meetings with top Iranian officials as the Islamic Republic weighs its response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. Tehran also pressed Moscow for the delivery of Russian made Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, the two Iranian sources, privy to the meeting in Tehran, the sources told Reuters. In Moscow, the Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment. State-run RIA news agency reported on Tuesday that Shoigu said he discussed Haniyeh’s killing on his Tehran visit. The two sources with knowledge of the matter did not provide further details on the talks with Shoigu, who was defense minister before becoming the secretary of Russia’s security council in May. They said Shoigu’s visit was one of several avenues Moscow had used to relay to Iran the need for restraint while at the same time condemning Haniyeh’s killing as “a very dangerous assassination,” in a bid to prevent a Middle East war. The Middle East, the sources said, was on the brink of a major war and those behind the assassination were clearly trying to trigger such a conflict. Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran since the start of its war with Ukraine and has said it is preparing to sign a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with Tehran. There was no immediate comment from Iran’s Foreign ministry. On Monday it said Tehran did not seek to raise regional tensions but needed to punish Israel to prevent further instability.
DIPLOMACY NO LONGER AN OPTION
In Washington, an official from the Biden administration warned on Monday of the risks of a major regional conflict. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, emphasized that the scale of Iran’s and Hezbollah’s response would be a key factor in determining the extent of a potential conflict.
Despite efforts by Western and regional states to persuade Iran to retaliate in a measured way, or not at all, Tehran has told foreign officials it will respond “severely” to the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran, where he attended President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration, four Iranian sources independently confirmed.
In Lebanon, a prominent Lebanese source close to Hezbollah said “a retaliatory strike is inevitable and diplomacy is no longer a viable option,” adding Iran wants the strike to be “severe” but not lead to a regional war. However, he said, this does not rule out the possibility of a war in Lebanon between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
A Middle East-focused senior US official said Washington was doing all it can “to dissuade all parties from going to a place they can’t get back from,” stressing that other states in the region and Europe should do more. A Qatari official said Doha was in constant discussion with Iran to lessen tensions.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Monday that Israel must be prepared for anything, including a swift transition to offense.
The country’s response to any attack by Hezbollah or Iran would likely depend more on the damage caused rather than the scale of the attack, according to two sources familiar with recent Israeli assessments.
Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility for the killing. Iran backs Hamas, which is at war with Israel in Gaza, and also Hezbollah, with whom Israel has been trading fire since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and ignited the Gaza conflict.

Defense, intelligence heads meet with air force pilots, intelligence soldiers over Iran crisis
Jerusalem Post/August 06/2024
Both visits by the Defense Minister and the Head of the Intelligence Directorate come amid continuous tensions between Israel, Iran, and Iran's proxy militias. In light of developments in the Middle East and the potential Iranian attack on Israel, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the Tel Nof airbase, while Intelligence head Aharon Haliva was briefed by soldiers of the Intelligence Directorate on Tuesday. In his visit, Gallant spoke with pilots led by the 133 squadron commander, Lt. Col. E, drone operators, mechanics, and electronic unit personnel. Gallant, in a conversation with these soldiers, said, "Every day that passes, we are improving our defense readiness and sharpening our attack capabilities." Gallant speaks of preparing for possible Iranian responses  He also added, "I look at the foundation by which we operate - courage, determination, and perseverance. Take advantage of the time - planning, training, discussions, especially about the least expected, because usually the least expected happens." Additionally, the Head of the Intelligence Directorate (J2), Major General Aharon Haliva, visited two Intelligence Directorate bases, the IDF stated on Tuesday. During the visit, Haliva was briefed on intelligence efforts emphasizing developments in Iran and the northern front and insisted on the Intelligence Directorate's readiness for all scenarios.

Israeli minister says it may be ‘moral’ to starve 2 million Gazans, but ‘no one in the world would let us’
Dana Karni/Bloomberg/ August 6, 2024
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said “it may be just and moral” to starve 2 million Gaza residents until Israeli hostages are returned, but “no one in the world would let us.”In a speech on Monday at the Katif Conference for National Responsibility in the town of Yad Binyamin, the far-right minister said Israel should take control of distributing aid inside Gaza and claimed that Hamas was in control of distribution channels within the strip. “It is impossible in today’s global reality to wage war – no one in the world would let us starve and thirst two million citizens, even though it may be just and moral until they return our hostages,” he said, adding that if Israel controlled aid distribution instead of Hamas, the war would have ended by now and the hostages would have returned. “You cannot fight Hamas with one hand and give them aid with the other. It’s his (Hamas’) money, it’s his fuel, it’s his civilian control of the Gaza Strip. It just doesn’t work,” he said. Israel has control over aid that enters Gaza and aid groups are in charge of distributing it. While there have been some anecdotal reports from Gazans of Hamas stealing aid, it’s unclear how rampant it is. US Special Envoy David Satterfield said in February that no Israeli official had presented him or the Biden administration with “specific evidence of diversion or theft of assistance.”Israel is facing mounting criticism from aid groups and international organizations for restricting food aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. A United Nations statement, citing independent experts, indicated last month that famine has spread across the entire enclave. The experts accused Israel of conducting an “intentional and targeted starvation campaign,” which they termed a “form of genocidal violence.”The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of “starvation as a weapon of war,” among other allegations. Netanyahu has strongly denied the allegations, saying they are based on a “pack of lies.” He has said that if Palestinians in Gaza aren’t getting enough food, “it’s not because Israel is blocking it, it’s because Hamas is stealing it.”Israel has stated that it will not end the war until all hostages are freed and Hamas is eliminated. The conflict began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. The war has resulted in the deaths of more than 39,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities. Smotrich on Monday advocated for Israeli control of the aid effort “as a part or as an essential means of realizing the defined goals of the war,” and said only minimal aid is needed in Gaza in the months and years to come. “No one talks about (Israeli) military rule (of Gaza) now. No need to unclog sewers, no need for education, no need for welfare. Gaza in the next two years is (going to be) a war zone. You need food, some medicine and a minimum of sanitation – water, sewage. That’s it,” he said.

Iran prepping attack on Israel in response to Hamas leader assassination in Tehran
Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY/August 6, 2024
U.S. officials have detected signs that Iran is preparing an attack on Israel in response to the assassination in Tehran last week of a senior Hamas leader, although the scope and timing of the retaliation remained unclear Tuesday, according to two U.S. officials.
Among the concerns: Iran may seek to weave an unconventional attack, such as an assassination, into a conventional assault with missiles because Iran's barrage of 300 missiles and drones unleashed against Israel in April was largely ineffective, said one of the officials, both of whom were not authorized to speak publicly. Another worry is that Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon will join in the attack, one of the officials said. They have an arsenal of rockets and missiles capable of inflicting significant damage in Israel and they did not fully participate in April's attack. A rocket attack by an Iranian-linked militant group in Iraq on a base on Monday wounded seven U.S. troops, according to a third U.S. official who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Those troops were in stable condition Tuesday. That attack may be a precursor to the larger assault on Israel and western targets, one of the officials said. Responding to concerns about Iran on Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a buildup of the already-stout U.S. military presence in the Middle East. U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers capable of shooting down ballistic missiles and F-22 warplanes have been dispatched to the Middle East, an official said.
They will join other troops operating there, including the USS Wasp, a Marine expeditionary unit operating in the eastern Mediterranean. The Pentagon has maintained a more robust presence in the Middle East since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The aim is to prevent the conflict from spiraling, and to protect Israel in the event of an attack from Iran or other adversaries. In April, Israel’s sophisticated air defense system, combined with a U.S.-led allied effort, intercepted the missiles and drones fired by Iran. Ali Kahmeni, Iran’s supreme leader, ordered the attack after blaming Israel for an airstrike on an Iranian embassy compound in Syria that killed several people, including a to Revolutionary Guards commander. Iran has vowed to respond to the latest assassination, although Israel has not claimed responsibility for it. For now, U.S. officials remain watchful and maintain an attack does not appear imminent. The uncertainty may be intentional on Iran's part as it keeps Israel and its allies on edge, one of the officials said..

‘Going to a very bad place’: Israeli reservists who refuse to return to Gaza cite military’s destructive approach
Zeena Saifi and Jeremy Diamond, CNN/August 6, 2024
Hear why some Israeli reservists would rather risk prison than go back to fight in GazaScroll back up to restore default view. Every day for two months, Michael Ofer Ziv spent hours watching grainy, black-and-white footage of the Gaza Strip from a tiny room across the border.As an operations commander, he was tracking Israeli forces inside Gaza and approving airstrikes.Every day, he said, his unit had a certain quota to fill. “They will tell us, today you have seven, today you have nine… you sometimes argue for more, but you will never fire less than you’re given,” he told CNN in an interview. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on his claims. One by one, buildings blew up on his screen like a hypnotic reel of destruction. At first, it was easy to forget that those images were real, and not just a video game playing on a screen. But the more he stepped out of that war room, the more he was exposed to the reality of those strikes. One minute, he was looking at soundless footage of airstrikes he ordered; the next, he was on his phone watching unfiltered videos of Palestinians shrieking, carrying their loved ones who had been killed because of the Israeli military. “This is happening in real life and has an actual effect on those people… at some point, your brain kind of cannot disconnect those two things anymore,” he said.
Once he connected those dots, there was no going back.
Asked for comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN that Ofer Ziv’s claims around targeting were “baseless, unfounded, and misrepresent the sensitivity, precaution, and strict obligation to international law with which the IDF selects and pursues its targets.” Like thousands of Israeli reservists, Ofer Ziv was called up to war following the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others taken hostage, Israeli authorities said. He knew the army had to respond but was concerned about what that response might look like because of how widespread the language of revenge was.
His concerns were soon validated, he said. In May, he and 40 other reservists signed an open letter declaring they would refuse to serve Israel’s war in Gaza again after the IDF launched a military offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza, where many of the civilians displaced by the conflict had fled. They readily acknowledge that they represent a tiny minority of reservists who oppose the war, but they hope that their decision to take a public stand will spark a debate in Israeli society and put pressure on the government to prioritize a ceasefire deal. “If we are deciding to go into Rafah instead of making a deal, I felt like it was a statement of us saying we care more about killing Palestinians and destroying Gaza than we (do) about actually finishing this, actually having a long-term solution, actually releasing the hostages,” Ofer Ziv said. His conscience just wouldn’t allow him to continue. He couldn’t fathom the colossal number of casualties inflicted upon Palestinian civilians. “There is also a decision here to not be as careful as we can be, or even be careless and disregard human life,” he said. “I can count on my hand the amount of times we were told we are not allowed to shoot at something… the main vibe was we shoot first, ask questions later,” he added.In its comment to CNN, the IDF said it was “fully committed to respecting all applicable international legal obligations” and “to mitigating civilian harm” during military operations. “The IDF does not aim to inflict excessive damage to civilian infrastructure and strikes exclusively on the grounds of military necessity and in strict accordance with international law,” it said.
‘Going to a very bad place’
And while Ofer Ziv was watching Gaza’s destruction from behind a screen, Yuval Green was witnessing it happen in real life. Green served as a combat medic in Gaza between October and December last year. But a day before he was recruited for reserve duty, he was planning on leaving the army, he says, objecting to its treatment of Palestinians and the occupation of the West Bank. The October 7 attacks made him delay his decision for the sake of his comrades. “When I went inside Gaza, I had a moment of realization that right now, I’m here only for my friends. No political reasons. I don’t believe we need to be here at all,” he told CNN. Green said he felt his role was to protect the civilians who had been attacked on October 7 and thought the Israeli military would go in and target Hamas. He didn’t expect it to go on for as long as it did. Just like Ofer Ziv, he was concerned before the war began about where it might go, because of how “furious” Israelis were. “Ideas like killing the entire population of Gaza suddenly became almost normal… suddenly hearing our commanders say that we’re not going to be merciful this time… I felt like we were going to a very bad place,” he said. Green recalled the immeasurable level of destruction he observed. While some commanders would order the demolition of houses for military purposes, most times it was because “they want to ruin Palestinian houses and they think that’s the right thing to do,” he said. “They don’t really care about the lives of Palestinians… we’ve inflicted so much damage upon Gaza, something that would be beyond the imagination of any reasonable person… I can’t imagine how people would go back to living there,” he continued. The final blow for him was when his commander ordered their platoon to burn down a house in the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, that he was sure would be rehabilitated after the war. “I was trying to understand the reasons for that, if there is any military reason… and the commander just didn’t have good enough answers,” he said. The next day, he hopped into a vehicle making a supply run out of Gaza, and never came back.
‘Losing so much’
Reservists who refuse to serve again, like Ofer Ziv and Green, could face serious consequences. Disobeying an order and refusing to serve is both a disciplinary and criminal offense, according to Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard.
As a criminal offense, it carries up to three years in prison, but sometimes more than that in times of war, Sfard told CNN. In normal circumstances, reservists are not called up for more than a month at a time, so they are usually not tried consecutive times, he added. “What it really boils down to is who your commander is and how they will react to your decision,” Sfard, who is a former refuser himself, said. “There is a very delicate balance here between two interests the army has. One is, punish severely those who refuse to serve to deter others from doing the same. The other is not to give too much publicity to those who are not ready to serve, because then it causes others to follow them too.”
Despite the risks, both Green and Ofer Ziv are committed to their decision.
Green lamented the way Israel’s military culture has dominated the public sphere, making anyone who criticizes the war or refuses to serve be viewed as a traitor. Those in his platoon have heard him speak out against the war and the military’s conduct since he’s left Gaza. Some respect his opinion, even if they disagree with it. Others have said he is “darkening their names,” he said. “I felt this was a really stupid idea. How can I harm your names by saying the truth? You harmed your name yourself by doing the type of things that were done there,” he said. Even though he risked his life in Gaza, he is dumbfounded by the fact that his friends and family are more concerned about his safety now he’s spoken out than they were back then. “We could end the war today. Israel as the stronger player… could choose to do it and is choosing not to for several reasons… we’re losing so much, the Palestinians are losing so much, for every minute it’s not being signed,” he said. Similarly, Ofer Ziv thinks bringing the issue of refusing military service into the public debate might “wake people up” and let them know that it’s an option not to participate. “We have so many systems that are built so we won’t have to question the position we are in… I do prefer to go to jail than to participate in what we’re doing in Gaza, but I prefer to do neither if it’s possible.”

Iran executes man accused of murder during Mahsa Amini unrest
Reuters/August 6, 2024
Iran executed a 34-year-old man accused of killing a security officer during unrest over the death of Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, state media said, the first known protest-related execution since a relatively moderate president took office. The September 2022 death in police custody of Amini, who was arrested for allegedly flouting Iran's mandatory dress code, sparked months of anti-government protests in the biggest show of opposition to the Shi'ite clerical authorities in years. In November 2022, Reza Rasaei joined the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests in his hometown of Sahneh, in the western province of Kermanshah, during which security agent Nader Bayrami was fatally stabbed. According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Bayrami was the intelligence chief for the Islamic Republic's elite Revolutionary Guards in Sahneh county. Rasaei, a Kurdish member of a religious minority according to rights group Hengaw, was charged with Bayrami's murder and sentenced to death in October 2023. He was executed on Tuesday, the official judiciary news agency Mizan reported. "After four court sessions, and based on the opinion of the forensic pathologist as well as confessions of the accused, it was proven that the fatality was caused by a knife belonging to Rasaei," Mizan quoted the Kermanshah regional prosecutor as saying. Amnesty International said on its website that Rasaei was sentenced to death after "a grossly unfair trial that relied on his forced confessions obtained under torture". Masoud Pezeshkian, who won election as president in July, had in 2022 demanded clarification from authorities about Amini's death and made promises during his election campaign to better protect the rights of women and minorities.

US personnel injured in rocket attack on Iraq base
Associated Press/August 06/2024
Several U.S. personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack at a military base in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said Monday, in what has been a recent uptick in strikes on American forces by Iranian-backed militias. The attack comes as tensions across the Middle East are spiking following the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas' top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran. The U.S. defense officials said troops at al-Asad air base were still assessing the injuries and damage, and it appeared that as many as seven military troops and civilians were injured. Earlier Monday, Iraqi security officials confirmed the attack, but no group has claimed responsibility. The American officials said the U.S. looked into reports of a possible second attack at the base but determined there had not been another one. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. The White House said the president and vice president were briefed on the attack. In recent weeks, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed launching attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria after a lull of several months, following a strike on a base in Jordan in late January that killed three American soldiers and prompted a series of retaliatory U.S. strikes. Between October and January, an umbrella group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had regularly claimed attacks that it said were in retaliation for Washington's support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and were aimed at pushing U.S. troops out of the region.

Kamala Harris chooses Tim Walz as Vice Presidential running mate
Reuters/August 06/2024
Kamala Harris selected Tim Walz as her running mate to appeal to rural voters and strengthen her campaign for presidency.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive policy champion and a plain speaker from America's heartland to help win over rural, white voters.
Harris announced the selection in a text message to supporters. "I’m pleased to share that I’ve made my decision: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join our campaign as my running mate," she said. "Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families. I know that he will bring that same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president." was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the US House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018.
As governor, Walz has pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals for tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers. Walz has long advocated for women's reproductive rights but also displayed a conservative bent while representing a rural district in the US House, defending agricultural interests and backing gun rights. Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is adding a popular Midwestern politician whose home state votes reliably for Democrats in presidential elections but is close to Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial battlegrounds. Such states are seen as critical in deciding the Nov. 5 election, and Walz is widely seen as skilled at connecting with white, rural voters who in recent years have voted broadly for Republican Donald Trump, Harris' rival for the White House.
Harris chose Walz over Josh Shapiro, the popular governor of Pennsylvania, who had been seen as helpful to delivering his crucial battleground state. Harris, 59, became the Democratic Party's standard bearer after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign under party pressure last month. Since then, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and recast the race against Trump with a boost of energy from her party's base. Harris was expected to appear with her running mate at an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening. The Harris campaign hopes Walz's extensive National Guard career, coupled with a successful run as a high school football coach, and his Dad joke videos will attract rural voters who are not yet dedicated to a second Trump term in the White House. Walz was a relative unknown nationally until the Harris "veepstakes" heated up, but his profile has since surged. A popular member of Congress, he reportedly had the backing of powerful former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was instrumental in persuading Biden to leave the race. Harris and Walz will face Trump and his running mate JD Vance, also a military veteran from the Midwest, in the November election.
The George Floyd factor in Walz's tenure
Walz's tenure as governor was marked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder. Walz assigned the state's attorney general to lead the prosecution in the case, saying people "don't believe justice can be served." Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of National Action Network, said Walz had heard calls for justice for Floyd by tapping the attorney general. "I learned then that he was a man who will listen and do what is right by those he represents," Sharpton said in a statement. "We can count on Governor Walz to take that same kind of open approach as Kamala Harris’ vice president." Trump campaign officials and surrogates quickly went to work trying to define Walz as a hardcore leftist whose values are out of touch with most Americans.
They criticized his handling of violent riots in Minneapolis following Floyd's death. "It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State," the Trump campaign said in a statement, a reference to California, Harris' home state.
Walz on the attack
Walz has attacked Trump and Vance as "weird," a catchy insult that has been picked up by the Harris campaign, social media and Democratic activists. Walz gave the nascent Harris campaign the new attack line in a late July interview: "These are weird people on the other side: They want to take books away. They want to be in your exam room," referring to book bans and women's reproductive consultations with doctors. Walz has also assailed claims by Trump and Vance of having middle class credentials. "They keep talking about the middle class. A robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don't know who we are," Walz said in an MSNBC interview. That approach has struck a chord with the young voters Harris needs to reengage. David Hogg, the co-founder of the gun safety group March for Our Lives, described him as a "great communicator."Walz is "somewhat of a unicorn," said Ryan Dawkins, a political science professor at Minnesota's Carleton College - a man born in a small town in rural Nebraska capable of conveying Harris' message to core Democratic voters, and those that the party has failed to reach in recent years. Dawkins praised his ability to connect with rural voters. It is a group the Biden administration has tried to reach with infrastructure spending and other pragmatic policies, but with little show of messaging success so far. In the 2016 election, Trump won 59% of rural voters; in 2020 that number rose to 65% even though Trump lost the election, according to Pew Research.In the 2022 governor's race, Walz won with 52.27% to his Republican opponent's 44.61%, although swaths of rural Minnesota voted for the opponent. While Walz has supported Democratic Party orthodoxy on issues ranging from legalized abortion and same-sex marriage to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, he also racked up a centrist voting record during his congressional career. He was a staunch defender of government support for farmers and military veterans, as well as gun-owner rights that won praise from the National Rifle Association, according to The Almanac of American Politics.
He subsequently registered a failing grade with the NRA after supporting gun-control measures during his first campaign for governor. Walz's shift from a centrist representing a single rural district in Congress to a more progressive politician as governor may have been in response to the demands of voters in major cities like Minneapolis-St. Paul. But it leaves him open to Republican attacks, Dawkins said in a telephone interview."He runs the risk of reinforcing some of the worst fears people have of Kamala Harris being a San Francisco liberal," Dawkins said.
Walz has a ready counter-attack.
"What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn and women are making their own healthcare decisions," Walz said in a July CNN interview. "So if that's where they want to label me, I'm more than happy to take the label."As the state's top executive, Walz mandated the use of face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic and signed a law making marital rape illegal. He presided over several years of budget surpluses in Minnesota on the road to his 2022 reelection. During that campaign, Walz touted the backing of several influential labor unions, including the state AFL-CIO, firefighters, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), teachers and others

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on August 06-07/2024
UNRWA Is Complicit in Terror; Disband It
Gregg Roman/The Middle East Forum Observer/August 6, 2024
https://www.meforum.org/66018/unrwa-is-complicit-in-terror-disband-it
The UN's August 5 announcement that it fired additional employees from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for possible involvement in Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks against Israel is meaningless propaganda. UNRWA has supported Palestinian terrorism for years before Oct. 7 by allowing Hamas to tunnel under its facilities, producing viciously antisemitic curricular material advocating violence against Jews, and supporting a workforce in which ten percent of employees have ties to terrorist groups, according to Israeli estimates.
When the United Nations established UNRWA in 1949, it envisioned a temporary agency that would help resettle Palestinian refugees and then disband within a couple of years. Rather than resolve the refugee problem and disband, UNRWA perpetuated it and grew increasingly complicit in terror.
The UN's August 5 announcement that it fired additional employees from UNRWA for possible involvement in Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks against Israel is meaningless propaganda.
By its own bylaws, UNRWA commits to neutrality and mandates that humanitarian actors must not take sides in hostilities or engage in political, racial, religious, or ideological controversies. Between October 2023 and April 2024, however, UNRWA official statements violated this principle more than 250 times as outlined in a new Middle East Forum report, The Neutrality Mirage: UNRWA's Violations of Humanitarian Principles. More than 80 percent of reviewed statements violated neutrality or included tendentious language and unsubstantiated claims predominantly directed against Israel, while ignoring Hamas violations of the laws of war. Many of the statements' accusations later proved to be exaggerated or false.
To address these concerns, the UN secretary-general appointed former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna to lead an Independent Review Group to assess UNRWA's compliance with its neutrality obligations. The UN leadership undercut the review by omitting political advocacy from its neutrality review. While the UN review identified eight areas in which UNRWA could improve, omitting its political advocacy was the equivalent of a doctor advocating for treatment for a hangnail but ignoring the sucking chest wound.
UNRWA's political advocacy is problematic. It embraces a biased narrative and supports a "right of return" based on a contentious interpretation of UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which worded its settlement calls to encourage compromise. Additionally, as Daniel Pipes writes, UNRWA's definition of Palestine refugees differs significantly from standard international refugee definitions, particularly in how refugee status is inherited across generations and maintained even after obtaining citizenship elsewhere. Castigating Israeli military actions without context demonstrates bias inconsistent with UNRWA's humanitarian mandate. UNRWA's policy of perpetuating Palestinian refugee status for 75 years epitomizes the agency's failure. This unprecedented approach has inflated the number of registered refugees from 700,000 in 1950 to over 5 million today, granting refugee status even to newborns in 2024. UNRWA diverts resources from genuine needs and obstructs peace by creating unrealistic expectations. By maintaining this expansive definition, UNRWA not only fails its mandate but actively perpetuates the conflict. The international community must demand alignment of Palestinian refugee status with global norms to pave the way for a genuine resolution.Many organizations confuse politics with principle and stray from their original missions. What makes UNRWA more dangerous is its support for Hamas, a US-, EU-, UK-, Canadian- and Japanese-designated terrorist organization. Part of the problem is that UNRWA hires locally in far greater numbers than other UN agencies. It then comes to reflect more the society it serves than the principles its charter outlines. UNRWA staff affiliations with Hamas and other terrorist organizations breach neutrality. Such affiliations compromise the agency's integrity and endanger the safety of the population it serves. By allowing individuals affiliated with Hamas to operate within its framework, UNRWA effectively provides support and legitimacy to Hamas. This support extends beyond cheerleading; Hamas has used UNRWA facilities to store weapons and launch attacks against Israel.
Given the inability or unwillingness of UNRWA to reform, it behooves its donors to hold UNRWA accountable. Continued funding should be contingent upon a complete cessation of political advocacy and adherence to stringent neutrality. The agency also must undergo an independent and comprehensive review that includes all aspects of its activities.
The rot is so deep that reform no longer may be possible. The international community should also consider disbanding UNRWA and transferring its responsibilities to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an experienced agency that assists refugees worldwide. Not all Palestinians may qualify for refugee status under UNHCR criteria, but local organizations can fill the gap. Allowing UNHCR to assume responsibility may enable the international community to address the needs of Palestine refugees without entrenched biases and systemic issues that plague UNRWA. This approach would streamline aid delivery, ensure compliance with international standards of neutrality, redefine Palestine refugee status, and remove the undue political influence currently exerted by UNRWA's operations.
*Gregg Roman is director of the Middle East Forum.

Mourning the Children Killed in Majdal Shams
Hillel Kuttler/The Tablet/August 06, 2024
After a Hezbollah rocket murdered 12 kids on a soccer field, a Druze town in the Golan Heights comes together to grieve
ilar Shaar, 10, was a sweet boy with a round face who treated everyone respectfully and excelled academically.
In the living room of his home in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights sit two trophies for being his class’s top pupil. Milar adored Marvel characters and slept with a stuffed Spider-Man. He wrote “I love you” notes to his mother. He dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player. When his teacher gave each child a white T-shirt to decorate before the 2022 World Cup, Milar went all-Lionel Messi, painting the soccer star’s name in English, his No. 10 within a heart, and a uniformed Messi at play. The extended family watched Argentina’s World Cup victory on television at Milar’s grandmother’s house, the boy wearing a Messi jersey to cheer on his hero.
“He was jumping. He was smiling,” said his cousin Ivan Ibraheem. “It was one of the best days for Milar.”
Soccer, and war, ended Milar’s life on Saturday evening, July 27. The family was at a barbecue, and Milar wanted to leave for practice. His mother, Lena, refused. Milar persisted. His sister drove him home to change from the purple Emirates jersey and shorts he wore into his local team’s uniform, and on to the field. Practice began at 6 p.m. At 6:18, an Iranian-produced Falaq rocket shot from Lebanon by Hezbollah struck the field. It killed 12 children ages 10–16, all Druze. Eleven of the 12 lived in Majdal Shams.
Mayar Shufi, who is dating Milar’s sister, rushed from the barbecue to a clinic to which several of the gravely wounded people—all children but for their coach—were taken. In one room, Shufi saw two boys and two girls dead, some missing limbs. He entered another room and found Milar, intact but barely alive, his body punctured by shrapnel.
He held the boy’s hand. “Milar, don’t be scared,” he said.
“He opened his eyes and looked at me,” Shufi told me. “He took a deep breath, and I knew he died.”
Ibraheem and Shufi spoke with me last Thursday morning at an outdoor ground-floor parking area cleared of cars. It’s where the Shaar family received visitors, men and women sitting on plastic chairs on opposite sides of a wooden divider. Above was the building housing the clinic where Milar died.
He lived two buildings away. Black flags of mourning fly everywhere in Majdal Shams, a town of 12,000 people built into Mt. Hermon and populated almost entirely by Druze, a sect that broke from Islam a millennium ago. Three traffic circles display posters of the names and faces of the 12 murdered children. In one circle, jerseys with the children’s names in English are draped atop 12 plastic chairs. Black strings secure soccer balls on 10 of the chairs; on the others were basketballs, the preferred sport of Alma Aldein, 11, and Ezel Ayoub, 12, two of the three girls murdered.
Unseen anywhere are Israeli or Syrian flags. The situation is complicated. Syria’s defeat in 1967’s Six-Day War brought the Golan Heights under Israeli sovereignty, and Druze attained the right to citizenship—but most opt not to become Israeli citizens and are stateless, preferring “permanent resident” status and going abroad with Israeli travel documents rather than passports. Some volunteer to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, whereas Druze in the rest of Israel, who are citizens, are drafted.
In northern Israel, Galilee Medical Center is already moving patients, canceling procedures, and training doctors in anticipation of a second front opening
byHillel Kuttler
The best way to explain the distinction might be that Druze in the Galilee are Israeli, and often patriotic; Druze in the Golan Heights are not anti-Israel, but consider themselves Syrian.
Whatever their location, Druze are a tribal people. Teens and young adults are as committed to Druze peoplehood as are their elders. Leaving the group or intermarrying is almost unheard of. Druze people who say that they’re all family, as some did during my two-day visit last week, often mean it literally.
A woman I met at the field, Samya Ibraheem, didn’t know any of the victims, but said, “They’re all my kids.” Her subdued tones rendered her voice nearly inaudible. She lives just down the street from the field and was at home when the missile struck. But only now, five days later, could she bring herself to visit. She approached a barrier, held it, and looked at the victims’ faces on a poster. She left after less than five minutes. Samya Ibraheem appeared in black slacks and a black sleeveless blouse. Nearly everyone I encountered wore black. A white sash looped around one’s neck and hanging down toward the belt signified the closest relatives of the victims, someone explained. Multiple white sashes were visible at the beit ha’am (people’s building) in the center of town, where bereaved families gathered as one unit each afternoon during the week of mourning between 4 and 7 p.m. to receive people coming to comfort them. Some of the visitors there and at the mourners’ homes were Jews who’d traveled from throughout Israel. One was Simcha Rothman, a member of Knesset from the Religious Zionism party, who visited several of the bereaved families. “This tragedy, involving children, touched everyone’s heart—children playing soccer,” he said. “The entire town was struck because everyone is one big family. It’s something Jews and Druze share as small ethnic groups.”
At two houses of mourning, the extended families drew me in, urging me to stay longer to listen to their stories, to speak to more relatives, to see their child’s room. Begging off invitations to stay for lunch was fruitless. Declining would be insulting, someone said. I accepted.
That didn’t occur at a third house of mourning, because the family soon had to leave for the daily gathering at the beit ha’am. But it was there that I lucked into witnessing a third, and most poignant, form of the community’s comforting customs: mourners coming en masse to comfort another bereaved family.
It occurred in the nearby village of Ein Kinye, where one of the 12 children lived: Nazem Saab, 15. More than 50 men from nearly all of the 11 other families, including fathers of the dead children, drove over from Majdal Shams. They assembled in a line down the sloped street beside the Saabs’ home. Nazem’s parents, Faher and Mona, and relatives lined up opposite them. The first group uttered a scripted greeting, similar to what I’d seen at the two other homes: “We feel your pain. Your son is like our son. We all lost him.” The family’s response went something like this: “Thank you. We hope you don’t endure what we’re enduring.”
The visit “helps me, it strengthens me,” Faher Saab told me after the delegation departed. He was called away before he could say more about his late son other than that they’d spent time together in the family’s side business of growing and selling plums, and that Nazer dreamed of a career in engineering.
Faher’s brother Rawnak said his nephew was quiet and friendly, always helping teachers and classmates, and doing a lot for his 17-year-old brother with special needs. “We didn’t know he had so many friends until they came to comfort us,” he said. “Everything in life starts small and grows, just like people. Except for grief. It starts big and gradually lessens.”
In Majdal Shams, signs appear in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, and many people speak all three languages. Its streets are hilly, its homes and shops attractive, its residents high-achieving professionals and businesspeople. Much of its economy depends on tourism, almost nonexistent throughout northern Israel since Hezbollah, which controls much of southern Lebanon and is a party in the country’s government, began attacking the day after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of the Negev. Unlike communities in the Galilee and northern Golan Heights whose residents Israel evacuated, Druze have stayed put in Majdal Shams and the Golan’s three other Druze villages: Buqata (pop. 7,000), Mas’ada (pop. 4,000), and Ein Kinye (pop. 2,800). Druze don’t abandon their land, people explained.
Risk endures. The head of Majdal Shams’ town council, Dolan Abu Saleh, estimated that two Israeli air-raid sirens, warning of incoming missiles or drones, have sounded each week since Hezbollah’s attacks began on Oct. 8.
Several Majdal Shams residents I asked question Israel’s claim, supported by the United States, that Hezbollah fired the fatal missile. It could have been Hezbollah, they said, but maybe not. Some wondered why Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome laser-guided interception system didn’t fire. One man suggested that Israel shot the rocket at Majdal Shams, but didn’t explain why it would’ve done that.
Everything in life starts small and grows, just like people. Except for grief. It starts big and gradually lessens.
I asked Abu Saleh whether he doubts that Hezbollah is responsible.
“No, it was their missile that came from Shebaa,” a nearby Lebanese village, he said.
People seem to think the source of their pain is unimportant, because the tragedy can’t be undone. More than that, person after person told me, revenge is antithetical to the Druze.
“We don’t want to take revenge, because then, what—we’re going to kill children on the other side?” said Nadeem Welly, owner of an eponymous restaurant on the main street of Mas’ada.
Underlying their resignation is the fundamental Druze belief in fate. For reasons no one, certainly not the grieving families, can comprehend, God determined to take the 12 children at this time and in this manner, the explanation goes. At least outwardly, no one asks: Why me?
Milar wanted to attend practice, his mother pushed back, he prevailed—and he’s dead. Alma, Ezel, and Venes Al-Safadi, 11, played basketball that afternoon, bought ice cream, declined a request from Ezel’s grandmother, who lived across from the store, to stop in for a few minutes, continued to the field—and are dead. The detour would have saved the three girls’ lives.
Fate, however, can also save lives, said some residents. For instance:
I heard of two boys who left the field moments before the missile strike to get a snack.
Ehab Abu Jabar showed me a picture of his son Omry, 3. They were playing at the field, and would have stayed much longer, but left at 5:50 p.m. because Omry was hungry.
Entering the field together four nights after the attack, a man blurted out to me, motioning to his 9-year-old son, whose hand he held: “We were supposed to play here that afternoon, but he had an earache, so I took him to get it looked at.”
A social worker, Handa Ayoub, mentioned a father who pressed his son to go outside to play at the field rather than sit bored at home. The boy refused, the father noodged. The boy refused, the father noodged. The boy won out—and the father “now wants to give the son a prize for not listening to him,” said Ayoub, who volunteers at a mental health resiliency center established after the attack. “We wondered if anyone would come,” she said as the center closed at 9 p.m. on Wednesday. “Yesterday, maybe 100 people came.” Two were another father and his son, 16 or 17. Four of the son’s friends were murdered in the attack; the son would have been, too, but was delayed leaving and didn’t go to the field.
Ayoub said she often urges her 10-year-old daughter to go to the playground, the one filled with children frolicking that fateful moment, just 50 feet or so from where the missile landed. “Now, I won’t encourage her to play there. It’s overprotectiveness on my part. Now, every parent knows how to protect his child, knows the treasure in his hand, knows to keep him safe, so he won’t get hurt,” she said. “It’s a kind of compassion parents have for kids they didn’t have before.”
Along with fate, the Druze belief in reincarnation is powerful and provides comfort now. The Druze see a body as merely the soul’s repository—so much so that even after burying a child, a person never again visits the gravesite.
“That they’re living new lives inside the bodies of kids born now—this gives us strength and patience,” said Ameer Braik, an uncle of one victim, Hazem Abu Saleh, 15. Hazem’s cousin Fajr, 15, was murdered at the field, too.
“We believe that when a Druze child dies, he goes to other Druze parents,” said Ivan Ibraheem, Milar Shaar’s cousin. I asked whether he believes that Milar’s soul has already entered another family’s baby. “Yes,” he said. “I hope those parents treat him as well as we treated him.”
I related that quotation to a friend later that day, and choked on the words.
I had been to Majdal Shams before, most recently on New Year’s Day 2023. Along with friends visiting from Scotland on that cold and peaceful morning, I’d enjoyed hot drinks and pastries at Dam Caffe, overlooking a regulation-size soccer field adjacent to the smaller one where the Hezbollah rocket fell.
The café is closed now, its door handle twisted, its front glass pane—Coffee: Take a cup of kindness. Mix it well with love, it reads—shattered, four upstairs windows blown out next to where we’d sat, two air conditioners ripped. Bark was stripped off a branch of a tree next to the door. The explosion on the field caused this damage from about 75 yards away, just beyond one of the goals.
Closer in, the effects were far more severe. Standing near the opposite goal and pointing at an adjacent building, a fire fighter related that body parts were blown into and on top of the structure. To a goalkeeper’s left and a few yards downfield was a shallow hole, the spot where the rocket landed, apparently pointing down. It tore the synthetic turf and mangled that section of fence enclosing the field. The resulting fire blackened the fence’s gray poles and wiring, and melted parts of the scooters and battery-powered bicycles that likely transported some of the murdered and wounded children to the field. It also shot millions of crushed-rubber pellets lying under the playing surface and past the fence. Farther along, one of several makeshift memorials decorated the fence and turf, black ribbons specking the wire and a dozen trophies with the victims’ images, a soccer ball behind and a plastic poppy before each trophy, standing upon the green sideline. Wreaths leaned onto a barrier, sent from far-off and nearby communities: Kibbutz Kfar Blum, Kibbutz Snir, Kibbutz Merom Golan, Kisra-Sumei (a Druze town in the Galilee), the Ramat Hanegev regional council, the UJA-Federation of New York. Mourning with you, brothers and sisters in arms, read a message on one wreath. We hurt your hurt, from the mayor and council of Raanana, said another. And: Druze and Jews are brothers.
At the field’s center mark, I happened to lock onto three spots: the missile’s impact point, a small side door near that corner, and, about 4 yards beyond the open door, a migunit: a mobile concrete room about the size of a tool shed, offering refuge from an enemy attack. Miguniot appear alongside some roads, intersections, and in other public places throughout the country as shelter for when a siren sounds.
A Majdal Shams worker had told me that three additional miguniot he’d ordered arrived on Monday, July 22. He’d placed one of them here, just outside the small side entrance to the soccer field. The firefighter had said that when the siren sounded that fatal afternoon, the coach, 21-year-old Aram Shker, ordered the children to run for the migunit. They had less than 10 seconds to reach safety. Some succeeded.
Focusing on the three spots, I imagined the moment the siren went off on July 27 at 6:18 p.m.
The light bulb illuminated in my head, a painful and crushing realization.
I realized that taking any direct or indirect line from anywhere on the field toward the gate opening and through to the migunit, the children’s legs were actually propelling them not toward shelter, but death. They had no way to know that, with the Falaq rocket, Iran’s gift to its Hezbollah proxy, coming from behind them. It landed on and amid the fleeing, terrified children.
Had the migunit not arrived, the children would’ve been told to stop and lie prone where they were, covering their heads—standard procedure in the absence of any shelter. They’d have been farther from the missile’s impact point. Many of the 12 would be alive now.
After running into the father and son entering the field late that Wednesday night, I walked around the rectangle, absorbing the site and the scene. Lamp stanchions provided light as they do when kids played there at night. This time, clusters of adolescents sat on the field, silent but for occasional whispers.
As I circled back toward the goal near the main gate, a man rushed up and pressed into my hands five tiny tin-encased candles, each containing a half-inch depth of wax, at most. I stepped to a memorial of pictures and objects, and crouched beside a white shelf lying upon the turf. I took several larger candles there and arrayed them in a circle around my baby tins as shields from the breeze, took a lighter sitting there, flicked it to produce a weak flame, and touched it to a wick.
The wind snuffed out the fire, then another and another. I cupped a hand around the lighter’s head to shield each flame. I moved the large candleholders into a tighter circle, a more protective wall. I tried other lighters. At best, here and there, a wick remained lit for two seconds before the wind extinguished it.
I departed, unable to protect the tiny candles.
Hillel Kuttler, a writer and editor, can be reached at hk@HillelTheScribeCommunications.com.

What kind of future awaits Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran?
Jonathan Gornall/Arab News/August 06, 2024
LONDON: It has been 14 years since Israeli agents carried out one of Mossad’s most audacious, controversial and, perhaps, pointless assassinations.
On Jan. 19, 2010, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, the man responsible for procuring weapons for Hamas, was murdered in a hotel bedroom in Dubai. It was a big operation, with many moving parts, involving almost 30 Mossad operatives who entered Dubai on false passports. It ended with Al-Mabhouh being overpowered in his room at the Al-Bustan Rotana and given a fatal dose of suxamethonium chloride, a drug used in anesthetic cocktails. To avoid leaving a tell-tale needle mark, the drug was administered with a device that used ultrasound to deliver it through the skin. The drug causes paralysis and, still conscious but with his lungs unable to function, Al-Mabhouh asphyxiated to death. The assassins put him to bed and left, using a Mossad-developed device for putting hotel-door security chains in place from the outside of the room, hoping that Al-Mabhouh’s death would be attributed to natural causes.
It might have been, but for the vigilance of Dubai’s police chief. He suspected foul play and, by having the comings and goings through Dubai airport before and after the hit analyzed, and days of hotel security-camera footage examined in detail, put together a damning portfolio of evidence.
At the time, the killing was big news. Images of two Mossad agents posing as tennis players, emerging from an elevator behind Al-Mabhouh, appeared on televisions and newspapers around the world.
Today, however, for few outside Hamas or Mossad will the name Al-Mabhouh have any resonance. Certainly, his killing failed to have any appreciable impact on the flow of arms to the group.
This week, the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of the Hamas political bureau, is also big news — as was the killing on July 13 of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif. But soon, says Ahron Bregman, a former officer in the Israeli army and a senior teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, the disruption caused by their deaths to the activities and ambitions of Hamas will disappear, as the ripples caused by a small pebble thrown into a large lake quickly vanish. “The killing of Ismail Haniyeh will not change much as far as Hamas is concerned,” said Bregman, author of “The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs” and the memoir “The Spy Who Fell to Earth,” an account of his part in the exposure of an Egyptian alleged double agent. “Hamas is more than rifles, rockets and even leaders. Hamas is an idea. “If Israel wants to defeat it, it must offer the Palestinians a better idea — say, a Palestinian state. “If such an idea is not put forward, then Hamas will remain in place and rebuild itself for future battles with Israel.”
KEY HAMAS FIGURES
Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ Gaza leader, has just been named Ismail Haniyeh’s successor. Khaled Meshaal, a founding member, has mostly operated from the relative safety of exile. Khalil Al-Hayya, Doha-based deputy leader of Hamas, is said to have the backing of Iran. Musa Abu Marzouk lived for 14 years in the US before becoming deputy chairman of Hamas’ political bureau. Hamas is an Islamist militant group that spun off from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1980s. It took over the Gaza Strip after defeating its rival political party, Fatah, in elections in 2006.The sheer number of killings of key Hamas figures carried out by Israel over the past quarter-century, and the negligible impact of these killings on the organization’s capabilities or objectives, speaks of a policy being carried out despite a lack of success — or, perhaps, in accordance with a less obvious, and probably domestically focused agenda. Killing high-profile Hamas targets, and perpetuating the war in the process, makes it harder for Israelis inclined toward peace to criticize or plot to remove their wartime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Certainly, it is not difficult for Netanyahu’s critics to see the killing of Haniyeh as a deliberate tactic to derail peace talks. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani put it succinctly on X, writing: “How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?”
Israel’s list of assassinations and attempted assassinations of Hamas leaders is a long one, and the killings have not always been as subtly carried out as the necessarily low-key Mossad hit on Al-Mabhouh in Dubai.
One of the first high-profile targets to be killed was Salah Shehadeh, the leader of Hamas’ military wing, who was targeted in Gaza on July 23, 2002, by an Israeli F-16 that dropped a massive bomb on his home. Such was the cost in collateral damage — 14 others died, including Shehadeh’s wife and nine children — that 27 Israeli Air Force pilots had a fit of conscience, denouncing such attacks as “illegal and immoral” and “a direct result of the ongoing occupation which is corrupting all of Israeli society.” The soul-searching did not last long, however. The toll of senior Hamas leaders has continued more or less unabated ever since.
Those who have been killed include Ahmed Yassin, who founded Hamas in 1987. He died 20 years ago, on March 22, 2004, in a hail of missiles fired from Israeli helicopters as he returned home from morning prayers in Gaza.
He was succeeded by Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi, who died in similar fashion just 26 days later. Ahmed Al-Jabari, second-in-command of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, was targeted unsuccessfully five times before succumbing in Gaza City in November 2012 to a missile fired from a drone. This year, unsurprisingly, has been a particularly busy one in terms of Hamas assassinations carried out by Israel. Hamas deputy and Haniyeh’s right-hand man Salah Al-Arouri was killed on Jan. 7 in an airstrike in Lebanon that also claimed the lives of several other senior Hamas commanders. On March 11, Marwan Issa, deputy commander of Al-Qassam Brigades and Hamas No. 3, died in an airstrike in Gaza. But none of these deaths — individually or taken together — has managed to turn Hamas from its path or hamper its ability to continue doggedly pursuing its aims militarily. Haniyeh’s death is likely to have no greater immediate impact on Hamas’ capabilities than the assassinations that have gone before, said John Jenkins, former UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Iraq and a Middle East expert with the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge University.
But it might signal a change of strategy that bodes ill for any hopes of an immediate end to conflict. “In the past, decapitation hasn’t worked — not with Hamas, nor with Hezbollah, nor Iran,” he said. “Or, at least, it has disrupted rather than interrupted.” Israel, he added, “undoubtedly knows that. But it’s also thought for two decades that ‘mowing the grass’ is the best way to manage the conflict.”That policy of simply keeping a lid on the problem “is now over — it collapsed on Oct. 7, 2023. “So, the game now is destruction — of Hamas’ offensive capabilities and its ability to function as a significant political actor within the occupied Palestinian territories.“That doesn’t mean killing the idea; that’s not possible. It means killing the capability. That’s why a ceasefire is a long way off. “Spectacular assassinations are now part of a wider strategy of dismantling tunnels, command and control functions, logistics, and so on. That’s the only context in which they make sense.”
It is, however, a very dangerous game, with the killings of Haniyeh and Deif in Tehran and Beirut condemned by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week as “a dangerous escalation.”Instead of Israel rampaging around the region on a killing spree — let alone assassinating Hamas’ Qatar-based negotiators, such as Haniyeh — “all efforts should instead be leading to a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages, a massive increase of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and a return to calm in Lebanon and across the Blue Line,” said Guterres.
“This endless cycle,” he added, “needs to stop.”
In an interview with a British newspaper over the weekend, Amjad Iraqi, an associate fellow with Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program, warned that Israel’s increasingly audacious killings were indeed edging the region dangerously close to a regional war. “People are not understanding the gravity of what this is,” he told the Independent. “There is a kind of egotistical, unstable dance that all these actors are making with missiles and with people’s lives, while trying to explain it as calibrated responses.”
Only a ceasefire could cool things down, but as things stand, “we are at a very, very dangerous point.”The reality of imminent escalation, said Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute, “means that the ‘day after’ and the path to statehood seems even farther away now, with all sides focusing on the military outcome of the here and now, at the expense of immense civilian suffering and a viable political solution.”
For its part, Hamas, “to project resilience and the resolve of its leadership despite the assassination of Haniyeh, is trying to pivot quickly to appoint a new political bureau chief.” A consultative process is under way “and, until a decision is made, such as the appointment of Khaled Mashal, for example, ceasefire negotiations cannot realistically recommence.”As it has done many times before, in other words, Hamas will quickly grow a new limb to replace one that has been amputated.
But “a more urgent obstacle to restarting talks is that Hamas cannot be authorized to re-enter a diplomatic phase until Iran declares that the regime and its proxies have sufficiently retaliated against Israel for the series of high-profile assassinations, with much speculation around when that might happen.”
The killing of Haniyeh has, she believes, “cornered Hamas into a dilemma that will determine how the organization evolves over time.
“On the one hand, the loss of a recognizable political leader will trigger radicalization among some Hamas supporters and embolden hardliners among the military faction such as Yahya Sinwar, his brother and their inner circle.
“On the other, with Hamas fighters suffering losses inside Gaza and its military infrastructure downgraded, Hamas will be looking for a lull in the fighting to recoup and plan ahead. “But for Hamas, this is a long game, and it is far from over — key figures inside and outside Gaza will continue to struggle to consolidate Hamas and its victory narrative and position it for a role in post-war Gaza.”Ahron Bregman agrees that the killing of Haniyeh “might lead to a regional war in which Iran and Hezbollah could become involved. If the latter happens, it will play straight into the hands of Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, whose dream has always been that his Oct. 7 attack on Israel triggers a regional war.”
The assassination will also “put on ice any hostage deal, as both leaders, Netanyahu and Sinwar, are not interested in such a deal at the moment.
“For Netanyahu, a deal could spell the end of his coalition government. As for Sinwar, he will wait to see if the assassination at the heart of Tehran, which humiliated Iran, could lead to a regional war.”
It is true, Bregman added, that “in recent months, Israel has managed to assassinate many of the Hamas leaders. Sinwar is quite on his own now, and I’m sure he’s got very few of the old guard to consult with.
“But Hamas is bigger and larger than any leader or leaders. When this war is over, there will still be Hamas — battered, leaner, but still standing and able to send rockets into Israel. “The assassinations are tactical victories for Israel, but there is nothing strategic in it, not even in the possible killing of Sinwar himself.”Ultimately, the cost of Israel’s campaign of assassinations could be borne by Israelis and Palestinians alike. The details of the operation to kill Al-Mabhouh in Dubai in 2010 emerged in the book “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” published by Israeli historian and investigative journalist Ronen Bergman in 2018. Bergman concluded that, because Israel’s intelligence community had always “provided Israel’s leaders sooner or later with operational responses to every focused problem they were asked to solve,” that very success had “fostered the illusion among most of the nation’s leaders that covert operations could be a strategic and not just a tactical tool — that they could be used in place of real diplomacy to end the geographic, ethnic, religious, and national disputes in which Israel is mired.” As a result, Israel’s leaders “have elevated and sanctified the tactical method of combating terror and existential threats at the expense of the true vision, statesmanship, and genuine desire to reach a political solution that is necessary for peace to be attained.”

Hamas And Al-Jazeera, A Decades-Long Symbiotic Relationship
Yigal Carmon and Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI/August 06, 2024
As the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went on day after day, Al-Jazeera dubbed it "Gaza Resists" and used the phrase in all of its advertising and promos for continuing news coverage. Once the war seemed to die down and even end, the Qatari pan-Arab broadcaster switched from "Gaza Resists" to "Gaza has triumphed."
But this was not the current war in Gaza unleashed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, but a war a decade earlier – Operation Protective Edge – waged in July-August 2014. In this earlier conflict, the symbiotic relationship between Al-Jazeera and Hamas was in sharp relief as the broadcaster followed closely Hamas's own guidelines to the media on how to portray the conflict. The Hamas Ministry of the Interior and National Security had issued a video directive for "Facebook activists" to follow on reporting the war.[1] As The National Interest reported at the time, "the channel's Gaza coverage seems to have taken its cues from Hamas' own media playbook."[2]
The network not only provided wall-to-wall coverage of the war but also gave unstinting, positive, uncut, and premium coverage to Hamas leaders. This included a 40-minute speech and press conference by Hamas political leader Khalid Meshaal but also messages from Hamas's military wing and from the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group. Such a scenario of collaboration between Hamas and Al-Jazeera would be repeated in subsequent years. In May 2021, after the end of two weeks of fighting between Hamas in Israel, Hamas political chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar would be seen on Al-Jazeera giving a victory speech while praising the Qatari broadcaster as "the best pulpit to give the accurate voice to our position."[3]
Origins
But the historical record of Al-Jazeera's open support for Palestinian terrorist operations goes back much further. As early as November 1999, Al-Jazeera had invited Hamas leaders to talk about their "resistance" operations against Israel, and in doing so shattered the long-standing Arab media hegemony of Fatah and the PLO. In 2005, after the full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Al-Jazeera carried footage of Hamas Friday sermons and military parades held in the abandoned Israeli compounds to celebrate the withdrawal.[4] This included remarks by Sheikh Nizar Rayyan, a cleric who was also a senior official in the military wing of Hamas: "The vanquishing of the enemy in Gaza does not mean that this stage has ended. We still have Jerusalem and the pure West Bank. We will not rest until we liberate all our land, all our Palestine. We do not distinguish between what was occupied in the 1940s and what was occupied in the 1960s. Our Jihad continues, and we still have a long way to go. We will continue until the very last usurper is driven out of our land."
At the same 2005 event, Hamas spokesman Mushir Al-Masri commented on Al-Jazeera that liberating Gaza was like liberating Tel Aviv, both were the same. He added a phrase that would become quite famous in the West in 2023: "the weapons of the resistance that you see here will remain, Allah willing, so that we can liberate Palestine – all of Palestine – from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River, whether they like it or not."[5]
Indeed, the cause of Palestine would be a staple of Al-Jazeera coverage and the media campaigns built by the network around conflict in the Holy Land would be a constant. Other causes would come and go. In 2006, Al-Jazeera's championing of Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah during the Tammuz War with Israel succeeded in making the cleric a famous and beloved figure in the region, if only for a few years until Nasrallah sent his fighters into the Syrian Civil War on the side of the Assad regime.
Other media campaigns, especially in the early years after 2001, focused on fawning coverage of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and later the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (later to become the Islamic State or ISIS) Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. Just as there was a moment when Lebanon was the issue, Iraq had its moment, as did Egypt when Hosni Mubarak was overthrown and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood came to power. In all these incidences – Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and many others – Al-Jazeera was always consistent, taking the side of the Islamist, anti-Western, and anti-Israel part, the hero in the network's narrative. And yet even when it came to Palestine, Palestinian officials, from the time of Arafat to this day, would sometimes complain that the Qatari network preferred the Islamists (Hamas) over the Palestinian Authority and its security forces.[6]
The bias should come as no surprise. It was baked in from the beginning. Both Hamas and Al-Jazeera come from the same root, from various iterations of the regional Muslim Brotherhood political organization. Hamas, officially dating from December 1987, was a Palestinian offshoot of local Islamist groups heavily influenced by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Jazeera, launched in November 1996, began from a cell of staffers initially hired and then fired by BBC Arabic.
Early Al-Jazeera staffers had ties to the Syrian and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The network's director for many of those early formative years (2003-2011) was Palestinian Wadah Khanfar. A subsequent director, the Jordanian Yasir Abu Hilaleh (2014-2018) was a well-known Islamist.[7] And looming over all the channel's staff, no matter their personal preference or orientation, was Qatar's openly Islamist foreign policy, not just strongly pro-Palestinian but strongly Palestinian Islamist as it favored similar causes elsewhere, from Turkey's Erdoğan to Afghanistan's Taliban.[8] The support and the bias in favor of Hamas and Islamist causes is both institutional and personal.[9]
And the cross-fertilization on the screen among Al-Jazeera's (and Qatar's) various pet causes and favorites – Hamas, Erdoğan's Turkey, Jihadism, Political Islam, antisemitism – was always there through the years. You might see Erdoğan on Palestine, Hamas's Khalid Meshaal praising Al-Jazeera cleric Yussef Al-Qaradawi or Hamas speaking on antisemitism. So, for example, a 2016 Al-Jazeera interview with Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar included the charge that President-Elect Trump was possibly a Jew, but that even if he was not, "he loves the Jewish religion and even more, Jewish money."[10] Sinwar was not mistaken when he called Al-Jazeera, the best of pulpits.
More War, More Popularity
Al-Jazeera was deeply interested in and invested in the cause of Palestine but what was the receptivity of the Palestinians themselves to the influence of the Qatari network? The most recent Shikaki (PCPSR) Poll (carried out May 26-June 1, 2024) reported that "Al-Jazeera is the most-watched TV station in Palestine with 68% selecting it as the one they watched the most during the past two months. West Bankers are more likely than Gazans to watch Al-Jazeera, 82% and 46% respectively [partly due to the inability of many in Gaza to watch TV]. The distant second most popular TV station is Hamas's own Al-Aqsa (4%) followed by Palestine TV (3%), Palestine Today, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, Ma'an and pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen (2% each)."[11] Similarly, the previous Shikaki poll, published in March 2024, found Al-Jazeera to be the most watched (61%) with the second-place station at only 4% (Palestine Today).[12]
While all polling in the Middle East, even the well-respected PCPSR polls, should always be treated with caution, these results generally ring true. The latest results are even more striking if one looks at the last poll before the current war, from early September 2023, we see that Al-Jazeera was still then most watched station at that time but the figures were much lower – 28% with Hamas's Al-Aqsa a distant second at 11% (4% on the West Bank, 22% in Gaza).[13] The percentage of Palestinians watching Al-Jazeera has more than doubled since the outbreak of the war – 28% in September 2023, 61% in March 2024, and 68% in May 2024.
Covering the Gaza War has been a priority for the channel from October 7. A key part of Al-Jazeera's effectiveness as a media or propaganda outlet is its willingness to lavishly devote airtime and resources to breaking news, particularly to news events of its own choosing. So that the network in a sense does not just cover the news, it makes it, working closely with its political and militarized partners (in this specific case, Hamas and its allies). This is especially true in covering live events that conform with and shape a previously expressed narrative. As Brussels-based Palestinian activist Amjad Abu Koush has noted: "It seems that five months of annihilation are not enough for Al-Jazeera TV, in its efforts to garner as much viewers and like-clicks as possible."[14]
It is that specific combination of breaking news and propagandistic spin that has made Al-Jazeera so popular among Palestinian audiences. That is the likely reason why its viewership seems to have more than doubled. It is telling its viewers both what they think they need to know, in terms of coverage, and also what they want to hear, in terms of an overall narrative.
A Consistent Narrative
And what is Al-Jazeera's narrative, specifically when it comes to Palestine? There is a sturdy consistency going back more than two decades to the current Al-Aqsa Flood War of 2023-2024.
First of all, in the Al-Jazeera narrative on Palestine, Palestine is not "winning" (it is certainly not losing) but rather it (in this case "Gaza") has already won.[15] The "victory" in the current war was not achieved, as in other conventional conflicts, with the situation at the end of the war but rather announced at the beginning. October 7 is portrayed as a victory in a way as if December 7, 1941, was both the beginning and the defining moment of the conflict between Japan and the United States. As if the conflict had ended with the deterrence or shock inflicted on the Americans on that day.
Al-Jazeera fired the first media shots of the war. The October 7 war was formally first announced in a recording by Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif on Al-Jazeera, a fact that shows a high level of coordination and appreciation by Hamas of the role Al-Jazeera had played in previous conflicts and would play in this one. In that recording Deif called on all Palestinians elsewhere, not just in Gaza but also on the West Bank and inside Israel to rise up with any weapon they had on hand.
Since that date Al-Jazeera has essentially functioned as Hamas TV around the clock, making it, unsurprisingly, essential watching for Palestinians trying to understand what is happening on the ground.[16] That thirst for knowledge comes with a price as information is filtered through the Hamas and Al-Jazeera ideological lens.[17]
The Qatari channel's direct material support and service to the Hamas war effort are both massive and multi-faceted and have included:
• Broadcasting threats by Hamas leaders and leaders of other terror organizations;
• Celebrating and praising the terror attack and missile attacks on Israel;
• Airing hostage videos to exert pressure on the Israeli government;
• Broadcasting military announcements on an almost daily basis;[18]
• Airing footage on military encounters and the killing of IDF soldiers;
• Broadcasting near IDF troops and airing analysis by military experts to advise Hamas fighters on recommended tactics and maneuvers;
• Pinpointing potential Israeli quality targets;
• Fabricating anti-Israel propaganda;
• Fabricating information designed to thwart Israel's instructions to the Gaza population;
• Silencing any criticism of Hamas, and constantly rebroadcasting Hamas war propaganda focusing on IDF soldiers killed in the fighting; Hamas statements in Hebrew inciting the Israeli public against its government, including scenes from the current hostage families' demonstrations in Israel; and Hamas propaganda referring to every city, town, and community inside Israel as a "settlement";
• Describing the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 as "convicted prisoners" – equating them with the convicted Hamas terrorists in Israeli prisons – and referring to the young Palestinian adults in Israeli custody as "children";
• and Propagating the lie that IDF soldiers raped Palestinian women during the attack on Hamas terrorists at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.[19]
As Al-Jazeera columnist Hani Ismail Muhammad, an Egyptian Islamist based in Turkey, wrote on the channel's website on October 12, 2023, "to complete the victory, Muslims in the east and west of the globe must and should show solidarity with Palestine and Gaza and with the Resistance and its battle."[20] The late Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas's Political Bureau, underscored the already-won victory in remarks broadcast live by Al-Jazeera on January 9, 2024: "We should hold on to the victory that took place on October 7 and build upon it," and he added: "Time is on our side."[21]
One key part of the victory narrative on Al-Jazeera in this war (2023-2024) has been the skewed commentary provided by its chief military analyst Fayiz Al-Dwairi, a retired Jordanian Major General and military engineer.[22] In a glowing profile written by Al-Jazeera staff and posted on its website in January 2024, Al-Dwairi is described as "the Analyst of the Resistance," beloved and eagerly followed by Hamas fighters. And it should be no surprise that he is popular. The piece goes on to gush that Al-Dwairi "was known for his optimistic assessment of the performance of the Palestinian resistance after the Al-Aqsa flood."[23] According to the article, while praising the qualities of the Hamas fighter over the IDF soldier, and pointing out the supposed inadequacies of Israeli equipment, Al-Dwairi rhapsodized about Hamas's military prowess, "there is nothing like it in military history from Alexander the Great until today."[24]
The victory narrative has real power to inspire the masses but it is not fool proof. What Al-Jazeera has been doing is similar to what the organization calling itself the Islamic State or ISIS did in its own propaganda from 2013 on – projecting the image of victory. The presentation of a narrative of success – whether military advances or political progress or steadfastness, etc. – is compelling and attractive but only as long as it is somewhat tethered to reality. If the propaganda gets too far away from the reality on the ground, then it produces a reverse reaction where it is not believed. This is somewhat like the boasting of Arab regimes in the June 1967 war with Israel, which then turned out to be false and exposed these regimes to ridicule. Arab regimes – one may remember Iraqi Information Minister "Baghdad Bob" (Muhammad Said Al-Sahhaf) during the 2003 American invasion of Iraq – and terrorist groups have tended to exaggerate, if not actually fabricate events involving military success against the enemy.
But while both Al-Jazeera and Hamas do exaggerate and fabricate, they also know that they cannot fabricate an entirely false reality out of whole cloth. The spin must be selective. So, a Hamas victory narrative must be based on some objective truths, even if clothed in layers of exaggeration. For such an image to be sustained, the war must end in a way that the claims of victory seem somewhat plausible, even if many or most observers know that this is not really true.
The Hamas/Al-Jazeera victory narrative would find its climax in a visual endgame that included something like a defiant and triumphant Yahya Sinwar coming out of a bunker and speaking to the masses in a public event in the ruins of Gaza. Even if the words are empty and the masses rented, such an event would provide a fitting visual conclusion to the victory narrative. Another relatively effective way of doing it would be, of course, an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages with scenes of public jubilation as the prisoners raise their hands in victory while exalting national and political symbols. Defiance by the living, claims of steadfastness – surviving the conflict – and mass prisoner releases are the tangible badges of victory that have already been used in past wars between terrorist groups and Israel. They were used by Hizbullah and Al-Jazeera in 2006 and by Hamas and Al-Jazeera in 2014.
Still another Al-Jazeera columnist, Yasser Saad Al-Din, put it this way in April 2024: "Israel has been defeated, but has the Resistance won?" The author relied heavily on Israeli opinions about the war and particularly on criticism by internal opponents of the current Israeli government. But on the Palestinian side, there was no criticism but rather conformity, "the resistance has triumphed militarily, morally and even politically over the occupation army."[25]
A new element in the victory narrative, in contrast with past Gaza conflicts, has been the rise of the pro-Gaza protest movement, especially in the United States, a surprising factor that has not been missed by Hamas or Al-Jazeera. Indeed, even the Houthis in Yemen and Iran's Supreme Leader have praised the movement. Saad Al-Din depicted Israel as "dismantled as an occupation state in the eyes of Western public opinion."
An even more tangible example of victory would have been if the war would have brought Hamas to power on the West Bank, replacing Fateh and the PLO. This was certainly one of the reasons for the October 7 war in the first place. It was a possibility dear to the hearts of both Erdoğan's Turkey and Qatar, two of Hamas's closest supporters. But this was never something that would have happened immediately once the current conflict concludes. The fact that the destruction in Gaza has been so widespread, and that so many leaders, like Muhammad Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, have been eliminated by the Israelis will make the final attempted selling of that victory narrative so much harder at the end of the day. It was a lot easier to push the victory story earlier in the conflict, less so in August 2024. But some sort of effort will be made nevertheless.
In seeming stark contrast to the victory narrative, but actually complementary to it is the "Palestinians are Victims" narrative. Just as a martyr is in a very real sense both a victor and a victim, so do both Al-Jazeera and Hamas seek to highlight as much as possible the suffering of the Palestinian people, highlighting real events, exaggerating others and fabricating still others.
This narrative also requires the playing down of military casualties while highlighting civilian ones. An entire process of linguistic alchemy is required to be put into action in order to make such an approach work. Teenage gunmen become children, Hamas members become independent journalists, Palestinian profiteering becomes Israeli starvation tactics, collateral damage become intentional targeting, failed Hamas/PIJ missiles falling on Gaza facilities become Israeli airstrikes, as in the notorious blood libel about the Al-Ahli Hospital on October 17, only ten days after the beginning of the war.
No story is complete without a villain and, coupled with the segments on "Palestinians as Victors" and – simultaneously – "Palestinians as Victims," there is a third stool in the narrative: the "Israel is Lacking/Defeated/Finished" component. Military analyst Al-Dwairi on Al-Jazeera describes the Israelis in Gaza as "advancing towards death, fighting without protection against an adversary willing to do anything for victory" and "with great fear for his life, which exposes him to great psychological pressure." It does not matter that Al-Dwairi's analysis of this factor or anything else turned out to be wrong, what mattered is that, in the moment, he provided the cover of supposed expert analysis to what was actually advocacy and confirming the preconceived notions of his Arab and, especially Palestinian, audience: Hamas was winning and the Israelis, as soldiers and as people, were losing, lacking or inferior, solely propped up, if that, by technological prowess given to them by the Americans. As Arab-American columnist Hussain Abdul-Hussain said recently, if you follow Al-Jazeera and other Islamist media, there are "76 years of Israeli failure and Palestinian successes."[26]
Given these factors and the sheer weight and breadth of Al-Jazeera coverage on the Gaza War (analyst Al-Dwairi was featured almost daily for months), it is then not so surprising that Palestinian audiences have responded by tuning in and by expressing views that are broadly in sync with Al-Jazeera's narrative. One might ask, what came first? The Al-Jazeera "chicken" or the Hamas "egg" in shaping and influencing public opinion? The reality being that, as we have shown, both entities came from a common root and shared a common, deeply held, worldview. And both reflect views already held by a significant percentage of the Palestinian population. When asked in a May 2023 poll what has been the most positive or the best thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since 1948, the largest percentage (24%) said that it was the establishment of Islamic movements, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their participation in armed struggle; 21% said that the best thing was the eruption of the first and second intifada. Only 9% saw the establishment of Fateh as the best thing that had happened.[27] The propaganda work of Al-Jazeera on behalf of Hamas was half-done even before the war began.
But important questions remain for the day after. Once the war does end, will Al-Jazeera's numbers decline, from 68% in the latest poll back to 28% in September 2023? It is quite likely that other conflicts or events will rise elsewhere to capture the channel's attention – that is the nature of the news business – ­­although Palestine has been a staple of the channel for decades. What could fill the information gap if Al-Jazeera's numbers decrease? Can the channel's stranglehold on Palestinian public opinion be challenged? And will there ever be a final reckoning for Al-Jazeera's shameless and deadly promotion of Hamas and other terrorist groups, not among Palestinian public opinion but, more importantly, by policymakers in Washington? That is the ultimate question.
* Yigal Carmon is President of MEMRI. Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
[1] Youtube.com/watch?v=VxzZ5cm8ZCw, July 10, 2014.
[2] Nationalinterest.org/feature/the-problem-al-jazeera-11239, September 10, 2014.
[3] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 11037, Hamas Leader In Gaza Yahya Sinwar, Israel's Most Wanted – In His Own Words: 'We Support The Eradication Of Israel Through Armed Jihad And Struggle; This Is Our Doctrine'; 'The Brothers In Iran And Hizbullah Spared Us Nothing', December 22, 2023.
[4] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 991, >Hamas Friday Sermons in Abandoned Gaza Settlements on Al-Jazeera TV: ‘We Can Liberate Palestine – From the Mediterranean to the Jordan River’, September 21, 2005.
[5] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 991, Hamas Friday Sermons in Abandoned Gaza Settlements on Al-Jazeera TV: ‘We Can Liberate Palestine – From the Mediterranean to the Jordan River’, September 21, 2005.
[6] X.com/KhaledAbuToameh/status/1817408090246967320, July 27, 2024.
[7] Al-ain.com/article/resignation-qatar-yasser-al-jazeera, May 10, 2018.
[8] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1527, Al-Jazeera Unmasked: Political Islam As A Media Arm Of The Qatari State, August 12, 2020.
[9] See Special Dispatch No. 10879, Presenters, Reporters From Qatar's Al-Jazeera Praise Hamas Attack, Celebrate Israel's Disaster, October 17, 2023.
[10] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 5758, Hamas Leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar: Trump Possibly a Jew; Money Is the Jewish Religion, Key to U.S. Decision-Making, November 8, 2016.
[11] Pcpsr.org/en/node/985, May 26-June 1, 2024.
[12] Pcpsr.org/en/node/973, March 5-10, 2024.
[13] pcpsr.org/en/node/955, September 6-9, 2023.
[14] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 10944, Brussels-Based Palestinian Activist Amjad AbuKoush: We Are Paying The Price For 17 Years Of Hamas Policies; Al-Jazeera TV Wants The Bloodshed To Continue So It Can Garner More Viewers And More 'Likes'; Qatar Has Taken Over Palestinian Decision-Making, March 7, 2024.
[15] See MEMRI JTTM report Canada-Based Pro-Al-Qaeda Cleric: Hamas' Claims Of Victory Are Absurd, Its Only Accomplishment Is Increasing The Suffering Of Palestinians, February 27, 2024.
[16] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis Report No. 1751, Al-Jazeera Arabic: The Qatari-Owned TV Channel That Promotes Islamist Terrorism Worldwide – UPDATED, May 6, 2024.
[17] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10872, Qatar Enabling Hamas' War Against Israel, October 15, 2023.
[18] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 11011, Al-Jazeera Airs Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades Video Calling On Muslims To Join Jihad; Shows Ambush Against Israeli Soldiers, April 10, 2024.
[19] See MEMRI Daily Brief No. 587, Al-Jazeera's Gaza Script Sabotaged By Their Ally Hamas, April 1, 2024.
[20] Aljazeera.net/blogs/2023/10/12/7-%d8%a3%d9%83%d8%aa%d9%88%d8%a8%d8%b1-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%88%d8%b9%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%86%d8%aa%d8%b8%d8%b1-%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%88%d9%87%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b6%d8%a7%d8%a6%d8%b9, October 12, 2023.
[21] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 11072, Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh: We Should Hold On To The Moment Of The Victory Of October 7 And Build Upon It; Time Is On Our Side; Donations To Gaza Are Not 'Humanitarian Aid' But 'Financial Jihad', January 10, 2024.
[22] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 11089, Al-Jazeera Military Analyst Fayez Al-Dwairi Explains Anti-Tank Missile Used By Hamas In Gaza, Adds: It Can Penetrate Israel's Namer APC And Merkava Tank, January 1, 2024.
[23] Aljazeera.net/encyclopedia/2024/1/4/%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%b2-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%88%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%84%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%88%d9%85%d8%a9, January 23, 2024.
[24] Aljazeera.net/encyclopedia/2024/1/4/%d9%81%d8%a7%d9%8a%d8%b2-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%af%d9%88%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%8a-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%84%d9%84-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d9%82%d8%a7%d9%88%d9%85%d8%a9, January 23, 2024.
[25] Aljazeera.net/opinions/2024/4/14/%D9%87%D8%B2%D9%85%D8%AA-%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%87%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%B1%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A9, April 14, 2024.
[26] X.com/hahussain/status/1818983797553078667, August 1, 2024.
[27] Pcpsr.org/en/node/944, June 7-11, 2023.

Trump is Finished. His Demented Antics Show he Does Not Believe he'll Win
Hanibaal Atheos/Lebanon Iznogood/Tuesday, August 6, 2024
The wild unhinged demented antics of Donald Dumb mean two things at the same time:
1- He's old and losing grip on reality. "I'm old", he tells himself, "and I don't care". That is desperation.
2- He knows he'll lose in November. Like in 2016 when he ran "for the fun of it" and didn't believe he'd win and was stunned that he won thanks to the defective Electoral College that distorts the will of the people because of a few unelected delegates. This time, he knows deep down that he'll lose in November to a much better, articulate, steady candidate Kamala Harris, and it irks the world out of him that he will lose not to a white woman (Hillary), not to a white man (Biden, 2020), but to a colored smart woman.
This explains his unhinged sexist attacks on her as "Low IQ", or racist attacks on her as "not really Black", etc. The moron is scared and is on the edge of a mental breakdown precipice and is already regretting choosing an unstable idiot weirdo by the fake name of JD Vance who changes his mind about anything and everything, including about his own opinions of Donald Dumb himself.
I watch D. Dumb on stage, running his inane verbal diahhreas off the carefully scripted mature (though full of falsehoods and lies) language his handlers write for him, making faces like a 3-year old and I fear for the future. Then I wonder who are the jackass republicans who let this Blond Capuchin or Orang-utan monkey out of his cage?
I watch Harris on stage and I feel secure and confident for the future, hearing her words, seeing her demeanor and her uplifting smile.
What more does any resonable American need to make up their minds between the two? Unless one is an imbecile like Donald Dumb, or unless one believes that the moron is going to save white America from its multi-colored population, or unless one has some other deep-seated pathological hatred... there are no reasons that can convince a moderately reasonable, common sense, person to vote for this convicted felon maniac.
Kamala Harris is the sitting vice president of the United States. She's an educated and formidable prosecutor. She's a former U.S. senator, and this white trash moron calls her “Crazy Kamala”, a “lunatic”, a "low IQ", “a radical left freak”. He insults the popular Republican Georgia governor Brian Kemp, "Little Brian", and launches a vitriolic attack on his wife because the decent man refused to be an accessory to overturning the laws of his state and the country.
All of this, and three more months to go, I predict that Donald Dumb will not be shot in the ear by a republican imbecile like him this time. This time, the coward will have a heart attack or be seized by an episode of "delirium tremens", right on stage, as the adrenaline levels in his blood continue to rise at the rage of having to lose to a woman of immigrant colored background. The coward. The jerk. The feeble man. We thought Biden was an old geezer who refuses to let go, but he did. Now we have to endure the spectacle of this old criminal moron reeking of hatred and rage, dragging the entire country into a psychotic episode of depression and dark negativity. To his followers: What happened to positive thinking? What happened to decency? We always believed in the American Dream, not the American Nightmare this psychotic Leatherface is serving his ever dwindling audiences.
It's clear that Trump is on edge and losing it. Spewing insults no longer works. Even his followers are ditching him. "Republicans for Harris" is the first wagon in a long train of those republicans who are sick and tired of the deranged creep. For many Americans, Republicans and Democrats, it’s all getting a bit tiresome. We need to remove this miserable angry and criminal old man out of our lives. Right now, in November and forever.

Israel prepares for several scenarios as it waits for Iran, Hezbollah retaliation
Itamar Eichner/Ynet News/Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Hamas leadership's secret correspondence on cease-fire: 'We are suffering heavy losses, situation in Gaza is terrible'
US says Iran is readying its attack and Canada has evacuated diplomats' families from Israel, but the Homefront Command instructions have not changed; Meanwhile, Hezbollah and Iran say civilians will not be harmed
Israel continues to wait for responses from Hezbollah and Iran to the assassinations of top terror leaders in Tehran and Beirut. While the world is making efforts to moderate the Iranian 'Axis of Resistance' and prevent it from reacting in a way that would harm civilians, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have made efforts in recent days to make it clear that they do not want the current escalation to slide into war. The messages conveyed by Iran and Hezbollah saying that they do not plan to harm civilians should be taken with a grain of salt by Israel, but the understanding is that neither side is interested in war, and after the retaliatory actions we are likely to find ourselves in the exact same situation as before the assassinations. But first there may still be several days of fighting, and Hezbollah and Iran are keeping their cards close to their chests - and unlike the last time, it is not clear what exactly the nature of the response will be. The Iranian axis can choose to respond with separate attacks against Israel, with Hezbollah attacking certain targets, while at the same time (or before) Iran will attack other targets. The Houthis, with whom Israel has an "open account" following the attack in the port of Hodeidah, also are expected to participate in the attack in one way or another, as are the pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq. Nasrallah addressed this in his public speech on Tuesday night, saying that Hezbollah's action could come together with the entire Iranian axis - and could also come separately.
Israel's waiting is part of our response, the battle is also psychological," Nasrallah said Tuesday, adding that "we will act cautiously and carefully." The message conveyed in his speech is that Hezbollah's goal has not changed, which is to prevent Israel from winning the war in the Gaza Strip while not entering into an all-out war with Israel, one that could deal a fatal blow to Lebanon.
In recent days, Russia has also entered the picture , demanding that Iran, according to various reports, avoid an unrestrained reaction - and especially to avoid harming civilians.
55% of Americans oppose sending troops
Israel is currently avoiding making a pre-emptive strike, while various sources have repeatedly stated in recent days that such an attack will lead to a severe response. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Hagari on Tuesday told Al-Arabiya that "we have proven that we will not be proportional in our reactions if civilians are harmed. We will not tolerate any harm to civilians. Nasrallah is taking the entire region to an escalation and he will bear responsibility for it. We are also looking at Iran, and we are not alone but with our partners, fully prepared to deal with it. I will not give details to our enemies about our plans."
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at Tel Nof air force base Tuesday that Israel is improving readiness to "defend and attack" and is also alert to the possibility that the attack will begin "in a short time."
CNN reported on Tuesday that signs of Iranian preparations for an attack are beginning to be detected in the U.S., while in the meantime the situation on the northern border has heated up, with barrages of dozens of rockets and drones toward the Golan and the Galilee, which have led to a great deal of damage and injuries. Israeli experts are working to analyze how Iran and Hezbollah will ultimately choose to respond, and in the meantime they are careful not to play into the hands of the "axis of evil" and there has been no change in the instructions of the Homefront Command that would restrict the public.
Behind the scenes, the U.S. is working together with the countries of the regional coalition to repel the Iranian attack. Biden himself spoke today with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt, and according to the White House he discussed with them "efforts to ease tensions in the region, and bring about a cease-fire agreement and the release of hostages in Gaza."
The U.S. fears that the Iranians have learned a lesson from its attack in April, when 99% of the UAVs and missiles they launched were intercepted. This time, Iran may well use Hezbollah and other affiliates in the region to overwhelm the air defense system. One of the expected difficulties in dealing with the combined attack, according to the Wall Street Journal, is the need to quickly identify the many different targets and decide, in real time, which of them to shoot down. Despite this, commentators estimate that Israel's multi-layered air defense system, large parts of which it developed alongside the U.S., is built for such an event.
Meanwhile, an alarming survey published in the Washington Post indicates that, for the first time in 14 years, a majority of Americans oppose sending troops to defend Israel in case it is attacked by its neighbors. According to the survey, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 55% of Americans oppose sending U.S. military forces, while 41% support it. Among Republicans, 55% are in favor of sending the forces, while only 35% of Democrats are in favor.
The online survey was conducted from June 21 to July 1, before the assassination in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and Iran's threat of a response that followed. The newspaper noted that the share of Americans who support sending troops is the lowest measured since 2010. In that year, 47% of Americans said they support sending troops.
The scenarios in Israel
Among the targets in Israel the Iranians and Hezbollah may target are symbols of government such as the Knesset, the Prime Minister's Office, the Prime Minister's residence, the Kirya defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, air force bases, intelligence bases, the Mossad base and the Shin Bet base. In addition, there is fear that there will be serious damage to infrastructure sites such as power plants, ports, airports, fuel and ammonia storage, interchanges and main roads. However, Hezbollah and Iran know very well that the Israeli Air Force has the ability to respond strongly to such attacks and fatally damage Iran's oil reserves, for example, or civilian infrastructure in Lebanon.
If Hezbollah and Iran want to harm the civilian population as well and not focus on infrastructure and military facilities, they may also harm city centers in Tel Aviv, Haifa and other large cities. But such an action will almost certainly lead to an escalation that Israel believes they want to avoid and is therefore less likely. Cyber incidents that will try to damage the alert system and disrupt cellular communications also can be expected.
As part of the preparations, the IDF decided to cancel the Holy Ari religious celebration that was planned to take place in Safed between August 8 and 10. In addition, the Canadian Embassy in Israel informed the Foreign Ministry Tuesday evening that it will evacuate the family members of its diplomats to Jordan on Wednesday, the first country to do so. On Monday, Ireland's Foreign Minister Michael Martin called on his country's citizens not to travel to Israel at all.
Another serious concern in Israel concerns the possibility that Iran and Hezbollah will try to carry out attacks against Israelis abroad, or harm Israeli diplomats and Israeli embassies around the world. Therefore, since the assassinations, the Foreign Ministry has declared the highest security alert, similar to the level introduced after October 7. Diplomats have been placed under strict precautionary rules, And some of them were instructed to break their routine, not to attend public events, and to work from home.
"Our situation is very dangerous as far as the envoys are concerned," according to a senior Israeli diplomat, who said that many Israeli representatives feel threatened. "We saw that a person was harmed in a governmental compound, so there is a chance that they will want to damage symbols of government. ... This includes, among other things, our representatives around the world."
"Taking down an embassy or an ambassador is relatively easier," he added. "Definitely the Israeli embassies are a governmental symbol and they are in the crosshairs. The vigilance for the diplomats is really high. There are severe restrictions on their movements. At the same time, we continue to function as usual."
An Israeli ambassador abroad said: "We went on a mission to represent the State of Israel in the good times and also in the difficult ones. It is part of our reality and will probably be the same in the future. You have to be vigilant, follow instructions, take care of family members and the children of the emissaries and take precautions, but I am personally proud to represent the country abroad and these threats will not deter us. On the southern and northern borders the situation is no less dangerous and the citizens of the country and our children are under no less serious threat. We are all at the front, in Israel and abroad, and we will hold the Israeli flag strong and steady and with a confident hand."