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Amid Escalating Threats, Here’s What’s Been Happening in Gaza
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Over the past few weeks, fighting in the Gaza Strip has continued at the same reduced pace, and with the same methods on both sides.
The IDF is slowly combing through the Rafah area against pinprick ambushes and raids by Hamas and other groups. Apparently, most of the Palestinian terrorists fled along with the civilians when the IDF provided evacuation notices to the latter, and are now trickling back to fight. Preventing the flight of terrorists with the civilians would have required the IDF to first conduct a rapid attack through the area north of Rafah to cut off access between it and Khan Yunis and the designated safe haven, but that would have increased civilian casualties and so was not viable.
The latest IDF raid into eastern Khan Yunis lasted two weeks. During that raid, IDF soldiers found the bodies of five more Israelis who were killed on October 7, and then had their bodies abducted. They were hidden inside a tunnel behind a false wall. According to one report, the information enabling their recovery was acquired from a captured Hamas terrorist. The IDF reported that during this raid, 150 terrorists were killed. The population that had been evacuated from the area of the raid prior to its start was allowed to return.
Below is a piece of Fatah propaganda against Hamas (provided by Israeli blogger Abu Ali Express from Palestinian social media): It says that in July 1994 Arafat entered Gaza following the Oslo Accords; In July 2024 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu entered Gaza. The message: We, Fatah, liberated Gaza, and you, Hamas, destroyed it.
The population of the northern area of Nusayrat and Burayj (south of the IDF cordon separating northern Gaza from the rest of the Gaza Strip) was told to evacuate, and airstrikes and small raids have been conducted there.
The IDF conducts airstrikes in areas where its ground troops are not operating. These strikes are based on intelligence, and last-minute evacuation orders are provided to civilians living in or very near the target. Hamas and the other groups have been using UNRWA facilities, schools, and other “sensitive” locations to protect their personnel; the IDF locates them, monitors them, and then strikes them. Each time this occurs, Hamas claims that all the casualties incurred were civilians. The IDF provides information that they were mostly terrorists, though unfortunately some civilians have been hit too.
Hamas fired rockets from inside the safe haven area, so a portion of it was declared a combat zone and the population there told to evacuate. Some of the rockets fell inside Gaza, including on an UNWRA school in Khan Yunis, causing Palestinian casualties.
During the fighting in Gaza, three Israeli soldiers have been killed since my last update and a few dozen wounded (a few severely but most of them only lightly).
Below is a Palestinian “civilian” medic in action, also from a video posted on Palestinian social media, provided by Abu Ali Express.
Judea and Samaria:
The fighting in Judea and Samaria continues. Each IDF entry into Palestinian towns faces varying intensities of resistance, including bombs dug under roads (cleared by having bulldozers tear up the asphalt), rifles, machine guns, grenades, and improvised hand-thrown bombs as well as petrol bombs.
Since my last report there have been a couple of hundred more Palestinian attacks in or emanating from Judea and Samaria, bringing the total number of Palestinian attacks since October 7, 2023, to approximately 4,000. Several Israeli civilians and soldiers were wounded but none killed.
The Palestinians claim that more than 9,855 people have been arrested, but the official Israeli number is approximately 4,250 (no official update since my last report, but partial reporting adds a few dozen arrested all told) of whom approximately 50% belong to Hamas and the others to other groups. The discrepancy is apparently explained by the fact that the Palestinians count anyone who was detained, even if they were released after questioning.
Occasional skirmishes continue between the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad cells. In at least two cases, these have included the detonating of bombs targeting Palestinian Authority security patrols inside the Authority’s sovereign controlled territory. At least one security officer was wounded. In another case, Palestinian Authority security personnel entered a hospital in Tulkarem to arrest a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander wounded in a skirmish with Palestinian Authority security forces (a bomb he tried to hurl at them exploded prematurely), but he managed to escape with the help of civilians in the hospital and other armed members of his faction. His escape was afterwards feted by a street celebration. This suggests the relative popularity among the local population of Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, and its rivals.
During their skirmishes, the factions often cooperate to attack Israelis. Symbolic of this occasional cooperation is that during the funeral of a killed terrorist, his body was draped in the flags of Fatah-affiliated organizations while being carried to the grave and then in Palestinian Islamic Jihad flags at the grave itself.
Dr. Eado Hecht, a senior research fellow at the BESA Center, is a military analyst focusing mainly on the relationship between military theory, military doctrine, and military practice. He teaches courses on military theory and military history at Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University, and Reichman University and in a variety of courses in the Israel Defense Forces. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
The post Amid Escalating Threats, Here’s What’s Been Happening in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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