Israel marks one year of Hamas attack as fighting rages – Newstrends
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Israel marks one year of Hamas attack as fighting rages

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In Tel Aviv, people gathered to support families of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip

Israel marks one year of Hamas attack as fighting rages

Israel has held ceremonies to remember the victims of the mass killings and abductions carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023, against a backdrop of continuing fighting in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

A year on from the attack – that saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage – Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to stop such an assault happening again, saying Israel’s armed forces were “changing the security reality” of the region.

Since 7 October, nearly 42,000 people have been killed during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

As the day of commemorations unfolded, Israel said it had intercepted more than 100 rockets fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as projectiles launched by Yemen’s Houthis and from Hamas in Gaza.

Overnight, rocket warning sirens continued to sound in northern Israel, and several more town were declared closed military zones, as Israel looks set to expand its ground offensive across the Lebanon border.

On Tuesday morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Suhail Hussein Husseini, Hezbollah’s logistics commander, was killed in a “precise, intelligence-based strike in the area of Beirut” on Monday. Hezbollah has not commented.

Husseini was responsible for the budgeting and logistical management of Hezbollah’s most sensitive projects, including its war plans and other special operations, the IDF said.

The US has indicated that it supports targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon – but fears that what has been described as a limited operation by Israel could quickly turn into a larger-scale, prolonged conflict.

And as American and Israeli officials discuss Israel’s response to last week’s unprecedented Iranian missile attack, CIA director William Burns has warned that there is a “very real danger of a further regional escalation”.

Last October, gunmen from Hamas in Gaza broke through the border fence and rampaged through nearby Israeli villages, Kibbutzim, military posts and the Nova music festival.

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On Monday, families of the hundreds killed and dozens of people taken hostage at the festival gathered at the site early for the first memorial event of the day.

Holding pictures of loved ones they listened to the last track played at the festival before Israeli President Isaac Herzog led a minute’s silence at 06:29, the moment that the attack began.

In nearby communities also attacked by Hamas gunmen, smaller events were held.

Elsewhere, Netanyahu visited the Iron Sword memorial in Jerusalem for victims of the Hamas attacks, lighting a candle to “remember our fallen, our hostages”.

In Tel Aviv’s biggest park, Israeli families gathered for an event billed as the Bereaved Families Memorial Ceremony, which served as an alternative to the official government memorial ceremony.

Some of Israel’s most popular singers gave emotional performances, while images of victims flashed on the screens.

The stage was adorned with items symbolising the attacks including burnt and broken cars from the Nova music festival, and a child’s bicycle and swing set from the Be’eri kibbutz.

Outside Israel, US President Joe Biden joined other world leaders in condemning what the “unspeakable brutality” of the Hamas attacks a year ago.

He also expressed horror at the subsequent war, saying “far too many civilians had suffered, far too much”.

Mourners also gathered at vigils around the world including in Australia, South Africa, Germany and the US.

In the UK, Sir Keir Starmer told the House of Commons he supported Israel’s right to defend itself. But Britain’s prime minister insisted there was no military solution to the current crisis and appealed for all sides to “step back”.

However as the memorial services took place, the wider conflict in the region raged.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired more than 130 rockets across the border from Lebanon. Most were shot down, but some hit the cities of Haifa and Tiberius.

Earlier Hamas also launched rockets at Tel Aviv from Gaza. The army said ballistic missiles had been fired at Israel from Yemen but had been intercepted.

Through the day, Israel carried out multiple air strikes and several ground incursions in Lebanon.

The Israeli military said it was expanding operations against Hezbollah, warning residents in southern Lebanon to avoid using boats in the sea or rivers south of the Awali river.

Three weeks of intense Israeli strikes and other attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 1,400 people, and displaced another 1.2 million, according to Lebanese authorities.

Hezbollah – a Shia Islamist political, military and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon – has remained defiant despite suffering a series of devastating blows in recent weeks, including the killing of its leader and most of its top military commanders.

On Monday, the group insisted it was “confident… in the ability of our resistance to oppose the Israeli aggression”.

Israel’s government – which designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation – has pledged to make it safe for tens of thousands of displaced residents to return to their homes near the Lebanese border after a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the Gaza war.

The hostilities have escalated steadily since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on 8 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel.

 

Israel marks one year of Hamas attack as fighting rages

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Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

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December 19, 2024

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Ahmed al-Sharaa

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.

“Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” he said.

Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

He said HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.

Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group.

They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves to be victim of the crimes of the Assad regime.

He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.

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Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different mindset.

He said he believed in education for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.

“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

And when asked whether the consumption of alcohol would be allowed, Sharaa said: “There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues.”

He added that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.

Sharaa was relaxed throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes, and tried to offer reassurance to all those who believe his group has not broken with its extremist past.

Many Syrians do not believe him.

The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.

Syria not threat to world, rebel leader al-Sharaa tells BBC

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Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

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December 19, 2024

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Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

JERUSALEM: Israel said Thursday it struck ports and energy infrastructure it alleges are used by Houthi militants, after intercepting a missile fired by the group.

Israel’s military said it “conducted precise strikes on Houthi military targets in Yemen — including ports and energy infrastructure in Sanaa, which the Houthis have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military actions.”

The announcement came shortly after Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen.

Al-Masira, a media channel belonging to the Houthis, said a series of “aggressive raids” were launched in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.

It reported raids that “targeted two central power plants” in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, while in Hodeidah it said “the enemy launched four aggressive raids targeting the port… and two raids targeting” an oil facility.

The strikes were the second time this week that Israel’s military has intercepted a missile from Yemen.

On Monday, the Houthis claimed a missile launch they said was aimed at “a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa” — a reference to Israel’s Tel Aviv area.

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Also Monday, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi militants have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians and pledged Monday to continue operations “until the aggression on Gaza stops and the siege is lifted.”

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the group had become a “global threat,” pointing to Iran’s support for the militants.

“We will continue to act against anyone, anyone in the Middle East, that threatens the state of Israel,” he said.

 

Israel hits ports, energy sites in Yemen after missile intercepted

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Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

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December 19, 2024

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A Palestinian boy looks as others inspect the damage at a tent camp sheltering displaced people, following an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. (Reuters)

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

CAIRO: The United States, joined by Arab mediators, sought on Wednesday to conclude an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt the 14-month-old war in the Gaza Strip where medics said Israeli strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said on Wednesday that mediators had narrowed gaps on most of the agreement’s clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions which Hamas rejected but would not elaborate.

On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, said an agreement could be signed in coming days on a ceasefire and a release of hostages held in Gaza in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in central areas, and Rafah near the border with Egypt.

In Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesman.

Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of “ethnic cleansing” to depopulate the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.

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Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its daily death toll between combatants and non-combatants.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck a number of Hamas militants planning an imminent attack against Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.

Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility, wounding seven medics and one patient inside the hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the Central Gaza camp of Bureij, Palestinian families began leaving some districts after the army posted new evacuation orders on X and in written and audio messages to mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from the area.

CEASEFIRE GAINS MOMENTUM

The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.

In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump’s designated envoy for hostage affairs. Trump has threatened that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by Jan. 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on bridging remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, other knowledgeable sources said. The CIA declined to comment.

Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday looking to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas on a deal Biden outlined in May.

There have been repeated rounds of talks over the past year, all of which have failed, with Israel insisting on retaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release hostages until the troops pulled out.

The war in Gaza, triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 250 abducted as hostages, has sent shockwaves across the Middle East and left Israel isolated internationally.

Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

 

Gaza mediators intensify ceasefire efforts, Israeli strikes kill 20 people

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