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Israel hit squad dressed as doctor, nurse assassinates three in West Bank hospital: PA

By
IFP Media Wire
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West Bank Hospital

The killings were carried out by undercover operatives while the men were sleeping at the Ibn Sina Hospital, according to statements issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Israeli army on Tuesday.

“This morning three young men were martyred by the bullets of the occupation [Israeli] forces who stormed the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin and shot them,” the Health Ministry in Ramallah said.

The Israeli army claimed its troops had “neutralised” the men, who were hiding in the hospital and belonged to a Hamas “terrorist cell”.

“A gun was found on a wanted person, which was confiscated by the forces,” the army statement added.

It reported that one of the men “had recently been involved in promoting significant terrorist activity and was hiding” in the hospital.

Hospital director Naji Nazzal told the AFP news agency that “a group of Israeli forces entered the facility undercover and assassinated the men”. They used weapons fitted with silencers, he added.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa named the three men as Muhammad Jalamnah, Muhammad Ayman Ghazawi and Basel Ayman Ghazawi.

Security camera footage circulated online appeared to show about a dozen undercover personnel, including three in women’s clothing and two dressed as medical staff, pacing through a corridor of the hospital with assault rifles.

Hamas said in a statement that the Israeli army’s “crimes will not go unanswered”, adding that the killings are a “continuation of the occupation’s ongoing crimes against our people from Gaza to Jenin”.

The statement noted that one of the men was injured and in bed when he was killed.

Of the three men, Hamas confirmed one was one of its members, and another was with the Jenin Battalion. The third was also a Palestinian fighter.

Violent clashes were reported in the area surrounding the hospital.

The funeral ceremony of the three men was under way at noon, as crowds passed through the streets of Jenin in preparation for performing funeral prayers for them to be buried later in the cemetery in the Jenin refugee camp. Palestinian media outlets published scenes from the funeral.

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, Israeli forces have carried out raids and arrests in the West Bank on a daily basis.

Hundreds of people have been killed and arrested since Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, in which about 1,140 people were killed and some 250 taken captive.

Approximately 100 of the captives were returned to Israel under a truce deal last November in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan, top aide get 10-year jail term for leaking state secrets

By
IFP Media Wire
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Imran Khan

The special court set up in a prison in Rawalpindi on Tuesday announced the sentence in the so-called cypher case, which pertains to a diplomatic cable that Khan claims proves his allegation that his removal from power in 2022 was a conspiracy.

The court established under the Official Secrets Act found Khan guilty of misusing the confidential cable sent by a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States.

Khan has repeatedly denied the charge, saying the document contained evidence that his removal as prime minister was a plot hatched by his political opponents and the powerful military, with help from the US administration. Washington and the Pakistani army reject the accusation.

Khan was Pakistan’s premier from August 2018 to April 2022 when he lost a vote of confidence in the parliament. He has been in jail since August last year, facing trial in multiple cases.

The sentencing against the country’s main opposition leader comes about a week before the general elections, scheduled on February 8.

Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari, a spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told Al Jazeera the PTI will challenge the court’s decision.

“This was pretty much a writing on the wall,” he said, adding that the trial was held in an “unlawful manner”.

“Our lawyers were not allowed to represent Imran Khan. They were not even allowed to cross-examine the witnesses. What was unfolding in the court was merely a charade and a sham.”

It is Khan’s second conviction in less than a year. In August, he was sentenced to three years in a corruption case, which barred him from contesting the national elections.

The vote follows a massive crackdown against the PTI, which saw dozens of its leaders quitting the party and thousands of its members and supporters jailed.

Recently, the party also lost its election symbol – a cricket bat – and had been forced to field its candidates as independents.

But Bukhari stated the verdict against Khan and Qureshi will only work in favour of the beleaguered party.

“With the sentence coming at a time when elections are less than 10 days away, it will only motivate our supporters and help them come out in droves. It looks like the authorities want to suppress the PTI and its voter base, but their acts will only drive us to vote in bigger numbers,” he told Al Jazeera.

US govt. employees to stage ‘Day of Fasting for Gaza’ to denounce Biden’s policies

By
IFP Media Wire
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Gaza Rally

Feds United for Peace, representing employees from twenty-seven US government agencies and departments, said the “day of fasting for Gaza” aims to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Participating federal employees are set to show up to their offices dressed in black or wearing keffiyeh scarves or other symbols of Palestinian solidarity.

A federal employee speaking on behalf of the group cited a UN report that up to two million people in the territory are at risk of famine, saying the Day of Fasting is a response to Israel’s use of “starvation as a weapon of war by intentionally withholding food from entering Gaza.”

Feds United for Peace represents the departments of defense, homeland security, and state, and includes career public servants and political appointees, among others. The groups said they expect hundreds of government employees to participate.

The group also organized an office walkout in solidarity with Palestinians earlier in the month, which drew reactions in Washington, with national security officials from both parties criticizing their protests as insubordination.

“They deserve to be fired,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, stated.

Feds United for Peace representatives say that their goal is to force a conversation in their offices, where many federal employees might support a ceasefire but fear retribution for speaking out, or are afraid to even casually discuss politics because doing so might hamper their efforts to work on policy effectively.

Israel unleashed a war in Gaza on October 7, killing more than 26,600 Palestinians, according to the latest count from the Gaza Health Ministry, with the majority women and children.

It also imposed a total blockade on the territory and restricted food, water, and fuel from entering. The blockade, the civic destruction, and the relentless bombardment of the Strip are pushing Gaza’s essential services and resources to the brink of collapse.

The United Nations has warned that a dire situation is unfolding in Gaza as half a million individuals are facing the threat of catastrophic hunger.

The people of Gaza account for a staggering 80 percent of the global population facing famine or catastrophic hunger, as reported by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Israeli genocidal war on Gaza also prompted other US government employees to organize against the war under other umbrellas as well. Staffers for Ceasefire, for instance, put on a vigil for Gaza outside the White House in December.

Last week, Staffers for Ceasefire published a statement in opposition to the efforts of senior White House officials to boost morale that has flagged as a result of opposition to the US’s support of Israel.

“While White House chief of staff Jeff Zients throws a morale-booster party for staff tonight, a child in Gaza is killed every 8 minutes,” Staffers for Ceasefire said in a statement, adding, “We are disgusted by this display of complete apathy towards the lives that have been taken in the region over the last three months.”

In early January, a senior political appointee from the education department, Tariq Habash, resigned in protest.

At Biden’s 2024 re-election headquarters, campaigners have also anonymously signed petitions.

More than a thousand officials from the development agency USAid signed a letter in support of a ceasefire.

Government employees say that even though their substantive criticisms of the administration’s policy do not seem to be changing policy, the barrage of dissenting actions have reached the Oval Office.

Van Jackson, a political scientist who worked in the Pentagon during the Barack Obama administration, said the recent protests from US public servants were unprecedented.

“We are in uncharted territory, and no presidential administration in the past 40 years has been denounced by its own staff like this – not collectively, not so publicly, and not with this regularity,” Jackson wrote in his newsletter Un-Diplomatic.

Israel’s DM tells troops it could be months before the Gaza war is over

By
IFP Media Wire
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Israel Army

“This is a long war, but in the end, we will break Hamas. We must keep going until we eliminate them as a governing system, and as a military organization capable of launching attacks against the state of Israel,” Yoav Gallant said.

Gallant described the conflict to the soldiers as an “hourglass” that has “flipped against” Hamas and is now in Israel’s favor.

The Israeli defense minister has on several occasions outlined Israel’s commitment to pursuing Hamas fighters in Gaza for as “long as necessary”.

The minister stressed that it will “take months, not a single day” to achieve Israel’s objectives despite his claim that Hamas’ capabilities have been significantly weakened.

“They don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements.”

In early January, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated Israel will continue to wage war in Gaza throughout 2024. The IDF spokesman’s prediction followed similar comments from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned that “many more months” of fighting still lay ahead.

A new report by US intelligence agencies has concluded that Palestinian group Hamas has lost 20-30 percent of its fighters after months of Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip, meaning it is far from being destroyed.

The report says the agencies also found Hamas still has enough weaponry to continue striking Israeli forces and launch rockets into Israel “for months”.

It noted even though individual Hamas fighters may have to take on more tasks since they have lost comrades, they are far from being incapacitated and have changed their operational tactics to adjust.

The report also added Israeli officials estimate up to 16,000 Hamas fighters have been wounded and about half of those will not be returning to the battlefield. But US estimates puts that number between 10,500 and 11,700 fighters, many of whom could return.

The Israeli military has been “astonished” by the size and quality of the tunnels Hamas has built under the besieged enclave, according to a report.

The tunnel network was originally estimated to include 250 miles (400 km) of underground passages and bunkers. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has since revised these estimates to 350-450 miles (560-725 km) or more.

Two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were close to 5,700 separate shafts leading into the tunnels under Gaza. None of the numbers could be independently verified, however.

It could take “years” to disable the tunnels, one Israeli official told the New York Times newspaper. They need to be mapped, checked for Israeli captives, and “made irreparable”, he stated, acknowledging that the recent attempts to destroy the tunnels by flooding them with seawater “have failed”.

According to another official, Israel is using a “triangle” model to locate the tunnels, which assumes they will be found under any hospital, school or mosque in Gaza.

The Israeli military has underestimated the “extent and importance” of the tunnels to Hamas, which the daily described as an “intelligence failure”.

The IDF has not disclosed the number of soldiers killed and wounded in tunnel warfare. Officially, almost 190 soldiers have been killed and 240 or so seriously wounded in the fighting since the start of the ground campaign in Gaza.

One soldier, who spoke with the Times on condition of anonymity, said that he took had taken part in destroying about 50 tunnels in Beit Hanoun, in the northeast of Gaza. All of them were rigged with bombs and other explosives, wired to be activated remotely.

The Palestinian group Hamas, which maintains de facto control over Gaza, struck at nearby Israeli settlements on October 7, claiming the lives of approximately 1,200 Israelis. Another 250 were taken into the Palestinian enclave as captives. Israel responded by declaring war on Hamas and launching air and artillery strikes on Gaza, followed by ground troops in November.

Almost 26,600 Palestinians have been killed and another 65,000 wounded since early October, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Iraq Football Federation lodges complaint against Iranian referee in AFC Asian Cup 2023

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Alireza Faghani

Iraq was eliminated from the games after its 2-3 loss to Jordan.

The Iraqi federation argues that Faghani was unfair in giving Iraqi player Iman Hussain two yellow cards in the game, saying it has presented its evidence and documents to the organizing committee.

The Iraqi football federation says after Iman Hussain was sent off, the team’s fate changed as Jordan took advantage and scored two goals and managed to step up to the next round.

Faghani’s second yellow card came after Hussein’s 70-second long celebration, in which he replicated Jordan’s goal ceremony, sitting down on the turf and miming the action of eating.

Iran says not responsible for any group’s actions in West Asia

By
IFP Media Wire
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Amir Saeed Iravani

Iravani made the comments in a letter addressed to the UN Security Council’s president on Monday.

The letter came three days after his American counterpart, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, wrote a letter to the Council, alleging that “militia groups affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces” were involved in “actions against US personnel and facilities in Iraq and Syria”.

Iravani asserted unequivocally that “there is no group affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces, whether in Iraq, Syria, or elsewhere that operates directly or indirectly under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran or acts on its behalf.”

“Therefore, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not responsible for the actions of any individual or group within the region,” Iran’s UN ambassador added.

Over the past years, Iraq’s resistance groups have been staging numerous strikes against military bases housing American occupation forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The strikes have increased in intensity since October 7, 2023, when the Israeli regime, Washington’s main regional ally, launched a US-backed genocidal war against the Gaza Strip. So far, the regime’s onslaught has claimed the lives of more than 26,600 civilians, mostly women and children, leaving more than 65,300 others injured.

Meanwhile, the US has been deploying its forces and military equipment to Syria and Iraqi without a UN mandate and under the pretext of fighting terrorist groups, including Daesh. The Takfiri terrorist group had emerged as Washington was running out of excuses to extend its regional meddling or enlarge it in scale.

American forces have maintained their illegal presence in both countries, despite vociferous protests from their people and top officials, who have been persistently calling on Washington to withdraw its troops

Referring to US presence in those countries, Iran’s ambassador said, “…the actions undertaken by the United States in Syria and Iraq are illegal and violate both international law and the UN Charter…. Consequently, the US notification submitted to the Security Council in the aforementioned letter … lacks a legal foundation and fails to legitimize such actions.”

Iravani’s letter came after Iran’s permanent mission to the UN reaffirmed in a late Sunday statement that the country has no links to attacks on US forces in the region.

The mission’s statement was published after a drone attack on a US base located on Jordan’s border with Syria killed three American servicemen.

The statement said Iran had no link to the attack, adding that the incident was part of the “conflict between the army of the United States of America and resistance groups in the region, which reciprocate retaliatory attacks”.

Good progress’ in Gaza truce, captives negotiations: Qatar

By
IFP Media Wire
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Israel Hostages

“We are in a better place than we were a few weeks ago,” al-Thani said at a forum hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, on Monday.

Thani’s comments come after CIA director Bill Burns travelled to Paris, France, over the weekend for high-level talks with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials.

Thani suggested that the officials had made progress in the talks and reached a framework for a deal which he stated “might lead to a ceasefire permanently in the future”.

The Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel which sparked the war saw 1,139 people killed and over two hundred taken back to Gaza as hostages.

He appeared to confirm reports that the truce would see women and children hostages held in Gaza released, with more humanitarian aid also entering besieged Gaza in exchange for a pause in fighting. Over 26,600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

The truce could last for 60 days, according to US and Israeli media reports, substantially longer than a deal struck in November that freed more than 100 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

“The framework that yesterday has been agreed upon with all the parties was a framework based on what’s been proposed by the Israelis and a counterproposal by Hamas, and we tried to blend things together,” Thani continued.

A key sticking point in the agreement has been Israel’s refusal to agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, which Hamas has set as a precondition for any pause in fighting and the release of hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was quick to squash rumours that the two sides were nearing a deal, saying “the reports…are not correct and include conditions that are not acceptable to Israel”.

Hamas also appeared to reject the Qatari official’s statements.

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP that the group wanted a “complete and comprehensive ceasefire, not a temporary truce”, adding that once the fighting stopped, Hamas would be willing to discuss “the rest of the details”, including hostage releases.

Meanwhile, at a press conference in Beirut on Monday, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel was not serious about striking a ceasefire and that rumours of a deal were aimed at “satisfying the families of those detained by the resistance”.

Netanyahu has come under growing pressure from hostages’ families to strike a deal.

Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s political leaders at the request of the US, is also under pressure to demonstrate that it can leverage its ties to the group and sway in Gaza to free the hostages.

US says not seeking war with Iran after death of 3 servicemen in West Asia

By
IFP Media Wire
-
US troops Middle East

Kirby said on Monday that the US would deliver a “very consequential response” to the attack a day earlier on the Tower 22 barracks near Jordan’s border with Syria, which Washington blamed on militants linked to Iran. Tehran has rejected the claim.

However, Kirby insisted that such a response would not mean a war with Iran, whom Washington accuses of supporting groups opposed to the US presence in the region.

“… we don’t seek a war with Iran. We’re not looking for a wider conflict in the Middle East,” he told the CNN.

Kirby added that the US wants the recurrent attacks on its military personnel in the region to stop while claiming that Washington is after a stable, secure and prosperous Middle East.

The comments come as resistance groups in several Arab countries continue to launch attacks on US and Israeli interests in the region as part of a campaign to secure an end to the brutal Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza.

Regional resistance groups have stressed that attacks on the US and allies could stop if Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire in the besieged strip.

A spokesperson for the US Defence Department has also stated the Joe Biden administration doesn’t believe Iran is seeking a war with the United States.

Washington also is not looking for a war, said spokesperson Sabrina Singh.

“We don’t seek war, but we will take action, and respond to attacks on our forces.”

Singh added that the latest attack on the US, which killed three troops in Jordan, had the “footprints” of Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah, a paramilitary group in Iraq.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the environment in the Middle East is as dangerous as it’s been in the region “since at least 1973, and arguably even before that”.

Blinken, who was speaking at a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, said that the US response to Iran-backed militias allegedly killing three US Army reservists in Jordan “could be multileveled, come in stages and be sustained over time”.

“We want to prevent this conflict from spreading, so we are intent on doing both, that is standing up for our people when they’re attacked, while at the same time working every single day to prevent the conflict from growing and spreading,” added Blinken.

Meantime, two officials told Politico Biden is ordering his advisers to present a range of US response options that would forcefully deter other attacks while also not further inflaming a smoldering region.

Among the options on the table for the Pentagon: striking Iranian personnel in Syria or Iraq or Iranian naval assets in the Persian Gulf, according to the officials.

The officials suggested that, once the president gave the go-ahead, the retaliation would likely begin in the next couple of days and come in waves against a range of targets.

Israeli intelligence accuses UNRWA staff of kidnap, seizing body during October 7 attack

By
IFP Media Wire
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UNRWA

The Israeli dossier alleges that some 190 UNRWA employees, including teachers, have doubled as Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters, the Reuters news agency reported.

Palestinian officials have accused Israel of falsifying information to tarnish UNRWA. The UN has fired nine of the accused workers, condemned “the abhorrent alleged acts” and launched an investigation into the allegations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met the head of internal investigations at the world body to ensure an inquiry into the allegations “will be done swiftly and as efficiently as possible”, a UN spokesperson said on Monday.

Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,100 people and taking 250 others captive, according to Israeli figures.

Israel responded to the attack with a devastating bombardment, siege and ground invasion of Gaza. More than 26,600 people have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities, and vast areas of the territory have been reduced to rubble.

The Israeli document listed 12 people, their alleged roles in the October 7 attack, job descriptions and photos. The findings detailed in the document could not be independently confirmed.

The dossier added of the 12 workers, nine were teachers and one a social worker. Seven of the employees were accused of crossing into Israel on October 7. Of those, one was accused of taking part in a kidnapping, another of helping to abduct the body of a dead soldier and three others of participating in the attacks.

One was accused of arming himself with an anti-tank missile the night before the attack, while the document claimed another took photos of a female hostage. Ten were listed as having ties to Hamas and one to the Islamic Jihad militant group.

Two of the 12 have been killed, according to the document. The UN previously said one person was still being identified.

The allegations against UNRWA staffers led several donor countries to freeze funds for the agency.

UNRWA provides crucial day-to-day assistance for 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza who are living through a dire humanitarian catastrophe amid the Israeli assault. The agency said on Monday that it would not be able to continue operations in Gaza and across the region beyond the end of February if funding were not resumed.

More than 10 countries, including major donors the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, have halted their funding to the agency.

Some donor countries have said they would continue to fund UNRWA, while others have urged donors to resume their cooperation.

The European Union will continue funding the UNRWA, despite what it called very “serious” allegations against several of the agency’s staff members.

In a news release Monday, the bloc announced its foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, held a call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including very serious allegations against a number of UNRWA staff members”.

Since the war began, most Palestinians in Gaza have come to depend on the agency’s programmes for “sheer survival”, including food and shelter, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has stated.

The allegations have stoked long-standing tensions between Israel and UNRWA. Israel says Hamas uses the agency’s facilities to store weapons and launch attacks. UNRWA says it does not knowingly tolerate such behaviour and has internal safeguards to prevent abuses and discipline any wrongdoing.

Even before the latest allegations, Lazzarini had announced that he was ordering an external review of the agency’s operations and its safeguards.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Monday called for the chief of UNRWA to resign.

“I have just canceled the meetings of UNRWA head, [Philippe Lazzarini], with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel on Wednesday,” Katz wrote on X.

“Lazzarini should draw conclusions and resign. Supporters of terrorism are not welcome here,” he added.

Katz already called on the United Nations “to take immediate personal actions” against UNRWA’s leadership on Saturday.

No light at end of Ukrainian tunnel: EU’s top diplomat

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Russia Ukraine War

The Ukrainian conflict has been “a stark reminder of the critical importance of jointly defending the core principles of the United Nations”, Borrell told the Global Gateway Investors Forum for the European Union-Central Asia Transport Connectivity in Brussels on Monday.

“You know that in order to defend these principles, the European Union has imposed substantial sanctions against Russia, which have significantly weakened its war machine. But still, they are there, and the war continues. And if I can say it, the intensity of the fighting increases and we do not see the light at the end of the tunnel,” the EU’s top diplomat admitted.

“In order for these sanctions to be effective, we need full cooperation from our partners. We are following closely the trade between us, between Central Asia countries, with them and Russia. We try to analyze which are the mechanisms that make sanctions being circumvented,” he added.

According to President Vladimir Putin, the Russian economy is in good shape, rapidly expanding, and even benefitted from Western sanctions, which forced it to focus more on manufacturing than energy exports.

The sanctions on Russian oil introduced by the G7 and EU late last year were conceived as a means to curtail Moscow’s energy revenues. In reality, however, they have had a boomerang effect, according to a recent study.

Kiev also repeatedly expressed concerns that Moscow was not being isolated as promised by the West, as China and multiple Global South nations refused to toe the line set by the West and instead maintained a neutral position.

Amid such “disappointments”, and following the country’s failed summer counteroffensive, Ukrainian authorities will step up efforts to explain to their citizens why they should go to the front line, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s senior adviser, Mikhail Podoliak. While Kiev doesn’t publish its casualty figures, Russia’s Defense Ministry has estimated that Ukraine’s forces have lost as many as 400,000 troops over the course of the conflict.

Ukraine is also “working hard” to secure Western funding for the country in 2024, according to PM Denis Shmygal. The US has provided Kiev with around $111 billion in economic and military support to date, but the flow of funds has subsided dramatically as the White House struggles to push through another $60 billion in assistance. The EU has also so far failed to reach an agreement to funnel €50 billion ($54 billion) from the bloc’s collective budget to Ukraine.

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