An optimistic scenario suggests that eliminating Hamas in Rafah will take another half a year. A pessimistic estimation says it could take up to 24 months.
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IDF Claims Control of 70% of Rafah, Reports Killing 550 Terrorists
Some rises after an Israeli strike as Israeli forces launch a ground and air operation in the eastern part of Rafah, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
i24 News — A month and a half after the start of operations in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday claimed control of approximately 70 percent of the area. The Israeli military said Hamas’ operations frameworks have been disintegrated.
The Palestinian terrorist group is said to have shifted from organized and hierarchical fighting to guerrilla warfare in small squads. The Hamas’ Rafah Brigade has not been eliminated, but “it is not certain that if one gives orders, there will be anyone who receives them,” said a senior officer in the area.
The Brigade is said to count around 3,000 terrorists. From the beginning of the maneuver in Rafah, about 550 terrorist bodies were identified in the area, and many others fled north, said the military.
There are attempts by Hamas to re-establish the hierarchy and continue control of the area, with the two battalions remaining in the areas where the IDF has not yet operated.
According to officers in the area, the slow pace of fighting in Rafah is primarily explained by the amount of ammunition and explosives in the area. Furthermore, there are cases of fighters falling in the area due to building collapses after explosions.
“There are explosive materials that we have never seen before, both in quality and quantity,” admitted the 931st Battalion Commander.
Secondly, hundreds of tunnel shafts and tunnels in the area constitute another factor slowing operations. Troops reported identifying dozens of tunnels reaching the border with Egypt. The Yahalom Unit is said to be examining this issue.
Fighting in Rafah will continue for a long time while Israel is “moving to phase three” of the operation, according to the sources on the ground, saying it will take months to defeat terrorists in the area.
The post IDF Claims Control of 70% of Rafah, Reports Killing 550 Terrorists first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
The post Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden embarks on a series of fundraising events across two states on Saturday as he works to stamp out a crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign following a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the upscale New York beach enclave known as the Hamptons for a campaign fundraiser hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Barry Rosentein. Later in the day, he will travel to New Jersey for a fundraiser hosted by wealthy New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
Fellow hedge-fund founder Eric Mindich and his Tony Award-winning producer wife Stacey, celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and actor Michael J. Fox are all listed as members of the host committee at the New York event, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Biden told a rally in North Carolina on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would heed calls from Democrats who want him to drop out of the race.
Biden‘s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses during Thursday night’s debate heightened voter concerns that the 81-year-old might not be fit to serve another four-year term.
The Biden campaign on Saturday boasted it had raised more than $27 million between debate day through Friday evening, but questions remain about whether the debate performance will hurt fundraising, at least in the short term.
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Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Arab League no longer defines Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist group, an official said on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shiite militia and a proxy of the Islamic regime in Iran, boasts the world’s largest rocket arsenal of any non-state actor. It is animated by the antisemitic ideology of jihad and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted in Arab media as saying.
“The League’s member states concurred that the labeling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the regional body “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Hezbollah has unleashed numerous rockets, mortars and drones on northern Israel in the past eight months starting on October 8, a day after the Jewish state suffered the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the hands of the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas.
The post Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.