TTL News 318 Posted April 19 Quote DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An apparent Israeli drone attack on a major air base early near the central city of Isfahan activated Iranian air defenses early Friday. The strike came just days after Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel. No Iranian official directly acknowledged the possibility that Israel had attacked, and the Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. However, regional tensions have been high since the Saturday assault on Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its own strikes targeting Iran in Syria. Source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TTL News 318 Posted April 21 Quote RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children, health officials said Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to Israel, its close ally. Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the U.S. “In the coming days, we will increase the political and military pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to bring back our hostages and achieve victory. We will land more and painful blows on Hamas – soon,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. He didn’t give details. Source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TTL News 318 Posted April 24 Quote LONDON (AP) — The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report. The human rights organization said the most powerful governments, including the United States, Russia and China, have led a global disregard for international rules and values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with civilians in conflicts paying the highest price. Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general, said the level of violation of international order witnessed in the past year was “unprecedented.” Source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TTL News 318 Posted May 1 Quote JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders on Wednesday in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, saying “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and bring a pause in the nearly seven months of war in Gaza. He said Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal off the ground. Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted in October in his bid to secure what’s been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering. The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue — whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal. Source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TTL News 318 Posted May 6 Quote TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network to close Sunday, escalating a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas hang in the balance. The extraordinary order, which includes confiscating broadcast equipment, preventing the broadcast of the channel’s reports and blocking its websites, is believed to be the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in the country. Al Jazeera went off Israel’s main cable and satellite providers in the hours after the order. However, its website and multiple online streaming links still operated Sunday. Source Quote JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army ordered some 100,000 Palestinians on Monday to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent and further complicating efforts to broker a cease-fire in Gaza. The looming operation in the city — where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering and a high number of deaths is feared — has raised global alarm and Israeli’s closest allies have warned against it. On Monday, the United Nations agency serving Palestinian refugees said it would not comply with the evacuation order. Israel has described Rafah as the last significant Hamas stronghold after some seven months of war, and has repeatedly said the invasion is necessary to defeat the Islamic militant group, which unleashed the current conflict with an attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Source Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TTL News 318 Posted May 6 Quote RAFAH, Gaza Strip, May 6 (Reuters) - Israel's military carried out airstrikes in Rafah on Monday, residents said, hours after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of the southern Gaza city where more than a million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering. Fears are growing of a full-blown assault in Rafah, long threatened by Israel, against holdouts of the Palestinian militant group Hamas as ceasefire talks in Cairo stall. Hamas official Izzat al-Rashiq said in a statement that any Israeli operation in Rafah would put the truce talks in jeopardy. Source 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TTL News 318 Posted May 9 Quote WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there. Source Meanwhile: Quote WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Nick Langworthy (NY-23) released the following statement following reports that the Biden Administration is withholding shipments to Israel: “President Biden’s purposeful delay in sending munitions to Israel is brazenly subverting the will of Congress and an outright betrayal of our ally,” said Congressman Langworthy. “His actions are a gift to Hamas by weakening Israel’s ability to win and eroding our dwindling chances of getting the hostages home alive. President Biden must stop kowtowing to the terrorist-loving radicals in his Party and get Israel the help it needs to defeat evil, NOW.” Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
