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Gaza death toll surges past 22,000: Health Ministry

By
IFP Media Wire
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Gaza War

The Israeli Army killed 207 Palestinians in the past 24 hours in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said, while adding that 338 people were also wounded.

The total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October now stands at 22,185.

At least 57,000 have been wounded.

The majority of those killed or injured have been women and children.

Meanwhile, air and ground attacks continued across the Strip, including in the south, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have been directed to seek safety.

Israeli onslaughts against the besieged enclave have displaced more than 90% of the territory’s population, the UN Palestinian refugee agency has announced.

The Israeli assault has also left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has recently sounded the alarm on the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, lamenting that four out of “five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are” in the coastal territory.

Turkey arrests dozens for allegedly spying for Israel’s Mossad

By
IFP Media Wire
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Turkey Police

Police captured the individuals in Istanbul and seven other provinces on charges of “carrying out international espionage activities” on behalf of the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad.

They were reported to have been tracking foreign nationals residing in Turkey for humanitarian reasons, according to the publicly owned news agency Anadolu Agency.

The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office alleges police uncovered a network of individuals who intended to carry out reconnaissance, pursuit, assault and kidnapping operations against foreign nationals in Turkey.

Turkish police have previously broken up spy networks targeting Palestinians living in the country.

However, the most recent arrests follow comments by Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, who released a voice recording last month announcing that Israel is determined to kill Hamas leaders “in every location”, including Turkey.

“In Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar, everyone,” he said in recordings aired by the Kan public broadcaster in December.

“It will take a few years, but we will be there in order to do it.”

In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that if they “commit such a mistake”, they should know that they will pay “a very heavy price” for it.

Yerlikaya stated the suspects were apprehended at once during an operation code named “Mole”.

A senior Turkish intelligence official told Middle East Eye that Ankara wanted to ensure no foreign intelligence agencies could operate in the country without authorisation.

“In line with our earlier warning that any attempt to operate illegally in Turkey would have grave consequences, we strongly discourage all relevant parties from engaging in similar activities in the future,” the officer added.

Another person familiar with the issue told Middle East Eye that there were foreigners amongst the detained.

“We will never allow espionage activities against the national unity and solidarity of our country,” Yerlikaya said in a social media post.

“During searches carried out during the operation: 143,830 euros, $23,680, various amounts of cash from different countries, a large number of cartridges and digital materials were confiscated,” he added.

Yerlikaya stated Turkey was determined to fight against organised crime and foreign intelligence organisations.

Anadolu Agency reported that 13 suspects were still at large. Turkey has been systematically conducting similar police operations against individuals allegedly spying for Israel for the last couple of years.

In December, Turkish intelligence and police detained 44 suspects who are believed to have been working for Mossad to spy on Palestinians living in Turkey.

Turkish daily Sabah reported the suspects had been pretending to work as private consultants but their real mission was to monitor Palestinians.

Turkey initially criticised Hamas for the 7 October attack and asked its leaders to temporarily leave the country.

However, Israel’s devastating bombing campaign in Gaza, which has seen at least 22,000 people killed, mostly women and children, has forced Ankara to take a tougher stance on Israel.

Erdogan has withdrawn Turkey’s ambassador for consultations and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should stand trial for committing war crimes. He also accused the Israeli army of conducting a terror campaign in Gaza.

Turkey has so far avoided taking punitive steps against Israel, as trade continues and diplomatic channels remain open.

More than 48k Israeli settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque in 2023: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
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Al-Aqsa Mosque

Speaking to Anadolu, an official in the Islamic Waqf Department in Jerusalem said during the past year, “48,223 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.”

Last month alone, he stated, 3,086 settlers raided the mosque under the protection of Israeli police.

Israeli police began allowing the settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in 2003, despite repeated condemnations from Palestinians.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Separately, the Jerusalem-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center announced in a statement that Israeli authorities issued 1,105 deportation orders in 2023 to Palestinians, including deportation orders from Jerusalem’s Old City and elsewhere in Jerusalem.

The center also documented 209 Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes across occupied East Jerusalem, including 68 demolitions that took place after Oct. 7, the start of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza.

Twenty-one Palestinians from Jerusalem have been killed by the Israeli forces in 2023, the center added.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War (Six-Day War). It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.

Israeli officials have been accused of using deportations and similar moves to clear the city’s Palestinian population from lands they have lived on and owned for centuries.

Iran’s Judiciary urges Iraq to extradite 38 MKO terrorists

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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MKO Albania

Addressing the fourth court session to assess the crimes committed by the MKO terrorists, Gharibabadi stated: “We have prosecuted terrorist groups now claiming affiliation with the noble Kurdish people. We are monitoring the actions of groups like Ansar al-Furqan and Jaysh al-Adl, who recently carried out terrorist acts in Rask, in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, through a judicial case.”

He went on to say that Iran possesses tools to enforce court judgments, noting that if countries currently sheltering terrorists face judicial rulings, they will lose the argument to support these individuals and may have to expel them.

The Secretary-General of the High Council for Human Rights further said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran has been a major victim of terrorism, with 23 thousand innocent people killed due to terrorist acts, of which only 17 thousand were martyred by the MKO terrorists.”

Iran dismisses reported extraction of lithium from shrinking Lake Urmia

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Lake Urmia

Saeed Shahand, the head of West Azarbaijan’s Environment Protection Office said on Tuesday that the only material that exists under the lake is salt, whose mining poses no risk to the ecosystem.

There are reports that officials have intentionally neglected the lake in recent years, saying the area is a major source of lithium, a metal in high demand in the world.

Lake Urmia in Iran’s West
Azarbaijan Province, once the world’s 6th saltwater lake and the biggest of its kind in West Asia, is now on the cusp of drying up. The tragedy is blamed on a number of factors, including excessive water consumption by farmers in the region and climate change.

The rate of rainfall in the region has remarkably reduced in recent decades and the Urmia basin has experienced several multi-year droughts.

Iranian daily harshly criticizes Russia’s stance on Gaza

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Gaza War

In an article published on Tuesday, Jomhuri-e Eslami wrote, “Although Russian statesmen claim they are friends with Iran, they are in complete disagreement with Iran in the Gaza war and are in line with the US.”

“The position is not unexpected from the Kremlin at all. Russians are known in the world for their dishonesty, ignobility, and preferring their own interests over the interests of others,” the daily wrote, adding, “They are not different from the US, Britain, China, and the Zionists in this regard.”

Jomhuri-e Eslami warned Iranian officials not to rely on Russia, saying its stance on Gaza proved that “Iran should not put its eggs in Moscow’s basket.”

The current Iranian administration has been the target of harsh criticisms for its ‘over-reliance’ on Russia in its foreign policy.

The Iranian newspaper also recalled the recent spat with Russia after Moscow sided with the United Arab Emirates in its territorial dispute with Iran over three Persian Gulf islands.

“If these positions by the Russians are worth considering, which really are, they should serve as a lesson for the Iranian officials, who have put all their eggs in Moscow’s basket and ignore the advice of well-wishers who call on them to adopt a balanced policy in international relations,” Jomhuri-e Eslami concluded.

US pulls back largest aircraft carrier from Mediterranean

By
IFP Media Wire
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US Aircraft Carrier

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford will head back to its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia, after its first combat deployment, an eight-month cruise that began on May 2, the statement said.

The Ford – described by a Navy spokesperson as the “most adaptable and lethal combat platform in the world” – was commissioned in 2017 and is the US Navy’s newest aircraft carrier and the lead ship in the Navy’s first new carrier class designed in over 40 years.

The 100,000-ton warship, with a contingent of F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighters aboard, arrived off the coast of Israel in the days following Hamas’ attacks that killed more than 1,200 people.

That movement was ordered so the Ford could contribute to US “regional deterrence and defense posture,” the Sixth Fleet added.

With the Ford’s departure, the USS Eisenhower is the lone US aircraft carrier in the region as tensions increase over Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels since October 7, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Isreal launched its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, following an operation by the territory’s resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm. Close to 22,000 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in the regime’s military aggression so far.

Over the weekend, US forces, including helicopters operating off the Eisenhower, had their first deadly confrontation with Houthi units, sinking three Houthi boats that had attacked a commercial ship and fired at the US copters that came to its aid.

“The US Navy helicopters returned fire in self-defense, sinking three of the four small boats, and killing the crews. The fourth boat fled the area,” a statement from US Central Command said.

US Sixth Fleet added even with the departure of the Ford, the US Navy retains “extensive capability both in the Mediterranean and across the Middle East”.

The Sixth Fleet statement said the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, which can carry Marine Corps F-35 stealth fighters, as well as the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall and amphibious transport dock USS Mesa Verde were operating together in the eastern Mediterranean.

US guided-missile destroyers, including some of which have brought down Houthi drones and missiles in recent weeks, are also in the region, Sixth Fleet added.

In addition, the US has begun Operation Prosperity Guardian, a maritime coalition aimed at beefing up security in the southern Red Sea.

“We are collaborating with Allies and partners to bolster maritime security in the region. DoD will continue to leverage its collective force posture in the region to deter any state or non-state actor from escalating this crisis beyond Gaza,” the Sixth Fleet statement read.

Yemen says resolved to counter foreign forces in regional waters

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Yemen Houthis

A statement issued by the Yemeni parliament on Monday said the United States is seeking an escalation of hostilities in the Arab world amid a conflict in Palestine where the Israeli regime’s aggression on Gaza has prompted attacks on Israeli and US interests in the Arab countries of the region.

“By attacking Yemen’s ships, the US is seeking to expand conflicts in the Arab world so that it can support savage killings committed against the Palestinian nation,” added the statement.

American and Yemeni officials have confirmed that three Yemeni ships sunk and 10 Yemeni officers were killed in the Red Sea as a result of clashes on Sunday between US and Yemeni naval forces.

Yemen’s Houthi movement has organized attacks on ships linked to the Israeli regime since the aggression on Gaza began in early October.

The attacks are aimed at forcing the Israelis and their allies to stop the aggression that has left nearly 22,000 people dead in Gaza.

The Yemenis have vowed they would take revenge for the Sunday attacks on their ships while they have reiterated that such attacks would only cause an escalation in their anti-Israeli operations.

Regional countries have also warned that a failure to stop the war in Gaza would cause the conflict to spread to other parts of the region.

That comes as reports on Monday suggested that the attacks on Yemeni ships had emboldened US allies to enter the conflict in the Red Sea.

British officials stated they were planning to join a US-led maritime coalition in the region to counter what it called threats from the Houthis.

Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in an article published in the Daily Telegraph that the United Kingdom was “willing to take direct action” against the Houthis.

Islamic Jihad: Israel’s plan to forcefully displace Palestinians shows Tel Aviv committing genocide in Gaza

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

In a statement issued on Monday, the movement denounced “the remarks made by the officials of the Nazi government in the Israeli entity regarding the displacement of our people in the Gaza Strip and the search for countries to deport them to”.

Such statements, the movement added, “are ongoing war crimes that confirm the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip is a war of genocide against the existence of the Palestinian people in their homeland.”

The Israeli regime launched its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, following an operation by the territory’s resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm. Close to 22,000 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in the regime’s military aggression so far.

Throughout the war, the regime’s officials have been floating a plan, which requires forced displacement of Palestinians residing in Gaza to other countries.

On Sunday, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called for displacement of two million Palestinians from the besieged territory, so that only around 200,000 Palestinians would remain.

His remarks were echoed on Monday by another extremist minister who called for the return of Israeli settlers to Gaza, saying that Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate.

“We must promote a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza’s residents,” Itamar Ben Gvir said, adding that the onslaught on Gaza was “an opportunity to develop a project to encourage Gaza’s residents to emigrate to countries around the world.”

Commenting on their remarks, the Islamic Jihad said silence in the face of the Israeli regime’s plan to displace the people of Gaza “implies implicit encouragement for the entity to continue its criminal agenda”.

Such agenda “will not be limited to Gaza alone,” the movement warned, adding that the plan threatens “Arab national security” and poses a “definite danger…to the stability of all countries of the region”.

Concluding the statement, the resistance movement held the United States responsible for emboldening the Israeli regime to implement such plans against Palestinians “through the invention of the term ‘voluntary displacement'”.

The Islamic Jihad noted the US is “giving the [Zionist] entity the time and weapons necessary to destroy all aspects of life in Gaza, so that displacement becomes the only option” for its people.

As Israel’s most dedicated and age-old ally, the US has torpedoed the prospect of cessation of the Israeli onslaught by stonewalling ratification of all United Nations Security Council resolutions that have been calling for implementation of 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.

The Islamic Jihad, however, vowed that Palestinian resistance groups will not hesitate to stand up to the US-backed Israeli onslaught.

“We affirm that we will continue to confront this war of extermination and displacement, and we rely on the awareness of our people and the bravery of the fighters in the field to thwart these criminal plans,” the movement added.

Putin says Russia to ramp up attacks on Ukraine

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Russia Ukraine War

The president insisted that Moscow will not retaliate in kind with indiscriminate attacks on civilians, but will focus instead on Ukraine’s military sites.

The president made the remarks on New Year’s Day at a military hospital in Moscow, where he met Russian servicemen wounded during the ongoing military operation. One of the servicemen asked Putin about his take on the Ukrainian strike on Belgorod and Moscow’s approach to retaliation; the president squarely described it as a “terrorist act,” which was carried out using indiscriminate weaponry.

“With these weapons they struck right at the center of the city, where people were going out on New Year’s Eve. Just an attack, a targeted strike on the civilian population. Of course, this is a terrorist attack; there is no other way to describe it,” Putin said.

Ukraine’s efforts at terror are aimed at destabilizing Russia and “intimidating” the country’s population, he explained.

Russia will not retaliate in kind to Kiev’s actions, despite being capable of doing so, Putin stressed.

“Of course, we can, we are capable of carpet-bombing Kiev and any other [Ukrainian] city,” the president noted.

Instead, Russia will continue targeting Ukrainian military assets and infrastructure, Putin continued, warning that the number of such strikes is bound to grow. The Ukrainian authorities’ terrorist activities will not be left unanswered, he stressed.

“Of course, not a single such crime, and this is certainly a crime against the civilian population, will be left unpunished, there can be no doubt about that.”

“We are striking with high-precision weapons at the decision-making centers, at locations where military personnel and mercenaries gather, at other nodes of this kind, at military facilities, first of all. And they are quite painful, these strikes. That’s what we’ll continue to do,” Putin stated.

Belgorod, as well as other regions of southwestern Russia, have been subjected to repeated artillery, missile and drone strikes by Ukrainian forces amid the ongoing conflict. The city was subjected to the deadliest attack to date attack on Saturday, when it was struck with missiles fired by multiple rocket launchers.

The munitions damaged a number of public venues and residential buildings. The attack, reportedly ordered personally by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, claimed the lives of at least 24 civilians and left over 100 injured.

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