Jihadist Attacks Put Benin on Track for Deadliest Month
Over the past four months, extremists killed at least 254 civilians and soldiers in Benin, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project – a nonprofit monitoring conflict globally. The tiny country, and its border region with Niger and Nigeria, is emerging as the new frontline in the regional battle against al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliates that have killed thousands and displaced millions across the Sahel.
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New York Post
28 minutes ago
- New York Post
Mahmoud Khalil admits that ‘pro-Palestine' means hating peace and worshipping death
Columbia University agitator and terror fanboy Mahmoud Khalil just let the truth slip: The 'pro-Palestine' movement believes Hamas was justified and right to commit the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities, to forestall a 'very imminent' Saudi-Israeli peace deal. That is: Mass rape, the slaughter of 1,200 people and kidnapping of another 250 was the morally superior alternative to peace in the Middle East. The savage Oct. 7 attacks, Khalil told The New York Times' Ezra Klein, were just a 'desperate attempt' to 'break the cycle.' Advertisement What 'cycle'? The one where Israel was making peace with Arab states. But, whined Khalil, Israel and Saudi Arabia were about to normalize relations 'as if Palestinians are not part of the equation,' and 'unfortunately . . . we couldn't avoid such a moment' — meaning Hamas' surprise terror attack. With that 'we,' Khalil is openly identifying with Hamas and admitting the terror group is is a death cult that values the people of Gaza only as potential martyrs for the radical Islamist cause. Advertisement The only thing that matters is keeping the death cult in power, killing Jews, and milking pity from deluded Western liberals like Klein. In reality, regional peace is the best hope for the Palestinians to achieve normalcy — including escape from the rule of Hamas and other terrorists. Mahmoud Khalil, Hamas' de facto NYC spokesman, actually told Klein that anyone who has a problem with Oct. 7-style savagery simply expects Palestinians to behave like 'perfect victims.' Advertisement Actually, nobody thinks Palestinians have to act like saints — not burning families alive would be enough. Palestinians need to grasp that intifadas and other savagery always make things worse for them. The idea that freedom for Gaza is contingent on violence is a fantasy that serves the purposes of Hamas 'leaders' living in 5-star hotels in Qatar, and cynical leftists in the West who are gratified by deaths in supposedly noble causes. Terror apologists like Mahmoud Khalil do the Palestinian people no favors, and his lifelong dedication to promoting this hate means he won legal residency in America under false pretenses.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Netanyahu wants full military control of Gaza, Hamas calls it a 'coup'
The U.N. has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza "deeply alarming." WASHINGTON − The State Department declined to take a stand on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to take full control of Gaza, focusing instead on a humanitarian aid plan for the war-torn Palestinian territory and securing the return of hostages held by Hamas. "There can be no long-term prosperity with Hamas as a governing force, or otherwise, within Gaza," department spokesman Tommy Piggot said on August 7. "So that's what our policy, that's where our focus is." Netanyahu said Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza, despite intensifying criticism at home and abroad over the devastating almost two-year-old war in the Palestinian enclave. More: One meal a day. $20 for an egg. Choosing which kid gets fed. Starvation stalks Gaza "We intend to," Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News Channel's Bill Hemmer when asked if Israel would take over the entire coastal territory. "We don't want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don't want to govern it. We don't want to be there as a governing body." Netanyahu made the comments to Fox News shortly before a meeting he was due to have on August 7 with a small group of senior ministers to discuss plans for the military to take control of more territory in Gaza. More: More Gazans die seeking aid and from hunger, as burial shrouds in short supply Netanyahu convened the security cabinet following a three-hour meeting this week with the head of the military, which Israeli officials described as tense, saying the military chief had pushed back on expanding the campaign. The militant Islamist group Hamas called Netanyahu's statement "a coup" amid ceasefire negotiations. Opinion polls show that most Israelis want the war to end in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages. Netanyahu's government has insisted on total victory over Hamas, which ignited the war with its deadly October 2023 attack on Israel. The idea of Israeli forces pushing into areas they does not already control in the shattered Palestinian enclave has generated alarm in Israel. The mother of one hostage on August 7 urged people to take to the streets to voice their opposition to expanding the campaign. "Someone who talks about a comprehensive deal doesn't go and conquer the Strip and put hostages and soldiers in danger," Einav Zangauker wrote on X in comments directed at Netanyahu. More: Israel says it will allow controlled entry of goods into Gaza via merchants The Hostages Families Forum, which represents captives held in Gaza, urged military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to oppose expanding the war and called on the government to accept a deal that would bring the war to an end and free the remaining hostages. Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the military would carry out the government's decisions until all war objectives were achieved. Israeli leaders have long insisted that Hamas be disarmed and have no future role in a demilitarised Gaza and that the hostages be freed. The U.N. has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza "deeply alarming" if true. There are 50 hostages still held in Gaza, of whom Israeli officials believe 20 are alive. Most of those freed so far came about as a result of diplomatic negotiations. Talks toward a ceasefire that could have seen some hostages released collapsed in July. More: US envoy tells Israeli hostage families he's working on plan to end Gaza War A senior Palestinian official said Hamas had told Arab mediators that an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza would lead to a resumption in ceasefire negotiations. Israeli officials accuse Hamas of seizing aid to hand out to its fighters and to sell in Gazan markets to finance its operations, accusations that the militant group denies. Videos released last week of two living hostages showed them emaciated and frail, triggering international condemnation. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but now controls only parts, insists any deal must lead to a permanent end to the war. Israel says the group has no intention of going through with promises to give up power afterwards. The Israeli military says it controls about 75% of Gaza. Most of Gaza's population of about 2 million has been displaced multiple times over the past 22 months and aid groups are warning that the enclave's residents are on the verge of famine. More: Marjorie Taylor Greene calls crisis in Gaza 'genocide,' first Republican lawmaker to do so 'A homeless beggar' "Where should we go? We have been displaced and humiliated enough," said Aya Mohammad, 30, who, after repeated displacement, has returned with her family to their community in Gaza City. "You know what displacement is? Does the world know? It means your dignity is wiped out, you become a homeless beggar, searching for food, water and medicine," she told Reuters. Close to 200 Palestinians have died of starvation in Gaza since the war began, nearly half of them have been children, according to Gaza's health ministry. Rabeeha Jamal, 65, a mother of six, has remained in her house in Gaza despite warnings in the past from the Israeli military to leave. For now, she said she intends to stay. "Not until they force us, if the tanks roll in, otherwise, I will not go running in the street to be killed later," she said, calling for an end to the war. "We don't have anywhere to go." Netanyahu is under intense international pressure to reach a ceasefire agreement, but he also faces internal pressure from within his coalition to continue the war. Some far-right allies in his government have pushed for a full occupation of Gaza and for Israel to reestablish settlements there, two decades after it withdrew. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters August 6 he hoped the government would approve the military taking control over the rest of Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages taken to Gaza in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities. More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's assault on Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry, which said 98 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire across the enclave in the past 24 hours. Contributing: Reuters
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Palestinian Pele' Suleiman al-Obeid killed while seeking aid in Gaza
Palestinian national football team player Suleiman al-Obeid has been killed in an Israeli attack on aid seekers in Gaza. Al-Obeid, 41, was killed on Wednesday when Israeli forces attacked people waiting near an aid distribution centre in southern Gaza, the Palestinian Football Association said. He was nicknamed the 'Pele of Palestinian football' – after the Brazilian professional footballer widely regarded as one of the best football players of all time. During his long career, the Gaza player scored more than 100 goals, making him one of the brightest stars of Palestinian football. 'Former national team player and star of the Khadamat al-Shati team, Suleiman Al-Obeid, was martyred after the [Israeli] occupation forces targeted those waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday,' the Palestinian Football Association said in a statement. With al-Obeid's death, the number of athletes and their family members killed in the Strip since the start of Israel's war has risen to 662. The number of football-related deaths in Gaza now stands at 321, including players, coaches, administrators, referees and club board members. The former football star began his career with the Khadamat al-Shati club in Gaza, before joining the ranks of the Al-Amari Youth Center Club in the occupied West Bank. At the international level, al-Obeid played 24 international matches with Al-Fida'i, scoring two goals, the most famous of which was a scissor kick goal against the Yemeni national team during the 2010 West Asian Football Federation Championship. The football star leaves behind a wife and five children. More than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed near aid distribution sites run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since it began operations in late May. At least 18 people were killed while seeking aid on Wednesday, medical sources told Al Jazeera, amid a growing hunger crisis in the territory as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on supplies of humanitarian aid. Gaza's hospitals, meanwhile, have recorded four new deaths due to famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours, according to the enclave's Ministry of Health, raising the total number of hunger-related deaths to 197, including 96 children, since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. Most of the deaths have been in recent the daily Crossword
