Important Takeaways:
- Chemical tanker ‘is hit by drone from Iran off the coast of India – as Tehran threatens to close Strait of Gibraltar and Mediterranean Sea unless Israel stops bombing Gaza
- The US has accused Iran of being behind a drone attack on a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean.
- The attack on the Chem Pluto on Saturday resulted in a fire, though no casualties were reported.
- Though Iran has not commented on the attack, the US military said the ‘one-way attack’ was delivered by a ‘drone fired from Iran.’
- It is understood to be the first time the US has accused Iran of targeting a ship directly. It is also believed to be the furthest attack undertaken by Iran from its own soil.
- The accusations come as Iran has threatened to close off the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea if Israel and its allies continue to commit ‘crimes’ in Gaza.
- Iran, which has backed Hamas, accused the US and other western states of propping up Israel’s alleged war crimes committed during its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, where more than 20,000 people have died since October 7.
- ‘They shall soon await the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, (the Strait of) Gibraltar and other waterways,’ Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a senior member of the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Corps, said on Saturday.
- While Iran has no direct access to the Mediterranean itself and it was not clear how the Guards could attempt to close it off, Iran-backed proxies in Lebanon and Syria have access to these waterways, which carry around a fifth of the world’s maritime trade.
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Important Takeaways:
- IDF strikes Hezbollah command center in response to border attacks from Lebanon
- The IDF says fighter jets have hit a Hezbollah military headquarters in Lebanon in response to attacks on northern Israel today, including one that left a soldier moderately wounded.
- The IDF also says it carried out artillery shelling at a number of areas near the border today, presumably to foil planned Hezbollah attacks.
- Several projectiles were fired from Lebanon at areas in northern Israel, with the IDF saying it struck the launch sites.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hamas Cuts Off Hostage Negotiations; Refuses to Talk Under Fire
- The Times of Israel reported:
- A Hamas statement claims that it will not agree to free any more hostages or even negotiate over them until the end of fighting.
- The stance, which has been trotted out by the terror group before, comes amid intense talks for a possible deal that would see hostages released in exchange for Palestinian inmates in Israeli prison. The group already claims it won’t accept a temporary truce.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would continue the war to “eliminate” Hamas even if negotiations continued.
- Pressure for talks rose last weekend, after the tragic deaths of three Israeli hostages who managed to escape their Hamas captors. Israeli soldiers mistook them from afar for terrorists.
- The Israeli public, however, remains committed to the fight, even though there is also support for talks to free the hostages.
- Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel continue: a large salvo was fired from a Hamas-controlled area of central Gaza toward Tel Aviv and central Israel on Thursday, but caused no injuries.
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Important Takeaways:
- A senior Biden administration official said on Thursday that Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar’s “days are numbered” in a press conference regarding US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s meetings in Israel.
- “I also think it’s safe to say it doesn’t matter how long it takes…justice will be served,” the senior administration official said, adding that Sinwar has “American blood on his hands.”
- Eight US citizens and permanent residents remain among the roughly 135 hostages currently being held captive in Gaza, while 38 Americans were killed during Hamas’s terror onslaught on October 7.
- IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said that terrorists who surrendered in Shejaia and Jabalya told Israeli security forces on Saturday that Hamas leaders, including Sinwar, were “denying reality” despite being updated on the situation on the ground.
- “The terrorists complain that the leadership of Hamas is disconnected from the serious situation they’re in on the ground,” Hagari said. “There is also a widespread feeling that the underground Hamas leadership does not care about the Gazan public above ground. This also greatly worries the military operatives of Hamas.”
- Sinwar fled Gaza City in northern Gaza to Khan Yunis in southern Gaza in a humanitarian convoy soon after the war began, an Israeli source told KAN news on Saturday.
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Important Takeaways:
- The United Nations hosted a panel discussion on Tuesday in which panelists accused the state of Israel of genocide – and implicated America for its support of the country – in its ongoing war against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.
- Panelists claimed that Israel’s military operation in Gaza, the Hamas stronghold, to ensure that the terrorist group ceases to pose a threat to civilians after the killing of 1,200 people and abduction of about 250 others on October 7 constituted genocide on the grounds that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have targeted seemingly civilian structures such as hospitals and schools. One panelist accused the United States of being complicit in genocide due to weapons sales to Israel.
- Katherine Gallagher – a senior staff attorney for the Centre for Constitutional Rights…
- “I would argue the United States has crossed the line into complicity,”
- “The United States is the largest provider of military, economic, and political assistance and – I would argue – political cover that has the ability to use its considerable influence and unique position to take all measures to stop Israel’s unfolding genocide,” she told the panel. “Of course, the United States is not the only country that has such influence and such ability. Instead, though, the United States at every opportunity has done the opposite.”
- Gallagher also suggested pressuring the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue “arrest warrants for those who are committing and those who are aiding and abetting the crimes of genocide,” presumably including American political leadership up to American President Joe Biden.
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Important Takeaways:
- Turkish MP collapses in parliament after saying Israel ‘would suffer the wrath of Allah’
- Hasan Bitmez, 53, fell on the floor as he delivered a passionate speech at the General Assembly Hall in Ankara on Tuesday.
- “We can perhaps hide from our conscience but not from history,” he said as he rounded out his speech, adding that “Israel will suffer the wrath of Allah.”
- Shortly after, he was on the ground receiving chest compressions.
- He was rushed to the hospital where he was listed in critical condition, according to The Yeshiva World and other outlets.
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Important Takeaways:
- Radical pro-Palestinian demonstrations appear to have developed a new tactic: they are targeting Christmas tree lightings across the country, and other Christian symbols, in addition to symbols of Israel and Jewish institutions.
- The latest example was Friday’s protest in Los Angeles, where pro-Palestinian radicals marched from a fundraiser for President Joe Biden to an area where there are several synagogues. They sprayed anti-Israel graffiti on the walls opposite the synagogues, and also vandalized a local church.
- Prior to that, pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center in New York City, clashing with police.
- Governor Gavin Newsom was forced to move California’s Christmas tree lighting indoors due to the threat of protests.
- In Michigan, pro-Palestinian protesters tried to drown out a children’s choir at a Christmas tree lighting in Ypsilanti last month
- The question is why pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists have targeted Christmas, and Christian symbols, in addition to their pattern of targeting Jewish institutions (which has been condemned as antisemitic)
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Important Takeaways:
- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will make his case for more U.S. aid for the war against Russia during meetings in Washington this week, as lawmakers struggle for a deal that would link funding for Kyiv with domestic immigration controls.
- His arrival in Washington comes as Congress is under a tight – if not impossible – deadline for acting, as it is scheduled to go into recess for the year by Friday.
- President Joe Biden has urged Congress to act by year’s end and Democrats in Congress were trying to win approval of about $50 billion in new security assistance for Ukraine.
- Also included in Senate Democrats’ measure is humanitarian and economic aid for the government in Kyiv, as well as $14 billion for Israel as it wages war against Hamas in Gaza.
- Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has pushed for some type of pro-immigrant provision, such as expedited work permits for migrants or better access to legal representation, the source also said.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Israeli female soldiers shot in crotch, vagina, breasts on October 7’
- “It was often impossible for families to be shown faces – and it seems as if mutilation of these women’s faces was an objective in their murders.”
- Expressions of agony survived their deaths, army reservist Shari Mendes said as she described what experts saw when they identified and prepared for burial the bodies of female victims of Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
- “These women arrived with their eyes open, their mouths grimacing, their fists clenched,” said Mendes, whose IDF rabbinical unit worked with the bodies, all of which were brought to the IDF’s Shura base.
- “Our team commander saw several female soldiers who were shot in the crotch – intimate parts/vagina – or shot in the breast. This seemed to be a systematic genital mutilation of a group of victims,” Mendes said.
- In a filmed testimonial played at the event, a survivor said she watched a terrorist who had cut off a woman’s breasts and played with them – after he had raped her.
- “Our unit has seen bodies that were beheaded or had limbs cut off, mutilated,” Mendes said. “One young woman came in with no legs: they had been cut off. We saw several severed heads, one with a large kitchen knife still embedded in the neck.”
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Important Takeaways:
- First images ‘show Israel preparing to flood Hamas tunnels with sea water as troops set up pipes and pumps in Gaza’
- Images have emerged appearing to show Israeli forces preparing to flood the labyrinth of tunnels used by Hamas under the Gaza Strip with sea water.
- Israel is said to have completed installing at least five pumps about a mile north of the Al-Shati refugee camp that could move thousands of cubic meters of water per hour – meaning they could flood the 300-mile network of tunnels within weeks.
- Their plan would be to drive out the terrorists from the tunnels and make them inoperable by flooding the system with seawater from the Mediterranean Sea.
- The tactic would enable Israel to destroy the tunnels and kill any Hamas terrorists hiding within them, the officials told the Wall Street Journal.
- It was not clear whether Israel would consider using the pumps before all the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas terrorists on October 7 as any move to flood the tunnels would prove fatal for the captives.
- The Hamas terrorists operate in a complex network of reinforced tunnels, some of which are buried up to 40ft underground and all of which could conceal an ambush, be booby-trapped – or worse – filled with explosives and primed to cave in.
- This means Israel can bomb Gaza all it likes and launch bunker-busting munitions to clear out some tunnels – but the IDF would still need to deploy thousands of troops to sweep through the ‘Gaza Metro’ to neutralize every last Hamas fighter.
- But that is no easy task. Subterranean fighting is notoriously lethal work, especially when Israeli soldiers are fighting against heavily armed Hamas terrorists who know every hiding place and have access to a stash of rockets, grenades and guns.
- US officials said they didn’t know how close Israel was to carrying out the plan, which isn’t being ruled out by Israel.
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