After a week of being very careful regarding statements directed at Iran, the US gave Israel something to be satisfied about on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden said America’s commitment to Israel’s security, amid the threats from Iran and its proxies, is “ironclad.”
Biden’s statements are aimed directly at Iran, and it’s certainly possible that they’re the result of a worrying intelligence assessment Israel presented to the US.
Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of the U.S. Central Command, is expected to meet Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Israel Defense Forces officials.
Israeli officials say they are preparing for a possible unprecedented direct attack from Iranian soil using ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles against Israeli targets.
In such a scenario, Israel will retaliate with a direct attack against Iran, the officials said.
The US has been tight-lipped in its public reaction to the Apr 1 strike, saying it has not determined whether Israel struck a diplomatic facility, which would breach international agreements on the inviolability of embassies and consulates.
The US and its allies believe major missile or drone strikes by Iran or its proxies against military and government targets in Israel are imminent, in what would mark a significant widening of the six-month-old conflict, according to people familiar with the intelligence.
Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli major general, serves on the board of directors of Corsight …. He wrote: ‘The entire population of #Gaza will either move to #Egypt or move to the Gulf.’
The retired general also recommended targeting civilian vehicles in Gaza.” #writingcommunity
(March 27, 2024)
The expansive and experimental effort is being used to conduct mass surveillance there, collecting and cataloging the faces of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, according to Israeli intelligence officers, military officials and soldiers.
The technology was initially used in Gaza to search for Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 cross-border raids, the intelligence officials said.
In addition to publicly warning on March 7 about a possible attack, U.S. officials said they had privately told Russian officials about the intelligence pointing to an impending attack. It is not clear how much information the United States gave Russian officials beyond what was in the public warning.
American intelligence agencies have a “duty to warn” potential targets of dangers when they learn of them.
The United States had warned Iran of a possible attack ahead of twin bombings in January that killed scores and wounded hundreds of others at a memorial service for Iran’s former top general, Qassim Suleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike four years before.
The UK government will continue to suspend funding to Palestinian relief works agency UNRWA, the Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell has said, despite famine gripping Gaza and crippling food shortages.
The US, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Finland, Australia and the Netherlands will also continue their freeze to critical life saving aid to the UN aid agency for Palestinians until an interim report about Israel allegations that UNRWA aid workers were involved in Hamas‘s 7 October attacks is released, the minister said.
The intelligence report‘s findings are in stark contrast to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken‘s remarks in January, in which he said that the accusations against UNRWA were “highly, highly credible”.
The Journal also reported that Israel has not “shared the raw intelligence behind its assessments with the US” despite the strong security relationship between the two countries.
Israel has shared a dossier of sorts outlining its accusations, alongside details of where their evidence stems from, with the US and several western news organisations.
Major UNRWA donors, incl the US, have frozen vital funds bcz of Israel‘s allegations.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says „the UN has never, never, ever received any written dossier, despite our repeated call.“
Western media reports claiming that Russia could place nuclear weapons in space are nothing more than a ploy by the White House to convince US lawmakers to approve further military aid to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Citing sources, several US media outlets reported this week that American intelligence had obtained information on purported Russian plans to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space, although the idea supposedly remains at the developmental stage.
But Israel refuses to share either its evidence or the intelligence dossier – a summary of which was seen by FRANCE 24 – with UNRWA, posing a challenge for the UN agency to complete its inquiry.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the main aid agency in Gaza, is set to lose $65 million by the end of February as donors’ funding cuts begin to kick in, according to internal accounting documents reviewed by The New York Times.
„The dossier said that Israeli intelligence officers had established the movements of six of the men inside Israel on Oct. 7 based on their phones; others had been monitored while making phone calls inside Gaza during which, the Israelis say, they discussed their involvement in the Hamas attack,“ the NYT report says, referring to a dossier reportedly handed to US officials in recent days.
(…)
The NYT report on Sunday, based on the dossier seen by its reports, made no mention of confessions.
Die Staatsanwaltschaft stellte jedoch keinen Haftbefehl gegen Marsalek aus, obwohl unmittelbare Flucht- und Verdunkelungsgefahr bestand, sondern ließ ihn am 19. Juni 2020 in Begleitung mindestens eines österreichischen Verfassungsschützers seelenruhig aus Deutschland herausspazieren. Sein Anwalt, der kürzlich dem Landgericht München einen angeblichen Brief von Jan Marsalek übermittelte, versicherte, Marsalek wolle das Geld nur auf den Philippinen „suchen“. Die Ermittlungen gegen den Fluchthelfer von Herrn Marsalek vom Verfassungsschutz wurden später eingestellt, da dieser ja nur „Reisehelfer“ gewesen sei. Schließlich habe zum Zeitpunkt der Flucht kein Haftbefehl gegen Marsalek vorgelegen. Ein Schelm, wer Böses dabei denkt.
Israel believes the drone fired at a tanker off the coast of India a short while ago was launched directly from Iran, Channel 12 reports, although this remains unconfirmed.
A chemical tanker operating in the Indian Ocean was struck by an Iranian attack drone Saturday, a US Department of Defense official said, the seventh Iranian attack on commercial shipping since 2021.
“The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran,” the official said in a statement.
Still, the new Pentagon total would suggest that at least eight of the countries who have signed up have also declined to be publicly named, in a sign of political sensitivities of the operation as regional tensions soar over the Israel-Hamas war. (…)
Each country will contribute what they can, Ryder said, dubbing it a „coalition of the willing.“
Tehran’s support for the Yemeni rebel group includes both weapons and tactical intelligence, the White House said on Friday as it presented newly declassified intelligence purporting to show Iranian involvement in the attacks.
“The resistance [Houthis] has its own tools… and acts in accordance with its own decisions and capabilities,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri told Mehr news agency.
The US this week launched Operation Prosperity Guardian, a maritime coalition aimed at beefing up security in the southern Red Sea. More than 20 nations have signed on to the initiative so far, the Pentagon said Thursday.
The “very significant breadth of attacks” on commercial ships in the Red Sea have escalated to a level not seen in at least “two generations,” a senior US military official said Tuesday.
The Post’s analysis shows:
– The rooms connected to the tunnel network discovered by IDF troops showed no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas.
– None of the five hospital buildings identified by Hagari appeared to be connected to the tunnel network.
– There is no evidence that the tunnels could be accessed from inside hospital wards.
Hours before IDF troops entered the complex, the Biden administration declassified U.S. intelligence assessments that it said bolstered Israel’s claims. In the aftermath of the raid, Israeli and U.S. officials have stood firm behind their initial statements.
Die deutschen Sicherheitsbehörden erfuhren nach Informationen von ARD-Hauptstadtstudio und SWR von einem ausländischen Nachrichtendienst von dem mutmaßlichen Anschlagsplan. Die Beschuldigten wurden daraufhin identifiziert, abgehört und observiert. Eine konkrete Anschlagsplanung hat es offenbar noch nicht gegeben.
Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, said that during his 13 years on the committee, he’d pressed multiple FBI directors about civil liberties violations associated with the surveillance program and had repeatedly been given false reassurances about the reforms being put in place.
“Every darn one of them has told me the same thing: ‘Don’t worry about it, we’ve got this taken care of, we’ve got new procedures, it’s going to be different now,’” Lee said. “It’s never different. You haven’t changed.”
(05.12.2023)
FBI Director Christopher Wray at a Tuesday hearing gave an impassioned pitch for Congress to reauthorize warrantless surveillance powers for the intelligence community without the need to secure a court’s blessing to review information on Americans swept up in the process.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire at the end of the year unless it is reauthorized by Congress, threatening to topple a program that allows the U.S. government to monitor the communications of foreign nationals located abroad.
(December 6, 2023)
The FBI director is pushing senators on reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to expire at the end of this year. The law enables the US government to obtain intelligence by targeting non-Americans overseas who are using US-based communications services.
The hospital underwent a major Israeli renovation and expansion.[21][22] The project was designed by Israeli architects Gershon Tzapor and Benjamin Edelson in their Tel-Aviv office, both well experienced in the construction of high standard hospitals.[21] The project was done in the 1980s as part of a project to improve the living conditions of Gaza residents.[23]
This project came as part of the Israeli idea of mutual existence between Jews and Arabs. The project intended to house 900 beds in the entire campus, a 50 dunam area. The Israeli additions were considered to be in the same standard as those hospital wings in Israeli hospitals such as Tel HaShomer.[21] The architecture of the hospital came to reflect the modernist and post modernist trends in Israeli architecture.[21] In particular was the similarity of the project to existing Israeli hospitals such as the facades of the Bezalel building in Jerusalem.[22] Similarly to other Israeli projects, the building was built with sharpened diagonal staircases, akin to projects by Israeli architects Dan Eitan, Shlomit Nadler and others at the time.[22]
The architects also designed and built a large array of underground infrastructure, which the IDF later pointed to as part of the underground Hamas command in 2014 and in the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.[21][10][8][22] In particular, in 1983, the Israelis built „a secure underground operating room and tunnel network“ beneath Building 2 of the hospital.[
(July 29, 2014)
The Israelis are so sure about the location of the Hamas bunker, however, not because they are trying to score propaganda points, or because it has been repeatedly mentioned in passing by Western reporters—but because they built it. Back in 1983, when Israel still ruled Gaza, they built a secure underground operating room and tunnel network beneath Shifa hospital—which is one among several reasons why Israeli security sources are so sure that there is a main Hamas command bunker in or around the large cement basement beneath the area of Building 2 of the Hospital, which reporters are obviously prohibited from entering.
The hospital underwent a major Israeli renovation and expansion.[21][22] The project was designed by Israeli architects Gershon Tzapor and Benjamin Edelson in their Tel-Aviv office, both well experienced in the construction of high standard hospitals.[21] The project was done in the 1980s as part of a project to improve the living conditions of Gaza residents.[23]
This project came as part of the Israeli idea of mutual existence between Jews and Arabs. The project intended to house 900 beds in the entire campus, a 50 dunam area. The Israeli additions were considered to be in the same standard as those hospital wings in Israeli hospitals such as Tel HaShomer.[21] The architecture of the hospital came to reflect the modernist and post modernist trends in Israeli architecture.[21] In particular was the similarity of the project to existing Israeli hospitals such as the facades of the Bezalel building in Jerusalem.[22] Similarly to other Israeli projects, the building was built with sharpened diagonal staircases, akin to projects by Israeli architects Dan Eitan, Shlomit Nadler and others at the time.[22]
The architects also designed and built a large array of underground infrastructure, which the IDF later pointed to as part of the underground Hamas command in 2014 and in the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.[21][10][8][22] In particular, in 1983, the Israelis built „a secure underground operating room and tunnel network“ beneath Building 2 of the hospital.[
„hey have stored weapons there and they are prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.”
Kirby presented no evidence to back up his statement. Israel has claimed for years that Gaza militants have been building key tunnel infrastructure under the hospital – allegations that doctors in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have always vehemently denied.
2. In 2011, the Israeli gov‘t shared a YouTube video by a man who claimed to be an Israeli gay rights activist who said he was discriminated against by Gaza flotilla organizers. The video was exposed as a hoax and @jonronson set out to find the actor in
3. 3. The actor refused to say who made the video but as I reported at the time it was boosted by @DavidSaranga an Israeli diplomat who taught students to promote Israel online with guerrilla marketing. Saranga is now director of digital diplomacy @IsraelMFA.
4. As @marcowenjones reports, the anti-Hamas video supposedly recorded in a Gaza hospital this week was shared by an official Israeli government account for communicating with Arabic speakers — before being deleted amid widespread suspicion that it was fake.
(Aug 14, 2013 / no specific date)
(16.10.2023)
In the IDF‘s command bunker, experts from various units of the IDF‘s Psychological Operations (PsyOps) are working around the clock. They closely monitor the prevailing mood and public discourse and react accordingly to raise awareness and, most importantly, to influence the worldviews of millions of people. Sometimes it succeeds, and sometimes it doesn‘t. But the insight in the Israeli security establishment is that this arena cannot be left without a response and without proper, continuous handling.
Fact Check
There are several instances of this video being shared in August of 2022. It was uploaded by Non-Profit Organisation StandWithUs on Facebook which claimed that the video is of an explosion in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip that had killed at least four children and was the result of a failed rocket launch by Islamic Jihad.
According to a Washington Post report, the explosion happened during the airstrikes and rocket attacks that continued for two whole days, until Israel and the militants in the Gaza Strip agreed to a cease-fire on August 7. The airstrikes killed 43 people and injured more than 300 in Gaza and forced thousands of Israelis to shelter in bunkers. In the refugee camp of Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, an explosion on August 6 had killed at least four children. The Israeli military, which shared satellite footage of rocket fire from the enclave, said that the fatalities were the result of a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch and that it did not conduct an airstrike at the time of the blast.
Hamas took advantage of that weakness by sending aerial drones to attack the cellular towers that transmitted signals to and from the surveillance system, according to the officials and also drone footage circulated by Hamas on Saturday and analyzed by The New York Times. (…)
The second operational failure was the clustering of leaders from the army’s Gaza division in a single location along the border. Once the base was overrun, most of the senior officers were killed, injured or taken hostage, according to two of the Israeli officials.
(13. Oktober 2013)
Wie wir alle wissen, wurde der rechtsradikale Premierminister Benjamin Netanjahu vor 18 Jahren wegen einem maßgeblich durch seine Person organisierten drohenden Atomkrieg gegen den Iran, nachfolgend gegen Libanon, gegen Syrien sowieso und natürlich auch gegen den Gazastreifen und überhaupt die gesamte Region von einem linksradikalen Israeli erschossen. Ganz Israel reagierte seinerzeit wie Netanjahus eigene Likud Partei. Es sagte: „Oh. Das ist aber schade.“ Und dann kam alles ganz anders…
The war is also fanning regional instability and fuelling global tensions and divisions, while diverting attention and resources from other crises and pressing global issues. Meanwhile, we have heard implicit threats to use nuclear weapons. The so-called tactical use of nuclear weapons is utterly unacceptable.
Der Ballon sei später über Alaskas Aleuten-Inseln geschwebt und dann über Kanada gedriftet, von wo er anscheinend durch starke Winde auf das Festland der Vereinigten Staaten getrieben sei.
Analysten untersuchten dem Bericht zufolge nun die Möglichkeit, dass China mit seinem „Überwachungsgerät“ nicht absichtlich in das amerikanische Kernland eindringen wollte.