News of the World

[kyonides]

Another Middle Eastern News Special Edition

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Israel Penetrates into Southern Gaza, Surprising Hamas

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spent the first 48 hours of renewed fighting by attacking targets throughout Gaza, and fighting deep into southern portions of the Gaza Strip — apparently surprising Hamas, which expected Israel to stay in the north alone.

The U.S. had openly opposed an Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza Strip, saying that Israel had to account for civilians first. Whether Israel defied the U.S, or the U.S. participated in the ruse, Hamas does not appear to have expected the southern push.

Israel also released a map to help civilians avoid fighting, with different areas of the Gaza Strip numbered. The U.S. suggested that the map satisfied its concerns, though the administration has at times offered conflicting signals about Israeli tactics.

Reports on social media suggested that Israel had cut begun to cut a path across the southern Gaza Strip, entering from the east and progressing toward the Mediterranean coast, effectively dividing Gaza into three smaller sections — north, central and south.

Fighting in the south centered around the city of Khan Yunis, where Hamas leadership is thought to have fled — and where many of the remaining 137 Israeli hostages may be imprisoned. Talk among Israeli officials has shifted from negotiating for the release of hostages to the possibility of freeing them by force.

Israel announced the elimination of a senior Hamas commander, Haitham Khuwajari, an alleged leader of the October 7 terror attack on Israel, on Sunday, and the IDF and Israel Security Agency [ISA] released video of the airstrike in which he was killed.

Top Hamas Official Warns ‘War of Liberation’ Surpassing October 7 Massacre Is Imminent

A “war of liberation” surpassing the unprecedented October 7 terror attacks is coming soon, vowed a senior Hamas official who expressed no regrets over the U.S.-designated terrorist group’s brutal massacre in Israel — the deadliest against Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust — which saw the torture, rape, execution, immolation, and abduction of hundreds of Israelis of all ages, mostly civilians, and dozens of Americans.

Hamas political bureau member Osama Hamdan made the remarks during a broadcast Wednesday on the Lebanese media outlet Bel Moubashar Online.

During the interview, which was translated and published by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Hamdan was asked if he would repeat the October 7 massacre if given the opportunity to go back, to which he responded: “Why would some people assume that we would go back on our acts of resistance?”

He also expressed no regret for “shattering an entire division of the occupation army.”

Hamdan then said he could “promise that a war of liberation is coming, not just another October 7,” adding that he thinks such an event is not far off.

In October, Hamas senior political official Ghazi Hamad declared that the terror group intends to repeat its October 7 terror attack until Israel is annihilated.

SecDef Austin Warns of ‘Strategic Defeat’: If Israel Isn’t Careful, Palestinians Might Support Hamas

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned at the Reagan National Defense Forum on Saturday that Israel could face “strategic defeat” if it was not more careful about how it fought Hamas, because more Palestinians might be driven to support the terrorist group.

Austin seemed not to know that the vast majority of Palestinians already support Hamas, at least in one recent opinion poll.

A wartime poll of Gaza and West Bank residents last month by Birzeit University’s Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) found that “the majority of (59%) strongly supported or (16%) supported to some extent the October 7 attacks carried by the Hamas-led factions.” Hamas received the support of 76% of respondents. The poll is marred somewhat by the fact that there is no free speech in Hamas-run Gaza or the Palestinian Authority-run areas of the West Bank. Still, the results are notable.

The majority of Palestinians also voted for Hamas in the last Palestinian election of any kind, the parliamentary elections of 2006.

Moreover, Palestinian civilians from Gaza participated in the Hamas atrocities on October 7, and many celebrated the attack: the world watched on video as mobs cheered terrorists who brought back hostages and joined in abusing the bodies of dead Israelis.

Austin warned that Israel could face “strategic defeat” in the war, and claimed that the U.S. had learned that by fighting ISIS

Austin, I've got some terrible news for you: many Palestinians already support Hamas. Just go take a look at the numbers the most recent poll throws at your face.

Pentagon: U.S. Warship, Multiple Commercial Vessels Attacked in Red Sea

A U.S. Navy warship and multiple commercial vessels came under attack Sunday in the Red Sea,  the Pentagon said, marking a potential escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war.

“We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon confirmed, according to AP.

The USS Carney (DDG-64) is an Arleigh Burke-Class guided-missile destroyer. There is no indication yet it returned fire on its attacker(s).

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the attack began about 10 a.m. in Sanaa, Yemen, and had been going on for as much as five hours.

There was no immediate comment from the Houthis. However, a Houthi terrorist spokesman earlier said an “important” statement would be released shortly, the AP report said.

Freed Israeli Hostage Who Wrote ‘Thank You’ Letter Describes Captivity as ‘Gruesome’

Danielle Aloni, 45, a freed Israeli hostage who was purportedly the author of a “thank you” letter to her Hamas captors, told Israeli television this weekend how brutal her abduction was, and how she and her six-year-old daughter, Emilia, endured hell.

As Breitbart News reported last week, anti-Israel activists circulated a “thank you” letter, purportedly from Aloni, thanking the terrorists profusely for how they treated her daughter like a “queen,” and wishing that they could be friends outside of the war:

We are apparently parting tomorrow, but I would request to thank you from the depths of my heart for the extraordinary humanitarianism that you showed to my daughter, Emelia.

You were, to her, like two fathers, you invited her to your room at every opportunity that she wanted.

She is leaving with the feeling that you are all her friends, and not just friends, but very, very good friends.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the many hours of babysitting.

Kissinger’s Final Interview: Forget a Palestinian State, Let Jordan Rule

The October 18 interview, published by Politico on Saturday, is thought possibly to be Kissinger’s last. It includes the following:

I am in favor of a peaceful outcome. I don’t see a peaceful outcome with Hamas involved in the conflict. I would favor negotiations between the Arab world and Israel. I do not see, especially after these events, that direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are very fruitful.
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A formal peace doesn’t guarantee a lasting peace. The difficulty of the two-state solution is shown by the experience of Hamas. Gaza was made quasi-independent by [former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon in order to test the possibility of a two-state solution. It has led, in fact, to a much more complex situation. It has become so much worse in the last two years than it has been in 2005. So the two-state solution doesn’t guarantee that what we saw in the last weeks won’t happen again.
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I believe the West Bank should be put under Jordanian control rather than aim for a two-state solution which leaves one of the two territories determined to overthrow Israel. Egypt has moved closer to the Arab side, so Israel will have a very difficult time going forward. I hope that at the end of it there will be a negotiation, as I had the privilege to conduct at the end of the Yom Kippur War. At that time, Israel was stronger relative to the surrounding powers. Nowadays, it requires a greater involvement of America to prevent a continuation of the conflict.

Kissinger was referring to the “disengagement” by Israel from Gaza in 2005, when it pulled out all of its soldiers and civilians.
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The “Jordanian option” has long been favored by the Israeli right, though it has been, until now taboo in foreign policy circles.

Honestly, Israel cannot allow anybody else but itself to rule in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. The air capabilities of its defense systems and the launch of fighter jets needs the State of Israel to be as wide as the stretch of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan river. Any other option would make it impossible to launch missiles in time or very slow to respond with its F-35s.  Plus, Jordan already has most of the territory that was supposed to be assigned to Israel after the British Mandate.