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IRGC chief says Iran’s missiles can strike any enemy target

Hossein Salami

Addressing a scientific conference in Tehran on Monday, Major General Salami said the enemies can feel the magnitude of the IRGC Aerospace Force’s power at every moment.

The IRGC Aerospace Force has been able to alter the global equations, although it has utilized only a small fraction of its power, he added.

“Our missiles can hit any target of the enemy in the region and overcome the enemy’s missiles,” the commander stated, pointing to the retaliatory missile strike the IRGC carried out against the US military base of Ain al-Assad in Iraq in January 2020.

“This (missile) power forms the basis of our deterrence.”

The commander also praised the IRGC Quds Force for relocating the enemy from its strategic shelter to the theater, saying the Quds Force has depleted the enemy’s energy in vast fields and exposed it to gradual erosion.

Pointing to the Islamic Republic’s confrontation with all types of threats simultaneously, the general stressed the need to block every penetration road and fight against the adversaries day and night.

Israeli police open criminal investigation into Netanyahu’s wife: Report

According to the newspaper, Naama Lazimi, an opposition member of the Knesset, or Israel’s parliament, said that the attorney general’s office had informed her that following her inquiry of December 26, 2024 the police had launched a probe into Sara Netanyahu.

Israel’s TV Channel 12 reported earlier that the prime minister’s wife ordered her husband’s aide to organize protests to exert pressure on a witness in one of the three cases against her husband.

On January 27, a Tel Aviv court resumed hearings with Netanyahu’s participation on three cases of bribe-taking, fraud and public trust abuse against the prime minister. Netanyahu is Israel’s first head of government in office to take the stand at court.

On November 21, 2019, Israel’s attorney general said that he had decided to charge Netanyahu with bribe-taking, fraud and public trust abuse in three cases. The charges were referred to the District Court of Jerusalem on January 28, 2020. Currently, hearings are held at the District Court of Tel Aviv as it has an underground shelter in case of potential missile attacks.

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied all the charges against him.

Talks with Ukraine, Russia ‘going pretty well’: Trump

“We have meetings and talks scheduled with various parties, including Ukraine and Russia. And I think those discussions are actually going pretty well,” Trump told reporters.

Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, has suggested that both nations would need to make concessions to negotiate an end to the war.

“President Volodymyr Zelensky has already indicated he will soften his position on land,” Kellogg reportedly said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

“And [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to have to soften his positions as well.”

He added that discussions would continue in the near future, calling negotiations “good for both sides.”

Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any deal that would involve ceding territory to Russia, which currently occupies around 20% of Ukraine’s territory. Some of this land was taken during Russia’s 2014 invasion, while the rest was captured following its full-scale assault in 2022. However, as Ukraine faces mounting battlefield losses, pressure is growing on Zelensky to consider compromises.

The future of US military aid to Ukraine remains uncertain. Kellogg noted that the previous administration provided $174 billion in assistance, a figure Trump has frequently criticized. Meanwhile, Russia has sustained heavy battlefield losses and continues to face economic strain due to military spending and Western sanctions.

Trump has promised to end the war swiftly but has not disclosed any specific plans. On Jan. 31, Kellogg claimed the former president had a “solid” strategy to end the war within months.

UN Rapporteur: Gaza situation reached unprecedented levels not seen in modern history

Gaza War

In a press statement on Sunday, Alsalem stressed that Israel’s attacks on Palestinian women form part of a systematic strategy of genocide, asserting that the killing of Palestinian women simply because of their gender constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity.

The UN expert further underscored that the deliberate targeting of women and the destruction of reproductive health services are being weaponized as tools of Israeli genocide in Gaza.

She underlined that a comprehensive review of Israel’s actions reveals that the deliberate targeting of Palestinians’ reproductive capacity is a key aspect of this strategy.

Alsalem referred to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which also prohibits acts of genocide aimed at preventing reproduction within a particular group.

She elaborated that when considered together, the destruction of the healthcare system, the abandonment of newborns to their fate and the creation of intolerable conditions for pregnant and breastfeeding women all serve as instruments of Israeli genocidal violence, aimed at the total or partial destruction of the Palestinian population.

Alsalem also addressed the catastrophic effects of the ongoing attacks on women and children, citing data from the United Nations Population Fund.

She noted that approximately 800,000 women have been forcibly displaced from their homes, and nearly one million women and girls are suffering from severe food insecurity.

The UN official further highlighted that the rate of abortion has surged by 300% due to the lack of adequate medical care, the psychological trauma and the ongoing bombings.

This goes beyond genocide, she said, adding that it involves premeditated killing and the complete erosion of legal norms of armed conflict.

UN condemns Israel’s ‘criminal actions’ in West Bank

West Bank

In an X post on Sunday, she said Israel is widening the scope of destruction beyond the Gaza Strip across all the occupied Palestinian territory.

“The genocidal intent is evident in the way Israel targets (1) the totality of the Palestinians ‘as such’; (2) in the totality of the occupied Palestinian territory … It’s past the time to intervene to stop it,” she added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has also called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the West Bank meant to displace them from their homeland.

Israel’s “systematic destruction of the infrastructure” and “policy of killing” have claimed the lives of dozens of Palestinian citizens, he emphasized.

Abbas also urged the UN Security Council “to intervene urgently and assume its responsibilities to provide international protection for the Palestinian people, and to pressure” the occupying entity to stop its serious crimes and the policy of ethnic cleansing.

He further asked US President Donald Trump’s administration to stop Israel’s offensive against the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military launched its offensive on January 21, claiming that it was targeting resistance fighters of the Jenin Battalion.

The occupation’s army announced on Sunday that it had killed over 50 Palestinians and abducted more than 100 others during the attacks on the West Bank over the past two weeks.

Israel has ramped up West Bank raids since October 2023, when it launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Israel was forced to agree to a Gaza ceasefire after the regime failed to achieve its objectives in the besieged territory despite killing almost 47,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, during a 15-month-long onslaught.

Report: Iran Political Activist, Former Editor of Kayhan, Nasiri, Released After Brief Detention

According to the Telegram channel of Mahdi Nasiri, he was detained on Sunday at the tomb of Ferdowsi—renowned Iranian classical poet—near Mashhad, in northeastern Iran.

Seyyed Hassan Hosseini, the acting head of the Mashhad governorate, stated that Nasiri was present at the tomb of Ferdowsi on Sunday along with several other political activists and was chanting controvercial slogans.

He continued that while chanting, Nasiri was also filming the action, which prompted the security personnel at the site to issue warnings to him and his companions to avoid any issues. Unfortunately, they did not heed the warnings, and subsequently, the security agents escorted Nasiri and his companions out of the tomb.

The Iranian official noted that Nasiri is currently under protection at a designated location and will soon be heading to Tehran.

Hamas: Israel delaying Gaza relief, reconstruction deal

Gaza War

Israel “continues to stall implementation of the relief and reconstruction process outlined in the ceasefire agreement, and there are humanitarian aid commitments it has not fully adhered to,” spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement, without providing further details.

“Despite the massive destruction of the healthcare sector, the occupation has not allowed any restoration efforts or the entry of essential medical supplies,” Qassem added.

“Fuel deliveries remain far below what was stipulated in the agreement, and the amount reaching northern Gaza is negligible,” he continued.

The spokesperson noted that “the heavy machinery specified in the agreement has not been allowed in, preventing the retrieval of martyrs’ bodies and hindering the recovery of (hostage) bodies set to be exchanged, especially at the end of this phase.”

Hamas called on mediators, Qatar and Egypt, as well as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement, to “compel the occupation to immediately allow the entry of the relief materials outlined in the agreement, particularly tents, fuel, food supplies, and heavy machinery, while also ensuring an end to all other violations and breaches.”

Earlier in the day, Salama Marouf, head of Gaza’s media office, stated that Gaza is a “humanitarian disaster zone” devoid of “all basic necessities for survival and human dignity.”

The media office on Wednesday had urged for pressure on Israel to allow the entry of tents and caravans to shelter more than a quarter of a million displaced families whose homes were destroyed in the genocide.

The ongoing six-week truce is the first part of a three-stage deal that could permanently end Israel’s war in Gaza. The military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians and left the territory in ruins.

Israel demolishes neighbourhood in Jenin refugee camp in West Bank

Footage released by locals on social media appeared to show a large swathe of the camp being destroyed.

The Wafa news agency said Israeli forces simultaneously blew up nearly 20 buildings on the eastern side of the camp after rigging them with explosives.

The director of the main governmental hospital in Jenin, Wisam Baker, told the news agency that some sections of the hospital had been damaged as a result of the explosions.

So far, no casualties have been reported.

Earlier on Sunday, a 73-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead in Jenin, according to Wafa.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that its crews recovered the body of Walid Lahlouh from the entrance of the camp, transferring it to the hospital.

Lahlouh’s killing brings the total number of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its military assault on Jenin 13 days ago to 25.

According to Wafa, Israeli bulldozers have levelled around 100 homes in the camp, with local hospitals facing severe water shortages after Israeli forces damaged pipelines.

Around 35 percent of the city’s population cannot access water.

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza on 7 Oct0ber 2023, Israeli soldier and settler attacks in the West Bank have skyrocketed, leaving hundreds dead.

In the early hours of Sunday, Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in the Arab al-Mleihat community, northwest of Jericho in the occupied West Bank.

Hassan Mleihat, general supervisor of the local Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights, told Wafa that the settlers poured a flammable substance inside the mosque before setting it ablaze.

The fire destroyed everything in the mosque, even the copies of the Qur’an that were in it, and efforts were unsuccessful in extinguishing the fire.

Community official Suleiman Mlihat told Middle East Eye that four settlers infiltrated the area between the cities of Ramallah and Jericho in the dawn hours, coming from the pastoral settlement outpost they had recently established.

The fire also affected residents’ property that was located near the mosque.

Under the pretext of grazing their sheep, settlers regularly carry out attacks against residents in the community, including stealing and destroying their property, or directly assaulting them.

“Settlers from time to time poison the livestock raised by Palestinians here or deliberately trample them, knowing that livestock are our main source of livelihood,” Mlihat added.

The settlers also do not hesitate to shoot at livestock while they are grazing near the community, and they also closed all pastures, preventing Palestinians from being there.

“We demand the protection of the residents of the community and the rest of the Bedouin communities that are subjected to unprecedented attacks by settlers with the aim of seizing lands,” he stated.

According to the report, the fire tore through the building, destroying it completely.

Wafa added that the group also torched a tractor.

These practices come in conjunction with the Israeli Knesset’s vote to enact a draft law allowing settlers to own and purchase land in the West Bank, which allows for an unprecedented acceleration of the pace of settlement.

During the war on Gaza, settlers established seven new settlement outposts in Area B of the West Bank, which the Palestinians considered a dangerous escalation that would lead to the seizure of more lands.

The Palestinian foreign ministry on Sunday said “settler militias and their terrorist elements” were increasingly attacking Palestinian citizens and their properties.

In a statement, it condemned the surging “aggression of the occupation and its settlers” in the occupied West Bank and called on the international community to intervene.

“The foreign ministry views with great concern the colonial projects that fuel this ongoing aggression and holds the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for its repercussions on the efforts made to establish calm, ceasefire, and end the cycle of wars,” it added.

Trump, Netanyahu expected to announce progress on Saudi-Israeli normalization: Report

According to a report by the Israeli daily Haaretz published on Sunday, a potential deal to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia was high on the agenda of Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump at the White House this week, adding that the two officials are set to announce progress on the agreement.

The report went on to say that the Trump administration wants to move fast on it and therefore, it is considering several conditions to fall into place to make this deal viable, including holding the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The deal would produce economic benefits for the US and some speculate that Trump’s repeated mention of relocating Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan may be a negotiation tactic, allowing Saudi Arabia to later claim it successfully blocked such plans.

Back in 2020, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco entered US-brokered rapprochement deals with the Israeli regime.

Washington has also reportedly been trying to add Riyadh to the list in a bid to bolster regional support for Tel Aviv, its most cherished ally.

In July 2023, the administration of former US President Joe Biden announced that a deal for the regime and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations might be on the horizon following National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s talks with Saudi officials in the kingdom’s port city of Jeddah.

To sign a deal with Israel, Riyadh publicly asked Tel Aviv to implement the 2002 so-called Arab Peace Initiative, conditioning normalizing ties with Israel on the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

However, members of the far-right Israeli regime, led by Netanyahu, say they will not make any concession to the Palestinians as part of a potential deal for normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia.

At the time, reports emerged of an agreement on the general outline of an Israeli-Saudi normalization pact.

Under the deal, Riyadh would secure American backing for a civilian nuclear program, as well as access to advanced weapons. In exchange, the kingdom would take major steps to distance itself from China and Israel would allow an independent Palestinian state.

In September, though, the kingdom was reported to have informed the United States of its decision to suspend all negotiations on the potential rapprochement due allegedly to the Israeli cabinet’s unwillingness to make any concessions to the Palestinians.

A month later, following the onset of the regime’s yet-ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, the Reuters news agency also reported that Riyadh was “putting US-backed plans to normalize ties with Israel on ice.”

Iranian female referee released after 40 days of detention in Denmark

Ms. Ghorbani explained in court that she obtained the visa in Turkey by paying an intermediary and admitted she had intended to seek asylum in Edinburgh, as reported by the local Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

Ghorbani had left Iran due to undisclosed issues and stayed in Turkey for a while. She was detained at Copenhagen Airport while en route to Scotland. The forgery charge was related to a fake German visa stamp in her passport, detected during a passport scan.

In court, Ghorbani stated she was unaware of the visa’s forgery and believed it to be legitimate. She admitted her primary goal was to seek asylum in Scotland.

Despite the prosecutor’s argument that Ghorbani, as an experienced international referee, should have ensured her documents’ legality, the court found no evidence of her knowledge of the forgery and acquitted her.

Upon hearing the translated verdict, Ghorbani wept with joy.