|
In-Depth Issues:
Recordings Reveal Hamas Fired on Gaza Aid Hub - Yoav Zitun ( Ynet News)
The IDF released a recording of a conversation between an Israeli military liaison officer and a Gazan man discussing the incident on June 1 in which more than 30 people were allegedly killed by Israeli fire near a humanitarian aid hub in Rafah.
"The army responded after they were fired on with mortars, but the ones who fired were Hamas members."
He said that Hamas operatives deliberately sought to sabotage the aid operation.
"They want to derail the program so the aid goes to them, so they can steal it. They live off this - selling, trading, money, food and drink for themselves and Hamas leaders. They want the aid to come in through the UN and international bodies so they can steal it."
An additional eyewitness echoed the resident's version of events and said no Israeli fire took place during the aid distribution.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Suspends Aid after Hamas Threatens Its Palestinian Workers - Itamar Eichner ( Ynet News)
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced Saturday that Hamas directly threatened its Palestinian drivers and workers, forcing it to suspend operations.
"Hamas is the reason hundreds of thousands of hungry Gazans were not fed today," the foundation said.
"We are actively adapting our operations to overcome these threats and fully intend to resume distributions without delay."
Iran Orders Material from China for Hundreds of Ballistic Missiles - Laurence Norman ( Wall Street Journal)
Iran has ordered thousands of tons of ballistic-missile ingredients from China to rebuild its military prowess.
Shipments of ammonium perchlorate are expected to reach Iran in coming months and could fuel 800 ballistic missiles.
Some of the material would likely be sent to militias in the region aligned with Iran, including Houthis in Yemen.
Israel severely damaged Iran's ability to produce new solid propellant missiles in October by taking out a dozen planetary mixers, used to blend components for the missiles. Iran has started to repair the mixers.
A Breakthrough in Laser Defense - Yonah Jeremy Bob ( Jerusalem Post)
The IDF's new laser defense system shot down 40 Hizbullah drones during the war.
IDF St.-Sgt.-Maj. (res.) A. was stationed in northern Israel to work on how to operate the laser in real combat situations.
Everyone had to learn how to best operate the laser in real time in the field, since it is essentially something that no one had ever done before.
"We received the system, we made adjustments while operating in the field, and we improved, with the industry developers [Rafael], after we got a better understanding of what we needed to increase our shoot-down success," he said. There was no real manual or guidebook.
Although the U.S., Britain, Russia, China, Germany, and Japan are all developing laser defense systems, Rafael said on Wednesday it is the only company that has moved beyond test firings to actual use in the field.
The World's First Operational Laser Interception System - Dr. Yehoshua Kalisky ( Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
The operational success of Israel's Iron Beam high-power laser system in intercepting UAVs marks an operational breakthrough, as this is the first publicly confirmed interception of an aerial threat using electromagnetic rather than kinetic weaponry.
The Iron Beam generates multiple laser beams through proprietary technologies and then combines them while preserving their unique properties.
When the resulting beam hits the target, the intense heat causes significant structural failure in the intercepted object.
The system can correct distortions and deviations of the beam as it passes through the atmosphere, thereby enabling high power density on the target.
It operates at the speed of light and can neutralize short-range, low-flying UAVs and drones, as well as faster threats like mortars and short-range rockets.
Environmental factors limiting the system include clouds, rain, fog, smoke, or dust,
currently limiting the laser's effective range to 8-10 km. However, these limitations can be addressed.
The writer, a senior researcher at INSS, has made significant scientific and technical contributions to the field of laser physics.
After Gas Field Discovery, Egypt Still Faces Energy Challenges - Elfadil Ibrahim ( Responsible Statecraft)
The discovery of Egypt's gargantuan Zohr gas field in 2015, hailed as the largest in the Mediterranean, was presented as the dawn of a new era.
By 2018, when Zohr began production, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi promised self-sufficiency and even transformation into a regional gas exporter.
Electricity generation today accounts for 60% of Egypt's total gas consumption.
However, just three years after its peak, Zohr's output alarmingly declined. Experts now suggest Zohr's recoverable reserves may be far less than initially estimated.
Furthermore, Egyptian energy expert Khaled Fouad noted that the political leadership's "impatience" to accelerate production led to technical problems and damage to the wells.
In addition, the multi-billion dollars in arrears Egypt owes to international oil and gas companies have led to curtailed crucial investments in new exploration and the maintenance of existing fields, effectively strangling domestic production.
In 2024, Israeli gas accounted for 72% of Egypt's total gas imports.
|
|
News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- President Trump: Iran Will Not Be Allowed to Enrich Uranium - Josh Christenson
President Trump warned Friday that Iran will not be allowed to enrich uranium. "They won't be enriching. If they enrich, then we're going to have to do it the other way. And I don't really want to do it the other way but we're going to have no choice. There's not going to be enrichment." (New York Post)
- U.S. Imposes Sanctions on International Criminal Court Judges in Response to the ICC's Illegitimate Actions Targeting the U.S. and Israel - Jonathan Swan
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday that the U.S. would impose sanctions on four judges on the International Criminal Court. "These individuals directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without consent from the United States or Israel. Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute (which outlines the ICC's structure and areas of jurisdiction)."
"As ICC judges, these four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC's illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel." Their "abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel. The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other U.S. ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC."
"I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel." (U.S. State Department)
- U.S. Troop Presence in Syria to Be Reduced - Lara Korte
The number of U.S. bases in Syria will be pared from eight to one, American ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said on June 2 in an interview with a Turkish TV station. Since ISIS' territorial defeat in 2019, the U.S. has maintained several hundred troops in northeastern Syria to train and assist Kurdish partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as well as a small contingent near the southern border with Jordan and Iraq.
Following an agreement the SDF made in March to merge forces with the interim government in Damascus, the Pentagon said it will reduce the American troop level in the country from 2,000 to less than 1,000 in the coming months. (Stars and Stripes)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israel Arms Gaza Bedouin Militia to Challenge Hamas - Yoav Zitun
A covert Israeli operation to arm a Bedouin-affiliated Palestinian militia based in Rafah to challenge Hamas in southern Gaza was orchestrated in recent months by the Israel Security Agency at the authorization of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ynet reported Thursday. At the center of the operation is Yasser Abu Shabab, 32, who heads a group called The Popular Forces. (Ynet News)
See also Gaza Militias Securing Access Routes to Humanitarian Aid Centers - Amir Bohbot
Walla learned on Sunday that the Abu Shabab militia has begun securing access routes to humanitarian aid centers in Rafah and providing protection for aid convoys. Contrary to some reports, the group is not connected to ISIS or extremist Salafi groups.
(Jerusalem Post)
See also Palestinian Groups Fighting Hamas in Gaza - Yonah Jeremy Bob
Palestinian tribal gangs in Gaza fighting against Hamas is in Israel's interest, former Israel Security Agency official Shalom Ben Hanan told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "The phenomenon of arming Palestinian tribal gangs to harm Hamas is a positive development - this is saving the lives of our soldiers."
If Gazan Palestinians can fight Hamas and push it out of certain areas, IDF soldiers will not need to fight in those Gazan sectors.
Alternatively, even if some of the Gazans receiving weapons from Israel are criminals, they still might be preferable if they conclude that their local non-ideological interests are to forge a stable relationship with Israel - as opposed to Hamas, which is religiously and ideologically committed to Israel's destruction. (Jerusalem Post)
- Collapsing Hamas Requires Breaking the Fear Barrier - Danny Zaken
The idea of relying on armed clans in Gaza was attempted earlier in the war, but back then Hamas was far stronger and brutally eliminated several groups to maintain its control. Now, Hamas is in a state of disintegration, on the defensive due to numerous eliminations of its terrorists and commanders.
On June 1, as Palestinians headed to U.S.-sponsored aid centers, Palestinian sources told Israel Hayom, "Hamas gunmen threatened civilians heading to the center, firing into the air," prompting the armed clans to intervene, killing at least two Hamas members. A Hamas reinforcement unit arrived, resulting in a widespread firefight, injuring dozens of residents and gunmen.
While some will label them gangs, the bottom line is that this force is eroding Hamas's control. A security official says, "At this stage, the clans pose no threat, and their activity is highly beneficial." (Israel Hayom)
- IDF Attacks Hizbullah's Underground Drone-Manufacturing Facilities in Beirut - Lior Ben Ari
The IDF launched strikes Thursday evening targeting Hizbullah drone manufacturing facilities in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut after warning residents of impending strikes. The IDF said Hizbullah
was working to produce thousands of UAVs under the direction and funding of Iranian terror elements.
(Ynet News)
See also How Israeli Intelligence Uncovered Hizbullah's Drone Network - Amir Bohbot
Lt.-Col. N. of Israel Air Force intelligence has been tracking Hizbullah's drone manufacturing unit for over two years. Regarding Thursday's attack in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut, he said, "Thanks to our intelligence, we ensured extensive evacuations; no munitions were deployed before we confirmed that no civilians were present."
"We hit seven targets: five in Beirut and two in southern Lebanon....To build and deploy UAVs, they must go through several stages that we can detect and counter....These strikes are the best form of defense - preventing the enemy from obtaining sufficient capabilities in numbers or quality to pose a real threat." (Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War
- Inside the IDF's New Gaza Offensive - Neta Bar
Col. S., commander of the 7th Armored Brigade operating in Gaza, said: "Today we have a far greater ability to destroy Hamas's tunnel systems in Khan Yunis than in previous operations. Thanks to various intelligence assets and data collected and analyzed over months from earlier incursions, we now have capabilities we didn't have before. We've managed to strike and eliminate many terrorists inside the tunnels, and confirm it. Many others are hiding there, and we'll get to them too."
Inside one of the buildings in Khan Yunis is an IDF command center. Three female drone operators are
scanning aerial footage of the neighborhood on a large screen. One of them is currently flying a drone.
S., the team leader, explains: "This area is almost completely devoid of civilians. Our job is to locate terrorists, identify them as legitimate targets, complete the kill chain and verify results. Sometimes we close the circle with a grenade-dropping drone. Since arriving here, we've eliminated numerous terrorists and in at least one case prevented harm to innocent people."
The vast number of drones operated around the clock are central to what has changed on the battlefield. Ambushes, mortar fire, and terrorist infiltration have all become much more difficult under the IDF's constant aerial surveillance. Amit, a soldier, concludes: "It's hard, it's hot, we haven't showered properly in ages, but we're here for the people of Israel. For me, that's everything. It fills me up and recharges me. I'm not just a cog in the machine. I'm not burned out." (Israel Hayom)
See also Israeli Forces Push Deeper into Khan Yunis - Stav Levaton
The IDF last operated deep in Khan Yunis with ground troops in April 2024. The commander of the Kfir Brigade's Shimshon Battalion, Lt.-Col. Y., said the city is laced with terror infrastructure, including a sprawling tunnel network and buildings rigged with explosives. Each advance requires methodical clearing. Despite the intensity of the fighting, Y. said morale among his troops remains high. "We can see the kibbutzim across the border - we know well why we're here." (Times of Israel)
- Hamas Is Losing Its Grip on Gaza's Civilians - Yaakov Lappin
Prof. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, told JNS that "Hamas is definitely in real strategic distress. Its entire command and control mechanism has been destroyed. Other than the Gaza Brigade commander, Ezzidin al-Haddad, there is no senior figure left capable of managing the organization."
"The organization's military capabilities have been severely damaged. In fact, Hamas today has no ability to operate as an organized military framework. What remains is entirely residual." Hamas has "switched to sporadic terror and guerrilla warfare, making efforts to place mines, and place IEDs on [military] traffic routes and quickly emerge from tunnels to fire anti-tank missiles and then swiftly escape back into the tunnels."
Moreover, "Hamas is losing its grip on governing civilians. The civilians' fear barrier of Hamas is eroding, and the humanitarian aid distribution centers are operating in a way that draws many civilians there, despite Hamas's attempts at disruption."
Michael added that the heavy IDF military pressure, civilian departures from northern Gaza, and strikes on multi-story buildings and civilian facilities used by Hamas are further destabilizing the group.
Oded Ailam, former head of the counterterrorism division in the Mossad and currently a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told the Jerusalem Press Club on May 29 that for the first time, "Hamas is losing its grip on the population....They did everything in their power in order to discourage the population from reaching [the distribution centers] and receiving the food, because controlling the food and controlling the supply is controlling the population, and they are losing it."
"Right now what we are seeing is the first step in the collapse of the Hamas regime in Gaza, and it's extremely important that it will continue, and we should encourage those steps." The Israeli observers all agreed that any Gaza solution leaving Hamas in power would signify a dangerous victory for the group. (JNS)
- Israeli Women Are Entering the Battlefield in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria - Carrie Keller-Lynn
Days ago, an IDF search-and-rescue team in Gaza spent hours drilling through concrete and plying aside rebar to recover the body of a fallen soldier buried under rubble in Khan Yunis. The combat team was made up mostly of women soldiers. "A year and a half ago, I would never have dreamed of leading a combat team within Lebanon or Gaza," said the major, 25, who is among a growing number of women serving on the front lines of Israel's military. "I think the war proved to all of us how much we are capable of."
Israel is one of the few countries that subjects women to a draft at age 18, just like men. Over half of the military's combat roles are open to women, and 90% of overall roles. Today, women represent 21% of Israel's combat-classed forces, jumping from 14% before the war and 7% a decade earlier. The military reported an increased female demand to go into combat roles.
"There are three reasons militaries look to put women in combat roles: ideology, equality and necessity," said Jacob Stoil, chair of applied history at the Modern War Institute at West Point. "You'll see women serving in combat roles when one of those three are the case," he said, adding that in Israel all three apply. (Wall Street Journal)
Israel and the West
- How the Media Manufactured a "Genocide" - Zach Goldberg
References to "genocide" have reached unprecedented highs across numerous major news outlets.
I tracked annual coverage associating genocide with well-documented historical cases, including Rwanda (1994), Darfur (2003-2008), Bosnia (1995), Myanmar (2017-present), and the Yazidis (2014-2017).
The results were striking. Coverage linking Israel with genocide has surged far beyond every other agreed-upon historical case of genocide. In the New York Times, articles pairing Israel and genocide reached levels nine times higher than the peak for Rwanda and six times greater than for Darfur.
If Israel's war in Gaza qualifies as genocide, it would constitute a striking historical outlier: perhaps the first such case of genocide triggered by a mass terrorist attack involving the slaughter of civilians and the taking of hostages; the first in which the genocider permitted food, fuel, and humanitarian aid to flow to its purported victims; and potentially the only instance in which the perpetrators lacked any prior plan or ideological commitment to extermination.
If the new math of genocide is correct, then we have a press teaching a large public that warfare of any kind is always a hideous crime, even when waged in response to murderous attacks by genocidal maniacs on defenseless civilians. Or there is to be one rule for Jews and a different rule for everyone else.
The unprecedented volume of atrocity rhetoric attached to Israel in mainstream outlets broadcasts the idea that Jews are collectively and unambiguously guilty of the darkest of crimes.
It is unsurprising that assertions of collective guilt on the part of "Israelis" and "Zionists" bleed into even broader attitudes toward Jews, resulting in recent deadly attacks.
The writer is a Research Faculty member at Florida State University's Institute for Governance and Civics (IGC). (Tablet)
- Jewish Supporters of the Palestinian Cause Have Been Played - Andrew Garfield
What I have seen on peace missions to the West Bank has shifted my views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I have become steadily more convinced that I and other Jews who have lent their support to the Palestinian cause are being played.
No one wants to face up to the fact that the majority of Palestinians and their noisy backers worldwide are still holding out for a maximalist solution in which the clock goes back not to 1967 but to pre-1948, if not further.
Even the more moderate Palestinian leadership struggles to accept any legitimacy in Jewish claims to the land. They cling to the mistaken view that Israel is a foreign implant which will either weaken of its own accord and suffer internal strife or lose the support of the West and collapse.
Hamas has successfully undermined every peace initiative over the last 40 years and terrorized its own population into refusing any kind of idea of peaceful coexistence. The destruction of the peaceful communities in the Gaza envelope and the brutality wrought on the peace activists living there, in particular, were, for many, the final straw.
While Western media daily fuel the narrative of Israeli villainy, Israelis haven't been so quick to forget the crowds who gathered in Gaza to cheer the arrival of the bloody hostages on Oct. 7.
Recent hostage testimony about fears of being lynched by "innocent Gazan" civilians, or the torture and sexual abuse meted out by their captors, has hardened determination to avoid a ceasefire which leaves Hamas in place.
Israelis are tough, but they have had to be. If they had always played nice and done what they were told, Israel would never have come into existence, let alone survived to forge the start-up nation that is more prosperous and happier than the UK is today. In 2000, in Camp David, Israel offered the Palestinians everything they were supposed to be demanding. The response was the Second Intifada, in which thousands of Israelis (and Palestinians) were killed. (Jewish News-UK)
- Seeing the Real Israel Destroys the Dehumanizing Myths that Dominate in Ireland - Rachel Ann Moiselle
Growing up in Dublin, you would be forgiven for believing that Israel is a "white colonizer entity": one composed of evil beings and on the brink of destruction. Walking last week through the streets of Tel Aviv filled with people of every color impresses upon you just how delusional this dangerous, hateful fantasy is.
These people are living the wildest dreams of their ancestors, unburdened by having to explain themselves to a world that has inflicted devastation upon the Jewish people across generations and continents. This is what sovereignty and self-determination after a millennia of persecution look like.
Dublin is and always will be my beloved home. However, the reality is that vicious anti-Israel sentiment has become a normalized and insidiously suffocating background hum. Since Oct. 7, I have lost Irish friends that I have had since childhood. What a relief it was to be in Tel Aviv around people who understand.
Tel Aviv is filled with photos and banners of the hostages and graffiti calling for them to be brought home. You cannot walk three minutes without seeing something related to the Israelis who remain in Hamas captivity. The immense love for the hostages (and the raw pain that they are still not free) is ever present.
(Jewish News-UK)
Observations:
- From the moment news emerged on Oct. 7, 2023, that Hamas terrorists were tearing through Israel, butchering, raping and kidnapping civilians, a sizeable proportion of Westerners, including among the elites, failed to understand what was at stake. Here was a Western liberal democracy under attack by an army of Islamist antisemites, hell-bent on the destruction of the Jewish state. Yet every attempt by Israel to defend itself has been cast as an act of unjustified aggression - or worse, an attempt at genocide.
- Douglas Murray, author of the new book, On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel, Hamas and the Future of the West, explains that on Oct. 8,
"I saw a pro-Hamas demonstration taking place in Times Square. At that time, the massacre was still ongoing in the south of Israel. Yet here were hundreds of people in New York, all celebrating and waving placards saying things like 'by any means necessary.'"
- "I just thought, what is happening? Of course, it's possible to favor the creation of a Palestinian state. But why would you choose the moment when Hamas's massacre is still going on to support the people doing the killing? This was before Israel had even done anything in response."
- "It occurred to me that there is something about the Israelis in the minds of some of the general public which makes them uniquely undeserving of empathy. Survivors of the Nova festival - young people who were...set upon by Hamas terrorists, massacred and raped - are treated wherever they go as if they themselves are the culprits."
- "Israelis are accused of things which they haven't done or aren't doing, by people who either want to do those things themselves, or would like the Israelis to suffer those things, or who have been told that these are things that their own nation has done....We see young people from Britain to Australia, Canada and America, who...accuse the Israelis of things like colonialism, genocide and white supremacy - all of which are offenses that these young people in particular have been told that they themselves are guilty of."
- "It is unclear what you are to do, as a generation taught that you are guilty of crimes for which you have no responsibility. It is an unsolvable situation. But the Jewish state presents an answer - a scapegoat on to which you can project all the crimes you were told you were guilty of."
- "In Britain we have hundreds of thousands of people who are sympathetic to Hamas....We need to be able to say that if you want to bring down the West, if you want to kill the Jews, if you hate liberal democracy and you want to subvert it, then there are lots of places you can live, but this ain't one of them."
|