Thursday, January 1, 2026
type here...
Home Blog Page 807

Israel says 10 killed in Golan’s Majdal Shams attack, Hezbollah denies responsibility

By
IFP Media Wire
-

At least 10 people have been killed and 20 wounded in the attack on Majdal Shams, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Saturday.

The military has issued a statement on its official Telegram channel claiming that according to a “situational and the intelligence in our possession, the rocket launch toward Majdal Shams was carried out by” Hezbollah.

The military added that the rocket attack hit a football pitch in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, “which caused multiple civilian casualties, including children”.

Earlier, the Israeli army claimed that a barrage of 30 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel.

A senior official from Lebanon’s group, Mohammad Afif, has told Reuters that Hezbollah was not responsible for the attack.

Following the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held security consultations with his military secretary, Roman Gofman. The office of the prime minister added in a statement on X that Netanyahu will later hold a security situation assessment with the heads of the defence establishment.

Immediately after he was informed of the strike on Majdal Shams, Netanyahu gave instructions for his flight back to Tel Aviv from Washington to depart as early as possible, according to his office.

Israeli officials signal the military response to the attack will likely be a very aggressive one.

Channel 12 cites a senior Israeli official in the prime minister’s delegation to Washington as saying: “The events in the north will bring about a dramatic turn in fighting in the area.”

Kan news sites an unnamed senior official as saying, “The disaster at Majdal Shams could signal a change of direction in the war.”

A security source tells Kan: “This is an incident that we will not gloss over. There will be a severe response.”

Walla news also reports the IDF is preparing for harsh retaliation.

Hezbollah started launching rockets at Israel on October 8, saying it will continue until there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The military tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have killed nearly 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medics, children and journalists, while in Israel, 20 Israeli civilians, a foreign agricultural worker and 20 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Iraq’s Kurdistan hands over 19 Iranian prisoners to Iran

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Iran Prison

Askar Jalalian added the move was part of efforts by both sides to expand their legal and judicial cooperation.

The Iranian judiciary official said the Kurdistan region just handed over the prisoners to Iranian authorities at the Tamarchin border crossing in the northwestern Iranian province of West Azerbaijan.

The Iranian Consulate General in Erbil had earlier said Iraqi Kurdistan officials had agreed to free 20 Iranian prisoners.

UNESCO lists Iran’s Hegmataneh as world heritage site

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-

Hegmataneh (also known as Ecbatana) is located in a suburban part of the western city of Hamedan and covers an area of 50 acres. its history dates back more than 3000 years, that is, to the time of the Median dynasty.

Dieoces, the founder of the Median Empire, chose Hegmataneh as his capital city. Architects of that era enclosed all the residential, military and administrative buildings within a wall that was some 9 meters tall.

After the fall of the Median dynasty, the Achaemenid Empire started to build its kingdom in the city.

Hegmataneh was also very famous for the following dynasties, namely Seljuk, Parthian, Sassanid and Islamic dynasties such as Al-e-Bouyeh (the House of Bouyeh).

Russia’s largest bank to participate in major Iranian financial event

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
VTB Bank

Saleh Sepasdar said VTB is the first Russian bank to send a representative to Tehran to take part in the exhibition.

Sepasdar added that the Russian bank’s senior managers plan on identifying and cooperating with the owners of the Iranian industries on the country’s stock market as well as with banks and commercial insurance companies in the event, which will be held from August 9 to August 12, 2024.

Sepasdar went on to say that the value of the assets of all Iranian banks in the last Persian year of 1402 was about 265 billion dollars, which is 10 percent less than that of VTB alone.

Sepasdar added that over the past months, the bank has expanded its brokerage relations with Iranian peers including the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and it is currently ready to perform banking operations in Iran.

He said with 22 independent banks and 4 branches outside of Russia, VTB is prepared to provide services in Africa, Latin America and Asia with its Shanghai and New Delhi branches being among the most important ones.

Israel expands evacuation order for Gaza’s Khan Younis

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

It said in an announcement on Saturday that staying in the area had “become dangerous” due to rockets being fired by Palestinian fighters.

“The adjustment is being carried out in accordance with precise intelligence indicating that Hamas has embedded terrorist infrastructure in the area defined as a humanitarian area,” the military claimed, adding that it was about to “forcefully operate” there.

The military has regularly used this claim to justify strikes on hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructures in Gaza. It has scarcely provided evidence.

The latest order comes a week after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for eastern parts of Khan Younis and began a new ground invasion, months after launching an offensive there.

The Khan Younis invasion displaced at least 180,000 Palestinians in the first four days since it was launched, with many having to move without their belongings, according to the United Nations.

The Israeli military is continuing its deadly attacks on areas across the besieged enclave, including Rafah in the south.

UN agencies have condemned Israel’s policy of mass displacement of Gaza’s civilian population and military attacks on areas previously declared as humanitarian “safe zones” by Israel.

The Israeli military has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of the current conflict in October, with over 90,000 people wounded and thousands missing.

Dozens killed, scores wounded in Israeli attack on girls’ school in Gaza

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

Khadija Girls’ School was sheltering over 4,000 displaced Palestinians, according to civil defence officials in the enclave. A field hospital was also operating inside the school complex.

“I am so lucky to have survived,” Fadel Keshko, a 22-year-old man who was staying in the school with his sick grandmother and nephew, told Middle East Eye.

“The building I took shelter in was directly targeted. The distance between me and the rocket was just a metre away. I am horrified and terrified.”

Keshko and his relatives have since fled to Khan Younis, where the Israeli army is currently attacking areas previously designated as humanitarian zones.

“There’s nothing I can do,” he said, adding, “I am displaced from the north of Gaza. Now, it’s another round of displacement. I don’t know where I should go.”

Israeli fighter jets fired three missiles at the field hospital in the school, the government media office in Gaza said in a statement.

The Israeli army claimed it hit a Hamas “command and control centre” embedded in the school, without providing any evidence.

The military has regularly used this claim to justify strikes on hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructures in Gaza. It has scarcely provided evidence.

Footage from the scene on Saturday showed the school floor filled with debris as rescuers attempted to take away bodies and carry wounded Palestinians.

Eyewitness Mostafa al-Rafati told MEE he saw “children, women, heads, arms, legs, a scene of ghosts”.

He described seeing the person next to him suddenly fly away the moment the strikes hit, in what he called “a horrible scene”.

“I thought I was dreaming, I kept hitting myself because I could not believe what was happening.”

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since 7 October, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Islamabad claims 50,000 Pakistani pilgrims disappeared in Iraq

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Pilgrims Iraq

Chaudhry Salik Hussain revealed the figures at a Pakistani Senate committee meeting, without elaborating on the timescale or nature of the disappearances.

Millions of foreign pilgrims travel to Iraq every year, primarily for Shia Muslim religious festivals on Arbaeen, Tasua and Ashura.

The Arbaeen pilgrimage, marking the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS), is arguably the largest gathering in the world, sometimes attracting as many as 22 million people.

Members of Pakistan’s Shia minority are among those who regularly take part in the pilgrimage.

Ahmed al-Asadi, Iraq’s labour and social affairs minister, has said in a statement that his government would be investigating the reports and implied that those missing were working illegally in the country.

“Iraq has witnessed the influx of tourists from various countries during the past days, including Pakistanis, but many of them have begun to engage in the labour market without the required legal permits,” he added, according to the Iraqi News Agency.

“Iraq welcomes all tourists, whether for religious tourism or otherwise, from all over the world, but stresses the need to respect local laws and regulations.”

A report by the UN said that in 2020, there were 688 Pakistanis living in Iraq, but comments by officials imply a much larger number.

Earlier this month, Pakistan and Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at making it easier for Pakistanis to acquire work visas for Iraq.

At the time, Hussain stated the MoU would “also increase legal immigration and reduce illegal entry into Iraq”.

Iranian offices, banks closed on Sunday amid unprecedented heat

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Iran Heat

The Iranian government announced on Saturday that the institutions, save for emergency and service-providing centers, will be shut.

Working hours were also cut short on Sunday as temperatures in many parts of the country, especially in the south, soared to up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).

The capital Tehran experienced 42 degrees Celsius on Friday and is expected to get close to its record 45.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday and Sunday.

US armed Israel with 25,000-plus bombs, missiles since onset of Gaza war: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

The New York Times provided the figure, citing the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, a think tank.

According to the report, the American arms shipments to the occupied Palestinian territories throughout the war had featured over 20,000 unguided bombs, some 2,600 guided bombs, and 3,000 surgical strike missiles.

The regime launched the war following al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups against the occupied territories.

Ever since, it has been deploying the US-supplied projectiles against numerous civilian targets.

Earlier this month, the regime’s military radio reported that the Israeli Air Force had dropped a total eight US-manufactured JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs against the al-Mawasi refugee camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing and injuring a total of 390 Palestinians.

In all, the war has so far claimed the lives of more than 39,175 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded 90,400 others.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that the US had supplied the regime with over $6.5 billion in military supplies since the beginning of the brutal military onslaught.

The sheer increase comes while Washington’s annual so-called military aid for Tel Aviv stands at around $3.3 billion.

Washington has also used its veto power on several occasions so far to prevent the UN Security Council from issuing a resolution that would call for implementation of an immediate ceasefire in the war.

The untrammeled American political and military support for the regime comes despite an order issued by the International Court of Justice, the United Nations top court, on the regime back in January to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza.

Italy says to appoint ambassador to Syria

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Syria

Italy recalled all staff from its embassy in Damascus in 2012 and suspended diplomatic activity in Syria amid the war in the Arab country.

Stefano Ravagnan, currently the foreign ministry’s special envoy for Syria, was named as ambassador. He is due to take up his post shortly, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Reuters.

Italy and seven other EU states last week sent a letter to the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, asking the European Union to play a more active role in the country.

“Syrians continue to leave in large numbers, putting additional strain on neighbouring countries, in a period when tension in the area is running high, risking new refugee waves,” the letter seen by Reuters said.

Along with Italy, the letter was signed by Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia. It lamented “the humanitarian situation” in the country which had “further deteriorated” as its economy was “in shambles”.

“Borrell mandated the European External Action Service to study what can be done,” Tajani said on Friday, adding that naming a new ambassador was “in line with the letter we sent to Borrel … to turn the spotlight on Syria”.

At present six EU embassies are open in Damascus — Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Hungary. None of Italy’s Group of Seven partners — the United States, Japan, Britain, Canada, France or Germany — have reinstalled ambassadors to Syria.

1...806807808...5,136Page 807 of 5,136

© 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