🚩 Operation Iron Swords entered its 300th day on Thursday, August 1.
🚩 The IDF is preparing to repel possible „retaliation attacks“ from Iran and its proxies
🚩 The security of the Olympic delegation in Paris has been strengthened
🔷 Muhammad Deif, ‚Gaza’s Bin Laden’ and commander of Hamas’s military wing, was definitively killed in an Israeli airstrike last month, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Thursday. Military releases footage of July 13 airstrike on compound in Khan Younis, which also killed brigade commander Rafa’a Salameh. Hamas official refuses to confirm death of Deif. (video in the article) https://lnk.sk/lgp2 ; https://lnk.sk/nqov
🔷 Netanyahu addresses nation: Israel has struck ‘crushing blows’ against ‘Iran’s axis of evil,’ taking out top terror commanders. ’Whoever butchers our children will pay the price’ (video and transcript of the speech) https://lnk.sk/tbn8
🔷 According to a Wednesday New York Times report, Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei has already ordered a direct strike on Israel. Iran, Hamas leaders vow revenge on Israel at Haniyeh’s Tehran funeral procession. Parliament speaker pledges to carry out supreme leader’s order to exact ‘harsh punishment’ on Jewish state, which has neither confirmed nor denied assassination. https://lnk.sk/bbm0 ; https://lnk.sk/xgo1
🔷 Top Iranian officials will meet the representatives of Iran’s regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen today to discuss potential retaliation against Israel after the killing of the Hamas leader in Tehran, five sources tell Reuters. US fears this attack will be markedly different from the previous attack on the night of April 13-14, when Iran fired some 350 projectiles. https://lnk.sk/nnos ; https://lnk.sk/betr
🔷 Palestinian media outlets report that the bodyguard of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, killed with him in Tehran, was part of a terror squad that penetrated into Israel through a tunnel in July 2014 and fired an anti-tank missile at IDF forces in Nahal Oz, killing five soldiers. https://lnk.sk/iefu
🔷 Hananya Naftali on his FB: This is where Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was eliminated. Now this is called precision. Only his apartment was targeted. He stayed at a secret house hidden by mountains and trees. But nothing can hide from justice. https://lnk.sk/egzd
🔷 West Bank (Judea and Samaria) support for Hamas spiked from 12% in September ’23 to 41% in May ’24. Veteran Palestinian pollster Dr. Khalil Shikaki attributed Hamas’s leap in popularity to the November ceasefire, which saw 105 Israeli civilian hostages released and swapped for 240 Palestinian prisoners. „All of the prisoners released were from the West Bank. And so if you are able to release prisoners through violence, you are able to demonstrate to Palestinians the efficacy of violence. Hamas did that.” https://lnk.sk/smx0
🔵 COMMENTARY of the day: Kamala Harris’s Gift to Hamas; by Amit Segal for The Wall Street Journal
No wonder Hamas refused any deal offered, however generous. If the U.S. president seeks to end the war and the world will soon force the Israel Defense Forces to stop, why give up Israeli hostages?
When Vice President Kamala Harris became the de facto Democratic nominee, she gave Hamas an important gift. After meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, she said the next day, „We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the [Palestinians‘] suffering. And I will not be silent.“ Ms. Harris is apparently unaware that food prices in Gaza are significantly lower than in Israel. In any other war in the past century, has one side regularly supplied food and goods to the enemy’s civilians – and still been attacked by the White House?
The U.S. administration is taking a similar stance on the Lebanese front. The Iranian proxy Hizbullah has been firing at Israel for months. There is no „siege“ and no „occupation,“ yet the Biden administration is mediating between Hizbullah and Israel like a real-estate broker, instead of sending Iran an unequivocal, threatening message to halt the rocket fire.
© ICEJ Slovakia peter.svec@icej.sk