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Israel strikes airports in Syria and retrieves some hostages’ bodies as it prepares to invade Gaza
(JTA) — Israel bombed airports in Damascus and Aleppo following missile fire from Syria — a signal that tensions may escalate on Israel’s northern border as it prepares for a large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip.
The invasion, which is expected in the coming days, will follow Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, which killed more than 1,300 people, largely civilians, and wounded thousands. Hamas is holding more than 100 people captive in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli figures.
Israeli troops have already entered Gaza in limited incursions aimed at retrieving hostages, and Haaretz reported on Saturday that one of those raids did return several bodies of hostages captured and killed by Hamas. The raid also attempted to find clues as to the whereabouts of other hostages.
The U.S. government says 29 of its citizens have been killed since Hamas’ invasion, according to the Times of Israel, and that 15 are unaccounted for. President Joe Biden spoke with the families of some missing Americans on Friday. The families of the missing have organized into a coalition to draw attention from their own government and beyond.
According to a report in the New York Times, Israel’s invasion — which has been delayed in part by overcast skies — will aim to eliminate the leadership of Hamas and will be focused on the terror group’s stronghold of Gaza City in the northern part of the territory. Israel told residents of northern Gaza, more than one million people, to relocate to the strip’s southern half, though Israel’s military said Hamas blocked civilians from leaving.
Israel has conducted airstrikes in Gaza since Hamas’ invasion, killing more than 2,000, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. Hamas and other terror groups have also shot rockets into Israel. Israel’s last ground invasion of the territory was in 2014.
On Saturday, Egypt began allowing foreigners to leave Gaza through a border crossing on the strip’s southern border, which Egypt controls. World leaders including Biden are urging an agreement to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza, days after Israel announced a “complete siege” that cut off electricity, food and fuel.
Israel’s bombing of Syria comes after two rockets were fired from Syria into the Golan Heights. The past week has seen other exchanges of fire across the Israeli-Lebanese border amid fears that Hezbollah, a terror group based in Lebanon, will begin attacking Israel’s northern border. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are funded by Iran. Three Hezbollah fighters and one Israeli soldier have been killed in the clashes, as has Issam Abdallah, a Reuters journalist.
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Israel Says It Intercepted Missile Fired from Yemen; Houthis Claim Responsibility
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israel’s military said on Saturday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen and Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the attack, the third of its kind by the Iran-aligned group in 24 hours.
The Israeli military said sirens were activated in a number of areas in Israel after the missile was launched. No casualties or serious damage have been reported from the missile salvos.
The claim of responsibility, announced by the Houthis’ military spokesperson, came amid an intensification of US airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
In March, US President Donald Trump ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to reduce their capabilities and deter them from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The deadly strikes on the group have been the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January.
The Houthis say their attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping are in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Hamas terrorists and Israel in Gaza.
The group pledged to expand its range of targets in Israel in retaliation for a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza launched in mid-March, breaking a two-month-old ceasefire after the mediated talks on terms for extending it broke down.
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Former IRGC Chief: Trump Under Sway of Netanyahu, Neocons
Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council. Photo: Foad Ashtari via Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – The former head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps took to X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday to make the claim that the foreign policy of US President Donald Trump is under the sway of “neocons” and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Before taking office in the White House, Trump claimed that he had plans for an immediate end to the wars; but the war in Ukraine continues, the ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon has been broken, and the Israeli occupation army has occupied parts of Syria,” Mohsen Rezaee, now the head of the Supreme Council for Economic Coordination, wrote in Persian.
“Regarding negotiations with Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran has shown its seriousness and willingness to negotiate and reach an agreement. However, Trump and his team, influenced by Netanyahu and the neocons, are still in confusion and turmoil.”
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Report: Waltz’s Huddling with Netanyahu to Plan Iran Strike Angered Trump, Contributing to Ouster
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz meeting with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. January 28, 2025. Source: https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1884391528933777687
i24 News – As US President Donald Trump announced earlier in the week the decision to ouster his national security advisor, a report claims that Michael Waltz’s “intense coordination” with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has contributed to his sacking.
According to The Washington Post, while “Waltz’s fate was sealed” by his apparently accidental inclusion of an Atlantic journalist on a sensitive Signal group chat in March, he also “upset” Trump after an Oval Office visit by Netanyahu, “when the national security adviser appeared to share the Israeli leader’s conviction that the time was ripe to strike Iran.”
The report quoted an administration insider as saying that Waltz “wanted to take US policy in a direction Trump wasn’t comfortable with because the US hadn’t attempted a diplomatic solution.”
The US is now engaged in nuclear talks with Iranian representatives.
The post Report: Waltz’s Huddling with Netanyahu to Plan Iran Strike Angered Trump, Contributing to Ouster first appeared on Algemeiner.com.