Latest news with #Chariots
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
IDF thwarts explosive plot, hits Hamas terror targets in Gaza
The military said that the Nahal Brigade had struck several pieces of terror infrastructure in northern Gaza. The IDF struck several Hamas terror targets in Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, the military announced on Wednesday. The military said that the Nahal Brigade, under the command of the IDF's 162nd Division, had struck several pieces of terror infrastructure in northern Gaza. "In recent weeks, numerous terror targets have been attacked from the air and ground, including terrorists, weapons depots, booby-trapped structures, launchers, and tunnel shafts," the release noted. The IDF said that the brigade destroyed a booby-trapped building that was identified using a drone. The military revealed that the building contained a bag of explosives intended to harm IDF soldiers. The strikes come in the midst of Operation Gideon's Chariots, which began in mid-May. To date, the IDF has seized nearly 50% of the territory in Gaza, according to past reporting from The Jerusalem Post.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Explosions from Gaza Strip heard in central Israel after IDF introduces new tactic
The IDF has introduced a new tactic involving old armored personnel carriers (APCs) loaded with tons of explosives and operated remotely. An unusual number of explosions were heard in the Gaza Strip on Monday after the IDF detonated a large amount of infrastructure in the enclave. The sound of the explosions was heard throughout the Negev as well as in the central region and Jerusalem. Residents in central Israel reported that their house windows were shaking from the force of the explosions. However, a new IDF tactic employed during Operation Gideon's Chariots could explain why residents of Israel are hearing explosions from multiple kilometers away. The IDF recently introduced a new tactic involving old armored personnel carriers (APCs) loaded with tons of explosives and operated remotely. These vehicles, known internally as 'suicide APCs,' are sent toward designated targets and detonated in a controlled manner to minimize risk to soldiers. According to security sources, each APC carries several tons of explosives. The resulting blasts produce shockwaves that can be heard over large distances, including throughout central Israel. This method was adopted following the loss of an APC from the Golani Brigade during fighting in Shejaia, a neighborhood in Gaza City. Since then, the tactic has become a standard procedure to clear routes, demolish buildings, and destroy enemy infrastructure without exposing troops to direct danger. The IDF began its renewed operations in Gaza on May 17 in order to clear Hamas out of Gaza and return the hostages.
Spectator
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Israel is prepared to go it alone in Gaza
As Israel presses ahead with Operation Gideon's Chariots, its most ambitious military campaign in Gaza since the war began, the political landscape surrounding the conflict is shifting – and not in Israel's favour. Britain's suspension of trade talks, the summoning of Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, and coordinated statements of condemnation from the UK, France and Canada mark the strongest international censure yet. For many in Jerusalem, this is not only short-sighted but morally confounding. Israel's operation, launched with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas's military infrastructure and securing the return of its hostages, comes after months of inconclusive ceasefires, failed negotiations, and mounting frustration. The January truce, welcomed at the time as a potential inflection point, left Hamas's leadership intact, hostages still underground, and humanitarian aid channels co-opted by the very organisation accused of starting the war. It was a ceasefire that delivered neither peace nor accountability – just a pause that allowed Hamas to regroup. This time, Israel appears resolved not to make the same mistake.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Israel launches major offensive in Gaza after airstrikes that killed more than 100
Israel has announced a major new offensive in Gaza after launching a wave of airstrikes on the territory that killed more than 100 people, in what it said was a fresh effort to force Hamas to release hostages. In a statement late on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had 'launched extensive attacks and mobilized forces to seize strategic areas in the Gaza Strip, as part of the opening moves of Operation Gideon's Chariots and the expansion of the campaign in Gaza, to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza'. The announcement came as Donald Trump finished a visit to the region that included stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates but not Israel. Related: What Donald Trump did this week should terrify Benjamin Netanyahu. This is why | Jonathan Freedland Earlier on Friday, Donald Trump acknowledged that people are starving in Gaza and claimed the US would have the situation in the territory 'taken care of'. The US president told reporters in Abu Dhabi: 'We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving.' But discussions on the longer term future of Gaza have faltered. On Thursday, Trump described his desire to turn Gaza into a 'freedom zone', a possible reiteration of a plan he put forward in February for the US to take control of the Palestinian territory to allow for its reconstruction as a luxury leisure and business hub. There had been widespread hope that Trump's visit to the region could lead to a fresh pause in hostilities or a renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Instead, the raids and bombardment over the past 72 hours have raised the levels of violence higher than for several weeks, with the death toll coming close to that seen in the first days of Israel's renewed offensive in Gaza after a fragile ceasefire collapsed in March. Gaza's civil defence agency said strikes on Friday killed 108 people, mostly women and children, and some officials in the Palestinian territory put the number killed by Israeli attacks in recent days as high as 250 or 300. At least 48 bodies were taken to the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, and 16 to Nasser hospital after strikes on the outskirts of the central town of Deir al-Balah and the southern city of Khan Younis, health officials said. In Jabaliya, a neighbourhood in the north of Gaza that has seen heavy bombardment for weeks, women sat weeping beside 10 bodies draped in white sheets that were lined up on the ground amid rubble. Umm Mohammed al-Tatari, 57, said she had been awoken by a pre-dawn attack on northern Gaza. 'We were asleep when suddenly everything exploded around us … everyone started running … there was blood everywhere, body parts and corpses,' she said. Israel's military said its air force had struck more than 150 'terror' targets across Gaza. Hamas still holds 57 of about 250 hostages seized in its October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel says the blockade and intensified bombardments since mid-March are intended to put pressure on the militant organisation to secure the release of the hostages. Fewer than half are believed to be still alive. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed about 53,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry there. A ceasefire that came into effect in January broke down in mid-March after Israel refused to move to a scheduled second phase that could have led to a definitive end to the war. Some of the heaviest Israeli strikes earlier this week were aimed at the current commander of Hamas in Gaza, who, Israeli officials said, was sheltering in tunnel systems under a big hospital complex in Khan Younis. Hamas has denied repeated Israeli accusations that it uses civilians as human shields. Israel has called up tens of thousands of reservists for the new offensive, in which troops will hold on to seized territory and which will lead to a significant displacement of the population, Benjamin Netanyahu has said. Israeli ministers have spoken of 'conquering' Gaza. Hamas on Monday freed Edan Alexander, the last living US citizen it held, after direct engagement with the Trump administration that left Israel sidelined. As part of the understanding with Washington regarding Alexander's release, Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, said the group was 'awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure' on Israel 'to open the crossings and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid'. Israeli officials have consistently denied the tight blockade imposed on the devastated territory more than 10 weeks ago has caused hunger and Trump's comments will be seen as further evidence of tensions between Netanyahu and Israel's closest ally. Israel, which claims Hamas systematically loots aid to fund its military and other operations, has put forward a plan to distribute humanitarian assistance from a series of hubs in Gaza run by private contractors and protected by Israeli troops. The US has backed the plan, which has been described as unworkable, dangerous and potentially unlawful by aid agencies because it could lead to the mass forced transfer of populations. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, on Thursday acknowledged the criticism and said Washington was 'open to an alternative if someone has a better one'. The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been set up to manage the scheme, announced on Wednesday that it would begin operating by the end of the month and that it had asked Israel to lift its blockade to allow aid to reach the territory immediately. Aid agencies have warned that any delay will cost lives, and that cases of acute malnutrition, particularly among young children, are soaring. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said on Friday that time should not be wasted on the US proposal to deliver aid to Gaza, saying the UN has a proven plan and 160,000 pallets of relief ready to enter the Palestinian enclave now. 'We have the people. We have the distribution networks. We have the trust of the communities on the ground. And we have the aid itself,' he said. 'We demand rapid, safe, and unimpeded aid delivery for civilians in need. Let us work.' Polls in Israel show widespread support for a new ceasefire to secure the hostages' release, but local media reports quoted statements from anonymous Israeli and regional officials downplaying any likelihood of a breakthrough. Israel's main group representing the families of hostages still being held in Gaza said on Friday that Netanyahu was missing a 'historic opportunity' for them to be released. Recent days have seen violence intensify in the occupied West Bank and new launches of missiles at Israel by the Yemen-based Houthi militia. Israel struck Yemen's Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif on Friday, continuing its campaign to degrade Houthi military capabilities.
The Herald Scotland
11-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Exposing the privatisation and profiteering of Palestinian pain
Israel's current onslaught in Gaza and the occupied West Bank is precisely a point in case. This past week Israel announced its latest phase in that onslaught, a military strategy, ominously dubbed 'Gideon's Chariots.' Unanimously approved by Israel's security cabinet, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pulling out all the stops to frame Gideon's Chariots as an operation to dismantle Hamas in Gaza and retrieve those remaining hostages being held there by the group. While partly true, the reality of the mission however is underpinned by an altogether different motive. Again framing it their way, Israeli officials have described the mass movement of Palestinians that the operation will require, as a 'voluntary relocation'. This though will be anything but, given that the intent and scale clearly of what will be overwhelming force by land, sea, and air, will amount to forced displacement and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. This in turn of course will be a violation of international law if implemented without guarantees of return or safety. READ MORE: DAVID PRATT IN UKRAINE: Escape from Mariupol: One woman's story of survival from 'hell on Earth' DAVID PRATT IN UKRAINE: Inside the small village that stood fast against Russia's attempt to capture Kyiv David Pratt in Ukraine: It's hard to comprehend this level of destruction Netanyahu himself could not have spelt out more clearly what this blueprint for permanent occupation involves doing so in a social media video following the cabinet meeting. 'Gaza's population will be moved,' Netanyahu said in a video message posted on X, adding that Israeli soldiers won't go into Gaza, launch raids and then retreat. 'One thing will be clear: there will be no in-and-out. We'll call up reserves to come, hold territory - we're not going to enter and then exit the area, only to carry out raids afterward. 'That's not the plan. The intention is the opposite of that.' Along with giving the green light for Gideon's Chariots, the Israeli cabinet according to daily newspaper Haaretz, also backed a preliminary plan to seize control of humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza with the help of private US military contractors (PMC's). Such contractors of course have been a feature of numerous conflict across the world these past decades including Iraq and Afghanistan and have not been short of controversial. That they have made vast financial profits for those who run them is also beyond doubt. This aerial photo shows displaced Gazans walking toward Gaza City on January 27, 2025, after crossing the Netzarim corridor from the southern Gaza Strip 'Unwinnable war' Gaza might be called an 'unwinnable' war, but the fighting that has ensued there these past 19 months and escalation of hostilities in the Occupied West Bank, has been nothing but a win, win, for some in terms of money making. From bombs and guns to aid air drops, people trafficking to Airbnb's, Israel's years of war and oppression of the Palestinians has been a real business for many. The biggest profits of course come from the weapons used to prosecute the war. Just last week a new report found that UK firms have continued to export military items to Israel despite a government suspension in September last year, amid allegations that the British parliament has been deliberately 'misled'. A report by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Progressive International and Workers for a Free Palestine revealed last Wednesday that the UK sent '8,630 separate munitions since the suspensions took effect, all in the category 'Bombs, Grenades, Torpedoes, Mines, Missiles And Similar Munitions Of War And Parts Thereof-Other.' This though is the tip of the iceberg in terms of weapons supplies and the profits accumulated from them. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) with the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the arms revenues of the three companies based in Israel in the global Top 100 reached $13.6 billion. This was the highest figure ever recorded by Israeli companies in the SIPRI Top 100. 'The biggest Middle Eastern arms producers in the Top 100 saw their arms revenues reach unprecedented heights in 2023 and the growth looks set to continue,' said Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. 'In particular, as well as taking in record arms revenues in 2023, Israeli arms producers are booking many more orders as the war in Gaza rages on and spreads.' But the obvious enormous profits from the arms trade aside, there has been no shortage of others queuing up to make money from Gaza's suffering. Few reading this will have forgotten US President Donald Trump's plan for the US to take over the Gaza Strip and build a 'Riviera of the Middle East.' While many simply mocked the idea as ludicrous and morally obscene given the current suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, as the online portal Middle East Eye (MEE) reported in February when looked at more closely, it became apparent that one of Trump's closest family members had been discussing something similar for at least a year prior to the president's remarks. What's more he has the funds and political connections to make it a reality. 'Gaza's waterfront property, it could be very valuable,' Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and former Middle East advisor, said in February 2024. "It's a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel's perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,' he added. Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana). Waterfront property Kushner it seems was happy to put aside the fact that international law dictates those territorial rights, and the US does not control the property rights for Gaza's waterfront or its maritime boundaries. But as Middle East Eye's report rightly points out Kushner's words matter. 'He is not just an in-law or even a former White House advisor. After Trump's first term in office ended, Kushner launched a private equity fund, Affinity Partners. The fund almost seems tailor-made for Trump's vision of building a luxury city in Gaza.' But the 'long-term ownership position' as Trump calls it of Gasa aside, even as the war continues there are those cashing in. Even humanitarian aid it seems is not exempt from the profiteering says MEE. Only a few days ago it detailed how the Jordanian authorities have profited significantly from overseeing the delivery of international aid into Gaza. According to MEE sources both the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO), an official body overseeing humanitarian aid into Gaza, has coordinated with Israeli authorities to act as the sole conduit for aid passing through Jordan. MEE cited sources both from international aid organisations and people with direct knowledge of the JHCO's operations. Source also told the news platform that Jordanian authorities have demanded $2,200 for every aid truck entering Gaza and charged 'between $200,000 and $400,000 per airdrop over Gaza this despite 'each aircraft carrying the equivalent of less than half a truckload of aid.' With last week's confirmation that the Israeli government is backing a preliminary plan to seize control of humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza with the help of private US military contractors there is renewed concern not just at the humanitarian implications of this but just in whose interests exactly would this be undertaken. On Friday the Associated Press (AP) obtained a proposal document from the newly created group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) a little know entity registered in Switzerland. Comprised of American security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials it is proposing to take over the distribution of food and other supplies in Gaza. GHF's board of directors includes Nate Mook, the former CEO of World Central Kitchen. It also includes Loik Henderson, who is said to be a legal and business professional with 20 years' experience including to Fortune 500 companies; Raisa Sheynberg, a vice president of government affairs and policy at Mastercard who previously led Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project and also worked on national security and economic policy for the US government; and Jonathan Foster, founder and managing director of Current Capital Partners LLC. In the GHF proposal seen by the Financial Times (FT), the group says their scheme will provide assistance through the initial establishment of four 'Secure Distribution Sites'. These would be set up in southern Gaza and secured by armed private contractors. According to the proposal and several people briefed on the plan says the FT, Palestinians will be invited to the distribution sites, most likely on a weekly basis, to pick-up 'pre-packaged rations, hygiene kits, and medical supplies'. GHF has budgeted $1.30 per meal, including the cost of logistics, which it claims will be enough to provide every 'at-risk civilian' with a 1,750 calorie meal. The new American- Israeli plan would supplant the one run by the UN and other international aid agencies who have rejected such 'private' moves to control aid distribution. Instead, they say, Israel's current aid blockade should be lifted, and supplies be distributed by humanitarian organisations that are not party to the conflict. The European Union said humanitarian aid 'must never be politicised or militarised'. Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on the social media platform X that it was 'totally wrong' for one party in a conflict to be distributing aid. 'This new Israeli aid plan is both totally insufficient to meet the needs in Gaza, and a complete breach of all humanitarian principles,' he said. The GHF document focuses repeatedly on how GHF will be transparent, saying it has secured banking with US-based Truist Bank and JPMorgan Chase. 'Real-time monitoring and beneficiary feedback loop into public dashboards so every dollar is traceable and every outcome verifiable,' it says. But many remain wary on a number of levels with financial transparency only one concern. The fact that the aid distribution system is inadequate for Gaza's needs and located in a way that forces people to move through tightly controlled Israeli military corridors known as 'filtration points' that would monitor recipients, leaves many uneasy. That aid would be distributed under private military contractor oversight and backed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) is also of concern says critics. Trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrive from Egypt to the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the southern Gaza Strip $1.30 per meal According to a report by the Washington Post the contractors will be supplied by UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions, the same American contractors previously involved in checkpoint and security maintenance in the Gaza Strip during the since-broken ceasefire. All this some fear is just another way to remove Palestinians from their homes while making money on the side. Such concerns are understandable in a conflict that has time and again seen individuals and businesses take advantage of the instability and suffering. From Egyptian tribal leaders making unofficial profits over the control of commercial and aid trucks accessing Gaza to those charging Palestinians at least $5,000 per adult and $2,500 for children under 16 to flee the war zone, those on the take it seems come from all sides. According to MEE and based on lists they accessed, one firm is said to have made at least $21m in February, $38.5m in March and $58m in April this year from such transactions. It's not only in Gaza either that the crisis is being exploited. Earlier this year an investigation by The Guardian revealed how two of the world's biggest travel companies are helping Jewish settlers commercialise land stolen from Palestinians. The newspaper's analysis found '760 rooms being advertised in hotels, apartments and other holiday rentals in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, on two of the world's most popular tourism websites.' 'Taken together, the listings that appear on either Airbnb or could host more than 2,000 people as of August 2024,' The Guardian report concluded. Last week Israel said it will give Hamas until the end of Trump's Middle East tour which starts this coming week May 13, before launching its 'Gideon's Chariots' operation. In the meantime the profiteering, just like the bombardment of Gaza goes on. Sadly the signs too are that those making money from Gaza's pain will continue to do so for some time yet.
