'War will erupt this summer,' says Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader - By Daniel Siryoti -
Speaking to a Lebanese TV station, Ziad Nakhala issues threats against Israel and predicts a large-scale war in the coming months against the backdrop of U.S. actions in the region.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad was "about to launch rockets at Tel Aviv when the ceasefire [with Israel] stopped it from happening," the terrorist group's leader, Ziad Nakhala, told the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV station on Tuesday.
Nakhala, who was in Egypt when the latest round of violence between Israel and Gaza-based terrorist groups erupted last Friday, outlined in the interview how events unfolded and also issued threats against Israel.
"We used sniper fire in response to [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers shooting at our innocent, demonstrating civilians," he said, adding that "we will continue until all our objectives are met. What happened in the most recent escalation was a preparation for the next major battle. From now on, the rocket fire will focus primarily on Tel Aviv and other large cities."
Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhala. Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit.
Nakhala, who currently resides in Beirut, continued: "The test will be during the March of Return demonstrations on Fridays, on Nakba Day and on the one-year anniversary of the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to holy Jerusalem. If there are casualties among our people, it is our right to respond and that's what we will do. We will intercept the enemy's soldiers on the border and launch long-range rockets beyond Tel Aviv. We are not afraid of the Zionist enemy. We defeated the occupation army in every round of escalation and we will do it again."
The terrorist leader claimed that "Israel attacked civilian buildings and that forced us to respond strongly. There was no prior plan for it. We still insist that Gaza is under siege and demonstrators are coming under live fire during the March of Return protests. The siege must be lifted from Gaza. We are handling it. In the meantime, Israel is making promises to Egypt and isn't keeping them."
Nakhala took aim at countries in the Arab world, accusing them of remaining silent in the face of what he said was U.S.-backed Israeli aggression.
He also said there were numerous signs that a war against Gaza would be launched "this summer," and that his organization was prepared. Asked if he thinks such a war will entail demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, Nakhala said yes.
Nakhala believes that the United States and Egypt sought the current ceasefire. According to the terrorist leader, Israel faced a dilemma: on the one hand it wanted to continue fighting, and on the other were Independence Day celebrations, set to begin Wednesday night.
Hence he expects a war to erupt over the summer. In his view, it will be a large-scale war amid the backdrop of American machinations the region.
Iran's Hand Behind the Latest Flare Up in Gaza, Israel - Matthew R.J. Brodsky -
Iran meddling in Palestinian affairs, intensifying conflict
The violent spasm from Hamas-run Gaza isn't just another episode in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict or merely another incident in a cycle of violence in which the Palestinians are given no agency. It is a significant escalation that tests the prevailing rules of the game with Israel where Iran is demonstrating its ability to intensify the conflict by meddling in Palestinian affairs.
Despite the ceasefire previously hammered out by Egypt, a sniper from Iran's proxy-the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)-opened fire across the Gaza fence wounding an Israeli officer and soldier on Friday. The attack is all the more brazen as it took place as Hamas and PIJ leaders were in Cairo finishing an agreement to ease the tensions in Gaza and Israel's south. The IDF responded to the initial incident by targeting a Hamas outpost, killing three Hamas terrorists.
Beginning around 10 a.m. the next morning, the first of hundreds of rockets were fired by Hamas and PIJ into Israel, with around 700 launched toward Israeli homes and infrastructure by Sunday evening, killing four civilians and injuring dozens. Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agency posted video of a salvo of rockets fired from Gaza.
This latest escalation is significant for several reasons. First is the deliberate increase in range in the rockets fired from Gaza. Hamas and PIJ began by targeting Israeli communities in the Strip's periphery, such as Sderot and Ashkelon. According to the IDF, after the Home Front Command instructed residents living within 40 km of the Gaza Strip to consult with local authorities and remain near protected spaces, the terrorist groups turned to rockets with increased ranges of up to 70 km. By Sunday, several longer-range projectiles were fired, growing to encompass Ashdod further north. On Sunday, city officials opened bomb shelters as far up the coast as Netanya, which lies north of Tel Aviv.
The kinds of weapons used by terrorists in Gaza are also noteworthy. Interrupting a short lull in the rocket fire, terrorists fired a guided Kornet anti-tank weapon, targeting a car and killing a civilian in Israel. According to the IDF, militants in Gaza also tried carrying out an attack using a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attached to a drone, which landed on a tank but failed to detonate. The IDF, working with Israel's internal security the Shin Bet, also thwarted a Hamas cyberattack against Israeli infrastructure and responded by destroying the building housing the headquarters of the terror group's cyber unit. It was the first such attack while fighting was ongoing.
Of the 700 or so rockets fired from Gaza through Sunday, most landed in open fields, 90 failed to make it out of the strip, and Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted more than 170 with a success rate of over 80 percent. Despite propaganda attempts by Hamas and its own Health Ministry to blame Israel for the death of a Palestinian woman and her unborn baby, Israeli officials are adamant in refuting that claim.
IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis wrote on Twitter that the death was "the terror organizations' propaganda at its finest." Jonathan Conricus, the foreign press spokesman at the IDF told journalists they were "now confident" that the deaths were not due to an Israeli strike. "Their unfortunate death was not a result of (Israeli) weaponry but a Hamas rocket that was fired and exploded not where it was supposed to," Conricus said, citing Israeli intelligence.
Nevertheless, several rockets managed to make it through, killing four Israelis and wounding several dozen more. The first Israeli fatality was Moshe Agadi, a 58-year-old father of four who was killed when a rocket struck his home in Ashkelon. A 47-year-old Bedouin man, Ziad al-Hamamda, was killed Sunday by shrapnel after a direct strike on a factory, also in the city of Ashkelon. Moshe Feder, a 68-year-old man killed was killed by the Kornet anti-tank missile. A 23-year-old Israeli, Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman was also killed Sunday due to shrapnel injuries he sustained while running to a shelter in Ashdod. In these border communities, there is often less than 15 seconds of warning time between a red alert and a rocket's impact.
Israel's response was also significant as it holds Hamas responsible for the situation in Gaza, especially as the precipitating event during this round occurred at the weekly Hamas-sponsored riots along the Gaza fence that have taken place for over a year.
The IDF targeted approximately 320 terror sites in Gaza, including observation control rooms, underground offensive terror tunnels underground infrastructure, weapon storage facilities, military compounds, launch sites, weapons factories, and observation posts. They also targeted an underground Hamas rocket manufacturing site, weapons manufacturing facilities inside a Hamas battalion HQ, and Hamas military intelligence and security offices. Israel's navy also struck several targets.
More significant is that Israel targeted dozens of private homes belonging to Hamas and PIJ commanders, including the office of Hamas' interior minister and head of Hamas security services, Twafiq Abu Naim. Moreover, Israel returned to its policy of targeted assassinations as confirmed by the IDF Spokesman. Its first targeted assassination carried out since 2014 struck a vehicle and killed 39-year-old Hamed Ahmed Abed Khudari who was in charge of large-scale money transfers from Iran to terror groups in Gaza.
While Israel's usual response was to target terrorist infrastructure and assets in the economy section, these latter targets suggest an upgrade.
Israel has also enhanced its air defenses in terms of personnel and equipment and augmented the capabilities of its Air Force. Israel's chief of staff ordered the deployment of the 7th armored brigade to prepare for a ground operation in Gaza if needed, along with the Golani brigade.
Aside from serving as a reminder that Hamas remains as wedded as ever to its charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel as part of its "struggle against the Jews," this latest escalation also highlights the regime in Tehran's ability to impact to the situation in Israel and Gaza, which is likewise devoted to goal of wiping Israel off of the map. The latter's impact can be seen by the subversive role played by the PIJ as they often operate behind the back of Hamas leadership. As the former head of Israel's Military intelligence's Research Department, Yaakov Amidor put it, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, unlike Hamas, is a completely owned and operated Iranian subsidiary, "established by Iran, financed by Iran, and does what Iran wants it to do." A former national security adviser and current senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), Amidor explained, Hamas was dragged into the current escalation by PIJ, who first tried to deny their responsibility for the attack.
Iran would consider it a benefit if Israel were bogged down in a major operation Gaza, which would give Iran a freer hand to continue its entrenchment enterprise in Syria. Amidor believes agreements with Hamas are unlikely to hold if PIJ acts independently and "if Hamas does not take control and do what it should as an organization that is control of the Gaza Strip."
It was the PIJ who ignited this latest round even if Hamas was quick to join in. Taking credit for the strikes that reached Ashkelon, PIJ claimed it fired a new type of missile at the city and said, "what is coming next is greater."
As of Sunday night and early Monday morning, Egyptian intelligence officials along with United Nations Middle East Envoy Nickolay Mladenov were reportedly mediating talks aimed at securing a ceasefire. Qatar, who actively supports Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, has hosted Hamas external leadership, and pays Hamas civil servant salaries in Gaza, also offered to help negotiate a ceasefire.
Israel Must Prepare for Next War with Hamas - Caroline Glick - https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2019/05/07/caroline-glick-israel-must-prepare-for-next-war-with-hamas/
Hamas's latest round of aggression against Israel ended with Israel agreeing to permit Qatar to transfer cash to the terror regime that rules the de facto Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip.
From last Friday through Sunday, Hamas and its junior partner Islamic Jihad subjected Israel to a massive assault. It began Friday when Hamas forces wounded an Israeli female soldier and an officer engaged in operations to protect Israel's border with Gaza from Hamas's ongoing terror offensive, which involves deploying large crowds to the border and using them as cover for various terror operations. These operations have been going on for the past year. Israel responded to the attack by bombing a Hamas installation in Gaza.
Then Saturday morning, Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched their most intensive missile and rocket offensive on Israel to date. As a military correspondent for one of Israel's large circulation Hebrew dailies noted, whereas over the weekend, in two days the Palestinians launched nearly 700 rockets and missiles at Israel and killed four Israelis civilians, during the entirety of Operation Protective Edge (Hamas's 2014 terror offensive against Israel, which lasted 51 days), the Palestinians launched 4,400 rockets and missiles at Israel and killed 5 Israeli civilians. In other words, the onslaught over the weekend was unprecedented.
Israel's retaliation entailed bombing some 350 Hamas and Islamic Jihad installations; and killing the Hamas operative responsible for transferring funds from the Iranian regime to the terror group; and killing a drone operator. Israel's counterattacks were qualitatively harsher than they were in previous rounds of Hamas missile barrages. Israel specifically targeted the homes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and other targets of high value to the terror groups and their leaders. But in the end, Israel exacted no long-term price from either Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
According to media reports, under the terms of the ceasefire reached by mediators from Egypt's intelligence agencies, Israel agreed to loosen restrictions on the importation of dual-use products into Gaza. That is, Israel agreed to permit the terror regime to import civilian goods, like concrete, that are also used to produce armaments like rockets and terror tunnels. Israel also agreed to increase the size of the maritime fishing zones along Gaza's coast. And Israel agreed to permit Qatar to continue delivering cash to Hamas in Gaza.
IDF commanders told the media that they are satisfied with the results of the operation because Hamas didn't receive anything it didn't already have. But the flipside of that assessment is that Hamas paid no price for its aggression against innocent civilians. Millions of Israelis live in the areas targeted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In 48 hours of attacks, more than 14 missiles an hour, on average, were shot into Israel. Even worse, the widely shared assessment of Israeli military analysts and commanders is that Hamas's next round of attacks is around the corner, perhaps waiting for the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan in early June, or perhaps until the load of cash Hamas receives from Qatar this week is all spent. And, the military sources warn, the next round will likely be even more lethal than the one that just ended.
There are three reasons that every round of Hamas aggression ends so inconclusively. The first is that Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, will never accept any meaningful ceasefire with Israel. It is a jihadist group that exists to annihilate Israel. This is why it devotes all of its resources to attacking Israel rather than developing Gaza for the welfare of its residents. As a result, so long as Hamas controls Gaza, it will continue to use the area as a launchpad for attacks against Israel.
The second reason is that there is no alternative to Hamas among the Palestinians. Fatah, Hamas's main rival and the group that controls the Palestinian Authority, is no match for it. Hamas seized control over Gaza from Fatah in 2007 with little effort. And no other alternative exists, even in theory.
Israelis recognize that the only way to overthrow Hamas is to fight a major war, and o pay a huge price in civilian and military casualties. And then end of the war would leave Israel with no choice but to continue to control Gaza through its military. There is little appetite in Israel for this option. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated repeatedly that he will only employ it if he convinced that there is no other option.
But the truth is that even among the no-good options that Israel confronts with Hamas-controlled Gaza, there are better scenarios than the one in which Israel now finds itself, where it is literally paying Hamas for temporary ceasefires in between its massive projectile offensives against Israeli civilians.
For the first few years following Operation Protective Edge, Hamas accepted that it would receive nothing in exchange for a ceasefire with Israel other than an Israeli agreement not to attack it. The informal agreement, of ceasefire for ceasefire, meant that Israel's responses to Hamas aggression only lasted as long as Hamas continued to attack.
It wasn't an ideal situation. But at least Israel wasn't rewarding Hamas for its aggression. Over the past two years, however, Hamas's financial situation grew significantly worse as Fatah and Palestinian Authority leader Abbas opted to end the PA's financial support for Hamas-controlled Gaza. Beginning in 2017, Abbas began suspending PA payment for electricity and water Israel supplies to Gaza. In 2018, Abbas began suspending salary transfers to PA employees in Gaza. Together, the moves rendered Hamas incapable of providing for the basic needs of the residents of Gaza.
Abbas had hoped that his move would force Hamas to accept his leadership. But Hamas had another idea. Rather than accept Fatah's authority, Hamas opened a new front against Israel. Last May, it began its assaults on Gaza's border with Israel and punctuated the assaults with incendiary balloons and rocket fire. Israel, which has a strategic interest in keeping Hamas-controlled Gaza separate from Fatah-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria, had no interest in pressuring Hamas to accept Abbas's authority or money. So, when Qatar entered the picture as an alternative funding source, Israel accepted it.
The problem is that at that point, the rocket assaults became a means for Hamas to extort monetary concessions from Israel. And its calculations seemed to shift from shooting at Israel when it felt like proving it was still in the jihad game, to attacking Israel to get money. And as the reported ceasefire terms from the weekend's offensive indicate, the balance of power has shifted in Hamas's favor.
To remedy the situation, and given Israel's reasonable aversion to carrying out a major operation to overthrow Hamas in Gaza, Israel needs to restore the balance of deterrence it maintained with Hamas for the three years following Operation Cast Lead. That is, it needs to restore the "ceasefire-for-ceasefire" reality that held until Abbas ended his transfer payments to Gaza. To achieve this end, Israel apparently needs to deliver the sort of blow on Hamas and its key terror masters that will force them to their knees. This sort of operation would involve two major components.
First, Israel needs undermine Hamas's ability to attack Israeli territory by restoring the kilometer-wide buffer zone on the Gaza side of the border to block assaults on its border, and by destroying Hamas's store of rockets, mortars and missiles.
Second, Israel needs to carry out strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders.
Such operations will make clear that Hamas will receive no further payoffs for desisting from its wanton aggression against Israel. Gaza's economic plight can be solved through a combination of increased employment for Gazans in the northern Sinai on the Egyptian side of the border, and through humanitarian aid projects. The former will diminish Hamas's hold on the local population.
If Israel's military commanders are correct, and the next round of Hamas aggression is waiting around the corner, then Israel should use the coming weeks to prepare itself for an operation that will convince Hamas that it is wrong to view attacks on Israel as a means to ensure its economic survival.
A Looming Crisis in the Mideast - by Ahmed Charai - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14193/looming-crisis-mideast
After raining down some 600 rockets that killed four Israelis this past week, the Netanyahu government responded with overwhelming force, deploying jet fighters to carry out multiple air strikes, killing 23 Gaza residents including a pregnant woman, according to Palestinian Authority officials. (The pregnant women and her child, however, are now confirmed as having been killed by a Palestinian rocket that feel short.)
And, so, the cycle of violence makes another cruel revolution. What makes the events of the past week different from earlier rockets-and-retaliation episodes? The reaction of Arab intellectuals and other thought leaders in Muslim world.
Consider the tweet of Dr. Turki Al-Hamad, a well-known Saudi author and thinker. He tweeted: "It's a repeating loop: rockets [are fired] from Gaza into Israel, Israel bombs [Gaza], someone or other mediates, the fighting stops - and the common Palestinian folks pay the price. This is 'resistance,' my friend. Iran and Turkey are in trouble, and the Palestinians are paying the price."
Note his use of scare quotes around resistance and his willingness to blame Iran and Turkey, two Muslim-majority nations, instead of the Jewish state. This marks a real rhetorical change.
And many influential Arab voices echoed the thoughts of Dr. Al-Hamad.
Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh, a frequent contributor to the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, tweeted: "The Persian ayatollahs have instructed their servants, Hamas, to escalate [the conflict] with Israel, and they obeyed. The result is seven Palestinians dead, versus one Israeli wounded. [The death toll increased after his tweet.] The Persians are tightening the pressure on the U.S. and Israel in retaliation for Trump's decision, and the victims are the people of Gaza."
Over and over again, tweets from journalists and intellectuals in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states (except, notably, Qatar), show a shift in elite Arab opinion. Many blame Iran and cite the suffering of ordinary Palestinians, which is considerable. Air strikes have denied Palestinians access to clean drinking water, electricity to run their hospitals, and wrecked the roads which bring food and aid.
Few doubt the analysis that Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is acting on orders from Tehran. Iran's Foreign Ministry Condemned what it called Israel's "savage" attack on Gaza, and blamed "unlimited US support" for Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Iran is a major funder for Hamas, Iran's goal is to be the vanguard of the Islamic world and to be the regional power. They want to be a pan-Islamic power, so supporting groups like Hamas and Hezbollah is Iran's best way to transcend the Sunni-Shiite divide.
Trump administration now appears to be reviving the 12-point plan presented by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a year ago, after America pulled out of the Iranian nuclear accord.
Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, said the dispatch of the huge naval vessel is designed to deliver a message to Iran, and warned that any attack on American interests or those of its allies would be met by "unrelenting force."
To Give Young Arabs Hope
While Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates remain major funders of the Palestinian Authority, its support for the Palestinian cause has become more complicated in recent years. Each nation has essentially made common cause with Israel against Iran. It is significant that the state-run media in Saudi and the UAE each sympathize with the Palestinian people, rather than their leaders.
This creates an important opening for President Trump's "deal of the century," whose primary architect is his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. It suggests that Kushner's plan may be able to attract significant Arab support and that the Saudis and Gulf Arab may pressure Palestinian officials to accept the plan, or, at least, sit down and negotiate its terms.
What is Kushner's plan? While no document or detailed account has emerged, Kushner himself discussed it in broad terms in a recent speech at the Washington Institute, a D.C.-based think tank.
"We've put together, I would say, more of an in-depth operational document that shows what we think is possible, how people can live together, how security can work, how interaction can work, and really, how you try to form the outline of what a brighter future can be," Kushner said. He said he has also created a "business plan" to create jobs and economic growth in the war-torn disputed territories.
Kushner has avoided the term "two-state solution" and the plan is believed to be more focused on economics than political issues, like where to draw borders or the "right of return." Those two items stalled previous talks.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN that Kushner's plan will be a departure from previous peace plans over the past 40 years. "Our idea is to put forward a vision that has ideas that are new, that are different, that are unique, that tries to reframe and reshape what's been an intractable problem that multiple administrations have grappled with, multiple administrations in Israel as well."
The plan is believed to include aid grants to the Palestinians in the range of $30 to $40 billion and make it easier for West Bank Palestinians to land jobs in Israel and to start businesses in Palestinian-controlled lands. But even these details are speculations.
All we can say with confidence is that the Kushner plan is built around economics, not politics. It began with a simple insight: for most Palestinians under the age of 40, the wars of 1948, 1967, and 1973 are ancient history. Instead of yearning for the political redemption of lost lands, younger Palestinians are demanding jobs, housing, education, and the hope of more prosperous lives. Why not, Kushner asked, build a new peace plan on the new generation rather than the demands of the older one?
Kushner is gambling that economic realities will trump political demands, which have defined the conflict for almost 70 years.
It is too soon to say whether this approach will work. But the tweets from Arab journalists, intellectuals and other thought leaders suggest a larger shift is underway on the Arab Street; that the greater Muslim world now cares more about the economic welfare of ordinary Palestinians than politics. If that is the case, the Kushner plan may have more of chance of success than many observers expect.
Islamic Jihad Leader Predicts Was This Summer
May 08 2019
alla.net> wrote:
Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhala said on Tuesday that he believed that a war would break out between Israel and Gaza this summer because of the intention to �disarm the resistance in Gaza.�
He made the comments in an interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV, translated by Channel 13 News.
�We decided to fire at an IDF officer and a female soldier last Friday in cooperation with Hamas, in response to the killing of the demonstrators at the return marches,� said Nakhala. �The Egyptians did not like the fact that this was happening while we were in Cairo. I, together with Yahya Sinwar, decided to continue the response. I say that the last round of escalation was only an exercise in live ammunition ahead of the larger battle to take place soon.�
The Islamic Jihad leader further claimed that if the previous round of escalation had continued, rocket fire on Tel Aviv would have taken place �within hours.�
The escalation began after Palestinian Arab terrorists opened fire at Israeli soldiers along the Gaza border in southern Israel, wounding an officer and a soldier.
In response to the shooting, IDF aircraft attacked a military post belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, killing two Hamas terrorists.
The Palestinian Arab factions in Gaza later threatened to retaliate for the airstrike, saying, �In view of the brutal Israeli aggression against our people, the leadership of the joint Palestinian resistance factions calls on all military factions to increase their readiness in order to respond to the enemy�s crimes.�
Gaza terrorists then fired some 700 rockets at southern Israel between Saturday morning and early Monday morning. Four Israelis were killed in the last round of confrontation.
On Monday morning at 4:30 a.m., a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and Qatar reportedly went into effect.
Source: Israel National News
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