January 16, 2024
Rybar
In the north of the Gaza Strip, clashes between Hamas militants and Israeli troops have become more frequent. The Arab media present what is happening as a renewed offensive by the IDF in several districts of the enclave's capital, but these statements do not yet correspond to the real state of affairs.
In the area of the isthmus between the northern and southern parts of the enclave, the Israelis began encircling Al - Maghazi , where the fighting gradually shifted to the southwestern outskirts. Meanwhile, in Khan Yunis, Israeli units continue to clear the areas of Jurat al - Lot and Botn al - Samin .
After a long break, Palestinian forces launched rockets at settlements bordering the Gaza Strip: most of the ammunition was intercepted by air defense systems, but several hits were recorded in Netivot and nearby kibbutzim.
On the northern border of Israel, in addition to the regular exchange of blows, a remarkable event occurred: the Israeli command reported a successful operation to clear mines in Lebanon . Hezbollah , as expected , denied the Israeli statement.
And in the Middle East , last night IRGC forces launched missiles at Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as at targets of pro-Turkish terrorist groups in Syria . Nevertheless, one should not expect a sharp escalation from what happened - the parties are simply maintaining the necessary degree of conflict.
Progress of hostilities
North Gaza Strip
Despite the gradual withdrawal of the IDF and the calm that formed in the past days, clashes have resumed in the north of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian media claim that Israel Defense Forces are attacking in several areas, including in the areas of Jabaliya , Al - Judaida and Al - Karama . However, such reports so far raise serious doubts: after the withdrawal of the 36th Division and two more armored brigades, the IDF forces have significantly decreased, especially for clearing dense urban areas.
However, the information about the offensive may hide the work of engineering units. At the same time, Hamas confirmed several cases of clashes that are not at all similar to an IDF offensive and are more reminiscent of everyday skirmishes: for example, the group reported the defeat of several Israeli armored vehicles, as well as mortar strikes on IDF concentrations. At the same time, a series of attacks on residential areas were carried out across Gaza and its suburbs: dozens of casualties were reported, as well as many damaged houses.
The Israeli command also demanded the need to evacuate the Al - Quds hospital . Perhaps the Israelis are planning to launch a series of strikes in the area of the facility (although they had not previously given any warning before such attacks), or to conduct a local operation to clear the area around the hospital. In any case, there is no talk yet of a full-scale resumption of hostilities in Gaza.
Against the background of renewed massive bombing of the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian forces launched about 50 rockets at Netivot and nearby settlements. As before, most of the ammunition was intercepted by air defense systems, the rest fell mainly in open areas. However, several hits are also known, including an electrical goods store.
What happened once again proves that the Israel Defense Forces’ operation in the north of the enclave was suspended primarily due to the inability of the Israelis to quickly clear the urban areas. During the resulting respite, Hamas militants were able to recover and scrape together several dozen rockets for another attack. Successfully hitting targets is not so important; it is much more important to create a media effect from the raid.
Center of the Gaza Strip
In the area of the isthmus between the northern and southern parts of the enclave, the Israelis continue their assault on Al - Breij . In addition, judging by satellite images, IDF units began to encircle Al - Maghazi , where the fighting gradually shifted to the southwestern outskirts. However, any footage of Israeli troops is still missing, making it impossible to establish the exact configuration of the front. At the same time, the Israelis are advancing along the Salah ad - Din highway in the direction of Deir al - Balakh . Judging by the lack of reports of fighting in the coastal zone or even attacks on IDF concentrations there, Israeli troops have not yet reached the Ar - Rashid highway .
At the same time, footage appeared of the destruction on the Salah ad-Din highway, which was both the consequences of regular massive attacks on nearby settlements and military operations in the area.
South Gaza Strip
In Khan Yunis , Israeli troops are still fighting in the areas of Jurat al - Lot and Botn al - Samin , while simultaneously subjecting the settlement and towns to massive bombing. Palestinian forces respond with ambushes and mortar attacks on identified IDF concentration areas.
At the same time, the Israeli command stated that militants continue to use the territory of Nasser’s hospital to carry out launches against personnel and targets of the Israel Defense Forces. Against this background, the IDF again accused the militants of using civilians as human shields, while at the same time justifying their strikes on the outskirts of the medical facility.
Border with Lebanon
Mutual shelling continues on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Hezbollah reported attacks on positions of the Israel Defense Forces east of Even Menachem , at the Ramiya and As - Sumaqa sites , in the Nabi Yusha and Yiftah areas . In turn, Israeli troops once again shelled populated areas in southern Lebanon. Ad - Dahira , Rashaya al - Fukar , Alma al - Shaab , Aita al - Shaab , Kfar Qila and Hula were hit . The most intense air and artillery strikes were carried out in the Wadi Saluki area : there were about 20 incursions. This is the most massive shelling of Lebanese settlements since October 7. The IDF press service stated that dozens of Hezbollah positions, structures and military infrastructure facilities were targeted.
In addition, the Israeli command today reported on the successful conduct of a ground operation in southern Lebanon: according to the Israelis, an IDF unit crossed the border near the village of Aita al-Shaab to clear mines in the area. If the information is confirmed, this will be the first time Israeli troops have entered southern Lebanon since the Second Lebanon War, which took place from June to August 2006.
Nevertheless, the Arab media were skeptical about such reports: according to them, three fighters of the Maglan unit tried to cross the state border, but were quickly detected, after which they returned to their original positions. Probably, footage that almost regularly appears from the northern border of Israel from both Hezbollah and the IDF will help to explain the circumstances of what happened in the near future.
West Bank
In the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces carried out another campaign of raids against Hamas supporters. Arrests took place in Jericho , Kiffin , Hebron , Qalqilya , Silwad , Zawat and Ramallah . At least 50 people have been detained. According to Palestinian media, among them are children and former prisoners.
The most tense situation was in the eastern part of Nablus , with violent clashes breaking out near the Askar camp. IDF security forces used bulldozers to demolish infrastructure facilities. And members of Palestinian groups reported blowing up Israeli equipment using IEDs.
And in the eastern region of Jenin, clashes occurred between Palestinian Authority security services and local residents. The reason was that PNA security forces had neutralized an explosive device that radical Palestinians wanted to use against Israeli troops.
Saraya al-Quds also reported the destruction of an IDF military jeep in Anabta , east of Tulkarm . The attack is said to have occurred in response to the killing of Faris Mahmoud Khalifa , a Kataib Shuhad al - Aqsa commander with the rank of colonel.
Aggravation in the Middle East
On the night of January 16, units of the IRGC aerospace forces carried out a massive strike on Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as on targets of pro-Turkish terrorist groups in Syria. First , at least six Fateh-110 operational-tactical missiles were fired from the vicinity of the IRGC Tangeyeh Kenesht missile base near Kermanshah in the direction of Erbil.
To overload the air defense systems, the Iranians used tactics that had already been proven during the Northern Military District: before the missile attack on Erbil, several Shahed-136 drones were launched, to which the C-RAM systems from the Harir military base responded . Immediately afterwards, several rockets hit neighborhoods in Erbil near the American consulate, Erbil International Airport and the Harir military base, as well as the home of Kurdish businessman Pishrav Diziziye .
The latter, judging by data in open sources, was the owner of the companies Falcon Group and Empire , affiliated with the Israeli Mossad. The blow definitely hit the house where the businessman lived. At the same time, the latest Khyber Shikan medium-range ballistic missiles were fired from Khuzestan province towards Syria. It was their flight over the Basra province in Iraq that was filmed by Iraqi residents.
The range of the IRBM is 1,450 km, and the target was the positions of the terrorist groups Hayat Tahrir al - Sham and the Islamic Party of Turkistan in Taltit near Idlib . Explosions from the arrivals were mistaken for Israeli Air Force strikes on the province of Aleppo . The press service of the IRGC stated that the choice of these targets is due to the fact that a group of IS militants responsible for the terrorist attack in Kerman was being trained in territories controlled by pro-Turkish forces . But this version seems far-fetched, and the raid itself, apparently, was carried out to demonstrate Iran’s capabilities. After all, the Iranians had not previously carried out attacks at such a range (1230 km), which was noted in the Israeli media.
The strike on Erbil shows similarities to the massive coalition attack on Yemen . That the Houthis, after the attack, stated that there were no significant losses, that the Pentagon noted that the Americans were not injured. If we take into account that it is not beneficial for the Americans to greatly harm Ansarallah , which is why they warned the Iranians and Houthis in advance, then a similar scenario is possible in the case of Iranian launches. We noted that increased tension in the region benefits all parties. The Americans demonstrated their power, and the Iranians demonstrated theirs. The status quo was preserved, everything remained at the same level. And in Iran, at the same time, they actually took revenge on the Israelis for the murder of General Reza Mousavi by eliminating a businessman associated with them. We observed such tactics after the death of Qasem Soleimani - symbolism in the form of a red flag of retaliation and a massive strike to satisfy the domestic public and its thirst for blood.
Moreover, the fact that because of the IRGC’s strikes on Erbil, the Iraqis today recalled their ambassador from Tehran for consultations means absolutely nothing. Relations between Iran and Iraq have experienced such developments more than once. This is primarily dictated by the need to demonstrate that Baghdad supposedly has political will. Everything will calm down a little, and the ambassador will return. In fact, Iraq's dependence on Iran is too high, and no one will risk a missile attack on Iraqi Kurdistan. It is worth remembering that the Turks attack northern Iraq almost every day, but no serious reaction is observed.
Political-diplomatic background
On the results of the meeting of the Israeli government to approve the budget
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a government meeting to approve the country's budget for 2024, said that the war against Hamas will continue for many months. During the discussion, the Cabinet increased budget expenditures by $15 billion.
The head of the Israeli government also said that the war against Hamas will not end until the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is closed. According to him, Gaza will be taken, but military equipment and other weapons will continue to flow through this southern passage.
At the same time, the meeting quickly degenerated into mutual insults. Education Minister Yoav Kisch snapped at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich , who in turn criticized newly appointed Energy Minister Eli Cohen .
On the suppression of drug smuggling on the border of Egypt and Israel
Over the past two days, two attempts to smuggle drugs into Israeli territory from the Sinai Peninsula were stopped on the Israeli-Egyptian border in the area of the Al - Awja and Netzerim checkpoints. The Egyptian Armed Forces and the Israeli Defense Forces released their statements regarding the incident. Thus, according to the IDF press service, yesterday Israeli border guards opened fire on a group of 20 armed people: there were casualties. A female soldier was also wounded during the shootout. And Egyptian security services reported the arrest of six smugglers in the same border area.
https://rybar.ru/chto-proishodit-v-pale ... -yanvarya/
Google Translator
******
THE US, ISRAEL HAVE LOST BATTLEFIELD CONTROL – HOUTHIS HAVE ATTACKED US DESTROYER, HIT GREEK-US OWNED BULKER; IRAN HAS HIT US BASE IN KURDISH CAPITAL, ERBIL
by John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with
When your enemy dupes you into compounding your mistakes, without achieving your military objectives, he is leading you into an escalation of force which will defeat you, sooner or later. Later is more costly, defeat more ruinous, so the Arab-Iranian alliance against Israel and the US is waging the long war they were never before believed capable to fight.
No matter how much force you use, every US Army manual on winning battles and wars says the same thing. Captain B.H. Liddell Hart, the British Army strategist of a generation ago, advised that “for success two major problems must be solved — dislocation and exploitation. One precedes and one follows the actual blow — which in comparison is a simple act.”
Today is Tuesday morning — and it is already plain on the Middle Eastern battlefield that the Anglo-American air attacks against Yemeni targets on Friday and Saturday have “dislocated” none of the capabilities of the Ansarallah government in Sanaa and the Houthi military units.
For exploitation after the air strikes, the initiative has remained instead with the Houthis: they are continuing their attacks on the US Navy fleet in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, keeping them on guard, but demonstrating they are ineffectual to protect US and Israel-connected shipping now diverting from the area. “War is a two-party affair,” old Liddell Hart had said, “in order to hit with effect, the enemy must be taken off his guard.” In the Middle East the enemy has been taken off his guard. That’s to say, the Israelis, the Americans, and the British.
Minutes after midnight on Tuesday, Moscow time, Russian military bloggers began relaying the news from Iran and Yemen of new missile attacks against a Greek-American owned bulker in the Gulf of Aden during the afternoon, and hours later at night, a US mercenary forces unit, a US consulate building, an Israeli base, and the home of a leading oil trader in the Kurdish city of Erbil in northern Iraq.
According to Boris Rozhin’s Colonel Cassad Telegram platform, “the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has officially announced that the ballistic missile attack on US and Mossad bases in Iraq was carried out in response to the bloody terrorist attack in Kerman during commemorative events dedicated to Qassem Soleimani. Local sources in Erbil report at least 8 rocket strikes… At the moment, what is known is that there have been strikes against of the following targets by IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] missiles: 1. The American base at Erbil airport. 2. The U.S. Consulate in Erbil. 3. The local headquarters of the Kurdish security service. 4. The private residence of a local businessman [Peshraw Dizayee] associated with the Mossad. There is a high activity of ambulances in Erbil. There is no clarity about the victims, but it is obvious that there will be numbers of them.”
US media reporting after several hours of delay claimed there had been explosions near the US consulate in Erbil but “ ‘no US facilities were impacted. We’re not tracking damage to infrastructure or injuries at this time,’ a U.S. official told ABC News.” On the contrary, Rozhin reported, “according to one of my friends who lives in the centre of Erbil, the blow fell not on the current consulate, but on the new one, which is just being built. There was everything in scaffolding and construction cranes. Eyewitnesses say that they were building something grandiose.”
During Sunday afternoon, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed reported Houthi drone or missile attacks targeting the US Navy destroyer, USS Laboon, which claims to have assisted a USAF fighter to intercept them before they reached the destroyer. CENTCOM also reported Houthi launches “toward the southern Red Sea commercial shipping lanes.”
CENTCOM is saying nothing at all about the fate of the two US Navy F-18 pilots, shot down by Houthi air defence during the first raid on Friday morning and missing at sea since then. Pentagon concealment of the shoot-down — the first air battle success of its kind– has been camouflaged by a half-dozen press releases about the hospitalization and health of the Defense Secretary, General Lloyd Austin. “I continue to recuperate and perform my duties from home,” Austin has claimed.
According to US Army Lieutenant General Douglas Sims (lead image) who heads the staff advising the Joint Chiefs of Staff on operations: “The hope would be that any real thought of [Houthi] retaliation is based on a clear understanding that, you know, we simply are not going to be messed with here…I know we have degraded capability. I don’t believe that they [Houthis] would be able to execute the same way they did the other day. But we will see.” In less than 72 hours what Sims could see has had to be concealed from everyone else.
Not in Moscow.
“The Americans need controlled instability to realize their own plans,” Konstantin Dolgov, once a senior Russian diplomat and now a senator, told Vzglyad. “But this instability has long been out of Washington’s control.”
Yesterday, January 15, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and announced “coordination at all levels, emphasizing the unwavering mutual commitment to the fundamental principles of Russian-Iranian relations, including unconditional respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and other principles of the UN Charter, which will be confirmed in the upcoming ‘big’ interstate agreement between the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“All levels” includes military coordination. It also means coordination with the Ansarallah representatives in Teheran.
As for the Houthi operations in the Red Sea, Lavrov and Amir-Abdollahian explicitly linked them to the Israeli-American blockade of the Palestinians in Gaza, calling for “an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and unhindered humanitarian access to the enclave to provide urgent assistance to the affected civilian population.”
Earlier on the same day, January 15, the Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met in Teheran with Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, and held detailed talks with Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian. The Indian minister revealed the same order of priorities for India as Lavrov revealed for Russia – strategic state interests shared with Iran for the long-term future, but for now the link between the Houthi shipping campaign and the Gaza blockade. In his tweet, Jaishankar said: “Our bilateral discussion focused on the long term framework for India’s involvement with Chabahar port and the INSTC [International North–South Transport Corridor] connectivity project. Also spoke about threats to maritime shipping in the region. Important that this be speedily addressed. Other issues on the agenda were the Gaza situation, Afghanistan, Ukraine and BRICS cooperation.”
Source: https://twitter.com/
“This is what diplomacy is meant to be,” commented an Indian source in Moscow. “They disagree on a lot but they also know what they need to agree on.”
The Indian government has been briefed that the reason for the strike against the MV Chem Pluto on December 23 was the Israeli ownership of the vessel, not its Saudi oil cargo or the destination for its cargo in India.
The official Yemen declaration of Monday, following the attack against the USS Laboon, has now expanded the targeting to include the US and UK fleets which had taken part in the weekend bombing and missile raids. “The naval forces of the Armed Forces of Yemen conducted a military operation targeting an American ship in the Gulf of Aden. All American and British ships involved in the aggression against our country are considered hostile targets by the Yemeni armed forces. The Yemeni armed forces confirm that a retaliatory strike against American and British attacks is inevitable, and that no attack in the future will go unpunished. The Yemeni armed forces continue to conduct their military operations and implement the decision to block Israeli shipping in the Arab and Red Seas until the aggression stops and the siege of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
“The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm the continuation of commercial traffic in the Arab and Red Seas to all destinations, with the exception of the ports of occupied Palestine, and that they continue to take all defensive and offensive measures within the framework of the right to defend and resist American-British aggression.” https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin January 16 — Min 03:05.
Left, MV Gibraltar Eagle; right, location of the vessel when hit by Houthi missiles, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations office (UKMTO). The shipping company released a statement confirming the strike but omitting to identify the destination for the vessel.
The attack on the Gibraltar Eagle in the Gulf of Aden, currently in the lead maritime news for today, makes the vessel appear to be unconnected to Israel. The vessel is publicly identified as one of Eagle Bulk Shipping’s fleet; Eagle Bulk Shipping is a New York Stock Exchange-listed company based in Connecticut which has been reporting dwindling profits. But since a takeover transaction was announced last month, the controlling owner is now the Greek company, Star Bulk of Athens. The two Greeks controlling Star Bulk are Petros Pappas and Spyros Capralos. They are shippers of dry bulk commodities — coal, grain, fertilizers, iron ore, steel products. It is not known whether they have been delivering to or loading at Israeli ports. Western vessel tracking publications claim the Gibraltar Eagle had taken on its current cargo of steel products in South Korea and was headed for the Suez Canal when it was hit. At the time, and for several days of sailing before, the vessel had turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) signal.
Maritime industry sources say the secrecy employed by the Gibraltar Eagle may have been intended to conceal that it is carrying a cargo of South Korean arms and ammunition intended for unloading at a Polish port for onward delivery to the Ukraine; or for an Israeli port. The destination port recorded for the vessel is not showing in the regular western vessel tracking sites.
The sources add this is unusual. Reports on the international arms trade indicate a surge in South Korean production for the Ukraine. Operations managers at Eagle Bulk Shipping offices in the US and Singapore refuse to identify the destination port for their vessel’s cargo.
https://johnhelmer.net/the-us-israel-ha ... more-89195
******
Egypt Rejects Israel Obstruction of Aid to Gaza
Aid missions bringing medicine and fuel to northern Gaza are hampered by Israeli forces. Jan. 15, 2024. | Photo: X/@OneidaDispatch
Published 16 January 2024 (10 hours 37 minutes ago)
Abu Zeid's statements are the second official response to Israeli claims before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Egypt is limiting international aid to the Strip.
On Sunday, Egypt again rejected Israeli statements on the Rafah crossing and accused Israel of obstructing the entry of vital aid to the embattled Gaza Strip.
The Rafah crossing, which links Egypt to the coastal enclave, has remained open since the beginning of the crisis on October 7, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu-Zeid reaffirmed during a television interview.
We have worked tirelessly to facilitate the entry of a substantial amount of aid into Gaza, he stressed.
He noted that Israeli measures, including strict inspection processes, prevent a greater volume of goods into the territory, which has been experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis since the beginning of the aggression 100 days ago.
Abu Zeid's statements are the second official response to Israeli claims before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Egypt is limiting international aid to the Strip.
Earlier, the head of the State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, described the neighboring country's allegations against Cairo as false.
Rashwan described the claims presented by the Israeli defense team before the ICJ as lies.
After being accused with documented evidence of war crimes and genocide before the ICJ, Israel resorted to "hurling accusations against our country in an attempt to escape its likely conviction by the court," Rashwan said in a statement.
The official recalled that members of that country's government, including the prime minister and the heads of defense and energy, confirmed dozens of times in public statements that they would not allow the entry into the coastal enclave of vital goods.
Our national sovereignty extends only to the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, while the other side of it, in Gaza, is subject to the authority of the royal occupation, he stressed.
In this regard, he stressed that on numerous occasions Cairo asserted that "the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side is open without interruption."
Rashwan clarified that trucks loaded with aid travel from the Egyptian side to the Karm Abu Salem crossing, which connects the Strip and Israel, to be inspected by the Israeli army, and only then can they enter the enclave.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Egy ... -0001.html
*******
The Willful Destruction of a People
The US corporate media has maintained a near unanimous support for the Israeli destruction of Gaza-- the home of 2.2 million Palestinians. While pundits engage in parlor games over what degree of violence is “justified” by the Hamas attack upon Israel, while public intellectuals fall in line with the gutless unconditional support of Israeli punitive actions, tens of thousands of Palestinian people-- largely men, women, and children going about their day-to-day lives-- have been killed, maimed, wounded, or terrorized.
Corruption, racism, and cowardice come together to produce a rare near-total US ruling-class consensus behind the brutal action of the ultra-right, ultra-nationalist, and racist Israeli government.
The enforcement of this consensus is unprecedented and a truly appalling sight to behold.
The highly publicized clash over even an embarrassingly tepid pushback by elite administrators at elite universities over free speech-- a normally sacrosanct intellectual fallback-- underscores the complete, unconditional freedom-of-action that Israel enjoys with the rich and powerful in the US.
While the machinations of donors and administrators at Harvard, Penn, and MIT should be of little more than entertainment value for most of us, the raw, public exercise of the power of wealth in shaping academic institutions should cause many to recoil. Those who naively believed in the independence and integrity of academia should be chastened accordingly.
Black Harvard President Gay would learn that neither her own elite background nor the thin armor of the faddish liberal DEI mutation of anti-racism would protect her from the vulgar bullying of wild-eyed Zionist billionaires and rightwing witch hunters.
Christopher Rufo, puffed up with his own role in bringing down Harvard’s Gay, concedes that he couldn’t have done it without the collaboration of the center-left that accepted any excuse to enforce support for Israel.
Despite the crude editorial endorsement of and overwhelming official enthusiasm for the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians, a different message has gotten through to the US populace. Whether it is the heart-rending pictures of death and destruction, the cracks in the carefully hedged and vetted news stories, or the alternative media, a bold, determined movement against Israel’s vicious assault on Gaza has emerged to challenge the ruling-class monolith. Risking economic reprisals, future status, and public shaming, hundreds of thousands-- overwhelmingly youth-- have stood and marched for life and a future for Gaza and Palestine.
It is truly a remarkable moment of crass opportunism, slavish conformity, and viciousness confronted by high principle, self-sacrifice, and courage. It is this kind of moment that forces people to examine how their words and self-styled image coheres with reality.
The facts are effective in awakening people to the brutal fate of Palestinians as a people. Because the Israeli government is so blatantly indifferent to international outrage, The Wall Street Journal is embarrassed to report the truth-on-the-ground in Gaza. Whether reluctantly or not, a recent front-page news story-- Gaza’s Destruction Stands Out In Modern History (softened in the online edition to: The Ruined Landscape of Gaza After Nearly Three Months of Bombing) -- describes an almost unimaginable living hell. Its lead is worth quoting in full:
The war in the Gaza Strip is generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.
By mid-December, Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the strip. Nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The bombing has damaged Byzantine churches and ancient mosques, factories and apartment buildings, shopping malls and luxury hotels, theaters and schools. Much of the water, electrical, communications and healthcare infrastructure that made Gaza function is beyond repair.
Most of the strip’s 36 hospitals are shut down, and only eight are accepting patients. Citrus trees, olive groves and greenhouses have been obliterated. More than two-thirds of its schools are damaged.
While most media mention the 22,000 or more deaths or the over 80,000 total Palestinian casualties, they dutifully treat the facts as allegations and with vastly more than warranted skepticism. Nonetheless, the numbers have shocked millions around the world.
But the WSJ article goes further, offering comfortable, secure readers a taste of what life is like for those not physically harmed by Israeli bombs:
In the south, where more than a million displaced residents have fled, Gazans sleep in the street and burn garbage to cook. Some 85% of the strip’s 2.2 million people have fled their homes and are confined by Israeli evacuation orders to less than one-third of the strip, according to the United Nations…
According to analysis of satellite data by remote-sensing experts at the City University of New York and Oregon State University, as many as 80% of the buildings in northern Gaza, where the bombing has been most severe, are damaged or destroyed, a higher percentage than in Dresden [the site of murderous firebombing in WWII].
The WSJ presents a set of facts and expert observations that are nothing if not damning of the Israeli tactics:
・Robert Pape, political scientist at the University of Chicago: “What you are seeing in Gaza is in the top 25% of the most intense punishment campaigns in history.”
・” Some 85% of the strip’s 2.2 million people have fled their homes and are confined by Israeli evacuation orders to less than one-third of the strip, according to the United Nations.”
・” He Yin, an assistant professor of geography at Kent State University in Ohio, estimated that 20% of Gaza’s agricultural land has been damaged or destroyed. Winter wheat that should be sprouting around now isn’t visible, he said, suggesting it wasn’t planted.”
・” A World Bank analysis concluded that by Dec. 12, the war had damaged or destroyed 77% of health facilities, 72% of municipal services such as parks, courts and libraries, 68% of telecommunications infrastructure, and 76% of commercial sites, including the almost complete destruction of the industrial zone in the north. More than half of all roads, the World Bank found, have been damaged or destroyed. Some 342 schools have been damaged, according to the U.N., including 70 of its own schools.”
・Where the US dropped 3,678 munitions on the entire nation of Iraq in seven years, Israel has dropped 29,000 on tiny Gaza in a little over two months.
・On Gaza city: “‘It’s not a livable city anymore,’ said Eyal Weizman, an Israeli-British architect who studies Israel’s approach to the built environment in the Palestinian territories. Any reconstruction, he said, will require ‘a whole system of underground infrastructure, because when you attack the subsoil, everything that runs through the ground—the water, the gas, the sewage—is torn.’”
・” The level of damage in Gaza is almost double what it was during a 2014 conflict, which lasted 50 days, with five times as many completely destroyed buildings, according to the Shelter Cluster. In the current conflict, as of mid-December, more than 800,000 people had no home left to return to, the World Bank found.”
To those seduced by a gutless media and a bought-and-sold political establishment, this picture constructed by one of the US’s most conservative papers should bring Israel’s crimes against Gaza into sharper relief; It should be painful to even imagine living under such conditions; it should remove the Gaza question from the realm of political debate to the basic issue of human dignity and survival.
Is there any humane answer beyond: Cease Fire Now!?
Greg Godels
zzsblogml@gmail.com
http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2024/01/the ... eople.html
******
Reviving ISIS: A US weapon against the Resistance Axis
Is it a coincidence that the world's foremost terror organization is being revived just as the US struggles under a multi-front assault on its hegemony in West Asia? More curiously, both ISIS and Washington's targets are exactly the same.
The Cradle's Iraq Correspondent
JAN 16, 2024
Photo Credit: The Cradle
Iraqi security sources are warning of an ISIS revival in the country, which coincides all too neatly with the spike in Iraqi resistance operations against US bases in Iraq and Syria, and with widening regional instability caused by Israel's military assault on Gaza.
More than six years after declaring victory over the terrorist organization, Iraqi intelligence reports now indicate that thousands of ISIS fighters are emerging unscathed, under the protection of US forces in two regions of western Iraq.
The missing piece of the puzzle
According to intelligence reports reviewed by The Cradle, at its height, ISIS consisted of more than 35,000 fighters in Iraq – 25,000 of these were killed, while more than 10,000 simply “disappeared.”
As an officer of one Iraqi intelligence agency recounts to The Cradle:
"Hundreds of ISIS fighters fled to Turkey and Syria at the end of 2017. After the appointment of Abdullah Qardash as the leader of ISIS in 2019, following the death of Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new Caliph began to restructure the organization, and ordered his followers to return to Iraq. The organization exploited the long border with Syria, the security disturbances, and the diversity of forces on both sides of the border to infiltrate the Iraqi territory again."
Imprisoned ISIS officials admit that infiltrating that border is not an easy task, because of the strict control imposed by the Iraqi Border Guards and the use of modern technologies, such as thermal cameras.
It therefore became necessary for the terror group to identify intermediaries capable of breaking through or bypassing these fortifications to transport its fighters across borders.
An Iraqi security source, insisting on anonymity, tells The Cradle that the US plays a vital role in enabling these border violations:
"[There are] several incidents that confirm the American assistance in securing the crossing route for ISIS members - mainly, by shelling Iraqi units on the border, especially the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), to create gaps that allow ISIS fighters to cross the border."
The Iraqi security source adds that there are confirmed reports of US Chinook helicopters transporting fighters from eastern Syria to the Anbar desert in western Iraq and Jebel Hamreen, in the country's east.
Munir Adib, a researcher specializing in Islamist movements, extremist organizations, and international terrorism, confirms the possibility of the return of ISIS after the organization's “dozens of attacks in Syria and Iraq in the past few weeks,” which led to the death of tens of civilians and soldiers.
According to Adib, “the international community's preoccupation with the Gaza and Russia-Ukraine wars gave ISIS an opportunity to reorganize its ranks, while continuing to receive internal and external logistical support.”
Manufacturing and harboring terrorism
Houran Valley is the largest of its kind in Iraq, extending 369 kilometers from the Iraqi-Saudi border to the Euphrates River near the city of Haditha in Anbar Governorate. Its topography is marked by soaring cliffs ranging in height between 150 to 200 meters, and includes the hills surrounding the valley and the sub-valleys that extend into its surroundings.
The valley was and still is one of the most dangerous security environments in the state. Terrorist groups use it as a safe haven because of its desert terrain, and distance from congested urban areas. The valley and its environs have witnessed numerous security incidents, most notably in December 2013, when ISIS killed the commander of the Iraqi army's Seventh Division, his assistant, the director of intelligence in Anbar Governorate, eight officers, and thirteen soldiers.
Iraqi MP Hassan Salem has called for launching a military operation to clear Houran Valley of terrorist fighters. He confirmed to The Cradle that “there are thousands of ISIS members in the valley receiving training in private camps, under American protection,” noting that US forces have “transferred to this area hundreds of ISIS members of different nationalities.”
US foreign policy, of course, is rife with historical evidence of the creation of proxy armed militias in West Asia and Latin America, often utilizing these organizations to overthrow governments in target countries. We know Washington has no aversion to allying with Islamist extremists largely because of its direct involvement with arming and financing the Afghan Mujahideen, from which the Taliban and Al Qaeda emerged.
An early US-ISIS connection exists quite clearly: the terrorist group's founding and second rank leaders were among the inmates of Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq, an internment facility run by the US military. The roster of high-value terrorists captured, then set free by the Americans is quite extraordinary: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, his successor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, Haji Bakr, Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi, Abu Ayman al-Iraqi, among others.
Camp Bucca, known for abuses against its detainees, brought together extremist elements, slow-boiled this combustive formula for six years (2003-2009), then let the now well-networked extremists go free.
The religious officials of ISIS even say they used their time at the prison to obtain vows from prisoners to join the terrorist group after their release.
US intelligence also protected the terrorist organization indirectly, by allowing ISIS convoys to move between the cities that were under its control. Other forms of protection, according to Iraqi security experts, include refusing to implement death sentences issued by Iraqi courts against detained ISIS members, and establishing safe havens for the organization’s members in western and eastern Iraq.
ISIS: US foot soldiers in the regional war
In a speech on 5 January, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah warned that the US was supporting an ISIS revival in the region.
The Cradle obtained security information monitoring the new activity of extremists in Lebanon, communications between these elements and their counterparts in Iraq and Syria, and suspicious money transfer activities among them.
Lebanese Army Intelligence also recently arrested a group of Lebanese and Syrians who were preparing to carry out security operations.
Importantly, this surge in terror activities comes at a time when the Lebanese resistance is engaged in a security and military battle with Israel, which may expand at any moment into open war. It is also notable that renewed ISIS activity is concentrated in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran; that is, in the countries that support the Palestinian resistance politically, militarily, and logistically.
On 4 January, ISIS officially claimed responsibility for two bombings in the Iranian city of Kerman that targeted memorial processions on the anniversary of the assassination of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani by US forces. The dual explosions killed around 90 people and injured dozens, in an unprecedented attack targeting the biggest US-Israeli adversary in West Asia – just one day after Tel Aviv killed top Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.
Before that, on 5 October 2023, ISIS drone-attacked an officers graduation ceremony at the Military College in the Syrian city of Homs, killing about 100 people. These attacks, and others in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Africa, indicate that fresh blood, money, and weapons are being pumped into the ISIS organization’s arteries again.
A high-ranking PMU officer, who asked to remain unnamed, tells The Cradle that US forces are preventing Iraqi forces from approaching Houran Valley by attacking any security forces approaching the area. “This happened when American aircraft targeted units of the PMU that were attacking ISIS in the region,” he reveals, citing intelligence reports confirming the presence of dozens of ISIS members and other extremist organizations in the valley, where they receive training and equipment from US forces.
Security sources in the Anbar Operations Command confirm this information:
“Noticeable activity by the organization had been recorded a few weeks ago in the west of the country. Near the Rutba desert, ISIS fighters were spotted digging underground hideouts. Information indicates that the organization is in the process of carrying out terrorist operations in many locations,” they tell The Cradle.
Concurrently, ISIS is expanding its operations in the east of Iraq, within the geographical triangle that includes eastern Salah al-Din Governorate, north-eastern Diyala, and southern Kirkuk, particularly in the geographically challenging Makhoul, Hamrin, Ghurra, Wadi al-Shay, and Zaghitoun areas.
It should be noted that US forces are deployed in Iraq under the umbrella of the International Coalition to Combat ISIS. Last week, four years after the Iraqi parliament first voted to expel foreign forces, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani weighed in on the “destabilizing” impact of US troops and demanded a “quick and orderly” exit of those combat units.
Washington not only countered by saying it has “no plans” to withdraw from Iraq, but announced on 14 January that it would be sending an additional 1,500 troops to Iraq and Syria illegally, and without the consent of either nation.
One irony here is that ISIS appears to regain momentum each and every time Baghdad raises the issue of US military withdrawal from Iraq.
It can also no longer be seen as a coincidence that the terror group is now re-assembling its forces to target Washington and Tel Aviv's most capable regional foes – the Axis of Resistance – just when the US and Israel are struggling to handle a region-wide, multi-front assault from the Axis.
The extraordinary synergies between the Americans and the world's foremost terror group can no longer be ignored: their targets are one and the same, and ISIS is only now entering the fray, just as Washington begins to lose its hold on West Asia.
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/reviv ... tance-axis
Palestinian rockets rain down on Israel from north Gaza
Hamas continues to confront soldiers in north Gaza, despite Israeli claims that the group has been ‘dismantled’ there
News Desk
JAN 16, 2024
(Photo credit: AFP)
Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza fired dozens of rockets from the north of the strip into southern Israel on the morning of 16 January, dispelling Tel Aviv's claims that they had destroyed Hamas’ capabilities in northern Gaza.
A barrage of around 50 rockets hit the settlements of Netivot and Givolim, located in the Gaza envelope, on Tuesday morning, the Times of Israel reported. The outlet claimed the rockets caused no injuries but some material damage.
The Qassam Brigades “bombarded the occupied city of Netivot with a large rocket barrage,” the military wing of Hamas said via its media channel.
The rocket strike came the day after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's (PIJ) Quds Brigades launched a large rocket barrage towards the Gaza envelope.
The Quds Brigades announced they struck Sderot “and the settlements of the northern Gaza envelope” with a rocket barrage.
These attacks come as Israel is boasting that it has defeated Hamas in northern Gaza.
“All the [Hamas] battalion frameworks have been dismantled. We are now working to eliminate pockets of resistance. We will achieve this via raids, airstrikes, special operations, and additional activities,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on 15 January.
Tel Aviv claimed earlier in the month that its forces have “completed the dismantling of Hamas’s military framework in the northern Gaza Strip.”
However, rockets continue to fly out of the northern strip. The Israeli troops remaining in north Gaza are also still facing heavy resistance.
“Our Mujahideen … targeted a Zionist troop carrier [with explosives] … north of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City (northern Gaza),” the Qassam Brigades said on 16 January, shortly after the rocket barrage on Netivot.
During his latest speech on 14 January, Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida refuted Israeli claims that the army has managed to destroy or seize weapons depots and rocket launch pads.
“The alleged achievements that the enemy announces … are a mockery to us … the day will come when we prove these claims are false.”
Al-Jazeera noted last week that “if 12 battalions were indeed destroyed [in the north], it would be a significant strategic victory for Israel and a loss that Hamas will probably not be able to overcome while fighting in other parts of the Strip.”
In December, a Qassam Brigades source told Al-Jazeera that the group’s operations forced 70 percent of Israeli forces to withdraw from north Gaza into the south.
The Israeli army is now focusing its ground operations in southern Gaza, facing heavy resistance.
Gatherings of Israeli soldiers in the southern city of Khan Yunis came under heavy gunfire and explosive attacks on 16 January, according to the Qassam Brigades media channel.
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/pales ... north-gaza
Israel rejected 'all Arab proposals' to end Gaza war: Qatar
Qatar’s prime minister affirmed that ending the war in Gaza would reduce tensions across the region
News Desk
JAN 16, 2024
(Photo credit: AP)
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani said on 16 January at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Israel has rejected all proposals put forward by Arab states for an end to the war in Gaza.
“The Arabs proposed several solutions and initiatives regarding Gaza, but the Israelis rejected them all,” Al-Thani said at the forum.
The latest Qatari-proposed initiative called for a deal which would see Hamas leaders leave Gaza safely in exchange for a gradual release of all Israeli prisoners and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. Israel has vowed to continue fighting until Hamas is cleared out of Gaza.
Hamas rejected the Qatari proposal, and has vowed to not accept any deal until Israel ends its assault on Gaza.
Hamas has repeatedly affirmed that in such a case, any exchange deal would be on an “all-for-all basis,” meaning that the prisoners held in Gaza would only be released in exchange for the release of all Palestinians held in jails across Israel.
“We need to address how to end the war as soon as possible, how to release the hostages, as well as Palestinian prisoners, and to address the issue in the West Bank,” which, Al-Thani said, is “no less” difficult than the situation in Gaza.
Efforts to reach a new deal are “going through a lot of difficulty,” Al-Thani added, blaming Israel’s “extremist government” for indiscriminate carpet bombing and genocidal intent.
“Gaza is not there anymore,” the Qatari prime minister went on to say.
Al-Thani asserted that a two-state solution is the only option, and that Israel must be forced to accept this path. “It needs to be time-bound. It needs to be irreversible,” he said.
He also said that Hamas is part of the Palestinian political system, and that “the Palestinians are the only ones who have a choice to have them … or not.”
Regarding efforts for Arab normalization with Israel, Al-Thani added: “All of us, we are showing our willingness to extend our hands, to have a peace agreement with Israel, if they are willing to engage genuinely in a process that will make the Palestinians have their state at the end.”
Al-Thani also said that ending the war in Gaza would de-escalate all other fronts, specifically, Yemen’s maritime campaign against Israeli shipping in the Red Sea – which, he said, would no longer be restricted by military strikes.
“We need to address the central issue, which is Gaza, in order to get everything else defused ... if we are just focusing on the symptoms and not treating the real issues, [solutions] will be temporary.”
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israe ... -war-qatar
Join us on Telegram, Twitter , and VK.
