The post Gravitas: Israel to practice ‘strikes’ on Iran first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

(May 9, 2022 / JNS) Israel must adopt a more proactive approach if it is to deplete Hamas of its ability to incite Palestinians to terrorism, a senior security scholar has said, including a stepped-up cyber campaign to take down incitement material that is online and fueling violence against Israelis.

In recent weeks, the Israeli defense establishment has detected an unmistakable spike in Hamas’s online efforts to ignite terrorism and unrest, particularly on social-media networks. This is part of the strategy by Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, to destabilize the West Bank and Jerusalem and inflict Israeli casualties while weakening his domestic rival, the Palestinian Authority—all without risking Hamas’s home turf of Gaza.

Ely Karmon, a senior research scholar at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) in Herzliya, told JNS that the time had come for an all-out offensive cyber campaign to disrupt and remove incitement to hatred and violence on Arabic social-media networks.

“The state has been doing almost nothing offensively on this front and has been waiting for the platforms, like Facebook, to act. The state should not wait; it should take this material down itself,” said Karmon.

In the information campaign sphere, he said, Israel has made a lackluster effort to deflate false Hamas claims that the Al-Aqsa mosque is in danger. “No one is showing footage from inside the mosque on how rioters prepare to attack security forces and what they’re entering the mosque with. No one is showing what the Waqf (the Jordanian Islamic trust in charge of the Temple Mount site) is telling worshippers. It is time for this material to come out,” Karmon said.

He proposed that the Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy Ministry take on this project in a focused manner.

On the military front, Karmon said that if Israel did opt for targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders, then it would also have no choice to but launch a significant military offensive designed to target and eliminate Hamas’s leadership.

“The timing is critical because if this government falls before making this decision, a transitional government will take over and then a new government will have to be formed, and the window of opportunity for ordering preparations for such a maneuver will be gone,” he noted.

A return to targeted killings of Hamas leaders clearly means war, said Karmon, adding that “Sinwar is just the symbol because he is the one now talking; he is the commander. Others will come after him. It has to be a succession of targeted killings to reinstall deterrence, and those from the leadership who survive would need to go into the deepest tunnels. They wouldn’t have time to appear in demonstrations or on television.”

Targeted killings played a key role in ending the Second Intifada (2000-05), pointed out Karmon, noting the assassinations of the late Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in March and April 2004. Several other Hamas and Palestinian Islamic senior members were killed by Israel during this time as well.

“Clearly, this will lead to conflict with Hamas. This is not something that has to happen today. But Israel will have to put an end to Hamas’s military wing in the near future,” he argued. “As long as this does not happen, we will remain trapped in this cycle of operations and rocket fire every three to four years, and there will be no chance for a diplomatic process with the Palestinian Authority to develop. Israel is allowing the P.A. to grow weaker.”

Ordering such a maneuver, said Karmon, would result in a fundamental strategic change—meaning that the idea of ordering a targeted assassination of only Sinwar would only be the start of such a transformation if the government ever chose such an option.

‘Calling for more and more violence’

In the meantime, Israel has limited its actions against Hamas to the civilian-economic sphere, sealing the Erez Border Crossing between Israel and Gaza, and preventing 12,000 Palestinian workers from access to work in Israel, thereby applying pressure to the Islamist regime in Gaza as a response to its incitement.

In the West Bank and in Israel, security forces are working around the clock to try and disrupt the wave of terrorism.

The joint command room opened in Nahshonim, a kibbutz in central Israel near Elad, inhabited by the Israel Police, the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet intelligence agency led to the capture of As’ad Yousef As’ad al-Rifa’i, 19, and Subhi Emad Subhi Abu Shqeir, 20, from the Palestinian village of Rumana near Jenin, after a 60-hour manhunt that followed their deadly ax rampage through the city, claiming three lives.

At the height of the search, 800 members of the security forces from various units took part under police command. Units included the Maglan and Egoz special military forces, as well as the Miroul Unit, which specializes in tracking down people based on conducting field analysis.

Drones and radars were deployed throughout regions where security chiefs estimated the terrorists were hiding, feeding the command room with intelligence.

“All of this was done with the understanding that the terrorists were between Elad and Rosh HaAyin,” a military official said on Sunday. Police also obtained forensic evidence, helping the search efforts.

“This is an area with many caves and canals—all could be used as hideouts. We pinpointed the area between Route 400 and then up to the security barrier as the polygon we understood they were hiding in,” said the source.

“The initial capture was conducted by a combined team featuring Maglan, Miroul and the Shin Bet. They saw that a bush looked different, and when they got closer, in line with intelligence, they saw that the bush was moving in a breathing pattern. They then called out for the terrorists to surrender,” said the source.

The terrorists crossed into Israel on Independence Day, May 5, through the security barrier before entering the vehicle of one of their victims, Oren Ben Yiftah, riding with him to Elad and killing him. The IDF Central Command Chief, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, and the commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, Brig. Gen. Avi Bluth, have distributed lessons learned to 11 brigade commanders who are actively protecting the area.

Security forces are continuously monitoring incitement directed at Palestinians and Israeli Arabs in mixed cities, the source added, warning that the material online is “calling for more and more violence.”

“The fact that they [the terrorists] entered is a failure of the IDF. We are in charge and were not able to protect in a hermetic way the 430-kilometer [barrier] area. We are debriefing continuously to learn how to do this better,” said the source.

Looking ahead, the military is set to upgrade the security barrier through a range of means, he added, stating that some of the work is already underway.

“We are all of the time balancing between civilian policy to allow civilian life to flourish and for stability, together with security and counter-terrorism operations. In the last month, 19 people have been killed, and the government decided to upgrade the security steps,” he said.

Security forces have also launched a new campaign to prevent Palestinians without work permits from entering Israel, and where possible, to provide more permits to those who pass security screening.

Source: https://www.jns.org/israel-must-wage-all-out-cyber-campaign-targeting-hamas-insists-counter-terrorism-pro/

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As the military conflict between both countries becomes progressively brutal and more public, the tit-for-tat has involved strikes against infrastructure and personnel, as well as unprecedented aerial drone interceptions.

In recent years, Iran has made extensive use of armed drones in attacks throughout the Middle East. According to Israeli government sources, Iran is using drone attacks on Gulf targets staged by its proxies as a means of pressuring the United States and others into easing demands concerning its nuclear program.

Intelligence gathered in Israel shows that Iran acts to obscure its part in the attack by refraining from carrying out attacks itself, instead using proxy groups in the countries where it has set up drone bases, such as the Houthis in Yemen and Shi’ite militias in Iraq.

March 2021
Israeli jets intercept Iranian drones

The Israeli military announced that Israeli Air Force jets intercepted two Iranian drones en route to Israel in March 2021. The drones were monitored throughout their flight and intercepted by two F-35 aircraft before entering Israeli airspace “in coordination with neighboring countries,” the statement said.

The drones were launched from Iranian territory and carried firearms and ammunition, in an attempt to test whether military equipment could be smuggled to Gaza via UAV, Israeli officials estimated.

January 4, 2022
Israel shoots down Hezbollah drone

The Israeli military shot down a Hezbollah quadcopter that crossed into Israel from Lebanon. The IDF said it had been “monitored by our soldiers throughout the incident.”

Israel Defense Forces@IDF
We downed a Hezbollah drone that crossed from Lebanon into Israel today. The drone was monitored by our soldiers throughout the incident.

The IDF will continue to operate against any attempt by terrorists to violate Israeli sovereignty.

February 13, 2022
Iranian drone downed over Iraq

Iraqi media reported that a U.S. Air Force F-16 downed an Iranian drone over Iraq, with Israeli broadcaster Kan asserting that the Iranian UAV had been tasked with striking “Israeli targets in the Middle East.”

February 14, 2022
Alleged Israeli strike destroys Iranian drone fleet

An aerial attack in Iran last month caused heavy damage to the country’s drone network, with several estimates saying that hundreds of drones were destroyed. According to foreign reports, six Israeli drones struck a base in western Iran.

Tehran blamed Israel for the attack, but Israel has not admitted responsibility. Neither country had even mentioned the attack until it was reported for the first time on Sunday by the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese television station Al Mayadeen.

The New York Times later reported that some U.S. officials said the attack was has been carried out by Israeli operatives stationed in Iraq. According to another official, the site was Iran’s main manufacturing and storage plant for military drones.

February 18, 2022
Hezbollah drown enters Israeli airspace

A Hezbollah drone eluded early-detection systems to enter Israeli territory. It photographed several locations in the country’s north before returning to Lebanon allegedly untouched, according to a subsequent report by a Lebanese newspaper with close ties to Hezbollah.

The report in Al-Akhbar said the Israel Defense Forces were taken by surprise by what it called a “radio-controlled aircraft,” setting off sirens in the north. According to the Al-Akhbar report, both an Iron Dome missile fired at the drone and an F-16 fighter jet failed to intercept it, as did a subsequent attempt by Apache helicopters.

In an apparent warning to Hezbollah, Israeli warplanes later flew at low altitude over Beirut.

Astro@EyesonSouth
Hassan drone penetrated high-frequency & accurate sensor systems such as ADS monitoring system & overcame SIGNIT signal detection systems and bypassed the latest most advanced of these systems that hunts low-flying drones(Sky Dew).

March 8 2022
Israeli strike in Syria kills two Revolutionary Guard members

Two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were killed in a (non-drone) airstrike strike near Damascus, Iranian media reported, prompting the Iranians to vow to “make the Zionist regime pay for this crime.”

March 13, 2022
Iran launches ballistic missiles at ‘Israeli strategic centers’ in Iraq

As many as 12 missiles were fired toward the U.S. consulate in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, in an attack subsequently described by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a strike against Israeli “strategic centers.”

Al Mayadeen cited Iranian sources as saying that the attack was not retaliation for Israel’s alleged killing of the two Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, but rather for other Israeli operations against Iranian targets. It stated that the ballistic missiles were fired at Mossad headquarters in Irbil, killing four Israeli officers and wounding seven. It declined to provide any proof for its assertions of Israeli casualties or a Mossad presence in the city.

Officials in Iraq and the United States gave different accounts of damage. A second U.S. official said there was no damage and no casualties at any U.S. government facility, but Iraqi officials said several missiles had hit the new, currently unoccupied U.S. consulate building.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/TIMELINE-israel-iran-drone-war-goes-ballistic-a-timeline-1.10678441

The post Israel-Iran Drone War Goes Ballistic: A Timeline first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Carrying out an assassination in such a surgical fashion against a moving target without any civilian casualties requires real-time intelligence on the ground.

After the killing, Iran’s intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi, claimed that two months earlier, he had warned security forces that there was an assassination plot targeting Mr. Fakhrizadeh at the exact location where he was shot.

Mr. Alavi said the person who planned the killing was “a member of the armed forces. We couldn’t carry out intelligence operations on the armed forces”.

But he indirectly implied the perpetrator was a member of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s most elite military unit. If so, the agent would have to have been high up enough in the IRGC to have been able to brush off the warning and carry out the plan at the set date, time and location.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is also known to have been a member of the IRGC.

Sources inside Tehran’s Evin prison security ward, where those who are accused of spying for foreign countries are held, have told the BBC there have been scores of high-ranking IRGC commanders held there.

The Iranian government does not publicize their names and ranks to avoid tarnishing the reputation of the Revolutionary Guards.

A former intelligence officer for the IRGC Quds Force (its overseas operations arm) has told the BBC foreign agencies have gathered evidence against a number of Iranian ambassadors and IRGC commanders.

He said it includes information about relationships with women, which he said could be used to blackmail those officials to force them to co-operate with foreign spies.

In late January 2018, in the dead of night, a dozen men broke into a storage facility in an industrial district, 20 miles (30km) from the capital, Tehran.

There were 32 safes, but they knew which ones contained the most valuable materials. In less than seven hours, they melted the locks of 27 of them, took half a tonne of clandestine nuclear archives and left without a trace. It was one of the most audacious heists in Iran’s history, but officials kept quiet.

Three months later, the stolen documents appeared 1,200 miles (2,000 km) away, in Tel Aviv in Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the then Israeli prime minister, showcased the stolen material – the result, he said, of a Mossad operation. Iranian officials at the time called the documents fabrications and they said such an incident never took place.

On his last day in office, in August 2021, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani confirmed Israel stole Iran’s nuclear documents and showed the evidence to US President Donald Trump.

Presenting the archives at a specially convened news conference in April 2018, Mr. Netanyahu highlighted Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s role in what he said was an undeclared nuclear weapons programme.

“Dr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh… remember that name,” he reiterated. Mr. Fakhrizadeh was assassinated two years later.

‘Shoot, don’t talk’

In the past two decades, a number of Iran’s most prominent nuclear scientists have been killed. There have been multiple sabotages in Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, but so far the Iranian security forces have mainly failed to prevent or capture the assailants and plotters.

In the final year of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency in 2013, there were rumours that IRGC commanders, intelligence officers and even panegyrists (officials who deliver religious eulogies) had been arrested for spying for the Mossad. But those allegations were never officially confirmed.

One of the accused was the officer in charge of counter-intelligence against Israel in Iran’s ministry of intelligence. An Iranian Revolutionary court quietly convicted him, sentenced him to death, and executed him without any publicity.

Iran and Israel’s shadow war takes a dangerous turn
Only last year, Mr Ahmadinejad confirmed the Mossad had infiltrated his intelligence ministry. He said: “Is it normal that the most senior officer responsible for the control of Israeli spies, responsible for confronting Israeli plots in Iran, himself turned out to be an Israeli agent?”

Israel rarely comments about the Mossad’s activities. Retired Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general and former defence ministry official Amos Gilad told the BBC this was for a good reason.

“I’m against any publicity. If you want to shoot, shoot, don’t talk… the Mossad’s reputation is to do fantastic operations, allegedly, clandestine, without publicity.”

Today, former Iranian officials are concerned that the Mossad has reached officials high up in Iranian security and intelligence institutions.

Ali Yunesi, a former Iranian intelligence minister and top adviser to President Rouhani, issued this warning in an interview: “The Mossad’s influence in many parts of the country is so vast that every member of the Iranian leadership should be worried for their lives, for their safety.”

You can watch Israel and Iran, The Hidden War at the following times (GMT in UK on BBC News Channel Sun 6 Feb 15:30 and Mon 7 Feb 02:30 and outside UK on BBC World News Sun 6 Feb 04:30; 10:30 and Tues 8 Feb 08:30

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-60250816

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The Iranians, masters of negotiation, tried conditioning the continuation of talks on the removal of sanctions and were rebuffed. It appears that this time the Europeans (mainly Germany, France and Great Britain) are more involved in the talks, while the Americans, who spearheaded negotiations under former President Barack Obama, are working more collaboratively with the other global powers.

It seems that despite the mutual threats and prevailing sense that the talks were headed toward failure, an agreement will ultimately be reached that will restrict Iran’s pace of uranium enrichment and give Tehran what it wants with the removal of most of the draconian sanctions.

Iran’s long-term strategic interest is to possess a nuclear weapon. In the short term, however, under the yoke of sanctions and a sputtering economy that threatens the regime’s survival, Tehran must get the sanctions lifted. The United States, under a president with plummeting approval ratings, needs an achievement to improve his standing. The Chinese and Russians, which regardless don’t abide by the sanctions, will be glad to return to doing legitimate business with Iran—such that ultimately, all sides have an interest in reaching a deal.

Israel is in the toughest position of all. If a deal is reached, currently sanctioned funds will be unfrozen, allowing Iranian terror and influence to run amok across the Middle East. We can expect the situation in Syria to change as well, and for the Iranians to apply even more pressure in an effort to cement their influence there. The Iranian nuclear threat won’t be eliminated, either, with the country remaining close to the threshold point. The Iranians will be able to secretly move ahead with their nuclear program, which will bring them closer to nuclear breakout capability.

Israel has the ability to attack Iran, and will soon have no other choice because the proverbial sword is almost at its neck. It appears that the critical moment is fast approaching. We cannot rely on American military intervention, which most likely will not come. When Israel has faced significant strategic threats in the past and taken the initiative, the Israel Defense Forces has emerged victorious.

The preparations currently underway are meant to improve the IDF’s attack capabilities and finalize a better plan of action. The IDF must receive a clear directive from the Israeli government, which defines the objective: devastating damage to Iran’s nuclear program; and the target date: fall of 2022. Despite the difficulties, it seems the time has come for the IDF to prepare a strike plan in conjunction with the country’s intelligence services.

At the same time, Israel must prepare for an Iranian response from its soil, and via Hezbollah as well. There is no reason for panic—talk of war with Iran is overblown. Israel has been fighting Iran for over two decades, and the IDF has the ability to continue coping with the Iranian threat and hitting Hezbollah hard. Beyond the operational preparations, Israel needs to prepare a diplomatic plan to legitimize a military strike and soften the international reaction.

Vice Adm. (ret.) Eliezer Marom served as commander of the Israeli Navy from 2007–2011.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/israel-is-fast-approaching-the-moment-of-truth-with-iran/

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Iranian Air Force General Amir Ali Hajizadeh has warned Israel that it is “doomed to termination” if it gives the Islamic republic an “excuse” to fulfill the threat of nuclear attack. The top Iranian military brass made the comment in light of Tel Aviv’s warnings that it could attack the country’s nuclear fuel enrichment plants.

Hajizadeh further ridiculed Tel Aviv over its threats, suggesting that the latter is not in a position to issue warnings while pretending that it is the “only regime in the world arguing about how to survive”.

“The [Israeli] regime that discusses its existence is doomed to termination and cannot talk about destroying other countries”.

The general acknowledged that Israel is able to carry out strikes against Iran, but noted that Tehran would win in an armed conflict. Additionally, he noted that constant demands from Israeli allies for Tehran to limit its missile programme are vivid proof that Iran possesses the power to fulfill its threat of eliminating Israel, should the latter strike first.

“Our enemies say we should negotiate on missiles… and our drones have become splinters in their eyes. If they insist on limiting the capabilities of our missiles and drones, it shows our strength. We don’t need to mention our strength because the enemy talks enough about Iran’s missiles and defensive capabilities”.

Earlier, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi revealed that his country’s military had been carrying out preparations for a possible attack on Iranian nuclear sites. Tel Aviv has for years claimed that Tehran was developing nuclear weapons, begging global powers not to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which fell apart after the administration of US President Donald Trump withdrew the US in 2018, arguing that it could boost Iran’s capability to create a nuke.

Iran has consistently rejected allegations that it had been working on a nuclear device, insisting that such a weapon contradicts the state religion of Islam. Tehran has long pointed out that it uses nuclear technologies for energy generation. At the same time, Iran lamented that the international community completely ignores the fact that Israel has possessed nuclear weapons for decades, despite avoiding an international declaration of its status as a country that has nuclear weapons ready to use.

At the moment, the Islamic republic is planning on returning to the negotiating table in Vienna to reach an agreement with the US and other signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal) treaty to restore the accord and lift sanctions from Iran.

The last round of talks ended without tangible results due to the failure of Tehran and the US to agree on the terms of a return to the JCPOA compliance, as well as due to presidential elections in Iran that would result in a change of government. A new round of talks is set to start later in November.

Source: https://sputniknews.com/20211111/iranian-general-israel-doomed-to-termination-as-tel-aviv-threatens-to-strike-nuclear-sites-1090666984.html

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Defense Minister Benny Gantz at a state memorial ceremony marking 7 years since Operation Protective Edge at the National Memorial Hall at the entrance to the military cemetery on Mount Herzl, June 20, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Monday said Israel and the United States had restored intelligence ties and were working to develop a “Plan B” if the stalled talks between Washington and Tehran regarding a fresh Iran nuclear deal sputter out, following a meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and US President Joe Biden last week.

Gantz warned that if Iran becomes a nuclear state, it will trigger an international arms race in which many other nations, in the Middle East and beyond, will attempt to acquire an atomic bomb.

“The United States and Israel share intelligence information, and the cooperation with the United States in this field is only getting stronger. We are working with them in order to establish a Plan B and to demonstrate that if there is no deal, other activities will begin, as President Biden said,” the defense minister said, speaking to military correspondents ahead of the Jewish New Year next week.

On Friday, the US president told a joint press conference with Bennett that his administration was “ready to turn to other options” if diplomatic talks with Iran failed, likely alluding to the possibility of clandestine operations and military strikes.

The White House meeting came a day after US officials told the New York Times that Israel’s previous administration had downgraded intelligence sharing with the US after Biden took office. Bennett has sought to restore ties with US Democrats after their relationship with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu became frayed, though Iran was the focus of the Friday meeting.

Gantz did not specify what the “Plan B” could entail, but Israeli officials have signaled a need for a credible military threat to deter Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons.

Gantz’s comments joined a flurry of threats by Israeli defense officials toward Iran in recent days, including Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, who told reporters last week that the military was preparing plans and funding for a potential military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“We are allocating resources in order to strengthen our ability to act against challenges in the region, chief among them Iran,” Gantz said.

US President Joe Biden (right) shakes hands with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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The defense minister made his comments during an extended briefing with reporters at the Defense Ministry’s offices in Tel Aviv’s Kirya military base, focusing on Iran along with his meeting Sunday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the lingering threats from the Gaza Strip following May’s conflict with terror groups there, the Middle East in general and the ongoing efforts by the government to pass the budget and fund the Defense Ministry’s programs.

“A defense budget allows us to rearm and allows for the operational ability that we need, alongside important social considerations. We are working to improve fortifications in the north and to build the [Lebanese border] barrier that was held up for years,” Gantz said.

Referring to recent efforts by the government to encourage ultra-Orthodox men to perform national service, the defense minister said he was working to expand this in order to get a larger majority of Israelis to enlist, warning that if this is not accomplished within the next decade, Israel will be forced to move to a professional, volunteer military.

“The goal is to get more than 70 percent of people to serve each year, when today we only have roughly 50 percent,” Gantz said.

The defense minister said he instructed the IDF to begin preparing for the possibility that it will have to continue to support the national pandemic response through the end of 2022, after initially planning to scale back the military’s involvement in these efforts following this year’s massive vaccination drive.

Strengthening the PA

Gantz reiterated his support for strengthening the Palestinian Authority, which works closely with Israel on security issues, particularly against Hamas and other terror groups in the West Bank. However, the PA is often maligned in Israel for its financial support for terrorism in the form of stipend to the families of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli on terrorism charges or killed as they perpetrated terror attacks, as well as for its repeated efforts to gain unilateral recognition as a state in international forums such as the United Nations.

“I told Abbas that we aren’t going anywhere and that the Palestinians aren’t going anywhere. I went to the meeting in order to build confidence and preserve the interests of the State of Israel and the important ties we have with the Palestinian Authority, which I believe we need to strengthen,” Gantz said.

“As the Palestinian Authority gets stronger, Hamas gets weaker, and so long as it has greater governance, we will have more security and we will have to act less,” he added.

The defense minister did not bring up the possibility of renewed peace talks with the Palestinians, and an official close to the prime minister told reporters earlier in the day that “there is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians nor will there be.”

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech regarding the Coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), at the Palestinian Authority headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 5, 2020. (Courtesy Flash90)

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Regarding the Gaza Strip, which has recently seen a significant increase in violence along the border, Gantz said Israel was maintaining its policy of making full reconstruction and further development of the enclave contingent upon the release of two Israeli civilians and the remains of two fallen IDF soldiers from Hamas captivity.

The defense minister said the military would also continue to strike more forcefully than it did in the past in response to low-level violence along the border, such as the launching of balloon-borne incendiary devices.

“We said that what had been will not be again, and what had been is not what is happening now. This is in terms of the nature and strength of our retaliations, in the different mechanism through which Qatari funds are being transferred, also on civilian issues and on the dependence of reconstruction on the captives, as I said at the end of the operation,” Gantz said.

Echoing similar comments made recently by IDF chief Kohavi, the defense minister warned that Israel may be at the outset of a fresh round of fighting in Gaza, continuing the campaign from May’s 11-day conflict, known in Israel as Operation Guardian of the Walls, if the violence along the border continues.

“Our strikes in Gaza have been precise and have hit rearmament facilities that are painful for Hamas and that deny it capabilities. I cannot promise that we will not have to continue with a 12th day of Guardian of the Walls,” he said.

Gantz also noted that rocket attacks from Lebanon, which began during Operation Guardian of the Walls, appeared to be the work of Palestinian terror cells linked to Hamas.

During the fighting in Gaza, three rounds of rocket fire were launched at northern Israel, causing neither injuries nor damage. A fourth attack was launched on July 20 and a fifth on August 4 by these Palestinian cells.

Israeli self-propelled howitzers fire towards Lebanon from a position near the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona following Hezbollah rocket fire from the Lebanese side of the border, on August 6, 2021. (JALAA MAREY / AFP)

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“We have seen that Hamas International is trying to create an infrastructure in Lebanon,” Gantz said.

The IDF does not see these cells as a major threat, but has allocated additional intelligence resources to monitoring them. The main threat in Lebanon remains the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist militia.

After Israel retaliated forcefully to the August 4 attack, Hezbollah fired 19 rockets at northern Israel, the first time the organization has openly launched such an attack since the 2006 Second Lebanon War. These rocket attacks from Lebanon raised the specter of a potential two-front war in the future, in which Israel would have to fight both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The humanitarian situation in Lebanon is very worrying, but so are the rearmament efforts of Hezbollah. We are prepared for the possibility of fighting on the northern front, including a situation in which we would be fighting on northern and southern fronts,” Gantz said.

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Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-and-us-working-on-plan-b-if-iran-nuke-talks-fail-gantz-says/

[Disclaimer]

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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar at a rally in Beit Lahiya on May 30, 2021. Photo by Atia Mohammed/Flash90.

(August 24, 2021 / JNS) Hamas in the Gaza Strip is pursuing terms that are impossible for Israel to accept as part of its extortion attempt to “change the rules of the equation,” a former defense official and expert on Gaza has said.

Col. (res.) David Hacham, an Arab-affairs adviser to seven Israeli defense ministers and a senior research associate at the Miryam Institute, told JNS that a central impasse blocking the path to a broader arrangement between Israel and Gaza is Hamas’s refusal to come up with realistic proposals to facilitate a deal for the release of the remains of two missing-in-action Israel Defense Forces’ soldiers who were killed in the 2014 war, in addition to two living Israeli civilians who entered Gaza and are being held by the terrorist organization.

With Israel linking progress on this issue to progress on a broader arrangement for Gaza’s reconstruction and economy—and Hamas refusing to budge on its unrealistic demands for facilitating an exchange deal to secure the release of the Israelis—a structural problem is in place, noted Hacham.

“Israel says that if Hamas wants progress on a broader arrangement, progress must be made on an exchange deal. Hamas says these are two separate issues, and it wants separate talks on increasing the entry of commodities and services into Gaza, and the entry of Gazan workers into Israel,” he said. “This is the key issue on the agenda. It is the central reason for all of the incidents we are seeing on the border. Hamas demands that Israel ‘lifts the siege.’ ”

In exchange for the release of Israeli civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed, and the remains of MIA personnel Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, has demanded that Israel release 1,111 Palestinian security prisoners.

“Hamas is raising impossible standards for Israel,” said Hacham.

“In principle, Hamas is seeking to change the terms of the equation that has existed for a long time between Israel and Hamas,” he said. “Their slogan of ‘lifting the siege’ means opening up Gaza’s border crossings to Israel and the outside world, the naval arena and the air arena.”

Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate has played the central role in mediating talks between Israel and Hamas, with most of the talks taking place in Cairo.

With no progress being made on the swap deal, the other negotiations channel is designed to achieve what Israel calls an “arrangement” and what Hamas calls a hudna (“calm”).

To that end, talks have revolved on enabling more traffic of goods, merchants and businesspeople through the Gaza-Israel border crossings. Even though no final arrangement has been reached, Israel recently took the step of allowing 1,000 Gazan merchants and 250 businesspeople into Israel.

Throughout the deliberations, Israel has ensured a constant humanitarian flow of basic goods, food and medical supply into Gaza though trucks that pass through Kerem Shalom Crossing.

Hamas is also demanding the entry of funds for rebuilding sections of the Strip and repairing damages following the May conflict it prompted and fought with Israel.

Yet the fact that the talks are stuck on the swap issue means there is “no moving forward,” said Hacham.

This will not change as long as “Hamas does not allow progress on the MIA’s remains and captive issue,” he stated. Hamas’s initiative to jump-start Gaza’s economy and see large-scale infrastructure projects take place is thus being stalled by Hamas’s own refusal to compromise on its demands.

As a result, the fact that an agreement was reached in recent days allowing some $100 million a month of Qatari assistance cash for needy Gazan families to come has not altered the impasse.

That agreement will see the United Nations allocate the funds through special ATM withdrawal cards, after a list of recipients was authorized by Israel, which is a far cry from the old allocation method, when Qatar’s envoy to Gaza, Muhammad Al-Emadi, would arrive with suitcases brimming with cash.

In the old arrangement, Hacham said, “Israel didn’t fully supervise where this money went. We can assume that not all of it went to needy families; some went to developing Hamas’s terror infrastructure and local rocket-production centers.”

As a result, Israel refused to consider going back to the old arrangement. Yet now that the deal was reached, Hamas is far from being satisfied or willing to scale back its escalation tactics on the border.

‘Hamas believes its charger was drawn up by God’

Hacham said that those who are holding out hopes for a change in Hamas’s radical worldview are clinging to fantasies.

“Hamas is an enemy. It is guided, conceptually and ideologically, by a call for Israel’s destruction. It does not recognize Israel. Hamas has not changed its ideology, concepts or objectives,” he said. “And it can’t change them. I remember speaking with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who founded Hamas during the First Intifada in 1987, and asking him if the movement’s stances could change, whether mutual recognition could change. He told me, ‘Our charter was drawn up by God. So humans cannot change our charter.’ ”

Hamas’s 1988 covenant continues to reflect its ideology and policy towards Israel, said Hacham. “But we have to distinguish between Hamas’s practical actions and ideology. For tactical reasons, it is willing to reach ceasefires (hudnas), but not at the cost of recognition of Israel or acceptance of Israel as a legitimate element. Only as part of a tactical need.”

As a result of these dynamics, the chances of a long-term quiet with Hamas are slim, he assessed. However, stepped-up Israeli offensive actions and an Israeli determination to respond to each act of Hamas aggression could boost Israeli deterrence, he argued.

Boosted Israeli deterrence would, in turn, enable Israel to prioritize its strategic task of preventing Iran from breaking out to a nuclear weapon and dealing with Iran’s entrenchment in Syria, and Hezbollah’s threatening force build-up in Lebanon. “These are the issues at the top of Israel’s priority list. Hence, Gaza is a problem that has to be confined,” he said.

Deterrence can be improved through steps such as “commando raids or destroying their weapons storehouses, tunnels or even targeted killings—a tool that has proven itself,” said Hacham, while stressing that he is not in favor of a reoccupation of Gaza.

“But Israel can’t exclude retaking Gaza either. It has to take this option into account, but only in a scenario in which there are no other options,” he said.

Such a maneuver would involve heavy casualties among young IDF soldiers, he said, as well as civilians on both sides, despite Israeli efforts to avoid this; as such, it must be reserved as a last option.

Source: https://www.jns.org/hamas-demanding-impossible-terms-as-deadlock-with-israel-continues/

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Illustrative: Explosions light up the night sky above buildings in Gaza City as IDF planes hit the Palestinian enclave, early on June 16, 2021. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

Israel Defense Forces jets struck a series of targets in Gaza late Sunday night, hours after incendiary balloons launched from the Strip sparked several fires in southern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces said warplanes hit several buildings in a Hamas military base, as well as unspecified “infrastructure and utilities used for activities” of the terror group.

It noted the base was located “adjacent to civilian sites, including a school,” without providing details.

According to the Hamas-affiliated al-Resalah, Israeli planes bombed areas west of Gaza City, before striking to the east of Khan Younis. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Palestinian media reported that terrorists fired from machine guns at Israeli aircraft over the Gaza Strip, amid the airstrikes, and managed to down a drone.

An IDF spokesperson said the military was not aware of any reports of drones that had been shot down.

The army said the airstrikes came in response to incendiary balloons launched into Israel.

“The IDF will respond aggressively against continued terror attempts out of the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasim mocked the Israeli airstrikes as a “failed attempt to show its own impotent power and restore its army’s battered image after it was shaken” during the recent fighting between the two sides.

“The noble resistance is ready to deal with all options, nor will it allow the occupation to impose its equations,” said Qasim, referring to the balance of deterrence between Hamas and Israel.

On Sunday afternoon, Gaza-based terror groups launched incendiary balloons into southern Israel, sparking a number of fires, a Fire and Rescue services investigator determined.

In response to the arson attacks, Israel announced it was cutting the Gaza Strip’s fishing zone in half, from 12 nautical miles to six, effective immediately and until further notice on Sunday night. Prior to May’s conflict between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in Gaza, Palestinian fisherman could operate up to 15 nautical miles from the coast.

“This follows the launching of incendiary balloons from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, which is a violation of Israeli sovereignty,” Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, said in a statement.

According to the fire department, three small brushfires were ignited in the Eshkol region of southern Israel, in the first arson attacks from the Gaza Strip since early July.

“A fire investigator from the Southern District Fire and Rescue Services found that the blaze was caused by the launching of incendiary balloons,” a fire department spokesperson said. There were no injuries or damage to property reported.

In its statement, COGAT said the attacks were ultimately the responsibility of the Hamas terror group, the de facto ruler of the Strip.

Bonfires in southern Israel allegedly sparked by incendiary balloons launched by Gaza-based terror groups on July 25, 2021. (Moshe Brochi)

Hamas has warned of a return to fighting should Israel seek to again tighten restrictions on the blockaded Gaza Strip. The coastal enclave has seen tighter controls than usual since the 11-day May conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli authorities prevented 25 trucks bearing Qatari-funded fuel from entering the Gaza Strip. An Israeli defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cited a failure by Palestinian Authority officials in Gaza to coordinate with them.

PA officials in Gaza rejected the claim, saying that the United Nations and Qatar were responsible for directly coordinating with the Israeli side. Both the UN and the office of Qatar’s Gaza envoy declined to comment.

“Further restrictions on Gaza will only generate an explosion in the face of the occupation,” Hamas spokesperson Abd al-Latif al-Qanou told official Hamas radio on Sunday evening.

The Israeli defense official said Sunday night that the fuel was expected to enter the Gaza Strip on Monday, but that “nothing was set in stone.”

Supporters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group prepare balloon-borne incendiary devices to launch toward Israel, east of Gaza City, on June 15, 2021. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90)

Israel regularly responds with airstrikes against Hamas positions in Gaza after incendiary balloon attacks. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has repeatedly said that he will not allow such incidents to occur without a response.

“Israel is interested in calm and has no interest in harming Gaza residents, but violence… will be met with a strong response,” Bennett told the cabinet following such strikes in early July.

During the war, Israeli airstrikes and Palestinian rockets caused at least $290 million worth of damage to the Gaza Strip, international assessors reported in early July.

Israel and Hamas have been conducting indirect negotiations in Cairo in an attempt to strengthen the fragile ceasefire between the two sides. Israeli officials have said they will condition allowing the reconstruction of Gaza and easing the heightened restrictions on reaching a prisoner exchange with Hamas that secures the return of Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, and the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who died in 2014 fighting.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-strikes-gaza-after-incendiary-balloons-spark-fires-in-south/

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In remarks delivered Tuesday during a visit to Israel’s Northern Command, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi spoke out in response to the launching of two rockets from Lebanese territory toward Israel’s Western Galilee region. The IDF said late Monday, early Tuesday local time, one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome Defense System, while the other landed in an open field.

The hostilities are the latest to rock the volatile border between Israel and Lebanon, which has undergone a severe economic decline owing to a financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and political paralysis among the country’s ruling class. Kovachi blamed the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement for the dire situation Lebanon faced.

“Lebanon is in the process of collapsing—a collapse Hezbollah has helped cause,” Kovachi said. “But we do not intend to allow, as a result of this collapse, the rocket fire that happened this morning.”

He warned of retaliation seen and unseen.

“We will respond both overtly and covertly to any violation of Israeli sovereignty from Lebanon, whoever it may be,” Kovachi said.

Shortly after the rocket barrage across the border, the IDF said it conducted artillery fire on Lebanese territory.

The attacks from both sides of the border were confirmed to Newsweek at the time by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

“Just before 4 a.m. this morning, UNIFIL radar detected the firing of rockets from an area north-west of Al Qulaylah toward Israel,” a UNIFIL spokesperson said. “Our radar subsequently detected return artillery fire by the IDF.”

The force, which is tasked with patrolling the restive border on behalf of the U.N., said it was working to prevent further escalation.

“UNIFIL is in direct contact with the parties to urge maximum restraint and avoid further escalation,” the spokesperson said. “Our liaison and coordination mechanisms are fully engaged. Together with the Lebanese Armed Forces, we have increased security in the area and have launched an investigation.”

The Lebanese Armed Forces’ Orientation Directorate later released a statement of their own regarding the series of events.

“On 07/20/2021, between the hours of 3.35 and 4.45, the area of ​​Wadi Hamul, Tel Armiz, was bombarded by the Israeli enemy artillery. No casualties or damage were reported,” the statement said. “The area was targeted with 12 155-caliber artillery shells, against the background of the enemy’s allegations that two missiles fell in the occupied territories, originating from Lebanon.”

The Lebanese military then appeared to corroborate the Israeli and UNIFIL account with the discovery of a smoking gun: three devices designed to launch 122mm Grad rockets, one of which had yet to be launched and was subsequently disabled by army units.

A Grad rocket is seen after being discovered July 20 by the Lebanese Armed Forces near Al-Qaliyah, south of Tyre, amid reports of a rocket attack toward Israel and retaliatory Israeli artillery fire against Lebanon.LEBANESE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION

The official Lebanese National News agency also reported Tuesday that Lebanese soldiers had set up checkpoints along roads in the area to check vehicle registration and identity cards.

No nation, group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which are reminiscent of three similar rocket launches conducted in May amid a raging battle between Israeli forces and Palestinian factions led by the Hamas movement in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian protesters also stormed across the security fence from Lebanon, drawing IDF artillery fire that killed at least one person.

Later on Tuesday, the Lebanese Armed Forces also accused Israel of violating Lebanon’s airspace via an “enemy reconnaissance aircraft” that flew over the southern town of Naqoura.

State-run media recorded further incidents including the firing of a smoke bomb near a shepherd in the Barakat al-Naqar locality outside the town of Shebaa and the firing of weapons in Syria’s Golan Heights, which has been under Israeli control since 1967.

The Lebanese report noted that such activity in the Golan Heights often coincides with Israeli military drills, which the IDF conducted in the disputed region Tuesday.

Like Lebanon, Syria remains technically at war with Israel since 1948, when a coalition of Arab states first went to war over Israel’s establishment on territory also claimed by Palestinians.

Two more Arab-Israeli conflicts were fought in 1967 and 1971, and Israel fought another two conflicts in Lebanon itself, initially taking on Palestinian guerillas and Hezbollah, which remains active today across southern Lebanon.

While the Israel-Lebanon border remains tense, Israel has regularly conducted airstrikes in Syria, which was struck just hours before Tuesday’s rocket launches against Israel from Lebanon.

Asked for comment at the time, the IDF told Newsweek that “we do not comment on reports in the foreign media.”

The Syrian Defense Ministry, however, swiftly blamed the attack on Israel and said most of the incoming missiles were downed by anti-air defenses as they targeted Aleppo province’s Al-Safira region.

On Tuesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry lashed out at Israel over its alleged involvement in the air raid, accusing the country of aiding militant groups such as the Islamic State and Nusra Front, violating international law, and disrespecting the Eid al-Adha Islamic holiday.

“The Syrian Arab Republic considers this aggression as an Israeli declaration of bankruptcy and a declaration of the defeat of the Western-Israeli subversive project,” the statement said, “and warns ‘Israel’ of the dangerous repercussions resulting from persisting in its attacks under false pretexts, and of its continuous support for armed terrorist organizations, and of its continued occupation of Arab lands, including in the occupied Syrian Golan.”

The ministry called on the U.N. Security Council “to assume its responsibilities within the framework of the United Nations Charter, the most important of which is to maintain international peace and security, to condemn and be held accountable for the blatant Israeli attacks, to take firm and immediate measures to prevent their recurrence and to oblige Israel to respect its resolutions, and to hold it accountable for its terrorism and crimes against the Syrian people.”

Israel has accused Syria of harboring Iran-backed forces setting up forward operating bases and transferring weapons throughout their stated mission of supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his decade-long civil war against rebels and jihadis.

Israel’s ally, the United States, is also active in Syria and has conducted airstrikes against suspected Iran-backed militias in response to rocket attacks against U.S. positions in Iraq. While Washington maintains a partnership with Baghdad, it has severed ties with Assad’s government in Damascus and instead works with a mostly Kurdish militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.

As for Lebanon, the U.S. has joined Israel in expressing frustration over the influence of Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah in the country.

On Tuesday, the White House extended a 14-year national emergency with respect to Lebanon “to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” according to a statement that echoed past renewals.

This threat was blamed on “the actions of certain persons to undermine Lebanon’s legitimate and democratically elected government or democratic institutions; to contribute to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Lebanon, including through politically motivated violence and intimidation; to reassert Syrian control or contribute to Syrian interference in Lebanon; or to infringe upon or undermine Lebanese sovereignty.”

“Such actions,” the statement asserted, “contribute to political and economic instability in that country and the region.

And the White House, like in prior years, took particular aim at Hezbollah and Iran.

“Certain ongoing activities, such as Iran’s continuing arms transfers to Hizballah — which include increasingly sophisticated weapons systems — serve to undermine Lebanese sovereignty, contribute to political and economic instability in the region, and continue to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the statement said.

Israeli soldiers take part in a military drill near Moshav Odem in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on July 20. Israel seized the territory from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in a 1981 move not recognized internationally except for the U.S.JALAA MAREY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

As Lebanon’s woes continued to mount, the country’s political plight took yet another apparent turn for the worse on Thursday when Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri offered his resignation to President Michel Aoun. Hariri has twice before served as premier and ultimately resigned from his post both times.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Hariri’s latest decision to step down as “yet another disappointing development for the Lebanese people.”

“It is critical that a government committed and able to implement priority reforms be formed now,” the top U.S. diplomat said. “The government must also start preparing for the 2022 parliamentary elections, which should be held on time and conducted in a free and fair manner.”

Blinken issued an appeal to Lebanese leaders to overcome their differences for the common cause of salvaging the country.

“Lebanon’s political class has squandered the last nine months. The Lebanese economy is in free-fall, and the current government is not providing basic services in a reliable fashion,” he said. “Leaders in Beirut must urgently put aside partisan differences and form a government that serves the Lebanese people. That is what the people of Lebanon desperately need.”

A Hezbollah flag flutters on the Lebanese side of the border fence with Israel, near the northern Israeli settlement of Shtula on July 20. Israel shelled Lebanon early that same day in response to earlier rocket attacks, the Israeli army said, as the United Nations urged all sides to show “maximum restraint.”JALAA MAREY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/israel-threatens-lebanon-over-rocket-attacks-syria-warns-israel-against-airstrikes-1611665?piano_t=1

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