Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 03-04/2024
Israel assassinated Hezbollah official in Naqoura, Hassan Yazbek
Mossad chief vows to 'settle score' with Hamas
Clashes resume in south ahead of Nasrallah's speech
'No one knew': Dahieh stunned after strike kills Hamas deputy head
Israel on alert for possible Hezbollah response after Arouri killing
UNIFIL warns escalation after Arouri killing may have 'devastating consequences'
Gantz, Macron discuss need for 'diplomatic effort' in Lebanon
Sayyed Nasrallah: ‘Israel’ Will Regret if It Wages All-Out War on Lebanon, Hezbollah Won’t Abide by Any Limit
Hezbollah chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah warns Israel against full-scale war on Lebanon
Nasrallah vows response to Dahieh strike, warns Israel against waging war
Al-Arouri to be laid to rest on Thursday as Hezbollah-Israel clashes resume on southern border
Who was Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas deputy killed in Lebanon?
Arouri's killing: Reactions, risks and consequences
Killing of Hamas operative Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut fits pattern of Israeli operations in Lebanon

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 03-04/2024
US says ISIS could have carried out Iran bombing
More than 103 people killed in twin blasts near slain Iran commander’s grave
Israeli parents grieve in flat full of memories and bullet holes
Israel's peers warn against displacing Palestinians in Gaza to places like Canada
'Enough Is Enough': Sanders Says Congress Should Reject Aid For Israel's War In Gaza
US 'not seeing acts of genocide' in Gaza, State Dept says
UK’s Cameron says ‘more must be done’ to get aid into Gaza
Blinken to go to Israel, visit other Middle East capitals
Ottawa to accept 1,000 applications from Canadians' relatives seeking way out of Gaza
Some 386 Russians killed, 40 pieces of equipment destroyed in Tavria sector, number of infantry attacks falls
EU's Borrell urges world to 'impose' solution to Israel-Palestinian conflict
Ukraine claims Putin's party forms own private army 'Hispaniola'
Russia and Ukraine exchange hundreds of prisoners of war in biggest release so far
NATO to help buy 1,000 Patriot missiles to defend allies as Russia ramps up air assault on Ukraine
UN Security Council members call for Houthis to stop attacks on shipping
Iran arrests four over bootleg alcohol deaths

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on January 03-04/2024
US Lack of Resolve Incentivizing China on Taiwan/Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute./January 3, 2024
Denmark: ‘Is Christian Persecution One of the World’s Biggest Problems?’/Raymond Ibrahim./January 3, 2024
Drug smuggling from Syria threatens regional security/Mohammed Abu Dalhoum/Arab News/January 03, 2024
After a year of conflict, the future of war looks very Similar to its past/Faisal Al Yafai/The Arab Weekly/January 03/2024
Weaponization of antisemitism stifling legitimate criticism of Israel/Ray Hanania/Arab News/January 03, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 03-04/2024
Israel assassinated Hezbollah official in Naqoura, Hassan Yazbek
MTV/January 3, 2024
MTV reported that 4 Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli raid, one of whom was the liaison official in Naqoura, Hussein Yazbek.

Mossad chief vows to 'settle score' with Hamas
Agence France Presse/January 3, 2024
Israel's spy chief on Wednesday vowed to make Hamas pay for its attacks on Israel, after a drone strike attributed to Israel killed the group's deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon. The Mossad spy agency "is committed to settling the score with the murderers who descended upon the Gaza envelope on October 7" and with Hamas' leadership, David Barnea said. "It will take time, just like after the Munich massacre, but we will lay our hands on them wherever they will be," he added. Barnea spoke at the funeral of former Mossad chief Zvi Zamir, who oversaw Israel's retaliation against Palestinian militant groups in the aftermath of the 1972 murder of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich. His remarks came a day after Arouri, the deputy political chief of Hamas, was killed in a drone strike in a southern Beirut suburb. Senior Lebanese officials accused Israel of carrying out the strike. Israel has not claimed responsibility. Israel has waged a nearly three-month-long war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militant group launched the October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the alleged deaths of at least 1,140 people according to the latest Israeli figures. "Every Arab mother ought know that if her son participated, directly or indirectly, in the slaughter of October 7, his blood shall be upon his own head," Barnea said. Israel's retaliation has claimed the lives of at least 22,313 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. That figure does not specify the number of Hamas militants killed in the fighting, but Israel contends that at least 8,000 Hamas fighters are among the dead.

Clashes resume in south ahead of Nasrallah's speech
Naharnet//Wed, January 3, 2024
The Israeli artillery shelled Wednesday the outskirts of al-Labbouneh and al-Naqoura as Israeli media reported the launching of anti-tank missiles towards the upper Galilee. An Israeli drone later carried out a strike on the border town of Markaba. Hezbollah said it has targeted the Zar'it barracks and the Jal al-Alam post. Hezbollah also targeted with a Burkan rocket a group of soldiers near al-Malkia post. The attack was a "direct hit", the group said. Israel is on high alert for an escalation with Hezbollah after one of the top leaders of the Palestinian Hamas was killed Tuesday in a strike in Beirut, heightening the risk of a broader Middle East conflict. Hezbollah called the strike "a serious attack on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty and resistance" and said it "will never pass without response and punishment." Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to deliver a speech at 6 p.m. as the implications of the killing of Saleh Arouri remain unclear. The strike in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold could cause the low-intensity fighting along the Lebanon border to boil over into all-out war, but much depends on how Nasrallah chooses to respond. He has previously vowed to retaliate for any Israeli targeting of allied militant leaders in Lebanon.

'No one knew': Dahieh stunned after strike kills Hamas deputy head
Agence France Presse/Wed, January 3, 2024
A large hole is gaping in a building and debris litters the street in a southern Beirut suburb where a presumed Israeli strike killed the deputy leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas. The day after loud blasts ripped through the district from the drone attack that killed Saleh al-Arouri, armed men of Hezbollah were standing guard in the area. Local residents said they were surprised to learn that their busy street housed the secretive Hamas bureau in a non-descript three-story building nestled next to a pharmacy and a sweets shop. Israel has not claimed the deadly attack but Hamas, the group behind the October 7 attack that sparked the Gaza war, and Lebanese officials have no doubt it was Israel who killed Arouri and six Hamas operatives. Beirut's southern suburbs have long been a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah, but it is also an overcrowded residential area packed with civilians, shops and restaurants. "No one knew that there was a Hamas office here," said Ahmad, 40, who works in the nearby sweets shop. "I heard three explosions, at first I thought it was thunder," he told AFP in disbelief. Shopkeepers were sweeping glass shards off the road near the impact site on Hadi Nasrallah street, named after Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's late son, who was killed in fighting with Israel in 1997. The Lebanese Army cordoned off the perimeter and Hezbollah militants dressed in black civilian clothing kept watch nearby. "Three Israeli drone strikes targeted the building," said a Hezbollah official who requested anonymity citing security concerns.
'Expecting the worst' -
Rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah rummaged through the remains of cars damaged or charred by the strikes, in an empty lot facing the building. "I was at the dentist's, a few meters away," said resident Mohammad Burji, 46, who lambasted Israel for striking "in the middle of a residential area." Beirut's southern suburbs have "been caught in the past in a war of annihilation, just like Gaza," he said, referring to heavy bombing during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Arouri, one of Hamas' main military strategists, was the first senior official of the movement killed during the Gaza war, in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since hostilities began. Israel has accused him of masterminding numerous attacks. After spending nearly two decades in Israeli prisons, Arouri was freed in 2010 on the condition he went into exile. Local police captain Ali Farran said residents who have lived through the 2006 war "are now expecting the worst," adding that the area is home to 800,000 people. Several exiled Hamas leaders have found refuge in Lebanon, under the protection of their ally Hezbollah. Hamas official Osama Hamdan holds near-daily press conferences in the southern suburbs, which have also housed Bahraini dissidents and Iran-backed Yemeni rebels.
'Serious assault' -
On Tuesday, Hezbollah warned that Arouri's killing in their stronghold was "a serious assault on Lebanon" that "will not go unanswered or unpunished." Nasrallah was expected to give a highly anticipated television address later Wednesday. The Gaza war started after the Hamas attack on Israel allegedly killed around 1,140 people according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The militants also took around 250 hostages. Israel has launched a relentless military campaign in Gaza that has claimed over 22,000 lives, according to the territory's health ministry. Amid the war, Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily cross border fire. More than 160 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah members but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists. On the Israeli side, at least five civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to figures from the military. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari, after Tuesday's attack, did not directly comment on Arouri's killing but said the military was "highly prepared for any scenario" in its aftermath.

Israel on alert for possible Hezbollah response after Arouri killing
Associated Press/Wed, January 3, 2024 
Israel was on high alert for an escalation with Hezbollah on Wednesday after one of the top leaders of the Palestinian Hamas was killed in a strike in Beirut that was widely blamed on Israel and heightened the risk of a broader Middle East conflict.
The killing of Saleh Arouri, the most senior Hamas member slain since the war in Gaza erupted nearly three months ago, provided a morale boost for Israelis still reeling from Hamas' Oct. 7 attack as the militants put up stiff resistance in Gaza and continue to hold scores of hostages. ut its implications for the war remain unclear. Israel has killed several top Hamas leaders over the years, only to see them quickly replaced. And the strike in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold could cause the low-intensity fighting along the Lebanon border to boil over into all-out war.
Much depends on how Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah — who has led Hezbollah since an Israeli strike killed his predecessor in 1992 — chooses to respond. He has previously vowed to retaliate for any Israeli targeting of allied militant leaders in Lebanon, and was expected to deliver a speech at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT).
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire almost daily over the Israeli-Lebanese border since the war in Gaza began, but Nasrallah has appeared reluctant to escalate it further, perhaps fearing a repeat of the monthlong 2006 war, in which Israel heavily bombed Beirut and southern Lebanon. sraeli officials have not commented on the strike that killed Arouri, but Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said "we are on high readiness for any scenario."The United States has sought to prevent any widening of the conflict, including by deploying two aircraft carriers and other military assets to the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was expected in the region this week.
A HIGH-PROFILE TARGET
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to kill Hamas leaders wherever they are. The group's Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, and some 240 others were taken hostage. srael claims to have killed a number of mid-level Hamas leaders in Gaza, but this would be the first time since the war that it has reached into another country to target the group's top leaders, many of whom live in exile around the region. rouri was the deputy of Hamas' supreme political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and headed the group's presence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He was also a key liaison with Hezbollah. The U.S. State Department had listed him as a terrorist and offered a $5 million reward for information about him. aniyeh said Hamas was "more powerful and determined" following the attack, which killed six other members of the group, including two military commanders. "They left behind them strong men who will carry the banner after them," he said of those killed. ezbollah called the strike "a serious attack on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty and resistance.""We affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment," it said.
ISRAEL SEEKS A 'CLEAR VICTORY' IN GAZA
The focus of the war remains on Gaza, where Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel is seeking a "clear victory" over Hamas, which has ruled the territory since 2007. srael's air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 22,300 people, two-thirds of them women and children. he campaign has driven some 85% of Gaza's population from their homes, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into overcrowded shelters or teeming tent camps in Israeli-designated safe areas that the military has nevertheless bombed. A quarter of Gaza's population face starvation, according to the United Nations, as Israeli restrictions and heavy fighting hinder aid delivery. he unprecedented death and destruction has led South Africa to accuse Israel of genocide in a case filed with the International Court of Justice, allegations Israel has strongly denied and vowed to contest. till, Israel appears far from achieving its goals of crushing Hamas and returning the estimated 129 hostages still held by the group after more than 100 were released in a cease-fire deal in November. allant said several thousand Hamas fighters remain in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been battling militants for over two months and where entire neighborhoods have been blasted into rubble. eavy fighting is also underway in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli officials say Hamas' military structure is still largely intact. Yehya Sinwar, Hamas' top leader in Gaza, and his deputies have thus far eluded Israeli forces.
Egypt, which along with Qatar has served as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, has proposed a multistage plan for ending the war in which all hostages would eventually be released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel would withdraw from Gaza and a government of Palestinian technocrats would govern Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank until elections are held. Neither Israel nor Hamas have accepted the plan in its entirety, but neither has rejected it outright. n Israeli delegation was in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the proposal, according to an Egyptian official who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said the killing of Arouri was likely to hamper the negotiations for a couple days.

UNIFIL warns escalation after Arouri killing may have 'devastating consequences'
Naharnet/Wed, January 3, 2024 
The deputy chief of UNIFIL’s Strategic Communications and Public Information Office, Kandice Ardiel, on Wednesday voiced concern over any potential escalation following the Israeli drone strike that killed Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday. We are deeply concerned at any potential for escalation that could have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the Blue Line,” Ardiel said, in response to a question from Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency. We continue to implore all parties cease their fire, and any interlocutors with influence to urge restraint,” she added.

Gantz, Macron discuss need for 'diplomatic effort' in Lebanon
Naharnet/Wed, January 3, 2024
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz says he has discussed with French President Emmanuel Macron “the imperative of an international diplomatic effort in Lebanon,” after Israel was accused of assassinating Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri in a brazen drone strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“I expressed my appreciation to President Macron for his commitment to Israel’s security, regional stability, and France’s important efforts to release the hostages held in Gaza,” Gantz said in an English-language post on the X platform.
“We discussed the future stages of the war in Gaza, the imperative of an international diplomatic effort in Lebanon and other important regional matters,” he added. Since the cross-border hostilities began between Israel and Hezbollah, more than 160 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah combatants but including more than 20 civilians, three of them journalists. On the Israeli side, at least five civilians and nine soldiers have been killed, according to the military. ezbollah has claimed repeated attacks on Israeli troops and positions, saying its actions are in support of its ally Hamas, while Israel has been striking south Lebanon.

Sayyed Nasrallah: ‘Israel’ Will Regret if It Wages All-Out War on Lebanon, Hezbollah Won’t Abide by Any Limit
Al-Manar English Website/January 4, 2024
The Video Link of the speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjgEPvfwPRA
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah on Tuesday warned the Israeli enemy against launching an all-out war on Lebanon, affirming that the Islamic Resistance will then fight without any limit.
Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed that Hezbollah decided to join the war on October 8 in order to support the Palestinian people and resistance in face of the Zionist war on Gaza.
His eminence indicated that, till now, the operations carried out by Hezbollah are regulated in a way that abides by the Lebanese national interests, threatening the Israeli enemy that the limits will disappear in case of any Zionist war on Lebanon.
“Up till now, Hezbollah is engaging in tuned battle with the Israeli enemy, but limits will disappear if ‘Israel’ wages an all-out war on Lebanon.”
Sayyed Nasrallah emphasized that Hezbollah showed the utmost bravery when it joined the war on October 7 despite all the Israeli military capabilities and US threats, adding that Hezbollah fighters are ready to confront all the military choices of the enemy.
After Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, the Israelis and all their allies got extremely mad and planned to utilize the chance in order to wage an all-out war on Lebanon and the West Bank in addition to Gaza, but Hezbollah attacks and military readiness prevented the implementation of this scheme, according to Sayyed Nasrallah.
Had Lebanon’s front been calm when the Israeli war on Gaza started, the Lebanese would have waken up at midnight to see the Israeli war jets destroying everything, Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed.
Sayyed Nasrallah added that Hezbollah military alert and readiness frustrated the Israeli “surprise” scheme, affirming that the Resistance powerful attacks sent a clear message to the Israeli enemy that the group is brave and undeterred.
The US officials advised the Israelis to avoid any all-out war with Hezbollah for their keenness on the Israelis, not the Lebanese, Sayyed Nasrallah noted.
His eminence explained that on October 8 and 9, the Israeli cabinet witnessed discussion of plans to attack Lebanon, adding that one of the generals warned the political command against any involvement in an open war with Hezbollah to avoid the massive destruction of Gush Dan area dwelt by three-quarters of the Zionist population.
Sayyed Nasrallah pointed out that all the American, British, French, and German threats failed to oblige Hezbollah to stop attacking the Zionist border sites, underlining that he who plans to engage in war with the Resistance will regret.
“War with Hezbollah will be very costly. Hezbollah is now taking the Lebanese interests and conditions into consideration, but the same interests will be crossing all limits if an all-out war is launched on Lebanon.”
Addressing Hezbollah ceremony held to mark fourth martyrdom anniversary of General Qassem Suleimani & Hajj Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis in Beirut’s Dahiyeh, Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that the Israeli assassination of Hamas official Saleh Arouri in the southern suburb of Beirut is an aggression on Hamas command and Dahiyeh simultaneously.
Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that the attack on Dahiyeh, being the first 2006 war, is very dangerous, adding that all the Israeli indirect reassurances in this regard are rejected.
Hezbollah Secretary General condemned the assassination of the Palestinian commander, reiterating Hezbollah vow that this crime will not go unanswered.
Sayyed Nasrallah, in this context, offered condolences on the martyrdom of Sheikh Arouri, stressing that the martyr spent a life full of jihad and resistance.
Outcomes of Al-Aqsa Flood Operation
Hezbollah leader indicated that there were schemes, before Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, to stir sedition among the Palestinian factions in order to expel all the Palestinians from the Strip.
Sayyed Nasrallah underlined the importance of the Yemeni navy role of blocking the passage of the Israeli-affiliated ships through the Red Sea.
Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that Al-Aqsa Flood Operation has so far left numerous outcomes, concentrating on the major losses inflicted upon the Israeli enemy and mentioning the following:
The first outcome is revitalizing the Palestinian cause after it was about to be thrown in oblivion and imposing proposing solutions, such as the two-state solution.
The second outcome is striking the bet on the exhaustion of the Palestinian people and resistance. The new generation proved to be as committed to the Palestinian cause as the former ones.
The third outcome is the rise of the popular support to the resistance groups in Palestine despite the massacres and the attempt to blame the resistance for the Zionist crimes.
The fourth outcome is the moral fall of ‘Israel’ and its image before the international community. During the last two decades, certain Arab media outlets tried to ameliorate the Zionist image, but the war on Gaza presented ‘Israel’ as a criminal. US surveys showed that 50% of the American youths considered that the ‘Israel’ must be eradicated and the Palestinian people must regain their rights.
The fifth outcome is striking the normalization path between some Arab regimes and the occupation entity.
The sixth outcome is the appearance of the Israeli entity as the main violator of the international laws. ‘Israel’ has violated all the international laws.
The seventh outcome is smashing the strategic deterrence power of the Israeli enemy. Hezbollah, the Palestinian and Iraqi resistance groups, and the Yemeni armed forces have proved that they are not deterred by the Zionist enemy and the United States.
The eighth outcome is overthrowing the information superiority of the Israeli enemy.
The ninth outcome is the Israeli failure to reach a swift victory.
The tenth outcome is the failure of the Israeli air force to settle the battle.
The eleventh outcome is the eradication of the Israelis’ trust in their command and army as well as the threat posed by the battle to the existence of the Israeli entity. Al-Aqsa Flood Operation contributes mainly to the demise of the occupation entity. Hundreds of thousands of Zionists left occupied Palestine.
The twelfth outcome is the eradication of the Israeli image of capability and power whcih the Zionists claim in their attempts to lure some Arab regimes to sign agreements.
The thirteenth outcome is the military failure and the psychological repercussions of the war on the Israelis. Thousands of Israeli soldiers have been either killed or wounded on Lebanon front, but the enemy does not acknowledge that. 300,000 Zionists have requested psychological treatment since October 7, according to Ynet. Hundreds of thousands of Zionists were displaced from the north of occupied Palestine.
The fourteenth outcome is the Israeli failure to reach any of the war targets.
The fifteenth outcome is deepening the internal strife among the Israelis.
The sixteenth outcome is smashing the American image and presenting USA as the main violator of the international laws. Who prevents Gaza ceasefire is the United States of America. The seventeenth outcome is the failure of the international organization to protect the civilians in Gaza. All the Lebanese must acknowledge that only power can protect them from the Israeli aggression.
Hezbollah Secretary General reiterated condolences and felicitations on the martyrdom of General Suleimani, Hajj Al-Muhandis and their Iraqi companions, condemning the terrorist attack on Iran’s Kerman, which claimed more than 80 martyrs. Martyrdom of General Suleimani terrified the enemies more than his presence, and the the attack on the visitors of his tomb is the proof, according to Sayyed Nasrallah. Sayyed Nasrallah indicated that martyr Suleimani’s image, might and determination are present in all fields of resistance, adding that all the resistance achievements rely mainly on the sacrifices of the Iranian general.
Sayyed Nasrallah clarified that one of the main features of martyr Suleimani’s loyalty to the resistance was that he used to help every resistance group to reach self-sufficiency. “Iraqi paramilitary and resistance fighters found Martyr Suleimani as the main supporter. US occupation forces were expelled from Iraq in 2011, thanks to the Iraqi resistance supported by Martyr Suleimani.“
Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed that martyr Suleimani contributed mainly to sustaining ties among the resistance groups in the entire region under the title of “axis of resistance”.Sayyed Nasrallah said that martyr Suleimani was keen on sustaining the communication among the resistance groups in order to coordinate the acts of confronting the Israeli enemy, adding that Resistance groups in the region act according to the conditions of the country they exist in despite the strategic agreement on identifying the enemies, friends and targets.
In this regard, Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that some journalists and politicians fail to understand the nature of the relations between Iran and the resistance groups and among the resistance groups themselves. “ Axis of resistance is joined by masters who take their decisions independently, not servants who obey regulations blindly.”
Sayyed Nasrallah started his speech by offers condolences on the death of Hezbollah official Hajj Mohammad Yaghi and the martyrdom of the IRGC commander Sayyed Radhi Al-Moussawi in an Israeli attack on Damascus countryside. His eminence also offers felicitations on Sayyeda Az-Zahraa (A.S.) Birthday and the advent of the new year. Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that he is scheduled to deliver a speech on Friday, adding that it will be devoted mainly to the Lebanese front. It is worth noting that the ceremony was started with a recitation of Holy Quranic verses and a video which displays some aspects of martyr Suleimani’s life.

Hezbollah chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah warns Israel against full-scale war on Lebanon
Dalal Saoud/United Press International/Wed, January 3, 2024
"If the enemy thinks of launching a war on Lebanon, then our fighting will be without limits, ceiling, rules or restraints and he knows what I mean," Nasrallah said of Israel during a speech broadcast live via video at a rally to commemorate Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani on the fourth anniversary of his assassination in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. Referring to Hezbollah's "missiles, capabilities and men," Nasrallah emphasized: "This is all to say that we are not afraid of war and not hesitant...Who thinks of [engaging] in a war with us, he will regret it if God wills."Nasrallah, whose fighters have been battling Israeli troops along the Lebanese border since the Gaza war broke out in October, warned that such a wider war will be "very, very, very costly." He explained that his fighters have been battling since Oct. 8 along the border with Israel in a "controlled" way, taking into consideration Lebanon's precarious conditions. However, he said that resulted in "paying a high price" -- a great number of Hezbollah men killed, about 120. The Hezbollah chief said his group joined the battle a day after Hamas' attack on Israel sparked the war to support the Palestinian people and resistance in Gaza.
By opening the Lebanese front, Hezbollah prevented Israel from waging a surprise war on Lebanon, he said. Otherwise, the Lebanese "could have woken up during the night and Israel destroyed everything in this country because the international community is supporting it." Israeli forces deploy near the border with Lebanon in the north of Israel, where they exchanged missile strikes with Hezbollah on October . Israeli forces deploy near the border with Lebanon in the north of Israel, where they exchanged missile strikes with Hezbollah on October 11. File Photo courtesy of Israel Defense Force Nasrallah described the Tuesday assassination of a senior Hamas leader and his companions in an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs, Hezbollah's stronghold, as "a big and dangerous crime."He said it was the first time his stronghold has been "targeted in that way since 2006," when Israel destroyed large parts of the southern suburbs during a 33 day-war with Hezbollah. Saleh al-Arouri, 58, who served as Hamas' deputy politburo leader and its military commander of the West Bank, was killed in the drone attack, along with two commanders of Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, and four other members of the Palestinian group. Al-Arouri was a founding commander of the brigades and has been living in Lebanon since 2018. He was imprisoned twice in Israeli jails for a total of 18 years before being released in 2010. He was known to be the coordinator between Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran. "This dangerous crime will not stay without response and punishment," Nasrallah said. His retaliation threats would either deter Israel or increase fears of a full-scale war between the two battling forces, which have been engaged in daily fighting mostly restricted to parts of southern Lebanon and northern Israel, resulting in numerous deaths, destruction and displacement on both sides.

Nasrallah vows response to Dahieh strike, warns Israel against waging war
Naharnet/Wed, January 3, 2024
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday described Israel’s killing of Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri in an airstrike in Hezbollah’s stronghold of Beirut’s southern suburbs as “a major and dangerous crime.”
“We cannot overlook it and the matter does not need a lot of talking. It will not remain without a response or punishment and the battlefield and days and nights will prove this,” Nasrallah said, in a televised address marking the third anniversary of the assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi militant commander Abou Mahdi al-Muhandis. “Those who think of war with us will, God willing, regret it, and war with us will be costly. So far we have been taking Lebanese interests into consideration, but should war be waged on Lebanon, the Lebanese interests require that we go with the war to the end,” Nasrallah added. “Until now, we have been fighting on the front with controlled calculations and that’s why we are paying a hefty price from the souls of our young men, but if the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions," Hezbollah’s leader warned.
“We do not fear war,” he stressed.
Addressing Hezbollah’s fighters in south Lebanon, Nasrallah said: “We salute and appreciate all those who are fighting on the border and we pride ourselves in them. We tell them that their blood and sacrifices will only have blessed results that will bring welfare to Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and the entire (Islamic) nation.”“The resistance in Lebanon was not deterred on October 8 when it opened the front and it will not be deterred,” he emphasized. Noting that Israel “has not been able to achieve a victory in Gaza for the past three months,” Nasrallah said “it tried to present a victory image yesterday through the assassination of Sheikh Saleh.”He added that Israel is also not acknowledging “thousands” of casualties on Lebanon's front.During nearly three months of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli army has also been exchanging cross-border fire with Hezbollah, which is allied with the Palestinian militants and Iran.
Lebanese authorities and Hamas accused Israel of killing Salah al-Arouri in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday along with six other Hamas operatives. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari did not directly comment on Arouri's killing but said the military was "highly prepared for any scenario" in its aftermath.
The attack sparked fears of a broader conflagration because Arouri is the most high-profile figure to be killed since fighting in Gaza began in October, and his death came in the first strike on the Lebanese capital since hostilities started.

Al-Arouri to be laid to rest on Thursday as Hezbollah-Israel clashes resume on southern border
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/January 03, 2024
BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s “direct hits” on two Israeli military sites — the Zar’it barracks and the Jal Al-Alam site — on Wednesday have broken the uneasy calm on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
The group’s resumption of operations against the Israeli army followed the assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on Tuesday night. An Israeli drone had breached Hezbollah’s security square just hours before a scheduled speech by party chief Hassan Nasrallah, causing an explosion that killed Al-Arouri and six others. The border area witnessed Israeli artillery shelling in the afternoon, targeting the Labouneh area in the town of Naqoura, in addition to an airstrike on the border town of Markaba.
The day after Al-Arouri’s assassination, the Israeli army announced the “strengthening of the Iron Dome system along the borders with Lebanon and the Galilee and raising alert levels along the borders.”
On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army fired on the outskirts of the towns of Boustane and Aita Al-Shaab with heavy machine guns from positions adjacent to Aita Al-Shaab. The Israeli shelling of Markaba targeted a house on the eastern outskirts of the town, causing three casualties, according to preliminary information.Hezbollah mourned two fighters — Mohammed Hadi Malek Obeid from Baalbek and Abbas Hassan Jammoul from Deir Al-Zahrani — without specifying where they were killed. Israel’s drone strike on the Hamas building in Beirut left surrounding Dahiyeh resembling a war zone. Homes, cars, and shops around the building suffered significant damage.
The area was cleared of debris, and roads were opened to ease travel.
Residents were still in shock on Wednesday. Zainab, who lives nearby, told Arab News: “We heard two or three explosions that shook our homes, and we thought they were Israeli airstrikes on the neighborhood. We didn’t know how to react.
“My children were outside the house, on their way back from work. The attack happened during a busy time in the neighborhood, when people were either on the road or getting ready to close their shops, so there was heavy traffic as usual.”
A security source said: “Israel’s intelligence and technological capabilities were revealed through the assassination of Al-Arouri. This incident has presented significant security challenges for Hezbollah, Hamas leaders and Islamic Jihad, as it demonstrates Israel’s ability to target any location in Lebanon.”
Several people living in Dahiyeh told Arab News: “Before the raid on Hamas offices, there was disruption in the television cables in the area. The interference ceased once the raid was over, but they were unaware of the cause behind it.”
MP Jamil Al-Sayyed, a former director general of Lebanese Public Security, used social media to highlight threats leveled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Al-Arouri in August last year.
Al-Sayyed said: “The assassination was carried out using intelligence information about the person, location,and timing. This information could have been obtained through advanced technology or from agents on the ground.”
He advised Palestinian leaders in Lebanon who could also be targeted “to avoid exposing themselves through transportation, communication or media interviews conducted from their offices.”
Besides Al-Arouri, six others affiliated with Hamas were killed in the drone strike: Azzam Al-Aqra’, Samir Fandi, Ahmad Mahmoud (a Palestinian refugee residing in the northern Burj camp in Tyre), Mahmoud Zaki Shaheen (a Lebanese national from the Bekaa region), Mohammed Bashasha (a Lebanese resident of Sidon) and Mohammed Al-Rayes (a Lebanese national from the Bekaa Valley).
Mahmoud’s burial took place on Wednesday at Burj Al-Shamali camp, while Mahmoud Shaheen’s funeral was held in Taalabaya-Bekaa.
Hamas said that the funeral of Al-Arouri, Al-Aqra’ and Al-Rayes will take place on Thursday from Imam Ali Mosque on the New Road to the Martyrs’ Cemetery in Beirut’s Shatila Camp. On Friday, Fandi’s funeral is scheduled in the Rashidieh camp after Friday prayers, and Bashasha’s funeral is scheduled at the Martyrs’ Mosque in the city of Sidon after Friday prayers.
Candice Ardell, deputy director of the UNIFIL Media Office, said in a statement that the UNIFIL leadership felt “deeply concerned about any possibility of escalation that could have devastating consequences for the people on both sides of the Blue Line. “We continue to call on all parties to cease fire, and we also appeal to any influential interlocutors to urge restraint.”
Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair, secretary-general of the High Relief Commission, inspected the site of the Israeli attack and announced “the start of the assessment process of the damage to provide compensation for affected individuals, following the guidelines set by the cabinet.”
He added: “Further investigations are needed by several parties, and the damage is limited.”In response to the Israeli escalation, Lebanon’s Maronite bishops warned in their monthly meeting on Wednesday “of the repercussions of the field escalation in southern Lebanon.”They added that Israeli strikes had “left casualties among the people and great destruction in many villages and towns, in addition to the burning of forests and orchards with phosphorus bombs, and this escalation reached the southern suburbs of Beirut.”The bishops requested that “people involved in the local community and supporters of Lebanon from all over the world actively participate in the enforcement of Resolution 1701. “This resolution will prevent Israel from launching attacks and ensure a strong and efficient foundation for peace in the southern region.”

Who was Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas deputy killed in Lebanon?
Agence France Presse/January 03, 2024
Saleh al-Arouri, the senior Hamas official killed in a suspected Israeli strike in Lebanon, played a key role in building up the Palestinian group's military capabilities and its links with regional allies. Arouri, 57, was one of the founders of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in the early 1990s.
More recently, he was the "channel or link" between the Hamas movement, Iran and Hezbollah, a Hamas source told AFP. He had regularly visited Iran. Arouri was also considered the leader of Hamas in the West Bank, and the source said that his knowledge and expertise had helped develop the Islamist movement's military capabilities in recent years. Considered Hamas's number two at the time of his killing, Arouri had been accused by Israel of playing a role in numerous attacks.
These included Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
Living in exile -
Born in the village of Aroura, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Arouri studied sharia, the Islamic law based on the teachings of the Koran, at Hebron University. He joined Hamas's parent movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, as a young man and was also actively involved in Islamic student politics.
Arouri became a member of Hamas when the group was founded in 1987 by the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was detained several times in the early 1990s, and in 1992 was sentenced to 15 years in jail on charges of forming the first cells of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank. He was released in 2007, but detained again three months later until 2010 when he was freed on condition that he go into exile. Arouri was then deported to Syria, where he remained for three years before relocating to Lebanon. Following his release in 2010, Arouri was appointed as a member of Hamas's political arm and was on the negotiating team that secured a prisoner exchange involving French-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, along with Egyptian mediators. On October 9, 2017, Hamas announced the election of Arouri as deputy head of its political arm. Arouri was married with two daughters and lived in Beirut.
Who else is left? -
With Arouri out of the picture, Israeli forces will be focusing their attention on other senior Hamas figures. They include Ismail Haniyeh, the current head of the Hamas political bureau. Considered a pragmatist, Haniyeh lives in voluntary exile, splitting his time between Turkey and Qatar. He has long campaigned for a reconciliation between the armed resistance against Israel and a political stance within Hamas, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States. Another target is Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza. He rose through the ranks of Hamas as a fierce advocate of armed struggle against Israel and is considered by the group as their "defense minister".An aura of mystery surrounds the slightly-built, Hebrew speaker Sinwar, who knows Israel well, having spent 23 years in Israeli jails before his release in 2011 in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. In the war of words leading up to the start of Israel's ground assault in Gaza, Israeli authorities had said that Sinwar is a "dead man walking". Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas's armed wing, has been on the U.S. list of "international terrorists" since 2015 and Israel has tried to assassinate him at least six times. Considered by Hamas as the group's "chief of staff", Deif is the one who announced in an audio message the start of the Hamas attack on Israel dubbed "Al-Aqsa Flood". His hiding place is unknown, and he is reported to be a master of disguise who is able to blend seamlessly into the population.

Arouri's killing: Reactions, risks and consequences
Associated Press/January 03, 2024
An apparent Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut that killed Hamas' No. 2 political leader Tuesday, marked a potentially significant escalation and heightened the risk of a wider Middle East conflict. Saleh Arouri, who was the most senior Hamas figure killed since the war with Israel began, was also a founder of the group's military wing. His death could provoke major retaliation by Lebanon's Hezbollah. The strike hit an apartment in a building in a Shiite district of Beirut that is a Hezbollah stronghold, and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to strike back against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon. Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire almost daily over the Israeli-Lebanese border since Israel's military campaign in Gaza began nearly three months ago. But so far the Lebanese group has appeared reluctant to dramatically escalate the fighting. A significant response now could send the conflict spiraling into all-out war on Israel's northern border. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the strike was carried out by an Israeli drone, and Israeli officials declined to comment. Speaking to reporters, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari did not directly mention Arouri's death but said, "We are focused and remain focused on fighting against Hamas.""We are on high readiness for any scenario," he added. The killing comes ahead of a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, even as the United States has tried to prevent a spread of the conflict, repeatedly warning Hezbollah — and its regional supporter, Iran — not to escalate the violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with the assault in Gaza until Hamas is crushed and the more than 100 hostages still held by the militant group in Gaza are freed, which he has said could take several more months. At the same time, Israeli officials have increasingly warned in recent days of stepped-up action against Hezbollah unless its cross-border fire stops.
BEIRUT STRIKE
Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to kill Hamas leaders wherever they are. The group's Oct. 7 attack from Gaza into southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, and some 240 others were taken hostage. Israel claims to have killed a number of mid-level Hamas leaders in Gaza, but this would be the first time it has reached into another country to target the group's top leaders, many of whom live in exile around the region. Arouri was the deputy of Hamas' supreme political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and headed the group's presence in the West Bank. He was also a key liaison with Hezbollah. Tuesday's blast shook a residential building in the Beirut suburb of Musharafieh, killing four people, according to the Lebanese news agency. Hamas confirmed that Arouri was killed along with six other members of the group, including two military commanders.
REACTIONS
Haniyeh said the movement was "more powerful and determined" following the attack. "They left behind them strong men who will carry the banner after them," he said of those killed. Hezbollah called the strike "a serious attack on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty and resistance." "We affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment," it said. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the killing and said it "aims to draw Lebanon" further into the war. In the occupied West Bank, where the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported multiple Israeli operations overnight, AFPTV images showed scores of people in the streets of Ramallah to protest at Arouri's killing. Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh also condemned the killing, and warned about the "risks and consequences that could follow", his office said. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Tuesday that the killing of Arouri "once again proved that straw foundation of Zionists is based on assassination and crime," Iranian media reported. He called it a sign of Israel's "heavy defeat" before Palestinian militant groups in the war in Gaza. In a call with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz after Arouri's killing, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to "avoid any escalatory attitude, particularly in Lebanon". Since the Gaza conflict began, Lebanese have feared their country could be pulled into a full-fledged war. Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006, when Israeli bombardment wreaked heavy destruction in southern Lebanon.
WIDER CONFLICT
Israeli strikes in neighbouring countries on groups acting in support of Hamas have fanned fears of a wider conflict. A strike inside Syria last month that was blamed on Israel killed a senior commander of the foreign operations arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, meanwhile, have also launched attacks at Israel and against cargo ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Hamas, with the U.S. military assembling a multinational task force to protect the vital shipping lane. The Houthis fired two missiles late Tuesday towards merchant ships travelling in the Red Sea near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the U.S. military said, though no ships in the area reported damage. The French mission to the U.N. said the Security Council -- of which France and the United States are permanent members -- would discuss the Houthi attacks in a meeting on Wednesday. Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has harshly criticised Netanyahu over the war, announced the detention of 34 people suspected of planning abductions and spying on behalf of Israel's Mossad intelligence service. Erdogan weeks ago warned of "serious consequences" should Israel attempt to target Hamas figures living or working in Turkey.

Killing of Hamas operative Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut fits pattern of Israeli operations in Lebanon
TAREK ALI AHMAD AND ANAN TELLO/Arab News/January 04, 2024
LONDON: The suspected targeted strike by Israel on senior Hamas operative Saleh Al-Arouri in Beirut’s southern suburbs this week was an unexpected escalation in the regional conflict, especially given that it happened in a Hezbollah stronghold.
The attack is not without precedent, however. Israel has a long history of carrying out operations and assassinations around the globe, most notably through its elite Mossad intelligence unit that has long hunted Nazis and, more recently, those it deems a threat to Israel’s security.
Countless such operations have taken place in Lebanon, the UAE, Iran and elsewhere in recent years, with notable members of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted and killed.
If what’s past is prologue, then Tuesday night’s precision strike on Al-Arouri and his squad could open the floodgates for additional attacks that might extend far beyond the borders of Gaza, where Israel has been waging a war against Hamas since Oct. 7.
“These targeted operations, at least from literature we have from Israeli scholarship and the information that we have, are very important because they are not simply an attempt by the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) to leverage his political chips, so to speak, but rather this is a kind of a process which brings together politics and military and intelligence,” Makram Rabah, a political analyst and assistant professor of history at the American University of Beirut, told Arab News.
Israel’s history of attacks and shadow warfare inside Lebanon is especially pertinent given the country’s significance in the current crisis, both on the military and political levels.
“The fact that Lebanon has always been an arena, let’s say a self-cooperating arena, makes this targeted hit all the more important and this will simply lead to more conflict,” said Rabah.
“This is why one has to understand that people from 1975 until 1982 — until the actual invasion, the Israeli full-scale invasion — the Israelis were trying to look at a potential limited incursion into Lebanon but it ended up being a full-scale military invasion, which ended by expanding the Palestine Liberation Organization.”
Even before the 1975 civil war in Lebanon and the Israeli invasion of the south of the country, Israel had mounted operations within the borders of its northern neighbor. The largest such incident was in 1968, when an Israeli airliner was attacked at Athens airport by the PLO, which was operating out of Lebanon.
In response, eight Israeli helicopters carried out a raid on Beirut International Airport and destroyed 13 civilian aircraft belonging to Arab airlines, as well as causing damage to the runway and hangars.
After the 1967 war, the PLO began conducting raids from Lebanon into Israel, which led to retaliation in villages along the border.
In 1975, Lebanon descended into 15 years of civil war, which led to its land being used as a launch pad for PLO attacks on Israel. Three years into this civil war, members of the PLO hijacked a bus on Israel’s Coastal Highway, killing 38 passengers.
In retaliation, Israel launched Operation Litani on March 14, 1978, invading southern Lebanon as far as the Litani River. The offensive led to the creation of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, a peacekeeping mission that was established after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the south.
But Israeli forces returned to southern Lebanon in 1982, following the attempted assassination of Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to the UK.
Under the pretext of protecting Israeli civilians by pushing members of Palestinian groups in southern Lebanon 40 kilometers to the north, Israel, supported by its ally the State of Free Lebanon, an unrecognized separatist entity in the country’s southernmost territory, invaded southern Lebanon.
Although the PLO, headquartered at the time in western Beirut, withdrew from Lebanon on Sept. 1, the Israeli military expanded its operations for three months until it reached the capital, Beirut.
During this invasion, dubbed Operation Peace for Galilee, one of the worst massacres of the Lebanese civil war took place. The Israeli army besieged the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, near Beirut, providing cover for Lebanese Forces, whose militia attacked the camps and killed about 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians.
It remains unclear whether an escalation of the current conflict in Gaza into a regional conflict involving Lebanon and Hezbollah might result in a repeat of such violence.
“Trying to compare or say that something like Sabra and Shatila would reoccur is very difficult to say because of many reasons,” said Rabah.
“First of all, there’s the complicity of the Lebanese Forces, or a faction of Lebanese Forces, which played an important role in Sabra and Shatila. And, more importantly, we had (former Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon.
“At the moment, we don’t have someone like him, at least from the generals who are running the show in Israel … (who lack) Sharon’s more criminal tendency.”
While most of Israel’s operations in Lebanon were carried out under the pretext of eliminating Palestinian groups, several sought to destroy Hezbollah and other Lebanese groups.
In 1993, Israel launched Operation Accountability, also known as the Seven-Day War, after Hezbollah fighters killed at least five Israel Defense Force soldiers and fired 40 Katyusha rockets at Israel. Lebanese civilians bore the brunt of these exchanges, with Israeli strikes killing at least 118 people and wounding 500.
One of the bloodiest Israeli attacks on Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah was Operation Grapes of Wrath, in April 1996. The Israeli military carried out 600 air raids and fired about 25,000 shells into Lebanese territory.
The assaults included an attack on a UN compound near the village of Qana, where 800 Lebanese civilians had taken shelter. At least 106 Lebanese were killed and 116 wounded in what became known as the Qana Massacre.
An Amnesty International report pointed out that during the 1996 operation, the IDF carried out “unlawful attacks,” including strikes on an ambulance carrying civilians, a house in upper Nabatieh, and the attack on the UN compound.
The same report said that Hezbollah “unlawfully launched rocket attacks on populated areas in northern Israel, wounding many civilians.”
In 2006, Israel invoked its right to self-defense against Hezbollah after an Israeli army border patrol was ambushed, resulting in the deaths of three IDF soldiers and the capture of two.
The Lebanese group demanded the release of Lebanese and Palestinian detainees in Israel in exchange for the two hostages. Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister at the time, blamed the Lebanese government for the Hezbollah raid and triggered a war that killed at least 1,191 Lebanese, wounded 2,209 and displaced more than 900,000.
The July 2006 war lasted 34 days. A ceasefire was agreed three days after the UN Security Council approved Resolution 1701 on Aug. 11.
No Israeli operation or targeted attack was known to have taken place in Beirut since them — until Tuesday night. For this reason, many observers fear existing tensions could rise, causing the conflict in Gaza to spill over into a regional war.
“I think the surgical hits are very much potent and more important,” said Rabah. “So far, with the Al-Arouri targeting, no civilian lives were hit despite the fact that it (took place in a) residential area.”
However, he added that the fact that it happened in the Lebanese capital, and a Hezbollah stronghold at that, leads him to believe the stakes are extremely high.
“I think if one is to look at these operations, I think they are more dangerous,” he added.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 03-04/2024
US says ISIS could have carried out Iran bombing
Brad Dress/The Hill/January 3, 2024
The U.S.-designated terrorist group ISIS could have carried out the deadly bombing in Iran on Wednesday that killed more than 100 people, according to a senior U.S. official. “It does look like a terrorist attack. The type of thing we’ve seen ISIS do in the past,” said the official. “And as far as we’re aware, that’s … our going assumption at the moment.”Iranian officials have also blamed the bombing in the southeastern city of Kerman on a terrorist attack, without elaborating on who was behind it. Iran has for years battled ISIS, an extremist Islamic group that is avowedly anti-Iran and anti-Shia, primarily through proxies in Iraq and Syria. Though ISIS has suffered major losses at the hands of American forces and other groups, it still maintains sleeper cells across the Middle East.
The U.S. and Israel are locked in a tense shadow conflict with Iran across the Middle East amid the war in Gaza. But a strike on Iranian soil would be unprecedented and a major escalation in the region, which the U.S. is trying to prevent. Israel last month assassinated an Iranian general, but that was on Syrian soil. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Wednesday there is no indication that Israel was behind the explosion in Kerman. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei condemned the attacks Wednesday and called for a harsh response against the assailants. The bombing killed 103 people and injured another 141, according to Iranian state-run media outlets. Crowds of people had gathered at the Martyrs Cemetery in Kerman to mark the four-year anniversary of the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a U.S. drone strike in 2020. There were two explosions Wednesday at the tomb of Soleimani, one just a couple hundred feet from the site and another more than half a mile away. Iranian officials believe the second explosion, which came 20 minutes after the first, caused most of the fatalities. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

More than 103 people killed in twin blasts near slain Iran commander’s grave
Mostafa Salem, Abbas Al Lawati and Rob Picheta, CNN/Wed, January 3, 2024
At least 103 people were killed Wednesday and 188 injured in the Iranian city of Kerman after twin blasts near the burial site of slain military commander Qasem Soleimani, in what officials called a terror attack.
The blasts, at least one of which was caused by a bomb, state TV said, came on the fourth anniversary of Soleimani’s death in a US air strike, and threatens to accelerate tensions in the region that have spiked since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The first explosion was 2,300 feet (700 meters) from Soleimani’s grave, and the second was 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) away as pilgrims visited the site, IRNA added. Soleimani was killed by a US airstrike ordered by former President Donald Trump at Baghdad International Airport four years ago Wednesday.
IRINN, another state television channel, reported that the first explosion near the grave of Soleimani was caused by a bomb placed in a suitcase inside a Peugeot 405 car, and appeared to be detonated remotely.
Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the first explosion happened at 3:00 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET) during an interview with Iran’s state news channel IRIB. Vahidi said the second, more deadly blast took place 20 minutes later, when other pilgrims came to help the injured.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blasts.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Iran will have a “harsh response.” Addressing those behind the explosions, he wrote: “They should know that the bright soldiers of the path of Soleimani will not tolerate their wickedness and crimes.”
Videos posted on Iranian state media showed large crowds running in the area after the explosion. Footage also showed bloodied bodies being transported from the scene, and ambulances leaving the site through large crowds.
Iran declared Thursday a day of mourning following the blasts.
Formerly one of Iran’s most powerful men, Soleimani was head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, an elite unit that handles Iran’s overseas operations and was deemed to be a foreign terrorist organization by the US. The Pentagon says Soleimani and his troops were “responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.”Known as Iran’s “shadow commander,” Soleimani – who had led the Quds Force since 1998 – was the mastermind of Iranian military operations in Iraq and Syria.
General Ismail Qaani, Soleimani’s longtime lieutenant and his successor as the leader of the Quds Force, said the perpetrators were “desperate,” warning that “the Islamic Republic will not change the method of eradicating the Zionist regime.”
Blast comes at tense moment in region
The blast occurred amid heightened tensions in the region as Israel fights a three-month war against Hamas in Gaza prompted by the militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel.
That war has left more than 23,000 people dead in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in the enclave, and has led to skirmishes beyond Israel and Gaza, often involving Iran-backed militias.
On Tuesday, a senior Hamas leader was killed in a suburb of Beirut in a blast that a US official told CNN was carried out by Israel. Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied involvement but Hamas and the militant group Hezbollah, which controls the suburb, blamed Israel and have vowed revenge.
Last week, Iran and several of its armed proxies accused Israel of assassinating a senior Iranian commander in Syria, vowing retaliation. Israel didn’t comment on the matter. In an address marking the anniversary of Soleimani’s death, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the killing of the Hamas official in Beirut “won’t go unpunished.”Israel accuses Tehran of funding and arming Hamas. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last month that his country is in a “multi-arena war,” being attacked from seven arenas, including Iran. “We have already responded and acted in six of these decrees” he said. On Wednesday, Russian President Putin condemned “terrorism in all its forms” in a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi after the blasts. Putin, who is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, has been accused by Kyiv and international bodies of numerous acts of terror during his war in Ukraine.
The United States has also stepped up its military involvement in the Middle East recently. Last month, the military carried out airstrikes on Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah and “affiliated groups” in Iraq after an attack injured three US troops.
And last week, US helicopters sank three boats belonging to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea after coming under fire, killing those on board. The event marked the first time since tensions broke out earlier last year that the US killed members of the rebel group. The White House said it wasn’t seeking a wider conflict. The Houthis have carried out several attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel’s assault on Hamas, disrupting trade in one of the world’s most important waterways.
The US was not involved in the twin explosions in Iran Wednesday and “we have no reason to believe that Israel was involved,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said. Miller added at a State Department press briefing that the US does not “have any independent information” about the explosions, and as such would not offer an assessment about who may have been behind them.
CNN’s Nectar Gan contributed reporting.

Israeli parents grieve in flat full of memories and bullet holes
Israel (Reuters)/Kfar Aza/Maayan Lubell/January 3, 2024
Inside a bullet-riddled flat in Israel's Kfar Aza kibbutz, a set of photos show moments in the lives of the young couple who used to live there: sitting on a chairlift above a snowy slope, posing in military service uniforms, smiling for a selfie.
Other photos on display document the scene after they were killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7: blood stains on the floor and the sofa, bullet holes and traces of grenade shrapnel everywhere, clothes strewn amid overturned furniture.
Sivan Elkabets and her long-term boyfriend, Naor Hasidim, who would have turned 24 on Wednesday, are now buried side by side in the city of Ashdod, about 50 km (31 miles) from the kibbutz. "Today is his birthday. I came here to spend some time sitting in communion with him, to pray," said Naor's father, Avi Hasidim, during a visit to the ruined flat. He was wearing a T-shirt with a photo of Naor and Sivan on the front. "There is a hole in my heart. I hope -- I don't know if it will close. It is opening wider and wider and wider," he said. Kfar Aza was one of the places hardest hit on Oct. 7, when Hamas gunmen invaded southern Israel from Gaza and killed 1,200 Israelis, raped and mutilated some women, and took 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel responded by blockading, bombarding and invading the densely populated Gaza Strip, killing more than 22,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, displacing most of the strip's population and causing a humanitarian catastrophe.
The sound of explosions in Gaza could be heard on Wednesday from Kfar Aza, which is located close to the border fence, as Israeli forces kept up their assault on the Palestinian enclave.
'HUMAN REMAINS ON THE SOFA'
On the walls inside and outside the flat where Sivan and Naor lived were inscriptions scrawled by Israeli soldiers and sappers who went from home to home after the Hamas rampage, clearing explosives and locating bodies to be recovered and buried. One inscription read: "Human remains on the sofa". Sivan's mother, Anati Elkabets, also returned on Wednesday to mourn and to show relatives and visitors the flat and the displays of photographs, which she has arranged as a kind of memorial to the young couple. Hasidim said happy memories of them were the only thing giving him strength to cope with his grief. He recalled their joy at the wedding of his eldest daughter, four months ago. "How he danced, how she danced. How they hugged and kissed. How much they loved everyone and everyone loved them. These are the most beautiful memories in the world."

Israel's peers warn against displacing Palestinians in Gaza to places like Canada
The Canadian Press/January 3, 2024
OTTAWA — Countries traditionally aligned with Israel are warning its right-wing government against contemplating a displacement of people who live in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli officials repeatedly suggest Canada could take in Palestinians. This week, Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said his country should "encourage migration" of Palestinians from Gaza and re-establish Jewish settlements there, echoing similar comments from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller is condemning remarks from both politicians as "inflammatory and irresponsible," while French President Emmanuel Macron calls them "unacceptable" comments. Last month, members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party reportedly discussed countries willing to accept Palestinians in Gaza as refugees. The report by the Israel Hayom newspaper, which has not been independently verified by The Canadian Press, cited unnamed sources as saying a member of the Knesset had pointed to Canada, mentioning its new program offering limited visas to relatives of Canadian citizens who are seeking passage out of Gaza. Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in a social-media post last week that he has never discussed the transfer of Gazans out of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory, and his office did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. During the first month of the latest Israel-Hamas war, an Israeli government ministry drafted a proposal to transfer all 2.3 million Palestinians living in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip into Egypt and have them resettled into other countries. The memo specifically noted that Canada's "lenient" immigration practices could make the country a target for resettlement. Israeli officials have confirmed the document's veracity but said the proposal is not government policy. In November, Ram Ben Barak, former deputy director of intelligence agency Mossad, told Israeli television in November that for Palestinians, "it's better to be a refugee in Canada" than to live in Gaza. University of Ottawa professor Thomas Juneau said the recent statements by Smotrich and Ben Gvir amount to "openly advocating for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians." Last month, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Paula Gaviria Betancur, warned that Israel appears to be seeking to permanently alter the composition of Gaza's population.
"As evacuation orders and military operations continue to expand and civilians are subjected to relentless attacks on a daily basis, the only logical conclusion is that Israel's military operation in Gaza aims to deport the majority of the civilian population en masse," Gaviria Betancur wrote in a Dec. 22 statement.
Israel's government spokesman Eylon Levy responded by saying that his country asked Palestinians to move to a humanitarian zone within the Gaza Strip, from which Hamas then launched rockets. "We want civilians to be protected in areas where Hamas is not already using them as human shields," Levy said on social media on Dec. 26."The only people encouraging the mass displacement of Gazans are those who falsely label most of them 'refugees' and indulge their dreams of relocating into Israel through violent struggle, instead of living in peace alongside us."
The war began after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages. Gaza has been under almost constant bombardment since then, with local officials saying Israel's military response has killed more than 22,300 people.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2024.
— With files from The Associated Press.

'Enough Is Enough': Sanders Says Congress Should Reject Aid For Israel's War In Gaza
HuffPost/January 3, 2024
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday repeated his criticism of the Israeli government’s military approach in Gaza, calling on his fellow lawmakers to reject the Biden administration’s request for billions in military aid for Israel.
The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve an additional support package for U.S. allies, including Israel, which Sanders described as “unconditional military aid” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to continue with their brutal war. “Enough is enough,” Sanders said in a statement. “Congress must reject that funding. The taxpayers of the United States must no longer be complicit in destroying the lives of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza.” The war has so far killed over 22,300 people in Gaza, according to local officials, and displaced 85% of the territory’s population. Sanders said the issue at hand “is not complicated,” noting that while Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and nearly 240 were taken hostage initiated the current conflict, Israel’s war has led to “catastrophic” results on the ground for Palestinians. “While we recognize that Hamas’ barbaric terrorist attack began this war, we must also recognize that Israel’s military response has been grossly disproportionate, immoral, and in violation of international law,” Sanders said. He added that is important for Americans to keep in mind that Israel is fighting mostly “with U.S. bombs, artillery shells, and other forms of weaponry.”Last month, Sanders wrote a letter to President Joe Biden, saying it would be inappropriate to provide funding for Israel beyond what’s needed for “defensive systems that will protect Israeli civilians against incoming missile and rockets attacks.” He also urged Biden to support U.N. efforts to stop the suffering on the ground. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution to provide more aid for Gazans on Dec. 22 amid U.S. resistance that led to the weakening of the proposal. The U.S. abstained from the vote. The U.S. had previously vetoed a resolution calling for a humanitarian cease-fire in the besieged territory. Sanders has also introduced a resolution to investigate Israel’s indiscriminate bombing in Gaza. Meanwhile, as the fighting continues, Israel is thought to be behind a blast in Beirut that killed Saleh Arouri, a top Hamas political leader Tuesday, prompting fears that the conflict could spread across the region. Israel has not commented on the strike.

US 'not seeing acts of genocide' in Gaza, State Dept says
WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters)/Wed, January 3, 2024
The U.S. has not observed acts in Gaza that constitute genocide, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday, after South Africa launched genocide proceedings at the International Court of Justice over Israel's military operation in the Palestinian enclave.
"Those are allegations that should not be made lightly ... we are not seeing any acts that constitute genocide," Miller said at a regular news briefing. "That is a determination by the State Department," he added. He had been asked about South Africa's request on Tuesday that the World Court issue an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention. The court has scheduled public hearings for Jan. 11 and 12 on South Africa's request. Israel said it would defend itself from the charges. Israel's crackdown has killed more than 22,000 Palestinians, laid waste to much of the enclave and engulfed its 2.3 million residents in a humanitarian disaster. Miller said he did not have any assessment to share on whether war crimes or crimes against humanity have been committed. Washington on Tuesday slammed two Israeli ministers for advocating resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza, but said Israel had assured U.S. officials that their statements do not reflect its policy. U.S. officials have said too many Palestinians have been killed in the conflict. They have urged Israel - which Washington provides with weapons - to do more to protect civilians. The war was triggered by a cross-border Hamas assault on Israeli towns on Oct. 7 in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 hostages taken back to Gaza. The total recorded Palestinian death toll from Israel's offensive had reached 22,313 by Wednesday, the Gaza health ministry said. Israel has called the genocide case "baseless" and says Hamas is using Palestinians as human shields and stealing aid from them, accusations Hamas denies. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Simon Lewis; additional reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)

UK’s Cameron says ‘more must be done’ to get aid into Gaza
AFP/January 03, 2024
LONDON: UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Wednesday “more must be done to get humanitarian aid into Gaza” and that Israel “must allow significantly more supplies in to reduce the risk of hunger and disease.”“The UK also wants to see the immediate release of hostages and progress toward a sustainable cease-fire,” the former British leader added, noting he had discussed the issues with new Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Katz took up the post on Tuesday, just as fears mount that Israel’s war in Gaza, which it has waged for almost three months, could spiral across the Middle East.
The conversation with Cameron comes after the first UK maritime shipment of aid for Gaza arrived in Egypt this week, carrying nearly 90 tons of thermal blankets and other essential items, according to the British government. The shipment, which contained over 10,000 thermal blankets, nearly 5,000 shelter packs and medical supplies, was delivered from Cyprus by a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship, London said on Tuesday. It is set to be transferred to the Rafah crossing by the Egyptian Red Crescent and be distributed in Gaza by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), it added.
Cameron — who made a surprise return to frontline UK politics in November, after stepping down as prime minister in the aftermath of losing the 2016 Brexit referendum — visited the region last month. Among other talks, he discussed with his Egyptian counterpart Israel’s war in Gaza as well as the volatile situation in the Red Sea.

Blinken to go to Israel, visit other Middle East capitals
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will depart on Thursday for the Middle East, including a stop in Israel, as the United States continues diplomatic consultations on the Israel-Gaza conflict, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. The official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said U.S. diplomatic envoy Amos Hochstein will also travel to Israel to work to soothe tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. Blinken leaves Thursday night "for stops in a number of capitals, including Israel," the official said. The official provided no further details. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days as he works to improve access to Gaza for humanitarian aid and gain the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Ottawa to accept 1,000 applications from Canadians' relatives seeking way out of Gaza
The Canadian Press/January 3, 2024
OTTAWA — The National Council of Canadian Muslims is calling on the federal government to remove a cap on the number of Palestinians who can seek refuge with their Canadian extended family members from the violence in the Gaza Strip. The special extended family program for people in Gaza is set to launch next week, after Palestinian Canadians pleaded for months to get help from the government to rescue their loved ones as the Israel-Hamas war continues. The program would offer visas to a maximum of 1,000 Palestinians, which would allow them to take refuge in Canada for three years if their families are willing to financially support them during that time. When Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced the plan last month, he said it wasn't clear how many people would benefit, but that it would likely be "in the hundreds."A week later, the department released the written policy for the program. It shows that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will close the program to new requests after it receives and begins processing the first 1,000 applications, or after a year has elapsed. The council of Canadian Muslims, a national advocacy group, says it has already been in contact with more than a thousand people who have reached out about getting their families out of Gaza. "There should not be a cap," said Uthman Quick, the organization's director of communications. The cap "takes into consideration the volatility on the ground and the difficulty that Canada and like-minded countries are having in moving people from Gaza to Egypt," Immigration Department spokesperson Matthew Krupovich said in a statement Tuesday. Last month, Miller said it remains very difficult to secure safe passage out of the Palestinian territory, as Ottawa has no control over who can cross the tightly controlled Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on any given day. Even getting Canadian citizens out of the war zone has proven to be slow and difficult. Toronto immigration lawyer Yameena Ansari said she believes the cap represents a huge underestimate of the number of people who need help.
Ansari advocated for the policy as part of an ad hoc group of immigration lawyers called the Gaza Family Reunification Project. "Just between the lawyers in this group, we know more than 1,000 applicants," said Ansari, who called the limit "heinous."
Gaza has been under near constant bombardment since Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people in Israel and taking about 240 hostage. Israel almost immediately launched a retaliatory attack in the Hamas-controlled territory that has seen more than 21,900 Palestinians killed, according to local authorities. Two-thirds of the Palestinian casualties are women and children, Gaza's Health Ministry says. Canadians with family in the region have described feeling terrified for loved ones who are running out of places to take shelter.
Ansari said she expects the number of applications will fill up quickly, creating what she called a "battle royale" for a scarce number of visas. "What's at stake is, and I want to put this really bluntly: is your family going to live or are they going to die?" Ansari said. She said she took calls all through the holidays from frantic families hoping to prepare for the Jan. 9 launch of the program, and hoping their families will live long enough to get a visa. Some of those conversations have been difficult, Ansari said. She has had to explain that not all family members will be able to leave. Families will have to decide whether to leave some loved ones behind.
That is, if they can even get through the border.
"This piece of paper might be meaningless. You might not be able to leave this conflict," Ansari said. That's why the NCCM said they have called for a ceasefire to put an end to the violence. Most people in Gaza don't want to leave, Quick said, and they want to know that if they do flee to Canada for refuge that they have the right to return home when the conflict is over.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 2, 2024.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

Some 386 Russians killed, 40 pieces of equipment destroyed in Tavria sector, number of infantry attacks falls
The New Voice of Ukraine/January 3, 2024
The Russians have slightly reduced the number of their infantry attacks, but continue to actively conduct air strikes and artillery shelling of Ukrainian positions for the second day in a row, the Tavria Operational and Strategic Group commander, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, reported on Telegram on Jan. 3.
The enemy is currently most active near Avdiivka and in the Maryinka front sector. The Russians carried out 25 air strikes and fired 937 artillery rounds in the past 24 hours. Twenty-five combat engagements were reported, Tarnavskyi said. Some 386 invaders were killed, and four enemy soldiers surrendered. Three armored personnel carriers, six artillery systems, 14 UAVs, nine vehicles, five units of special military equipment, and one ammunition depot were destroyed. Earlier, the General Staff reported that Ukrainian troops had again advanced near Verbove, Zaporizhzhya Oblast, forcing enemy troops to abandon some of their positions in this front sector. Earlier, Russian troops advanced to the west of Verbove, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on Dec. 28, claiming that the enemy had managed to regain some of the positions it lost during the Ukrainian summer counter-offensive in the western part of Zaporizhzhya Oblast.

EU's Borrell urges world to 'impose' solution to Israel-Palestinian conflict
Agence France Presse/January 3, 2024
EU foreign policy Josep Borrell on Wednesday said the international community had to "impose" a solution to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. "What we have learned over the last 30 years, and what we are learning now with the tragedy experienced in Gaza, is that the solution must be imposed from outside," Borrell told diplomats in Portugal.

Ukraine claims Putin's party forms own private army 'Hispaniola'
Euronews/Wed, January 3, 2024 a
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry's intelligence service (GUR) claimed on Wednesday that 'United Russia', Vladimir Putin's party, was forming its own 'private army', the 'Hispaniola' mercenary company. Many of those in its ranks belong to the Russian militant group Vostok Battalion, a regiment that is part of the pro-Russian forces in Donbas and operates mainly in the partially occupied Ukrainian region of Donetsk. 'Hispaniola' was previously part of the battalion as a volunteer unit of Russian football hooligans. The GUR reports that since 2023, United Russia has taken control of 'Hispaniola', declared it to have the status of a private military company, and begun active recruitment using the party's own funds. It also says that the mercenary group is made up of football ultras, radicals and neo-Nazi sympathisers. They are also recruiting people in poor regions of Russia.
In their statement, the GUR confirms that the main places of recruitment are in the Ukrainian territories that have been partially occupied by Russia since the invasion began on 24 February. Volunteers will be paid 220,000 roubles (€2,200) a month for at least six months at the front. Recruits are promised 1-3 million rubles (up to €30,000) as insurance in case of injury and 5 million rubles (over €50,000) in case of death. "But the financial motivation is only a cover. For most recruits, it's a one-way ticket. The Russians do not take the dead or seriously wounded from the battlefield, they register them as 'missing' so that they do not have to pay the relatives," says the GUR. Everyone is talking about Wagner. But who are Russia's other mercenaries?
What is 'Hispaniola'?
A glance at 'Hispaniola's' Telegram channel reveals that it is a group of ultras from Russian football camps who are fighting in Ukraine. Its leader, Stanislav Orlov, is known as "The Spaniard". "It is not clear why he chose this name, as he is not known to have any links with Spain," a researcher from the Antifascist Europe network, which specialises in the far right, told the Spanish daily Ara. Orlov is said to be a "dangerous ultra linked to the CSKA Moscow football team" who has been leading the group in the Donetsk region for at least eight years. The pro-Russian gang is made up of the most violent fans taken from Russian football grounds. Orlov has claimed in interviews that he joined the Russian army in 1999 and fought in the Second Chechen War. According to his account, he moved to Ukraine in 2014 with a group of ultras to support the Donbas uprising. After the invasion of Ukraine began, Orlov created and organised a unit of Shakhtar Donetsk ultras to fight alongside the Donbas rebels, as well as hooligans from CSKA, Spartak, Lokomotiv and Zenit St Petersburg. But 'Hispaniola' is only one of many groups. Moscow continues to rely on irregular mercenaries, despite the brief uprising of the Wagner Group last year, and many of Russia's rich and powerful own private military companies.

Russia and Ukraine exchange hundreds of prisoners of war in biggest release so far
The Canadian Press/January 3, 2024
Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in the biggest single release of captives since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukrainian authorities said that 230 Ukrainian prisoners of war returned home in the first exchange in almost five months. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 248 Russian servicemen have been freed under the deal sponsored by the United Arab Emirates. The UAE’s Foreign Ministry attributed the successful swap to the “strong friendly relations between the UAE and both the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ukraine, which were supported by sustained calls at the highest levels.” The UAE has maintained close economic ties with Moscow despite Western sanctions and pressure on Russia after it launched its invasion in 2022. Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said it was the 49th prisoner exchange during the war. Some of the Ukrainians had been held since 2022. Among them were some of those who fought in milestone battles for Ukraine's Snake Island and the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Russian officials offered no other details of the exchange. Also Wednesday, Russia said it shot down 12 missiles fired at one of its southern regions bordering Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces seek to embarrass the Kremlin and puncture President Vladimir Putin’s argument that life is going on as normal despite the fighting. The situation in the border city of Belgorod, which came under two rounds of shelling on Wednesday morning, “remains tense,” said regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov, writing on Telegram. “Air defense systems worked,” he said, promising more details about possible damage after inspecting the area later in the day, part of a New Year's holiday week in Russia. Ukraine fired two Tochka-U missiles and seven rockets at the region late Tuesday, followed by six Tochka-U missiles and six Vilkha rockets on Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The Soviet-built Tochka-U missile system has a range of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) and a warhead that can carry cluster munitions. Ukraine has received some cluster munitions from the United States but the Tochka-U and Vilkha can use their own cluster munitions. The Russian side of the frontier has come under increasingly frequent attack in recent days. Throughout the war, border villages have sporadically been targeted by Ukrainian artillery fire, rockets, mortar shells and drones launched from thick forests where they are hard to detect. Lately, as Russia fired missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, Kyiv’s troops have aimed at Belgorod's regional capital, which is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Belgorod, with a population of about 340,000, is the biggest Russian city near the border. It can be reached by relatively simple and movable weapons such as multiple rocket launchers.
On Saturday, shelling of Belgorod killed 25 people, including five children, in one of the deadliest strikes on Russian soil since Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Another civilian was killed Tuesday in a new salvo. Hitting Belgorod and disrupting city life is a dramatic way for Ukraine to show it can strike back against Russia, whose military outnumbers and outguns Kyiv’s forces. The tactic appeared to be having some success, with signs the attacks are unsettling the public, political leaders and military observers. On Monday, Putin lashed out against the Belgorod attacks by Ukraine. “They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty within our country,” he said, promising to step up retaliation. Answering a question from a soldier who asked him about civilian casualties in Belgorod, Putin said: “I also feel a simmering anger.”
Many Russian military bloggers have expressed regret about Moscow’s withdrawal from the border area in September 2022 amid a swift counteroffensive by Kyiv, and they have argued that more territory must be seized to secure Belgorod and other border areas. Russia describes Ukrainians as “terrorists” who indiscriminately target residential areas while insisting Moscow only aims at depots, arms factories and other military facilities — even though there is ample evidence that Russia is hitting Ukrainian civilian targets. Ukrainian officials rarely acknowledge responsibility for strikes on Russian territory. In another Russian border region on Wednesday, the city of Zeleznogorsk was briefly cut off from the power grid after Ukrainian shelling, local officials said. Authorities were forced to temporarily shut down an electricity substation in the city of 100,000 people in the Kursk region to repair the damage from an aerial attack, Kursk Gov. Roman Starovoit said on Telegram. Residents were without power or heat, he said, although electricity was restored in most of the city about two hours later, he said. Russia has recently intensified its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, including using Kinzhal missiles which can fly at 10 times the speed of sound. The Kremlin’s forces appear to be targeting Ukraine’s defense industry, the U.K. Defense Ministry said Wednesday. The onslaught has prompted Kyiv officials to ask its Western allies to provide further air defense support. NATO announced Wednesday that it would help member nations buy up to 1,000 surface-to-air Patriot guided missiles in a deal possibly costing about $5.5 billion. That could allow alliance members to send more of their own defense systems to Ukraine.

NATO to help buy 1,000 Patriot missiles to defend allies as Russia ramps up air assault on Ukraine
BRUSSELS (AP)/Wed, January 3, 2024
NATO announced Wednesday that it would help buy up to 1,000 Patriot missiles so that allies can better protect their territory as Russia ramps up its air assault on Ukraine. NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency said it will support a group of nations, including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain, in buying the Patriots, which are used to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles as well as enemy aircraft. According to industry sources, the contract could be worth around $5.5 billion. The purchase could help allies free up more of their own defense systems for Ukraine. The agency said that “other user nations are expected to benefit from the conditions of the contract,” without elaborating. “Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians, cities and towns show how important modern air defenses are,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement. “Scaling up ammunition production is key for Ukraine’s security and for ours.”As an organization, NATO provides only non-lethal support to Ukraine, but its members send weapons and ammunition individually or in groups. Russia's latest round of attacks began Friday with its largest single assault on Ukraine of the conflict, which has bogged down into a grinding winter war of attrition along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. More than 40 civilians have been killed since the weekend. Ukraine’s two largest cities came under attack early Tuesday from Russian missiles that killed five people and injured as many as 130, officials said, as the war approaches its two-year mark.

UN Security Council members call for Houthis to stop attacks on shipping
REUTERS/January 03, 2024
NEW YORK: Members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday called on Yemen’s Houthis to halt their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, saying they threatened regional stability, global freedom of navigation and food supplies. Addressing the council’s first formal meeting of 2024, members also demanded that the Houthis release Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship linked to an Israeli company, and its crew, which the group seized on Nov. 19. The US believes the situation has reached an “inflection point,” said Chris Lu, a US representative to the United Nations. “These attacks pose grave implications for maritime security, international shipping and commerce, and they undermine the fragile humanitarian situation in Yemen,” threatening the delivery of aid, Lu said. “The Security Council should not let this continue. In this regard, and in view of the urgency and the importance of the matter, Japan believes the Security Council should take an appropriate action to deter additional threats by the Houthis and maintain international peace and security,” Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kazuyuki Yamazaki, told the Council. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis said on Wednesday they had “targeted” a container ship bound for Israel, a day after the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the militant group had fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles in the southern Red Sea.

Iran arrests four over bootleg alcohol deaths
AFP/January 04, 2024
TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have arrested four people on suspicion of selling contaminated bootleg alcohol that killed at least three people, Iranian media reported Wednesday. The sale and consumption of alcohol has been banned in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, leading to a huge illicit trade in bootleg products, some of them adulterated with poisonous methanol. “Three people have died of alcohol poisoning due to the consumption of counterfeit beverages,” said Saber Jafari, prosecutor for the city of Maku in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan. “Twenty people with symptoms of alcohol poisoning have been transferred to the city’s Fajr Hospital,” Jafari told the Fars news agency. He said four people had been arrested and an investigation was underway. Iran sentenced four people to death in September for selling contaminated bootleg alcohol that killed 17 people in June. In the year to March, 644 people died after consuming “counterfeit alcoholic beverages,” Iran’s forensics institute said, a 30 percent increase on the previous 12-month period. At the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, at least 210 Iranians died after drinking bootleg alcohol, falsely believing it to be a remedy for the virus. Only members of Iran’s Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities are exempt from the alcohol ban. Foreigners are required to respect it.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 03-04/2024
US Lack of Resolve Incentivizing China on Taiwan
Lawrence A. Franklin/Gatestone Institute./January 3, 2024
Bluntly put, the nations of the Free World have allowed global commerce to be held hostage by the revolutionary group of theocrat terrorists in Iran and their tribal terrorist tool in Yemen.
The primary problem seems to be that so far at least, there has been no attempt to hold the ringleader, Iran, accountable economically, militarily, hold-on-power or any way. This, incidentally, is the same Iranian regime that has lately escalated its enrichment of uranium to near-nuclear weapons capability, and has now moved a warship to the Red Sea.
That is why the Iranian regime has proxies: so that they will do the dirty work and take the hits -- while the Iranians tuck into dinner.
You can be sure that Communist China's leaders are closely evaluating the inadequate US responses to more than 100 attacks on US forces in Syria and Iraq -- just since October.
America's role as guarantor of global freedom of navigation and defender of "Law of the Sea" treaties is taking a hit, as the US has allowed global commerce to be held hostage by the revolutionary group of theocrat terrorists in Iran and their tribal terrorist tool in Yemen. You can be sure that Communist China's leaders are closely evaluating the inadequate US responses.
America's role as guarantor of global freedom of navigation and defender of "Law of the Sea" treaties is taking a hit. The Biden administration continues to dither rather than to act decisively in liquidating the capability of Iran's proxy, the Yemeni Houthis, who have been effectively blocking passage of commercial ships in and out of the Red Sea, decimating traffic through the Suez Canal. The December 31 counterattack by US naval helicopter gunships, which sank three Houthi attack boats, was a good start but did not solve the problem.
The US military's Central Command reported that, since November 19, the Houthis have attacked 23 ships. This Iran-backed assault has caused several of the world's largest shipping companies to suspend voyages through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, a route that normally enables the passage of 30% of the world's container traffic, 9.2 million barrels of oil a day, and 4% of the shipping of natural gas.
The shipping giants that are pausing normal operations as a result of Houthi attacks may also be illustrating serious failing confidence in US pledges to protect freedom of navigation in the region. Ships are being forced to haul cargo in a detour around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, a route that lengthens their voyage by about 6,000 nautical miles.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, the Houthis' patron, closed out 2023 by launching its seventh drone attack on December 24 on a Japanese-owned freighter in the Indian Ocean.
Bluntly put, the nations of the Free World have allowed global commerce to be held hostage by the revolutionary group of theocrat terrorists in Iran and their tribal terrorist tool in Yemen.
The US has been, until now, the ultimate guarantor freedom of commercial sea transport through the world's maritime choke-points. You can be sure that Communist China's leaders are closely evaluating the inadequate US responses to more than 100 attacks on US forces in Syria and Iraq -- just since October. The US excuse for not taking more aggressive action against the Iran-directed Houthi terrorists -- the fear of igniting a wider war in the Middle East beyond the Israeli-Hamas conflict -- is not likely to encourage global economic growth or to placate adversaries. China's war planners are also not likely impressed by US naval and air assets' interception of Houthi drones and missiles or even sinking a few Houthi vessels.
The primary problem seems to be that so far at least, there has been no attempt to hold the ringleader, Iran, accountable economically, militarily, hold-on-power or any way. This, incidentally, is the same Iranian regime that has lately escalated its enrichment of uranium to near-nuclear weapons capability, and has now moved a warship to the Red Sea.
Recent US military activities in and around the Red Sea have been defensive. The US has not yet targeted Houthi missile- and drone-launching sites or other military positions, let alone even a training base inside Iran. That is why the Iranian regime has proxies: so that they will do the dirty work and take the hits -- while the Iranians tuck into dinner. This US hesitancy can only influence Chinese leader Xi Jinping's calculus on the strength of US resolve to defend Taiwan, should he decide to invade it.
Chinese military expert Yun Hua commented on December 17 that "in way, the Houthis have done us, China, a big favor," for striking a blow against US "hegemony" by helping China's long-range objective to reorient much of the world's trade from maritime passage to rapid and safe rail traffic across the Eurasian landmass.
It might be instructive that Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping just appointed Navy Admiral Dong Jun as China's new Defense Minister. Dong, the former commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy, has had experience interacting with China's Southeast Asian neighbors, particularly over disputed maritime claims. He was the Deputy Commander of China's Southern Military Command while directing Chinese maritime operations in the South China Sea. That alone might account for the significance that Xi Jinping attaches to any future plans to unite Taiwan with the motherland.
The US would be wise, at the very least, to ramp up its anti-Houthi game plan in the Red Sea, in order not to tempt Xi into assuming that US passivity against the Houthis will be repeated in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced on December 19 the formation of "Operation Protect Prosperity," in which over 20 countries agreed to participate, to safeguard international shipping in the Middle East. It remains to be seen whether this multilateral alliance establishes a substantive record of response. Perhaps Austin should acquaint himself with President Thomas Jefferson's decision in 1803 to retaliate against the Barbary pirates who attacked US ships from North African ports: "Our trade... is annihilated unless we do something decisive." Yes, our trade -- and much else.
*Dr. Lawrence A. Franklin was the Iran Desk Officer for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Army and as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Denmark: ‘Is Christian Persecution One of the World’s Biggest Problems?’
Raymond Ibrahim./January 3, 2024
Below is an English translation of a Danish report written by journalist Iben Thranholm following an interview with me for the Danish publication, Udfordringen (“the Challenge”):
Christian persecution is a much bigger problem than we are aware of and than Western governments want to recognize and act on, believes the American-Egyptian historian Raymond Ibrahim. He has written a number of books about Islam and Christian persecution, including “The Sword and Scimitar” and “Defenders of the West”. On 13 November he was in Denmark.
Raymond Ibrahim is considered in some circles to be a controversial figure, and he is also believed to be connected to the Islam-critical movement Counter-Jihad.
On 13 November, he visited Copenhagen, where he was to speak at the Trykkefrihedsselskabet about whether Christian persecution is one of the world’s biggest problems.
In this connection, the Challenge has spoken to Raymond Ibrahim on the same subject.
“Overall, the persecution of Christians worldwide is higher than ever before with 360 million believers facing high levels of discrimination and violence. In 2022, 5,621 Christians around the world were killed for faith-related reasons. Another 4,542 Christians were illegally detained or arrested, and 2,110 churches were attacked, many destroyed,” says Raymond Ibrahim.
The figures come from the World Watch List 2023, which was recently published by the international humanitarian organization Open Doors. Each year, the report provides an overview of the 50 nations in the world where Christians are most persecuted because of their faith.
If you look more closely at the numbers, the report shows that on average one in seven Christians (14%) is persecuted around the world. In Africa, this figure rises to one in five (20%), while in Asia it is as much as two in five – which means that a full 40% of all Christians are persecuted there. The report shows that Christians experience extreme levels of persecution in the 11 countries that top the list of the 50 nations. This includes assault, rape, imprisonment or murder, for example, due to attending religious services, often in underground churches.
In the most recently published list, North Korea is number one, followed by countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and India. According to Raymond Ibrahim, the majority of Christian persecution originates from Islamic countries or from countries where Islam dominates. “Most of the extreme persecution directed at Christians in 9 of the 11 nations where persecution peaks either comes from Islamic oppression or takes place in countries where Islam dominates.
This means that approximately 80% of the absolute worst persecution globally takes place in the name of Islam. I know it’s not politically correct to say it out loud, but this trend applies to the entire list, not just the top 11 countries. The persecution experienced by Christians in 39 out of the 50 nations also comes either from Islamic oppression or in countries where Islam is the majority.
These countries are governed by different forms of Islamic law. It can either be directly enforced by the government or society. But it can be family members who persecute their own relatives. Although North Korea is the country where the persecution is worst and is not Islamically justified, there is at least a hope for Christians that if Kim Jong-un’s regime collapses, the persecution of Christians will also immediately stop.
Christian persecution in Muslim countries, on the other hand, is part of Islam’s history, doctrines and socio-political structure. That’s why it’s harder to get rid of,” says Raymond Ibrahim. Raymond Ibrahim has been researching the relationship between Islam and Christianity for many years. Since he both reads and understands Arabic, he has scrutinized countless historical sources and follows the daily news flow also on Arabic media. Therefore, he also knows quite a bit about the daily concrete persecution that Christians suffer from:
“In Muslim countries, it does not have to be only official authorities or professional terrorists who persecute, it can also be individuals. It may be that a Muslim person has a disagreement with a Christian and then accuses him of blasphemy. Or a Muslim criminal commits a crime against a Christian because he knows that the authorities will take a more lenient view of the case than if he went after someone of Muslim faith.
A Christian can be accused of dating a Muslim or building a church. Often the authorities ban churches or restrict church attendance, which makes it almost impossible to build or maintain churches,” says Raymond Ibrahim. If what Raymond Ibrahim says is true, then it must also be natural to wonder why Western governments are apparently so silent when it comes to Christian persecution.
To that Raymond Ibrahim answers:
There are several reasons why the Western world does virtually nothing to stop the persecutions. Many Western seculars hate Christianity and believe that Christians who are persecuted are only getting what they deserve; others cannot imagine Christians being persecuted at all. For them, the only people being persecuted around the world are non-Christians.
These are the same people who do not believe that Christianity even exists outside the West. Others in the West know well that there are persecutions, but do not perceive them as truly Christian because they are Orthodox, Catholic or not part of the Western evangelical world. In addition, it is also not politically correct for modern liberals to support Christians, because it smacks of colonization and white man’s rule to be supportive of one’s own historic Christian roots.
Instead, the focus is on supporting minorities and people from other cultures and religions, such as a Muslim, Buddhist or any other exotic minority.
According to Raymond Ibrahim, Western governments should do much more to preserve Christian culture in the world.
“After all, most Western politicians are part of the same culture as the free-thinkers, who in these years harbor a greater and greater hatred for their own cultural and religious background. Hence the same blind spots. For some reason, America almost always supports Muslim governments, including the radical and extreme ones such as Saudi Arabia, where not a single church is allowed to exist. If Christianity with its message of forgiveness and charity is eradicated and perhaps completely disappears in many countries, if the development continues, what impact will it have on the general geopolitical situation, especially in the Middle East,” asks Raymond Ibrahim and offers his own take on an answer:
The world would simply fall back to its pre-Christian pagan times with a more brutal society. Might will make right. The culture and civilization we know, where all people have value, will fade away. Women will once again become the weaker sex. The world as we know it today will no longer exist. We take it for granted that all people have value, but it wasn’t like that before Christianity came into the world, and it won’t be like that if Christianity is eradicated.
Raymond Ibrahim also has an opinion on the new Danish Koran law, which makes it forbidden to burn the Koran:
“Condescension never works, but can actually worsen the situation, as Muslims see condescension as a sign of weakness, which can lead to even more aggressive behavior. As I said, I know it is politically incorrect to say so, but I have followed Christian persecution in Muslim countries for many years, and I unfortunately have to state that churches are not only burned down because of violations of the Koran, but as part of a general persecution of Christians, which just keeps getting worse and worse,” says Raymond Ibrahim.
Open Doors Denmark, which works among persecuted Christians, also finds that jihadism is the cause of a large part of the persecution. To the question of what the main reason for Christian persecution worldwide is, General Secretary of Open Doors in Denmark Jens Kristian Lund Jensen answers:
“There are several factors. In Africa south of the Sahara, it is Islamic jihadists such as Boko Haram who persecute and kill Christians. These are the same Islamist groups that persecute Christians in the Middle East. But in Southeast Asia, there are also other groups at stake. In India it is nationalist Hindus and in China there is massive surveillance by the communist state. But I can say without blinking for a second that jihadism accounts for a very large proportion of Christian persecutions – and especially in Africa, the tendency is unfortunately for this Islamic ideology to spread and threaten Christians more and more,” says Jens Kristian Lund Jensen.

Drug smuggling from Syria threatens regional security
Mohammed Abu Dalhoum/Arab News/January 03, 2024
The Levant region’s beacon of stability is now facing the maladaptive threat of drug smuggling. The Jordanian security forces have become quite busy with the challenge of combating drug cartels, with reports of foiled drug trafficking attempts now more prevalent than ever before.
In December, Jordan’s security forces arrested or neutralized several smugglers and seized millions of pills, including Captagon and methamphetamine, in heavy clashes with armed individuals on the Jordanian-Syrian border.
A report by Alhurra highlighted that Syria has always been the main source of Captagon used in the region, especially in the Gulf, but the civil war in the country offered Syrian cartels more space to enhance their operations, enabling them to manufacture and export much more than they were able to previously.
A byproduct of the increased production and export has been an exponential increase in drug-related offenses in Jordan, including smuggling and trade. In fact, between 2011 and 2022, such offenses increased fivefold, according to data released by the Public Security Directorate. Between January and February of 2022 alone, Jordanian security forces seized more Captagon pills than over the entire course of 2021.
The magnitude of this problem is felt deeply among Jordanians. In a survey conducted by NAMA Strategic Intelligence Solutions last November, 61 percent of Jordanians indicated that drug use, trade and smuggling was Jordan’s most significant social issue, marking a 12-percentage point increase from the prior survey conducted in March 2023.
The same survey also found that more than 75 percent of Jordanians believe that illegal drug trafficking is a major issue for Jordan’s borders and 56 percent believe Syria is the main source. While more than half of Jordanians believe the country’s security forces are doing enough to prevent drugs from entering Jordan, the challenge not only remains but has also become more threatening.
What sets the recent trafficking incidents apart from previous operations are the volume and type of weapons seized alongside the drugs. In mid-December, Jordanian security forces engaged for several hours with armed groups along the northern border, seizing large amounts of automatic weapons, missiles and ammunition, in what is now clearly a systematic attack on the country’s national security.
The malice of Syrian Captagon cartels is not to be taken lightly. Their attempts to smuggle heavy arms into Jordan — especially considering the current events in the region — necessitate an immediate change to the strategy utilized to counter armed cartels. Jordan should place little faith and confidence in Syria and Assad to aid in combating this threat.
Granted, Amman had advocated for the return of Syria and Bashar Assad to the Arab League, with the combating of drug trafficking at the helm of its rationale. Syria did agree to curb trafficking across its borders during a meeting held in early May, which convened the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. A joint Jordanian-Syrian political-security team was also formed to combat drug trafficking.
However, Syria’s ties with Iran and the latter’s control over the armed cartels raise questions over Syria’s seriousness in this context. Thus, with the little political will shown by Syria to combat its cartels internally, Jordan should place little faith and confidence in Syria and Assad to aid in combating this threat, whether on their shared borders or on a regional level.
Iraq, on the other hand, demonstrates more political will to combat drug trafficking, especially as more than 50 percent of Iraqi youth living near its northwestern border are struggling with Captagon addiction, according to the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council. However, Iraq faces its own challenges in securing its borders and requires immense support.
Coordination and collaboration with Saudi Arabia, another country facing the challenge of Captagon trafficking, is necessary to combat the threat of the armed drug cartels. Jordan and Saudi Arabia seize millions of Captagon pills on a regular basis, yet drug trafficking attempts continue to increase in size and frequency, which is indicative of the magnitude of the challenge the two countries face.
The exchange of experiences and strategic intelligence collaboration are imperative for both countries to adapt to the constantly changing nature of this challenge. Enhanced border security is crucial and is arguably more urgently necessary than ever before.
Supporting Jordan’s border security is a necessity for regional security, especially with the heavy presence of the heavily armed, well-funded and inherently expansive drug cartels and armed militias in Syria and Iraq. Granted, in late December 2022, the US pledged up to $500 million for Jordan, including $150 million for reimbursements for enhanced border security.
Since then, the challenge has grown and the context has shifted, especially with the war in Gaza, the operations carried out by the armed cartels and Assad’s lack of political will to secure Syria’s borders against trafficking. These developments ought to be addressed with increased financial, security and technological support to ensure Jordan’s capacity to counter the trafficking of drugs and arms in the long term.
Overall, Jordan must not be left alone in this fight. Amman certainly fears a case of deja vu that is reminiscent of the unfulfilled financial promises to aid it in hosting Syrian refugees. The Jordan Response Plan for the Syria Crisis was constantly underfunded, with a 70 percent deficit recorded for 2022’s budget alone.
A state that has incurred, for 10 years, more than two-thirds of the direct financial costs of hosting Syrian refugees should not be expected to also incur the costs of the security implications alone, especially when it comes to combating the trafficking of drugs and arms that threaten regional security, not just Jordan’s.
*Mohammed Abu Dalhoum is the president of MENAACTION and a senior research analyst at NAMA Strategic Intelligence Solutions.
The Kingdom vs Captagon
Inside Saudi Arabia's war against the drug destroying lives across the Arab world

After a year of conflict, the future of war looks very Similar to its past
Faisal Al Yafai/The Arab Weekly/January 03/2024
What has changed with Ukraine and Gaza is that these wars are now fought in full view of the world, and of a watching Western audience. The scale of the destruction is different, but the nature of it is not.
Even well into 2022, long after the war in Ukraine had started, the media were still “reporting the last war,” so to speak. The New Yorker headlined a report on the Bayraktar TB2 drone that was widely considered to have won the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, “The Turkish Drone That Changed the Nature of Warfare.”
Little wonder, because the TB2 had proved formidable beyond its size, an unmanned drone that carried laser-guided bombs. Throughout the six-week war, Azerbaijan used the TB2 to startling effect, blowing up tanks and troops and then broadcasting video of the attacks. For a fraction of the cost of conventional fighter jets, Azerbaijan was able to dominate the airspace above Nagorno-Karabakh and win a swift victory. The rest of the world noticed and militaries began to reassess what role small, cheap drones might play in future wars. When the Ukraine war started, the Ukrainian military used the TB2s to devastating effect, taking out Russian tanks, trains and even ships – and gleefully posting the footage to social media. A new era of war had begun, where a drone costing just a few million dollars could prove highly effective against one of the world’s most powerful militaries. The financial asymmetry was frightening.
Yet the two major wars of this year have shown that, while such asymmetry exists, the future of war is much more similar to its past.
Drones have fallen away from the Ukrainian battlefield, as Russia’s initially chaotic invasion has entrenched itself into defensive positions and its air defenses have adapted. Ukraine’s much vaunted counteroffensive has stalled – stalemated or defeated, depending on who you ask. All along Russia’s vast defensive lines in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s troops are bogged down, unable to punch holes through the lines. Video taken recently of Ukrainian soldiers pinned down in a field outside Bakhmut looks like something straight out of World War I: the same bleak, treeless landscape, the sound of artillery slamming into fields while troops take cover in muddy ditches, the screams of the wounded. Ukraine’s war is brutal and grinding, its effect on people and landscapes unknown in recent wars.
That is, until the Gaza war. Just as the conflict started with a burst of new technology as Hamas used drones to disable surveillance systems, so it eventually ossified into a war from another century. Vast parts of Gaza were flattened by aerial bombardment and Israeli troops faced street by street battles. As in Ukraine, the civilian toll has been enormous. That is because, at its heart, war hasn’t really changed, and perhaps can’t. Yes, there have been short, swift wars – the first Gulf war, for example. But war in general is a continuation of political persuasion by other means, and that means that war invariably affects the entire population, often as a method for persuading the politicians.
What has changed with Ukraine and Gaza is that these wars are now fought in full view of the world, and of a watching Western audience. The scale of the destruction is different, but the nature of it is not.
The devastation in Gaza or the ruination of Bakhmut are not new. This is what war looks like, and always has; it’s just that in the West, audiences have so rarely been confronted by its reality. These two wars have played out across the media for opposite reasons – in Ukraine, to persuade Western audiences to accept the choices of their politicians; and in Gaza to persuade them to oppose them. In both cases, the reality on television and phone screens has been a wake-up call to an audience thankfully unused to what real conflict looks like up close.
Just as the future of war hasn’t changed that much, nor has the nature of war, which is ultimately an extension of politics. What hasn’t changed in Ukraine or Gaza is the ultimate importance of what happens off the battlefield.
Those who wage wars easily forget that the purpose of war is not to keep fighting, but to bring the fighting to an end. Politicians, too easily lulled by the glory and rhetoric of war, forget this too.
In Ukraine, the initial idea of arming the Ukrainians was not to allow them to fight a years-long war, but to give them the ability to stalemate the Russians and bring them to the negotiating table. In Gaza, it was – or should have been – to destroy Hamas’ militant structure, not to punish the whole exclave.
In both cases, the longer the brutal war has gone on, the harder it has become for the politicians who are ordering the wars to find ways off the battlefield. A long war has bolstered the commitment of Ukrainians to fight, especially after so much loss of human life. The same is true on the Russian side, at least as regards political commitment: Vladimir Putin can’t back down from this very public fight. The exact same dynamic is on show in Gaza, with Israeli politicians using stronger and more forceful rhetoric, even as the war’s initial aims retreat further away.
This year of conflict has shown that the old wars don’t die away; new technology, new enmities and new political leaders simply emerge to fight the same old wars, the same old way, often again and again.

Weaponization of antisemitism stifling legitimate criticism of Israel
Ray Hanania/Arab News/January 03, 2024
Antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab discrimination, like all hatred for a person’s race or religion, should be banned and severely punished. But too often, especially in America, accusations of antisemitism are leveled against all critics of the Israeli government’s policies, while anti-Arab hate is ignored.
This has been going on since before the first Arab-Israeli war, with pro-Jewish groups advocating for the expulsion of Christians and Muslims from Palestine in the 1930s.
Religious and racial bias against Arabs was accepted and even became a part of American foreign policy when politicians like President Harry Truman marginalized the claims of Palestine’s non-Jewish population.
Because Israel defines itself as a “Jewish state,” even though it has a large non-Jewish population, anyone who criticizes the policies of Israel’s government are denounced as antisemitic. Arabs thus find themselves at a disadvantage when fighting anti-Arabism and are denounced as antisemitic during the debate over Israel and Palestine because the pro-Israel community has historically better understood the power of words and rhetoric through public relations and the influence of the American news media.
Israel’s Intelligence Ministry and many elected Israeli officials have openly called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt — a true form of anti-Arab hate.
The weaponization of antisemitism to silence critics of the Israeli government’s violent policies not only dominates the Israel-Gaza war, but it also has a huge influence in the US, which is one of Israel’s strongest allies and which allows Tel Aviv to commit war crimes without any consequences.
America silences critics of Israel’s government at the UN Security Council. Pro-Israel Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield last month vetoed a resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza. This veto reinforced the realization that the UN system suffers from a system of hypocrisy among certain powerful nations, even when it comes to humanitarian needs.
The weaponization of antisemitism is also growing on university campuses, where Jewish students have long enjoyed a greater sense of rights and privilege than Palestinian students.
I led the Arab Student Organization at the University of Illinois in the 1970s. I faced constant opposition from the university leadership, which frequently denied funding for our events and rejected speakers who were pro-Palestinian. In comparison, the university often co-sponsored pro-Israel events.
When we protested Israeli government policies, we were demonized as being antisemitic, not only by the university’s professors but also in the school’s newspaper, which had no Arab journalists. That situation pushed me to pursue journalism and abandon plans to become a doctor.
Today, the bias against pro-Palestinian activists on college campuses in America is even worse. And it is empowered by the bias of the mainstream news media.
Arabs find themselves at a disadvantage and are denounced as antisemitic during the debate over Israel and Palestine.
Since the Oct. 7 wave of violence and carnage in Israel, the pro-Israel movement in America has done everything possible to define any criticism of Tel Aviv’s response and its unjustified and egregious atrocities as antisemitic.
More than 1,200 Israelis were murdered on Oct. 7, many in the most heinous manner, with reports of rape, beheadings and torture. Yet, since then, Israel has used anger to justify its widespread indiscriminate violence, which has taken 22,000 lives, including more than 8,000 children. Since Oct. 7, Israel has leveled nearly 70 percent of all the homes in Gaza.
Anyone who speaks out against this disparity or condemns the Israeli government’s policy is angrily demonized as being antisemitic. No university is immune from this growing trend of one-sided demonization.
The first Black president of the prestigious Harvard University was this week forced to resign. At first, Claudine Gay was assaulted with exaggerated claims that she tolerated antisemitism against Jewish students — without any mention of anti-Arab hate or protests by pro-Israel students supporting Israel’s Gaza carnage.The media played a critical role in piling on the claims of antisemitism and marginalizing any references to anti-Arabism by accusing her of plagiarism. In the face of this overwhelming assault and bullying from Harvard professors, pro-Israel activists, the media and right-wing members of Congress — many of whom receive tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from pro-Israel political action committees — Gay announced she was stepping down.
What was Gay’s crime? She responded to charges of antisemitism on campus in a balanced manner, narrowly defining it as “speech that incites violence, threatens safety or violates Harvard’s policies against bullying and harassment.” She acknowledged that there had been “reckless and thoughtless rhetoric” by both pro-Israel and pro-Arab student groups.
Republicans and many Democrats have, in recent years, turned to legislating punishments for those who criticize the Israeli government’s policies, such as by pushing through unconstitutional laws in more than 28 states that criminalize anyone who boycotts Israel, including as a result of the illegal settlement movement. The Biden administration has warned universities that they will lose federal funding if they do not confront antisemitism or Islamophobia. But this threat does not address rhetoric or actions that are anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian for a specific political reason: only about 25 percent of American Muslims are Arab. And it also does not address Christian Arabs, who are a majority of the millions of Arabs living in America. The real stand should be to oppose both antisemitism and anti-Arabism.
What happened on Oct. 7 was horrific and unjustified. The perpetrators should be punished. But what has happened since then is just as horrific and unjustified and the perpetrators should also be punished. What Hamas has done is wrong. What Israel’s government has done is wrong.
Yet, calls to end the ongoing carnage against Palestinians have been stifled, while the outrage over violence against Israelis echoes at every level in America — an imbalance empowered by the weaponization of antisemitism and that ignores the equally atrocious violence that is killing far more Palestinian civilians, especially women and children.
*Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com. Twitter: @RayHanania