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Israelis demand hostage swap deal during mass rallies

By
IFP Media Wire
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Israel Protest

Families of hostages in Gaza demonstrated near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, demanding an immediate agreement for the release of hostages, according to the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

It reported that dozens of Israelis blocked a section of the Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv.

Thousands of Israelis gathered at Kaplan Square in Tel Aviv, demanding early elections and a hostage swap deal, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

The Karkur intersection near the city of Haifa in the north witnessed the participation of hundreds of Israelis in a demonstration demanding the release of hostages, according to the newspaper.

Yedioth Ahronoth also reported that hundreds of protesters gathered outside Netanyahu’s residence in the city of Caesarea in the north, holding banners, which read “Netanyahu, you are guilty”.

The families of those detained in the Gaza Strip protest almost daily to demand an agreement leading to the release of their relatives.

Qatar and Egypt, with the assistance of the US, are mediating between Israel and Hamas to reach a new cease-fire agreement in Gaza and facilitate a prisoner exchange.

Israel estimates that there are more than 125 hostages in Gaza, while it holds at least 8,800 Palestinians in its prisons, according to official sources from both sides.

A cease-fire between Hamas and Israel prevailed for a week from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1, 2023, during which there was a cessation of hostilities, prisoner exchanges, and extremely limited humanitarian aid was allowed into Gaza, mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which 1,200 people were killed.

More than 31,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and over 73,500 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Kiev’s draft leaving several Ukrainian villages, towns without men: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
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Russia Ukraine War
People react to the Russian missile strike in Chernihiv, Ukraine.

In an article published on Saturday, the outlet detailed the plight of the village of Makov, in the Khmelnitsky region in Western Ukraine, where virtually every man of fighting age had been killed, wounded, or gone missing with the remaining few being hunted down by the draft officers.

“It’s just a fact, most of them are gone,” Larisa Bodna, deputy director of the local school, which keeps a database of students whose parents are deployed, told the daily.

“People are being caught like dogs on the street,” noted another resident, whose husband was forcefully drafted last year, despite a medical condition that was meant to exempt him from the military service.

“The whole village was taken this way,” her mother-in-law added.

The newspaper noted that the sense of resentment is steadily growing among the civilian population, with the majority feeling that their men have been targeted disproportionately, compared to larger cities, where it is easier to go into hiding. The residents say that even those already serving in the army and youths below the draft age are being stopped and questioned on the streets. Multiple videos of troops forcing men into vehicles that have surfaced online in recent months, sparking rumors of kidnappings and contributing to panic among the locals.

Ukraine announced a general mobilization shortly after the start of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, but thousands managed to flee to the bordering Romania and Moldova. Following the failed counteroffensive in the summer of last year, Kiev was desperate to replenish the ranks, seeking to mobilize up to 500,000 new recruits.

In late January, the Ukrainian lawmakers passed the first reading of a revised mobilization bill aimed at increasing the military ranks by lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25 and tightening draft conditions.

The Russian military estimated Kiev’s casualties at over 444,000 killed or badly injured, as of the end of February. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed last month that only 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in two years of hostilities with Russia, a figure that even journalists sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause have called implausibly low.

Italy warns NATO presence in Ukraine could trigger WWIII

By
IFP Media Wire
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Italy Army

The minister made the remarks during an interview on the sidelines of the LetExpo show in Verona. Asked about the prospect of NATO troops ending up in such a deployment, Tajani spoke out against the idea.

“I think that NATO shouldn’t enter Ukraine. It would be a mistake. We need to help Ukraine defend itself, but entering the country to wage war against Russia means risking World War Three,” the diplomat stated.

Tajani ruled out any possibility of Italy’s own troops ending up in Ukraine. Asked about other NATO nations sending their troops to prop up Kiev in its fight against Moscow, particularly France, the minister said he hoped “it doesn’t happen”.

The statements from Tajani come after French President Emmanuel Macron again brought up the topic of sending Western soldiers to Ukraine, in a fresh interview with broadcasters TF2 and France 2.

Macron bluntly described Russia as France’s “adversary”, insisting, at the same time, that Paris has not been “waging war on Russia” but merely “supporting” Kiev in the conflict. Regarding the potential troop deployment, he refused to say anything concrete, insisting he wanted to maintain a “strategic ambiguity” and that he had his own “reasons not to be precise”.

The prospect of sending Western troops into Ukraine was first mulled by the French president in late February, when he said the idea could not be “excluded” entirely. The remarks prompted a wave of denials from fellow members of the US-led bloc, with its major participants repeatedly rejecting the idea. Minor states of the alliance, however, including new member Finland, backed Macron’s take on the issue.

Iraq’s interior minister: Baghdad takes control border bases of anti-Iran groups

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Kurdistan Militants

Shamari akso noted that Baghdad will not allow the the anti-Turkey group, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), to be used as a pretext for targeting Iraqi soil.

Turkey has repeatedly hit the PKK’s positions in northern Iraq.

Iran has also on several occasions bombed the bases of the terrorist groups in Iraq, saying they pose a threat to its security.

Tehran has also repeatedly demanded Baghdad take action to dismantle the groups’ bases on its territory or push them away from the border with Iran.

Iran and Iraq signed a security pact in March 2023 over the disarmament of anti-Iran terror groups stationed in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, in the country’s north.

The groups are separatist entities that have time and again sneaked into the Iranian territory to carry out acts of terrorism. Some of their members have been arrested inside Iran and put on trial.

Report: Many Palestinians refuse to leave their destroyed homes in Gaza 

By
IFP Editorial Staff
-
Gaza War

The Tasnim report’s title goes “The Story of an old man who keeps the roots of Palestine green”.

“Displacement is so painful both psychologically and materially, but any human being experiences the taste of life only once, says Mohsin al-Ayedi, nicknamed Abu Abdullah, a Gaza resident who lives on the debris of his home.

“For this reason”, Abu Abdullah goes on to say, “instead of getting displaced, you had better stay at the place that was once your home, because it belongs to you”.

The old man says when he returned to his house, he pulled out the broken trees from under the rubble of the building and replanted them and they gradually grew green.

Abu Abdullah expresses hope that the lives of all Palestinians will soon become green and beautiful like those trees.

Abu Abdullah lives in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.

According to the Tasnim reporter in Gaza, despite the Israeli regime’s devastating war on Gaza, many families are refusing to leave their destroyed houses. For them, living on is preferable to leaving.

Gaza death toll surges past 31,500

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Gaza War

“The Israeli occupation committed seven massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, leaving 63 martyrs and 112 injured during the past 24 hours,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” the statement added.

Flouting a provisional ruling by the International Court of Justice, Israel continues to wage its offensive on the Gaza Strip, where at least 31,553 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 73,546 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

4 brown bears spotted in Iran’s Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province

By
IFP Editorial Staff
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Brown Bear Cub in Iran

Eslam Javdan Kherad added that an environmentalist filmed the bears on Thursday.

“All people should help protect natural areas and in this regard, thanks to the efforts of the environmental protection unit agents and round-the-clock work by our colleagues, we are spotting various species of animals in the protected areas of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province,” Javdan Kherad noted.

He said bears are large mammals that are on the list of protected species of the Environmental Protection Department.

The official added that there is a small number of bears in habitats while the animals are facing the threat of extinction.

“So their protection is a top priority”, said Javdan Kherad.

Leaders of resistance groups meet to coordinate anti-Israel operation: Report

By
IFP Media Wire
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Hamas

AFP quoted unnamed Palestinian sources as saying on Friday that the “important” meeting was held last week to discuss “mechanisms for coordinating resistance actions” against Israel.

“An important meeting was held last week in which senior leaders from the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine participated with the Yemeni Ansarullah movement to discuss coordination mechanisms between these factions regarding resistance actions in the next stage,” the news agency said.

The Yemeni movement, the report added, vowed to keep up its retaliatory attacks on the Israeli-owned and -bound vessels in the Red Sea in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

“The Ansarullah movement confirmed during the meeting that it will continue its operations in the Red Sea against ships heading to the enemy (Israel) to support the Palestinian resistance,” one of the unknown sources was quoted as saying.

“The meeting also discussed the complementary role of Ansarullah with the Palestinian factions, given the possibility of Israel invading Rafah.”

The news agency did not specify the location of the meeting in addition to the names of the leaders of the Palestinian resistance groups and the Houthi Ansarullah participating in it.

Ansarullah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Thursday that the Yemeni armed forces would continue their retaliatory operations against Israeli-affiliated commercial vessels, preventing the passage of the ships even through the Indian Ocean and through the Cape of Good Hope.

Houthi added 73 ships have been targeted in Yemeni operations in support of Gaza since mid-November.

Stressing that the Yemeni forces have carried out 12 operations this week as well as a total of 58 ballistic and cruise missiles and drones in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, Houthi stated the operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege on Gaza persist.

Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.

Other resistance groups in the region, including in Iraq and Lebanon, have also conducted pro-Gaza operations against the occupied territories over the past five months.

Around 600 Israeli troops have been killed during resistance operations staged to defend Gaza in the face of the war that has since October 7 claimed thousands of Palestinian lives.

At least 31,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, and 73,500 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Yemen’s Houthis say launched first attack against US, Israeli vessels in Indian Ocean

By
IFP Media Wire
-
Yemen Houthis

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the Yemeni troops “carried out three operations against three Israeli and American ships in the Indian Ocean with a number of appropriate naval missiles and drones, and the three operations successfully achieved their goals”.

The Yemeni forces have been targeting Israeli vessels or those “associated” with the regime in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea since October 7, when Tel Aviv began the war in response to a retaliatory operation staged by Gaza’s resistance movements.

The war has so far killed nearly 31,500 people, mostly women, children, and adolescents.

Saree’s statement came only a day after Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Yemen’s movement, announced that the Yemeni forces were to expand their operations to include Israeli or Israeli-linked vessels that would pass through the Indian Ocean and through the Cape of Good Hope.

The spokesperson also announced that the Yemeni troops had also struck an Israeli ship, which he named as “Pacific 01″, in the Red Sea, targeting the vessel with “a number of appropriate naval missiles”.

The forces, he added, further carried out a strike against an American destroyer in the same body of water with “several drones,” adding that “the operation successfully achieved its goals”.

Saree vowed that the Yemenis would continue their pro-Palestinian operations as long as the Israeli regime sustained the war and a simultaneous siege that it has been enforcing against Gaza.

Iran rights chief calls on intl. community to adopt policies that defend Muslims

By
IFP Media Wire
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Kazem Gharibabadi

Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, made the remarks at a gathering held in Geneva on Friday to mark the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.

He also emphasized on the need for reinforcement of dialog among various religions and promotion of multiculturalism that can, in turn, contribute to creation of an environment, in which all individuals feel valued and enjoy participation.

The official identified the international day as the day of constant confrontation against discrimination and prejudice, which is faced by millions among the members of the international Muslim community.

Gharibabadi defined the purpose behind naming the day as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia as enhancement of understanding, promotion of tolerance, and defending Muslims’ rights.

“Islamophobia, which is rooted in ignorance and wrong information as well as intentional actions, manifests itself in various forms, such as hatemongering, violent attacks, and institutionalized and unfortunately government-sponsored discrimination,” he said.

Over the past three decades, the infamous phenomenon has emerged in various forms, including publication of sacrilegious cartoons and profane books as well as the burning of the Holy Qur’an, the official noted.

“All these instances of Islamophobia leaves its impact on various societies, and leads to discrimination and incidence of violent behaviors against Muslim communities,” he stated.

On the occasion of the international day, various communities, organizations, and individuals had to come together to condemn Islamophobia and its pernicious effects on social integrity, Gharibabadi urged.

The United Nations declared March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia through a resolution back in 2022.

In doing so, the world body urged nations across the international community to adopt clear stances and measures aimed at confronting hatred, discrimination, and violence against Muslims around the globe.

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