LLX News

Some 14,000 fighters have been killed or arrested in over nine months of combat operations in Gaza, according to the Israeli military.

By: Joshua Marks – Israel Today; israeltoday.co.il

Israeli forces have killed half of Hamas’s military leadership in Gaza and killed or arrested around 14,000 of its fighters since the start of the war over nine months ago, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.

Among Hamas’s losses are six brigade commanders, over 20 battalion commanders and roughly 150 company commanders, according to the IDF.

“The IDF continues the important task of pursuing the top leaders of the Hamas terrorist organization as part of the goal of dismantling the organization’s capabilities,” the military said.

On July 13, an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis targeted the Hamas second-in-command in Gaza, leader of the Qassam Brigades Mohammed Deif. His death has not been confirmed, but the IDF did confirm that Deif’s deputy, Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, was killed.

cont’d…

President Biden said that he has “done more for the Palestinian community than anybody.”

By: World Israel News Staff; worldisraelnews.com

President Joe Biden said that he is a strong supporter of Israel, identifying himself as a “Zionist” in an interview on Monday.

“If there weren’t an Israel, every Jew in the world would be at risk,” Biden told Complex magazine, a US news outlet with a mostly black readership. “And so, there is a need for it to be strong and the need for Israel to be able to have, after World War II, the ability for Jews to have a place that was their own.”

When asked by the journalist directly if he is a Zionist, the president answered “yes.”

Biden added that “you don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and [being] a Zionist is about whether or not Israel is a safe haven for Jews because of their history, of how they’ve been persecuted.”

However, Biden also said that he has “done more for the Palestinian community than anybody,” emphasizing the pressure he put on Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“I’m the guy that opened up all the assets. I’m the guy that made sure that – I got the Egyptians to open the border to let goods through, medicine and food,” Biden said.

cont’d…

Abdel Qader Sabbah photographed himself with a senior Hamas leader and served in a Hamas-run body to which he also provided video work.

CNN will no longer accept work from a Gaza-based freelance journalist who was previously employed by Hamas and boasted about his ties to the U.S.-designated terrorist organization on Facebook, according to the HonestReporting media watchdog.

Abdel Qader Sabbah “provided material used in stories for us and other outlets over the past nine months, during which time our own journalists have been barred from entering Gaza independently,” a spokesperson for CNN said on Wednesday, in a statement cited by the pro-Israel NGO.

“We have reviewed this material carefully and are comfortable that it meets our standards,” the spokesman continued. “We were not aware of this individual’s historical social posts and recognize that they are highly offensive,” he added, saying that CNN would no longer use his work.

On Tuesday, HonestReporting published an investigation that showed Sabbah photographed himself with a senior Hamas leader, served in a Hamas-run body to which he also provided video work, praised murderous terrorists and shared anti-Israel propaganda.

cont’d…

The assailant was shot dead, according to police.

By: Israel Today Staff – Israel Today; israeltoday.co.il

One Israeli was killed and another seriously wounded in a terrorist stabbing in a shopping center in the northern city of Karmiel on Wednesday.

Magen David Adom paramedics treated the two victims, both males in their 20s, on the scene before evacuating them to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, where one of them died of his wounds.

The terrorist was shot dead by one of the wounded victims, the commander of the Israel Police Northern District, Maj. Gen. Shuki Tahauko, told local media following a situational assessment.

Tahauko told reporters that the terrorist arrived at the mall on foot before stabbing the two civilians, one of whom managed to “keep it together and immediately neutralized the terrorist.”

Police identified the terrorist as an Arab with Israeli citizenship from the nearby town of Nahf. Tahauko was said to have ordered the arrest of his relatives, with local media reporting a large police presence in Nahf.

cont’d…

New centrifuges and machinery could potentially triple Fordow’s capacity to produce enriched uranium.

By Adi Nirman – IsraelHayom.com

According to confidential reports and analysis from nuclear experts cited by The Washington Post, Iran is undertaking a substantial expansion at its heavily fortified Fordow nuclear facility. This development could potentially triple Fordow’s capacity to produce enriched uranium, providing Tehran with the means to rapidly assemble nuclear weapons if its leadership decides to pursue that path.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have verified new construction activities at the Fordow enrichment plant, just days after Iran formally notified the nuclear watchdog about plans to significantly upgrade the underground site located in a mountainous region of north-central Iran.

The Post’s reporting, based on a technical evaluation, indicates that the expansion at Fordow alone could enable Iran to stockpile enough nuclear fuel for several bombs every month. While smaller than Iran’s main enrichment facility near Natanz, Fordow’s underground location makes it virtually impervious to airstrikes, heightening its strategic significance.

“Iran would gain the capability for a rapid breakout at this deeply buried site, an ability it has not possessed before,” David Albright, a nuclear weapons expert and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based non-profit, told The Post.

cont’d…

Scant attention to the real savagery.

By: Hugh Fitzgerald – Front Page Magazine; frontpagemag.com

There is much about the war against Israel to which the mainstream media pays scant attention. That journalistic failure is discussed here: “What mainstream media isn’t reporting during the Israel-Hamas war – opinion,” by Andrea Samuels, Jerusalem Post, May 24, 2024:

In general, from watching MSM [mainstream media], we have the impression that the IDF is killing innocent children, unopposed, and there is no mention of the ongoing rocket attacks on Israel apart from the Iranian attack which was portrayed as a harmless gesture,” explained Paul Martin Gurnett from Britain….

The rocket attacks launched by Hamas into southern Israel, and by Hezbollah into northern Israel, are seldom mentioned on the mainstream media. But we are shown people in Gaza running for cover, just before the IDF’s airstrikes hit, and then the aftermath of bloody corpses who, we are assured — no evidence need be presented — are almost entirely those of “women and children.”

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Israel previously denounced demands by Hamas to end the war in return for the freedom of some of the hostages as “delusional.”

By: Israel Today Staff; israeltoday.co.il

The Hamas terror organization reiterated on Thursday night that it intends to end ongoing negotiations with Israel, which would see the hostages being held in the Gaza Strip released in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of terrorists in Israeli custody, unless the Jewish state first ends the war in Gaza.

Hamas “will not accept to be part of this policy by continuing negotiations in light of the aggression, siege, starvation and genocide of our people,” the organizations said, according to Reuters.

“Today, we informed the mediators of our clear position that if the occupation stops its war and aggression against our people in Gaza, our readiness (is) to reach a complete agreement that includes a comprehensive exchange deal,” the terror group said.

Of the 252 people whom Hamas and other terrorists kidnapped on Oct. 7 and took to Gaza, 125 remain in the Strip.

cont’d…

By: Davis Rosenberg – World Israel News; worldisraelnews.com

‘The ICJ is a joke,’ says senator, accusing top ICJ judge of antisemitism.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham excoriated the International Court of Justice Wednesday, over the court’s recent ruling demanding Israel freeze its military operations against Hamas in and around the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Last week, the court issued a bombshell 13-2 ruling ordering the IDF to “Immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

cont’d…

That was $300 million in taxpayer money well spent.

By: Daniel Greenfield – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

If you’re keeping track, Biden announced that America was going to spend two months building a floating pier to deliver aid to Gaza at a cost of $300 million that would be operated by the U.S. military.

Then the pier came under attack by terrorists, was withdrawn to the Israeli port of Ashdod for repairs while the Biden administration conducted backchannel talks with Hamas urging it not to attack the pier, then redeployed for aid deliveries. And it’s been a smashing success. For Hamas.

The good news was the Pentagon press secretary’s announcement that 569 metric tons of humanitarian assistance had been delivered across the temporary pier in Gaza.

The bad news was that according to the same press secretary, none of the aid has gotten through to any recognized aid distribution points.

Did the aid get to the people of Gaza? “I do not believe so,” he answered.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/all-the-aid-from-bidens-gaza-pier-was-stolen

Israel’s FM recalled its envoys and summoned their ambassadors, saying the recognition rewards Hamas terrorism • Hamas welcomed the decision.

By: Israel Today Staff; israeltoday.co.il

Ireland, Norway and Spain said on Wednesday morning that they will recognize a Palestinian state, prompting Jerusalem to recall its envoys and summon the ambassadors of these countries.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced in their respective capitals that they will recognize a Palestinian state on May 28.

“There cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition,” Støre opined at a press conference. “The terror has been committed by Hamas and militant groups who are not supporters of a two-state solution and the State of Israel.”

cont’d…