Thursday, December 25, 2025
type here...
Home Blog Page 1090

US warns Israel of failure in war with Hezbollah: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Hezbollah

Citing the assessment from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), The Washington Post daily reported that Joe Biden administration officials have “privately” warned Israeli leaders against entering into direct conflict with Hezbollah.

It also cited unnamed officials as saying Israel’s military has targeted “US-funded and trained Lebanese Armed Forces” more than 30 times since the Gaza war began.

US officials are concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may see an expanded fight in Lebanon as key to his political survival amid domestic criticism, the news report added.

His report came in the wake of the Israeli attack that killed senior Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri on Tuesday in southern Beirut.

The secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has reasserted that the killing of al-Arouri will not go without punishment, warning Israel against attacking Lebanon.

“If the enemy thinks about waging war against Lebanon, then our fighting will be with no ceiling, with no limits, with no rules. And they know what I mean,” Nasrallah said.

“We are not afraid of war. We don’t fear it. We are not hesitant. If we were, we would have stopped at the front,” he added.

“This dangerous crime will not go unanswered and unpunished.”

Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel since early October when the Israeli regime launched a full-scale military campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza. Hezbollah’s attacks on Israeli targets are aimed at forcing the regime to end the aggression that has left more than 22,700 people dead in Gaza.

The fighting has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands from the northern part of the Israeli-occupied territories, which have been pummeled by rocket fire and shelling carried out by Hezbollah and allied Palestinian groups.

Nearly 150 Hezbollah fighters have lost their lives since the beginning of the conflict, while some 11 Israeli soldiers have also been killed.

Hezbollah has already fought off two Israeli wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, forcing a humiliating retreat upon the Tel Aviv regime’s military in both cases.

The resistance movement has vowed to resolutely defend Lebanon in case of any Israeli-imposed war.

The group announced on Saturday that it hit an Israeli observation post with 62 rockets as a “preliminary response” to the recent killing of al-Arouri in Lebanon.

Assassinated Hamas leader to become Israel’s nightmare: IRGC Quds Force Chief

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Saleh Al Arouri

In a message to Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh, Qaani paid tribute to Arouri, who was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on January 2.

“The enemy and the Zionists seek to downplay their heavy defeat in Gaza and the West Bank by assassinating resistance leaders,” the Iranian commander said.

“The world will see how the brothers of Martyr Arouri will turn into a nightmare for the child-murdering Zionist regime,” he added.

The IRGC Quds Force commander went on to say that Arouri was martyred as the noose has been tightened around the Israeli enemy in the West Bank.

Arouri was a senior official in Hamas’s politburo and was known to be deeply involved in its military affairs. He had previously headed the group’s presence in the occupied West Bank.

Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, leaders of Hamas’ armed wing – the Qassam Brigades – were also killed in the Israeli strike, Hamas said in a message.

It named four other members of the group who were also killed.

Iranian news website blasts ex-president Ahmadinejad for ‘remaining tight-lipped’ over recent terror attack

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

“It is shameless and embarrassing to see someone, who held a high position as Iranian President, and who had sent messages of condolences on the death of an Indian singer and an American rapper and expressed sorrow, and who even did not forget to send congratulatory messages on the United States’ National Basketball League games, has remained tight-lipped and silent over the deaths of his fellow countrymen.” Wrote Asr-e-Iran.

“This is the same Ahmadinejad that spoke of Iran’s determination to destroy Israel following the 33-day war of 2006 between Israel and Lebanon when the world public opinion had turned against Israel, and tipped the balance in favor of Israel and against Iran,” the website added.

“Now, the same political figure who would speak out loud against Israel and strongly express opposition to it, remains tight-lipped in the face of Israel’s crimes in Gaza, which has even caused an outcry from the West,” the site said.

89 people were killed and hundreds injured in twin bomb blasts in Kerman on Wednesday.

PLO: Palestinians should decide Gaza’s future, not Israel

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

The statement follows debates within Israel over the plan for Gaza when combat is finished.

Responding to these plans for a post-war Gaza, Al-Sheikh said, “All scenarios proposed by the occupation politicians and leaders will only lead to failure. Achieving a comprehensive solution and the departure of the occupation is our choice, our program and our strategy.”

As the main component of the Palestinian Authority, the PLO partially runs the occupied West Bank. It was ousted by Hamas from Gaza in 2007

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant outlined plans for what might follow after the war in a three-page document entitled the “Day After”.

After the war, the Israeli military would maintain “operational freedom of action in the Gaza Strip” and Israel would continue to “carry out the inspection of goods entering” the territory.

Gallant, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s center-right Likud party, stated that once the goals of the war have been achieved there would be “no Israeli civilian presence in the Gaza Strip”, appearing to rule out the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in Gaza that Israel unilaterally removed in 2005.

The plan prompted fiery discussion within the Israeli cabinet, according to a source.

Gallant’s plan was criticized Friday by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who along with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has advocated for resettling Gazans outside the enclave. Their comments have drawn condemnation from the United States, United Nations officials and several Arab states.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also stated that the war against Hamas “must not be stopped” until Tel Aviv achieves three main objectives: “eliminate Hamas, return our hostages and ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel”.

In a statement released Saturday by his office, the prime minister said Israel will “not give Hamas immunity anywhere, and we are fighting to restore security in both the south and the north”.

“Until then and for that purpose, you have to put everything aside and continue with joint forces until the complete victory is achieved,” he concluded.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel’s military operation in the enclave has exceeded 22,700, the Gaza Health Ministry reported on Saturday.

315 Palestinians killed in West Bank since start of Gaza war: UN

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Israeli Soldiers

Of those killed in the occupied West Bank, 306 were killed by Israeli forces, eight by Israeli settlers and another one by either Israeli forces or settlers.

The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, in 2023 (507) marks the most in the West Bank since the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) started recording casualties in 2005.

Violence across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem has flared since Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip began on October 7. More than 22,700 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, most of them civilians.

Nearly 5,000 Palestinians have been arrested since the war on Gaza began.

Since October 7, the UN has documented a “sharp rise in settler attacks”, including “shootings, burning of homes and vehicles, and uprooting of trees”.

The UN has urged Israel to “end unlawful killings” of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, warning that the human rights situation in the territory is rapidly deteriorating.

Iran says entire terrorist team involved in Kerman terror attack arrested

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Kerman Terror Attack

Bakhshi revealed the information in a televised interview on Saturday, three days after the terrorist attack.

“Thirty-two people have been arrested in [connection with] Kerman [terrorist] crime case and are going through preliminary interrogations,” he was quoted by IRNA as saying.

In addition, the judicial official added, as many as “16 bombs have been discovered throughout Kerman province” whose explosive power was more than the suicide vests used in the Wednesday attack.

The terrorist bombings, which were claimed by the US-backed Daesh Takfiri group, were carried out near the burial site of Iran’s late anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his martyrdom. The blasts left 89 people, including 76 Iranians and 13 Afghans, dead and 286 others wounded, some of them in critical condition.

Bakhshi dismissed rumors that the explosives used during the attack were placed in trash cans and were remotely detonated, saying both bomb blasts were conducted by suicide bombers, one of whom was from Tajikistan.

Emphasizing that terrorists were not able to plant any explosives inside the cemetery where martyrs are buried, the prosecutor said, “Over the recent months, as many as 23 Daesh terrorists ready to carry out suicide attacks have been arrested across Kerman province.”

The prosecutor noted that the province had to deal with a high number of threats during this year’s martyrdom anniversary of General Soleimani, amid reports about potential terror attacks by Daesh and the anti-Iranian Mujahedin-e-Khalq terrorist cult.

“Therefore, the entire province was mobilized” to counter any possible threats, he stated.

Bakhshi added that the mobilization included the Intelligence Ministry as well as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ Intelligence Organization and even the Army, which monitored small air vehicles to a radius of several kilometers and there were also special sniffer dogs to detect any explosives

The prosecutor dismissed allegations that this year’s anniversary did not feature as much security precautions as the previous year’s.

He asserted that this year’s event was marked with more preventive security measures and a higher number of security forces were deployed, while ample use was also made of thermal cameras and surveillance drones.

Bodies of 2 doomed mountaineers found in northwest Iran

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Ambulance Iran

Three mountain climbers who had set off on a doomed journey to conquer the summit, went missing due to adverse weather conditions.

After hours of search, rescuers found the bodies of two of them, both female, who had succumbed to hypothermia. Only one had survived.

Given the unfavorable weather conditions, search and rescue crew were unable to reach the victims by air and, hence, had to reach them by land.

It’s “absolutely necessary” Lebanon isn’t dragged into regional conflict: EU’s top diplomat

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Borrell

Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah were further inflamed this week by the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut.

“I am here when we are seeing a worrying intensification of exchange of fire across the blue line in the border between Lebanon and Israel,” Borrell said at a news conference in Beirut on Saturday, speaking alongside Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

“It is imperative to avoid regional escalation in the Middle East.”

Borrell also added the entire international community needs to work toward “change in the Middle East”, noting that “we cannot continue with the deplorable, awful track record of the last year or the last decade” in the region.

Bou Habib also spoke at the news conference, telling reporters that he “strongly reaffirm(s) that peace for Lebanon is essential and that all Lebanese (people) are attached to peace”.

“The Lebanese government is actively seeking to de-escalate” the situation at the border, he continued.

Borrell will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, he stated at Saturday’s news conference, where he will be discussing “concrete steps that could galvanize a serious international peace effort”.

“Nobody will win from a regional conflict,” he added, referencing growing fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spill into a wider conflict involving Iranian proxy groups like Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has also warned that any escalation in southern Lebanon will lead to a “comprehensive explosion” in the region, as exchanges of fire between the Hezbollah resistance movement and Israel continue.

Mikati made the remarks in a meeting with Borrell on Saturday, hours after Hezbollah announced it had hit an Israeli aerial surveillance base with scores of missiles in its first response to Tel Aviv’s assassination of a deputy political leader of Hamas.

Mikati went on to say that “Lebanon’s commitment to implementing UN resolution number 1701 requires stopping Israel’s violations of our sovereignty and its withdrawal from our occupied territories”.

“The full implementation of this resolution requires first stopping Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty and withdrawing from the Lebanese territories it still occupies,” he added.

The Lebanese premier further called for “a comprehensive solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by giving the Palestinians their just rights.

The southern Lebanese border has seen regular exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah since Tel Aviv launched its ferocious invasion of Gaza in early October.

Nearly three months of cross-border fire have killed 175 people in Lebanon, including three journalists.

In northern occupied territories, at least 13 Israelis, including nine soldiers, have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

The assassination of Hamas’ Deputy Chief Saleh Al-Arouri by the Israeli regime in southern Beirut on Tuesday has raised fears of further escalation.

Arouri, 57, was one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades before taking on a political portfolio in recent years.

He was seen as a key player in the movement, masterminding its operations in the West Bank from exile in Syria, Turkey, Qatar, and finally Lebanon after long stints in Israeli prisons.

The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.

The relentless military campaign has killed over 22,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured around 57,910 others.

Yemen warns no Israeli vessels or those heading to its ports will pass through Red Sea

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Shipping firms Red Sea passage

“We affirm that no Israeli ships or [ships] linked to it or heading to its ports [in the occupied territories] will pass [through the Red Sea], and we are serious about that,” Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, said on Saturday.

“Our armed forces are the guardian of the Red Sea and behind them are 40 million fighters from our people ready and present for confrontation,” Mashat continued, adding, “We will continue to prevent [the passage of] Israeli ships or those heading to the Zionist entity’s ports, and we will not stop until the aggression and siege of Gaza stops.”

“Preventing the navigation of the Zionist enemy is a Yemeni choice to impose peace and [ensure] a dignified life for [Palestinian] people in Gaza.”

The Yemeni official stated, “If the United States is committed to protecting the Israeli enemy, then we affirm that we are committed to protecting and supporting our brothers in Gaza and are ready for all possibilities, and all options are available.”

During recent months, Yemen’s Armed Forces have been staging missile and drone attacks against vessels heading to Israeli ports in support of the war-hit Palestinians in Gaza.

More than 22,700 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s war of genocide on Gaza, which the regime launched on October 7 following an operation by the territory’s resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Mashat said, “America, which claims to be seeking peace, is here today exposed before the world for its defiance of international law, and what is happening in Gaza in terms of [Israeli] aggression, killing, destruction, siege, and prevention of food and medicines [from reaching its people] is a disgrace for America.”

The US has announced formation of an American-led naval coalition of Washington’s allies aimed at heading off Yemen’s attacks.

As Israel’s most dedicated and age-old ally, the US has also torpedoed the prospect of cessation of the Israeli onslaught by stonewalling ratification of all United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Washington has also supplied the regime with more than 10,000 tons of advanced weaponry since the onset of the regime’s military aggression.

“We are an Arab [and] Muslim nation that reject injustice. We cannot remain silent in the face of these crimes against our brothers in Palestine. We have defined our position in the face of Zionist and American arrogance,” Mashat added.

Thousands protest in Israel demanding government to resign, end to Gaza war

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Israel Protest

Several thousand supporters, friends and families of the Israeli captives taken by Hamas on October 7 rallied in Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square” on Saturday.

“This is unprecedented because, throughout the beginning of this war, everyone had agreed, including the anti-government protesters, that they needed to be unified at a time when there is war, at a time when captives are still being held in Gaza,” stated Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat, reporting from Tel Aviv.

The turnout of people in the square was much higher than in recent weeks when a few dozen to a few hundred people gathered. “Now, quite a few thousand people [are] gathered here,” she added.

Protesters shouted: “Bushah bushah, bushah”, meaning “shame, shame, shame” in reference to the government, with some also blaming Netanyahu and other officials for the events of October 7.

“This just gives you a sense of how angry some of these people are,” Khairat continued.

In Jerusalem, people gathered in front of the house of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to demonstrate, demanding the return of the more than 100 captives still held in Gaza.

Around 240 people were taken hostage during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. Dozens have been freed but many more remain missing, presumed to be held by the Palestinian organization and other groups in Gaza, following the breakdown of a temporary truce in November.

The Israeli prime minister’s office believes 135 hostages remain in Gaza, 116 of whom are alive.

Hamas has stressed that it rejects any forms of negotiations about prisoner exchanges “under the continuing Israeli genocidal war”.

Gaza’s Health Ministry reported the death toll since the start of the attacks rose to 22,700 on Saturday, most of them being women and children.

According to UN estimates, the war has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.

The UN has described the situation in Gaza as “beyond catastrophic”, with residents struggling to find food, fuel and water, while living in crowded shelters or tents.

1...1,0891,0901,091...5,125Page 1,090 of 5,125

© All Content by IFP News ( Iran Front Page ) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About Us

Popular Articles

Editor Picks