British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a call on Wednesday, shared their concerns about attacks by Houthi militants against commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea, Sunak's office said.
“The leaders shared their concerns about increasing attacks by Houthi militants, supported by Iran, against commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea," Downing Street Spokesperson said.
"The Prime Minister stressed the UK’s commitment to freedom of navigation and highlighted the deployment this week of HMS Diamond, a Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyer, to bolster deterrence in the region and keep trade routes flowing."
Britain condemned the attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea on Monday and stated that it was committed to ensuring safe shipping in the region.
Go to the full article >>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at international silence regarding Hamas’s rape and sexual mutilation of the women it killed during its October 7 infiltration into Southern Israel.
“Were you quiet because we were talking about Jewish women?” Netanyahu asked during a Hebrew language press conference.
In English, he asked the international community, “Where the hell are you?”
“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations. You have heard of the rape of the Israeli women, horrible atrocities, and sexual mutilations” at Hamas’s hands?
“I expect all civilized leaders, governments, nations to speak up against this atrocity,” Netanyahu said.
He specifically called out the United Nations which condemned the sexual violence only last week after a protracted campaign by Israel and activist groups.
Go to the full article >>In a special report, the IDF and the Shin Bet on Tuesday revealed the targeting of senior Hamas members from the Northern Gaza Brigade and the Gaza City Brigade from within the tunnels, with most of these leaders being eliminated during combat.
The Northern Gaza Strip Brigade is the second largest in the Hamas terrorist organization. In the attack on the tunnel where the terrorist organization's commanders were hiding, under civilian homes and near the Indonesian Hospital, IDF forces, guided by the Shin Bet and Military intelligence, eliminated the brigade commander, Ahmed Ehandor, the deputy brigade commander, Al Rajab, and other senior members including the commander of the support battalion, the head of the electronic warfare unit, and the surveillance officer in the Northern Gaza Strip.
Ehandor was a member of the military wing's executive council. He was responsible for directing and managing all of Hamas' terrorist activities in northern Gaza.
Simultaneously with the elimination of the commanders in the northern Gaza Brigade, the commander of the Beit Lehia battalion, the commander of the Jabalia Center battalion, and terrorists only in this brigade were also eliminated.
Due to the impact on the command and infrastructure, the operational capabilities of the Northern Gaza Brigade were significantly damaged.
The Gaza City Brigade is the largest is the Hamas terrorist organization. In Gaza City, there are numerous military bases, as well as manufacturing sites and weapon storage facilities amidst the civilian population.
Gaza City is a prime example of Hamas' use of the civilian population as human shields. IDF forces, guided by the Shin Bet and military intelligence, eliminated four battalion commanders in the Gaza Brigade, including the commanders of the Sabra, Shati, Daraj Tafah, and Shuja'iya battalions.
The Sabra Battalion was significantly damaged, and besides the battalion commander, other commanders in the central command chain were eliminated, and the battalion's infrastructure and headquarters were rendered inoperable.
In the Shati Battalion sector, IDF forces took control of key strongholds. This battalion was responsible for central Hamas command posts, including Shifa Hospital command, whose underground infrastructure was thwarted.
In addition, the brigade's anti-tank head, head of air information, and the naval formation officer were eliminated.
Go to the full article >>The United States has imposed visa restrictions on violent Jewish extremists, including settlers, who have attacked innocent Palestinians in the West Bank.
“We expect this action to impact dozens of individuals and potentially their family members,” US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.
He indicated that the new policy would be applied immediately and that those with existing visas would be notified that the document had been revoked.
Such Israelis would also be excluded from the visa waiver program. The names of those targeted by the policy will not be made public, Miller explained.
“We have not seen a sufficient level of action by the government of Israel that has properly held people accountable,” he said.
“We have taken the action that we the US government can take,” but that doesn’t absolve the Israeli government from its obligation to halt such violence, Miller said.
The language of the new policy announced Tuesday by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, was vague and also included Palestinians involved in violent attacks against Israelis.
“The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank, including attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and Palestinian attacks against Israelis,” Blinken said.
“We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank,” he said.
“As President Biden has repeatedly said, those attacks are unacceptable. Last week in Israel, I made clear that the United States is ready to take action using our own authorities.
“Today, the State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities. Immediate family members of such persons also may be subject to these restrictions,” Blinken said.
The US will “continue to engage with the Israeli leadership to make clear that Israel must take additional measures to protect Palestinian civilians from extremist attacks. We will also continue to engage the Palestinian Authority to make clear it must do more to curb Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
“Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have the responsibility to uphold stability in the West Bank. Instability in the West Bank both harms the Israeli and Palestinian people and threatens Israel’s national security interests. Those responsible for it must be held accountable,” Blinken said.
Go to the full article >>The number of hostages has risen to 138 people, IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced on Tuesday night.
One person previously considered missing since Hamas's October 7 attacks has now been confirmed as being in Hamas captivity.
Some 20 women and children still remain in Gaza as hostages, with the remaining number men.
US aid chief Samantha Power arrived in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, where she announced more than $21 million in additional assistance for the Palestinian people affected by the war between Israel and terrorist group Hamas.
The USAID administrator arrived in Al Arish with a delivery of 36,000 pounds of food assistance and medical supplies airlifted by the Department of Defense from Jordan and intended for Gaza, according to a statement.
The additional assistance Power announced on Tuesday will support the provision of hygiene and shelter supplies, food and other assistance for residents of Gaza and the West Bank affected by the conflict, according to a separate statement.
The funds will also support psychosocial care and critical health services along with the establishment of an NGO-operated field hospital in Gaza that will provide in-patient care.
Only a fraction of Gaza's hospitals remain operational due to Israeli bombing and a lack of fuel, and those still functioning are increasingly overwhelmed by new waves of wounded.
"The United States continues to work around the clock to overcome diplomatic and operational hurdles for humanitarian access, present solutions to emerging humanitarian assistance challenges, and significantly scale up this response to where it needs to be," USAID said in the statement.
Britain is considering sending military support vessel RFA Lyme Bay to provide medical and humanitarian aid in the Middle East, defense minister Grant Shapps said on Tuesday, in an update on the Gaza conflict.
"I'm considering whether RFA Lyme Bay can support medical and humanitarian aid provision," Shapps told lawmakers.
The Gaza health ministry has said that at least 15,899 Palestinians, 70% of them women or under 18, have been killed in Israeli bombardments of the Hamas-ruled enclave in eight weeks of warfare. Thousands more are missing and feared buried in rubble.
Israel launched its assault to wipe out Hamas in retaliation for an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas terrorists who killed 1,200 people and seized about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies - the deadliest single day in Israel's 75-year history.
Intense Israeli air strikes hit the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, including in areas where Israel had told people to seek shelter, residents and journalists on the ground said.
While in Al Arish, Power will meet with officials and Egyptian and international humanitarian organizations working to speed up assistance into Gaza, according to the statement.
She will raise Washington's commitment to the protection of civilians and the need for humanitarian supplies to exceed the levels reached during the humanitarian pause.
Fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed on Friday after a seven-day pause to exchange hostages and prisoners and deliver humanitarian aid.
US officials, in public and private, have repeatedly urged Israel to minimize civilian casualties in southern Gaza because of the high toll incurred in northern Gaza military operations.
Go to the full article >>Jordan's King Abdullah said on Tuesday the world should condemn any attempt by Israel to create conditions that would forcibly displace Palestinians within the Gaza Strip or outside its borders.
In remarks carried by state media after a meeting with the Cypriot president in Amman, the monarch again called for an immediate ceasefire and warned that Israel's relentless bombing campaign was leading to a "dangerous deterioration" in the situation.
Talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides focused on the need to increase efforts to deliver humanitarian aid and relief to the embattled civilians living in Gaza.
Abdullah has lobbied Western leaders to pile pressure on Israel to allow an uninterrupted flow of aid and open crossings it controls to bring in sufficient level of aid needed.
Israel now controls the volume and nature of aid entering to over 2.3 million inhabitants under siege, according to UN officials and humanitarian workers.
UNRWA officials say only a trickle of the aid the enclave needs is getting through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt which NGOs and officials say can only handle a fraction of the needs.
Israel started its campaign in retribution for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists who rampaged through Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages, according to Israel's tally.
Israeli bombardments have killed nearly 16,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and driven 80% of the population from their homes.
King Abdullah told Christodoulides there would be dangerous consequences from any attempt to forcibly push Palestinians en masse from their land while it maintained security control, officials said.
Officials also fear wider violence in the West Bank, which Jordan borders, as settler attacks on Palestinian civilians, confiscation of land and Israeli military raids mount.
It could create circumstances that could encourage Israel to forcibly push tens of thousands of Palestinians across the Jordan River.
Officials say the forcible expulsion of Palestinians would amount to a declaration of war and prompt Jordan to suspend its peace treaty with Israel.
On Tuesday, Amman condemned Israel's move to build new settlements in Arab East Jerusalem, the part of the contested city that was seized along with the West Bank in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the UN considers occupied territory.
"Israel's expansion of Jewish settlement building on land it occupied and the confiscation of territory are a flagrant violation of international law" and dimmed any prospects of peace, said Sufain Qudah, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry.
Go to the full article >>There will be no negotiations or exchange of detainees until Israel's aggression against the Gaza strip stops, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in a press conference on Tuesday.
"We hold (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu fully responsible for the lives of the Israeli hostages and for obstructing the completion of the exchange deal," he added.
Go to the full article >>
Released hostages and families of hostages remaining in Gaza met with the war cabinet consisting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Minister Benny Gantz on Tuesday evening.
The meeting was emotional as the returned hostages told the cabinet what they had gone through in captivity while the families of the remaining hostages expressed their concerns for their loved ones.
"My father may be a man, but he is still in captivity, and they are humiliating him," said one young woman whose father is being held hostage.
One of the released hostages at the meeting told the ministers that the male hostages were being raped in Gaza just like the female hostages were.
The deal that facilitated the release of more than 100 hostages in the last couple of weeks excluded all men over the age of 18 from being candidates for release.
Meanwhile, the released hostages told the cabinet of their experiences, saying that they were denied basic needs like water and that some of the places targeted in IDF airstrikes were places where hostages were being held.
"Hearing what you went through in the strikes is shocking, and it is still continuing," Netanyahu told the meeting's attendees. "It penetrates our hearts and all our considerations. If you wanted to send the message, you succeeded."
He also assured them that getting back the rest of the hostages is still a main objective in the war.
After the meeting ended, the Hope Forum, which represents the families of the hostages, said that the cabinet had emphasized that only military and diplomatic pressure against Hamas could facilitate the hostage deal and that only this pressure could lead to future deals for the rest of the hostages.
"The Hope Forum backs the war cabinet," said the statement. "Every demand for the IDF to stop the war weakens the chances of releasing more hostages and endangers the soldiers on the frontlines. The only way to bring our loved ones home is to continue fighting in full force against the Nazi enemy."
Go to the full article >>On Tuesday evening, the IDF released the names of two soldiers who have fallen in combat.
Staff-Sergeant-Major Matan Damari, 31 years old, was a commander in the 215th Brigade in the artillery corps.
Staff-Sergeant-Major Ilay Eliyahu Cohen, 23 years old, was a combat soldier in the 551st Reserve Commander Brigade.
Go to the full article >>
