RSS
Israeli Defense Chief Reveals IDF Recovered Letter of Top Hamas Fighter Showing Terror Group Is Crumbling
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meeting with IDF commanders, including members of the elite Shayetet 13 marine commando unit, in Atlit, Israel, Jan. 17, 2023. Photo: Ariel Hermoni (Israel’s Ministry of Defense)
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday revealed a letter which he said was written by the former commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade about the major losses the Palestinian terrorist group has suffered in the ongoing war in Gaza.
The letter, which has not been independently verified but Gallant claimed was written by Rafe Salama and intended for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother, detailed the infrastructure and personnel damage Hamas has sustained since it began a war with Israel on Oct. 7 of last year.
According to a translation of the letter by the Israeli Defense Ministry, the letter noted that “we [Hamas] have lost 90-95 percent of our rocket capabilities; and we have lost some 60 percent of our personal weapons; we have lost at least 65-70 percent of our anti-tank launchers and rockets.”
The letter was supposedly written prior to July, when Salama was killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) along with Hamas’s former top military commander Mohammed Deif.
“We have lost at least 50 percent of our fighters between those who are martyred and wounded, and now we are left with 25 percent,” Salama reportedly wrote. “The last 25 percent of our people have reached a situation where the people do not tolerate them anymore, broken on a mental or physical level.”
As of mid-August, the IDF said it had killed more than 17,000 terrorists in Gaza since the beginning of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7, which roughly aligns with the numbers outlined in the letter if it is authentic.
Gallant said the letter showed “the difficult situation of the Hamas organization.” He wrote on X/Twitter that “Hamas is in real distress from the junior to the senior level — we will continue the effort and reach everyone.”
“He [Salama] cries out for the help of the Sinwar brothers, but of course, they can’t save him,” Gallant said. “Why? We are continuing the effort that started in October, which continues step by step and reaches all senior Hamas officials.”
Since the start of the war, Israel has killed many high-ranking terrorists of Hamas and other groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.
In late July, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an explosion that took place while he was staying in Tehran, the Iranian capital city, for the inauguration of the country’s new president. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it was behind the explosion, although Hamas and its allies have accused the Jewish state of being responsible.
That same week, Israel Israel killed Fuad Shukr, the No. 2 leader in the Hezbollah terrorist organization, in a targeted strike on a building in Lebanon. The assassination came as a response to a Hezbollah rocket attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams, located in the Golan Heights, which hit a soccer field and killed 12 children.
Similarly in July, Israel took out Deif, who is widely considered to be the person — along with Sinwar — most responsible for planning and carrying out Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The post Israeli Defense Chief Reveals IDF Recovered Letter of Top Hamas Fighter Showing Terror Group Is Crumbling first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.