The Israeli Air Force strikes a terrorist target in the Gaza Strip after a surprise attack earlier in the day by Hamas, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS.
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IDF strikes Hamas terror sites in Gaza
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Hamas fired 3,000 rockets and dispatched dozens of terrorists into Israeli communities.
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The Israel Air Force on Saturday attacked 17 "military" compounds and four operational headquarters of the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Navy killed dozens of Hamas terrorists who attempted to penetrate Israeli territory using at least four vessels.

https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1710656684622860539
https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1710659599294972136

Hamas killed at least 250 Israelis on Saturday as the organization fired more than 3,000 rockets at the country’s South and Center and dispatched dozens of terrorists into communities located along the Gaza border.

More than 1,500 Israelis were evacuated to hospitals across the country.

https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1710607937519890828

The Palestinian rocket fire began around 6:30 a.m., a day after Israel marked the 50th anniversary (on the Gregorian calendar) of the surprise Egyptian and Syrian attack that started the Yom Kippur War.

Rocket alert sirens were activated as far south as Arad and Dimona, in Tel Aviv in the central region and in Jerusalem in the mountains.

A Hamas rocket fired from the Gaza Strip strikes a building in Tel Aviv, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo by Gidon Markovich\TPS.

Hamas terrorists penetrated several Israeli communities, with footage circulating online showing Palestinians driving vehicles and opening fire on civilians in the city of Sderot.

In response, the IDF engaged the invading terrorists and dozens of fighter jets carried out air strikes on Hamas assets in Gaza.

https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1710586299592081657

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a security meeting at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv attended by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other high-ranking officials.

The Israel Defense Forces was ordered to a “state of war readiness” and Gallant authorized the call-up of reserve troops.

He also announced a “special security situation” within 80 kilometers of the Gaza Strip, enabling the IDF to close relevant sites and impose safety restrictions on the population.

The IDF later announced the launch of an operation named “Iron Swords.”

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A U.S. government employee has been arrested and charged for leaking secret files related to Israel’s preparations to retaliate for Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attacks, according to court documents filed on Wednesday.

The suspect, identified as Asif William Rahman, was indicted last week on two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. FBI agents arrested Rahman in Cambodia on Tuesday.

Rahman, who according to The New York Times "worked abroad" for the CIA, is set to make his first court appearance in Guam later this week.

Court documents said Rahman held a top-secret security clearance with access to sensitive compartmentalized information, which the Times noted is typical for CIA employees who handle classified documents.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed on Oct. 22 that the agency was investigating the leak. “The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and intelligence community,” it said.

The FBI is leading the probe, U.S. officials briefed on the matter told CNN. Investigators were said to have been working to authenticate the files and determine who could have had access to them, they said.

This is “one indication that, for now, the FBI and other investigators are working off the theory that the breach most likely came from a government insider and not from a cyber intrusion,” CNN reported.

At least one of the files appears to have been scanned from an officially printed briefing book, and the pool of people who printed these pages would be relatively small, sources familiar with U.S. intelligence said.

Then-Republican candidate for the White House Donald Trump on Oct. 22 slammed the Biden administration for the leak, calling it “bad thing.”

“They leaked all the information about the way that Israel’s going to fight and how they are going to fight and where they are going to go. And somebody—who did that? Can you imagine somebody doing that? That’s the enemy. I guess that maybe is the enemy from within, as I talked about,” Trump said during the campaign event in Doral, Fla.

“We have an enemy from within,” the Republican continued. “They hate to talk about it. Can you imagine? So we just can’t stand for this incompetence anymore.”

U.S. President Joe Biden is “deeply concerned” over the intelligence leak, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters a day earlier. “That is not supposed to happen, and it’s unacceptable when it does,” he said, adding that the president “will be actively monitoring the progress of the investigative effort to figure out how this happened.”

Kirby said that it is not yet known how the documents were leaked and that the Department of Defense continues to investigate the incident.

“We don’t have any indication at this point that there’s an expectation that there’ll be additional documents like this finding their way into the public domain,” he added in response to a question from reporters.

Axios noted on Oct. 19 that the leak may have been an attempt to “disrupt” Jerusalem’s plans to retaliate against Tehran and revealed close spying by the U.S. on the Jewish state, including with satellites.

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Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski abruptly left a local TV studio after answering a question from the anchor about whether his American wife's Jewish ancestry would harm his chances as a candidate in next year’s presidential elections.

The public fuss over the question on the interview on Poland’s largest private broadcaster raised anew questions regarding antisemitism in the country.

Poland’s top diplomat later issued a statement dismissing allegations of antisemitism, but called on the television station to “restore journalistic standards.”

In the interview broadcast on TVN on Tuesday evening, the presenter asked Sikorski in her final question for his reaction to a newspaper report that “the ancestry of your wife is a problem” for some members of his party.

“I would say that there is already a secular tradition that the first lady should be a person of Jewish origin,” he responded.

The foreign minister's wife, Anne Applebaum, is a historian.

Agata Kornhauser-Duda, the wife of Polish President Andrzej Duda, had a Jewish grandfather, while her predecessor as Poland’s first lady, Anna Julia Komorowska, had a Jewish mother.

Sikorski left the studio while the credits were still rolling, causing the anchorwoman to look up in startlement.

He later tweeted that “making the origin of a candidate’s wife an issue in the presidential election is unacceptable.”

The popular television station is a subsidiary of U.S. media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery.

The anchor subsequently apologized and said she had not intended to insinuate anything by the question.

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A rocket fired from Gaza set off air-raid sirens in Kibbutz Erez on Wednesday afternoon, with the Israel Defense Forces updating that the projectile hit in an open area and that no injuries were reported.

The kibbutz is located less than a mile from the Strip's northern border and is the namesake of the Erez Crossing to Gaza.

Earlier on Wednesday, the IDF reported that a Hamas operative involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in the northwestern Negev was killed in an airstrike targeting a cell in the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City. The slain terrorist cell member was identified as Yasser Ghandi.

Over the past day, the Israeli Air Force struck more than 120 Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Kfar Aza reconstruction plan approved

On Wednesday, Israel's Reconstruction Authority approved a 180 million shekel (just over $48 million) rehabilitation plan for Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

The kibbutz experienced severe atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023, when about 10% of its 900 residents were killed or taken hostage during the Hamas-led Gazan incursion into the northwestern Negev, which left around 1,200 people dead and 251 others abducted to Gaza.

The plan covers the construction of new public utilities, housing reconstruction and the development of a new neighborhood within the kibbutz.

A majority of Kibbutz Nir Oz members voted on Monday to return to their destroyed homes and rebuild.

The kibbutz was among the hardest hit communities during Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion. One in four residents was either killed or kidnapped, including the Bibas family, mother Shiri, husband Yarden and their two children, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months old.

In a letter to the government, the kibbutz members stressed their expectations for a large-scale and generous construction plan.

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The Tikvah Forum for Families of Hostages held prayers at Rachel's Tomb just outside Bethlehem on Tuesday for the safe and speedy return of their children from the Gaza Strip.

The Bnei Rachel Yeshiva hosted the event, which was attended by Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Kalman Ber and Knesset member Yitzhak Wasserlauf of the Otzma Yehudit Party.

Among the family members attending the event was Tzvika Mor, whose son Eitan, then aged 23, was kidnapped to Gaza while working as a guard at the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. Eitan saved hundreds of people from the festival before he was taken hostage. He has been held for more than 400 days.

Mor told those gathered that God promised Rachel that her children will return to their borders. "There is no place more worthy to pray to God and ask him to return the hostages than at the place of her burial, and on the anniversary of her passing," he said.

At a Knesset committee meeting on Tuesday, Mor said that a family which has a member kidnapped is "a wound that never heals."

"It's all the time the worry. It's all the time the fear of that terrible knock on the door," he said.

"The main question is why there is still no decision in Gaza, to bring the enemy to such a state that he realizes that he has no future," he said, expressing frustration that Israel still hasn't completely destroyed the enemy there.

He said that pursuing a deal with Hamas for the release of the remaining hostages was a mistake. "When we pursue a deal, a deal flees from us," Mor said.

Kobi Samerano, whose son Jonathan, 21, was kidnapped and murdered in Gaza, recited Kaddish, the mourners’ prayer. Samerano said it was his first visit to Rachel's Tomb.

The names of the remaining hostages were read aloud. Organizing the event along with the Tikvah Forum were the Kissufim and Ayelet Hashachar groups.

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Two Canadian teens who were arrested in December and February planned to bomb a pro-Israel rally at Ottawa's Parliament Hill, court documents obtained by Global News showed on Tuesday.

The suspects, whom Canadian police have been identified only as "young persons," are "alleged to have formed a plan last fall to violently attack Jewish persons in Ottawa, possibly through the detonation of an explosive device at a pro-Israel rally," the Department of Justice said.

The assertion that a pro-Israel demonstration was the target of the thwarted terror attack appeared in an application by federal lawyers to withhold sensitive national security information from the criminal trials.

One accused is being charged with possessing acetone, oxidizer and metal ball bearings. All are possible components of homemade bombs.

According to the government's Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre, the plot was allegedly linked to ISIS, also known by the Arabic acronym Daesh, and was "possibly accelerated" by Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

"At least one of the individuals was reportedly in contact with DAESH overseas and the arrests occurred during a period of DAESH calls to violence in response to the conflict," the agency wrote.

The first suspect was arrested on Dec. 15 and charged with conspiracy to murder and "communicating instructional material related to an explosive substance." Prosecutors also charged him with recruiting a second suspect to "carry out a terrorist activity against Jewish persons."

Following his arrest, the suspect's Iraqi father claimed to Global News that he had warned the teen to steer away from "any extremist person" and had ordered him to speak with an imam. However, posts on the father's Facebook profile incited violence against Jews and Israelis.

On Feb. 15, his alleged co-conspirator was arrested and subsequently charged with three terrorism offenses, including agreeing to carry out murder, facilitating terror and trying to purchase a prohibited firearm.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs told Global News on Tuesday that it was unaware a pro-Israel rally may have been the plot's target. CIJA was one of the organizations behind a Dec. 4, 2023, protest at Parliament Hill under the slogan, "Canada's Rally for the Jewish People."

"It doesn't come as a surprise," CIJA President Shimon Koffler Fogel stated, noting that the thwarted attack is "consistent with what we have seen across the country, where the violent and radicalized protests that have manifested themselves on our streets are losing all constraints in terms of how far they are prepared to go in order to advance their position."

According to Koffler Fogel, Canadian law enforcement "are not taking all the steps necessary, they are not using the provisions of the Criminal Code in ways that are going to offer protection to those who are at risk.

"And equally important, they are not signaling to those who are advancing this toxic and violent manifestation of hate that in Canada, there is no room for that kind of exhibit," the Jewish leader said.

Data released by Canadian police earlier this year revealed a surge of antisemitism in the country in 2023, with anti-Jewish hatred now accounting for most of the hate crimes against any group.

Police reported 900 hate crimes against Jews last year, equating to a 71% increase from 2022 and a 172% increase since 2020. Jews also accounted for 70% of religiously motivated hate crimes, with four times as many compared to those targeting Muslims.

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Counter-terrorism officers in the United Kingdom arrested a policeman in southwestern England on Tuesday on suspicion of online activity linked to supporting Hamas.

Counter Terrorism Policing South West officers arrested the man in Gloucester, the BBC reported on Wednesday. The officer, who is in his 30s, was taken to a police facility outside Gloucestershire, the BBC reported on Wednesday. It did not say how he expressed or engaged in support for Hamas.

Authorities searched the policeman’s home and vehicle to locate and analyze digital devices, according to Gloucestershire Police Assistant Chief Constable Arman Mathieson.

"The arrest of a serving officer on suspicion of such a serious offense will no doubt cause our communities concern, as it does everyone who works for Gloucestershire Police," Mathieson told the BBC. "The arrest has been made to allow for a prompt and effective investigation to take place and we must not draw any conclusions at this stage.”

In the U.K., providing support to a proscribed terrorist group, such as Hamas, violates section 12 of the Terrorism Act.

Following the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, British officials have raised concerns about anti-Israel rallies that may have promoted terrorism, urging that support for Hamas be prosecuted under the full extent of the law.

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The Israeli Navy's sixth submarine was named INS Drakon on Tuesday in an official ceremony in Germany. The name is Hebrew for "Dragon."

The Dolphin 2-class submarine is still undergoing testing at Germany's Kiel shipyard, and will not join the Israeli fleet until next year.

According to the Israeli Navy, the name was chosen because it shares three Hebrew letters with the name of the INS Dakar, a submarine which sank in 1968.

“INS Drakon will serve as a cornerstone in ensuring the security of the State of Israel,” Israeli Navy Commander Vice Admiral David Saar Salama said at the naming ceremony. “Seen and unseen, it will dwell in distant and hidden realms for extended periods.”

Ze'ev Landau, the deputy director of Israel's Defense Ministry, said at the ceremony that, “Today we are marking not only the launch of the submarine but also the close security ties between Israel and Germany, a relationship founded on shared values and a mutual aspiration for a safer future.”

Together, he continued, "We have created a vessel that will strengthen the Israeli Navy and bring powerful and essential capabilities for the defense of the State of Israel.”

Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor said that the current geo-strategic situation "requires moral clarity" and "a long-term strategy."

“The launch of the submarine is another cornerstone in the strategic relationship between Israel and Germany, which face similar challenges and share common opportunities,” he added.

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International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi was set to arrive in Tehran on Wednesday for talks on Iran's nuclear program.

Grossi told AFP at the COP29 climate summit in Baku on Tuesday that "the Iranian administration must understand that the international situation is becoming increasingly tense and that the margins to maneuver are beginning to shrink, and that it is imperative to find ways to reach diplomatic solutions." 

According to the IAEA's statement on Grossi's visit, he will hold "high-level meetings" with Iranian officials on the technical aspects of the regime's nuclear program.

The visit will be Grossi's first to Iran since May.

In his remarks to AFP on Tuesday, Grossi said he expects to work together with President elect Donald Trump on the issue.

“I already worked with the first Trump administration and we worked well together,” the IAEA chief said.

During his first term, in 2018 Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran and stepped up sanctions on the regime in Tehran.

The Republican plans to renew his “maximum pressure” policy on Iran when he returns to the White House on Jan. 20, including issuing punishing sanctions and targeting Tehran’s oil income.

Sources briefed on Trump’s early plans told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that the harsh measures against the regime are part of an aggressive strategy to weaken the Islamic Republic’s support for its regional terrorist proxies and significantly harm its nuclear ambitions.

Former Trump officials said that his approach to Iran will likely be influenced by its attempt to assassinate him. The U.S. Department of Justice charged three men on Friday who it said were involved in the Iranian plot.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its aspects,” the Israeli premier said on Sunday following phone calls with the American.

“In recent days, I have spoken three times with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump,” the Israeli prime minister revealed in a written statement published by the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday afternoon.

The “very good and important talks” were meant to “further enhance the steadfast bond” with Washington, said Netanyahu.

“We see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its aspects and on the dangers they reflect,” he said. “We also see the great opportunities facing Israel, in the area of peace and its expansion, and in other areas.”

Tehran has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons should it choose to do so, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Nov 1.

“We now have the technical capabilities necessary to produce nuclear weapons,” Kamal Kharrazi told the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen outlet.

“Only the supreme leader’s fatwa currently prohibits it,” he said, referring to a religious ruling made by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the mid-’90s.

“If the survival of Iran comes under serious threat, we reserve the right to reconsider,” added Kharrazi.

In May, Kharrazi told the ISNA news agency that, “If the Zionist regime dares to damage Iran’s nuclear facilities, our level of deterrence will be different. We have no decision to produce a nuclear bomb, but if the existence of Iran is threatened, we will have to change our nuclear doctrine.”

The Iranian nuclear program is the greatest threat facing the Jewish state, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told the press on Monday.

“The most crucial issue for the future of our region and the security of Israel is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said.

“The most important issue by far for the future of this region and the security of the State of Israel is to avoid Iran getting a nuclear weapon,” Sa’ar stated, noting he was confident that Israel and the United States would work together to stabilize the region.

A nuclear Iran poses a threat to the entire region, he said.

“Iran attacks other neighbors, [it] attacked the Saudis, for example. Iran is directly connected, financing and instructing and responsible for so many terror organizations, some of them became terror states in the region,” he noted.

The IAEA reports that Iran's enriched uranium stockpile has now reached 60% purity, nearing the 90% threshold needed for a nuclear weapon.

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  • Words count:
    490 words
  • Type of content:
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  • Publication Date:
    Nov. 13, 2024
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused law enforcement of detaining employees of his office "in basements" without access to a lawyer in an attempt to extract false statements against him.

"It pains us very much that the lives of young people are being destroyed with false claims in order to harm the right-wing government," said the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.

The statement came shortly after the lawyer of one of the Israel Defense Forces officers suspected of leaking confidential files concerning the Gaza hostages claimed that the documents had been handed to the premier.

Four IDF servicemembers and a former PMO spokesman have been arrested as part of the investigation into the alleged leak of the files, which indicate that Hamas is not interested in a ceasefire deal and is only using negotiations to ramp up domestic pressure on the Israeli government.

Netanyahu's office stated on Tuesday: "In a democratic country, people are not arrested and held for 20 days in basements—while preventing them from meeting with a lawyer for many days—because of a leak, just to extract false statements against the prime minister from them."

Accusing law enforcement of "abuse," Netanyahu's statement called the mounting police probes into his office "all the more outrageous because not a single investigation was launched into the flood of criminal leaks from the Cabinet and negotiating team during the year-long war."

Those "criminal leaks exposed confidential security information to Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas while causing great damage to Israel's security and the effort to free the hostages," the statement concluded.

On Sunday, Netanyahu blamed "fake news" for the mounting probes into alleged misconduct by his employees.

"Over the past days, in an orchestrated and well-timed manner, they are trying to threaten me and my people in the middle of a war that I am leading—and fabricate scandals out of thin air," a statement said.

"We know exactly what is going on here: It is an organized witch hunt designed to harm the country's leadership and weaken us during a war," he charged, adding that "the Israeli people know the truth."

Netanyahu's remarks came in the wake of a Kan News report naming his chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, as the suspect in a probe into alleged attempts to alter records of wartime government meetings.

Israel's Channel 13 reported on Saturday that the police had questioned PMO officials in connection with multiple allegations tied to the office.

Though the premier himself has not been formally accused in any of the probes, he last week slammed the developments as an "unprecedented campaign against the Prime Minister's Office in the midst of a war."

"As with the previous attempts to inflate accusations against the prime minister and those around him, the present matter will also not yield anything whatsoever, but will certainly lead to difficult questions regarding arbitrary enforcement, which lacks both precedent and foundation," he added.

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