I'M ONE OF THOSE QUOTE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS THAT BELIEVE THE DRONES OVER THESE CITIES ARE LOOKING FOR BURIED OR HIDDIN NUKES.

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)

I'M ONE OF THOSE QUOTE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS THAT BELIEVE THE DRONES OVER THESE CITIES ARE LOOKING FOR BURIED OR HIDDIN NUKES.

DAMASCUS DESTROYED

ISAIAH 17:1,3,13-14
17 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

JEREMIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)(50% OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.(ON EARTH)
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.(ON EARTH)
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

SECOND ANGEL: MIDDLE EAST
Then I saw that the second angel had a sickle in his hand, such as is used in harvesting.The second angel said: "Harvest time has come in Israel and the countries all the way to Iran."I saw those countries in a few split seconds."All of Turkey and those [inaudible] countries that have refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one another."I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the Middle East countries. I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of Georgia - Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor - full of blood. I saw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; Nuclear weapons used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere. Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these words:"Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come." The angel said, "The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God."I saw fires rising to heaven.The angel said: "This is the final judgment. My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Water shall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries."The angel showed me that the United Nations shall be broken in pieces because of the crisis in the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.

PSALMS 83:1-8 (GODS LAND PROMISED TO ISRAEL)
1 O God, do not remain silent;do not turn a deaf ear,do not stand aloof, O God.
2 See how your enemies growl,  how your foes rear their heads.
3 With cunning they (ARAB,MUSLIMS) conspire against your people;they plot against those you cherish.(ISRAELIS)
4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”
5 With one mind they plot together;(TREATIES) they form an alliance against you—
6 the tents of Edom (JORDAN)  and the Ishmaelites, (EGYPTIAN ARABS SO CALLED PALESTIANS) of Moab (JORDAN) and the Hagrites,(EGYPT)
7 Byblos,(HEZBOLLOH) Ammon (JORDAN) and Amalek,(SYRIAN ARABS IN THE SINAI) Philistia,(ARABS) with the people of Tyre (LEBANON).
8 Even Assyria (SYRIA) has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants.

MUSLIM NATIONS (SLAUGHTERED BY NUKES FOR COMING AGAINST ISRAEL)

EZEKIEL 29:1-12-put russia-arab-muslims in place of egypt-their judgements here.
1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2  Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
3  Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
4  But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.
5  And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.
6  And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
7  When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.
8  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.
9  And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.
10  Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.
11  No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
12  And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:10
10  For we must all (MEANS EVERYONE EVER BORN ON EARTH FROM ADAM-EVE ON) appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.(THIS IS THE CHRISTIANS IN FRONT OF JESUS)

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE.

War crimes prosecutor says Syrian mass graves expose Assad’s ‘machinery of death’‘We really haven’t seen anything quite like this since the Nazis,’ says top prosecutor after visit to mass grave; says more than 100,000 people disappeared, tortured to death-By Timour Azhari and Anthony Deutsch 17 December 2024, 10:17 pm

QUTAYFAH, Syria (Reuters) – An international war crimes prosecutor said on Tuesday that evidence emerging from mass grave sites in Syria has exposed a state-run “machinery of death” under toppled leader Bashar al-Assad, and he estimated that more than 100,000 people were tortured and murdered since 2013.Speaking after visiting two mass grave sites in the towns of Qutayfah and Najha near Damascus, former US war crimes ambassador at large Stephen Rapp told Reuters: “We certainly have more than 100,000 people that were disappeared into and tortured to death in this machine.“I don’t have much doubt about those kinds of numbers, given what we’ve seen in these mass graves.”“When you talk about this kind of organized killing by the state and its organs, we really haven’t seen anything quite like this since the Nazis,” said Rapp, who led prosecutions at the Rwanda and Sierra Leone war crimes tribunals.“From the secret police who disappeared people from their streets and homes, to the jailers and interrogators who starved and tortured them to death, to the truck drivers and bulldozer drivers who hid their bodies, thousands of people were working in this system of killing,” Rapp said.Syrian residents living near a former military base, where one of the sites was located, and a cemetery, used to hide bodies from detention sites, described seeing a steady stream of refrigeration trucks delivering bodies, which were dumped into long trenches that had been dug with bulldozers.In Qutayfah, people declined to speak on camera or use their names for fear of the retribution, saying they were not yet sure the area was safe after Assad’s fall.“This is the place of horrors,” one said on Tuesday.Inside a site enclosed with cement walls, three children played near a Russian-made military satellite vehicle. The soil was flat and levelled, with straight long marks where the bodies were buried.Satellite imagery analyzed by Reuters showed large-scale digging began at the location between 2012 and 2014 and continued up until 2022. Multiple satellite images taken by Maxar during that time showed a digger and large trenches visible at the site, along with three or four large trucks.Omar Hujeirati, a former anti-Assad protest leader who lives near the Najha cemetery, said he suspected that several of his missing family members may be in the grave.He believes at least some of those taken, including two sons and four brothers, were detained for protesting against Assad’s government.“That was my sin, what made them take my family,” he said, a long, exposed trench behind him where the bodies were apparently buried.He said those responsible must be held accountable in a clear judicial process or people would take matters into their own hands.“We want our rights, according to Syrian law, and not by some behind-the-scenes process. These massacres and slaughterhouses of death are unacceptable to anyone with humanity,” he said. “We want reputable organizations to come so this isn’t covered up.”

‘Antisemitic liar’: Israel blasts Irish president’s claim that it wants to settle Egypt-DEC 17,24

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar castigates comments made today by Ireland’s president, who accused Israel of breaching Lebanon’s and Syria’s sovereignty and charged, without evidence, that Jerusalem is seeking to establish settlements in Egypt.Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar yesterday defended his decision to close Israel’s embassy in Ireland, saying that Dublin “encouraged” antisemitism under a prime minister he accused of hating Jews.Responding earlier today, Irish President Michael Higgins said that “it is a very serious business to actually brand a people because in fact they disagree with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, who is in breach of so many bits of international law, and who has beached the sovereignty of three of his neighbors, in relation to Lebanon, Syria, and would like in fact actually to have a settlement into Egypt.”“I think to suggest that because one criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu that one is antisemitic is such a gross defamation and slander,” Higgins added during a ceremony where Palestinian Authority envoy Jilan Abdalmajid presented her letter of credence.President Michael D Higgins has said that to say the Irish people are anti-Semitic is a "gross defamation and slander", and it is a "very serious business" to do so simply because people disagree with the actions of the Israeli Prime Minister.Read more: https://t.co/hXpBuN3cHp pic.twitter.com/8axNrZ6YOB— RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 17, 2024-In a new English-language statement, Sa’ar says: “Once an antisemitic liar — always an antisemitic liar,” going on to defend Israel’s actions on all three fronts.“From Lebanese territory, Israel’s sovereignty was breached for over a year,” he says. “For no reason and unprovoked, Hezbollah joined Hamas on October 8th [2023] and since then fired tens of thousands of missiles, rockets and drones at Israeli citizens and communities. Israel did what any country would — it defended itself against a brutal aggressor.”On Syria, Sa’ar says: “While Assad’s regime disintegrated, armed groups entered the buffer zone and attacked UNDOF forces, in violation of the Disengagement Agreement from 1974. Israel temporarily entered a few limited points to prevent the threat of radical Islamists against its citizens and communities. Israel will not wait for another [onslaught resembling what Hamas did on] October 7th [2023] on any of its borders.”And regarding the Egypt settlement claim, he says: “Higgins invented the claim that Israel seeks to form settlements there. In the context of our peace agreement with Egypt, Israel withdrew from a huge area — all of the Sinai desert, and uprooted all of its communities there. This peace agreement has been maintained since 1979.”Concluding his combative statement, Sa’ar brings up Ireland’s failure to join the Allies in fighting Nazi Germany in World War II.“Let us not forget that Ireland was at best neutral during World War II.At that time, the free world was fighting Hitler’s axis while Ireland sat on the side and did nothing.”

Atop Syrian Hermon, Netanyahu says Israel to stay until ‘another arrangement’ found-PM stresses strategic importance of the summit following fall of Assad, is joined by Katz who says presence will also deter Syrian rebels from setting sights on Israel-By Emanuel Fabian,Lazar Berman,ToI Staff and Agencies 17 December 2024, 11:16 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday that Israeli troops would remain stationed inside Syria for the foreseeable future, as he met with senior security officials for a situation review atop Mount Hermon.The premier was joined by Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bat and Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin, and his visit appeared to mark the first time a sitting Israeli leader has entered Syrian territory.Israel entered the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights hours after rebel groups in Syria took Damascus on December 8, stressing that the seizure of the buffer zone established in 1974 is a temporary defensive move that will last only until security is guaranteed along the frontier. Israel says it has no desire to become involved in the conflict in Syria.Standing atop Mount Hermon, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would remain on its peak “until another arrangement can be found that guarantees Israel’s security.”“I was here 53 years ago with my soldiers on a Sayeret Matkal patrol,” he said, speaking of the nostalgia that the site brought him.“This place hasn’t changed, it’s the same place, but its importance to Israel’s security has only been reinforced in recent years, and especially in recent weeks with the dramatic events taking place below us here in Syria,” Netanyahu said.He added that going forward, Israel would “determine the best arrangement that will guarantee our security.”Echoing the same sentiments as the premier, Defense Minister Katz described Mount Hermon as “the eyes of the State of Israel to detect near and far threats.”“The IDF is here to protect the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of the State of Israel from any threat, from the most important place to do so,” he said in remarks provided by his office.“We will remain here for as long as it is needed,” Katz added. “Our presence here at the peak of the Hermon strengthens security and adds a dimension of both observation and deterrence to Hezbollah’s strongholds in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon and deterrence against the rebels in Damascus, who pretend to present a moderate image, but belong to the most extreme Islamic sects.”Katz’s comments appeared to refer to the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, whose fighters and allies swept down from northwest Syria and entered the capital on December 8.The group has its roots in al-Qaeda and is proscribed as a terrorist organization by many Western governments, although it has sought to moderate its rhetoric in recent years.Since the fall of Assad, the group’s leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Julani, has stressed that the rights of all Syrians, regardless of religion or ethnicity, will be protected under his leadership.In an interview with the UK’s Times newspaper on Monday, al-Sharaa said that his group was “committed to the 1974 agreement” with Israel that established the demilitarized zone in Syrian territory at the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.“We do not want any conflict, whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks,” he said.He called for Israel to “pull back to its previous positions,” and criticized heavy Israeli strikes in recent days that have taken out most of the Assad regime’s military assets, reiterating his position that it had a right to target Iranian-backed forces prior to the government’s fall, but that it now has no legitimate basis to keep operating in Syria.“There is no justification for the Israelis to bomb Syrian facilities or advance inside Syria,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.Highlighting Israel’s wary approach to HTS and its leader, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel accused al-Sharaa of being “a wolf in [sheep’s] clothes” due to his jihadist history.Speaking at a press conference, Haskel held up a photo collage of al-Sharaa am, showing him as a member of various jihadist organizations.“It is important to avoid falling for the attempt to whitewash jihadist (groups) in Syria. We know who they are and their true nature, even if they change their names, and we understand how dangerous they are to the West,” said Haskel, a lawmaker from Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party.“These are terrorist organizations and this is a wolf in [sheep’s] clothes.”Prior to founding HTS, Julani fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion. He later set up its subsidiary in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front, which for a period was allied with the Islamic State terror group.He later broke from both jihadist organizations before rebranding Al-Nusra into the Islamist HTS.

'It is practically at same level as nuclear-armed states'UN monitor says reviving Iran deal now irrelevant, since Tehran on cusp of nuke-IAEA’s Grossi cautions negotiators hoping for another pact will need to formulate fresh technical guidelines conforming to ‘new reality’ of Iran becoming a nuclear threshold state-By ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 9:15 pm

The UN’s top atomic regulator said this week that there was little point in trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, with Iran already practically a nuclear threshold state.The comments by International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi in Italy on Monday underlined growing frustration by the UN monitor toward Iran, which has blown past stockpile limits set by the landmark pact and spurned inspections since Washington abandoned the deal in 2018.Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran was only permitted to enrich uranium to 3.68 percent purity, a level consistent with civilian uses of nuclear technology that Iran claims are its only pursuit, capping its stockpile at 300 kilograms.But according to an IAEA report handed to member states and leaked to the press earlier this month, Iran has begun dramatically expanding its production of uranium enriched to near-weapons grade levels, collecting enough material for several bombs already.“The philosophy of the original accord with Iran can be used, but that agreement is no longer useful,” Grossi told Italian news agency ANSA on the sidelines of a meeting at the foreign ministry in Rome.He added that Iran had “developed much stronger capabilities” regarding various aspects of its nuclear program.“It has uranium at 60% — 90% is military grade — and is thus practically at the same level as nuclear-armed states,” Grossi said.Sealed in 2015 following years of tightrope negotiations between Iran and the US, UK, Germany, France, China and Russia, the JCPOA was hailed by its boosters as a watershed opportunity to curb Iran’s rogue nuclear activities, with world powers agreeing to lift sanctions that had crippled the Islamic Republic’s economy.According to the IAEA at the time, before the accord, Iran had amassed just over 200 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20% purity, and around 10,000 kilograms of low-enriched uranium at levels of 5% purity or lower.Under the deal, Iran was forced to reduce its stockpile by some 98%, and shut down over half of its centrifuges, according to officials.But the accord was pilloried by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who alleged that Tehran had hoodwinked the world and was continuing to covertly pursue a nuclear weapon to be used against Israel.With other US allies in the Gulf also suspicious of dealing with Iran, then-president Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the accord in 2018, and failed to deliver on a promise to renegotiate a better deal. Attempts by US President Joe Biden’s administration to negotiate an American return to the pact fell apart in mid-2023, and Trump’s impending return to the White House has punctured hopes for reviving the deal.Iran has steadily ramped up enrichment activity since the US left the deal and reimposed sanctions, rolling out advanced new centrifuges and issuing warnings that it could speed up the process even further.In a report in early December, the Office of the United States Director of National Intelligence warned that “Iran now has enough fissile material to make more than a dozen nuclear weapons,” but said it had not yet decided to break out to a bomb.Iran is not thought to have begun work needed to build and deploy a nuclear weapon, a move which, if detected, would likely invite a harsh Western response. But the sheer size of its stockpile and the fact that 60% purity is just a short technical step away from the 90% needed for a bomb, have served to heighten tensions, with Israel rumored to be mulling military action aimed at destroying key nuclear sites.In its report earlier this month, the IAEA warned that Tehran likely had enough material to build four bombs. Grossi said at the time that Iran was set to begin producing 60%-enriched uranium at eight or more times the current rate.He told ANSA Monday that given Iran’s “new reality,” the international community would need to rethink the technical steps of a denuclearization agreement with Tehran.“We must reformulate the agreement,” Grossi said. “This is a complex process whereby the European countries and the US, Russia, and China will have to sit at the table with [the IAEA] to define a system that serves the new Iranian reality.”The UK, France, and Germany have already expressed hopes of convening talks with Iran before October 2025, when some parts of the deal are set to expire, including its endorsement from the UN Security Council.Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says both its space program and nuclear activities are for purely civilian purposes. However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003, and continued to develop its nuclear program beyond civilian necessity. Israel contends that the Islamic Republic never truly abandoned its nuclear weapons program.Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction. Over the past year, it has twice fired massive barrages of missiles at Israel, which has vowed to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel has struck key Iranian military facilities in retaliation for both attacks, which came in the context of a multifront war opened by Iranian terror proxies on the Jewish state.On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that Israeli strikes in October had severely curtailed Iran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles, which Israel fears could be used to carry a nuclear warhead.Agencies contributed to this report.

Jerusalem man accused of spying for Iran, planning terror attack-Erdler Israel Amoyal, 23, allegedly carried out surveillance, vandalism tasks; searched internet for bomb-making instructions, proposed targeting Jerusalem light rail’s system-By Emanuel Fabian-17 December 2024, 4:30 pm

An Israeli resident of Jerusalem was arrested for carrying out missions on behalf of Iran and planning a terror attack, the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police said Tuesday, the latest in a series of plots involving citizens allegedly recruited by Iran that security agencies say have been foiled in recent months.The suspect, Erdler Israel Amoyal, 23, was detained in November over suspicions he was “committing security offenses related to contact with intelligence officials of the Iranian regime and carrying out security missions in Israel under their direction, for financial gain,” according to the Shin Bet.The announcement came a little over a week after police said a man in the north of the country was arrested on suspicion of carrying out acts of vandalism on behalf of Iran.The latest investigation found that since October, Amoyal was in contact with Iranian intelligence elements via social media. The Shin Bet said he was first in contact with a profile using the handle “Arianna,” who later transferred him to “John,” who became his handler.According to the investigation, Amoyal was aware that John was an Iranian operative, but he still agreed to carry out surveillance and other missions, including photographing various addresses and spraying graffiti.The Shin Bet said Amoyal took photos of a paper with the words “Making Peace” in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, graffitied the word “Sinwar” in Tel Aviv, and took photos of several houses and streets in Netanya and Jerusalem.Amoyal purchased a GoPro camera to film his actions, and sent footage to his handler John, the agency said. He also edited a video of a car burning, the Shin Bet said, although it was unclear if he carried out the act.In addition, Amoyal allegedly searched social media to purchase a firearm and silencer, along with materials to manufacture a bomb. The Shin Bet said he watched instructional videos on how to build an explosive device, in order to carry out a terror attack in Israel.Amoyal was also asked to recruit others to carry out missions for Iran, especially people with criminal backgrounds, the agency said.According to the Shin Bet, Amoyal offered his handler to torch a police cruiser and shut down power to the Jerusalem light rail. He filmed various areas of the rail in an attempt to locate the power components, and sent the footage to John, the agency said.Amoyal was rewarded with cryptocurrency for his actions, the Shin Bet said.An indictment is expected to be filed against Amoyal in the coming days.The Shin Bet said the case again “shows the efforts made by Iranian intelligence to draft Israeli citizens for the purpose of espionage and terror in Israel, and the readiness of Israeli citizens to carry out the missions under Iranian direction, knowing the identity of the handlers, all for financial gain.”Police said in the statement that “spying for an enemy state, at a time of war, and in general, is a serious and dangerous offense that amounts to treason against the state.”Israel is currently battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war started by the Palestinian terror group on October 7, 2023, when it led a massive cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.Iran-backed proxies in Iraq and Yemen have fired drones and missiles at Israel in support of Gaza. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group also began attacking Israel the day after the Hamas assault in a conflict that spiraled into open war during which Israel battered Hezbollah, forcing a ceasefire last month.Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah are all avowed to destroy Israel.Since September, Israeli authorities have announced arrests in seven separate cases involving individuals or cells suspected of spying or plotting attacks on behalf of Iran. In some, Tehran tried to trick Israelis online into carrying out missions on its behalf. In other cases, individuals are alleged to have knowingly operated on its behalf for monetary gain.Last week, police said that Artyom Zolotarev, 33, was detained in November over suspicions he was committing security offenses related to contact with Iranian intelligence officials. He is suspected of graffitiing anti-government and pro-Iran slogans in several northern cities and setting fire to cars in Haifa on separate occasions.In September, seven Jewish Israelis were arrested on suspicion of spying on security figures and IDF bases for Iran. They were accused of collecting information for their Iranian contacts about several Israeli citizens, including a senior security figure, and may have been part of a plot to ultimately assassinate the figure. Maman was also arrested that month.On October 14, a Ramat Gan man and his 18-year-old partner were arrested on charges that they carried out various acts of sabotage and vandalism on behalf of an Iranian agent.On October 16, the Israel Police and State Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of a man from central Israel who allegedly acquired a weapon to kill an Israeli scientist on instructions from an Iranian agent, after performing several smaller tasks on the agent’s behalf.On October 22, seven East Jerusalem men, six of them Israeli citizens, were arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran and plotting attacks in Israel.Those cases came after authorities in January uncovered a scheme involving Israelis who were allegedly recruited to gather intelligence on high-profile figures.

Iran awaiting ‘necessary conditions’ to reopen vandalized Syria embassy-Foreign Ministry says safety of staff must be ensured before it can reestablish its mission, which was ransacked when rebels ousted allied Assad regime-By AFP and ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 1:30 pm

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that its embassy in Syria would reopen once the “necessary conditions” are met, after the diplomatic mission was vandalized following the ouster of Tehran ally Bashar al-Assad.“The reopening of the embassy in Damascus requires preparations, the most important of which is ensuring the security and safety of the embassy and its staff,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.He added that work to that end will be pursued “as soon as the necessary conditions are provided,” without offering a specific timeline.The Iranian embassy in Damascus was ransacked after diplomats abandoned it as rebel forces seized the capital and ousted Assad.Iran had supported Assad throughout Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011.Since his fall, Iran has sought to distance itself from the deposed leader, instead emphasizing the history of friendship between the two countries.Baqaei said on Tuesday that Iran’s “advisory” presence in Syria was “at the invitation of the government.”“We were never in Syria to support a specific person, group or party,” he said.“Our presence in Syria was fundamental and principled, and our withdrawal was responsible.”Baqaei also said that Israel, which has conducted hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since Assad’s fall and sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone, “severely violated Syria’s territorial integrity.”Israel says the strikes are to prevent strategic weapons from falling into the hands of hostile elements.On Monday, EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said Russia and Iran “should not have a place” in war-torn Syria now that Assad is gone.Baqaei slammed the remarks as a “joke,” adding that the era of foreign powers “trying to dictate (policies) on another region is over.”Last week an Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had opened a direct line of communication with Syria’s new leaders in an attempt to “prevent a hostile trajectory” between the countries.On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that US officials have also been in contact with the rebel leadership. The rebels are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union, as well as some other countries.An AFP photographer reported last week on the vandalism at the Iranian embassy.The photographer saw ransacked offices, with shattered glass on the floor and broken furniture in the building in Damascus’s upscale Mazzeh area, also home to other embassies and United Nations offices.People loaded looted items onto trucks outside, the photographer said.Filing cabinets and drawers sat open while papers, files, and other contents, including Iranian and Syrian flags, were strewn around the premises.A safe sat in the middle of one room, whose tiled floor was littered with broken posters including of the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the AFP photographer saw.Also on the ground was a destroyed picture of Lebanon’s former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs in September, and of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who died in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020.“Unknown individuals have attacked the Iranian embassy, as you can see in these images shared by various networks,” an Iranian state television broadcaster said at the time, showing footage from Al Arabiya, said to be from the diplomatic compound.Iranian newspaper Tehran Times reported online that Iranian diplomats had left the embassy before it was stormed, citing foreign ministry spokesman Baqaei.The report accused rebel forces of being behind the attack, a claim that could not be independently verified immediately.Baqaei said in a statement at the time that Tehran has taken the “necessary measures” to ensure the “security and safety of the employees of the embassy.”He added that “the ambassador and employees are in perfect health.”

Palestinians in Syria flock to cemetery ravaged and made off-limits under Assad-Relatives strive to locate graves amid piles of rubble and smashed tombstones left in Yarmouk burial ground outside Damascus-By Maher Al Mounes 17 December 2024, 1:29 pm

YARMOUK, Syria (AFP) — In a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, Radwan Adwan was stacking stones to rebuild his father’s grave, finally able to return to Yarmouk cemetery after Bashar al-Assad’s fall.“Without the fall of the regime, it would have been impossible to see my father’s grave again,” said 45-year-old Adwan.“When we arrived, there was no trace of the grave.”It was his first visit there since 2018, when access to the cemetery south of Damascus was officially banned.Assad’s fall on December 8, after a lightning offensive led by Islamist rebels, put an end to decades of iron-fisted rule and years of bloody civil war that began with repression of anti-government protests in 2011.Yarmouk camp fell to rebels early in the war before becoming a jihadist stronghold. It was bombed and besieged by Assad’s forces, emptied of most of its residents and reduced to ruins before its recapture in 2018.Assad’s ouster has allowed former residents to return for the first time in years.Back at the cemetery, Adwan’s mother Zeina sat on a small metal chair in front of her husband’s gravesite.She was “finally” able to weep for him, she said. “Before, my tears were dry.”“It’s the first time that I have returned to his grave for years. Everything has changed, but I still recognize where his grave is,” said the 70-year-old woman.Yarmouk camp, established in the 1950s to house Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their land during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, had become a key residential and commercial district over the decades.Some 160,000 Palestinians lived there alongside thousands of Syrians before the country’s conflict erupted in 2011.Thousands fled in 2012, and few have found their homes still standing in the eerie wasteland that used to be Yarmouk.Along the road to the cemetery, barefoot children dressed in threadbare clothes play with what is left of a swing set in a rubble-strewn area that was once a park.‘Spared no one’A steady stream of people headed to the cemetery, looking for their loved ones’ gravesites after years.“Somewhere here is my father’s grave, my uncle’s, and another uncle’s,” said Mahmud Badwan, 60, gesturing to massive piles of gray rubble that bear little signs of what may lie beneath them.Most tombstones are broken.Near them lay breeze blocks from adjacent homes which stand empty and open to the elements.“The Assad regime spared neither the living nor the dead. Look at how the ruins have covered the cemetery. They spared no one,” Badwan said.There is speculation that the cemetery may also hold the remains of famed Israeli spy Eli Cohen and an Israeli soldier.Cohen was tried and hanged for espionage by the Syrians in 1965 after he infiltrated the top levels of the government.A Palestinian source in Damascus, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject, told AFP contacts were underway through mediators to try to find their remains.Camp resident Amina Mounawar leaned against the wall of her ruined home, watching the flow of people arriving at the cemetery.Some wandered the site, comparing locations to photos on their phones taken before the war in an attempt to locate graves in the transformed site.“I have a lot of hope for the reconstruction of the camp, for a better future,” said Mounawar, 48, as she offered water to those arriving at the cemetery.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Russia’s top WMD general killed by bomb in Moscow in apparent Ukrainian operation-Ukrainian source says Igor Kirillov, head of ‘Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection’ forces, killed in special op after he allegedly deployed chemical weapons on battlefield-By Agencies 17 December 2024, 11:53 am

A top Russian general was killed in a Moscow blast on Tuesday, in what a source from the Security Service of Ukraine told news agencies was a “special operation” in retaliation for the general’s alleged use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops.Lieut. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt along with his assistant, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a statement.He was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter, investigators said. The bomb was triggered remotely, Russian state news agency Tass reported, citing unnamed sources in the emergency services.A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told AFP that the “liquidation” of Kirillov was “a special operation by the SBU.” A similar statement was reported by Reuters, which noted it could not independently verify the claim.“Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,” said the source, who also confirmed that Kirillov was killed when “a scooter with explosives” detonated as he entered a building on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow.“Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable,” the SBU source said.Reuters footage from the scene showed a police cordon. Investigators said they had opened a criminal case into the murder of two servicemen. Law enforcement sources told Russian media it was likely to be upgraded into a terrorism case.Russia denies Ukrainian allegations it uses chemical weapons on the battlefield.Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Kyiv would face imminent revenge for the killing, according to the Russian state-owned news service RIA.Kirillov, who was married with two sons, was himself sometimes shown on state TV accusing Ukraine of violating nuclear safety protocols.Britain in October imposed sanctions on Kirillov and his nuclear protection forces for using riot control agents and over multiple reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin on the battlefield.Ukraine’s Security Services charged Kirillov in December with the use of banned chemical weapons during Russia’s ongoing war in that country.The SBU said that it had recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons on the battlefield since February 2022, particularly K-1 combat grenades.In May, the US State Department also said in a statement that it had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a chemical weapon first used in World War I, against Ukrainian troops.Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out a string of targeted assassinations on its soil since the start of Moscow’s full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022.The most high-profile cases include the 2022 killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin, in a car bomb attack, the murder of pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in a 2023 cafe bombing, and the shooting last year of a Russian submarine commander accused of war crimes by Kyiv.Russia’s radioactive, chemical and biological defense troops, known as RKhBZ, which Kirillov commanded, are special forces who operate under conditions of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination and who are tasked with protecting ground forces operating in extreme conditions.

Report: Syrian border villagers and rebels collecting weapons and handing them to IDF-Video from inside Syria shows crateloads of weapons and ammunition being loaded into trucks; IDF soldier says some contain ‘chemical warfare material’By ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 11:07 am

Syrian villagers on the border with Israel have been collecting weapons and ammunition left in the area by the army and handing them over to the Israel Defense Forces, Channel 12 reported Monday.In a video broadcast by the channel, hundreds of crates containing ammunition and weapons could be seen gathered and then loaded onto trucks.According to the report, rebels who swept out the Assad regime last week are also helping in the operation.The weapons apparently come from Syrian army bases and outposts where soldiers abandoned their positions amid the rebel takeover. Some were also leftovers from the years of civil war in Syria, the report said.IDF soldiers at the scene explained that some of the weapons contained “chemical warfare material.”These included hand grenades they said contained CS gas, commonly used as tear gas.One soldier said there were crateloads of such grenades. They cause irritation and must not be touched directly, he said.Israel entered a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights hours after the rebels took Damascus. Israel has said it will not become involved in the conflict in Syria and that its seizure of the buffer zone established in 1974 was a temporary defensive move that would last only until it could guarantee security along the frontier.The Channel 12 report said that that security officials are seeking to establish cooperation with residents of border villages in the buffer, who in the past have worked with Israeli security to prevent hostile actors from entering the area.The threat of such hostile force could be a factor in the IDF’s activities in creating a line of defense in the buffer zone for residents on the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights, while it is still able to, Channel 12 said.Haaretz reported that the IDF says there has been contact with the Syrian Druze, including meetings during which a request was made to gather weapons that were looted from abandoned Syrian army sites.However, according to that report, villagers on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights have asked the new Syrian regime and other Arab countries to push Israel out of the area and were concerned over how long the Israeli military would remain.Meanwhile, the Ynet outlet cited Russia’s state-owned Sputnik network as saying an IDF helicopter landed near a Syrian military facility on Monday and dropped off soldiers who entered the site. The soldiers remained for about 20 minutes before leaving and flying south, the report said.Last week, Ynet cited Sputnik as saying an IDF helicopter landed in the al-Qalamoun suburb of Damascus.Sputnik has been denounced by some as a Russian disinformation outfit.Israel launched a major campaign after the fall of the Assad regime on December 8 to destroy the Syrian military’s strategic military capabilities, in a bid to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile elements. Targets have included chemical weapons sites, missiles, air defenses, and air force and navy targets.In an interview with the Syrian TV news channel on Saturday, the leader of the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who spearheaded the overthrow of the Assad regime, said that Israel had “no more excuses” to carry out airstrikes in Syria.Also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, Ahmad al-Sharaa said that the recent IDF attacks on Syrian soil had crossed red lines and threatened an unjustified escalation in the region.But he also appeared to indirectly respond to Israeli concerns and offer reassurance that the new Syrian government would not threaten the Jewish state or allow Iran to reestablish itself in Syria. He said that Syria was exhausted by years of civil war and that at this stage it would not be dragged into conflicts that may lead to further destruction, but would rather focus on reconstruction and stability.

'We do not want any conflict... with Israel or anyone else' Syrian rebel leader: Territory will not be used to launch attacks against Israel-Chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which ousted Assad regime, pledges commitment to 1974 buffer-zone agreement, says IDF activity in Syria ‘must end’ and Israel ‘has to pull back’By AFP and ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 10:41 amUpdated at 4:28 pm

Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of the Islamist group that toppled Bashar al-Assad in Syria, said Monday that Syria will not be used as a launchpad for attacks against Israel and that he is committed to the 1974 agreement that established a demilitarized zone in Syrian territory as a buffer between the two countries.“We are committed to the 1974 agreement and we are prepared to return the UN [monitors],” Julani told The Times of London, referring to peacekeeping forces that manned the demilitarized zone alongside Syrian troops.“We do not want any conflict whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks. The Syrian people need a break, and the strikes must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions,” he said.Julani reiterated his position that Israel — which, in the weeks since the Assad regime fell, has destroyed most of the regime’s military assets, fearing their use by hostile groups, and taken control of the buffer zone — had a right to target Iranian-backed forces prior to the government’s fall earlier this month, but has no legitimate basis to keep operating in Syria.Speaking to journalists at the prime ministerial headquarters in Damascus, Julani said rebel factions in Syria would be disbanded, and their fighters placed under the defense ministry. He played down the prospect of a Syria run by Islamic law, according to The Times, and vowed to protect minority rights. He also called for sanctions to be lifted so refugees can return.The long-ruling Assad, an ally of Iran, was toppled in a lightning 11-day rebel offensive spearheaded by the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS), whose fighters and allies swept down from northwest Syria and entered the capital on December 8.Julani, who has recently returned to using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said Monday on the group’s Telegram channel that all the rebel factions “would “be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defense ministry,” adding, “all will be subject to the law.”Speaking to foreign journalists, the Islamist leader said his nascent government intends to overhaul Syria’s constitution and institutions, but said it will take time, and that the country is not yet ready for elections due to remaining disorder, some 13 years after civil war broke out amid the 2011 Arab Spring.“People have big ambitions, but today we must think realistically, because Syria has many problems, and they won’t be solved with a magic wand,” Julani said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “It needs patience.”He also emphasized the need for unity in a country home to different ethnic minority groups and religions, while speaking to members of the country’s Druze community, which makes up about 3 percent of Syria’s prewar population.“Syria must remain united,” he said. “There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice.”Several countries and organizations have welcomed Assad’s fall but said they were waiting to see how the new authorities would treat minorities in the country.Responding to the possibility of a Syria governed by Islamic law, Julani told The Times, “It will be the natural Syria,” and,“I think Syria will not deeply intrude on personal freedoms,” but noted that “customs” would factor in.HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda, and proscribed as a terrorist organization by many Western governments, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric. Since the toppling of Assad, it has insisted that the rights of all Syrians will be protected.Speaking to journalists on Monday, Julani bristled at the designation of HTS as a terror group.“The real terrorist is the one who killed people in Sednaya and dropped barrel bombs,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal, referring to an infamous government prison.Additionally, during a second meeting with a delegation of British diplomats, the HTS leader spoke “of the importance of restoring relations” with London. He stressed the need to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country,” according to remarks reported on his group’s Telegram channel.In his conversation with journalists on Monday, Julani also condemned the waves of Israeli airstrikes, following the fall of the Assad regime, which are estimated to have taken out a large majority of that government’s military assets amid concerns that they could be used against Israel in the future.The Israel Defense Forces has also seized a buffer zone between Israel and Syria that was previously manned in part by Syrian troops, who abandoned their posts amid the regime’s collapse. Israel has repeatedly said that control of the buffer zone is a temporary defense measure amid the chaotic takeover.On Monday, Julani said that Israel had reason to involve itself in the fighting in Syria while the Assad regime — allied with Iran, which is committed to Israel’s destruction, as well as the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group, with which Israel entered a shaky ceasefire last month — was still standing, but that now “the excuse is gone.”“There is no justification for the Israelis to bomb Syrian facilities or advance inside Syria,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Inside storyArab diplomat: Hamas weaker than ever, but has little to lose-Hamas fears Trump will allow Israel to resume Gaza war after 1st phase of hostage deal-Sources familiar with talks say Hamas compromising on terms of IDF withdrawal but still insisting on permanent ceasefire, fearing deal made under Biden could collapse under Trump-By Jacob Magid-17 December 2024, 9:25 am

WASHINGTON — Hamas is concerned that US President-elect Donald Trump will allow Israel to resume fighting in Gaza at the completion of the first phase of the three-stage ceasefire that is currently in advanced negotiations, four sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that the Biden administration is working to secure a deal by the end of December, but this would mean Trump would be responsible for seeing through the first six-week phase and beyond.Trump said again this week that he wants the war in Gaza to end, but an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes he’ll have more flexibility under Trump to resume fighting after the first phase than he would under Biden.Hamas has made the same assessment and is accordingly seeking assurances that Israel will not restart the war after the first phase has been completed, according to two Arab diplomats, an Israeli official and a US official familiar with the talks.The nature of the ceasefire deal is the main issue of contention in the talks, with Hamas demanding a permanent end to the fighting along with the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza, while Israel is seeking a temporary pause during which some of the hostages would be released followed by a resumption of its fighting in order to finish dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.“If we finish the war now, Hamas will return, recover and rebuild itself and attack us again… we don’t want to return to this [situation],” Netanyahu said last week.In May, Netanyahu authorized a three-phased framework that sought to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas, while also providing some ambiguity on the transition from one phase to another in order to satisfy both sides.US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have since worked to get the first phase of the deal in motion with an initial ceasefire that would see the release of the remaining living female, elderly and wounded hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.During this first phase, the sides would be mandated to hold negotiations regarding the terms of the second and third phases of the ceasefire, when the remaining living hostages and the bodies of slain captives would be released, respectively.Negotiations have progressed significantly in recent weeks, with Hamas agreeing to reengage with mediators after a months-long impasse, according to the two Arab diplomats, an Israeli official and a US official familiar with the talks.Critically, the terror group has shown flexibility regarding the terms of the IDF withdrawal from Gaza, indicating it is prepared to allow Israeli troops to remain in the key Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors during the first phase of the deal after long demanding their immediate pullout from those routes — along the Gaza-Egypt border and bisecting the enclave, respectively — the Arab and Israeli officials said.Hamas is at its weakest position yet and “we told them that the longer they wait, the worse the terms will be,” one of the Arab diplomats said, explaining the shift in the terror group’s stance.Hamas has survived an unrelenting Israeli military campaign, but its military infrastructure has been effectively dismantled, and the support it had been receiving from the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance” has all but dissipated over the past two months amid dizzying developments in Lebanon and Syria.But that doesn’t mean Hamas will be prepared to accept a deal on any terms, the Arab diplomat clarified, adding that the group now has a lot less to lose and is still holding 100 hostages who won’t be released in full unless Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire.Contrary to reporting in American and Arabic press, though, progress in the talks has not extended to Hamas’s transfer of a long-sought list to the mediators consisting of the names of hostages it is prepared to release in the ceasefire’s first stage, the two Arab diplomats said.Israel has sought the release of at least 33 hostages during this phase, while Hamas has maintained that it doesn’t have that number of living captives who fall into the “humanitarian” categories of women, elderly and sick captives, an Israeli official said.With these hurdles still standing in the way, the second Arab diplomat said Biden officials’ privately shared desires to secure an agreement this week were unlikely to be actualized.And even with a list from Hamas, it is unclear whether either side is prepared to move or compromise on the nature of the ceasefire, the four sources said.The hostages were among 251 people taken captive during Hamas’s brutal October, 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel that also killed some 1,200 people.It is believed that 96 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, 2023, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.

Two charged over Iran-backed drone strike that killed 3 US troops in Jordan-One defendant is an Iranian-American citizen; pair accused of conspiring to export sensitive technology to Iran used in fatal attack on outpost near Iraqi border-By Steve LeBlanc, Eric Tucker and TARA COPP 17 December 2024, 7:56 am

BOSTON (AP) — Two men, including a dual Iranian American citizen, have been charged with conspiring to export sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American troops early this year and injured dozens of other service members, the Justice Department said Monday.The pair were arrested after FBI specialists who analyzed the drone traced its navigation system to an Iranian company operated by one of the defendants, who relied on parts and technology funneled into the country by his alleged co-conspirator, prosecutors said.“We often cite hypothetical risk when we talk about the dangers of American technology getting into dangerous hands,” US Attorney Joshua Levy, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, said at a news conference announcing the charges. “Unfortunately, in this situation, we are not speculating.”The defendants were identified as Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, who prosecutors say works at a Massachusetts-based semiconductor company, and Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, who was arrested Monday in Italy as the Justice Department seeks his extradition to Massachusetts.Prosecutors allege that Abedininajafabadi, who was also called Adedini in court documents, has deep connections to the Iranian government. They say his Tehran-based company manufactures navigation systems for the military drone program of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and that he conspired with Sadeghi to circumvent American export control laws, including through the creation of a front company in Switzerland, and procure sensitive technology into Iran.Sadeghi, a naturalized US citizen, was arrested Monday in Massachusetts and was ordered to remain detained following a court appearance. His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.Both men are charged with export control violations, and Abedini separately faces charges of conspiring to provide material support to Iran.Three Georgia soldiers — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross — were killed in the January 28 drone attack on a US outpost in northeastern Jordan called Tower 22.US officials have blamed it on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah.In the attack, the one-way attack drone may have been mistaken for a US drone that was expected to return back to the logistics base about the same time and was not shot down. Instead, it crashed into living quarters, killing the three soldiers and injuring more than 40.“To the people who were injured by this attack, to the loved ones and family members of the people who lost their lives, as the son of a combat veteran I humbly hope that today’s charges bring some measure of justice and accountability,” Levy said.Tower 22 held about 350 US military personnel at the time. It is strategically located between Jordan and Syria, only 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Iraqi border, and in the months just after Hamas’s massive October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and Israel’s blistering response in Gaza, Iranian-backed militias intensified their attacks on US military locations in the region.This combination of photos provided by Shawn Sanders, left, and the US Army, center and right, show from left to right, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, Staff Sgt. William Jerome Rivers and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett. Following the attack, the US launched a huge counterstrike against 85 sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militia and bolstered Tower 22’s defenses.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

US says airstrike hit Houthi command and control facility in Yemen-CENTCOM says Iran-backed rebels used targeted site to coordinate attacks on naval and merchant ships in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden; IDF said readying strike plans after missile launch-By Agencies and ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 6:34 am

American forces carried out an airstrike on Monday against a Houthi command and control facility that was used by the Yemeni rebels to coordinate attacks, the US military said.The Houthis began striking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023, part of the region-wide escalation following the Hamas-led terror onslaught in southern Israel the previous month that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, which armed groups in multiple countries have claimed as justification for attacks.“The targeted facility was a hub for coordinating Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.“The strike reflects CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment to protect US and coalition personnel, regional partners, and international shipping,” it added.The Yemeni rebels say their attacks — a significant international security challenge that threatens a major shipping lane — are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria have also attacked Israel for the same stated reason.The United States and other countries have deployed military vessels to help shield shipping from the Houthi strikes, and the rebels have periodically launched attacks targeting American military ships.Washington’s forces have also carried out frequent airstrikes on the Houthis in a bid to degrade their ability to target shipping and have sought to seize weapons before they reach the rebels, but their attacks have persisted.Israel has twice struck the Houthis in retaliation for the group’s attacks, and according to Channel 12 news the military was preparing to potentially strike again following Monday’s ballistic missile launch from Yemen that triggered sirens across most of central Israel.The IDF said that the missile was successfully shot down by air defenses before crossing the country’s borders, adding that sirens sounded across central Israel over fears of falling shrapnel following the interception.The Magen David Adom ambulance service said its medics treated five people who were lightly injured while running for cover during the sirens in Tel Aviv, Petah Tikvah, Kfar Saba, Holon and at the Em Hamoshavot junction. The injured were taken to hospital for treatment, MDA said in a statement.Earlier Monday morning, a drone launched from Yemen was shot down by an Israeli Navy missile boat over the Mediterranean Sea, without setting off any sirens.Since November, the Iran-backed Houthis have launched six ballistic missiles and at least five drones at Israel.

Russia still has a military presence in post-Assad Syria — for now-After years of backing now-toppled regime, Moscow is pulling back from some areas of Syria, but still has troops at primary base in Latakia, saying it is in talks with new leaders-By ABBY SEWELL 16 December 2024, 11:52 pm

HMEIMIM, Syria (AP) — A convoy of Russian military vehicles rolled down the highway towards the Syrian city of Tartus on Monday, as soldiers stood guard.Planes periodically descended and rose from Russia’s Hmeimim air base in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia, while smoke rose from the base. It was unclear what was burning.In the streets of Hmeimim, a town dotted with orange groves, many of the shops bear signs in Russian, a nod to the significance of the Russian military presence.But whether and how long that presence will last after the fall of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is now an open question.Russia’s scorched-earth intervention on behalf of its ally, Assad, once turned the tide of the Syrian civil war. In 2017, Assad’s government signed a deal with Russia that offered it a free lease of the Hmeimim air base and the Tartus naval base for 49 years.But opposition forces in the country’s northwest launched a shock offensive last month that again threatened Assad’s rule. This time, Moscow largely stood aside — although it granted asylum to the former president and his family.On Monday, in his first public statement since his ouster, Assad said he had left Damascus for the Hmeimim air base on December 8, after insurgents stormed the capital, but he had not planned to flee the country. He said that after the base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to evacuate him to Russia.Since Assad’s departure, there have been no clashes between Russian troops and the former insurgents who have suddenly become the de facto security forces for all of Syria. That’s despite the fact that many of the fighters are from areas of northern Syria that came under frequent Russian bombardment and have little love for Moscow.A fighter guarding the shuttered civilian airport next to the Hmeimim base said Monday, “The Russians are preparing to withdraw from Syria, God willing.”He gave only his nickname, Abu Saif, because he was not authorized to comment publicly.Russian forces have pulled out of some areas of Syria. Russian forces and military vehicles were seen withdrawing from southern Syria on Friday toward their primary base in the city of Latakia.On Thursday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russian forces were leaving bases in Ain Issa and Tel Al-Samn in the Al-Raqqah countryside.Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies on Friday show what appear to be cargo planes at a Russian military airfield in Syria with their nose cones opened to receive heavy equipment, along with helicopters being dismantled and prepared for transport.Moscow has reached out to the new Syrian authorities to try to ensure the security of its bases and extend its forces’ stay. The three-starred flag of the Syrian revolution was quickly hoisted at the Syrian embassy in Moscow in place of the old government’s two-starred flag.In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Obeida Arnaout, spokesman for the political department of the new transitional government, called on Russia to “reconsider its presence” in Syria, as well as its interests.But he did not rule out the possibility that Russian forces could remain.“Their interests were linked to the criminal Assad regime. They can reconsider and take the initiatives to reach out to the new administration to show that they have no animosity toward the Syrian people, and that the era of Assad regime is finally over,” Arnaout said.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a call with reporters Monday that Moscow was discussing the issue with the new authorities.“We are in contact with representatives of the forces that are currently in control of the situation in the country, and all of this will be determined in the course of dialogue,” Peskov said.

A FALSE PROPHET COMES FROM THE VATICAN ALSO AT THIS TIME.

ISAIAH 23:15-17
15  And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
16  Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
17  And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.(COULD THIS BE 70 YEARS AFTER ISRAEL BECAME A NATION IN 1948)(IF SO THIS SATANIC ONE WORLD WHORE CHURCH WILL MINGLE TOGETHER BY 2018)(AND NOW ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY AND ALL RELIGIONS ARE MINGLING AS ONE PEACE-LOVE-JOY-GET ALONG RELIGION LEAD BY THE VATICAN RIGHT NOW 4 YEARS FROM THE 70 YEAR TIME WHEN ISRAEL BECAME A NATION).AND IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM.

REVELATION 13:11-18
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;(FALSE VATICAN POPE) and he had two horns like a lamb,(JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD) and he spake as a dragon.(HES SATANICALLY INSPIRED,HES A CHRISTIAN DEFECTOR FROM THE FAITH)
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,(WORLD DICTATOR) and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.(THE WORLD DICTATOR CREATES A FALSE RESURRECTION AND IS CROWNED LEADER OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER).
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

REVELATION 17:1-18
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(VATICAN IN POLITICS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman (FALSE CHURCH) was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,(VATICAN COLOURS)(ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW THE FALSE POPE COMES FROM THE VATICAN) and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:(THE VATICAN GOES AGAINST A PRIEST MARRING A WOMAN-LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS-AND WHATS AN ABOMINATION AGAINST GOD-HOMOSEXUALITY AND PEDOPHILIA JUST LIKE THIS SCRIPTURE SAYS-FORNICATION IS THE SINGLE HOMOSEXUAL PRIESTS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAVING UNMARRIED FORNICATION OR SEX WITH SINGLES-IN THIS CASE ITS SEX WITH CHILDREN OR PEDOPHILIA)
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen,(1-ASSYRIA,2-EGYPT,3-BABYLON,4-MEDO-PERSIA,5-GREECE) and one is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS AND JESUS DAY-6-ROME) and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.(7TH-REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE OR THE EUROPEAN UNION TODAY AND THE SHORT SPACE IS-THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL HAVE WORLD CONTROL FOR THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS.BUT WILL HAVE ITS MIGHTY WORLD POWER FOR THE FULL 7 YEARS OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND THE WORLD DICTATOR WILL BE THE BEAST FROM THE EU.AND THE VATICAN POPE WILL BE THE WHORE THAT RIDES THE EUROPEAN UNION TO POWER.AND THE 2 EUROPEAN UNION POWER FREAKS WILL CONTROL AND DECIEVE THE WHOLE EARTH INTO THEIR DESTRUCTION.IF YOU ARE NOT SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.YOU WILL BE DECIEVED BY THESE TWO.THE WORLD POLITICIAN-THE EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR.AND THE FALSE PROPHET THAT DEFECTS CHRISTIANITY-THE FALSE VATICAN POPE.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.(VATICAN-CATHOLICS ALL AROUND THE WORLD OVER 1 BILLION)
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.(GOD HIMSELF GIVES THE OK TO NUKE THE VATICAN)
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.(VATICAN)

EVEN THE FALSE RELIGIOUS LEADER OF THE WORLD HAS ASSINS AFTER HIM.

Pope Francis was target of attempted suicide attack on 2021 trip to Iraq, he says-‘A woman packed with explosives…was heading to Mosul to blow herself up,’ pontiff recalls in upcoming autobiography; would-be bombers apparently killed by police, Francis says-By Reuters and ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 5:02 pm

Pope Francis has revealed he was the target of an attempted suicide bombing during his visit to Iraq three years ago, the first by a Catholic pontiff to the country and probably the riskiest foreign trip of his 11-year papacy.In an excerpt published on Tuesday from a forthcoming autobiography, Francis said he was informed by police after landing in Baghdad in March 2021 that at least two known suicide bombers were targeting one of his planned events.“A woman packed with explosives, a young kamikaze, was heading to Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit,” wrote the pontiff, according to an excerpt from the book in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. “And a van had also set off at full speed with the same intent.”Francis’s visit to Mosul was a key moment during his Iraq trip. Iraq’s second-largest city had been under the control of Islamic State from 2014 to 2017. The pope visited the ruins of four destroyed churches there and launched an appeal for peace.During the trip, the Vatican provided few details about the security preparations for the pope. Many of the events during his visit, which took place as the COVID-19 pandemic was first easing, were open only to a limited number of people.Iraq is known to have deployed thousands of additional security personnel to protect Francis.The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for further details about the pope’s new comments.Francis’s new autobiography, entitled “Hope,” is due to be published on January 14, 2025.In the excerpt published on Tuesday, Francis said the Vatican had been informed about the assassination attempt by British intelligence.The pope said he asked a security official the next day what had happened to the would-be bombers.“The commander replied laconically: ‘They are no more’,” wrote Francis. “The Iraqi police had intercepted them and blown them up.”The pope drew headlines earlier this month when, in an excerpt from a different book — titled “Hope Never Disappoints,” based on a series of interviews with the pontiff — Francis said Israel’s campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza should be investigated as a possible genocide.He has also faced criticism for other comments about the ongoing war. Last week, the Vatican removed a Palestinian-sponsored nativity scene, whose dedication the pope had attended, showing the baby Jesus lying on a keffiyeh after backlash.He is set to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday.

LUKE 19:35-40 (STONES CRY OUT ARCHAEOLOGY)
35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
36 And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.
37 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.(ARCHAEOLOGY)

Archaeology-Amulet found in Germany said to be ‘oldest Christian testimony north of the Alps’Silver scroll, found to contain verses of protection in Latin, dates from the mid-3rd century CE. Israeli researcher says too early to draw conclusions-By Gavriel Fiske-17 December 2024, 10:57 pm

Researchers have deciphered a tiny third-century Christian silver scroll that was found rolled up inside an amulet, at a Roman burial site in Frankfurt, Germany. The find was hailed by the Frankfurt municipality as “the oldest Christian testimony found north of the Alps,” in a recent announcement.The scroll was discovered in 2018 during excavations in the “Heilmannstraße” cemetery in the city, a site with hundreds of Roman-era graves. The area was once part of Nida, a Roman border town that eventually was abandoned. The particular grave that held the scroll was dated to 230-270 CE, predating other Christian texts in the region by at least 50 years, the press release said.The scroll, made of a thin silver foil, was found rolled up and inserted into a 3.5-cm-long silver amulet, which was likely designed to be worn around the neck. The grave also held various goods, including an incense burner and a clay jug.Because the scroll was too delicate to unroll, and because X-ray analysis was unable to reveal the contents except to confirm that there were indeed words written on the scroll, the artifact “was examined using a state-of-the-art computer tomograph” at the Leibniz Center for Archaeology in Mainz, Germany, where researchers were able to conduct multiple high-resolution scans of the scroll and create an accurate model, a kind of “digital unrolling,” the release said.Prof. Markus Scholz of Frankfurt’s Goethe University then examined and translated, with the help of other experts, the 18 lines of Latin that were found to be on the scroll.Finding such a scroll written entirely in Latin is “unusual for the time,” Scholz said. “Normally, such inscriptions on amulets were written in Greek or Hebrew.”It is also very unusual that “the amulet is purely Christian,” he added.“Up until the fifth century, a mixture of different faiths can always be expected in precious metal amulets of this type. Often elements from Judaism or pagan influences can still be found,” but in this case, there were none, he said.The researchers provided a translation of the protective prayer discovered in the scroll and noted that some sections were still indecipherable or the interpretation was uncertain, indicated by question marks:

(In the name?) of St. Titus.Holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God! The lord of the world resists to the best of his [ability?] all seizures(?)/setbacks(?).The god(?) grants well-being Admission.This rescue device(?) protects the person who surrenders to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,since before Jesus Christ bend all knees: the heavenly ones,the earthly and the subterranean, and every tongue confess (to Jesus Christ).An initial analysis of the text revealed some significant aspects, including the formulation of “holy, holy, holy,” a phrase drawn from Jewish liturgy but “not actually known in the Christian liturgy until the 4th century CE,” the researchers said.The reference to St. Titus, an early missionary and disciple of the Apostle Paul, is also unusual, and the connection to Paul is reinforced by the last lines of the scroll, which are “an almost literal quotation from Paul’s so-called Christ hymn from his letter to the Philippians,” the researchers said.

The bearer of the silver amulet “was clearly a devout Christian,” which for the time and place “is absolutely extraordinary,” the notice said. The Frankfurt area, north of the Alps in central Europe, is quite far from the eastern Mediterranean and Levantine centers of early Christianity, and the presence of the amulet there is a sign of the “cultural and religious diversity” of the area, the researchers said.The 3rd century CE Roman-era grave Frankfurt, Germany, where a Christian silver amulet was discovered. (image capture/Monument Office of the city of Frankfurt am Main/used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)-Still some doubting Thomases-Yet, the presence of such an amulet “does not necessarily mean that there was a big Christian community there, since such amulets are easily transportable,” said Prof. Gideon Bohak, of the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University, in a message to The Times of Israel.“Assuming that the reading and the dating are correct, we would have here an early Christian amulet, written in Latin, and found in a remote town on the northern edges of the Roman Empire,” he said, noting that it was necessary to “wait for the full academic publication” in order to “check their interpretation of the find.”A similar artifact was found several years ago in Austria on a sheet encased in a child’s gold amulet, “on which was written Shema Israel (the entire verse) in Hebrew, but in Greek letters… This is a Jewish amulet, also found in a remote corner of the Roman Empire, and also dating to the third century, so I think this is quite an analogous find,” Bohak said.At the time the Frankfurt amulet was dated, the mid-third century CE, Christianity was outlawed in the Roman Empire and practitioners were persecuted, a situation that was altered by Emperor Constantine in 313 CE, with his Edict of Milan, which recognized Christianity as an official religion.In 325 CE, the Council of Nicea distilled the diverse strains of early Christianity into a single set of beliefs, and in 380 CE, with the Edict of Thessaloniki, that form of Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman Empire.Artifacts of a similar type, either prayers for protection inscribed on gold or silver or curses written on lead and then inserted into a protective amulet or case, were common in the ancient world. A similar silver amulet was recently discovered in Bulgaria, and several years ago, a scroll from the fifth century found in Turkey was discovered to contain a curse against a chariot racer, written in Aramaic with Hebrew letters.

Jeremiah 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Isaiah 57:21
21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

1 Thessalonians 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Ephesians 2:2
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,(PROPAGANDA AGAIN ISRAEL, CHRISTIANS-SATAN IS THE POWER OF THE AIR WAVES (GODLESS MEDIA) the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Netanyahu denies jetting to Cairo as reports of Gaza deal progress boost hope-Egypt reported to invite Palestinians for high-level talks as sources indicate that an agreement freeing hostages and ending over 14 months of fighting could be sealed within days-By Lazar Berman,ToI Staff and Reuters 17 December 2024, 10:26 pm

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied a report that the Israeli leader was flying to Cairo on Tuesday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, after the claim briefly sparked excitement at the idea that an end to the 438-day-old hostage crisis and war could be nigh.Reports in the media have swirled in recent days, as increasingly optimistic-sounding sources in Israel and the Arab world have signaled that Jerusalem and the Hamas terror group are on the brink of inking a deal to halt fighting and begin freeing the 100 people taken from Israel who have been held captive in the Strip since October 7, 2023, or longer.Citing sources with knowledge of intensive talks said to be taking place in Egypt, Reuters reported on Tuesday that Netanyahu was on his way to Cairo, with observers seeing the high-level addition to the talks as a sign that they could be nearing finalization.However, Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri told The Times of Israel that Netanyahu was neither in Cairo nor on his way there.Two Egyptian security sources also said that Netanyahu was not in Cairo “at this moment,” but that a meeting was underway to work through remaining points, chief among them a Hamas demand for guarantees that any short-term deal lead to a comprehensive agreement later.They said progress was being made and felt that Tuesday night could be decisive in setting the next steps.Also boosting optimism were reports in the Hebrew press indicating that Egypt had sent an official summons for Hamas’s leadership to travel to Cairo.Qatar’s al-Araby al-Jadeed reported Tuesday that a Hamas delegation was expected in Cairo by Thursday to provide information about “the fate of a number of hostages” and evidence that they are still alive.According to other Arab reports, the delegation will be led by senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya.Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah Al Mayadeen news station reported that Egypt also invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “for an urgent visit.”The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, have made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.Sources briefed on the talks taking place in Cairo said Tuesday that the negotiations were advancing and a deal could be inked within days. A Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts said negotiations were serious, with discussions under way about every word.But officials in Israel and the US also tempered those expectations, cautioning that the sides had come close before and work remained to be done.“We believe — and the Israelis have said this — that we’re getting closer, and no doubt about it, we believe that, but we also are cautious in our optimism,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said in an interview with Fox News.“We’ve been in this position before where we weren’t able to get it over the finish line,” he said.An unnamed Israeli official said the sides were working intensively, but serious issues remained.“Hamas has the will to get to a deal.There’s a change for the better, but there’s no final agreement. There are still substantial gaps,” the source was quoted as saying. “It will take time.”Some in Israel had speculated there could be major moves Tuesday after Netanyahu was granted the day off from testifying in his criminal trial. The decision to delay the testimony was attributed by the court to “special circumstances,” following a closed-door meeting between Netanyahu’s defense team and the judges in the case.Following the report that Netanyahu was en route to Cairo, his office put out a statement announcing that the premier had actually spent time on Tuesday on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, where he toured the peak of Mount Hermon, which had been taken by soldiers days earlier, following the fall of the Bashar Assad regime.Hamas asserted on Tuesday that a ceasefire deal in Gaza is possible if Israel “stops setting new conditions,” according to a statement.Despite months of negotiations and heavy international pressure, Israel and the terror group have failed to come to terms since a week-long truce in November 2023 saw 105 civilian hostages freed.Israel believes nearly 100 hostages kidnapped on October 7 remain in Gaza, many of them no longer alive.Hamas is demanding a permanent end to the war along with the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza, while Israel is seeking a temporary pause, during which some of the hostages would be released, followed by a resumption of its fighting in order to finish dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities.Israel has sought the release of at least 33 hostages during this phase, while Hamas has maintained that it does not have that number of living captives who fall into the “humanitarian” categories of women, elderly, and sick captives, an Israeli official said.In Tel Aviv, relatives of hostages and others spoke out against the prospect of a phased deal, which could fall apart before all hostages are let go.“A partial deal isn’t a partial victory — it is a complete moral and ethical defeat that will leave Israeli society with a bleeding wound that will consume it from within,” said former hostage Meirav Tal. The body of her partner, Yair Yaakov, is still being held in Gaza.According to London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, the deal coming together could take place in three stages, with the weakest and most infirm hostages released first in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. A second phase would see the remaining Israelis, most of them soldiers, released for between 100-150 hardened terrorists serving long sentences in Israeli prisons, and a full IDF withdrawal from the Strip. The war would officially end with the third stage.On Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz reportedly told Knesset lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that Israel was “closer than ever to another hostage deal.”US President-elect Donald Trump has insisted that a deal be implemented by the time he takes office.At a press conference in Florida Monday, Trump reiterated his threat that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by his January 20 inauguration. Later, Trump said that if no ceasefire deal is reached by the time he takes office, “It’s not going to be pleasant.” He did not elaborate.The hostages, originally 251 people, were taken captive during Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel, during which some 1,200 people were killed.It is believed that 96 people abducted that day remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, 2023, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages were rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages were also recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.Jacob Magid and Gianluca Pacchiani contributed to this report.

White House says administration 'cautious in our optimism' CIA head to visit Qatar as Israeli reports downplay claims that hostage deal imminent-Bill Burns’s to meet with Qatari PM after delegations from Hamas, Israel held talks in Doha the previous two days; Trump envoy also expected there following his trip to Cairo-By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 2:52 am-DEC 17,24

CIA Director Bill Burns is set to meet Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha on Wednesday, in an effort to bridge the remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Tuesday.The two will discuss progress toward a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and hostage release deal, one the sources said.The CIA declined to comment on the reported meeting, which followed talks in Qatar on Tuesday that Hamas said were “serious and positive.” On Monday, an Israeli delegation flew to Doha to meet with mediators.“Hamas affirms that, in light of the serious and positive discussions taking place today in Doha under the auspices of our Qatari and Egyptian brothers, reaching an agreement for a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange is possible if the occupation ceases to impose new conditions,” the Palestinian terror group said in a statement.Along with the talks in Doha, negotiations are being held in Cairo, where sourced briefed on the meeting told Reuters that an agreement could be signed in the coming days.Mohamed al-Hind, the deputy head of Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said his Iran-backed organization, which is believed to hold some of the hostages taken during the October 2023 terror onslaught in southern Israel that started the war, had met with Egyptian officials to discuss the proposed deal.US President-elect Trump’s recently-appointed hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, was also in Cairo Tuesday to meet with Egyptian officials on the efforts to secure an agreement, a source familiar with the matter said, confirming reporting in the Kan public broadcaster.Boehler met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday and is slated to also travel to Doha for similar talks, the source said.‘Been in this position before’The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks, with The Times of Israel reporting Monday that President Joe Biden has been working with Trump’s team to try to seal the deal before the inauguration on January 20.The initiative has made progress, though major obstacles remain, three US, Israeli, and Arab officials have told The Times of Israel, despite various reports — mainly in Arabic media outlets and citing Palestinian sources — touting breakthroughs in the negotiations.“We believe – and the Israelis have said this – that we’re getting closer, and no doubt about it, we believe that, but we also are cautious in our optimism,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said in an interview with Fox News.“We’ve been in this position before where we weren’t able to get it over the finish line.”Israeli sources cited by Hebrew media on Tuesday also sounded more skeptical, saying a deal is weeks away and still faces major hurdles.The Walla news site, citing three unnamed senior Israeli sources familiar with the talks, said that while progress has been made in recent weeks, there were still big gaps between the sides, chiefly regarding Hamas’s insistence that any hostage deal lead to the end of the war.“A deal isn’t around the corner,” one source was quoted as saying.Another source criticized optimistic remarks made by senior officials such as Defense Minister Israel Katz, who reportedly told Knesset members on Monday that a deal was “closer than ever.”“It doesn’t help the negotiations and also misleads the public and gives false hope,” the source said.Similarly, Channel 12 news quoted unnamed senior Israeli sources as saying that, while Hamas has shown willingness to reach a deal, there are still considerable disagreements on core issues that will take time to overcome.Additionally, a Palestinian source cited by the Kan public broadcaster said the reports of an imminent deal were “exaggerated and overly optimistic.”Several waves of negotiations have stalled and failed to reach a sequel to an agreement reached in late November 2023, in which 105 hostages were released in a weeklong truce. Four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.Israel believes that 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, remain in the Strip, a figure that includes the bodies of at least 34 captives confirmed dead by the IDF.Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.Jacob Magid contributed to this report.

Syria’s new rulers step up engagement with world as nations urge humanitarian future-France and Germany send delegations to Damascus, UN humanitarian chief is also in the Syrian capital; EU says it will reopen its embassy-By AFP 17 December 2024, 3:10 pm

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s new rulers stepped up engagement on Tuesday with countries that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah, with the French flag raised at the embassy for the first time in over a decade.Assad fled Syria just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned tanks and other equipment in the face of a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).The collapse of Assad’s rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 led to one of the deadliest wars of the century.Rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western governments as a terrorist organization, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric and pledged to protect the country’s religious minorities.Turkey and Qatar, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, have reopened embassies in Damascus, while US and British officials have launched communications with Syria’s new leaders.France, a key early backer of the uprising, sent a delegation to Damascus on Tuesday, with special envoy Jean-Francois Guillaume saying his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period.An AFP journalist saw the French flag raised in the embassy’s entrance hall for the first time since the mission was shuttered in 2012.After meeting Syria’s new leaders, the United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday he was “encouraged,” and that there was a “basis for ambitious scaling-up of vital humanitarian support.”German diplomats were also in Damascus on Tuesday, where they will hold talks that will focus on “an inclusive transition process in Syria and the protection of minorities” as well as “the possibilities for a diplomatic presence.”Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her country was ready to engage with Syria’s new leadership but urged “maximum caution,” particularly over their treatment of Christians.She said the Islamist-led rebels would be judged on their attitude toward minorities.“Italy… is ready to engage with the new Syrian leadership, obviously in the context of assessments and actions shared with European and international partners,” Meloni told parliament.“The first signs seem encouraging but maximum caution is needed,” she said. “The decisive element will be the attitude towards ethnic and religious minorities.Italy earlier this summer reopened its embassy in Damascus, becoming the first Group of Seven (G7) nation to do so.Rome holds the rotating presidency of the G7 this year.Meanwhile, the European Union is to reopen its mission in Damascus following “constructive” talks with Syria’s new leadership the bloc’s foreign policy chief said Tuesday.“This is a very important step, that we will reopen the delegation in Syria,” the EU’s Kaja Kallas told the European Parliament.The EU’s top diplomat for Syria visited Damascus on Monday for what Kallas called “constructive first contacts with the new leadership and various other groups, also the civil society”.European nations — along with other international players — are jostling for influence in Syria after the end of the Assad family’s five-decade domination.But they are wary of the new authorities.“We can’t leave a vacuum in Syria. The EU must be present,” Kallas said.The EU has said it stands ready to ramp up support for Syria — but has laid out a raft of conditions that new leaders must respect.Those include protecting minorities, overseeing an inclusive transition and shunning extremism.Kallas on Monday said the EU would also push those in charge over the presence of Russian military bases in the country, saying Moscow had no place in Syria’s future.Syria came under international sanctions over Assad’s crackdown on protests, which sparked a war that killed more than 500,000 people and forced half of the population to flee their homes.Assad left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, as well as economic mismanagement that has left 70 percent of the population in need of aid.Abu Mohammed al-Julani, who heads HTS and now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, stressed the need in a meeting with a delegation of British diplomats to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country.”He also said Syria’s rebel factions will be “disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defense ministry.”“All will be subject to the law,” he added, according to posts on the group’s Telegram channel.“Syria must remain united,” he said. “There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice.”Kallas said the lifting of sanctions and removing HTS from its blacklist would depend on “when we see positive steps, not the words, but actual steps and deeds from the new leadership.”‘Color of peace’In Damascus’s old souk, many shops had reopened more than a week since Assad’s ouster, according to an AFP journalist.Some shopkeepers were painting their store facades white, erasing the colors of the old Syrian flag that under Assad’s rule had become ubiquitous.“We have been working non-stop for a week to paint everything white,” Omar Bashur, a 61-year-old artisan said.“White is the color of peace,” he added.Abu Imad, another vendor, was selling vegetables from his car at a square in central Damascus.“Everything happened at once: the regime fell, prices dropped, life got better. We hope it isn’t temporary,” he said.With Assad gone, the Syrian pound started to recover against the dollar, moneychangers and traders said, as foreign currencies again became available on the local market.Iran, meanwhile, which backed Assad throughout the civil war, said its embassy in Syria — abandoned and vandalized in the wake of Assad’s fall — would reopen once the “necessary conditions” are met.Russia was the other main backer of Assad’s rule.On Monday, the ousted president broke his silence with a statement issued on Telegram saying that he only left to Russia once Damascus had fallen, and denounced the country’s new leaders as “terrorists.”Long before the emergence of HTS and jihadist groups in the Syrian war, Assad consistently branded all his opponents, including non-violent protesters, as “terrorists.”“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles,” said the statement.Several former officials had told AFP that Assad was already out of the country hours before the rebels seized Damascus.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

PESTILENCES (CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS)

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(CHEMICAL,BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

I BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE THAT SAY THESE DRONES THAT ARE OVER THESE CITIES ARE LOOKING FOR MISSING NUKE MATERIAL.OR HIDDIN BURIED NUKES BY TERRORISTS.THAT WOULD BE A GREAT REASON THE GOVERNMENT IS HUSH HUSH OVER THESE DRONES. IF THEY START GOING HEAVY OVER NEW YORK CITY. THIS WILL BE A GREAT CLUE THEY ARE LOOKING FOR HIDDEN NUKES BY IRAN OR RUSSIA OR CHINA YOU CAN BET. I'D SAY RUSSIA.

As mystery surrounding drone sightings deepens, conspiracy theories take flight-A lack of clarity about an apparent rash of nighttime drone activity in New Jersey and other states in recent weeks is driving speculation. Federal officials are being cautious.Dec. 16, 2024, 3:40 PM EST / Updated Dec. 16, 2024, 7:25 PM EST-By Erik Ortiz

The burst of drone activity lighting up the night skies above New Jersey and other states is propelling online posts and conspiracies offering up bizarre claims to explain the drone "hysteria," some involving missing nuclear material and an impending alien invasion.Federal government officials have downplayed the reports in recent days and insisted the objects don't pose a public safety or national security threat, and in some cases, may simply be normal commercial air traffic mistaken for drones.More than 5,000 drone-related tips have been reported across the Northeast to the FBI since mid-November, although the agency cautions some are duplicates and most are not worthy of further investigation.Still, the lack of clarity has only fueled social media intrigue and speculation purporting to know who or what is driving the activity.A TikTok video by the chief executive of a remote aircraft system company in Kansas was shared Sunday by Joe Rogan on X, prompting the popular podcaster to write: "This is the first video about these drones that has got me genuinely concerned."The executive, John Ferguson, explained that while he hasn't seen anything to indicate nefarious intent, "the only reason why they would be flying, and flying that low, is because they're trying to smell something on the ground," referring to a gas leak or radioactive materials.Ferguson, whose video has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Other TikTok users have shared similar beliefs that the drones may be searching for nuclear weapons or dirty bombs.The mystery behind the drones is also furthering decades-old conspiracy theories. One refers to Project Blue Beam, which involves a supposed government plot to fake an alien invasion and spark panic.During a wide-ranging news conference Monday, President-elect Donald Trump continued to cast doubt on government officials' inability to fully explain an apparent surge in sightings and said the military can establish where drones take off from."Something strange is going on. For some reason they don't want to tell the people and they should because the people are really — they happen to be over Bedminster," Trump said of drone activity near his golf club in New Jersey. He declined to comment if he has received intelligence briefings on the matter.A senior official briefed on the drone sightings told NBC News last week that they believe drones were indeed seen over the Trump National Golf Club as well as the U.S. Army's Picatinny Arsenal research facility, also in northern New Jersey.Trump, however, said he doesn't believe an enemy is behind the activity and that the U.S. would have "blasted" down foreign unmanned aircraft. (The Federal Aviation Administration has cautioned private citizens against shooting drones, saying it would be a federal offense and could pose a safety hazard.) Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters last week that the drones are neither U.S. military-related nor appear to be dispatched by another country, such as Iran.But Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told reporters Saturday that foreign actors shouldn't be ruled out."The elusive maneuvering of these drones suggests a major military power sophistication that begs the question whether they have been deployed to test our defense capabilities — or worse — by violent dictatorships, perhaps maybe Russia, or China, or Iran, or North Korea," Smith said.Other lawmakers continue to echo similar concerns."Why can't the federal government tell us where these drones are from?!" Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wrote Monday on X. "The lack of transparency is exactly why Americans don't trust our federal government. Not to mention, if these are the same Chinese drones I fought to ban from our military, they're a national security threat."Last week, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., also called for increased government transparency and said he was worried it's allowing potential "misinformation to spread, or at least fear. We should know what's going on over our skies."One New Jersey mayor, Ryan Herd of Pequannock Township, told NBC New York that answers are necessary to quell community concerns."Now we're getting to the point where this is just hysteria," Herd said.New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told reporters Monday that there is "zero evidence" that the federal government or military leaders are hiding anything further, as Trump had alluded to, adding he "would just like to debunk there's a lot of conspiracy theories out there right now."Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a vocal Trump critic, urged his social media followers not to be swayed by the conspiracies just because politicians don't have all the answers."Drones exist," Kinzinger wrote Monday on X. "This doesn't mean they're Iran, alien, or sniffing out nukes."

Amid Mystery Drone Sightings, Radioactive Shipment Goes Missing In New Jersey-The medical device that went missing contained a small amount of Germanium-68 (Ge-68), as per the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.Edited by: Abhinav Singh-World News-Dec 17, 2024 15:06 pm IST

Mystery drone sightings have kept the citizens worried in several US states.In what comes as an alarming development, a radioactive shipment in the US state of New Jersey shipped from the Nazha Cancer Center in Newfield has gone missing. Medical equipment used for cancer scans was in the consignment that arrived at its destination, 'damaged and empty'. The development comes at a time when the mystery involving swarms of drones flying in the night sky has gripped the entire nation. The timing and nature of the missing radioactive material has led to theories suggesting the drones might be involved in searching for or monitoring the lost shipment.As per a notification by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), the device contained a small amount of Germanium-68 (Ge-68), used to calibrate the scanner's accuracy. It has been termed a "Less Than Category 3" level of radioactive material by the agency."The shipping container arrived at its destination damaged and empty. The licensee has filed a claim with the shipper. If the source is not located within 30 days, the licensee will follow-up with a full written report to include root cause(s) and corrective actions," read the notification. "Sources that are "Less than IAEA Category 3 sources," are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury," it added.Reacting to the news, some social media users speculated that the drones could be hunting for radioactive leaks or other hazards. However, official statements have been cautious, with no confirmation of such activities.Trump reacts to sightings-The sightings first began in November near Morris County, New Jersey but have since spread to Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York among other states.President-elect Donald Trump recently chimed in on the issue by suggesting that the mysterious drones should be shot down promptly."Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government's knowledge? I don't think so," Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social, a social media platform owned by him."Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!! DJT," he added.Meanwhile, the US government said the mysterious objects were "manned aircraft" being operated lawfully. "Upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully," said White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby.