Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 22-23/2024
Elias Bejjani/Video: Commemorating the Annual Brutal Damour Massacre
Elias Bejjani/Video and Text: Commemorating the Annual Brutal Damour Massacre
Hezbollah rejects latest Israeli ceasefire proposals
Gallant: Even if Hezbollah ceases fire we won't
Report: US, France coordinate on Lebanon, Gaza talks to begin this week
Israeli officers suggest unilateral truce, massive response if Hezbollah breaks it
Hezbollah resumes attacks as Israel seems to shift to targeted killings
Israeli strike on Kafra kills Hezbollah member, civilian woman
Report: Franjieh met with Nasrallah two weeks ago
Berri warns of Israel's 'expanding' attacks against Lebanon
Quintet Committee ambassadors to convene in Beirut: A diplomatic 'chessboard' amidst presidential stalemate
Sectarian influence in Lebanon: A closer look at institutional integrity
Rumors surrounding $150 payments: Financial sources critique circular impact
Georges Hobeika's Couture Spring 2024 collection captures spirit of Arab world in journey to nostalgia
Lebanon exits the Asian Cup after losing to Tajikistan 2-1

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 22-23/2024
Iran is 'directly involved' in Yemen Houthi rebel ship attacks, US Navy's Mideast chief tells AP
EU’s Borrell Says Israeli Strikes on Gaza Are ‘Seeding Hate’
US puts sanctions on Hamas-linked financial networks, others
UN chief blasts Israel for ‘utterly unacceptable’ civilian deaths in Gaza
EU pushes Israel on two-state solution after war in Gaza
Relatives of Israeli hostages storm parliament, demand action on captives
Israel hammers Gaza's south, hostage families urge Netanyahu to seek deal
Israeli forces storm Khan Younis hospital in bloodiest fighting of 2024
US, British militaries launch new round of joint strikes against multiple Houthi sites in Yemen
Saudi FM says KSA won't recognize Israel without path to Palestinian state
Iran's FM to visit Pakistan to rebuild ties after missile strikes
Ukraine's Zelenskiy hails diaspora's support, proposes dual citizenship
Russian forces 'are constantly replenished' no matter how many get taken out, Ukrainian commander says
Poland's PM visits Ukraine in latest show of foreign support for war against Russia
Turkish parliament to debate Sweden's NATO bid on Tuesday -sources
Turkey investigates 8 bodies that washed up on its Mediterranean coast
Millions in India celebrate new Hindu temple built on mosque ruins, in victory for Modi

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on January 22-23/2024
Biden Threatens Netanyahu's Drive to Destroy Hamas/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute./January 22, 2024
Britain responds to Gaza’s suffering by criminalizing support for Palestinians/Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/January 22, 2024
Two-state solution can be drawn up without Israel at the table, says EU diplomat/Joe Barnes/The Telegraph/January 22, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 22-23/2024
Elias Bejjani/Video: Commemorating the Annual Brutal Damour Massacre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKGYNVyj_Os&t=31s
Elias Bejjani/January 21, 2024

Elias Bejjani/Video and Text: Commemorating the Annual Brutal Damour Massacre
Elias Bejjani/January 21, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/126326/elias-bejjani-video-and-text-commemorating-the-annual-brutal-damour-massacre/
The memory of the Damour Massacre, perpetrated by the Syrian Assad regime, Palestinian terrorism, leftist and Arab nationalist groups, and jihadists on January 20, 1976, remains etched in the Lebanese, Christian, moral, national, and faith-based consciousness. It serves as a painful reminder of a brutal chapter in Lebanon's history and the resilient struggle of its free Christian community.
This anniversary reflects a dark period where internal traitors and mercenaries aligned with Palestinian, Arab, leftist, and jihadist terrorism executed brutal and barbaric massacres against the peaceful inhabitants of the Damour Town, and the Christian residents along the Shouf region coast. This period culminated in the siege of President Camille Chamoun in the town of Saadiyat.
The Damour Massacre anniversary symbolizes a bloody chapter in the ongoing evil attempts to uproot Christians from Lebanon, dismantle Lebanon's entity, disrupt coexistence, undermine its role, erode identity, and attack its civilization. Enemies of Lebanon, civilization, and humanity destroyed homes and churches in Damour and its neighboring coastal towns, burning fields and displacing the Christian population.
The innocent victims of the Damour Massacre, estimated at 684 individuals, including children, women, elders, and fighters, will not be forgotten.
planners and executors of this atrocity, along with their demonic objectives to uproot and displace Christians from Lebanon, remain ingrained in our collective memory.
These sinister schemes persist today, targeting not only Christians, but various Lebanese sovereign and independent groups through local, regional, and international entities, each with its distinct identity, yet united under hostile, sectarian, and terrorist concepts.
In the present time, the Iranian Mullahs' regime, through its terrorist proxy Hezbollah, the criminal Assad regime, and numerous local mercenaries from leftists, jihadists, and resistance traders, continue the chapters of the Damour Massacre.
The occupation faced by Lebanon goes beyond Damour to encompass the entire country and its social community fabrics. The Mullahs' regime seeks, through force and terrorism, not only to uproot Christians from Lebanon, but also to destroy its entity, overthrow its coexistence and civilized system, aiming to replace it with an Islamic Republic annexed to Tehran's rulers. This serves as a base to overthrow all Arab regimes and establish the Persian Empire.
On this painful anniversary, all Lebanese sovereign, independent, and peaceful social and denominational groups, led by the Christians, will not forget the heroism of our noble, honorable, and brave people who stood against invaders and mercenaries, sacrificing themselves for their sacred homeland.
No, we will not forget our Lebanese righteous Damour martyrs, and we will not forget their sacrifices. On this somber day, we raise prayers, humbly asking for their souls to rest in peace in God's eternal heavenly mansions.

Hezbollah rejects latest Israeli ceasefire proposals
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/January 22/2024
BEIRUT: Hezbollah on Monday rejected Israeli proposals to halt military operations on the southern Lebanese front. “Whatever the enemy proposes will not change the equation as this is a war of one option,” said Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah.
“Stopping Israel’s aggression on Gaza is what can open the door to other matters and there is no room for anything else.”The reiteration of Hezbollah’s stance came amid the continuing violence along Lebanon’s southern border and continual Israeli pressure on the movement to agree to a ceasefire. A previous proposal called for the relocation of Hezbollah’s Radwan forces at least 7 kilometers from the border, to establish a quasi-buffer zone managed by the Lebanese army and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. In exchange, the US would ensure the defining of land borders, similar to the process of demarcating maritime borders. This would take place independently of any developments in Gaza. US and European diplomats have also been visiting Lebanon in an attempt to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah from escalating into a full-scale war. Fadlallah said Israel “issues threats and sends messages, in various ways, by targeting civilian structures and homes and trying to impose a balance of displacement between its north and our south, or threatens us with large-scale war.
“However, we are fully prepared for any situation that may arise. We believe that victory is the ultimate result for our country, the resistance, and the people of our nation.”Fadlallah said he had attended the funeral of Samar Al-Sayyid Mohammed, a civilian who was killed when the car in which she was traveling was passing by the target of an Israeli drone attack in the border town of Bint Jbeil. Her son was injured in the strike, and a Hezbollah member, Fadl Al-Shaar, was killed.
Fadlallah said Hezbollah “will not accept any harm to civilians, regardless of the reason, and will always retaliate against any attacks on civilians in Lebanon.”Assassinations carried out by the Israeli army “will not weaken the determination of the resistance,” he added.
On Sunday, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted senior Israeli officers as saying military commanders had proposed a 48-hour truce in northern Israel, in coordination with officials in Washington. However, they said if Hezbollah breached the truce, in particular by targeting civilians, there would be a forceful response in southern Lebanon. Such a proposal has yet to be confirmed by Israeli politicians. On Monday morning, Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of the towns of Maroun Al-Ras, Aitaroun, Yarin, Al-Bustan, and the Marjayoun Plain. The Israeli army reportedly fired phosphorus shells at the town of Odaisseh, on the outskirts of Kafr Kila, during the funeral of a Hezbollah member, Sameh Assaad. Forces also fired many shells in the vicinity of Taybeh and targeted the outskirts of the town of Hula. civilian property, the home of the Yaghi family, in Tayr Harfa was substantially damaged by airstrikes from Israeli warplanes. Raids were also carried out on Taybeh, near a civil defense center, and Marwahin. Israeli artillery shelled targets in the outskirts of the towns of Hula, Mays Al-Jabal, and Deir Mimas. In addition, a missile was fired by an Israeli drone at a residential property in an agricultural complex on the outskirts of the town of Al-Wazzani but no injuries were reported.Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it struck “a group of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Al-Raheb military site with a direct hit.” The group added that it had targeted the “Israeli force on Sunday night with missiles in the vicinity of the Zarit barracks, which led to confirmed casualties.” The Israeli troops were preparing to carry out operations on Lebanese territory, according to Hezbollah. The group said one of its members, Ali Saeed Yahya, from Taybeh, had been killed. And Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas in Lebanon, said member Mohammed Bassem Azzam, from the Mieh Mieh Palestinian refugee camp near the city of Sidon, was “martyred during his mission in southern Lebanon.”

Gallant: Even if Hezbollah ceases fire we won't
Naharnet/January 21, 2024
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said that Israel will not cease fire on Lebanon’s front without guarantees. “Even if Hezbollah ceases fire unilaterally, we will not do so until we guarantee the return of the north’s residents,” Gallant told his French counterpart. “Should war erupt in the north, it will be difficult for Israel, but it will be destructive for Hezbollah and Lebanon,” he warned. Around 200 people have been killed in Lebanon during more than three months of cross-border clashes, including around 145 Hezbollah fighters and over 20 civilians, among them three journalists. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese residents and Israeli settlers on both sides of the border and Israel says it is keen on returning its settlers to their homes even if that required a military campaign.

Report: US, France coordinate on Lebanon, Gaza talks to begin this week
Naharnet/January 21, 2024 
The capitals concerned with the Gaza negotiations are saying that talks to end the war will begin in the final days of this week, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday. The possible solution will involve a gradual release of the captives and a ceasefire for 60 to 70 days during which a political course related to the establishment of a Palestinian state will be launched, the daily said. Several Arab countries will meanwhile normalize their relations with Israel, the newspaper added. “The broad lines of this negotiations plan emerged during the latest visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken” to Israel and the region, al-Liwaa said. “A French-U.S. joint action mechanism has meanwhile be launched regarding the issues of the (Lebanese) south and the presidential juncture,” the daily added.

Israeli officers suggest unilateral truce, massive response if Hezbollah breaks it
Naharnet/January 21, 2024
The “equation” with Hezbollah “must change," senior Israeli officers have said, suggesting Israel “announce it is holding fire for 48 hours but if one missile, rocket land inside Israel, massive disproportionate attack must be launched wreaking havoc on south Lebanon,” Israeli English-language news portal Ynetnews has reported. "It’s time for a new equation," the Israeli officers said. “The commanders believe the IDF (Israeli army) should announce that it would hold its fire for 48 hours, but warn that the next missile, rocket or bomb that lands in Israeli territory, especially on a civilian target, will prompt a massive response that would wreak havoc on south Lebanon, including on homes of Hezbollah operatives in the Shi'ite villages in the area, that have thus far been mostly spared,” Ynetnews said. “Quiet will be met by quiet but fire will be met by a disproportionate response, they suggest, adding that the IDF's hands have been tied by the politicians and that the current situation is dangerous,” the news portal added. Israel, they say ignores “the fact the Hezbollah has much to lose from an uptick in the fighting so it is time to act, in coordination with the U.S, so as not to seem keen to extend the war, and present the Iran-backed group the chance for quiet along the border by a unilateral cessation of fire, while also creating the legitimacy for a broader action that would ultimately bring security back to the north,” Ynetnews reported. "Why are we waiting for the Radwan force to strike?" one Israeli officer said. "Why are we increasing our forces, laying in wait? Hezbollah initiated the fighting and it should be the one fearing our forces. This equation must change," he added. Around 200 people have been killed in Lebanon during more than three months of cross-border clashes, including around 145 Hezbollah fighters and over 20 civilians, among them three journalists. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities. The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents on both sides of the border and Israel says it is keen on returning its residents to their homes even if that required a military campaign.

Hezbollah resumes attacks as Israel seems to shift to targeted killings
Associated Press/January 21, 2024
Hezbollah attacked overnight through Monday two Israeli forces near the Zar'it post and the Abu Djaj heights and another group of soldiers at the Raheb post as Israel hit several areas of southern Lebanon. Israeli warplanes struck a two-story house in Shihine and the southern towns of Tayr Harfa, Merwahin and al-Taybeh. Israeli artillery meanwhile shelled Mays al Jabal and the outskirts of Maroun al-Ras, Aitaroun, Houla, Deir Mimas, Yarine, al-Bustan, Kfarkila and the Marjayoun plain. There have been almost daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon, since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. An Israeli strike Sunday on the southern village of Kafra killed a Lebanese Hezbollah fighter and a woman and wounded several other people. The strike appeared to be part of a shift in Israeli strategy toward targeted killings in Lebanon after more than three months of near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants on the border against the backdrop of the war in Gaza. While the clashes had previously been limited mainly to a narrow strip within a few kilometers from the border, Israel in recent weeks appears to have moved to a strategy of targeted killings of figures from Hezbollah and allied groups, sometimes hitting in areas relatively far from the border, as was the case in Sunday’s strike. On Saturday, another strike near the Lebanese port city of Tyre killed two people in a car — one of them a Hezbollah commander — and two people in a nearby orchard. The commander, Ali Hodroj, was buried Sunday in south Lebanon. The other occupant of the car, tech sector businessman Mohammad Baqir Diab, was identified as a civilian and was buried in Beirut on Sunday. On Jan. 2, a presumed Israeli airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, in a suburb of Beirut, the first such strike in Lebanon’s capital since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal one-month war in 2006. Speaking at Hodroj’s funeral Sunday, Hezbollah Member of Parliament Hussein Jeshi said Israel had “resorted to the method of assassinating some members of the resistance" to compensate for being unable to reach a military victory against Hamas after more than 100 days of war in Gaza. The Lebanese militant group said in a statement later Sunday that it had launched an attack against the town of Avivim in northern Israel in retaliation for the strike in Kafra and for other “attacks that targeted Lebanese villages and civilians.”Israel did not comment on the strike specifically but announced it had struck Hezbollah targets in several locations in Lebanon on Sunday. It later said that an anti-tank missile had hit a house in Avivim and no injuries were reported. With dangers of a regional conflict flaring on multiple fronts, officials from the United States and Europe have engaged in a flurry of shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between Israel and Lebanon, attempting to head off an escalation of the conflict into a full-on war on the Lebanese front.

Israeli strike on Kafra kills Hezbollah member, civilian woman
Agence France Presse/January 21, 2024
An Israeli strike Sunday on south Lebanon killed a Hezbollah fighter, with a security official saying the target was a high-level commander who survived. Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel's army and Lebanon's Hezbollah, an ally of Gaza-based Hamas. Hezbollah announced that one of its members, identified as Fadel Shaar, had been killed in the strike in the town of Kafra. The strike on a car in south Lebanon "killed a member of Hezbollah's protection team", a Lebanese security official told AFP, adding that the senior commander he was protecting "escaped death". A source close to Hezbollah confirmed a Hezbollah fighter had been killed, but denied that a high-level official had been the target of the strike. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity for security concerns. According to the security official, the Hezbollah commander was in a vehicle with three other people, behind the car that was hit. The source close to Hezbollah said the strike also wounded a civilian woman who was in the area at the time of impact. Later Sunday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that a civilian woman wounded in the strike, Samar al-Sayyed Mohammed, had died of her injuries. NNA had earlier reported one death in an Israeli drone strike on Kafra, a village near the border. "The strike that targeted a car in Kafra killed one person while others suffered moderate and minor injuries," NNA said. It added that the drone struck near an army checkpoint, destroying a four-wheel drive vehicle and setting another car on fire. Another security official told AFP there were no casualties among Lebanese soldiers.
Exchanges of fire
Hezbollah later said one of its fighters had been killed "on the road to Jerusalem" -- the phrase the group has been using for members killed by Israeli fire. The group said its fighters had fired at northern Israel in response to the Kafra strike. The Risala Scout association, which operates rescue teams and is affiliated with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement, said two of its rescuers had been injured in the Kafra strike. Israel targeted several locations in Lebanon's south Sunday, the NNA said, including five houses that were destroyed in the border village of Markaba, without causing casualties. The Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah positions in Markaba as well as other targets in south Lebanon including "a Hezbollah operational command centre and military compound". Hezbollah also said it targeted Israeli military positions across the border on Sunday. Since the October start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, tensions have soared across the region, with violence involving Iran-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, as well as Lebanon, stoking fears of a wider conflagration. Israel has repeatedly bombarded Lebanese border villages, with the violence killing more than 195 people in the country, including at least 144 Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP tally. On the Israeli side, 15 people have been killed in the northern border area, of whom nine were soldiers and six civilians, according to the Israeli army.

Report: Franjieh met with Nasrallah two weeks ago
Naharnet/January 21, 2024 
Hezbollah is maintaining its support for the presidential nomination of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh and it does not see any reason to change its stance, the pro-Hezbollah daily al-Akhbar reported on Monday. “Franjieh heard these words in person from Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during a meeting that brought them together two weeks ago,” al-Akhbar added. “Hezbollah does not intend to focus on anything other than the open front with the (Israeli) enemy and it does not want to open any file before the course becomes clear in Gaza,” the newspaper said.

Berri warns of Israel's 'expanding' attacks against Lebanon
Naharnet/January 21, 2024 
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has warned against Israel's attempts to drag Lebanon into a broader war. In remarks published Monday in al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri said that israel has expanded the scope of its attacks against Lebanon and is now hitting areas relatively far from the border, deliberately targeting civilians, threatening and promoting proposals that are rejected by Lebanon, such as pushing for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, which lies about 30 kilometers north of the border. An Israeli strike Sunday on the southern village of Kafra killed a Lebanese Hezbollah fighter and a woman and wounded several other people while another strike on Saturday killed two people in a car — one of them a Hezbollah commander — and two people in a nearby orchard, in an apparent shift in Israeli strategy toward targeted killings in Lebanon after more than three months of near-daily clashes with Hezbollah. While the clashes had previously been limited mainly to a narrow strip within a few kilometers from the border, Israel in recent weeks appears to have moved to a strategy of targeted killings of figures from Hezbollah and allied groups, sometimes hitting in areas relatively far from the border, as was the case in Sunday’s and Saturday's strike near the Lebanese port city of Tyre. On Jan. 2, a presumed Israeli airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, in a suburb of Beirut, the first such strike in Lebanon’s capital since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal one-month war in 2006. On Sunday, Berri had met with former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and the two discussed the latest political developments, the Gaza war and the situation in the south.

Quintet Committee ambassadors to convene in Beirut: A diplomatic 'chessboard' amidst presidential stalemate
LBCI/January 22, 2024
Ambassadors of the Quintet Committee countries in Lebanon are set to hold a meeting in Beirut this week, aiming to reach a unified stance on the presidential deadlock after none of the proposed candidates by political factions have been able to secure a breakthrough. In this context, the sources suggest that the French prefer, for example, separating the issue of the presidency from the situation on the southern front. Meanwhile, other parties in the Quintet Committee believe that the separation of the two issues has become nearly impossible, especially with Hezbollah currently engaged in the ongoing conflict in the south. Following the ambassadors' meeting, they will embark on discussions with Lebanese officials and leaders to discuss how to navigate out of this "impasse." The focus of this initiative will be to decide on the third option without delving into specific names. Simultaneously, as Quintet Committee ambassadors move to Beirut, French Presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian is heading to Riyadh and Doha, where he will meet with officials in both countries before heading to Lebanon in the second or third week of February. In light of these facts, the meeting between Saudi Ambassador Walid Al-Bukhari and Iranian Ambassador Mojtaba Amani drew attention, involving discussions on the Lebanese situation and the regional context. Some sources confirmed that this meeting aligns with the Quintet Committee's moves in Lebanon.

Sectarian influence in Lebanon: A closer look at institutional integrity
LBCI/January 22, 2024
With every pivotal event in Lebanon, sectarian considerations come to the forefront.
Sectarian interests often take precedence over government formation and filling key positions, particularly in top-tier roles within institutions and public administrations. However, the accurate measure lies in the decisions made by the government. During the tenure of the former Banque du Liban (BDL) Governor, Riad Salameh, government support policies contributed to the financial collapse, leading to an unprecedented surge in the exchange rate, stabilizing around LBP 89,000 per US dollar. Despite these policies, the BDL failed to contain the crisis. Salameh's term ended, and his Shiite deputy assumed office after negotiations with the Prime Minister halted the subsidy policy, including payments to Electricite du Liban (EDL) for purchasing fuel for industries. In collaboration with the Finance Ministry, measures were implemented to stabilize the exchange rate. This was not due to the sectarian background of Salameh, Maronite, or his successor, Mansouri, Shiite, but rather because the government acknowledged an inevitable and substantial collapse. The BDL continued its operations regardless of its leadership. Similarly, the General Security remained unaffected by the appointment of Brigadier Elias Baysari, a Maronite, as its head, succeeding Major General Abbas Ibrahim, a Shiite, who remained the general director for 12 years. The security institution continued its functions, issuing tenders for biometric passports, processing requests to regularize the status of Arab and foreign nationals, and maintaining a focus on the Syrian refugee file. The General Security obtained data on the displaced persons and is evaluating it in preparation for voluntary return. These two examples reveal that the country's functionality is independent of the sects of those in power. Sectarian affiliation often serves as a distraction, while the effectiveness of institutions is better evaluated based on the competence of their employees and leaders and their ability to sustain themselves beyond the personalization of positions.

Rumors surrounding $150 payments: Financial sources critique circular impact
LBCI/January 22, 2024
Financial sources commented on the rumors regarding the payment of $150 to beneficiaries of Circular 151, considering that paying cash US dollars to unqualified accounts violates the principle of distinguishing between qualified and unqualified accounts. Banks fear that if cash dollars are paid to those who bought US dollars after the crisis at a rate of LBP 1,500 and to those who purchased cheques and deposited them into their accounts, the central bank may have sent them a wrong signal that will negatively impact the currently proposed plans to address the crisis, according to the sources. Banking sources pointed out that banks are currently making every effort to secure the necessary liquidity to settle the cash amounts imposed by Circular 158. Therefore, the issuance of any other circular requiring them to pay additional amounts in US dollars will inevitably affect the continuity of the entire banking sector.

Georges Hobeika's Couture Spring 2024 collection captures spirit of Arab world in journey to nostalgia
LBCI/January 22, 2024
Holding onto the cultural essence of the Arab world and shining a spotlight on the brilliance of Arab women and "the joyful and creative aspects" of this region, Georges Hobeika's Couture Spring 2024 collection was showcased during Paris Fashion Week. The collection, presented against the backdrop of legendary artist Fairuz's melodies and created by the house's creative directors, Georges and Jad Hobeika, conveyed a message of love for women and the culture that has embraced them over the years. This message echoes a nostalgia for childhood and the extended atmospheres from the 1950s to the 1970s, marked by joyful celebrations and happy occasions.

Lebanon exits the Asian Cup after losing to Tajikistan 2-1
LBCI/January 22, 2024
Lebanon lost 2-1 to Tajikistan in the final game of the group stage of the Asian Cup on Monday.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 22-23/2024
Iran is 'directly involved' in Yemen Houthi rebel ship attacks, US Navy's Mideast chief tells AP
JERUSALEM (AP)/January 22, 2024
Iran is “very directly involved” in ship attacks that Yemen's Houthi rebels have carried out during Israel's war against Hamas, the U.S. Navy's top Mideast commander told The Associated Press on Monday. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the Navy's 5th Fleet, stopped short of saying Tehran directed individual attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. However, Cooper acknowledged that attacks associated with Iran have expanded from previously threatening just the Persian Gulf and its Strait of Hormuz into waters across the wider Middle East. "Clearly, the Houthi actions, probably in terms of their attacks on merchant shipping, are the most significant that we’ve seen in two generations,” he told the AP in a telephone interview. “The facts simply are that they’re attacking the international community; thus, the international response I think you’ve seen.” Iran's mission to the United Nations and the Houthi leadership in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, did not respond to a request for comment. However, the Houthis later claimed to have attacked a U.S.-flagged vessel, without offering many details. Since November, the Iranian-backed Houthis have launched at least 34 attacks on shipping through the waterways leading up to Egypt's Suez Canal, a vital route for energy and cargo coming from Asia and the Middle East onward to Europe.
The Houthis, a Shiite rebel group that's held Sanaa since 2014 and been at war with a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's exiled government since 2015, link their attacks to the Israel-Hamas war. However, the ships they've targeted increasingly have tenuous links to Israel — or none at all.
In recent days, the U.S. has launched seven rounds of airstrikes on Houthi military sites, targeting air bases under the rebels' control and suspected missile launch sites. However, risks for the global economy remain as many ships continue to bypass that route for a longer trip around Africa's southern tip. That's meant lower revenue for Egypt through the Suez Canal, a vital source of hard currency for the country's troubled economy, as well as higher costs for shipping that could push up global inflation. As Cooper took command of the 5th Fleet in 2021, the threat to shipping focused primarily around the Persian Gulf and its narrow mouth, the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. A series of attacks blamed on Iran and ship seizures by Tehran followed the collapse of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers. In his interview with the AP, the Navy commander acknowledged the threat from Iran's proxies and that its distribution of weapons extended from the Red Sea out to the far reaches of the Indian Ocean. The U.S. has blamed Iran for recent drone attacks on shipping, and a U.S.-owned cargo vessel came under attack from the Houthis in the Gulf of Aden last week.
So far, Iran has not directly gotten involved in fighting either Israel or the U.S. since the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7. However, Cooper maintained Iran had been directly fueling the Houthi attacks on shipping. “What I’ll say is Iran is clearly funding, they’re resourcing, they are supplying and they’re providing training," Cooper said. "They’re obviously very directly involved. There’s no secret there.”Cooper described the ship attacks striking the Mideast as the worst since the so-called Tanker War of the 1980s. It culminated in a one-day naval battle between Washington and Tehran, and also saw America accidentally shoot down an Iranian passenger jet, killing 290 people. Back then, American naval ships escorted reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Persian Gulf and the strait after Iranian mines damaged vessels in the region. Cooper said authorities had no current plans to reflag ships and escort them past Yemen.
Instead, the U.S. and its allies employ a “zone defense, and every once and a while we shift to a one-on-one,” he said. Cooper's reference to the tensions from more than three decades ago underlines just how precarious the situation in the wider Mideast has become as worries of a regional conflict over the Israel-Hamas war grow. Monday night, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree in a recorded address claimed an attack on the Ocean Jazz, a U.S.-flagged ship managed by Seabulk, a company in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The firm declined to comment when reached by the AP. The Ocean Jazz had been in the Red Sea heading south. Cooper spoke to the AP from the sidelines of a drone conference in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Under his command of the 5th Fleet, the naval force has created Task Force 59, a drone fleet to bolster its patrol of waterways in the region. Today, a variety of drones provide the 5th Fleet coverage across some 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) of Mideast waters the Navy otherwise wouldn't have eyes on, Cooper said. That helps its efforts to interdict suspected drug and weapons shipments. U.S. forces this month seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry from a ship bound for the Houthis in a raid that saw two Navy SEALs go missing. The U.S. military's Central Command said Sunday it now believes the SEALs are dead. While not directly saying his fleet's drones played a part in the seizure, Cooper hinted at it. "They are specifically designed to conduct interdiction operations,” he said. He added: “There’s no squeaking anything by it.”Cooper’s command is set to end in February with the upcoming arrival of Rear Adm. George Wikoff in Bahrain. He noted the Navy and merchant shippers still face a serious threat from the Houthis as he prepares to leave. “What we need is a Houthi decision to stop attacking international merchant ships. Period,” Cooper said.

EU’s Borrell Says Israeli Strikes on Gaza Are ‘Seeding Hate’
Natalia Drozdiak, Ellen Milligan and Max Ramsay/Bloomberg/January 22, 2024
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is failing to root out Hamas and is “seeding hate” for years to come, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said. Israel has been striking the Hamas-run enclave after the group carried out a deadly Oct. 7 incursion and took scores of people hostage. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under mounting international pressure to end the operations against Hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and EU, and for rebuffing US and Arab-backed initiatives for post-war Gaza. Instead of destroying Hamas, Israel is “seeding the hate for generations” with its retaliatory strikes on Gaza, Josep Borrell told reporters Monday ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. He urged parties to start thinking more concretely about a two-state peace process. Israel, which has said that the only way to guarantee the security of its citizens is to eliminate Hamas entirely, says it accomplished much of what it set out to do. It has killed some of the group’s key leaders and says it has degraded the group in northern Gaza, although fighting continues. Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, who traveled to Brussels for the meeting, said he was there to discuss efforts to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and how to dismantle the group completely. Netanyahu said last week Israel would insist on keeping security control of both Gaza and the West Bank, which Palestinians claim as a future state. Those comments prompted a rebuke from the US State Department, while UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC on Sunday it was “very disappointing.”
The sentiments were echoed by EU foreign ministers on Monday ahead of a meeting in Brussels, where they will be joined throughout the day by the top envoys from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, as well as the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League. Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel said if the Israelis don’t think a two-state solution is an answer, then “they’re very isolated.”“The support for Israel is at risk to shrink very quickly to a very low level,” Bettel said, adding it’s in their interest to come to the table. The EU’s foreign policy arm has proposed ideas about a two-state solution to the bloc’s member states, including how countries might be able to impose conditions in the future to safeguard that solution, according to a senior EU official. Israel rebuffed a settlement for postwar Gaza proposed by five Arab nations with US backing. The framework being pushed by the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, together with Israel’s neighbors Egypt and Jordan, offers aid on condition the Israeli government works toward Palestinian statehood. Asked about the Israeli government’s rejection of a Palestinian state, Borrell stressed the solution has been approved by the United Nations and the international community. “So they don’t agree, we have to discuss,” Borrell said. “Which are the other solutions they have in mind? To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill them?”Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 240 others in its Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel. Israel then launched strikes and a ground invasion of Gaza, where authorities in the Hamas-run territory say more than 25,000 people have been killed. In mid-December the World Bank estimated Israeli bombardment had damaged or destroyed over 60% of Gaza’s infrastructure. Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said her country, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, planned to organize a peace conference in Brussels in the near future with the hopes of “restarting political dialog.” EU ministers are discussing a peace conference that would be convened by the EU, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the League of Arab States and, perhaps, the US, according to a document seen by Bloomberg prepared ahead of Monday’s meeting of foreign ministers.

US targets Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad, its CEO and Hamas cryptocurrency financiers for sanctions
WASHINGTON (AP)/January 22, 2024
The U.S. on Monday hit Iraqi airline Fly Baghdad and its CEO with sanctions, alleging assistance to Iran's military wing, and imposed a fifth round of sanctions on the militant group Hamas for abuse of cryptocurrency since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The sanctions come as Israel's bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip continues — killing 25,000 Palestinians so far, according to the Gaza Strip Healthy Ministry — and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq launch regular strikes against bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. In the new sanctions, the Treasury Department said Fly Baghdad and CEO Basheer Abdulkadhim Alwan al-Shabbani have provided assistance to Iran's military wing and its proxy groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. “Iran and its proxies have sought to abuse regional economies and use seemingly legitimate businesses as cover for funding and facilitating their attacks,” Treasury Undersecretary Brian E. Nelson said in a statement. “The United States will continue to disrupt Iran’s illicit activities aimed at undermining the stability of the region.”The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans. Fly Baghdad denied the U.S. allegations and said it would take legal action to demand compensation for losses resulting from the sanctions “as it is clear that the decision was based on misleading and false information and cannot stand before the law.”The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control also designated three leaders and supporters of an Iran-aligned militia in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah, as well as a business that it says moves and launders funds for the organization.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has launched strikes against bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. The group has said that the strikes are in retaliation for Washington’s backing of Israel in the war in Gaza and that it aims to push U.S. troops out of Iraq. Most of the strikes have fallen short or been shot down and have not caused casualties, but on Saturday a missile salvo launched at al-Asad airbase in western Iraq injured a number of U.S. personnel and one Iraqi military service member stationed there. Some of the Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, including Kataib Hezbollah, officially operate under the control of the Iraqi military as part of a coalition known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, which was a key player in the fight against the Islamic State extremist group when it rampaged across Iraq and Syria, seizing wide swaths of territory. In practice, however, the groups largely operate outside of state control. In addition on Monday, the U.S. sanctioned a network of Hamas-affiliated financial exchanges in Gaza, including financial facilitators that transferred funds through cryptocurrency from Iran to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza. The U.K. and Australia coordinated with the U.S. on these sanctions. Hamas has said it planned for a potentially long fight and was "ready to do whatever is necessary for the dignity and freedom of our people.”

US puts sanctions on Hamas-linked financial networks, others
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/January 22, 2024
The United States imposed sanctions on Monday on Hamas-affiliated financial exchanges in Gaza, an Iraqi airline and backers of Iranian-linked militias in Iraq, accusing all of working with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF), an elite Iranian military and intelligence unit. The U.S. Treasury said it had imposed sanctions on Hamas-affiliated financial networks in Gaza and particularly financial facilitators that have played key roles in transferring funds, including cryptocurrency, from the Quds Force to Hamas, which carried out the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, and to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another Palestinian militant group. In sanctioning these and other targets, the U.S. government is trying to crack down on a host of Iranian-backed proxies that have carried out attacks on Israeli, U.S. and other interests from Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Among others, the Treasury said it put sanctions on Iraq's Fly Baghdad airline and its chief executive for aiding the Quds Force and its proxy groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. It also sanctioned three leaders and supporters of Kataeb Hezbollah, one of the Quds Force's main Iran-linked militias in Iraq. Fly Baghdad did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As a result of the steps, taken in concert with actions by Britain and Australia, all U.S. assets of those designated are blocked. As a general rule, U.S. regulations bar transactions by U.S. individuals or companies involving the property of those designated. Others who carry out certain transactions with sanctioned entities risk being sanctioned themselves or suffering other "enforcement action," the Treasury said.

UN chief blasts Israel for ‘utterly unacceptable’ civilian deaths in Gaza
Nick Robertson/The Hill./January 22/2024
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres harshly condemned the Israeli government Sunday for its conduct in the Israel-Hamas war, as the civilian death toll in Gaza surpasses 25,000.“Israel’s military operations have spread massive destruction and killed civilians on a scale unprecedented during my time as secretary-general,” Guterres said at a U.N. summit Sunday. He reiterated calls for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire to relieve the suffering in Gaza, allow humanitarian aid to reach everyone in need, and facilitate the release of hostages, which should be immediate and unconditional.”
Guterres has repeatedly hammered the Israeli government for its conduct in the war, which began in early October following a Hamas surprise attack on Israel and has since developed into a full military invasion of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian civilian death toll reached 25,000 Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry announced, with an additional 60,000 people injured, most of them women and children. The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has been viewed by experts as one of the most destructive in modern history. Much of Gaza City, once the largest settlement in the region, has been completely flattened by months of airstrikes. The Israeli military has also targeted sensitive sites including cemeteries with bulldozers, according to satellite imaging. Nearly the entirety of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced from their homes and requires humanitarian aid, the U.N. said, with disease taking hold as societal infrastructure breaks down. Last week, U.N. officials warned of the potential of mass famine. Guterres has been one of the most vocal advocates for a cease-fire in the conflict, which both the Israeli government and Hamas leadership have resisted. A brief cease-fire in November saw about half of the approximately 240 hostages taken by the militant group released. The Biden administration has ratcheted up pressure on the Israeli government to scale back its ground invasion of Gaza and to support Palestinian civilians. The administration has repeatedly emphasized that Israel must enable a Palestinian civilian government in Gaza via the Palestinian Authority, a proposition the Israeli government has adamantly refused. Guterres called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a two-state solution “totally unacceptable.”The “denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security,” he said. An increasing number of Democrats in Congress have also pushed the Biden administration to be harder on Israel amid rising discontent with the administration’s handling of the conflict.

EU pushes Israel on two-state solution after war in Gaza
Agence France Presse/January 22, 2024
EU foreign ministers on Monday pressed Israel for an eventual two-state solution with the Palestinians after the war in Gaza, at meetings with the top diplomats from the two sides and key Arab states in Brussels. The surprise Hamas attack on October 7 on Israel and the subsequent devastating military response from Israel has plunged the Middle East into fresh turmoil and sparked fears of a broader conflict. But while the bloodshed appears to have driven a long-term solution further out of sight, EU officials insist the time is now to talk about finally resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The 27 EU ministers met first with Israel's foreign minister Israel Katz before they were due to sit down separately with the Palestinian Authority's top diplomat, Riyad al-Maliki. The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were also holding talks with the European ministers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and defied key backer the United States by rejecting calls for a Palestinian state. Israel's assault on Gaza has left over 25,000 Palestinians dead, the vast majority women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Netanyahu has vowed "complete victory" over Hamas after the attacks by the Islamist movement's fighters on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Hamas militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 remain in besieged Gaza. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Israel that "peace and stability cannot be built only by military means". "Which are the other solutions they have in mind? To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill off them?" Borrell said.
'Only solution'
Katz ignored questions from journalists over a future two-state solution and said Israel was focused now on returning the hostages and ensuring its own security. The EU has struggled for a united stance on the conflict in Gaza as staunch backers of Israel such as Germany have rejected demands for an immediate ceasefire made by the likes of Spain and Ireland. But there is overall backing in the bloc for a two-state solution. "The two-state solution is the only solution, and even those who don't want to know about it have not yet come up with any other alternative," said German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock. Borrell circulated what he called a "comprehensive approach" towards finding peace involving the international community holding a conference that would come up with a plan to be put to both the Israelis and the Palestinians. The paper said the international community should then eventually "set out the consequences they envisage to attach to engagement or non-engagement with the peace plan" by either side. Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel's "continuation of measures to undermine the two-state solution is dooming the future of the region to more conflicts and more war"."The whole world is saying the only way out of this misery is the two-state solution. So the party who's standing against the rights of all peoples of the region, including Israelis, to have peace cannot just be left unaccountable," he said.

Relatives of Israeli hostages storm parliament, demand action on captives
Associated Press/January 22, 2024
On Monday, dozens of family members of the hostages stormed into a Finance Committee meeting in Israel's Parliament, yelling: “You won’t sit here while they are dying there!” Families of the hostages, as well as other protesters, have set up a tent camp outside Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem and vowed to remain until a deal is reached to bring the rest of the hostages home. Other protests have called for new elections. Hamas has said it will only free more captives in exchange for an end to the war and the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu has ruled out such an agreement and says military pressure is key to securing the release of more hostages. The long-serving prime minister, whose popularity has plummeted since Oct. 7, faces pressure from the U.S. — Israel's top ally — to shift to more precise military operations, do more to facilitate humanitarian aid and embrace postwar plans with broad support across the region. But Netanyahu's governing coalition is beholden to far-right parties that want to step up the offensive, encourage the “voluntary” emigration of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, and re-establish Jewish settlements there.

Israel hammers Gaza's south, hostage families urge Netanyahu to seek deal
Agence France Presse/January 22, 2024
The Israeli army bombarded Khan Younis, the new epicentre of the war in Gaza, on Monday as the families of hostages held by Hamas urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal to secure their release. Witnesses reported deadly strikes overnight in Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, and fierce fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants. Netanyahu has vowed "complete victory" over Hamas after attacks by the Islamist movement's fighters on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 remain in besieged Gaza. The war has spurred fears of a wider escalation, and sirens were heard again overnight in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, according to the Israeli military. There have been almost daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, and several areas of southern Lebanon were hit overnight. One such Israeli strike killed a Lebanese Hezbollah fighter, according to a source in the Hamas-aligned group. Violence has also surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Houthi rebels in Yemen have also attacked what they deem to be Israeli-linked shipping in the vital Red Sea shipping lanes, prompting retaliatory U.S. and UK strikes, while attacks in Syria and Iraq have mostly been claimed by Iran-linked militants opposing U.S. support for Israel.
'Necessary step' -
Hamas said in its first public report on the events that triggered the war there had been "some faults" on its part but also called for an end to "Israeli aggression" in Gaza. The October 7 attacks were a "necessary step" against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and a way to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners, it said in its 16-page report. Israel vowed to "annihilate" Hamas after the attacks and launched a relentless offensive that has killed at least 25,105 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.The Israeli campaign has killed "around 20 percent to 30 percent" of Hamas fighters and is still far from its goal of destroying the Islamist movement, according to estimates by U.S. intelligence agencies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. It said the United States, Qatar and Egypt, the countries that mediated a truce in November, were trying to convince Israel and Hamas to approve a plan that would free all the hostages in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu has maintained that Israel must retain security control after the war and has rejected the possibility of "Palestinian sovereignty". Major ally the United States and others have recommended that a so-called two-state solution was the only way to guarantee Israel's long-term security.
'Bring hostages back' -
Netanyahu is also under intense pressure to secure the return of the hostages and account for security failings surrounding the October 7 attacks. Relatives and supporters of the hostages again rallied near Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence in Jerusalem on Sunday night for their return. "We are asking our government to listen, to sit down at the negotiating table and decide whether to accept this agreement or any other that would suit Israel," said Gilad Korenbloom, whose son is a hostage in Gaza. John Polin, also the father of a hostage, said Israelis serve their country and in return "we expect the government to ensure our safety". "We are asking the government to play its part, to propose an agreement, to bring it to a successful conclusion and to bring the remaining hostages back alive," Polin said. Netanyahu said in a video statement released after the Hamas report that, in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages, Hamas was demanding an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the release of Palestinian prisoners and guarantees that Hamas would stay in power. "If we accept this, our soldiers have fallen in vain," and security would not be guaranteed, he said. French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu was to meet families of Hamas hostages on Monday, before holding talks with Netanyahu and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant. The 27 foreign ministers of the EU, which supports a two-state solution, will also hold separate talks with their Israeli and Palestinian counterparts in Brussels on Monday, although top Israeli diplomat Israel Katz and the Palestinian Authority's Riyad al-Maliki were not expected to sit down together.
Humanitarian crisis
U.N. agencies have warned of famine and disease as Gazans, 1.7 million of whom are displaced, struggle with shortages of water, medical care and other essentials during daily bombardment. On Sunday, 260 humanitarian aid trucks were transferred to Gaza, according to COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, well below pre-war levels. Hamas's Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh had met Turkey's foreign minister to discuss the conflict and humanitarian aid, diplomatic sources said on Sunday. Abdelrahmane Iyad, wounded in Gaza and now being treated aboard the French helicopter carrier Dixmude, docked in Egypt, said he did not have time to leave his house before it was hit. "I was with my parents, my brother, my sister, my second sister and her husband and their daughter. They all died. I'm the only survivor," he said.

Israeli forces storm Khan Younis hospital in bloodiest fighting of 2024
REUTERS/January 22, 2024
GAZA: Israeli forces, advancing deep into western Khan Younis in Gaza’s bloodiest fighting of the new year so far, stormed one hospital and placed another under siege on Monday, cutting the wounded off from trauma care, Palestinian officials said.
Troops advanced for the first time into the Al-Mawasi district near the Mediterranean Coast, west of Khan Younis, the main city in southern Gaza. There, they stormed the Al-Khair hospital and were arresting medical staff, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qidra told Reuters. here was no immediate word from Israel on the situation at the hospital. The military spokesperson’s office had no comment.The Palestinian Red Crescent said tanks had also surrounded another Khan Younis hospital, Al-Amal, headquarters of the rescue agency, which had lost contact with its staff there. Qidra said at least 50 people were killed overnight in Khan Younis, while the sieges of medical facilities meant dozens of dead and wounded were beyond the reach of rescuers.
“The Israeli occupation is preventing ambulance vehicles from moving to recover bodies of martyrs and the wounded from western Khan Younis,” he said. The Israeli military spokesperson’s office had no immediate comment on the situation at Al-Khair hospital.Israel says Hamas fighters operate from in and around hospitals, which Hamas and medical staff deny. “Hamas embeds its operation within and under hospitals and other medical facilities,” said Elad Goren of COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry branch that coordinates with the Palestinians. “A particular effort led by a dedicated team has been put on making sure that civilians have access to medical care.”Residents said bombardment from air, land and sea was the most intense in southern Gaza since the war began in October, as Israeli tanks surged across Khan Younis from the east toward the Mediterranean coast. Video filmed from afar showed scattered civilians wandering a ghost city, crowded with tents with abandoned laundry flapping on lines, as gunfire rattled and columns of smoke rose into the sky.
Israel launched an offensive last week to capture Khan Younis, which it now says is the principal headquarters of the Hamas militants responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
The newest phase of the war has brought fighting deep into the last corners of the enclave now packed with those who fled bombardment. At least 25,295 Gazans have been killed since Oct. 7, Gaza health authorities said in an update on Monday.
The majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now penned into Rafah just south of Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah just north of it, crammed into public buildings and vast camps of tents made from plastic sheets lashed to wooden frames.
Buried in hospital grounds
At Nasser Hospital, the only major hospital still accessible in Khan Younis and the largest still functioning in Gaza, video showed the trauma ward overwhelmed with wounded being treated on a floor splashed with blood. Relatives wailed, surrounding small wounded children being treated several to a bed. Men were digging graves inside the hospital grounds because it was no longer safe to venture out to the cemetery. Authorities said 40 people were buried in the hospital grounds. A man placed the tiny body of a toddler wrapped inside a white shroud into a shallow hole in the sand.“It’s very difficult to leave the complex and go to any cemetery and bury them because we’re under siege and anyone who leaves the complex is targeted,” said Abdelkarim Ahmad, participating in the burials.
“Last night we lived through a horrifying night — the shelling wouldn’t stop for even one minute. Buildings would shake with us inside, shrapnel would fall on us.”
The Israeli military made no mention of the huge battle in Khan Younis in a morning update, giving details of combat only in other areas. he storming of western parts of Khan Younis is the culmination of a battle that Israeli officials have depicted as their last large-scale ground assault before they shift to more targeted operations to eradicate Hamas. Israel says it will not stop fighting until it annihilates Hamas. But Palestinians and some Western military experts say that objective may be unachievable given the group’s diffuse structure and deep roots in Gaza, which it has ruled since 2007. Though Israelis overwhelmingly support the war, a growing, outspoken number led by relatives of the remaining hostages say the government should do more to reach a deal to free them, even if that means reining in its offensive.
About 20 relatives of hostages stormed a parliamentary committee session in Jerusalem on Monday, demanding the lawmakers do more to try to free their loved ones. ne woman held up pictures of three family members held in Gaza: “Just one I’d like to get back alive, one out of three!” she cried after pushing into the Knesset Finance Committee discussion. ami Al-Zuhri, head of Hamas’ political unit in exile, told Reuters on Monday Hamas was open to “all initiatives and proposals, but any agreement must be based on ending the aggression and the occupation’s complete withdrawal” from Gaza. rime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would make no deal that left Hamas unvanquished. “I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas.”

US, British militaries launch new round of joint strikes against multiple Houthi sites in Yemen
AP/January 23, 2024
WASHINGTON: The US and British militaries bombed eight locations used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on Monday night, the second time the two allies have conducted coordinated retaliatory strikes on an array of the rebels’ missile-launching capabilities.
According to officials, the US and UK used warship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets to take out Houthi missile storage sites and launchers. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a military operation, said Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands contributed to the mission, including with intelligence and surveillance. In a joint statement, the six allied nations said the strikes specifically targeted a Houthi underground storage site and locations associated with the Houthis’ missile and air surveillance capabilities. They added, “Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea, but let us reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats.” Britain’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that four Royal Air Force Typhoon jets struck “multiple targets at two military sites in the vicinity of Sanaa airfield” with precision-guided bombs. The strikes, said Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, were “aimed at degrading Houthi capabilities” and would “deal another blow to their limited stockpiles and ability to threaten global trade.”The joint operation comes about 10 days after US and British warships and fighter jets struck more than 60 targets in 28 locations. That was the first US military response to what has been a persistent campaign of Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial ships since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October. The Houthis’ media office said in an online statement that raids targeted Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. And Jamal Hassan, a resident from south Sanaa, told The Associated Press that two strikes landed near his home, setting off car alarms in the street. An Associated Press journalist in Sanaa also heard aircraft flying above the skies of Sanaa overnight Monday.
Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, said there were multiple air raids on three areas of Sanaa: Al-Dailami Air Base just north of the capital, Sarif, northeast of the city center, and Al-Hafa, which is south of Sanaa. Btish Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke with President Joe Biden earlier Monday. Sunak’s office said the two leaders agreed to take “as needed, targeted military action to degrade Houthi capabilities.”
The latest barrage of allied attacks marks the eighth time the US has conducted strikes on Houthi sites since Jan. 12. And it follows an almost-daily assault on Houthi missile launchers by US fighter jets and ship-based Tomahawks over the past week. The rapid response missions, which officials said go after launchers that are armed and ready to fire, demonstrate the military’s increasing ability to watch, detect and strike militant activities in Yemen.
The chaotic wave of attacks and reprisals involving the United States, its allies and foes suggests that the retaliatory strikes haven’t deterred the Houthis from their campaign against Red Sea shipping, and that the broader regional war that the US has spent months trying to avoid is becoming closer to reality.
For months, the Houthis have attacked ships in the region’s waterways that they say are either linked to Israel or heading to Israeli ports. They say their attacks aim to end the Israeli air-and-ground offensive in the Gaza Strip that was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. But any such links to the ships targeted in the rebel assaults have grown more tenuous as the attacks continue.
The US and allies warned of retaliation for weeks, and the White House and a host of partner nations issued a final warning on Jan. 3 to the Houthis to cease the attacks or face potential military action.
That threat, however, had little noticeable effect. The Houthis continued to attack ships in the region, including at times appearing to target US Navy and US-owned ships, in addition to the wide range of commercial vessels.
Of the eight strike missions on Yemen this month, all but the two with Britain were conducted by the US military alone. Five of the latest strikes were labeled self-defense to take out missiles ready to fire. The most recent, on Saturday, struck and destroyed a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Gulf of Aden and was prepared to launch, according to Central Command.
The Biden administration has also put the Houthis back on its list of specially designated global terrorists. The sanctions that come with the formal designation are meant to sever violent extremist groups from their sources of financing, while also allowing vital humanitarian aid to continue flowing to impoverished Yemenis.
US defense officials have said they believe the strikes have degraded the Houthis’ weapons and strike capabilities. But Biden and others have acknowledged that the rebels are well-equipped by Iran and are likely to continue the attacks.
The Houthis, meanwhile, have made it clear that they have no intention of scaling back their assault. In the wake of the first US and British joint attack, Hussein Al-Ezzi, a Houthi official in their Foreign Ministry, said, “America and Britain will undoubtedly have to prepare to pay a heavy price and bear all the dire consequences of this blatant aggression.”
The continued harassment of the ships has driven the US and international partners to take extraordinary steps to defend them through a joint mission named Operation Prosperity Guardian, in which they provide a protective umbrella for vessels traveling the critical waterway that runs from the Suez Canal down to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
About 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time. And the ongoing violence has prompted companies to reroute their ships, sending them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope instead — a much longer and less efficient passage.

Saudi FM says KSA won't recognize Israel without path to Palestinian state
Associated Press/January 22, 2024
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says the kingdom will not normalize relations with Israel or contribute to Gaza's reconstruction without a credible pathway to a Palestinian state. Prince Faisal bin Farhan's remarks in an interview with CNN broadcast late Sunday were some of the most direct yet from Saudi officials. It puts them at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has rejected Palestinian statehood and described plans for open-ended military control over Gaza. The dispute over Gaza's future — coming as the war still rages with no end in sight — pits the United States and its Arab allies against Israel and poses a major obstacle to any plans for postwar governance or reconstruction in Gaza. Before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war, the U.S. had been trying to broker a landmark agreement in which Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for U.S. security guarantees, aid in establishing a civilian nuclear program in the kingdom, and progress toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In September, Netanyahu had said Israel was "at the cusp" of such a deal, which he said would transform the Middle East. In the interview with "CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS," the host asked: "Are you saying unequivocally that if there is not a credible and irreversible path to a Palestinian state, there will not be normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel?""That's the only way we're going to get a benefit," Prince Faisal replied. "So, yes." Earlier in the interview, when asked if oil-rich Saudi Arabia would finance reconstruction in Gaza — where Israel's air and ground offensive has devastated vast swaths of the impoverished territory, Prince Faisal gave a similar answer. "As long as we're able to find a pathway to a solution, a resolution, a pathway that means that we're not going to be here again in a year or two, then we can talk about anything," he said. "But if we are just resetting to the status quo before Oct. 7, in a way that sets us up for another round of this, as we have seen in the past, we're not interested in that conversation." The Palestinians seek a state that would include Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel views all of Jerusalem as its capital and the West Bank as the historical and biblical heartland of the Jewish people. It has built scores of settlements across both territories that are home to hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers. The last of several rounds of peace talks broke down nearly 15 years ago.
OVER 25,000 KILLED IN GAZA
The current war between Israel and Hamas, the fifth and by far deadliest, began when Palestinian militants broke through Israel's defenses and rampaged through several nearby communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, taking around 250 people hostage and shattering Israelis' sense of security. Israel's offensive has killed at least 25,105 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than 60,000, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says around two-thirds of those killed were women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed around 9,000 militants, without providing evidence, and blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because it positions fighters, tunnels and other militant infrastructure in dense residential areas. Some 85% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, seeking elusive shelter in the south as Israel continues to strike all parts of the besieged enclave. U.N. officials say one in four people in Gaza are starving as the ongoing fighting and Israeli restrictions hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid. The war has also stoked tensions across the region, with Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen attacking Israeli and U.S. targets as the risk of a wider conflict grows.
NETANYAHU UNDER MOUNTING PRESSURE FROM ALL SIDES
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until "complete victory" over Hamas and to return all of the remaining hostages after more than 100 were released in a cease-fire deal in November in exchange for scores of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But Israelis are increasingly divided on the question of whether that's possible. Hamas is believed to be holding the hostages in tunnels deep underground and using them as shields for its top leaders. Israel has only successfully rescued one hostage, while Hamas says several have been killed in Israeli airstrikes or during failed rescue operations. Families of the hostages, as well as other protesters, have set up a tent camp outside Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem and vowed to remain until a deal is reached with Hamas to bring the rest of the hostages home. Other protests have called for new elections. Netanyahu has ruled out another cease-fire and exchange, saying military pressure is key to freeing the captives. Hamas has said it will only release more captives in exchange for an end to the war and the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners. The long-serving prime minister, whose popularity has plummeted since Oct. 7, faces pressure from the U.S. — Israel's top ally — to shift to more precise military operations, do more to facilitate humanitarian aid and embrace postwar plans with broad support across the region. But Netanyahu's governing coalition is beholden to far-right parties that want to step up the offensive, encourage the "voluntary" emigration of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, and re-establish Jewish settlements there.

Iran's FM to visit Pakistan to rebuild ties after missile strikes
Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam/ISLAMABAD (Reuters)/January 22, 2024
Pakistan said on Monday Iran's foreign minister will visit the country next week, signaling efforts to mend relations after the neighbours exchanged missile strikes last week at what they said were militant targets. Ambassadors of both countries have also been asked to return to their posts by Jan. 26, the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement. Iran's foreign ministry confirmed that Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian would visit on Monday, and said its ambassador would resume duties in Islamabad on Friday. Pakistan had recalled its ambassador to Tehran and had not allowed his counterpart to return to Islamabad, as well as cancelling all high-level diplomatic and trade engagements. "At the invitation of Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, will undertake a visit to Pakistan on 29 January 2024," a Pakistani foreign office statement said.
The tit-for-tat strikes by the two countries were the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about wider instability in the region since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7. The two Muslim nations have had a history of rocky relations, but the intrusions amounted to the highest level of attacks in decades. Islamabad said it hit bases of the separatist Baloch Liberation Front and Baloch Liberation Army, while Tehran said its missiles struck militants from the Jaish al Adl (JAA) group. The militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both regions are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped. Iran said the strikes in a border village on its territory killed nine people, including four children. Pakistan said the Iranian attack had killed two children.

Ukraine's Zelenskiy hails diaspora's support, proposes dual citizenship
KYIV (Reuters)/January 22, 2024
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Ukrainians abroad on Monday for their support during Russia's invasion, and proposed changing the constitution to allow dual citizenship. Ukraine's constitution does not give Ukrainian citizens the right to dual citizenship, so millions of people of Ukrainian origin who live abroad are unable to hold Ukrainian passports. In what appeared a symbolic gesture on Ukraine's Unity Day, marking the anniversary of the unification of eastern and western Ukraine in 1919, Zelenskiy said he was submitting draft legislation to parliament that would allow dual citizenship. "Today I am submitting to the Verkhovna Rada a key draft law that will allow the adoption of comprehensive legislative amendments and the introduction of multiple citizenship," Zelenskiy said in a statement. "And it will allow all ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants from around the world to have our citizenship. Of course, except for citizens of the aggressor country." Ukrainian officials often refer to Russia as the aggressor country following its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 2022 and occupation of swathes of Ukrainian territory. Zelenskiy has frequently underlined the need for unity as Russia's war in Ukraine drags on, with Kyiv heavily dependent on military and financial aid from abroad. Thanking the diaspora for its support, including those who had come to fight for Ukraine, Zelenskiy said the words "I am Ukrainian" carried a special meaning, and hailed the "indomitability of our people."Changes to the constitution need the approval of parliament, a process that could take about a year, and the authorisation of the Constitutional court.

Russian forces 'are constantly replenished' no matter how many get taken out, Ukrainian commander says
Thibault Spirlet/Business Insider/January 22, 2024
Ukrainian troops are trying to hold out on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. They've been targeting Russian positions with drones, the UK's Defense Ministry said. But the Russians are being "constantly replenished," a Ukrainian commander told the BBC. A Ukrainian commander said that regardless of how many times his unit hit enemy targets on a key battlefront, Russian forces were always being resupplied. Tymur, a commander in Ukraine's 11th National Guard Brigade, told the BBC that his unit was using drones to target Russian positions across the Dnipro River from the city of Kherson. But "no matter how many times we hit the same places, [the Russians] are constantly replenished," he said. At the same time, Ukrainian drone attacks have proved increasingly vulnerable to Russia's jamming systems, the BBC reported. A three-drone crossing observed by the outlet left two drones disabled, with only one making it to the other side of the river. Ukraine's forces on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River have been using first-person-view drones loaded with munitions to strike Russian vehicles, the UK Defense Ministry reported earlier this month. At the time, the ministry said that Russia was unable to counter the Ukrainian drone attacks, likely because of a shortage of Russian electronic-warfare capability in the area. However, this no longer seems to be the case, the BBC said. The latest news comes on top of other struggles reported by Ukrainian soldiers on the left bank of the river, including being heavily outnumbered, difficulties transporting equipment across the water, and a lack of training among some soldiers. On Sunday, the Institute for the Study of War said that Ukrainian and Russian forces continued "positional" fighting on the eastern bank of the river, with no confirmed change to the front lines.

Poland's PM visits Ukraine in latest show of foreign support for war against Russia
Associated Press/January 22, 2024
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in Ukraine's capital Monday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on how Poland can keep supporting the country's almost two-year war with Russia and resolve a dispute between the neighboring nations over grain shipments and trucking. Tusk, who returned to power in Poland last month and is keen to show that a change in government won't bring a change in Ukraine policy, was also due to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. "There are some conflicts of interest, we know it well and we will talk about them, but not only in the spirit of friendship, which is obvious, but with the attitude to solve these problems as soon as possible, not to maintain or multiply them," Tusk said, according to comments posted on X, formerly Twitter, by his office. "For me, it is very important to build the feeling that Poland is the most reliable, most stable ally of Ukraine in this deadly clash with evil," Tusk said. His visit took place the day after Moscow-installed officials in eastern Ukraine reported that Ukrainian shelling killed at least 27 people on the outskirts of a Russian-occupied city. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the shelling outside Donetsk a "monstrous terrorist act," and the Russia-backed local authorities declared a day of mourning. The Ukrainian military, however, denied it had anything to do with the attack. It was not immediately possible to verify either side's claims.
Ukraine's allies have in recent weeks sought to reassure the country that they are committed to its long-term defense against the Kremlin's forces amid concerns that Western support could be sagging. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and France's new foreign minister also traveled to Kyiv recently. Located on NATO's eastern flank, Poland has been one of Ukraine's strongest allies in its fight to defeat Russia. The government in Warsaw has provided weapons and humanitarian aid, and opened its borders to Ukrainian refugees since Moscow's troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. But relations soured last year as economic competition from Ukrainian food producers and truckers angered Poles who said their livelihoods were under threat. Polish farmers and truckers blockaded border crossings, causing backups and threatening the flow of some aid going into Ukraine.
Polish farmers complained that imports of Ukrainian foods had caused prices to fall, hurting their incomes, while truckers said they were being undercut by their Ukrainian counterparts. The issue surfaced during the war as Ukrainian ports were blocked and food producers turned to road routes through Europe to get their products to market. At one point, Poland and some other European nations banned Ukrainian grain imports because of the trade dispute. Poland's farmers and trucks have ended their protests for now, but Tusk is seeking ways of addressing their concerns. He has said that his country wants to help Ukraine economically but not at the expense of Polish businesses. He has suggested that Ukraine needs to better regulate its trucking industry. Tusk was also scheduled to honor Ukrainian fighters and attend observances of the Day of Ukraine's Unity, which marks Ukraine's long struggle to be independent from both its eastern and western neighbors. In other war-related developments, Ukraine's air force said it intercepted all eight Shahed drones that Russia launch overnight over southern and central regions of Ukraine. Debris from three drones shot down over the central Dnipropetrovsk region started a fire at an unnamed business but no human casualties were reported. Meanwhile, major Ukrainian digital banking platform Monobank said it came under a massive denial-of-service (DoS) attack by unidentified hackers. The attack was successfully repelled, the bank said, with no major consequences. Monobank is one of Ukraine's biggest banks.

Turkish parliament to debate Sweden's NATO bid on Tuesday -sources
Huseyin Hayatsever/Reuters/January 22, 2024
The Turkish parliament's general assembly is set to debate Sweden's NATO membership bid on Tuesday, three sources from parliament said. After likely full parliamentary approval on Tuesday, President Tayyip Erdogan is expected to sign it into law, concluding a lengthy process that has frustrated some of Ankara's Western allies. Sweden and Finland asked to join the military alliance in 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But NATO member Turkey raised objections over what it said was the two countries' protection of groups that Ankara deems terrorists. Turkey endorsed Finland's membership bid last April but, along with Hungary, it kept Sweden waiting until it toughened its stance on local members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the European Union and United States also list as a terrorist group. In response, Stockholm introduced a new anti-terrorism bill that makes being a member of a terrorist organisation illegal. Sweden and NATO members Finland, Canada and the Netherlands also took steps to relax Turkey arms-export policies. Erdogan sent Sweden's bid to parliament in October, but has also linked its ratification with U.S. approval of sales of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. The White House backs the sale, though there is no clear timeframe for the U.S. Congress to approve it and Turkey faces some congressional opposition over delaying NATO enlargement and over its human rights record. After talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he expected Turkey to ratify Sweden's NATO membership bid "in coming weeks."The parliament's foreign affairs commission approved the bid last month in the first step of the ratification process. Erdogan's AK Party, its nationalist MHP allies, and the main opposition CHP voted in favour of ratification in the commission meeting, while the small Islamist Felicity party and right-wing Iyi party voted against it. Pro-Kurdish DEM was absent during the vote.

Turkey investigates 8 bodies that washed up on its Mediterranean coast
Associated Press/January 22, 2024
Authorities in Turkey are investigating eight bodies that washed up in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, including two found Monday on a beach in the vacation resort of Serik. The Antalya governor's office said one body is believed to be a Turkish citizen who was reported missing. Authorities believe the seven other bodies discovered over the past week may be migrants from a boat that went missing off the coast near the Syria-Lebanon border last month on its way to Cyprus. An estimated 90 people were on board the boat that disappeared on Dec. 11, the governor's office said, citing information provided by the Lebanese embassy in Turkey. An evaluation of currents, winds and waves indicates that the victims may have been dragged toward the Antalya coastline, the office said in a statement.In Lebanon, a lawyer who follows migrants' cases, Mohammed Sablouh, said the boat left northern Lebanon with about 85 people on board, including 30 children. Sablouh said contact was lost with another boat that left Lebanon on Thursday with about 50 or 60 people on board. On Monday, resort staff found the two bodies 500 meters apart on the beach used by guests, the private Demirören News Agency reported. The other bodies were found in resorts near the town of Manavgat and on the coast near Antalya city.

Millions in India celebrate new Hindu temple built on mosque ruins, in victory for Modi
Associated Press/January 22, 2024
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday opened a controversial Hindu temple built on the ruins of a historic mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, in a political triumph for the populist leader who is seeking to transform the country from a secular democracy into a Hindu state. The temple is dedicated to Hinduism's Lord Ram and fulfills a long-standing demand by millions of Hindus who worship the revered deity and extoll him for the virtues of truth, sacrifice and ethical governance. Modi's party and other Hindu nationalist groups who seized on the demand have portrayed the temple as central to their vision of reclaiming Hindu pride, which they say was suppressed by centuries of Mughal rule and British colonialism. Modi and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party hope that opening the temple will help catapult the prime minister to a record third successive term in elections expected this spring. But with the temple still under construction, critics accuse Modi of a hurried opening to woo voters. Modi, dressed in a traditional kurta tunic, led the opening ceremony as Hindu priests chanted hymns inside the temple's inner sanctum, where a 1.3-meter (4.3-foot) stone sculpture of Lord Ram was installed last week. A conch was blown by a priest to mark the temple's opening and Modi placed a lotus flower in front of the black stone idol, decked in intricate gold ornaments and holding a golden bow and arrow. He later prostrated before the idol. Nearly 7,500 people, including elite industrialists, politicians and movie stars, witnessed the ritual on a giant screen outside the temple as a military helicopter showered flower petals. "Our Lord Ram has arrived after centuries of wait," Modi said in a speech after the ceremony, receiving a resounding applause from thousands of attendees. He said the temple was built after "countless sacrifices" and is testament to a rising India "breaking the shackles of slave mentality."
"Jan. 22, 2024, is not merely a date but marks the dawn of a new era," Modi said.
Modi's government turned the event into a national occasion by organizing live screenings across the country and closing offices for half a day. Saffron flags — the color of Hinduism — adorned the streets of various cities where government party workers had gone door to door handing out religious pamphlets.
Television news channels ran non-stop coverage of the event, portrayed as a religious spectacle. Some movie theaters broadcast the event live with complimentary popcorn. Many states declared the day a public holiday. In a rare step, stock and money markets were closed for the day.
"Ram Rajya (rule) begins," a TV news headline said. Ram Rajya is a Sankrit phrase that means just and ethical governance in Hinduism but has also been used by Hindu nationalists to signify Hindu domination in an officially secular India. Modi has been the face of an unprecedented and unapologetic fusion of religion and politics in India. Ahead of the temple opening, he set the tone by visiting numerous Ram temples over 11 days as part of a Hindu ritual. Analysts and critics see Monday's ceremony as the start of the election campaign for Modi, an avowed Hindu nationalist and one of India's most consequential leaders. They say the pomp-filled display led by the government shows the extent to which the line between religion and state has eroded under Modi.
"Prime ministers prior to Modi have also been to temples, been to other places of worship, but they went there as devotees. This is the first time that he went there as somebody who performed the ritual," said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, an expert in Hindu nationalism and author of a book on Modi.
The temple, located at one of India's most vexed religious sites, is expected to embolden Modi's chances of returning to power by drawing on the religious sentiments of Hindus, who make up 80% of India's population of 1.4 billion. Ayodhya, once crowded with tightly packed houses and rundown stalls, has undergone an elaborate makeover in the lead up to the temple's inauguration. Narrow roads have been turned into a four-lane pilgrimage route leading to the temple, tourists are arriving at a new airport and sprawling railway station, and major hotel chains are building new properties. Jubilant devotees from across the country have arrived to celebrate the opening, with groups of them dancing to religious songs that blare from speakers on roads bedecked with flowers. Huge cut-outs of Lord Ram and billboards of Modi are ubiquitous across Ayodhya, where the borders have been sealed to prevent more people from coming in. Some 20,000 security personnel and more than 10,000 security cameras have been deployed. The moment will be remembered as momentous and historic by many of the country's Hindu citizens. "I am here to see history unfolding before our eyes. For centuries, the story of Lord Ram has resonated in the hearts of millions," said Harish Joshi who arrived in Ayodhya from Uttarakhand state four days before the ceremony.
Built at an estimated cost of $217 million and spread over nearly 3 hectares (7.4 acres), the temple lies atop the debris of the 16th-century Babri Mosque, which was razed to the ground in 1992 by Hindu mobs who believed it was built on temple ruins marking the birthplace of Lord Ram. The site has long been a religious flashpoint for the two communities, with the demolition of the mosque triggering bloody riots across India that killed 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. The dispute ended in 2019 when, in a controversial decision, India's Supreme Court called the mosque's destruction "an egregious violation" of the law but granted the site to Hindus while giving Muslims a different plot of land. The fraught history is still an open wound for many Muslims, who have increasingly come under attack in recent years by Hindu nationalist groups and see the construction of the temple as a testament to Modi's Hindu-first politics.
Officials say the temple, a three-story structure made of pink sandstone, will open to the public after the ceremony and they expect 100,000 devotees to visit daily. Builders are still working to finish 46 elaborate doors and intricate wall carvings. But not all are rejoicing. Four key Hindu religious authorities refused to attend, saying consecrating an unfinished temple goes against Hindu scriptures. Some top leaders from India's main opposition Congress party also boycotted the event, with many opposition lawmakers accusing Modi of exploiting the temple for political points. Neighboring Pakistan condemned the consecration, saying a temple built on the site of a demolished mosque would remain a blot on India's democracy.
"There is a growing list of mosques (in India) facing a similar threat of desecration and destruction," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It urged the international community to help save Islamic heritage sites in India from "extremist groups" and ensure that minority rights are protected.
At least three historical mosques in northern India are embroiled in court disputes overclaims by Hindu nationalists who say they were built over temple ruins. Hindu nationalists have also filed cases in Indian courts seeking ownership of hundreds of historic mosques.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 22-23/2024
Biden Threatens Netanyahu's Drive to Destroy Hamas
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute./January 22, 2024
The Israeli premier has also reiterated his long-standing opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, which he insists would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
Israel's efforts to achieve its goal of destroying Hamas, though, are at serious risk of being undermined by the Biden administration's growing hostility towards Netanyahu's government.
There are credible indications, moreover, that the Biden administration's hostility towards Netanyahu has led it to work with senior figures within Israel's security establishment, which is known to have a difficult relationship with the Israeli premier, to remove his government from power.
[T]he Palestinian leadership has always been just as deeply and outspokenly committed to the destruction of Israel as Hamas is.
Instead of trying to overthrow the Netanyahu government, the Biden administration would be better advised to grasp the vital strategic consideration that defeating Hamas is as much in the interests of the US as it is for Israel.
Israel's efforts to achieve its goal of destroying Hamas, though, are at serious risk of being undermined by the Biden administration's growing hostility towards Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
The deepening antipathy of the Biden administration toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening to derail Israel's military offensive to destroy Hamas.
With every day that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) maintain their military effort to end the threat to Israeli security posed by Hamas's presence in Gaza, more details emerge of the staggering underground terrorist infrastructure the Iranian-backed group has constructed in Gaza.
In the three months since Israel launched its military offensive against Hamas following the deadly October 7 attacks, in which Hamas killed at least 1,200 people and took hundreds more hostage, IDF commanders have been astonished at the extent of the 350-mile tunnel network, with 5,700 entrance shafts, which Hamas has constructed in the Gaza Strip with the specific aim of increasing its ability to launch terrorist attacks against Israel. It has been called "a city under a city" and a "fortress under a city."
Nicknamed the "Gaza metro" by Israelis, the tunnel network has been built with the hundreds of millions of dollars the terrorist group has received in funding from Iran and Qatar. Many of the tunnels' primary function is to smuggle military equipment into Gaza from Egypt, which can then be used to launch attacks against Israel.
The tunnels, some of which are large enough to accommodate cars, are used to transport people and goods, store rockets and ammunition caches, and house Hamas command and control centres. By locating its terrorist infrastructure underground, Hamas has made it immensely more difficult for the IDF to monitor its activities.
The terror group also uses civilian infrastructure in Gaza, such as schools and hospitals, as the location for some of its main command and control centres, with one major centre being located beneath the main Palestinian al-Shifa Hospital.
The IDF has accused the Hamas terrorists responsible for planning and executing the October 7 attacks of hiding inside these passages beneath homes and inside buildings populated by Gazan civilians, effectively turning them into human shields.
As Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, explained at the start of the IDF's offensive in October:
"Hamas has turned hospitals into command and control centres and hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders... Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Shifa hospital and other hospitals in Gaza."
Hamas, moreover, continues to pose a deadly threat to Israel despite the significant progress the IDF has so far made in dismantling the organisation's terrorist infrastructure in northern Gaza. Relentless, Hamas terrorists launched at least 25 rockets at Israel from central Gaza last week at the southern Israeli city of Netivot.
The continuing threat Hamas's terrorist infrastructure poses to Israel's security has prompted Netanyahu to warn that the IDF operation to destroy the organisation could last into 2025. Rejecting claims by critics that the IDF's goals are not achievable, Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the military offensive for many months. "We will not settle for anything short of an absolute victory," he declared.
The Israeli premier has also reiterated his long-standing opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, which he insists would become a launching pad for attacks on Israel.
Israel's efforts to achieve its goal of destroying Hamas, though, are at serious risk of being undermined by the Biden administration's growing hostility towards Netanyahu's government.
Biden has been ambivalent about Israel's quest to destroy Hamas since the outset of the IDF's offensive in Gaza. While pledging to maintain military support for Jerusalem, Biden and his officials have adopted an increasingly critical attitude towards Israel, questioning both its military tactics and Netanyahu's war aims.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated Washington's view that a two-state solution was the best solution to the conflict, arguing that, without a "pathway to a Palestinian state" Israel would not "get genuine security".
The deepening rift between Biden and Netanyahu was clearly evident during the latest exchange between the two leaders, the first time they had made contact in four weeks. While Netanyahu again voiced his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state in their 30-40-minute call on Friday, Biden focused on reaffirming his commitment to work toward helping the Palestinians move toward statehood.
"As we're talking about post-conflict Gaza... you can't do that without also talking about the aspirations of the Palestinian people and what that needs to look like for them," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said after the call took place.
The deepening tensions between Washington and Jerusalem have even led members of Congress to call for the US to reassess its support for Israel, with Pramila Jayapal, the US Representative who heads the questionable Congressional Progressive Caucus, claiming Netanyahu's stance "should cause us to reset our relationship of unconditional support to [his] government".
There are credible indications, moreover, that the Biden administration's hostility towards Netanyahu has led it to work with senior figures within Israel's security establishment, which is known to have a difficult relationship with the Israeli premier, to remove his government from power.
Relations between Netanyahu and his security chiefs have been at a low ebb since the October 7 attacks, with Israeli intelligence chiefs being blamed for the catastrophic failures which enabled Hamas to carry out its attack. No one in the US, to our knowledge, ever blamed US President George W. Bush for the 9/11/2001 attacks. Furthermore, there seems to be no evidence that Israel's prime minister had even been made aware of the documents that described an invasion from Gaza.
Any attempt, though, by the Biden administration to work with Israeli's security chiefs to bring down the Netanyahu government would not only be a gross violation of Israeli sovereignty. It would also go against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Israelis who, after the appalling events of October 7, understandably have little interest in an independent Palestinian state.
A recent poll shows that 81% of Israelis, including Arab Israelis, say there is no prospect for peace with the Palestinians, including 70% of left-wing voters. Some 88% of Israelis say they do not trust the Palestinian leadership. With good reason: the Palestinian leadership has always been just as deeply and outspokenly committed to the destruction of Israel as Hamas is. (See also here, here, here, here and here.)
Instead of trying to overthrow the Netanyahu government, the Biden administration would be better advised to grasp the vital strategic consideration that defeating Hamas is as much in the interests of the US as it is for Israel.
Hamas and its Iranian backers are dedicated not only to the destruction of Israel: they are committed to attacking the US and its allies in the Middle East, as the recent attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria have demonstrated.
Destroying Hamas as a terrorist entity will therefore send a clear and unequivocal message to Iran and its allies that Washington is prepared to defend its interests in the Middle East, and its closest ally, Israel.
Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 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.

Britain responds to Gaza’s suffering by criminalizing support for Palestinians
Baria Alamuddin/Arab News/January 22, 2024
The land of Magna Carta is organizing a bonfire of human rights and fundamental freedoms, with measures to criminalize support for Palestine and send asylum seekers off to Rwanda. Among a rush of bizarre measures before they are banished from power for a generation, Britain’s Conservatives are pursuing legislation that would ban local councils, universities and other public bodies from boycotting Israel.
The timing, as Palestinian civilians are being massacred in their thousands, could not be more diabolical. The proposed law includes the occupied Palestinian territories in its definition of Israel — thus making it illegal to take a stand against Israeli settlements that are themselves illegal under international law. It is doubly perverse that this contradicts Britain’s long-held political stance on the occupation’s illegality.
In a scathing attack on the bill, Alicia Kearns, the Conservative MP who chairs Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said it “breaks with our foreign policy; undermines freedom of speech; goes against international law; and promotes an odd exceptionalism in UK primary legislation.”
The government is rushing such policies through Parliament to create political hand grenades in its incessant far-right culture war, seeking to brand the opposition Labour Party antisemitic. While a high proportion of Labour’s grassroots are instinctively pro-Palestinian, and under previous leaders the charge of antisemitism carried some weight, some of its newer leaders now seem to believe they can demonstrate their readiness to govern only by trotting out pro-Israel platitudes. Labour has opposed the measures in a starkly lackluster manner — citing freedom of speech concerns, while emphasizing that the party “completely opposes a policy of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.”The world has changed beyond recognition since these anti-boycott measures were first conceived: over 25,000 Palestinians — 70 percent women and children — have lost their lives in Israel’s genocidal operations in Gaza, with thousands more buried under the rubble. Horrified British citizens, along with the rest of the world, have ingested a daily diet of atrocities and carnage through both conventional and social media. It is not just those from Muslim and ethnic minority backgrounds, but also young people and university students who are outraged at how the country’s political class ties itself in knots to avoid criticizing Israel. Hundreds of thousands of British people with experience of working in the Gulf states and the rest of the Arab world generally have a more nuanced understanding of the Palestinian cause.
Huge numbers have participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in major UK cities, which right-wing media and prominent politicians denounce as “hate-marches” peopled by “anti-British extremists.”Britain and other states are pursuing measures that would criminalize those taking a principled stand on crimes against humanity and the persecution of the Palestinian people.
Ahead of elections due this year, the Conservative Party is furiously tearing itself apart in an ever more rightwards leaning death roll. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has a net popularity rating of minus 49, and Labour are a commanding 28 points ahead in the polls. But the Conservative solution to its chronic unpopularity has been to become embroiled in civil war over plans to deport refugees to Rwanda.
This proposal was initially blocked by the Supreme Court, which unsurprisingly ruled that Rwanda was not safe for asylum seekers. Sunak’s solution is to ask Parliament to pass a law declaring Rwanda safe. Hard-liners wanted to go even further through potentially illegal measures to block the jurisdiction of institutions such the European Court of Human Rights, enabling the government to violate human rights law with impunity. No wonder they are so hasty to make common cause with Benjamin Netanyahu’s pariah regime!
No less a figure than Baroness Kennedy, the leading barrister and member of the House of Lords, denounced the Rwanda measures as a “hated and hateful” piece of legislation, which at best could remove only a handful of asylum seekers at enormous expense. Such monomaniac obsession with this issue, while ignoring the dire state of Britain’s public services and stagnant economy, is obviously not a vote winner for a kamikaze ruling party that long ago lost the will to govern responsibly.
Attitudes toward the BDS movement vary across the Western world. A number of major European cities have revoked twinning agreements with Israel, including Barcelona, which severed its relationship with Tel Aviv. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Germany and the US have canceled numerous events by pro-Palestinian figures on the basis of spurious allegations of antisemitism.
The municipality of Oslo, a city of huge symbolic importance to the peace process, passed a measure prohibiting “Made in Israel” labels on goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements. Ireland is pursuing legislation to ban trade with settlements. This follows a 2019 ruling by the European Court of Justice that all goods produced in “Israel-occupied areas” had to be labeled as such so as not to mislead consumers.
The European Court of Human Rights furthermore ruled in 2020 that anti-boycott legislation violated freedom of expression.
The situation is radically different in the US, where 35 states have enacted laws to outlaw boycotting Israel. Although courts have pushed back against such restrictions on freedom of speech, several companies have been persecuted after desisting from investment in illegal settlements. Students at prestigious US universities who supported BDS have been added to recruitment blacklists. t is perverse and outrageous that at a time when Israel is facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Britain and other states are pursuing measures that would criminalize those taking a principled stand on crimes against humanity and the persecution of the Palestinian people. I love Britain as the free, democratic country that adopted me — so it hurts on every level to witness such illiberal measures being forced through, as if the free world wanted to undermine everything it stands for. hose who seek to penalize us for acting according to our conscience shouldn’t just be kicked out of office, but should themselves face a reckoning for advocating measures that trample democracy, freedom and justice underfoot for their own political advancement.
• Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has interviewed numerous heads of state.

Two-state solution can be drawn up without Israel at the table, says EU diplomat
Joe Barnes/The Telegraph/January 22, 2024
The European Union will press ahead with peace talks to end the war in Gaza without the involvement of Israel, according to an internal document. A 12-point peace plan drawn up by Brussels’ foreign affairs arm states that it is “unrealistic to assume that Israelis and Palestinians will in the near future directly engage in bilateral peace negotiations”. Instead, the bloc proposed parallel talks with the US, United Nations, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the League of Arab States, while threatening “consequences” against Israel if it refuses to engage.“Palestinians will need a revitalised political alternative to Hamas, while Israelis will need to find the political will to engage in meaningful negotiations towards the two-state solution,” the document, circulated to European capitals and seen by The Telegraph, says. “Therefore, it is the responsibility of outside actors… such as the EU, to help the conflict parties by preparing the ground for comprehensive peace.”The so-called “peace plan” was proposed to EU foreign affairs ministers by Josep Borrell, the bloc’s top foreign diplomat, at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, right, speaks with Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz
It comes after the UK and US expressed disappointment with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, for ruling out a two-state solution. Mr Netanyahu is under increasing political pressure to call elections amid growing internal conflict over the progress of the war. “There is no credible comprehensive solution other than an independent Palestinian State living side by side with Israel,” the document states. “An essential element of the peace plan should be the development of robust security assurances for Israel and the future independent State of Palestine, conditional upon full mutual diplomatic recognition and integration of both Israel and Palestine in the region,” it added. A two-state solution is the favoured outcome for the EU, US and UK, a demand frequently repeated since the October 7 Hamas terror attack which killed at least 1,200 people in southern Israel.
With concerns over whether Israel would engage in such talks, the EU’s non-binding plan suggests updating the Jewish state at “every step”.“Nevertheless, work on the development of the peace plan should start, and continue, also at times that one or other of the conflict parties is not ready to engage,” it states. It was not immediately clear what “consequences” could be used to pressure Israel to the negotiating table. The EU’s leverage largely focuses around trade, with an association agreement between the two sides having made the bloc Israel’s largest trade partner. EU member states should be prepared to “set out the consequences they envisage to attach to engagement or non-engagement with the peace plan”, the document says. Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the creation of a Palestinian state to achieve peace in the Middle East. He insisted his country should maintain “security control over the entire west of Jordan” after a weekend phone call with Joe Biden. Israeli troops patrolling along the southern part of the border with the Gaza Strip
“We have to bring back our security. Our brave soldiers are fighting in very hard conditions,” Mr Katz said - ATEF SAFADI/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK
Stephane Sejourne, France’s foreign minister, told reporters: “The declarations of Benjamin Netanyahu are worrying. There will be a need for a Palestinian state with security guarantees for all.”Hadja Lahbib, his Belgian counterpart, said: “We demand an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages, the respect of international law, and a return to the peace process, which must lead to the creation of two states living in peace side by side.”While the EU’s plan largely received a positive reception across the bloc, German diplomats raised private grievances about the prospect of pushing forward with peace talks without Israel. Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s foreign minister, echoed the criticism: “If Israel is not at the table, there is no use to have peace conferences.” There were wider complaints over the EU’s insistence the peace talks would not “address how to deal with the terror attacks by Hamas on and since October 7, 2023”. Israel’s foreign minister, who attended the meeting in Brussels, dodged questions on the proposals and the possibility of statehood for Palestine. “We have to bring back our security. Our brave soldiers are fighting in very hard conditions,” Israel Katz told reporters. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer.