Israel vows to ‘eliminate’ new Hamas leader as war enters 11th month

Israel vows to ‘eliminate’ new Hamas leader as war enters 11th month
Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, greets his supporters during a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, on Apr. 13, 2022. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 07 August 2024
Follow

Israel vows to ‘eliminate’ new Hamas leader as war enters 11th month

Israel vows to ‘eliminate’ new Hamas leader as war enters 11th month
  • Speaking at a military base on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “determined” to defend itself
  • “If a ceasefire deal seemed unlikely upon Haniyeh’s death, it is even less likely under Sinwar,” according to Rita Katz, executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group

JERUSALEM: Israel vowed to “eliminate” new Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, the alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack, whose appointment further inflamed regional tensions as the Gaza war entered its 11th month on Wednesday.
The naming of Sinwar to lead the Palestinian militant group came as Israel braced for potential Iranian retaliation over the killing of his predecessor Ismael Haniyeh last week in Tehran.
Speaking at a military base on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “determined” to defend itself.
“We are prepared both defensively and offensively,” he told new recruits.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said late Tuesday that Sinwar’s promotion was “yet another compelling reason to swiftly eliminate him and wipe this vile organization off the face of the earth.”
Sinwar — Hamas’s leader in Gaza since 2017 — has not been seen since the October 7 attack, which was the deadliest in Israel’s history.
A senior Hamas official told AFP that the selection of Sinwar sent a message that the organization “continues its path of resistance.”
Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah congratulated Sinwar and said the appointment affirms “the enemy... has failed to achieve its objectives” by killing Hamas leaders and officials.
Analysts believe Sinwar has been both more reluctant to agree to a Gaza ceasefire and closer to Tehran than Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar.
“If a ceasefire deal seemed unlikely upon Haniyeh’s death, it is even less likely under Sinwar,” according to Rita Katz, executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group.
“The group will only lean further into its hard-line militant strategy of recent years,” she added.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that it was up to Sinwar to help achieve a ceasefire, saying he “has been and remains the primary decider.”
Civilians in both Israel and Gaza met Sinwar’s appointment with unease.
Mohammad Al-Sharif, a displaced Gazan, told AFP: “He is a fighter. How will negotiations take place?“
In Tel Aviv, logistics company manger Hanan, who did not want to give his second name, said Sinwar’s appointment meant Hamas “did not see fit to look for someone less militant, someone with a less murderous approach.”
Iran-backed Hezbollah has also pledged to avenge the deaths of Haniyeh and its own military commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike in Beirut hours earlier.
In a televised address to mark one week since Shukr’s death, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday his group would retaliate “alone or in the context of a unified response from all the axis” of Iran-backed groups in the region.
The United States, which has sent extra warships and jets to the region, urged both Iran and Israel to avoid an escalation.
President Joe Biden had calls with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday.
“No one should escalate this conflict. We’ve been engaged in intense diplomacy with allies and partners, communicating that message directly to Iran. We communicated that message directly to Israel,” Blinken told reporters.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a telephone call that the West “should immediately stop selling arms and supporting” Israel if it wants to prevent war, his office said.
The Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation met on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara, whose country currently chairs the bloc, said the “heinous” killing of Haniyeh risked “leading to a wider conflict that could involve the entire region.”
Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s killing but confirmed it had carried out the strike on Shukr.
It held the Hezbollah commander responsible for a rocket attack in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli troops throughout the Gaza war.
The group said Tuesday that six of its fighters were killed in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and that it had launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at a military base in the Golan Heights in retaliation.
Numerous airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon or limited them to daylight hours.
The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian group’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, has already drawn in Iran-backed militants in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,677 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
The toll included two dozen deaths in the past 24 hours, according to ministry figures.
Israel said that its air force had “struck dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” over the past day.


Canada to pull children of diplomats out of Israel, Canadian Press reports

Canada to pull children of diplomats out of Israel, Canadian Press reports
Updated 5 sec ago
Follow

Canada to pull children of diplomats out of Israel, Canadian Press reports

Canada to pull children of diplomats out of Israel, Canadian Press reports
  • Global Affairs Canada said it has approved the temporary relocation of the diplomats’ children and their guardians to a safe third country
  • Canada on Saturday warned citizens to avoid all travel to Israel, citing the ongoing regional conflict and unpredictable security situation

The Canadian government said on Wednesday it has decided to pull the children and guardians of its diplomats out of Israel, amid fears of a widened conflict in the Middle East, the Canadian Press reported.
Israel’s tensions with Iran and Hezbollah have fanned fears of a broader conflict in a region already on edge amid Israel’s assault on Gaza which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, including widespread hunger.
There has been an increased risk of escalation into a broader Middle East war after the killings of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut drew threats of retaliation against Israel.
Global Affairs Canada, in a statement cited in the Canadian Press, said it has approved the temporary relocation of the diplomats’ children and their guardians to a safe third country. It added that diplomats stationed in Ramallah in the West Bank and in Beirut do not have dependents living with them.
Canada on Saturday warned citizens to avoid all travel to Israel, citing the ongoing regional conflict and unpredictable security situation. It also urges its citizens to not travel to Gaza and the West Bank.
The embassies in Tel Aviv and Beirut and the representative office to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank “all remain fully operational and continue to provide essential services to Canadians,” the Canadian government said in the statement cited by the Canadian Press.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel’s military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million and leading to genocide accusations that Israel denies.

 


Tunisian president sacks PM amid growing discontent over recurring water and electricity crisis

Tunisian president sacks PM amid growing discontent over recurring water and electricity crisis
Updated 08 August 2024
Follow

Tunisian president sacks PM amid growing discontent over recurring water and electricity crisis

Tunisian president sacks PM amid growing discontent over recurring water and electricity crisis
  • Hachani's dismissal comes exactly a year after he was tapped to replace Najla Bouden

TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied sacked Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani and appointed Social Affairs Minister Kamel Maddouri as his replacement, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Hachani was named as Tunisia’s prime minister in August last year. A few hours before he was dismissed, Hachani said in a video message that the government had made progress on a number of issues despite global challenges, including securing the country’s food and energy needs.

Hachani's dismissal comes exactly a year after Saied appointed him to replace Najla Bouden as prime minister.

The dismissal comes amid popular discontent with the recurring water and electricity outage crisis in many parts of the country. While the government says that Tunisia is suffering from a continuous drought that has led to a quota system in water distribution, Saied sees the water cuts as a conspiracy ahead of presidential election and says that the dams are full.
The agriculture ministry says that the dam level is extremely critical and has reached 25 percent.
Saied announced his candidacy for the presidential elections in October amid widespread criticism from the opposition, human rights groups and candidates for restricting and intimidating competitors to pave the way for him to win a second term.


Fatalities in Israeli attack include head of Hezbollah’s anti-tank rocket unit

Fatalities in Israeli attack include head of Hezbollah’s anti-tank rocket unit
Updated 07 August 2024
Follow

Fatalities in Israeli attack include head of Hezbollah’s anti-tank rocket unit

Fatalities in Israeli attack include head of Hezbollah’s anti-tank rocket unit
  • 2 killed, 7 injured, says Israeli army

BEIRUT: Two people were killed — one a civilian and the other, according to the Israeli army, the head of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s anti-tank rocket unit — and seven others injured on Wednesday in renewed Israeli hostilities in several towns in southern Lebanon.

An Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in the town of Jouaiyya at noon, and a passing car was hit, injuring those inside.

The emergency operations center at the Ministry of Health reported that two people were killed, Hezbollah member Hassan Fares Jeshi and a civilian named Mohammed Hassan Shoumar, while four others were injured.

The Israeli army said: “Hassan Fares is the commander of Hezbollah’s anti-tank rocket unit.”

Israeli artillery shelling and air raids continued on border towns known for their loyalty to Hezbollah. These attacks hit the towns of Blida, Tayr Harfa, Khiam, Jebbayn, Chihine, Majdelyoun, Naqoura, Zibqin, Chaqra, Baraachit, Halta, Kounine, Mhaibib, and Kfarkela.

The emergency operations center said that “phosphorus artillery shelling targeted the town of Shebaa, causing a citizen to suffer from suffocation, requiring hospitalization.”

Hezbollah responded by targeting “the Raheb site and the Jal Al-Alam site with artillery shells, and the Malikiyah site with missile weapons.”

Israeli warplanes breached the sound barrier for the second successive day over Beirut.

The National News Agency in Lebanon reported that Israeli aircraft did the same in two waves over the cities of Sidon and Jezzine, and various parts in the south of the country, with activists on social media sharing footage of planes breaching Lebanese airspace.

Inhabitants of Beirut and dozens of towns in the Mount Lebanon region had experienced severe panic on Tuesday as Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier at low altitude, causing a loud boom.

Border villages adjacent to the Blue Line in the western and central sectors suffered hours of tension later in the day with the Israeli army firing flares, while Hezbollah carried out nine operations against Israeli military sites.

Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech on Tuesday that a response to last week’s assassination of the group’s prominent military leader Fuad Shukr was “inevitable.”

The Israelis are also anticipating the response of Hezbollah and Iran to the assassination of Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran just hours after Shukr’s death in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “The Israeli army is constantly developing its defensive and offensive capabilities.”

Meanwhile, leaflets were dropped on Wednesday in predominantly Druze regions, especially in the Choueifat area, bearing pictures of the children who were victims of the Majdal Shams attack in the occupied Golan, which killed 12 people. These carried the words: “We will avenge them, Hezbollah.”

Israel has accused Hezbollah of shelling the soccer field in Majdal Shams, but Hezbollah strongly denies responsibility for the attack, while Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has declared his support for the Iran-backed group.


Rights groups condemn Iran’s ‘abhorrent’ execution of protester

Rights groups condemn Iran’s ‘abhorrent’ execution of protester
Updated 07 August 2024
Follow

Rights groups condemn Iran’s ‘abhorrent’ execution of protester

Rights groups condemn Iran’s ‘abhorrent’ execution of protester

PARIS: Iran faced condemnation from human rights groups Wednesday over its execution of a man convicted of killing a Revolutionary Guard in 2022 protests, with activists saying his confession had been obtained by torture.

Gholamreza Rasaei, in his mid-thirties, is the 10th man executed by Iran in connection with the months-long protests that erupted in September 2022 after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini. The Iranian Kurd had been arrested for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.

Rasaei was executed in prison in the western city of Kermanshah on Tuesday after being convicted of killing the Guards colonel, according to the Mizan Online website of the Iranian judiciary.

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Iran, which they say executes more people annually than any nation other than China, of using the death penalty against protesters without due legal process in a bid to intimidate their sympathizers.

Rasaei, a member of the Kurdish ethnic minority and follower of the Yarsan faith, was executed in secret with neither his family nor his lawyer given prior notice and his family then forced to bury his body in a remote area far from his home, Amnesty International said.

“Iranian authorities have carried out the abhorrent arbitrary execution in secret of a young man who was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention, including sexual violence, and then sentenced to death after a sham trial,” said Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Eltahawy.

She said the execution was another instance of Iran using the death penalty as a “tool of political repression to instil fear among the population.”


Over 1,000 UK troops ready to evacuate nearly 16,000 Britons from Lebanon amid fears of war escalation

Over 1,000 UK troops ready to evacuate nearly 16,000 Britons from Lebanon amid fears of war escalation
Updated 07 August 2024
Follow

Over 1,000 UK troops ready to evacuate nearly 16,000 Britons from Lebanon amid fears of war escalation

Over 1,000 UK troops ready to evacuate nearly 16,000 Britons from Lebanon amid fears of war escalation
  • Hundreds of troops have been put on alert in the UK and are ready for deployment to the region if necessary
  • Military personnel were in the process of being deployed to provide operational support to UK embassies in the region

BEIRUT: The UK government has kept more than 1,000 British troops on high alert and ready to evacuate nearly 16,000 Britons currently in Lebanon amid growing fears of an all-out war, the BBC reported on Wednesday.
In response to the UK Foreign Office’s warning that the Middle East situation could deteriorate rapidly, preparations are being made in case British citizens need to be evacuated from Beirut.
The Foreign Office renewed its call for Britons to leave Lebanon on Saturday, while confirming that preparations were underway to help with any necessary evacuation as hundreds of troops had been sent to Cyprus. The UK already has a significant military presence there.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the House of Commons last week that there were about 16,000 British nationals in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, hundreds of troops have been put on alert in the UK and are ready for deployment to the region if necessary.
According to Saturday’s Foreign Office statement, military personnel were in the process of being deployed to provide operational support to UK embassies in the region, although the number of troops involved was not mentioned.
Meanwhile, Sky News reported on Wednesday that hundreds of soldiers, Royal Marine commandos, sailors and aviators had already been moved forward to bolster a key Royal Air Force base in Cyprus, which would act as a hub in any evacuation mission.
RAF Typhoon fighter jets already stationed there were involved last April in a mission against an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel.
A Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Duncan, and a landing ship, RFA Cardigan Bay, are already in the Eastern Mediterranean. RAF helicopters have also been placed on standby.
Tensions have been growing across the Middle East since the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Hostilities between Israel and its neighbors have escalated following the death of Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, in an attack for which Iran blamed Israel.
Haniyeh’s assassination came hours after Israel killed Iran-backed Hezbollah’s senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
Iran and Hezbollah have vowed “severe” retaliation against Israel.