π️Lonny's War Update- October 300, 2023 - August 1, 2024 π️
π️Day 300 that 115 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**
“I’ve never met them,But I miss them. I’ve never met them,but I think of them every second. I’ve never met them,but they are my family. BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”
We’re waiting for you, all of you.A deal is the only way to bring
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.
#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope
We’re waiting for you, all of you.
all the hostages home- the murdered for burial and the living for rehabilitation.
#BringThemHomeNow #TurnTheHorrorIntoHope
There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!ΧΧΧ Χ Χ¦ΧΧΧ Χ’Χ Χ©ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧΧ€ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧͺ
Today, we have reached the unimaginable - 300 days that 115 of our hostages are still in captivity in Gaza held by the vile barbarian Hamas terrorists who perpetrated the horrendous acts of October 7, 2023, the worst attack in the history of Israel and the worst attack, killing more Jews since the holocaust. 300 days that our Prime Minister has been making decisions that favor first and foremost his own political concerns and career at the expense of more hostages dying in captivity and continued torture and rape of the living hostages in Gaza. 300 days of a government of extremists who put all of their energies into pursuing their 'little politics', their extreme ideologies of Illegal west bank settlement, of pushing for renewal of settlements in Gaza, encouraging settler violence of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, utter destruction of Gaza instead of fighting for the release of 115 hostages in Gaza. 300 days of growing support for the hostages over Netanyahu's stupid, unrealistic and undefined slogan of 'Total Victory', making the hostages' families the 'enemies' and treating them in the most despicable ways instead of trying to right their wrongs of total abandonment. 300 days of having to fight for the government, specifically Netanyahu to do the right thing in order for the nation to begin to heal, to get past the 300 days of ongoing trauma and be able to start handling post trauma. 300 days of demonstrating for something that should be the natural course of things and the government's first priority: BRING THEM HOME!!!!!!
Hizbollah has missiles capable of hitting just about every place in Israel. We can be pretty certain that the north and center north (Haifa areas north, south and east) will get the brunt of Hizbollah's launches, and that the south (Eilat and western Negev will get most of Iran and its proxies fire but there are very good chances that they will be aiming for Tel Aviv and all surrounding Gush Dan areas.
So, we are in a waiting/holding pattern and it is just a question of when the attack will begin and how long it will continue.
This will be my last update, at least for a while. The amount of people reading the updates has dwindled considerably, as I'm sure that after 300 days, many people have grown tired of reading the updates. As a result, I am not sure how much my efforts are still helping. If you feel that I am wrong, I welcome your feedback.
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*7:35am - north - hostile aircraft - Ramat Dalton, Jish-Gush Halav, Dalton, Kerem Ben Zimra, Alma, Rihaniyeh*12:20pm - north - rockets Snir
*9:45pm - north - rockets Batzat, Shlomi, Rosh Hanikra, Achziv, Hanita, Leeman, Metzuba
*9:45pm - north - rockets Batzat, Shlomi, Rosh Hanikra, Achziv, Hanita, Leeman, Metzuba
Hostage Updates
On the 300th day of the war, protesters block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, calling for a deal to free the hostages held in Gaza.
Channel 12 reports that relatives of hostages are among those blocking the highway.
Egypt and Qatar have warned that strikes on terror leaders this week undermine efforts made by mediators to reach an agreement for hostages to be released and a ceasefire.
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, dozens of them thought dead.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Marking 300 days since Israel’s hostages were taken into captivity on October 7 by Hamas terrorists, hundreds of people dressed in white, carrying yellow flags, Israeli flags and yellow ribbons, march from Jerusalem’s First Station Complex to the Great Synagogue.
They’re part of an event organized by the family of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in support of the hostages, in memory of those killed and in support of their families.
Tzvi Zussman, father of Sgt. First Class Ben Zussman, 22, who was killed on December 3 while fighting in Gaza and was a classmate of Goldberg-Polin, leads the event at the open plaza in front of the Great Synagogue, which includes the recitation of the afternoon and evening services and singing, but no speeches.
The event is directed toward the entire Israeli public, including ultra-Orthodox, religious, traditional, and secular Israelis, women, men and children, and the audience reflects a wide range of Israelis.
The now-familiar red-and-black banner of Hersh Goldberg-Polin hangs centrally above the stage where musician Aharon Razel leads the crowd in singing songs of hope and sadness, of returning soldiers and hostages back to their borders, praying for the return of those held captive from sadness to happiness, from darkness to light.
Nissan Calderon, who survived Hamas’s October 7 massacre and whose brother Ofer Calderon has been held in Gaza since, is speaking to a crowd of thousands in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, charging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with procrastinating on the signing of a hostage deal.
Nissan Calderon, brother of Hamas hostage Ofer Calderon, speaks at a rally marking 300 days since October 7 in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on August 1, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)Calderon is speaking incisively against the premier and calls on the government to renew the “basic contract between the citizens of the country and the state.”
“The contract has been breached. Close the deal,” he says. “Again and again, you are not doing what you should’ve done 300 days ago, to stop everything and do only one thing, to return 115 citizens of the State of Israel, immediately.”
“A 17-year-old girl shouldn’t have to live her life with this terrible anguish that her father is there!” he shouts. “I want my brother alive, not a sign of life, not a video, alive! And today!”
The rally Calderon is speaking at is organized by the avowedly apolitical Hostages and Missing Families Forum and marks 300 days of captivity for the hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Marking 300 days since October 7, hostage families are rallying in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, demanding the government reach a deal to free the captives still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Before speeches begin, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum displays a brief video on the main stage from January of this year, when a few dozen hostage families gathered near the southern border to shout, sometimes cry, through giant loudspeakers in the direction of the Gaza Strip in hopes that their loved ones would hear them.
Actor Guri Alfi, who is emceeing the rally, speaks first. Behind him, people grip signs with hostages’ names and ages written on them. Many of the hostages’ ages have been updated, nearly 10 months since Hamas’s brutal massacre on Israel’s southern border.
“We are here today to say out loud: ‘We won’t agree to abandonment, we won’t sit in silence, they need to return home, now,'” Alfi says.
“These are critical days and there is a real chance for the signing of a deal to return them all, and we have to fight for it, we have to demand it,” he continues.
After organizers play a recording of the emergency phone call made by Nova partygoer Eden Yerushalmi before Hamas kidnapped her into the Gaza Strip, Shani and May Yerushalmi, sisters of the hostage, speak to the crowd.
“Her [Eden’s] last words to the police were: ‘Find me, OK?’ Eden is still waiting for us to find her,” says Shani. “It has already been 300 days since our sister is in captivity, 300 days that our home is not the same home.”
Earlier this evening, the families of hostages marched around the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv in support of a deal, accompanied by thousands of their supporters.
The families bound themselves in chains while walking along the route, representing the suffering of their loved ones in Gaza, and unfurled a 40-meter-long flag counting the days since the war’s outset.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says the only victory for Israel will be “a hostage deal that will bring our children home and restore deterrence,” while congratulating Israel’s defense establishment on “justified eliminations and precise operations.”
Lapid makes the comments at the so-called Hostages Square in Tel Aviv following his security briefing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kirya military headquarters nearby, hours after the IDF confirmed the death of Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, in an Israeli strike in Gaza last month.
“Our enemies should know that we have a strong nation and a strong army that will reach them anywhere,” he says. Lapid has been extremely critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza and in the north, telling the Knesset earlier this month that “this government is failing to manage the country, the war, the economy, our relationship with the United States, and it’s losing the hostages, who are wasting away and being murdered and dying underground.”
Hostage Updates
On the 300th day of the war, protesters block the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, calling for a deal to free the hostages held in Gaza.
Channel 12 reports that relatives of hostages are among those blocking the highway.
Egypt and Qatar have warned that strikes on terror leaders this week undermine efforts made by mediators to reach an agreement for hostages to be released and a ceasefire.
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, dozens of them thought dead.
One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Marking 300 days since Israel’s hostages were taken into captivity on October 7 by Hamas terrorists, hundreds of people dressed in white, carrying yellow flags, Israeli flags and yellow ribbons, march from Jerusalem’s First Station Complex to the Great Synagogue.
They’re part of an event organized by the family of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in support of the hostages, in memory of those killed and in support of their families.
Tzvi Zussman, father of Sgt. First Class Ben Zussman, 22, who was killed on December 3 while fighting in Gaza and was a classmate of Goldberg-Polin, leads the event at the open plaza in front of the Great Synagogue, which includes the recitation of the afternoon and evening services and singing, but no speeches.
The event is directed toward the entire Israeli public, including ultra-Orthodox, religious, traditional, and secular Israelis, women, men and children, and the audience reflects a wide range of Israelis.
The now-familiar red-and-black banner of Hersh Goldberg-Polin hangs centrally above the stage where musician Aharon Razel leads the crowd in singing songs of hope and sadness, of returning soldiers and hostages back to their borders, praying for the return of those held captive from sadness to happiness, from darkness to light.
Nissan Calderon, who survived Hamas’s October 7 massacre and whose brother Ofer Calderon has been held in Gaza since, is speaking to a crowd of thousands in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, charging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with procrastinating on the signing of a hostage deal.
Nissan Calderon, brother of Hamas hostage Ofer Calderon, speaks at a rally marking 300 days since October 7 in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square on August 1, 2024. (Screenshot, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)Calderon is speaking incisively against the premier and calls on the government to renew the “basic contract between the citizens of the country and the state.”
“The contract has been breached. Close the deal,” he says. “Again and again, you are not doing what you should’ve done 300 days ago, to stop everything and do only one thing, to return 115 citizens of the State of Israel, immediately.”
“A 17-year-old girl shouldn’t have to live her life with this terrible anguish that her father is there!” he shouts. “I want my brother alive, not a sign of life, not a video, alive! And today!”
The rally Calderon is speaking at is organized by the avowedly apolitical Hostages and Missing Families Forum and marks 300 days of captivity for the hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.Marking 300 days since October 7, hostage families are rallying in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, demanding the government reach a deal to free the captives still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Before speeches begin, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum displays a brief video on the main stage from January of this year, when a few dozen hostage families gathered near the southern border to shout, sometimes cry, through giant loudspeakers in the direction of the Gaza Strip in hopes that their loved ones would hear them.
Actor Guri Alfi, who is emceeing the rally, speaks first. Behind him, people grip signs with hostages’ names and ages written on them. Many of the hostages’ ages have been updated, nearly 10 months since Hamas’s brutal massacre on Israel’s southern border.
“We are here today to say out loud: ‘We won’t agree to abandonment, we won’t sit in silence, they need to return home, now,'” Alfi says.
“These are critical days and there is a real chance for the signing of a deal to return them all, and we have to fight for it, we have to demand it,” he continues.
After organizers play a recording of the emergency phone call made by Nova partygoer Eden Yerushalmi before Hamas kidnapped her into the Gaza Strip, Shani and May Yerushalmi, sisters of the hostage, speak to the crowd.
“Her [Eden’s] last words to the police were: ‘Find me, OK?’ Eden is still waiting for us to find her,” says Shani. “It has already been 300 days since our sister is in captivity, 300 days that our home is not the same home.”
Earlier this evening, the families of hostages marched around the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv in support of a deal, accompanied by thousands of their supporters.
The families bound themselves in chains while walking along the route, representing the suffering of their loved ones in Gaza, and unfurled a 40-meter-long flag counting the days since the war’s outset.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says the only victory for Israel will be “a hostage deal that will bring our children home and restore deterrence,” while congratulating Israel’s defense establishment on “justified eliminations and precise operations.”
Lapid makes the comments at the so-called Hostages Square in Tel Aviv following his security briefing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kirya military headquarters nearby, hours after the IDF confirmed the death of Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, in an Israeli strike in Gaza last month.
“Our enemies should know that we have a strong nation and a strong army that will reach them anywhere,” he says. Lapid has been extremely critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza and in the north, telling the Knesset earlier this month that “this government is failing to manage the country, the war, the economy, our relationship with the United States, and it’s losing the hostages, who are wasting away and being murdered and dying underground.”
Gaza
- IDF confirms Muhammad Deif, commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in Gaza strike last month
Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip last month, the IDF has confirmed.
The military says it obtained intelligence confirming his death in the last few hours.
Deif was targeted in a strike at a compound belonging to Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, in the Khan Younis area, on July 13.
A day later, Salameh’s death was confirmed by the military, but the IDF said it did not have final information regarding Deif.
The IDF believed that its intelligence indicating that Deif arrived at a compound belonging to Salameh was highly accurate, and that the pair were together in the building that was targeted with several heavy munitions.
Israeli fighter jets had patrolled the compound for half a day before the strike was carried out, after the IDF had early indications that Deif had joined Samaleh. At any given moment, two jets were in the air above the site.
Once the intelligence that Deif had arrived at the compound was confirmed by the military, the jets were given the order to strike, which was carried out within just a few minutes.
The IDF releases footage of the strike.
Deif, 58, who has commanded the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades for over two decades, has long been one of the terror figures most wanted by Israel.
He was an architect of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on Israel, the deadliest attack in the country’s history, when some 1,200 people were killed and around 251 others dragged to Gaza as hostages.
- Rocket launchers in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis primed for an attack on Israel were destroyed in a drone strike, the IDF says.
The military says that some 35 more targets were hit by Israeli Air Force fighter jets and drones over the past day, including cells of gunmen and buildings used by terror groups.
Meanwhile, troops with the 162nd Division continue to advance in southern Gaza’s Rafah. The IDF says the division has been carrying out raids in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, and destroyed a booby-trapped building in an area where Hamas was operating.
Reservists with the 252nd Division are meanwhile operating in the Netzarim Corridor of central Gaza. The IDF says the reservists directed drone strikes on several gunmen in the area in the past day.
The IDF confirms carrying out a strike in Gaza City yesterday that killed Al Jazeera reporter Ismail Alghoul, saying he was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force who participated in the October 7 onslaught.
In addition to his participation in the massacre on October 7, Alghoul also instructed other terror operatives on how to film and distribute videos of attacks on Israeli troops, according to the military.
“This activity is an integral part of the terror organization’s military activity,” the IDF says.
“The IDF and the Shin Bet are making every effort to attack and eliminate terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre, and will continue to do so,” the statement adds.
The airstrike also killed Al Jazeera cameraman Ramy El-Rify.
Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip last month, the IDF has confirmed.
The military says it obtained intelligence confirming his death in the last few hours.
Deif was targeted in a strike at a compound belonging to Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, in the Khan Younis area, on July 13.
A day later, Salameh’s death was confirmed by the military, but the IDF said it did not have final information regarding Deif.
The IDF believed that its intelligence indicating that Deif arrived at a compound belonging to Salameh was highly accurate, and that the pair were together in the building that was targeted with several heavy munitions.
Israeli fighter jets had patrolled the compound for half a day before the strike was carried out, after the IDF had early indications that Deif had joined Samaleh. At any given moment, two jets were in the air above the site.
Once the intelligence that Deif had arrived at the compound was confirmed by the military, the jets were given the order to strike, which was carried out within just a few minutes.
The IDF releases footage of the strike.
Deif, 58, who has commanded the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades for over two decades, has long been one of the terror figures most wanted by Israel.
He was an architect of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on Israel, the deadliest attack in the country’s history, when some 1,200 people were killed and around 251 others dragged to Gaza as hostages.
The military says that some 35 more targets were hit by Israeli Air Force fighter jets and drones over the past day, including cells of gunmen and buildings used by terror groups.
Meanwhile, troops with the 162nd Division continue to advance in southern Gaza’s Rafah. The IDF says the division has been carrying out raids in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, and destroyed a booby-trapped building in an area where Hamas was operating.
Reservists with the 252nd Division are meanwhile operating in the Netzarim Corridor of central Gaza. The IDF says the reservists directed drone strikes on several gunmen in the area in the past day.
The IDF confirms carrying out a strike in Gaza City yesterday that killed Al Jazeera reporter Ismail Alghoul, saying he was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba force who participated in the October 7 onslaught.
In addition to his participation in the massacre on October 7, Alghoul also instructed other terror operatives on how to film and distribute videos of attacks on Israeli troops, according to the military.
“This activity is an integral part of the terror organization’s military activity,” the IDF says.
“The IDF and the Shin Bet are making every effort to attack and eliminate terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre, and will continue to do so,” the statement adds.
The airstrike also killed Al Jazeera cameraman Ramy El-Rify.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah/Syria
After the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander, Israel conveyed a message to the terror group via western diplomats that the large-scale targeting of Israeli civilians will lead to full-blown war, the Ynet news site reports.
According to the report, the message sent to the terror group noted that Israel was targeting commanders and fighters in the terror group rather than infrastructure, and the expectation was that Hezbollah should therefore only target Israeli military personnel.
Israel is bracing for retaliation after Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike on the outskirts of Beirut, making him the most senior figure from the group to be killed in nearly 10 months of conflict with Israel.
Yesterday it was reported that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct strike on Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Israel has not commented on the killing.
The Biden administration believes Iran is going to attack Israel in the coming days as revenge for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this week, according to senior US officials quoted by Hebrew media.
The officials quoted by the Walla news site add that Washington is prepared to help Israel stop a potential attack from Iran and its proxies in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas terror group.
The US assessment is that the reprisal will be similar to Iran’s attack on April 13-14 when it launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for a deadly strike on Revolutionary Guard generals in Damascus on April 1. Almost all of some 300 projectiles in the barrage were shot down.
However, the officials say the response will likely be larger in scope, as it will likely involve Hezbollah, according to the Walla report.
The report adds that senior Biden administration officials are concerned that this could make pulling together a regional and international coalition to thwart potential attacks, as was the case when Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel in April, more difficult.
The US, Britain, Jordan and France all helped to intercept the massive barrage, while several Gulf States, among them Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, reportedly passed on intelligence about Tehran’s plans to attack Israel, providing vital information that was key to the success of the air defense measures.
After the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander, Israel conveyed a message to the terror group via western diplomats that the large-scale targeting of Israeli civilians will lead to full-blown war, the Ynet news site reports.
According to the report, the message sent to the terror group noted that Israel was targeting commanders and fighters in the terror group rather than infrastructure, and the expectation was that Hezbollah should therefore only target Israeli military personnel.
Israel is bracing for retaliation after Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike on the outskirts of Beirut, making him the most senior figure from the group to be killed in nearly 10 months of conflict with Israel.
Yesterday it was reported that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a direct strike on Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Israel has not commented on the killing.
The Biden administration believes Iran is going to attack Israel in the coming days as revenge for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this week, according to senior US officials quoted by Hebrew media.
The officials quoted by the Walla news site add that Washington is prepared to help Israel stop a potential attack from Iran and its proxies in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas terror group.
The US assessment is that the reprisal will be similar to Iran’s attack on April 13-14 when it launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for a deadly strike on Revolutionary Guard generals in Damascus on April 1. Almost all of some 300 projectiles in the barrage were shot down.
However, the officials say the response will likely be larger in scope, as it will likely involve Hezbollah, according to the Walla report.
The report adds that senior Biden administration officials are concerned that this could make pulling together a regional and international coalition to thwart potential attacks, as was the case when Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel in April, more difficult.
The US, Britain, Jordan and France all helped to intercept the massive barrage, while several Gulf States, among them Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, reportedly passed on intelligence about Tehran’s plans to attack Israel, providing vital information that was key to the success of the air defense measures.
West Bank and Jerusalem
Politics and the War (general news)
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- Nuchkba terrorist who killed 5 IDF soldiers: This is Haniyeh's escort who was eliminated with him in Tehran
- Nuchkba terrorist who killed 5 IDF soldiers: This is Haniyeh's escort who was eliminated with him in Tehran
Wasim Abu Shaban not only served as the bodyguard of Hamas's political bureau chief but also carried out terrorist acts himself • According to reports, he was responsible for the severe incident in 2014 where armed terrorists emerged from a tunnel - and infiltrated Nahal Oz
Wasim Abu Shaban, who was eliminated along with Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, was not just his bodyguard but also served as a Hamas terrorist in the Tel al-Hawa brigade and later became a Nuchkba commander, according to reports in Arab media. He is responsible for terrorist acts in which IDF soldiers were killed. According to reports, Abu Shaban was part of the terrorist cell that carried out the severe incident on July 28, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, in which five IDF soldiers in a squad commanders' course fell. The soldiers who fell in the incident are Sergeant Daniel Kadmi, Sergeant Barkai Yishai Shor, Sergeant Erez Sagi, Sergeant Dor Dery, and Sergeant Nadav Raymond. The terrorist cell crossed the border through a tunnel that penetrated about 150 meters into Israeli territory, ambushed an IDF force stationed at the time in a pillbox in Nir Oz, and fired an anti-tank missile at them, killing the soldiers. The terrorists attempted to abduct the body of one of the killed soldiers, but the fighters in the pillbox opened fire on them and prevented it.
The terrorist Abu Shaban, who was married and a father of four, was for years a member of the delegation that regularly accompanies Haniyeh. He was born in Gaza in 1988, studied for a bachelor's degree in Islamic law and law at the Islamic University in the Gaza Strip. Additionally, he served as an escort for former senior Hamas official Said Siam, who was eliminated by the IDF in Operation Cast Lead. The initial report of Haniyeh's elimination in Iran came yesterday around 6:00 AM. From the preliminary results of the investigation, as reported in Iran, Haniyeh was eliminated on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday at 2:00 AM by an aerial object that hit his room, possibly from within the country.
- 12 American warships in the area, Blinken stings: "Don't look for reasons to say 'no' to an agreement"
- 12 American warships in the area, Blinken stings: "Don't look for reasons to say 'no' to an agreement"
After the assassinations in Iran and Dahieh in Beirut, the Washington Post reports: The Americans have gathered warships and an aircraft carrier, and are preparing. The Secretary of State called on "all parties" to stop escalation actions, and sent a hint to Netanyahu: "The region is on a path of conflicts and violence, it's vital to break this - and it starts with a ceasefire"
The assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah's senior military commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut's Dahieh have led to deep concern in the U.S., and calls to calm the situation in the Middle East. The Washington Post today (Thursday) quoted a Pentagon source saying that the Americans have already gathered at least 12 warships in the area. These include the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, amphibious warfare teams, and more than 4,000 Marines and sailors.
According to the report in the U.S., destroyers are located both in the Persian Gulf and in the eastern Mediterranean. The U.S., it was reported, has moved its warships from the Red Sea area - where it is engaged in a struggle with the Houthis in Yemen, who frequently launch missiles and drones, also towards Israel, and attack merchant ships.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today that "all parties" need to stop taking escalatory actions - a message interpreted as directed at Israel, after the assassination of Fouad Shukr in Beirut and the assassination of Haniyeh attributed to it in Tehran. The Secretary of State was asked if the U.S. had given Israel a "blank check" to carry out actions in the Middle East, and replied that "right now, the path the region is on is more conflicts, more violence, more suffering, more insecurity. It's vital that we break this cycle, and it starts with a ceasefire (in the Gaza Strip)."
- Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said today that "all parties" need to stop taking escalatory actions - a message interpreted as directed at Israel, after the assassination of Fouad Shukr in Beirut and the assassination of Haniyeh attributed to it in Tehran. The Secretary of State was asked if the U.S. had given Israel a "blank check" to carry out actions in the Middle East, and replied that "right now, the path the region is on is more conflicts, more violence, more suffering, more insecurity. It's vital that we break this cycle, and it starts with a ceasefire (in the Gaza Strip)."
Blinken, who is in Mongolia, told reporters there that to reach that ceasefire, "parties need to first stop taking escalatory actions. It also requires them to look for reasons to reach an agreement - not to look for reasons to delay it or say 'no' to an agreement." Blinken's remarks come against the backdrop of Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to add two clauses to the proposal, and his denial. Israel eventually passed vague wording around checking the armed individuals returning to northern Gaza. Netanyahu, recall, claimed that Hamas itself added 29 new clauses. In the last day, Blinken has held phone conversations with leaders across the Middle East to try to salvage ceasefire efforts, and to restrain the expected response from Iran and Hezbollah to the assassinations.
This morning, Nadav Eyal reported that Israel passed a message through Western and regional actors to Hezbollah after the latest assassination: army versus army. If civilians in Israel are harmed, or massively targeted - according to the Israeli message, it's war. The message from Jerusalem was that Israel is targeting not infrastructure that supports the fighting but fighters, so they should do the same. Shukr, who was assassinated the day before yesterday in an Israeli attack in Dahieh, will be buried today after a funeral held for him in Hezbollah's stronghold. The organization's leader Hassan Nasrallah will speak at the ceremony around 17:00, probably from the bunker. For Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran in an attack attributed to Israel, a funeral ceremony was held today in the Iranian capital - with the participation of Supreme Leader Khamenei and senior regime officials. From there, his body is supposed to be transferred to Doha in Qatar, where he will be buried tomorrow.
**Symbolic revenge?**
At night, the Financial Times reported that diplomats in the U.S. and the European Union are holding "urgent" talks in the Middle East in an attempt to prevent a full-scale war in the region, following the assassinations of Haniyeh in Tehran and Fouad Shukr in Beirut. Enrique Mora, a senior EU diplomat, spoke with representatives in Tehran, and Brett McGurk, U.S. President Joe Biden's envoy to the Middle East, discussed with officials in Saudi Arabia. According to the report, the talks are focused on trying to persuade Iran to take "symbolic" action in response to the assassination on its territory.
The order to directly attack Israel, according to the Times report, was given by Khamenei at an emergency meeting of the National Security Council held yesterday morning, after the assassination. The newspaper noted that it's unclear whether, like after the assassination of senior Iranian official Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Damascus in April, Iran will choose to launch a large-scale attack on Israel, but Iranian officers are still considering a combined attack, which would include launching missiles and drones at military targets near Tel Aviv or Haifa. According to the sources, there will be an attempt to avoid hitting civilian targets.
Among the options being considered, the Iranian sources told the Times: a coordinated attack with Iran's proxies in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. This was also the case last time in April - and then the vast majority of missiles and drones were successfully intercepted by Israel, with the help of the U.S. and regional allies. The sources also said that Khamenei ordered the Iranian army and Revolutionary Guards to prepare plans for both attack and defense - in case war breaks out and Israel or the U.S. attacks Iran. link
The Region and the World
- Western diplomats are holding urgent discussions amid attempts to prevent full-blown war in the Middle East, the Financial Times reports.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reportedly ordered a direct strike on Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, while Tehran-backed Hezbollah has vowed revenge for the killing of the terror group’s commander Fuad Shukr.
“Everyone since last night is putting pressure on Tehran to not respond and to contain this,” a Western diplomat tells the British newspaper.
The report says Enrique Mora, one of the EU’s most senior diplomats, held talks in Tehran yesterday. Mora has extensive experience negotiating with Tehran, the report says.
At the same time, the White House’s top official on the Middle East, Brett McGurk, was in Saudi Arabia on a pre-planned trip for talks.
The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels vows a “military response” to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran yesterday in an attack widely blamed on Israel.
“There has to be a military response to these crimes, which are shameless and dangerous, and constitute a major escalation by the Israeli enemy,” Abdul Malik al-Huthi says in a televised speech.
Haniyeh was in Tehran for the swearing-in of Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian. Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied the assassination, but Iran and its proxies in the region have vowed to exact revenge on Israel.
Personal Stories
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reportedly ordered a direct strike on Israel for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, while Tehran-backed Hezbollah has vowed revenge for the killing of the terror group’s commander Fuad Shukr.
“Everyone since last night is putting pressure on Tehran to not respond and to contain this,” a Western diplomat tells the British newspaper.
The report says Enrique Mora, one of the EU’s most senior diplomats, held talks in Tehran yesterday. Mora has extensive experience negotiating with Tehran, the report says.
At the same time, the White House’s top official on the Middle East, Brett McGurk, was in Saudi Arabia on a pre-planned trip for talks.
The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels vows a “military response” to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran yesterday in an attack widely blamed on Israel.
“There has to be a military response to these crimes, which are shameless and dangerous, and constitute a major escalation by the Israeli enemy,” Abdul Malik al-Huthi says in a televised speech.
Haniyeh was in Tehran for the swearing-in of Iran’s newly elected president Masoud Pezeshkian. Jerusalem has neither confirmed nor denied the assassination, but Iran and its proxies in the region have vowed to exact revenge on Israel.
Acronyms and Glossary
ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague
IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague
MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp
PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen
PMO- Prime Minister's Office
UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission
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