Israeli army says seven soldiers killed in Gaza combat
Israel's army on Wednesday said seven of its soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza, where the war with Palestinian militant group Hamas continued.
It added that a seventh soldier was also killed, but his family had not given permission for him to be named.
Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a "very difficult day" on Wednesday after seven soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza.
"It is a very difficult day for the people of Israel," Netanyahu wrote on X. "Our heroic combattants fell in the battle to defeat Hamas and free our hostages in the south of the Gaza Strip."
More than 430 Israeli soldiers have died in the war, triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages -- 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,077 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
The territory of more than two million people is suffering from famine-like conditions after Israel blocked all supplies from early March to the end of May and continues to impose restrictions, according to rights groups.
After Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday, Israel's military chief Eyal Zamir said focus would now shift back to Gaza.
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The National
43 minutes ago
- The National
Iran dealt 'a heavy slap to America's face', Khamenei says
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday the US had 'achieved nothing' after it joined the war to support Israel, and that Tehran had delivered 'a heavy slap to the US's face'. 'The US regime entered the war directly because it felt that if it didn't, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed,' Mr Khamenei said in his first speech since the war with Israel. 'It entered the war in an effort to save that regime but achieved nothing,' he said. 'The Islamic republic delivered a heavy slap to the US's face. It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key US bases in the region,' he claimed in his first public statement since a ceasefire ended 12 days of war on Tuesday. Qatar said it shot down 18 of the 19 missiles launched at the US base it hosts, with one falling at the base which had already been emptied. The Iranian attack on the base was in retaliation for the US striking two nuclear facilities in Iran with massive bunker-buster bombs over the weekend, while a guided missile from a submarine struck a third. Mr Khamenei threatened to attack US bases in the region if Tehran is attacked again. 'The fact that the Islamic republic has access to key US centres in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary is a significant matter,' he said. 'Such an action can be repeated in the future too. Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price,' he added. The supreme leader also hailed his country's 'victory' over Israel. 'I want to congratulate the great Iranian nation ... for its victory over the fallacious Zionist regime,' he said. 'With all that commotion and all those claims, the Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic republic,' he said. Israel and the US have also claimed victory in the war, claiming to have destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities. Mr Trump said the unprecedented American attacks had resulted in the 'total obliteration' of Iran's nuclear capabilities, and said they had set the country's programme back 'decades'. But leaked US intelligence cast doubt on that assessment, saying the strikes had probably set Tehran back by just a few months. 'They're not going to be building bombs for a long time,' said Trump, adding the strikes had set back the programme by 'decades' and that the ceasefire he had declared was going 'very well'. Israel's military said Wednesday it was 'still early' to assess the damage the war caused to Iran's nuclear programme. 'I believe we have delivered a significant hit to the nuclear programme, and I can also say that we have delayed it by several years,' said Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei acknowledged to Al Jazeera that its 'nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that's for sure'. The supreme leader's rhetoric about the US was in stark contrast to Mr Trump's approach to the future of relations. He said on Wednesday that the US would hold nuclear talks with Iran next week, teasing the possibility of a deal even after boasting that recent US strikes had destroyed Iran's atomic programme. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said on Tuesday that his country was willing to return to negotiations over its nuclear programme, but that it would continue to 'assert its legitimate rights' to the peaceful use of atomic energy.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Abu Shabab back in spotlight as Israel's proxy in Gaza's war
As Israel's war with Iran is on hold, its main front has shifted back to Gaza, where it has started to work closely with the Abu Shabab gang. Analysts and Israeli media claim the group comprises murderers, drug dealers and former ISIS members. Gaza residents and human rights groups have accused the Yasser Abu Shabab Popular Forces of crimes from looting of aid to firing at, kidnapping and beating Palestinians who seek it. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed at aid distribution points by the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since its inception on May 27, including 93 by Israeli gunfire as they approached UN aid lorries, Thameen Al Kheetan, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement this week. Former Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel was arming a group of "criminals and felons" in Gaza. Mohammad Shehada, Gaza analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the Abu Shabab group is doing Israel's "dirty work". In exchange for keeping its members out of prison providing them with weapons, Israel wants the group to carry out reconnaissance and intelligence work, Mr Shehada said. "Before, they'd first send drones, then they'd send the sniffer dogs, then they'd send soldiers," he said. "Now they've changed the hierarchy by sending those gangs, and then the drones and then the dogs, and then the soldiers." Dozens of people seeking aid at GHF sites have gone missing, failing to return home, their families have reported to rights groups and authorities in Gaza. Prominent Palestinian investigative journalist Younis Tirawi has documented at least one instance of the Abu Shabab gang luring a civilian with the promise of aid before kidnapping and interrogating them. Anti-Hamas Following Mr Lieberman's claim, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move to support armed groups such as Abu Shabab aimed to "save the lives" of Israeli soldiers and oppose Hamas. The Abu Shabab gang is being presented as an alternative to Hamas, but Palestinian and Israeli experts say that is simply not possible. Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University's Moche Dayan Centre, said the gang could not match Hamas, whose influence is entrenched across Gaza. "They cannot be an alternative to Hamas all over the Strip because their influence is very limited to the eastern part of Rafah – they don't have an impact in Gaza city and Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, etc," Mr Milshtein told The National. Similarly, Mr Shehada highlighted the disparity in the number of members in Hamas and Abu Shabab that disproves any claim that it could stand up to Hamas. "Israel is trying to whitewash running those proxies by saying that they are creating them as rivals to Hamas, but that's not what's happening," he said. "They're no match and cannot overpower Hamas's 30,000 or 40,000 members." Abu Shabab maintains it protecting aid rather than looting it, although an article in The New York Times cited the group's leader, Yasser Abu Shabab admitting to stealing aid. "Yasser Abu Shabab cannot frame himself as the 'Robin Hood' of Gaza," Mr Milshtein said. The gang has a "problematic reputation" in Palestinian circles, which calls it "Jeish Lahd" – a reference to the Christian militia backed by Israel in southern Lebanon in the 1970s. In fact, the Israeli support, as well as the group's own damaging actions, could lend credibility to Hamas rather than weaken it, Mr Shehada argued. "It lends credence to Hamas as defenders of Gaza ... and as the only thing standing between them and total societal collapse." Mr Shehada has been analysing the group's members. "Virtually every name I've come across is either someone on the run from authorities for murder, collaborating with Israel, a drug dealer, or a member of ISIS." At least two Abu Shabab members are known to have been affiliated with ISIS, Israeli media has reported. One is Issam Nabahin, who Israeli news outlet Ynet claims launched attacks on the Egyptian army in Sinai as an ISIS member. He was jailed by Hamas in Gaza but was released with other detainees after the war started on October 7, 2023, over fears that Israel would bomb prisons. Laying siege The deputy leader of the Yasser Abu Shabab Popular Forces is Ghassan Al Dheini, the brother of alleged ISIS member Walid Al Dheini – who was killed by Hamas – and who was reportedly involved in the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, Ynet reported. Israel's relationship with the gang began after Israel took over the southern area of Rafah in May 2024, occupying and laying siege to it, Mr Milshtein said. In internal memos, Mr Shehada said, the UN had identified Abu Shabab as stealing aid under Israeli military protection. More publicly, Jonathan Whittall, who heads the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine, once again rejected claims by Israel that Hamas was diverting aid. "This doesn't hold up to scrutiny," he stressed last month. Instead, Mr Whittall explained the theft is being carried out by "criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces", who were allowed to operate in proximity to the Karam Abu Salem border crossing, which leads into Rafah. Mr Shehada said Israel had allowed armed groups to loot aid, even while stationed in near its soldiers. 'This allows Israel to externalise blame and say that they're letting food in, that it is Hamas looting the aid and that the UN is not doing a good enough job to protect its own aid convoys.' This atmosphere of insecurity has provided a pretext for the founding of the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), despite worldwide protest and condemnation of the move that sidelines the UN altogether. At distribution points operated by the GHF, Israeli army and private contractors, dozens of Palestinians have been killed or injured. Another Israeli outlet, i24, interviewed Mr Al Dheini after claiming the Israeli army had intervened in protecting Abu Shabab against Hamas in an incident on Monday. He said the group will continue to target Hamas as the 'only way to ensure the safety and security of people in the strip'. The gang aims to establish a 'government" in Gaza's south where it currently operates. "Israel has been trying since October 7 to create proxies in Gaza to carry out Israel's dirty tactics while giving Netanyahu plausible deniability for atrocities," Mr Shehada said. But they could find very few collaborators. After failing with tribal and community leaders, businesspeople and company owners, they resorted to people on the run from authorities for crimes that could send them to jail when the war ends. "So Netanyahu found a perfect match for himself. He and those gang leaders understand, if the war is over, they'll end up in prison for drug dealing, ISIS membership, murders, theft, etc."
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
How Iran shattered the myth of Israeli strength
The 12-day war on Iran was unprecedented, unique in scope and seismic in implications. For the first time, Israel launched a war - not merely a limited operation - against a country it shares no border with, separated by at least 1,500 kilometres. More crucially, it marked the first time in history that the United States openly fought alongside Israel in a direct military assault. A moment long in the making - shaped by decades of alliance-building, joint training, coordination and collusion - finally arrived. And while it was staged as a grand display of overwhelming strength and strategic unity, what it revealed was far more damning: a portrait of fragility, dependency, and a power structure cracking under the weight of its own myth. A line was crossed. Israel has long relied on the scaffolding of western support: political, military and financial. Its capacity to act with force has always been tethered to the might of its sponsors. But apart from its collusion with Britain and France in the 1956 war against Egypt, it acted directly alone on the ground in its wars. What has changed is not the fact of dependency, but its exposure. No longer cloaked in euphemism or hidden behind closed-door diplomacy, that dependency now stands naked: unmistakable, undeniable. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters In 1948, when former US President Harry Truman recognised the newly declared Zionist state within minutes of its announcement, he did so amid fierce divisions within his own administration, with some advisers warning of the long‑term consequences of establishing a settler‑colonial state in the heart of the Arab and Muslim world. In the ensuing years, Britain and France remained Israel's primary patrons, until the 1956 tripartite invasion of Egypt ended in a humiliating retreat under pressure from former US President Dwight Eisenhower, who threatened to sink the British economy unless they withdrew. The real pivot came under Lyndon Johnson, the first US president to provide Israel with offensive weaponry, over the objections of the State Department. From that point on, the alliance deepened. Washington was no longer just a sponsor; it became the indispensable shield and sword of the Israeli project. Illusion of autonomy In 1967, US arms enabled Israel to seize the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and the Golan Heights in just six days. In 1973, when Egypt and Syria attempted to reclaim their occupied lands, former US President Richard Nixon ordered a massive resupply airlift, telling Henry Kissinger: 'Send everything that will fly.' And the weapons have never stopped flying. Still, despite this support, Washington drew a red line at direct military involvement. Even when Israeli and American interests were perfectly aligned, Israel was kept at arm's length. In 1991, as Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles struck Tel Aviv, former US President George H W Bush forbade Israeli retaliation, knowing it would fracture the Arab coalition that Washington had built. Again in 2003, when the US and UK invaded Iraq, Israel - despite the benefits it stood to gain - was sidelined. The war dismantled a regional rival, but American officials preserved the illusion of autonomy. Every time they pronounce the region subdued, it answers back: louder, wiser, stronger. Israel cannot win without the US. And the US can no longer win with Israel Until now. For the first time, the US has not just backed, funded or armed an Israeli war - it has fought it. Shoulder to shoulder, in the open, in full view of the world. What changed was not Israel's strength, but its deterioration. Since 7 October 2023, Israel has waged a genocidal campaign against Gaza, bombed Lebanon and Syria, and pushed the region towards a full-scale conflagration. It tried to cast itself as an invincible regional hegemon. But the illusion of self-reliance collapsed the moment Iran hit back. Israel could not do the job alone. It turned immediately to Washington, and Washington obeyed. We now know that the US and Israeli militaries had conducted joint exercises a year earlier to simulate an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. That rehearsal became reality. US President Donald Trump lavished praise on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Pentagon and the Israeli army struck in unison. No more fig leaves, no more choreography. Just the naked fact: Israel cannot fight its wars alone. Entrenching resistance In becoming totally dependent on the US under Trump, Israel has lost its place in the driving seat. Unlike 1967, when Israel claimed a solo victory and was hailed across the West, this time even the ceasefire was dictated by Washington. When Israel tried to escalate after the ceasefire began, it was stopped cold: its pilots ordered to turn back, its leadership publicly humiliated as the US president swore at them on camera. Dependency, it turns out, comes at the cost of sovereignty. What was framed as strength became a confession. Not triumph, but exposure. And the irony is stark. The more they strike, the more they entrench the very resistance they seek to extinguish. For centuries, this region has been invaded, divided and bombed - from Crusader knights to British generals, from French mandates to American missiles. Every time the West has declared victory, the region has risen again. Because resistance here is not a slogan. It is not a tactic. It is a civilisational inheritance. From anti-colonial revolts to liberation movements, from leftists to Islamists, from Sunnis to Shias, from Christians to Muslims - this region has forged a defiant culture. Its weapons have ranged from children's stones to long-range missiles threatening Tel Aviv. And still, it resists. Gaza, starving, surrounded, burning, continues to fight. Under siege and genocide, it still refuses to break. Hours after the Iran-Israel ceasefire was declared, seven Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza - a reminder to the world that the enclave's resistance continues in full force. Compare that to the collapse of three Arab armies in 1967 after six days, or the Palestine Liberation Organisation's evacuation from Beirut in 1982 after two months. What Gaza represents today is not just defiance; it is transformation. It is the evolution of resistance in the age of total war. Arab regimes might bow, normalise and suppress. But their people do not. Look into any Arab or Muslim street, and you will find the pulse still beating, the flame still burning. Every dream of submission has ended in smoke. Old consensus dying Now, cracks are forming at the heart of the empire. The old consensus is dying. Among Democrats, support for Palestinians has overtaken support for Israel. Among younger Republicans, the same shift is beginning. Even Trump's base is splitting. The victory of progressive Zohran Mamdani over staunch pro-Israel figure Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayoral primary was an earthquake - a warning sign. The backlash was so sharp, Trump himself rushed to end the war, telling Netanyahu the US would no longer be involved Trump's former strategist, Steve Bannon, put it bluntly, saying Netanyahu 'created this sense of urgency that doesn't exist … and did the salesman's upsell, we have to have regime change'. Addressing the Israeli prime minister directly, he said: 'Who are you to lecture the American people? The American people are not going to tolerate it.' Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene echoed these sentiments: 'There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first … This is not our fight. Peace is the answer.' The backlash was so sharp, Trump himself rushed to end the war, telling Netanyahu the US would no longer be involved. This, despite a leaked intelligence report revealing that Iran's nuclear programme had only been set back by a few months. Within days, Trump pivoted from demanding Iran's 'unconditional surrender' to publicly thanking it. Conservative commentator Candace Owens, once firmly aligned with Trump, posted: 'First thing I've seen in awhile that has united his base is Trump talking trash about Israel on camera. It's just a fact that everyone worldwide has Israel-victim fatigue.' Israel-US attack on Iran: The price of Netanyahu's forever wars Read More » The myth of unconditional support is dead. What once united the empire now divides it. The recent operations might look like a peak in US-Israeli coordination. In reality, this marks a fracture. Trump's speech, proclaiming victory and partnership with Netanyahu, belongs in the archive of imperial delusion that has long haunted this region. It echoes French General Henri Gouraud standing over Saladin's grave in 1920: 'We are back, O Saladin.' It recalls British General Edmund Allenby in 1917 declaring the Crusades complete. It mirrors former US President George W Bush's smug 'Mission Accomplished.' Every time they pronounce the region subdued, it answers back: louder, wiser, stronger. Israel cannot win without the US. And the US can no longer win with Israel. This is not a triumph. It's an echo of every empire that mistook firepower for permanence. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
