United States moves warships closer to Israel

According to Saudi Gazette, the United States has announced it is moving an aircraft carrier, ships and jets to the eastern Mediterranean and will also give Israel additional equipment and ammunition.

This follows the Hamas attack on southern Israel, which President Biden called an unprecedented and appalling assault.

The US was also working to verify reports its citizens were among those killed and taken captive, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Israel says more than 700 people have been killed and 100 kidnapped.

In Gaza, more than 400 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes, according to Palestinian officials.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, a missile cruiser and four missile destroyers were heading to the region. US fighter jets would also be sent.

Further military aid to Israel would be sent in the coming days, the White House said, adding that the US was working to ensure that Israel's enemies would not try to seek advantage from the situation.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has expressed support for the Hamas attack, saying Israel needed to be held to account for endangering the region.

Hamas has said assistance from Iran helped it carry out its attack, which involved rockets, drones and militants on paragliders and saw hundreds of fighters break through Israeli border fortifications around the Gaza Strip.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US had not seen evidence of direct Iranian involvement, but that Iran had been helping the Gaza-based group for years.

"Hamas wouldn't be Hamas without the support that it's gotten over many years from Iran. We haven't yet seen direct evidence that Iran was behind this particular attack or involved. But the support over many years is clear," he told US TV.

At a UN Security Council meeting, Iran denied involvement in the attack on Israel, Reuters reported.

Blinken also said officials were looking at reports that US citizens had been caught up in the attack.

"We've got reports that several Americans are among the dead. We're working very actively to verify those reports," he told US TV on Sunday. Other countries including the UK, France, Ukraine and Thailand have also reported deaths.

He told ABC that "this is a massive terrorist attack that is gunning down Israeli civilians in their towns, in their homes, and as we've seen so graphically, literally dragging people across the border with Gaza.

Israel's ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, told CBS News that he understood Americans were among the soldiers and civilians abducted in southern Israel but did not have details.

The US sends billions of dollars of military aid to Israel, a close ally, each year. Since World War II, Israel has been the largest overall recipient of US foreign aid.

The UN Security Council is due to meet in New York shortly to discuss the violence in Israel and Gaza.

Riyadh concerned about Tehran's response to normalizing ties with Israel

An ex-Iranian envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said that Saudi Arabia was worried about Iran’s response to the establishment of relations between Riyadh and the Israeli regime.

In a recent interview with Jamaran news outlet on Saturday, Sabah Zanganeh noted, “Saudi Arabia agreed to restore ties with Iran to be able to pursue the normalization of relations with Israel is not a precise analysis.”

“Such an analysis would be an exaggeration,” he added. “Saudi Arabia is, has been and will be worried about Iran’s reaction. The other countries which have pursued the same policy are still concerned about Iran’s stance, too,” he averred.

Additionally, the ex-envoy addressed Riyadh’s attitude on Washington as saying, “Saudi Arabia seeks to gain concessions from the United States; namely, it seeks the privilege of atomic energy enrichment from the US.”

He stated that the Saudis were making an effort to obtain concessions in order to justify their choice. 

“The Saudis want Israel’s cutting-edge technologies as well as a trade and oil transit line to the Mediterranean,” he said.

The former Iranian OIC ambassador remarked that the improvement in ties between the two countries has left the Saudis without any excuses to gain more concessions and justify forming an alliance with Israel.”

“Israel, for its part, lost an element which it used to provoke Arab countries to adopt harsh stances against Iran,” he added. 

In a meeting with a group of foreign guests attending a Muslim unity conference in Tehran lately, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Iran aims to further strengthen relations with Saudi Arabia with the purpose of blocking normalization with the Zionist regime of Israel.

He continued, “Today, we are witnessing the resumption of Iran-Saudi relations, our intention is to have deep and extensive relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia with an eye on the interests of the Islamic world and with the aim of disappointing the enemy and blocking the way to normalize relations.”

Back in September, Iran’s new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alireza Enayati, said that Tehran views Saudi Arabia as a strategic partner in the West Asia region. 

In remarks to the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Enayati said, “We consider the Kingdom a strategic partner of great importance within the framework of the good neighborliness policy pursued by the current government.”

Enayati told the Saudi paper that he intended to dedicate his efforts in the upcoming period to enhance and foster relations between Tehran and Riyadh.

He emphasized that both sides are strongly determined and sincerely willing to develop these relations, expressing optimism about a promising future.

The ambassador pointed out that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had instructed him to do his utmost to strengthen brotherly and friendly relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

 

United States pays US$43 million to Iran

Iran has received US$43 million in damages from the United States under a case of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal.

The amount of money was placed into the country’s bank account in The Hague, the Netherlands, according to the Center for International Legal Affairs of the Legal Vice Presidency of the Iranian President on Sunday.

The case involves Iranian properties that had not been transferred to Iran after the conclusion of the Algiers Declarations.

“The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal issued Award No. 604 in favor of Iran and ruled that the US government must compensate for the damage it caused to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” read the statement.

It went on to add, “Following repeated and persistent follow-ups by the Center for International Legal Affairs of the Legal Vice Presidency of the Iranian President to secure Iran’s rights based on the verdict, the amount of US$43 million has been deposited by the US government into the account of the Islamic Republic of Iran at a Dutch bank in The Hague in damages and its interest.”

The move comes as the United States has suffered a string of legal setbacks in international courts against the Islamic Republic.

Luxembourg released US$1.7 billion of Iran’s frozen assets following a ruling issued by the European country's Supreme Court, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) reported on Saturday.

As reported, with the legal actions and follow-ups of the CBI, at the current stage, the legal obstacles to access US$1.7 billion assets of this bank in Luxembourg have been removed and this fund is now available to the Central Bank of Iran.

Back in September, the administration of the US President Joe Biden had given foreign banks a general waiver that allowed them to move US$6 billion of frozen Iranian assets from South Korea to Qatar without worrying about Washington’s sanctions.

With the waiver, banks in Europe, West Asia, and Asia could convert blocked Iranian funds in South Korea into cash that can be transferred to Qatar’s central bank and used by Tehran to buy non-sanctioned commodities without breaking US sanctions.

 

Afghan earthquakes kill more than 2,000

More than 2,000 people were killed in earthquakes in Afghanistan and more than 9,000 injured, the Taliban administration said on Sunday, in the deadliest tremors to rock the quake-prone mountainous country in years.

The Saturday quakes in the west of the country hit 35 km (20 miles) northwest of the city of Herat, with one of 6.3 magnitude, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

They were among the world's deadliest quakes in a year when tremors in Turkey and Syria killed an estimated 50,000 in February this year

Janan Sayeeq, spokesman for the Ministry of Disasters, said 2,053 people were killed, 9,240 injured and 1,320 houses damaged or destroyed. The death toll spiked from 500 reported earlier on Sunday by the Red Crescent.

Ten rescue teams were in the area, which borders Iran, Sayeeq told a press conference.

More than 200 dead had been brought to various hospitals, said a Herat health department official who identified himself as Dr Danish, adding most of them were women and children.

Bodies had been taken to several places - military bases, hospitals, Danish said.

Beds were set up outside the main hospital in Herat to receive a flood of victims, photos on social media showed.

Food, drinking water, medicine, clothes and tents were urgently needed for rescue and relief, Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban political office in Qatar, said in a message to the media.

The mediaeval minarets of Herat sustained some damage, photographs on social media showed, with cracks visible and tiles fallen off.

Hemmed in by mountains, Afghanistan has a history of strong earthquakes, many in the rugged Hindu Kush region bordering Pakistan.

Death tolls often rise when information comes in from more remote parts of a country where decades of war have left infrastructure in a shambles, and relief and rescue operations difficult to organize.

Afghanistan's healthcare system, reliant almost entirely on foreign aid, has faced crippling cuts in the two years since the Taliban took over and much international assistance, which had formed the backbone of the economy, was halted.

Diplomats and aid officials say concerns over Taliban restrictions on women and competing global humanitarian crises are causing donors to pull back on financial support.

The Islamist government has ordered most Afghan female aid staff not to work, although with exemptions in health and education.

In August, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was likely to end its financial support for 25 Afghan hospitals because of funding constraints. It was not immediately clear if the Herat hospital was on that list.

The quakes triggered panic in Herat, resident Naseema said.

"People left their houses, we all are on the streets," she wrote in a text message to Reuters on Saturday, adding that the city was feeling aftershocks.

There are a total of 202 public health facilities in Herat province, one of which is the major regional hospital where 500 casualties had been taken, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report on Sunday.

A vast majority of the facilities are smaller basic health centres and logistical challenges were hindering operations, particularly in remote areas, the WHO said.

"While search and rescue operations remain ongoing, casualties in these areas have not yet been fully identified," it said.

 

 

 

 

 

Hamas attack shocks Israel, what next?

Fifty years on from the Yom Kippur War, which began with a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria, Palestinian militants have launched a major assault. This too was unexpected, on another Jewish holiday.

Tensions had recently risen in the Gaza Strip, but the conventional wisdom was that neither Hamas, the Islamist group which governs there, nor Israel wanted an escalation.

Instead, Hamas had been planning a sophisticated, coordinated operation. Early morning, as an intense barrage of rockets was launched with some reaching as far away as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Palestinian fighters entered southern Israel by sea, land and air.

They have held Israeli towns and army posts under siege for hours, killed many people and taken away an unknown number of Israeli civilians and soldiers to hold as hostages in Gaza.

The awful drama has played out live on social and mainstream media.

Thousands of Israelis who had been out for an overnight rave in fields close to Gaza rapidly found themselves under fire.

After her partner had driven to find her, Gili Yoskovich told the BBC how she had hidden from the heavily armed fighters among trees. "They were going tree by tree and shooting everywhere. From two sides and I saw people were dying all around."

"I said, 'OK, I'm going to die, it's OK, just breathe, just close your eyes', because there was shooting everywhere. It was very, very close to me."

Israel HaYom newspaper quoted Ella, a resident of Kibbutz Be'eri, speaking of her fears for her father who had gone to a safe room after sirens went off to warn of incoming rocket fire.

"He wrote to me that the terrorists are in the shelter, I see his picture on Telegram from inside Gaza. I still hear bursts of gunfire," she said.

Many Israelis have expressed shock that the Israeli security forces did not come more quickly to help them.

Meanwhile, footage shared on Hamas channels showed that soldiers in Israeli army posts and in a tank that had been captured or killed.

There were initial pictures of celebrations in Gaza where snatched Israeli military vehicles were driven through the streets.

"I am happy with what Hamas has done so far, taking revenge for Israeli actions at al-Aqsa," a young man in Gaza City told the BBC, referring to the recent rise in Jewish visitors to the compound in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem during the high holidays.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is also the holiest place for Jews, known as Temple Mount.

Still, the man who was leaving his apartment after warnings that the Israeli military was set to hit nearby, expressed fear for what would happen next.

"We're worried, already my family lost our shop when the Shorouk Tower was hit by Israel in the war of 2021," he said. "The action Hamas has taken this time is far bigger, so there will be an even bigger Israeli response."

Palestinian hospitals have already been overwhelmed by casualties from the Israeli air strikes which have caused wide destruction.

The Gaza Strip — a tiny coastal enclave which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians — was taken over by Hamas in 2007, a year after it won parliamentary elections. Israel and Egypt then tightened their blockade of the territory.

It remains impoverished with unemployment at around 50%.

After the serious conflict between Israel and Hamas in 2021, indirect talks mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the UN helped secure thousands of permits for Gazans to work in Israel and relax other restrictions in return for relative quiet.

Last month, when hundreds of Palestinians began to join protests by the perimeter fence in the strip in a reminder of the mass demonstrations which began five years ago, it was assumed that this was with the nod from Hamas and was meant to squeeze more concessions from Israel and aid money from Qatar.

The small rallies now seem like a red herring. Some speculate whether they were in fact a chance to survey the fence ahead of the infiltration.

With this latest operation, Hamas seems keen to burnish its credentials once again as a militant organization. Its charter remains committed to the destruction of Israel.

Speaking at the start of the offensive, the shadowy Hamas militant commander, Mohammed Deif called on Palestinians and other Arabs to join the action to "sweep away the Israeli occupation".

A big question now is whether Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem or elsewhere in the region will heed his call.

Israel undoubtedly sees the potential for a war that could open up on multiple fronts.

A worst-case scenario is that it could draw in the powerful Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has ordered a massive reinforcement of troops. As well as its intense air raids on Gaza, it has indicated that it is planning a ground operation there.

The capture of Israeli soldiers and civilians, who Palestinian militants will hope to use as human shields or bargaining chips, are a serious complication.

"We are currently busy regaining control of the area, striking broadly and especially taking care of the area around the Gaza Strip," said the IDF spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. "We will do a very sharp and thorough review."

While a full review may be some way off, there is no doubt that Israel's intelligence and security establishment will be asking itself how it did not see this action coming and how it did not manage to prevent its huge consequences.

Courtesy: Saudi Gazette

 

Israel cannot provide protection to Arab countries, says Haniyeh

Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, told fellow Arab countries on Saturday that Israel cannot provide them with any protection despite recent diplomatic rapprochements.

Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday, killing dozens of people and taking hostages in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing into Israel with a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Israel said the Iran-backed group had declared war as its army confirmed fighting with militants in several Israeli towns and military bases near Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate.

In a televised speech, Haniyeh addressed the Arab countries that have normalized ties with Israel in recent years.

"We say to all countries, including our Arab brothers, that this entity, which cannot protect itself in the face of resistors, cannot provide you with any protection," he said.

"All the normalization agreements that you signed with that entity cannot resolve this (Palestinian) conflict."

In 2020, Israel reached normalization with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and upgraded ties with Morocco and Sudan, despite talks with the Palestinians being frozen for years.

Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Israel are also engaged in US-mediated talks to normalize relations, a prospect that drew condemnation from some Palestinian factions.

Haniyeh also said armed Palestinian factions intend to expand the ongoing battle in Gaza to the West Bank and Jerusalem. "The battle moved into the heart of the 'zionist entity'" he said.

 

Israel at war with Hamas

According to The Jerusalem Post, Hamas has launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday, killing more than 20 people and wounding hundreds in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing into Israel with a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza.

Israel accused the Iran-backed group has declared war as its army confirmed fighting with militants in several Israeli towns and military bases near Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate. Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known," he said. "We are in a war and we will win it."

At least 22 Israelis were killed in the attack so far, Israel's ambulance service said. Around 545 Israelis had been wounded, the health ministry said.

The Israeli military said it had responded with air strikes into Gaza, where witnesses reported hearing heavy explosions and multiple dead being carried into hospitals.

The attack marked an unprecedented infiltration into Israel by an unknown number of Hamas gunmen crossing from the Gaza Strip, and the heaviest blow for Israel in the conflict with Palestinians since the suicide bombings of the Second Intifada some two decades ago.

The militant Islamic Jihad group said it had joined the attacks and was holding several Israeli soldiers captive and Hamas social media accounts showed footage of what were said to be Israeli captives being taken alive into Gaza.

Israeli broadcaster Reshet 13 TV News said militants were holding Israelis hostage in the town of Ofakim, and that five Palestinian militants had been killed in the town of Sderot and homes had been set on fire.

Israeli media reported gun battles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in towns in southern Israel. Israel's police chief said there were "21 active scenes" in southern Israel.

In Gaza, people rushed to buy supplies in anticipation of days of conflict ahead. Some evacuated their homes and headed for shelters.

Hamas military commander Mohammad Deif announced the start of the operation in a broadcast on Hamas media, calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight.

"This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth," he said, adding that 5,000 rockets had been launched.

Israel and Hamas fought a 10-day war in 2021.