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Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
With moves on West Bank and Gaza City, Israel defies global outcry
The idea of a Palestinian state 'is being erased from the table,' Bezalel Smotrich, the hard-line finance minister, declared after the government approved a settlement project of 3,400 housing units in the heart of the occupied West Bank. Advertisement 'Every town, every neighborhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea,' Smotrich said Wednesday. At the same time, the Israeli military said it was advancing plans to take over Gaza City, with troops already on the city's outskirts and tents being moved into the southern Gaza Strip for displaced people. An additional 50,000 reservists would be told to report for duty in September, while troops have already obtained 'operational control' over 75 percent of the Gaza Strip, the military said in statements. The United Nations has put that number closer to 90 percent. The military 'has begun the next phase of the war,' said Brigadier General Effie Defrin, the Israeli military's chief spokesperson. The looming assault aims to prevent Hamas — which led the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught on southern Israel that started the war — from regrouping and planning future attacks, an Israeli military official, who requested anonymity in line with military protocol, told journalists at a briefing Wednesday. Advertisement About 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others kidnapped during the 2023 assault. After nearly two years of Israel's retaliatory war against Hamas, the Gaza Strip has been largely leveled and parts of it have been brought to the brink of famine. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. For Netanyahu, 'it doesn't matter if these steps — the war in Gaza and the quasi-annexation in the West Bank — would damage Israel's relations with the Arab world,' said Michael Milshtein, an Israeli analyst and former military intelligence officer. He said both developments also showed that Netanyahu believes he can continue to depend on American support, even as Arab and European nations sharply condemn Israel's actions. World leaders quickly condemned the announcements on Gaza City. 'The military offensive in Gaza that Israel is preparing can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war,' President Emmanuel Macron of France said on social media. France is among a growing number of countries that, frustrated with Israel's war in Gaza, have declared in recent months that they will recognize a Palestinian state at the annual UN General Assembly in September. While the United States has for years endorsed a so-called two-state solution, it has blocked recent efforts to recognize full Palestinian statehood under current conditions. Advertisement Prospects for a functional Palestinian state have been dim for years, and its boundaries have never been clear. Netanyahu has not publicly shared his position on the new ceasefire proposal, which Hamas has accepted and was announced this week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. But a statement that his office released Wednesday night seemed to signal that the military operation was soon to begin. Smotrich has led a pressure campaign by hard-liners who have threatened to quit Netanyahu's coalition, and potentially bring down his government, if the proposed ceasefire deal was pursued. Orit Strock, a minister in Netanyahu's government and a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party, warned the prime minister in a radio interview about accepting a deal that did not defeat Hamas and put 'the value of returning the hostages above the national interest.' 'This will push the country into a horrible abyss,' Strock told Army Radio. 'So it is very possible that we will say we will not be prepared to lend our hand to the government.' The new proposal has been described as a 'partial deal' that would not immediately release all hostages and would postpone discussions about ending the war, including the issue of disarming Hamas. As many as 20 hostages are still believed to be alive, according to Israeli authorities. The bodies of 30 others, they say, are being held in Gaza. Many Israelis fear that Hamas will kill the remaining hostages if the military operation goes forward. The Israeli official who briefed journalists Wednesday described the military operation as 'gradual, precise, and targeted,' saying it would extend into areas of Gaza City where Israeli soldiers had not previously been during the war. Advertisement The city and its surrounding neighborhoods remain a stronghold for Hamas fighters and the militants' government, the official said. Two other Israeli military officials said the operation would unfold in parts. First, troops would encircle Gaza City while allowing the population to move south, passing through checkpoints to prevent Palestinian militants from escaping. Then, the troops would move in with force. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. Ahmed Saleh, 45, said Israeli troops were sending remote-controlled vehicles packed with explosives to blow up buildings, block by block, in the Zeitoun neighborhood near where he lives in Gaza City. 'I hear the big explosions all the time; they are getting closer,' said Saleh, adding that he would try to stay in his home for as long as possible. If he is forced to leave, Saleh said, he would head west to a beachfront, where he previously lived in a tent while waiting for the violence to ebb. Although worried that Israeli forces will close escape routes to the west, Saleh said he will not move to southern Gaza, as Israel is demanding of displaced residents. 'There are no services there at all, but most importantly, there is no room left for newcomers in the south,' he said. 'I know no one there and have no more money to pay for that trip.' As the international community has focused on the devastating war in Gaza, the Israeli government has barreled ahead with settlement construction in the West Bank. The project that was given final approval Wednesday, known as East One, or E1, was delayed for more than two decades. While the United States had pressured Israel to reject settlement expansion, the Trump administration has been far less critical of settlements than most of the international community, which generally considers them to be illegal and obstacles to Israeli-Palestinian peace. Advertisement About 500,000 Israeli settlers and about 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. Israeli authorities have advanced plans for more than 20,000 housing units as of late July, already the highest tally in years, according to Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog. That has been accompanied by a campaign of brazen attacks by Jewish extremists on Palestinian communities. On Wednesday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi cited a 'completely inhumane reality that the Israeli aggression has created in Gaza.' He also accused Israel of taking 'illegal measures that continue to undermine the two-state solution and kill all prospects for peace in the region.' The Israeli military official said the new operation will also expand humanitarian aid in southern Gaza, where displaced people are being told to move. That will include opening new aid distribution sites, ensuring there is no fighting near them and opening new routes for trucks to safely bring in more supplies. This article originally appeared in
an hour ago
Gabbard slashing intelligence office workforce, cutting budget by more than $700 million
WASHINGTON -- The Office of the Director of National Intelligence will dramatically reduce its workforce and cut its budget by more than $700 million annually, the Trump administration announced Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement, 'Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence.' She said the intelligence community 'must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and the U.S. Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers.' The reorganization is part of a broader administration effort to rethink its evaluation of foreign threats to American elections, a topic that has become politically loaded given President Donald Trump's long-running resistance to the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election. In February, for instance, Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections. The Trump administration also has made sweeping cuts at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the nation's critical infrastructure, including election systems. Gabbard's efforts to downsize the agency she leads is in keeping with the cost-cutting mandate the administration has employed since its earliest days, when Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency oversaw mass layoffs of the federal workforce. It's the latest headline-making move by a key official who just a few months ago had seemed out of favor with Trump over her analysis of Iran's nuclear capabilities but who in recent weeks has emerged as a key loyalist. She's released a series of documents meant to call into question the legitimacy of the intelligence community's findings on Russian election interference in 2016, and this week, at Trump's direction, revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former government officials. The ODNI in the past has joined forces with other federal agencies to debunk and alert the public to foreign disinformation intended to influence U.S. voters. For example, it was involved in an effort to raise awareness about a Russian video that falsely depicted mail-in ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania that circulated widely on social media in the weeks before the 2024 presidential election. Notably, Gabbard said she would be refocusing the priorities of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which her office says on its website is 'focused on mitigating threats to democracy and U.S. national interests from foreign malign influence.' It wasn't clear from Gabbard's release or fact sheet exactly what the changes would entail, but Gabbard noted its 'hyper-focus' on work tied to elections and said the center was 'used by the previous administration to justify the suppression of free speech and to censor political opposition.'
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard announces cuts to office
1 of 4 | Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 23. On Wednesday, she announced 40% cuts to staff at the ODNI. File Photo by Eric Lee/UPI | License Photo Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Wednesday a plan to cut 40% of her office's staff by October in an effort to save taxpayers about $700 million per year. She said the overhaul of the Office of the Director National Intelligence will reduce "bloat" and refocus the agency's mission "in the most agile, effective and efficient way." Gabbard dubbed the plan ODNI 2.0. "Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence and politicized weaponization of intelligence," she said. "Under President [Donald] Trump's leadership, ODNI 2.0 is the start of a new era focused on serving our country, fulfilling our core national security mission with excellence, always grounded in the U.S. Constitution, and ensuring the safety, security and freedom of the American people." Congress created the ODNI to oversee all 18 intelligence community agencies within the U.S. government in 2004 as a response to to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Since its founding, the staff of the ODNI grew to about 1,850, 500 of whom the Trump administration has already cut since the start of the president's second term. In addition to cutting staff, the ODNI won't rehire vacant positions. The cuts will see the duties of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center and Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center absorbed into the ODNI's Mission Integration directorate and the National Intelligence Council. Additionally the work of the National Intelligence University will now fall under the Defense Department's National Defense University. The External Research Council will be shuttered and the ODNI's facilities in Reston, Va., will be closed and moved to headquarters. This week in Washington President Donald Trump, alongside commissioner of the Social Security Administration Frank Bisignano, shows his signed proclamation marking the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Will Oliver/UPI | License Photo
