Israel has attacked six countries in the past 72 hours

Al Jazeera | Marium Ali and Alia Chughtai

In just three days, Israel has carried out strikes in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and Yemen.

 

On Tuesday, Israel launched a targeted air strike on a Hamas leadership compound in Qatar's capital, Doha, during a meeting to discuss a US-proposed ceasefire for Gaza.

The strike killed six people, including the son of senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, the director of al-Hayya's office, three bodyguards and a Qatari security officer. However, its top leaders are reported to have survived the attack.

The attack was part of a wider wave of Israeli strikes extending beyond its immediate borders, and marked the sixth country attacked in just 72 hours and the seventh since the start of this year. 

Israel continues to bombard Gaza

Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed at least 150 people and injured more than 540 others since Monday.

On Monday, 67 people were killed and hospitals received 320 wounded, including 14 people killed while seeking aid, while six people - among them two children - died from famine-related causes. On Tuesday, another 83 people were killed and 223 were injured.

Israel is continuing its assault on Gaza City, targeting high-rise buildings, destroying infrastructure, and forcing residents from their homes, leaving many with nowhere safe to seek shelter.

Since its onset in October 2023, Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 64,656 people, [a far more probable figure is at least half a million] including at least 404 who have died of starvation. Thousands more have been lost under the rubble and are believed to be dead. 

Read more

Israel has started the invasion of Gaza City, and is now annihilating one of its most historic neighborhoods

Monodweiss  | Tareq S. Hajjaj

Despite the Israeli army’s announcements that it plans to occupy Gaza City in October, the first stage of the invasion has already begun. It is starting with the flattening of the Zaytoun neighborhood, including the Old City of Gaza. 

Earlier this month, the Israeli army confirmed its plans to occupy Gaza City, with the invasion reportedly set to start on October 7. But on the ground, the invasion has already started. 

On August 10, the Israeli army began invading the eastern parts of Gaza City, with Israeli ground forces moving into one of the city’s largest neighborhoods, al-Zaytoun. The neighborhood borders the Netzarim corridor to the south.    

Locals from the Zaytoun neighborhood told Mondoweiss that they had received orders via phone calls to evacuate their homes to the southern Gaza Strip. Shortly after, the Israeli army started relentlessly bombarding the neighborhood. 

Read more 

 

Humanitarian “Aid” deathtraps: The Israeli-American horrifying new face of Israel’s Gaza genocide

Eva Bartlett

In Gaza

Israel’s relentless slaughter and brutality against civilians in the region has led to Israel’s demise: it is hated around the world and has lost its victim card permanently.

My latest, first published on RT.com, June 30, 2025
*The republished version here is longer. Warning: graphic photos & videos

For over 630 days, the world has watched the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, primarily by bombing, sniping, and starvation. Off-camera, we’ve read about the rape and torture of Palestinian hostages, including the torturing to death of three doctors from the enclave.

For the last 100 days, Israel has reinforced a full blockade on Gaza, depriving starving Palestinians of food, drinking water, medicines, and fuel – meaning ambulances cannot function. This is following prior blockades last year, and the overall blockade of the strip, which has lasted over 17 years.

Since late May, we’ve been seeing horrific video footage of skeletal Palestinians lined up hoping for food aid being gunned down by US mercenaries and Israeli soldiers.

[...]

 Every imaginable crime, Israel has done it to Palestinians: bombed, invaded, destroyed hospitals, abducting doctors and patients; bombed churches, schools, UN centres and tents housing displaced Palestinians—in supposed “safe zones” where they were ordered by the Israeli army to flee to; killed over 200 journalists; deliberately killed medics; even decapitated babies…The list of crimes is too long to summarize here.

Read more 

US Officials Confirm Israel Behind Unprecedented Airstrikes On Iraq

Zero Hedge 

In an unprecedented escalation which could reshape alliances in the Middle East, American officials have confirmed that Israel was behind an airstrike on an Iraqi ammunition depot operated by a pro-Iran militia last month, according to The Associated Press:

Two American officials said Israel carried out an attack on an Iranian weapons depot in July that killed two Iranian military commanders. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

The admission comes after two more mystery explosions rocked paramilitary bases in and around Baghdad within the last two weeks, resulting in multiple paramilitary members killed, at least one civilian death, and dozens of injured, and which prompted Iraq's Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi to close the country's airspace to all “unauthorized flights”. 

Read more

BBC Admits ‘Syrian’ Airstrike in Recent Story on Scarred Boy Turned Out to Be Turkish

Sputnik

The BBC has corrected its August 19 news story about a Syrian boy who was severely wounded in a 2018 airstrike, which the broadcasting company first said was carried out by Syrian forces but later admitted could be blamed on Turkey.

Some Twitter users posted screenshots showing that the BBC had actually redacted its text several times.

The headline of the short story, featuring a video about the life of a four-year-old Syrian boy whose face was scarred in the airstrike, originally referred to the incident as “a Syrian airstrike.” The mention of Syria was then deleted with an indication that it was “not clear who was responsible for the attack.” Now the headline refers to it as just “an airstrike,” and the article clarifies that “evidence indicates that Turkey carried out the airstrike.”

Last January, Turkish forces launched airstrikes on Kurdish fighters in Afrin, a city located in northern Syria, as part of a military operation dubbed Olive Branch. The boy, named Jouma, and his family were fleeing their home in Syria when an airstrike hit the bus they were on.

Jenan Moussa, a reporter for Arabic Al Aan TV, wrote on Twitter that Tolin Hassan, a close friend of the wounded boy’s family, told her that Jouma’s relatives “mentioned over and over to BBC-journo that the car was hit by a Turkish strike after escaping Afrin.”

Read more

The Yemen Tragedy Further Fueled by the West and Its Allies

Viktor Mikhin
New Eastern Outlook

A most sophisticated demagogy, blatant falsifying of facts, impudent interpretation of events with everything going upside down, these are the thoughts that come to one’s mind when one reads another forgery concocted in the West. We mean the statement addressed to Iran calling for the termination of the actions which are allegedly destabilizing the situation in the Persian Gulf. The statement was made by the governments of the US, the UK and their satellites: the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, on June 24, as reported by the US Department of State press service. In this manifesto, contrary to the obvious facts, the signatories held Iran responsible for the escalation of the situation in Yemen and the attacks on the oil tankers on May 12 and June 13, urging the Islamic Republic to start searching for a diplomatic solution. The intensity of this demagogy, as the saying goes, is beyond the scale.

Let us however, in a quiet fashion and on the basis of the obvious facts, consider the situation in the Persian Gulf area and ask several questions. Did Iran or the poor Yemen suffering a score of internal problems, indeed attack Saudi Arabia? Did the Houthis indeed create a so-called Arab coalition which has consistently bombed the Saudi cities and villages killing the civilians? By no means. It was the Saudis, namely the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud who took up the foreign policy responsibilities due to the old age and numerous diseases of his father, the King, and who gave the order sanctioning the rough intervention of Riyadh in internal affairs of the neighboring state of Yemen and the total bombing of the Yemen cities.

The leader of the Houthis and the President of the Supreme Revolutionary Committee (SRC) Mohammed Ali al-Houthi demanded the UN Secretary General to condemn the war crimes committed in Yemen. Among the crimes perpetrated by the coalition of the Arab countries (led by Saudi Arabia and supported by the countries of the West), the Houthi leader named the ruthless blockade of the Yemen people, the famine in the country, the ongoing air embargo, the blockade of the Red Sea ports, the mass murders (including those of children), the destruction of civil facilities targeted during the military attacks.

The UN strongly condemned the following Saudi air raid on the Yemen capital city of Sanaa which resulted in the death of many civilians, including five children; dozens of people were wounded. The head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Henrietta Holsman Fore, speaking at the UN Security Council session, urged the international community to save the lives of the millions of Yemenite children. She emphasized that, since the beginning of the conflict in the country, according to official figures only, up to 10,000 children had been killed or wounded. According to the UN, the Saudi Air Force “aimed at the civilians systematically,” dropping bombs on hospitals, schools, weddings, funeral processions and even on the camps for the displaced persons escaping from bombing.

Read more

Fallujah Forgotten

David Swanson

I don’t know if most people in the United States ever knew what Fallujah meant. It’s hard to believe the U.S. military would still exist if they did. But certainly it has been largely forgotten — a problem that could be remedied if everyone picks up a copy of The Sacking of Fallujah: A People’s History, by Ross Caputi (a U.S. veteran of one of the sieges of Fallujah), Richard Hill, and Donna Mulhearn.

Fallujah was the “city of mosques,” made up of some 300,000 to 435,000 people. It had a tradition of resisting foreign — including British — invasions. It suffered, as did all of Iraq, from the brutal sanctions imposed by the United States in the years leading up to the 2003 attack. During that attack, Fallujah saw crowded markets bombed. Upon the collapse of the Iraqi government in Baghdad, Fallujah established its own government, avoiding the looting and chaos seen elsewhere. In April, 2003, the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division moved into Fallujah and met no resistance.

Immediately the occupation began to produce the sort of problems seen by every occupation everywhere ever. People complained of Humvees speeding on the streets, of being humiliated at checkpoints, of women being treated inappropriately, of soldier urinating in the streets, and of soldiers standing on rooftops with binoculars in violation of residents’ privacy. Within days, the people of Fallujah wanted to be liberated from their “liberators.” So, the people tried nonviolent demonstrations. And the U.S. military fired on the protesters. But eventually, the occupiers agreed to be stationed outside the city, limit their patrols, and allow Fallujah a degree of self-governance beyond what the rest of Iraq was permitted. The result was a success: Fallujah was kept safer than the rest of Iraq by keeping the occupiers out of it.

That example, of course, needed to be crushed. The United States was claiming a moral obligation to liberate the hell out of Iraq to “maintain security” and “assist in transition to democracy.” Viceroy Paul Bremer decided to “clean out Fallujah.” In came the “coalition” troops, with their usual inability (mocked quite effectively in the Netflix Brad Pitt movie War Machine) to distinguish the people they were bestowing liberty and justice upon from the people they were killing. U.S. officials described the people they wanted to kill as “cancer,” and went about killing them with raids and firefights that killed a great many of the non-cancer people. How many people the United States was actually giving cancer to was unknown at the time.

Read more

At least 207 killed, 500 injured after eight explosions rock Catholic churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday UPDATES

RT / Sott.net

Six explosions rocked Catholic churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka as Christians began Easter Sunday celebrations, with at least 50 killed and hundreds injured, local authorities confirmed.

The blasts occurred at around 8:45am local time at St. Anthony's Church in Colombo and St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, a Catholic-majority town outside of the capital. The Zion Church in Batticaloa on the eastern coast was also targeted. 

Read more (videos + photos)

Against All Odds, Libyans Fight to Regain Their Freedom From Western Occupation

Libyan War The Truth

In 2011, an evil scheme by the Western Mafia of Khazarian Zionists (UN, NATO, US, UK, France, Qatar), began a false flag titled "Arab Spring". This scheme was developed to destroy one sovereign country - Libya. The reason behind this was many fold but mainly, Ghadafi had started a gold currency for Africa called the gold dinar. This gold backed currency was already started in the Comoro Islands and all Arab countries has signed up along with more than half of Africa. This dinar would have caused the demise of the toilet paper bankers who control most of the world with their vacant petro dollar. 

The entire premise of "Protecting the Innocents" from an oppressive regime used in 2011 to foment the invasion and destruction of Libya was a complete and utter lie. 

Let's put this in perspective:

A huge invasionary force professing to protect the Libyan people causes one sixth of their population to be dead or missing, Two million Libyans must live in exile to preserve their lives. The entire infrastructure of the country is destroyed with 100's of thousands of bombs dropped on the country. Destroyed were Power plant's, water treatment plants, hospitals, universities, roads, agricultural areas, homes, etc. Total destruction in Libya will run into the trillion dollar range. The occupational force of 250,000 terrorist mercenaries that were brought into Libya in 2011 by the CIA, Mossad, Mi6, etc.,were left in Libya to enjoy all the spoils and continue the destabilization of the country. These occupying forces enjoyed full support of weapons, money and training for the past 8 years by the US,UN, NATO, UK, Italy, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel.

The Libyan people's right to vote was ignored or taken from them. A non elected UN puppet government was installed (GNA or Government of National Accord) with no basis in law and given access to the Libyan people's 500 billion dollars which was held in the US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan. With this huge amount of monetary resources, nothing has been done to aid and assist the beleaguered Libyan people. There are now however, many billionaires in the ranks of the terrorists, phony politicians and many,many influential foreigners.

The Libyan people have suffered such oppression for the last 8 years that lesser beings would have folded and given up. But Libya is an ancient culture of Tribes who have strong family units and great love of their country. Since 2011, the Libyan people have told us that the truth and their God will free them from the oppressors, now they are teaching the world how a country, oppressed by western ogres, can take back their sovereignty and their freedom.

We believe that the real "Libyan Model" is how every country can take back their sovereignty after years of oppression. 

Read more

British Bombing in Syria Reaches Record High

The Morning Star

"New data obtained by research group Drone Wars has “laid bare” the scale of British bombing in the region. The group found that Britain dropped 75 bombs over Syria in December, as planes and drones stepped up their attack on the last Isis stronghold."

Britain carried out a record number of air strikes in Syria during the last month of 2018, despite mounting concerns over civilian casualties and costs.

New data obtained by research group Drone Wars has “laid bare” the scale of British bombing in the region.

The group found that Britain dropped 75 bombs over Syria in December, as planes and drones stepped up their attack on the last Isis stronghold.

It was the most intense month of aerial bombardment last year, bringing the annual total to 464 munitions from 225 separate raids.

And while the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has published the number of air strikes, it is much more secretive about civilian casualties, causing concern about who was caught in the crossfire.

As well as local Syrians, kidnapped British journalist John Cantile may also be among those at risk from air strikes.

The war photographer was snatched by Isis terrorists in 2012 and presumed dead, but last week Security Minister Ben Wallace insisted he was still alive.

Read more

RUSSIAN MOD: ISRAELI AIR FORCE USED LANDING OF TWO CIVILIAN PLANES AS COVER FOR AIRSTRIKES

South Front

 

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out its recent airstrikes in Syria when two civilians planes were landing in Beirut and Damascus, putting passengers at risk, Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD) of Russia told reporters on December 26.

“Provocative acts by the Israeli Air Force endangered two passenger jets when six of their F-16s carried out airstrikes on Syria from Lebanese airspace,” RT quoted the spokesman as saying.

According to Konashenkov, the Syrian Arab Air Defense Forces (SyAADF) delayed the deployment of surface-to-air missiles and electronic jamming “to prevent a tragedy.” Meanwhile, the Damascus air traffic control diverted one of the passenger jets to a reserve airport in Khmeimim in southern Lattakia.

Konashenkov said that 6 Israeli F-16 warplanes used 16 US-made GPS-guided GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs) in the attack, which occurred at the late hours of December 25. Only 2 SDBs managed to hit their targets, while the rest were intercepted by the SyAADF.

Israeli media claimed that Israeli warplanes struck a shipment of Iranian-made Fajir-5 rockets, which was on its way to Hezbollah. However, the Ministry of Defense of Syria said that the “aggression” targeted an ammo depot of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) injuring three service members.

Last September, a Russian Il-20 plane was downed by Syrian air defense fire when Israeli warplanes used it as a cover to strike targets on the Syrian coast. The recent airstrikes show that Israel is now using the same tactic with civilian planes, which endangers the flights not only over Syria, but also over Lebanon and Jordan.

Read More

Gaza air strikes: Israel launches heaviest barrage since 2014 war amid militant rocket attacks

Comment: Poor little Israel... so victimised....

----------------------

The Independent

Israel has launched the largest wave of air strikes on Gaza since the 2014 war, as militants in the enclave fired volleys of rockets at towns adjacent to the border.

Two Palestinian teenagers were killed and at least three Israeli civilians were injured in the intense cross-border exchange that first erupted on Friday night.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli army spokesman, said the decision to bomb Gaza was taken after “terror along the security fence, arson terror and rockets”. The Israeli army said it had struck more than 40 targets in Gaza, the largest wave of daytime strikes since Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014. 

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, the militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, claimed that its fighters had “responded appropriately by targeting Israeli…military targets” after a “ruthless” attack. More than 90 rockets and mortars were fired from the enclave at southern Israeli towns. 

In Gaza, plumes of smoke rose above several cities as strikes tore through buildings including a high-rise in Al-Shati refugee camp in the north. Israel said the building was covering a militant tunnel and an underground warfare training facility. 

Read more

Saudi Arabia Issues Royal Pardon for Everything Soldiers Have Done in Yemen

Jason Ditz
Anti-War

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced that it is issuing a royal pardon for any and all Saudi troops engaged in the war in Yemen, covering all crimes related to violating military rules and discipline. They said this is to show appreciation for the “heroics” of the invading forces.

The Saudi invasion of Yemen has been widely controversial internationally. Saudi airstrikes have killed massive numbers of Yemeni civilians, and the war has also caused a famine, and the largest cholera epidemic in human history.

Faced with UN criticism, Saudi officials heavily resisted allegations of wrongdoing, and ultimately got the UN to agree that Saudi Arabia would be allowed to investigate its own forces, and police themselves. This pardon shows none of that is going to matter.

It is unclear what prompted the pardon to be offered no, as the war shows no sign of ending, and there is no suggestion from official reports that the Saudis had punished any of their troops more than nominally for war crimes in the first place.

Yemen’s Houthis Down Saudi Jet as It Returned From a Bombing Run

Mint Press News

On Thursday morning, Yemen’s Air Defense Force shot down an aircraft belonging to the Saudi-led coalition with a surface-to-air missile after it took part in airstrikes against residential villages in northern Saada. The Saudi-led coalition confirmed that it lost a Tornado fighter jet, but claims the aircraft fell due to a technical issue and that the pilot survived the crash.

A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told MintPress that the fighter jet was targeted after it launched airstrikes against residential villages in the Alaf district in Yemen`s northwestern province of Saada.

The incident was reported on the Yemeni Army’s official website, September 26th. A statement on the site read, “The hostile plane fell after returning from carrying out hostile missions in Saada province,” but gave no further details.

This is not the first time Yemen’s military has successfully downed a coalition aircraft. In fact, Yemeni forces have successfully shot down high-tech coalition aircraft on several occasions.

Read more

Bombs Away! US Airstrikes Every 12 Minutes?

RonPaulLibertyReport

Making Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinians

Joe Quinn
Sott.net

Satirical news site News Thump recently published an article where they 'quoted' Israeli PM Netanyahu on yesterday's massacre of 62 unarmed Palestinians by Israeli soldiers:

Netanyahu has defended his armed forces and their tactics, accusing Palestinians of working together to jump in front of any random sniper's bullets that happened to be in their vicinity.

Netanyahu told reporters,

"These people could have avoided the thousands of high-velocity bullets sent in their general direction if they had wanted to.

"But no, their primary goal was to make Israel look like a bully on the international stage, so they took every opportunity they could to throw themselves in front of bullets that would have otherwise fallen harmlessly into the ground.

"And those dead children were probably thrown in front of bullets by their parents."

The article has been liked 339,000 times on Facebook, and as far as I can tell, few if any realized that the article comes from a satirical site and that Netanyahu did not publicly say those words, or anything like them. But then that's not exactly surprising, because Netanyahu could easily have said those words, and there's little doubt he - and many other members of the Israeli political and military elite - thought them.

On the night of July 20th 2014, the Israeli military shelled the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shuja'iyeh, killing 63 people, 17 children among them. In an attempt to justify that massacre, Netanyahu said at the time:

"We have to protect ourselves. We try to target the rocketeers, we do. And all civilian casualties are not intended by us but actually intended by Hamas who want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can because somebody said they use telegenically dead Palestinians for the cause. They want the more dead the better."

The words are different from News Thump's satirical take, but the message is the same. Palestinian leaders and authorities 'make' Israel kill Palestinian civilians because they want to make Israel look bad ("for the cause"). Many parallels could be drawn with Netanyahu's statement, for example, the rapist who accuses his victim of 'making him do it' or 'asking for it'; the psychologically deranged murderer who claims that he killed prostitutes 'to save them' from a cruel world. When it raises its ugly head in civil society, this kind of twisted psychopathic thinking provokes revulsion and is universally condemned, yet when Netanyahu employs it in relation to the massacring of Gazans, it's accepted as a reasonable argument that absolves him and his shock troops.

Read more

Prediction of New False-Flag Gas Attack in Syria Seems to Fit US Escalation Plans

Whitney Webb
Mint Press News

If a chemical weapons “attack” comes to pass in the place it has been predicted, it would be the first such provocation blamed on Assad to take place in territory occupied by a foreign power, likely triggering an intensified military response from the U.S.

DAMASCUS – Though last month’s unilateral bombing of Syria by the U.S., U.K. and France came and went, the threat of foreign military intervention targeting the Syrian government remains, particularly given Syria’s success in defeating the foreign-funded terrorist proxies that have prolonged the Syrian conflict for seven long years. While Israel seems to have taken it upon itself to militarily intervene in Syria to prevent the Syrian government from continuing to reclaim its lost territory, the other major powers that have long sought the end of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have seemed to step back from intervening in Syria, unless another chemical weapons attack were to take place and be blamed on Assad.
 
For that reason, a recent article, published in early May by Russian news agency RIA Novosti, should raise concern, as it exposes alleged plans for another gas-attack provocation in Syria. According to the report, preparations for a staged chemical weapons attack began late last month as civilians were relocated to a territory near Jafra oil field in Eastern Syria, where they will participate in a staged filming of a chemical-weapons attack scene. According to South Front, a U.S. military garrison was recently established in this area. The report, based on the testimony of an anonymous member of the Syrian security services, claimed that an attack was being planned by U.S. security services and would employ “prohibited substances” against a group of civilians. 

The source also noted that the operation itself was being led by a former Daesh (ISIS) militant, Mishan Idris Hamash. Though this may seem unusual, the U.S. and its proxy force in Eastern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have been known to collaborate with former Daesh forces, including militias composed of former Daesh fighters under the SDF banner. 

If this report is true, it would not be the first time that such warnings were made public prior to chemical weapons attacks in Syria that were ultimately blamed on the Syrian government. For instance, in late March, the Russian Ministry of Defense had warned that a chemical weapons “provocation” was being planned in Eastern Ghouta by rebel groups in the area as part of a last-ditch attempt to prevent being run out of the Damascus suburb by the Syrian Arab Army. Just a few weeks later, a chemical weapons attack in Douma – widely believed to have been staged – took place and, prior to any investigation, prompted the U.S., U.K. and France to bomb the Syrian government, which they blamed for the attack.

Read more

This Is What They Don’t Want You To Know About Syria: Eva Bartlett on Dan Dicks’ Press For Truth

Eva Bartlett

In Gaza

Dan Dicks writes on Steemit:

We are being lied to about the real agenda for Syria and the Middle East.

The truth is this is a decades old plan being carried out with the sole purpose of regime change and control of the entire region. As more bombs continue to drop we are fed more lies from the mainstream media and unless we expose what’s really going on it’s only going to get worse.

Dan Dicks of Press For Truth interviews Eva Bartlett, an award winning journalist who is currently in Syria documenting what’s been taking place on the grounds in an effort to show the world not only what’s really going on there but also what exactly is at stake! The world could use more brave and courageous people like Eva Bartlett who are willing to put their lives on the line for the causes of freedom, liberty and truth. If you would like to support her efforts check the links to find out how you can contribute. Follow Eva and support her work here:

Twitter https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EvaBoBeeva
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/InGazaUpdates

U.S. Moves Forward With Multibillion-Dollar “Smart Bomb” Sale to Saudi Arabia and UAE Despite Civilian Deaths in Yemen

The Intercept

 

Last month, warplanes belonging to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen repeatedly bombed a wedding party in the northern part of the country, killing more than 20 people, including the bride, and injuring dozens of others. In the days that followed, local media published a photograph of a bomb fragment with a serial number tying it to the U.S.-based weapons manufacturer Raytheon.

Now the State Department is taking preliminary steps toward a massive, multibillion-dollar sale of similar weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, three congressional aides, a State Department official, and two other people familiar with the sales told The Intercept.

The State Department has yet to announce the exact details and dollar value of the package, but it is said to include tens of thousands of precision-guided munitions from Raytheon, the same company that was involved in producing the weapons used in last month’s strike.

Reuters reported in November that Saudi Arabia had agreed to buy $7 billion in precision-guided weapons from U.S.-based companies Raytheon and Boeing. Raytheon was “courting lawmakers and the State Department to allow it to sell 60,000 precision-guided munitions to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” according to the New York Times.

The State Department has briefed staff on the House and Senate Foreign Relations committees about the sale, but has yet to release details of the package to members of the committees, according to three aides who were not authorized to speak on the record. Once the chair and ranking member of the committees give the nod, the State Department can formally notify Congress about the sale, which could happen as early as next week.

Under the Arms Export Control Act, the State Department reviews potential arms sales to make sure they align with U.S. foreign policy goals and decides whether to issue export licenses. It then notifies Congress about sufficiently large sales, giving Congress a 30-day window to review and potentially block them.

The sale in question is a direct commercial transaction between Raytheon and the Gulf countries, which does not require the government to publicly announce the sale at the time of congressional notification. That means it will be up to senators to decide how many of the details to make public.

Read more

Explosions Heard on Israeli-Syria Border, Israeli Emergency Sirens Activated

Sputnik

Emergency sirens sounded in the Golan Heights Wednesday night, as conflict broke out across the Israel-Syria border allegedly between Israeli forces and the Iranian forces in Syria. In turn, Israeli jets reportedly fired a barrage of rockets into Syria on Thursday, hitting several military sites.

Israeli residents along the country's tense border with Syria were urged to take cover in shelters. Some projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense systems. The attack was first reported by the Army Radio network operated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF said no injuries had been reported. The army said it viewed the attack "with great severity" and was prepared for a "wide variety of scenarios."

Read more