Important Takeaways:
- Fires rage in Galilee, Golan Heights after massive Hezbollah rocket and drone attack
- Fires are raging across numerous locations in the north after the massive Hezbollah rocket and drone attack.
- According to the Ynet news site, firefighters are tackling large blazes in at least 10 locations in the Galilee and Golan Heights after this morning’s assault by the Lebanon-based terror group.
- The news outlet says that at least one highway in the Golan Heights is blocked as a result of fires.
- Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets and 20 drones from Lebanon at northern Israel in the terror group’s major attack. It came a day after the IDF killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
- It says that some of the rockets and drones were shot down by air defense and fighter jets.
- In response, fighter jets struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon’s Ramyeh and Houla, it adds.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel’s military leadership wants to see a ceasefire in Gaza, even if it leaves the Hamas terror group ruling the Strip, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing six current and former security officials.
- “I don’t know who those unnamed parties are, but I’m here to make it unequivocally clear: it won’t happen,” said Netanyahu
- “We will end the war only after we have achieved all of its goals, including the elimination of Hamas and the release of all our hostages.”
- The Israel Defense Force also responded to the report, saying it was “determined to keep fighting until it achieves the goals of the war, the destruction of Hamas’s military and governance capabilities, bringing back our hostages, and safely returning residents in the north and south to their homes.
- An end to the fighting in the south would open the door for Hezbollah to hold its fire. The Iran-backed Shiite group has pledged to keep striking Israel as long as the war against Hamas in Gaza continues.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel is facing rising pressures from outside and within today. As the Jewish state is simply looking to protect its people from daily rocket attacks, the U.S. is pushing for a diplomatic solution to the fighting between Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel before it turns into a full-blown war. Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court ruling Tuesday concerning the drafting of ultra-Orthodox men could also pose problems for Netanyahu’s government.
- U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Hezbollah that Washington can’t stop Israel from going to war to prevent the terror group’s daily attacks on the north.
- “Hezbollah’s provocations threaten to drag the Israeli and Lebanese people into a war that they do not want,” Austin said Tuesday. “And such a war would be a catastrophe for Lebanon, and it would be devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians.”
- Yoav Gallant says Israel is determined to establish security in the north and bring back some 80,000 citizens evacuated from their homes. He asked the U.S. to focus on heading off a larger threat: Iran getting nuclear weapons.
- “The greatest threat to the future of the world and the future of our region is Iran. And time is running out,” Gallant insisted.
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Important Takeaways:
- Netanyahu says it was ‘absolutely necessary’ to publicly air criticism of White House
- Asked about his controversial video message criticizing the White House over what he said was a holdup in weapons shipments, Netanyahu says that “we began to see that we had some significant problems emerging a few months ago. And in fact, we tried, in many, many quiet conversations between our officials and American officials, and between me and the president to try to iron out this diminution of supply.”
- The prime minister claimed however that he was not “able to solve it” even after raising it with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Israel, and therefore “I felt that airing it was absolutely necessary after months of quiet conversation that did not solve the problem.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Diplomats and world leaders have begun to worry that Biden’s reluctance to more fully break with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could cost him the election in November.
- Their concerns have been conveyed largely behind closed doors, out of consideration not to wade too far into U.S. domestic politics.
- But the thrust is often the same: The war has furthered the perception that the world is peppered with a variety of out-of-control hot spots and, in turn, made Biden look weak among voters back home.
- They fear that it may usher in former President Donald Trump and rupture the broader diplomatic harmony Biden has worked to establish.
- European officials say they’re more vexed that Netanyahu hasn’t publicly supported the proposal, even though the U.S. says he privately agreed to it.
- Biden officials have dismissed concerns about the impact of the war on the president’s candidacy, pointing to polling showing that it doesn’t rank among voters’ top priorities ahead of the election.
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Important Takeaways:
- The latest proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza has the support of the United States and most of the international community, but Hamas has not fully embraced it, and neither, it seems, has Israel.
- Hamas is seeking the release of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including political leaders and senior militants convicted of orchestrating deadly attacks on Israeli civilians.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly disputed aspects of the plan, raising questions about Israel’s commitment to what the U.S. says is an Israeli proposal.
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Hamas had requested “numerous” changes, adding that “some of the changes are workable; some are not.”
- Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there’s a permanent cease-fire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
- When President Joe Biden announced the latest proposal last month, he said it included both.
- Israel has yet to put forward a plan for Gaza’s postwar governance, and has rejected a U.S. proposal that has wide regional support because it would require major progress toward creating a Palestinian state.
- Blinken hinted that the negotiations would not continue indefinitely. “At some point in a negotiation, and this has gone back and forth for a long time, you get to a point where if one side continues to change its demands, including making demands and insisting on changes for things that it already accepted, you have to question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not.”
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Important Takeaways:
- “We are prepared for a very intense operation in the north. One way or another, we will restore security to the north,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the border area.
- Almost eight months of exchanges between Israel and the Iran-backed movement, a Hamas ally, have intensified over the past week, with Israel striking deeper into Lebanese territory.
- Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have both called in recent days for urgent action to restore security to northern Israel.
- “They burn us here; all Hezbollah strongholds should also burn and be destroyed. WAR!” Ben Gvir said
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Important Takeaways:
- Germany will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country amid allegations of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, a spokesperson has confirmed.
- Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, confirmed on Wednesday the country would ‘abide by the law’ and arrest the under-fire Israeli leader should he visit the EU nation.
- This comes after British prosecutor Karim Khan announced on Monday that he is seeking warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas terror chiefs including Yahya Sinwar, the ruler in Gaza who masterminded October 7.
- Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday Prosor wrote: “This is outrageous! The German “Staatsräson” is now being put to the test—no ifs or buts.
- Staatsräson refers to Germany’s long-standing commitment to the defense of Israel, a policy declared by former Chancellor Angela Merkel during a 2008 speech to the Knesset.
- The public statement that Israel has the right to self-defense loses credibility if our hands are tied as soon as we defend ourselves.’
- Netanyahu has furiously condemned the ICC for ‘daring to compare’ Israel with ‘mass murderers’ after an arrest warrant was issued for both the Israeli prime minister and Hamas leaders.
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Important Takeaways:
- Netanyahu Reacts to ICC Indictments: ‘Pouring Gasoline on the Fires of Antisemitism’
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision by International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday to seek warrants against him and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza.
- Khan also announced that he would pursue indictments against three Hamas leaders. Still, the unprecedented prosecution would place Israel on a morally equivalent level with Hamas and delegitimize defenses against terror.
- Here is what he said:
- The outrageous decision by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions. It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court.
- Israel is waging a just war against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Hamas massacred 1200 Jews, raped Jewish women, burned Jewish babies, took hundreds hostage.
- Now, in the face of these horrors, Mr. Khan creates a twisted and false moral equivalence between the leaders of Israel and the henchmen of Hamas. This is like creating a moral equivalence after September 11th between President Bush and Osama Bin Laden, or during World War II between FDR and Hitler.
- What a travesty of justice!
- What a disgrace!
- The prosecutor’s absurd charges against me and Israel’s defense minister are merely an attempt to deny Israel the basic right of self-defense. And I assure you of one thing: This attempt will utterly fail.
- Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against our enemies. Those days are over. Now the Jewish people have a state and we have an army to defend our state.
- Notwithstanding the blood libels Mr. Khan has leveled, Israel will continue to wage this war in full compliance with international law. We will continue to take unprecedented measures to get innocent civilians out of harm’s way and to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches those in need in Gaza.
- Khan also sets a dangerous precedent that undermines every democracy’s right to defend itself against terror organizations and aggressors. The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel and Mr. Khan’s actions will not stop us from waging our just war against Hamas.
- But Mr. Khan’s abuse of this authority will turn the ICC into nothing more than a farce.
- He’s doing something else. He is callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world. Through this incendiary decision, Mr. Khan takes his place among the great antisemites in modern times. He now stands alongside those infamous German judges who donned their robes and upheld laws that denied the Jewish people their most basic rights and enabled the Nazis to perpetrate the worst crime in history.
- Two weeks ago, on Holocaust Memorial Day, I pledged this: No amount of pressure and no decision in any international forum will prevent Israel from defending itself against those who seek our destruction.
- To all the enemies of Israel, including their collaborators in The Hague, I renew that pledge today. Israel will wage our war against Hamas until that war is won. Because never again is now.
- Separately, South Africa — joined by several other sympathetic nations — is pressing the International Court of Justice (IDJ), a separate legal body, to declare that Israel’s defensive war against genocidal terrorists is itself a “genocide.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The International Criminal Court intends to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity for Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war, its Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced Monday, on the 227th day of the Gaza war.
- “Today, my Office seeks to charge two of those most responsible, Netanyahu and Gallant, both as co-perpetrators and as superiors pursuant to Articles 25 and 28 of the Rome Statute,” Khan stated.
- Khan first spoke of the warrants in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and then published a video and text statement from the court.
- Netanyahu and Gallant would face accusations of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and willful killing.
- Khan’s statement comes as Israel is in its seventh month of an existential war against Hamas, which led an invasion of the Jewish state’s southern border on October 7, killing over 1,200 people and seizing 252 as hostage, out of which 128 remain in captivity.
- Israel has argued that its actions fell within the boundary of International law, stressing that there is no famine in Gaza.
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