Important Takeaways:
- The Erez crossing, a pedestrian passageway, was one of the border points breached by Hamas fighters on October 7 when they launched their bloody attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.
- An Israeli official told CNN the crossing would be opened to allow more humanitarian aid to enter blockaded Gaza.
- The United Nations welcomed news of the reopening cautiously. “This is positive news but, of course, we will have to see how this is implemented. We need a humanitarian ceasefire and a massive influx of aid”
- Before the war started, Israel restricted all access to and from Gaza by sea and air, and kept land crossings under tight control. It had two functional crossings with the enclave: Erez, which was for the movement of people, and Kerem Shalom, for goods.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel beefs up air defenses, calls up troops as Iran payback for Syria strike looms
- Speculation suggests Iran could attack Israel from its own territory rather than through proxies, sparking wider hostilities
- Both Iran and its proxy Hezbollah have vowed that Israel will not go unpunished for the Monday attack on a consular building next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus, which killed Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ most senior official in Syria, along with his deputy, five other IRGC officers, and at least one member of the Hezbollah terror group.
- Zahedi was reportedly responsible for the IRGC’s operations in Syria and Lebanon, for Iranian militias there, and for ties with Hezbollah, and was thus the most senior commander of Iranian forces in the two countries.
- The IRGC is a US-designated terrorist organization.
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Important Takeaways:
- The world turns on Israel after World Central Kitchen slaughter: International fury grows with Biden saying he is ‘outraged and heartbroken’ as IDF is accused of war crimes and aid worker death toll exceeds that of any other conflict
- After long standing support of Israel in its war with Hamas terrorists, President Joe Biden is joining a chorus of world leaders furious over the drone strikes that killed aid workers in Gaza, including one American.
- Biden issued a statement claiming Israel ‘has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians’ as thousands of Palestinians are caught in the crosshairs of war and left without food, water and other necessary supplies.
- The president called for a ‘swift’ investigation to bring accountability to what he said was not a ‘stand alone incident’.
- Israel apologized for what it called ‘a grave mistake’ and said it is investigating the incident.
- International outrage ensued after the convoy of aid workers for World Central Kitchen was hit by an Israeli ‘triple tap’ drone strike on Monday, leaving seven dead. The three cars were marked as humanitarian aid and were struck while moving along a route approved by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
- Britain summoned the Israeli ambassador to London and demanded ‘full accountability’ over the deaths. The UK government is also considering suspending arms sales to Israel should an investigation reveal wrongdoing, inside sources have reportedly said.
- World Central Kitchen was facilitating the provision of supplies brought by sea from Cyprus
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Important Takeaways:
- Russian Forces Move Closer To The Mountains Of Israel
- First and foremost, various media outlets in the region, in particular, Syrian State media run by Bashar al-Assad and also Israel’s Channel 11 broadcaster, report that Russian forces are moving closer to the Israel-Syria border.
- Now, a quick reminder: Russian forces have been in Syria since September 2015. They entered the Syrian Civil War basically to save Bashar al-Assad’s hide. Assad eventually prevailed in that Civil War and the Russian incursion into Syria was the game changer.
- Well, guess what? Surprise, surprise, Russian forces have not left nearly nine years later. They are still in Syria and are the most powerful force in that country where a number of regional actors have a footprint—the Iranian regime and Hezbollah foremost among them. Turkey is in Syria as well, and in the past, ISIS and Al-Qaeda were also in the region.
- Syria has been, as one friend of mine in Israel called it, a Potpourri of rogue regimes and terror groups all stationed in one place—at Israel’s doorstep.
- Now, reports that Russia is stationing forces closer along Israel’s border are a cause for great concern. There are geopolitical ramifications and prophetic ramifications as well.
- Why would they do that? I think a few things are going on here, folks. Number one, since October 7th, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in particular, and the Israeli Air Force (IAF) have intensified their strikes in Syria against the Iranian regime and Hezbollah assets.
- Israel is operating more frequently and more powerfully.
- The Iran-Russia relationship is certainly a quid pro quo alliance on the part of the Iranians. Iran is supplying Russia with hundreds, if not thousands, of drones for use in the war in Ukraine, to the point that Iran and Russia are now building a drone factory together east of Moscow.
- Vladimir Putin’s regime is aligning itself with Israel’s greatest enemies, the Assad regime, Hezbollah, and Iran.
- I believe a day is coming when Russia, as well as Iran, will lead what the prophet Ezekiel calls a latter-day confederation against Israel. It’s called The War of Gog and Magog in the Book of Ezekiel 38 and 39.
- The prophetic chess pieces are moving. One of those chess pieces involves the Russian forces moving closer to the mountains of Israel, where the Gog Magog Invasion will take place.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Preparing strikes on Israeli embassies’: The coming Iranian response to Syria strike
- First of all, according to the reports from Syria and Iran, the Israeli Air Force allegedly attacked a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, where several senior Iranian officials were located, among them Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who is actually the deputy commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria and Lebanon,” Simantov began.
- “A very senior member of the Iranian hierarchy, he managed the entire operation of smuggling weapons from Syria to Lebanon. He was a very senior person who can be said to have given Israel a lot of headaches in the last twenty years for all his exploits in his involvement in terrorism. This is the most senior Iranian who has been eliminated so far since October 7 on Syrian soil,” he continued.
- “This is a severe and painful blow to the Iranian regime, a matter in which the Iranians are more inclined to take revenge against Israel. We have already eliminated several of their senior officials since October 7 on Syrian soil. This is the period when Iran wants to show that it is leading the axis of resistance.
- “They are laying the groundwork to strike at Israeli diplomatic representations worldwide, in the Arab world, Europe, or the United States or South America,” Simantov said. “The assassination attributed to Israel certainly makes the confrontation between Iran and Israel more direct, rather than indirect, as it has been until now in Syria.”
- In my estimation, Iran is deterred from direct confrontation with the US. It does not want that. Iran does not want to bring the US into a direct military confrontation.
- “Therefore, this situation in which it is increasingly engaging in terrorism activities in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and the envelope to pressure Israel – that is something it will continue to do.
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Important Takeaways:
- Rising global threats force ‘epoch-making’ shift in world order
- The return of great power competition across the globe is forcing countries to adapt, spurring major changes to alignment and spending from Europe to the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East.
- The change is everywhere on the map — but most evident in countries like Sweden and Japan as the nation’s make dramatic changes to meet rising threats from Russia and China.
- “I’ve described the security environment as the most dangerous I’ve seen in 40 years in uniform,” said U.S. Adm. John Aquilino, head of Indo-Pacific Command, before the House Armed Services Committee this month.
- The rise of new tensions has driven up defense spending worldwide. In an annual report this year, the International Institute for Strategic Studies found defense spending was up 9 percent worldwide last year, reaching $2.2 trillion.
- European countries collectively drove spending up from about $350 billion in 2021 to more than $388 billion in 2023, while Asian nations bumped that from more than $500 billion to higher than $510 billion in the same time frame.
- The spending bumps go hand-in-hand with public opinion. A November Ipsos poll of 30 countries found 84 percent of people believe the world is becoming more dangerous, up from 74 percent in 2018
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Important Takeaways:
- Following the failure of the latest round of negotiations in Qatar, Israel is not willing to make any further concessions to Hamas and is gearing up for an invasion of Rafah after Eid al-Fitr — the three-day holiday that follows Ramadan and ends around April 12 — or in early May at the latest, according to Egyptian sources who have been in contact with IDF officials, quoted by the pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar daily.
- The ground op inside the last bastion of Hamas in the Gaza Strip would last between four and eight weeks, the sources say, and would be accompanied by an evacuation of the civilian population sheltering in Rafah, which amounts to about 1.5 million people, toward the center of the Strip along specific routes and at specific times, announced to civilians in each area of Rafah in advance.
- The mass evacuation would be monitored from the ground and the air to ensure that no Hamas fighters or Israeli hostages are hidden among the Gazan civilians, the Egyptian officials say.
- Cairo expresses its deep concerns over an IDF operation in the Rafah area, noting that it could lead to a further escalation not only in Gaza, but in the whole region, Al-Akhbar says.
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Important Takeaways:
- Netanyahu CANCELS Israeli diplomatic trip to Washington after the US refuses to veto United Nations resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire over Ramadan
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced that he is canceling the planned visit of a delegation to Washington after the United States refused to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
- Minutes before the resolution was carried by 14 votes to zero, Netanyahu told Israeli news media that the visit would not happen if Washington failed to veto it.
- ‘In light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided the delegation would not leave,’ his office said after the vote, calling the decision a ‘clear retreat’ from its previous stance.
- highlights how the relationship between the U.S. is breaking down amid the bloodshed in Gaza
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia and China on Friday vetoed a U.S. draft UN Security Council resolution which called for an “immediate and sustained ceasefire” in Gaza along with “the release of all remaining hostages” held by Hamas.
- This was the fourth time since the war began in October that the Security Council failed to agree on a resolution calling for a ceasefire.
- This time, the dispute was over the U.S. insistence on linking the ceasefire call to a hostage deal and condemnation of Hamas, rather than the unconditional ceasefire resolution demanded by Russia and China.
- S. and Israeli officials said the Biden administration had been working for weeks on mobilizing support for its draft resolution.
- In order to garner more votes, the U.S. strengthened the paragraph in the draft resolution that referred to the ceasefire.
- The U.S. draft resolution also included strong language expressing concern about a possible Israeli ground offensive in Rafah.
- The Security Council is expected to vote on an alternative resolution put forward by eight member states, calling for an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan to lead to a permanent ceasefire.
- The U.S. is expected to veto.
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Important Takeaways:
- Four months after Israeli troops first stormed Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, claiming it was a cover for a Hamas command and control center, they have returned.
- The Israeli military said it had “concrete intelligence” that Hamas operatives had regrouped there
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) now claim to have killed “over 140 terrorists” in ongoing fighting at al-Shifa and to have made some 600 arrests, including dozens of top Hamas commanders as well as some from Islamic Jihad.
- Israeli reports suggest that in recent weeks the army found that senior Hamas figures had resumed operations at al-Shifa and that some even took their families to the hospital.
- The IDF says it uncovered arms caches and a large quantity of cash at the site.
- Israeli media have suggested the operation at Shifa Hospital could last for several days. It is not being linked to the military operation in Rafah which Israel insists it must carry out to win the war with Hamas.
- “It’s going to happen. And it will happen even if Israel is forced to fight alone,” the Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister
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