Israel's US Broker Sells Record Debt for Nation During Gaza War
Israel has raised a record $5 billion through its US-based broker dealer, Israel Bonds, since the start of the war with Hamas, boosting its ability to finance the 20-month ongoing conflict.
The amount is more than double that raised by the organization in similar time frames prior to the war, which started with the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 and spread to include battles with other Iran-backed groups.
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Los Angeles Times
30 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Israel backs anti-Hamas militia known for looting aid in Gaza. Here's what we know
JERUSALEM — Israel is supporting armed groups of Palestinians in Gaza in what it says is a move to counter Hamas. But officials from the U.N. and aid organizations say the military is allowing them to loot food and other supplies from their trucks. One self-styled militia that calls itself the Popular Forces, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, says it is guarding newly created, Israeli-backed food distribution centers in southern Gaza. Aid workers say it has a long history of looting U.N. trucks. Gaza's armed groups have ties to powerful clans or extended families and often operate as criminal gangs. Aid workers allege Israel's backing of the groups is part of a wider effort to control all aid operations in the strip. Israel denies allowing looters to operate in areas it controls. Here's what we know about anti-Hamas armed groups in Gaza: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a social media video Thursday that Israel had 'activated' clans in Gaza to oppose Hamas. He didn't elaborate how Israel is supporting them or what role Israel wants them to play. Netanyahu's comments were in response to a political opponent accusing him of arming 'crime families' in Gaza. Clans, tribes and extended families have strong influence in Gaza, where their leaders often help mediate disputes. Some have long been armed to protect their group's interests, and some have morphed into gangs involved in smuggling drugs or running protection rackets. After seizing power in 2007, Hamas clamped down on Gaza's gangs — sometimes with brute force and sometimes by steering perks their way. But with Hamas' weakening power after 20 months of war with Israel, gangs have regained freedom to act. The leadership of a number of clans — including the clan from which the Abu Shabab group's members hail — have issued statements denouncing looting and cooperation with Israel. Besides the Abu Shabab group, it is not known how many armed groups Israel is supporting. The Abu Shabab group went public in early May, declaring itself a 'nationalist force.' It said it was protecting aid, including around the food distribution hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a mainly American private contractor that Israel intends to replace the U.N.-led aid network. Aid workers and Palestinians who know the group estimate it has several hundred fighters. The Abu Shabab group's media office told the Associated Press it was collaborating with GHF 'to ensure that the food and medicine reaches its beneficiaries.' It said it was not involved in distribution, but that its fighters secured the surroundings of distribution centers run by GHF inside military-controlled zones in the Rafah area. A spokesperson with GHF said it had 'no collaboration' with Abu Shabab. 'We do have local Palestinian workers we are very proud of, but none is armed, and they do not belong to Abu Shabab's organization,' the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with the group's rules. Before the war, Yasser Abu Shabab was involved in smuggling cigarettes and drugs from Egypt and Israel into Gaza through crossings and tunnels, according to two members of his extended family, one of whom was once part of his group. Hamas arrested Abu Shabab but freed him from prison along with most other inmates when the war began in October 2023, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Abu Shabab's media office said he was summoned by police before the war but wasn't officially accused or tried. It also said claims the group was involved in attacking aid trucks were 'exaggerated,' saying its fighters 'took the minimum amount of food and water necessary.' The head of the association in Gaza that provides trucks and drivers for aid groups said their members' vehicles have been attacked many times by Abu Shabab's fighters. Nahed Sheheiber said the group has been active in Israeli-controlled eastern parts of Rafah and Khan Younis, targeting trucks as they enter Gaza from the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel. Troops nearby 'did nothing' to stop attacks, he said. Sheheiber said that when Hamas police officers have tried to confront gangs or guard truck convoys, they were attacked by Israeli troops. One driver, Issam Abu Awda, said he was attacked by Abu Shabab fighters last July. The fighters stopped his truck, blindfolded and handcuffed him and his assistant, then loaded the supplies off the vehicle, he said. Abu Awda said nearby Israeli troops didn't intervene. These kinds of attacks are still happening and highlight 'a disturbing pattern,' according to Jonathan Whittall, from the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, OCHA. 'Those who have blocked and violently ransacked aid trucks seem to have been protected' by Israeli forces, said Whittall, head of OCHA's office for the occupied Palestinian territories. And, he added, they have now become the 'protectors of the goods being distributed through Israel's new militarized hubs,' referring to the GHF-run sites. The Israeli military did not reply when asked for comment on allegations it has allowed armed groups to loot trucks. But the Israeli prime minister's office called the accusations 'fake news,' saying, 'Israel didn't allow looters to operate in Israeli controlled areas.' Israel often accuses Hamas of stealing from trucks. Muhammad Shehada, a political analyst from Gaza who is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said he doesn't believe Israel's support for armed groups is aimed at directly fighting Hamas. So far there has been no attempt to deploy the groups against the militants. Instead, he said, Israel is using the gangs and the looting to present GHF 'as the only alternative to provide food to Palestinians,' since its supplies get in while the U.N.'s don't. Israel wants the GHF to replace the U.N.-led aid system because it claims Hamas has been siphoning off large amounts of supplies. The U.N. denies that significant amounts have been taken by Hamas. Israel has also said it aims to move all Palestinians in Gaza to a 'sterile zone' in the south, around the food hubs, while it fights Hamas elsewhere. The U.N. and aid groups have rejected that as using food as a tool for forced displacement. The Abu Shabab group has issued videos online urging Palestinians to move to tent camps in Rafah. Israel barred all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for 2 ½ months pending the start of GHF — a blockade that has brought the population to the brink of famine. GHF started distributing food boxes on May 26 at three hubs guarded by private contractors inside Israeli military zones. Israel has let in some trucks of aid for the U.N. to distribute. But the U.N. says it has been able to get little of it into the hands of Palestinians because of Israeli military restrictions, including requiring its trucks to use roads where looters are known to operate. 'It's Israel's way of telling the U.N., if you want to try to bring aid into Gaza, good luck with this,' said Shehada. 'We will force you to go through a road where everything you brought will be looted.' Frankel, Mednick, Magdy and Keath write for the Associated Press. Magdy and Keath reported from Cairo.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Iran Claims Access to Cache of Sensitive Israeli Nuclear Files
Iran's state television said on Saturday the country obtained a large trove of sensitive Israeli nuclear information. The Islamic Republic's intelligence services have acquired 'thousands of files related to that regime's nuclear projects and facilities,' according to the broadcaster.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The cult of Greta proves that the loony Left has gone mainstream
It was a sight so uncannily ghoulish I felt repelled and fascinated in equal measure. I was watching the coverage of Greta Thunberg and a band of other mouth-frothing young Palestine activists board the Madleen, a yacht that left from the Sicilian port of Catania last weekend, sailing, to our shame, under a British flag (though it is the Palestinian flag that blows aggressively from the prow). The Madleen is heading for Gaza with 'aid'. Say hello to the 'freedom flotilla' on which Swedish climate-turned-Palestine activist Thunberg is joined by the Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, the Irish Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, and Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian European Parliament member. I used to think nautical adventures were romantic, full of derring-do: this one makes me feel more vomitous than even the highest of seas. The website for the Madleen's voyage uses exactly the same tone and tactics as Thunberg's horrible climate stunts did: extreme, unbending, threatening, self-loving and bratty all at once. 'We sail until Palestine is free' runs the banner. The site explains: 'Since 8 October 2023, Israel has escalated its genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza in an attempt to destroy all forms of life. The Israeli military has murdered tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands.' You almost have to laugh. It's not clear whether any of these activists, drunk on their love of themselves, are even aware of October 7 or Hamas. And 'all forms of life'? Are they saying Israelis murder plants and pets too? At any rate, Thunberg and co do not mean freedom from Hamas, against whom thousands of brave Gazans have been protesting. They mean from Israel. Not just Israeli military action but, in accordance with the rest of their playbook of slogans, from the proximity of the Jewish state full stop. Anti-Israel chanting, stickering, posturing and boycotting has been a mainstay of Lefty life for as long as I've been alive. But since October 7, a new normal has spread and spread; a kind of slow-release pogrom, if you will. The loony Left, once possibly to ignore, is now everywhere, and everything. This flotilla is a prime example. Instead of being ignored as wacky trouble-making, it is instead taken seriously, hailed as heroic by millions who should know better. The Palestine solidarity mob peddles lies rooted in the anti-Semitic blood libel of Jewish bloodlust for innocents. It claims, without a single piece of self-awareness or verification, that Israeli forces have 'murdered' hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. For these folks, context is colonialism, racism, murder – of a type that only Israel is capable of – so there is no understanding or desire to understand the cause of anything that has happened, or what has actually been going on with aid and food. In fact, flotilla wisdom is riddled with so many evil falsehoods there is no space to refute even half of them here. Now that the loonies have taken over, the flotilla is just an emblem of the new normal rather than considered fringe or extreme, or a curiosity. This is because the boundary between the wackiness of grassroots activism and the sobriety of government and the prestige mainstream media – both of which are expected to at least look into facts, verify claims and consider bias – has evaporated. Raw anti-Israel feeling has simply taken over. Some of it is done terribly respectably. A study by Andrew Fox of the Henry Jackson Society found that 98 per cent of the world's media, including The New York Times and CNN, simply repeated Hamas's casualty figures. Meanwhile, the goings-on of the likes of the Madleen is legitimised by statements made by our government. When Keir Starmer and David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, publicly call into question the motives of Israel and Gaza, insult the valiant Jewish State as 'appalling' and 'monstrous', threaten to halt trade with its ally, and act like Israel is exactly what Thunberg and friends say it is, then what's the difference? We might as well all be sailing on that flotilla. Thunberg's power seemed likely to fade away; nobody so niche, I used to comfort myself, can stay at the forefront for long. Times change, trends move on. But the reality is even grimmer than I anticipated. All the climate loonies have just migrated to the cause of Palestine. Just Stop Oil has laid down arms to focus on 'Palestine', which it calls the next all-consuming cause for the world, as urgent as saving the planet from global warming. A thousand new grassroots, student and cultural campaign groups and coalitions have sprouted up to wage war on Israel and celebrate terrorists. Fossil Free Books led debilitating boycotts of British literary festivals last year, deviously and also perplexingly linking sponsors' tangential investments in fossil fuels with support for alleged Israeli criminality. Youth Demand, another group of anti-Israel fanatics, does the same. Its ghastly red website screams: 'The government is engaging in absolute evil. They are enabling genocide in Palestine by sending money and arms to Israel. They are contributing to the murder of billions to keep the fossil fuel profits flowing' and urges people to 'join the resistance'. It's barking mad, nightmarish conspiratorial nonsense. And so, under the frenzy of anti-Israel passion, bolstered by years of woke and trans madness, our society has lost decorum, professional standards, and, it often feels, any sphere at all that remains free of the politics of Israel hatred. Even the hushed plush corridors of Harley Street aren't safe. A Jewish friend texted me: 'Went to see a specialist, hadn't realised I'd get a thorough indoctrination treatment thrown in for free … Palestine badges on lanyards and prominently displayed items wherever you look.' She described the experience as 'chilling' and expressed gratitude her kids weren't there. 'No way I'd dare wear a Star of David there. How twisted is that?' Indeed. As I looked at the pictures she sent through, the menacing black, green and red badges on backpacks demanding freedom for Palestine, I too felt chilled, but only in a way that has become utterly familiar. I live in a mixed area that is, traditionally, also a bastion of the secular Jewish community. Yet I face a constant barrage of vandalism and graffiti disfiguring the area, from 'F--- Israel' sprayed on shop fronts and hoardings to 'Free Gaza' scrawled over my street sign. Out walking with my toddler last week, a car cruised past us, with three Middle Eastern looking men in it who rolled down the windows and sang in a slow, taunting tone: 'Free, free Pal-es-tine' on repeat, deliberately, it seemed, baiting the Jews of the neighbourhood. Yet nobody batted an eyelid. It's everywhere, all the time. No amount of last-minute professional sacrifice and rudeness is off limits: feminist icon Caryl Churchill has pulled her play from the Donmar because the theatre receives support from Barclays. Like most normal, ethical banks, Barclays is said to provide financial services to some defence companies supplying Israel. The defining feature of a totalitarian regime is, well, total. It pervades everything on pain of death. Since October 7 Britain – and other countries in the West – are starting to feel eerily similar where Israel discourse is concerned. Except unlike the totalitarian regimes of historical fame, we aren't being forced: we're embracing the madness of our own free will, and that is unforgivable. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
