11/17/2023 2:09:26 p.m
Iran to the USA: We do not want the conflict to expand
Iran said this United States He does not want the war between Israel and Hamas to expand, but warns that a regional conflict could be inevitable if Israel’s attacks on Gaza continue. “In response to the United States, we said that Iran does not want the war to expand, but given the actions of the United States and Israel in the region, if the crimes against the people of Gaza and the West Bank do not stop, then it could every possibility must be considered and a major conflict may prove inevitable,” Iran’s foreign minister told the Financial Times.
2023-11-17 12:34:12
Sirens sound the alarm in the south and north of Israel
Alarm sirens are sounding both in the south of Israel (due to heavy Palestinian rocket fires from Gaza on the city of Ashkelon) and in the north because of new attacks from southern Lebanon. In particular, attacks were reported against the Israeli towns of Malkiya, Arab el-Aramshe and Adamit, all of which lie immediately south of the border with Lebanon. The media reports about it. The population was called upon to reach the emergency shelters.
2023-11-17 12:20:07
US base in Syria is attacked by pro-Iranian militias
Pro-Iranian fighters in Syria previously announced that they had attacked the US military base at Tell Baydar in northeastern Syria. This is according to a statement published on the social accounts of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. It is an acronym that summarizes a number of armed groups operating in Syria and Iraq and supported by Tehran.
2023-11-17 11:54:22
Ahmed Bahar, former president of the Hamas parliament, was killed in Gaza
According to Palestinian reports – picked up by Haaretz – Ahmed Bahar, a prominent member of Hamas’ political wing, was killed by Israel in the fighting in Gaza. Bahar, it was recalled, was president of the Hamas parliament when the Islamic faction took control of the Gaza Strip in 2006.
2023-11-17 11:26:38
Israel attacks Lebanon “after anti-tank fire.”
After launching an anti-tank missile from Lebanon, the Israeli army attacks Hezbollah targets across the border. The military spokesman stated that “terrorist infrastructure, weapons depots and various military facilities” had been hit. The area from which the anti-tank missile was fired was also hit.
2023-11-17 10:08:38
Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon
This morning, repeated Israeli bombings were recorded in southern Lebanon near the front line between Hezbollah and Israel, from the Mediterranean coastal area to the border with Syria. According to Lebanese media, the affected areas are Naqura, Ramia, Beit Lif, Jebbin, Dhahira, Ayta Shaab, Yarin, Mays Jabal, Blida, Khiam, Burj Muluk, Kfar Shuba and Kfar Hammam.
2023-11-17 09:05:46
Former Fatah member Khaled Abu Halal was killed in Gaza
According to reports from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army killed Khaled Abu Halal, a former senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah (Abu Mazen’s party) that had become a Hamas affiliate. Haaretz reported that Abu Halal was killed in an airstrike in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.
2023-11-17 08:49:17
Israel: Islamic Jihad stronghold captured in northern strip
Israeli soldiers continued their operation in the Gaza Strip overnight. The military spokesman said that Israeli aircraft had hit “numerous targets” in the Palestinian enclave. The soldiers – he continued – took control of a stronghold belonging to the Islamic Jihad commander in the north of the Gaza Strip. “The fortress housed the offices of the organization’s terrorist leaders and a weapons production facility.” In addition, the soldiers operated in a school where many weapons were hidden, “where Hamas terrorists were hiding,” and many were killed.
2023-11-17 08:20:30
UN: No humanitarian operation at Rafah border crossing today
Today “there will be no cross-border relief operation at the Rafah border crossing” between the Gaza Strip and Egypt: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced this yesterday evening. “The communication network in Gaza is interrupted because there is no fuel. This makes it impossible to manage or coordinate humanitarian aid convoys,” said the statement published on X.
2023-11-17 07:24:15
The female soldier corps was located near Shifa Hospital
The body of soldier Noa Marciano, who was kidnapped by Hamas at the Nahal Oz base on October 7, was found in a building next to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. This was announced by the military spokesman. Last Monday, Hamas released a video of Marciano (19 years old), taken four days after her abduction, detailing who she was and whose daughter she was. At a certain point the video stopped and his body appeared. Yesterday, the body of another female hostage kidnapped by Hamas was recovered, also near Shifa Hospital.
2023-11-17 07:07:09
Israel: Body of soldier kidnapped by Hamas recovered
The Israeli army announced this morning that it has recovered the body of Noa Marciano, the 19-year-old soldier taken hostage by Hamas.
2023-11-17 07:00:05
West Bank raid, death toll rises to 3
According to Palestinian sources, the death toll in today’s Israeli military operation in Jenin in the West Bank has risen to three dead and seven injured. Two of the people killed were members of the local Jenin Bridges militia.
2023-11-17 06:13:09
Israeli attack in the West Bank: at least two dead
According to Palestinian sources in the West Bank city of Jenin, two people were killed and seven injured in an Israeli military operation in the early hours of today. The local media reported about it. According to the report, some people were injured by an airstrike and others by gunfire. Two of the injured were in serious condition. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) also reportedly surrounded the city’s Ibn Sina Hospital.
2023-11-17 01:14:37
Blinken to Israel: Urgent action against settler violence
US diplomat Antony Blinken called on Israel to take “urgent” action to end settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Blinken, who is in San Francisco for an Asia-Pacific summit, made the appeal in a phone call with Benny Gantz, an Israeli opposition leader who joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet
2023-11-17 01:09:47
Gaza, air strike on Han Younis: ten dead
Ten people, including children, died in an airstrike by Israeli forces east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip this evening. Al Jazeera reports, citing witnesses, Palestinian media reports and an Al Jazeera journalist, that the attack hit a single-family home in al-Qarara. A video seen by Al Jazeera shows some of the dead, including a young girl and a baby, at al-Nasr Children’s Hospital. The attack came a day after the Israeli army dropped leaflets in and around al-Qarara urging residents to evacuate to “known shelters.”
The announcement of the “new phase” of the war comes with a leaflet in the south of the Gaza Strip, while telephony and internet across the Gaza Strip are dramatically collapsing due to bombings and fuel shortages.
And it extends to four cities in the part of Gaza where hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the north are crowded together in a desperate search for shelter. “For your safety, you must evacuate immediately and go to the emergency shelters you know,” the mimeograph reads. “Anyone who stays near terrorists or their facilities puts their lives in danger. Any house used by terrorists will be bombed.” These words were reinforced by the words of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, during a visit to the command center of the 36th Air Force Division warned that the IDF, the army with the Star of David, would move to the “next phase” and to the ground The operation “continues and will be carried out precisely, selectively, but very, very decisively.”
INSIGHTS
THE ATTACK
This is the same Gallant who encouraged the soldiers of the Golani Brigade to enter Gaza “taking into account the images of the October 7 massacres.” The gradual dismantling of Hamas and Islamic Jihad defenses continues with two bombings of the tunnels where Hamas commanders were killed, including Ahmed Ghandour, head of the Northern Brigade, and Ayman Siam, in charge of the rocket launch system. And then with the capture of the port of Gaza by the 188 tank brigade and the Shayetet 13 marine unit, after eliminating ten Palestinian militiamen (50 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far). The army blows up 10 pipelines leading to Gaza’s “subway” tunnels used by terrorist divers to reach Israeli shores and again attacks a home belonging to Hamas leader Hanyeh. Those from Doha, Qatar warn: “The enemy has not achieved a goal, if he wants a long fight he will have one. We are ready”.
THE ESCAPE
The cities that the Palestinians must leave are Bani Shuhaila, Khuza’z, Abassan and al-Qarara, but no one can say where the displaced people might go if the south becomes a battlefield. The telecommunications outage isolates the Gaza Strip and makes humanitarian action impossible. According to Hamas, only five of 23 ambulances were in use, the others destroyed or unusable. And the number of Palestinian deaths continues, over 11,000 (unconfirmed). The UN human rights representative Volker Türk is calling for an international investigation into the crimes. Not about October 7th, but about the war that is taking place today. “Extremely serious allegations of multiple and serious violations of international humanitarian law, regardless of who committed them, require rigorous investigation and full accountability.” The South African government is doing the same by turning to the International Criminal Court. Humanitarian organizations are united against the “safe areas”, security zones for civilians, which are only desired by one party, namely Tel Aviv.
THE NOTIFICATIONS
In order to eliminate suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Israelis are fighting with regard to the treaties and point out that the attacks are preceded by warnings to the population and that the terrorists shield themselves from the civilian population. Hamas would not have been ashamed to hide rockets under the bed of a Palestinian girl in Beit Hanun, north of the Gaza Strip. The words “Baby Girl” are written on the door of the room. This was revealed by an IDF spokesman, who also reported a wiretap in which Islamic Jihad members said they had placed weapons in a child’s stroller. Israel hesitates when there are prisoner exchange proposals (50 Jewish women and children in exchange for Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli prisons, and then a few days of ceasefire). It was discussed in Netanyahu’s War Cabinet yesterday. Experts say a ceasefire would slow the Israeli army’s momentum and allow Hamas guerrillas to recharge their weapons systems, take cover and move the hostages already identified by Israeli and American intelligence.
HIGH VOLTAGE
Meanwhile, Hamas is pursuing its inflammatory policy of extending the conflict to the West Bank, where yesterday during a firefight at a checkpoint on the road from Jerusalem to the settlers’ settlements, three terrorists emerged from a white Skoda and then two were identified as The Shin Bet, Elements well known to Israeli intelligence, a son of a “martyred” Hamas leader, they fired “in all directions” at the Israeli soldiers. One killed, six injured. The head of the Israeli police in the West Bank then said that the shooting prevented the three (all dead) from carrying out attacks in Israel: a small arsenal was found in the car. Israeli National Security Minister and far-right leader Itamar Ben-Gvir’s comment was harsh: “We should do the same thing in the West Bank as we did in Gaza.” Netanyahu, the prime minister, was challenged yesterday by a march of relatives of the hostages, adding pressure on the executive branch to consider liberation as an absolute priority, claiming: “There is no place in Gaza that we cannot reach and for which there is no refuge for the murderers of Hamas.” The President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, reiterates to the Financial Times that security in Gaza can only be guaranteed by the Israeli military presence. After all, negotiations about war and hostages are ongoing. Turkey’s Erdogan flies to Berlin and France’s Macron defends his demand for Israel to cease fire. “Nothing justifies the bombing of civilians and the deaths of children.” The EU High Representative, Borrell, is on the phone. “Israel must not allow itself to be blinded by anger; one horror does not justify another.” But Europe is divided.
by Marco Ventura