Year: 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a new spokesman who is a proponent of establishing Jewish settlements in Gaza and expelling Palestinians from the territory, Haaretz has reported.

Omer Dostri, who is a regular guest on Israel’s Channel 14, was appointed to the new role on Sunday. He is aligned with the Israeli right and has a history of calling for policies that would result in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.

“There is no victory over Hamas without three basic conditions: military occupation of the entire Gaza Strip, military and civilian control of the area, and encouragement of voluntary migration of Gazans out of the strip,” Dostri said in January.

While framing the idea of expelling Palestinians as “voluntary migration,” the Israeli military campaign is making Gaza uninhabitable and could give Palestinians no choice but to leave if they have the option. Dostri has suggested Egypt should be offered economic or military aid to agree to the transfer of “Gaza refugees to Sinai, even if only temporarily.”

Dostri has also called for Israel to establish settlements in the areas of Gaza that it currently occupies. “Israel must order the rapid establishment of Israeli settlements in many of the areas it occupies, especially those close to the current border,” Dostri wrote in Makor Rishon.

The Israeli military controls about 26% of Gaza’s territory, including a “buffer zone” that was established along the entire Israel-Gaza border. In these areas, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has demolished most structures and has established some military bases.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed he does not plan on establishing settlements in Gaza, but members of his coalition government and Likud party openly support the idea. Appointing a spokesman who favors settlements in Gaza also signals that the prime minister is aligned with that viewpoint.

An Israeli drone strike took place near Bazourieh in southern Lebanon on Saturday morning, killing a man described by Israeli officials as a “senior” member of Hezbollah identified as Ali Nazih Abed Ali.

The Israeli military claimed that Ali had been involved in planning and carrying out various terrorist attacks out of southern Lebanon. They claimed his death as a serious blow to Hezbollah operations on the southern Lebanese border with Israel.

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike was also reported against Beit Lif, also in southern Lebanon. At least three Lebanese civilians were reported wounded. Israel also attacked what they described as terrorist infrastructure in Marjayoun.

Hezbollah responded to the Saturday killing by firing an estimated 30 rockets against the Galilee panhandle in northern Israel. Israel reported that most of the rockets had been intercepted, though some landed in open areas.

Tensions have been soaring between Hezbollah and Israel, with tit-for-tat strikes by both sides on almost a daily basis. There is growing concern that the two sides are on the brink of war, with Israel planning an invasion.

Officials in countries around the world have been warning citizens in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible, with the US Embassy saying travelers should use any ticket available to them to get out of the country.

Israel is preparing for the possibility of Iran and Hezbollah launching a multi-day attack on Israeli territory in response to the assassinations of Hamas’s political chief in Tehran and a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut,” NBC News reported on Sunday.

Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel in April in response to the Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, but US and Israeli officials expect this attack to be bigger. “They’ll just try to wear us out,” one Israeli official told NBC.

Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese news outlet, reported that the Israeli assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian territory crossed a “red line” and that Iran would reciprocate. “Iran will respond in a way that crosses the red lines set by the Israeli occupation,” an Iranian source told Al Mayadeen.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran told Arab diplomats it didn’t care if its response to Israel triggered a war.

Gen. Michael Kurilla, the head of US Central Command, is in the Middle East helping Israel prepare for the Iranian attack, which US and Israeli officials believe could happen as soon as Monday. President Biden has pledged the US will help defend Israel, and the Pentagon announced it was deploying more military capabilities to the region for that purpose.

Since the US is pledging direct military intervention to protect Israel, it’s possible US bases in Iraq and Syria could also come under attack by Iraqi Shia militias that are allied with Iran. Yemen’s Houthis could also get in on the attack on Israel, as they recently hit Tel Aviv with a drone.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Israel will hit back against any reprisal attack by Iran and its allies. “Israel is now in a multifront war against the Iranian axis of evil,” he said on Sunday. “We are ready for any scenario—either defensive or offensive. I repeat to our enemies: We will respond and exact a heavy price for any act of aggression against us, from any arena.”

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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on Saturday that Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed by a “short-range projectile” in Tehran, contradicting reports that he was killed by a planted explosive.

According to Iran’s PressTV, the IIGC said the “attack involved the use of a short-range projectile armed with a warhead weighing approximately seven kilograms, which subsequently caused a massive explosion.”

Haniyeh was killed while staying at a heavily guarded official guest house in Tehran during a visit for the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The New York Times and several other Western media reported he was killed by an explosive that was planted in the guest house by Israeli intelligence months earlier, but Hamas officials and eyewitnesses say a projectile hit the building.

“I was there, and the wall and ceiling of the place where he was were collapsed. It is clear from the appearance of the place after the attack, and from the body of the martyr leader Ismail Haniyeh, that the targeting was carried out by an air-dropped projectile,” Khaled Kaddoumi, Hamas’s representative in Iran, told The Cradle.

Discussing the reports of a bomb being planted in the building, Kaddoumi said, “The narrative published by The New York Times about Mossad agents planting explosive devices inside the apartment where Haniyeh stayed is completely fabricated … They are trying to evade responsibility and its consequences for Israel.”

Israel has a history of conducting covert attacks and assassinations inside Iran. Operations in recent years have involved gunmen, small quadcopter drones, and planted explosives at nuclear facilities.

Iran is vowing revenge for the killing of Haniyeh, and a major attack on Israeli territory is expected to happen soon. The US has deployed more military assets to the region and has said it will help defend Israel from any reprisal.

The region braces for growing confrontation after a string of Israeli assassinations.

Israeli army claimed it stuck Hamas infrastructure in the attacks, which have left dozens wounded.

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