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‘Scenes out of Gaza will be hard to stomach,’ IDF warns as Israel tells 1M Gazans to evacuate
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces urged AIPAC and its followers to stick with Israel as it attacks Hamas even when “the going gets ugly” and “the scenes out of Gaza will be hard to stomach.”
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, the international spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, spoke Thursday evening to a webcast convened by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee about what Israel expected from Americans and especially those who support the pro-Israel lobby.
Conricus’ comments came shortly before Israel issued a warning to civilians in Gaza that they should leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip within 24 hours. The warning, which applies to an area with more than 1 million residents, offered a timeline about when Israel plans to launch a ground invasion or otherwise step up its offensive against Hamas.
The offensive has been ongoing since Saturday, when Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza and killed, wounded or took captive thousands of Israelis, according to the Israeli military, in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
The Gaza Ministry of Health, which Hamas controls, says more than 1,500 Gazans have since been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
In its warning, Israel said that “Hamas terrorists are hiding inside Gaza City in tunnels underneath houses” and that it wanted to avoid hurting the civilian residents of those homes when rooting them out.
“Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields,” the warning said. “In the following days, the IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City and make extensive efforts to avoid harming civilians.”
Hamas responded to the warning by telling Gazans to stay put. The United Nations denounced the evacuation order as impossible to execute and called on Israel to rescind it. Some Gazan families were already packing bags and leaving their homes on Friday.
Hamas continued to shoot rockets at cities across Israel on Friday. Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group, has threatened to join the fight against Israel and officials from Iran, which funds both groups, has also threatened that the conflict could broaden.
In his comments to affiliates of AIPAC, Conricus hinted at a far-reaching operation and said Israel’s supporters should not flinch when it gets “ugly.” Israel has vowed to “wipe out” Hamas, and the proactive comments were a sign that Israel is concerned that the offensive could unsettle even its fiercest defenders.
“Even when the going gets ugly and the scenes out of Gaza will be hard to stomach — not as hard as the things that were coming out of Kibbutz Be’eri and Kfar Aza, but they will be hard to stomach— then we will need the support of anybody who loves freedom wants to stand up for what’s right,” Conricus said, referring to two of the Israeli villages on the Gaza border where Hamas committed brutal massacres.
Conricus’s warning comes as President Joe Biden, who has unstintingly backed Israel, has also said that it must hew to international law and respect human rights. Progressive Democrats, who have also condemned Hamas’ invasion, have also said that they fear Israel’s retaliation will be far-reaching. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat who is a leader among progressives, said Thursday she was concerned about the possibility of “ethnic cleansing.”
Much of the conversation in AIPAC’s 45-minute webcast, convened as an “emergency briefing,” anticipated that Israel would soon lose the sympathy it has garnered from a broad spectrum of international opinion.
“Whenever fighting starts usually it’s the enemy that takes an initiative attack, Israel enjoys a small window of international legitimacy and support then flips and Israel is forced by powerful countries around the world to limit its movement,” Conricus said. “We have seen that and that is unfortunately what we’ve faced in the past. This time must be different.”
Conricus said previous forays against Hamas left “unfinished business” but did not detail what “different” would look like in this case.
“They have been allowed to build themselves into a significant military with the ability to, we have sadly seen, cross into Israel and butcher Israeli civilians like none of our enemies have ever done before,” he said. “I think that is a result of the unfinished business and too many rounds of clashes without decisive military victory.”
Cory Meyer, AIPAC’s digital engagement director, asked Conricus how long he expected the conflict to last. “It will probably take a very long time, and we are preparing for a long time, weeks, months, however long it will take,” Conricus said. “That is the scope and that is the I think understanding in the military and in the government is something that will take time if we want to do it right and we want to do it right.”
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The post ‘Scenes out of Gaza will be hard to stomach,’ IDF warns as Israel tells 1M Gazans to evacuate appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.