COCKROACH KHEMENEI AND HIS CRY BABIES IRANIANS GO COMPLAINING AGAINST ISRAEL WITH THEIR TAILS BETWEEN THEIR LEGS TO THE ISRAEL HATING - FOLD IMMEDIATELY - USELESS UNITED NATIONS.

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)

 COCKROACH KHEMENEI AND HIS CRY BABIES IRANIANS GO COMPLAINING AGAINST ISRAEL WITH THEIR TAILS BETWEEN THEIR LEGS TO THE ISRAEL HATING - FOLD IMMEDIATELY - USELESS UNITED NATIONS.

WARN THE PEOPLE-WW3

EZEKIEL 33:1-6
1 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2  Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
3  If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

DANIEL 11:40-45 (WW3 BREAKDOWN)
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA 2ND WAVE OF WW3) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

ISAIAH 24:1
1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste,(NUKES USED) and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.(WORLD IMMIGRATION)

GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(ARAB/MUSLIM) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he will be a wild man;(RIOTS-BURNING-MURDEROUUS RAGE) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM WANTS WORLD DOMINATION) and every man's hand against him;(DEFENDING THEMSELVES) and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(ARAB/MUSLIMS LIVE WITH ISRAELIS)

ISAIAH 33:1,18-19 Woe to thee that spoilest,(destroys) and thou wast not spoiled;(destroyed) and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil,(destroy) thou shalt be spoiled;(destroyed) and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF THEIR MOON GOD ALLAH)

ISAIAH 14:12-23
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, (SATAN) son of the morning! (HEBREW MEANS CRESCENT MOON ANGEL-ISLAM OVIOUSLY)(SATAN IS THE GOD OF ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Ecclesiastes 9:10
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

EZEKIEL 31:10-17
10 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
13 Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:
14To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.(HELL).
15Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.
17They also went down into hell with him unto [them that be] slain with the sword; and [they that were] his arm, [that] dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
18To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with [them that be] slain by the sword. This [is] Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

EZEKIEL 32:17-32
17 It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth [day] of the month, [that] the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, [even] her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.
19 Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.
20 They shall fall in the midst of [them that are] slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.
21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
22 Asshur [is] there and all her company: his graves [are] about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:
23 Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.
24 There [is] Elam (IRAN) and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.
25 They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves [are] round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of [them that be] slain.
26 There [is] Meshech, Tubal,(RUSSIA) (GERMANY, TURKEY) and all her multitude: her graves [are] round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.
27And they shall not lie with the mighty [that are] fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though [they were] the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
28 Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with [them that are] slain with the sword.
29 There [is] Edom,(JORDAN) her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by [them that were] slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.
30 There [be] the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with [them that be] slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.
31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, [even] Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.
32 For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with [them that are] slain with the sword, [even] Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

EZEKIEL 38:1-23
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:TOBOLSK)
4 And I (GOD) will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(AFRICAN MUSLIMS,SUDAN,TUNESIA ETC)
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say,(RUSSIA-ARAB-MUSLIMS) I will go up to the land of unwalled villages;(ISRAEL) I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil,(OIL IS IN SPOIL) and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13  Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDI-ARABIA) and the merchants of Tarshish,(SPAIN) with all the young lions thereof,(ENGLAND,AND ALL ITS ASSOCIATES-CANADA,AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND, USA, AND WESTERN ENGLISH SPEAKING NATIONS) shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?(OIL IS IN SPOIL-I BELIEVE THATS WHY RUSSIA,ARAB/MUSLIMS MARCH TO ISRAEL)
14  Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15  And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16  And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

EZEKIEL 39:11-22
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)(EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18  Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19  And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20  Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21  And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
22  So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.

REVELATION 19:17-18
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;(AGAINST ALL NATIONS ARMIES THAT COME AGAINST JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL)
18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)

REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)

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.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)

EZEKIEL 32:18-29 (NOTICE ALL THE COUNTRIES LAND PROMISED ISRAEL BY GOD ARE IN THE JORDAN VALLEY BURIED)
18 “Son of man, wail for the multitudes of Egypt, and consign her and the daughters of the mighty nations to the depths of the earth with those who descend to the Pit:
19 Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be placed with the uncircumcised! (IN HELL FIRES)
20 They will fall among those slain by the sword. The sword is appointed! Let them drag her away along with all her multitudes.
21 Mighty chiefs will speak from the midst of Sheol about Egypt and her allies: ‘They have come down and lie with the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.’
22 Assyria (SYRIA) is there with her whole company; her graves are all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword.
23 Her graves are set in the depths of the Pit, and her company is all around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword—those who once spread terror in the land of the living.
24 Elam (IRAN) is there with all her multitudes around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword—those who went down uncircumcised to the earth below, who once spread their terror in the land of the living. They bear their disgrace with those who descend to the Pit.
25 Among the slain they prepare a resting place for Elam with all her hordes, with her graves all around her. All of them are uncircumcised, slain by the sword, although their terror was once spread in the land of the living. They bear their disgrace with those who descend to the Pit. They are placed among the slain.
26 Meshech and Tubal (RUSSIA) are there with all their multitudes, with their graves all around them. All of them are uncircumcised, slain by the sword, because they spread their terror in the land of the living.
27 They do not lie down with the fallen warriors of old, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were placed under their heads, whose shields rested on their bones, although the terror of the mighty was once in the land of the living.
28 But you too will be shattered and lie down among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.
29 Edom (JORDAN) is there, and all her kings and princes, who despite their might are laid among those slain by the sword. They lie down with the uncircumcised, with those who descend to the Pit.THIS IS RIGHT FROM 93:

IRAN GUARDS CHIEF COWARD WITH HIS TAIL BETWEEN HIS LEGS.CLAIME ISRAEL WILL PAY A HEAVY PRICE FOR NAILING THE GUARDS BASES AND MISSLE LAUNCHERS ETC.BUT STILL THE CRY BABY WELL BOY, PICK THEIR NOSE AND ARSUS SHIITE MAUHDI SEX FOR MURDER PEDOPHILE DEATH CULT WORSHIPPERS HAVE TO CRY TO THE USELESS ISRAEL HATING ANTI-SEMITE UNITED NATIONS ABOUT ISRAEL.

Iran calls on UN Security Council to condemn Israeli strikes.

Tehran, Oct 27 (AFP) Oct 27, 2024-Iran on Sunday called for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting to condemn Israel's air strikes on the Islamic republic a day earlier.Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to the UN chief and the head of the Council "demanding an urgent meeting of the Security Council to take a decisive position in condemning this aggression", a ministry statement said.On Saturday, Israel conducted air strikes on military sites in Iran in response to Tehran's October 1 attack on Israel, itself retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.In his letter, Araghchi said "most of the projectiles fired were intercepted by Iran's defence systems" but the attack led to damage at "the target points", as well as the death of four soldiers.He said the Israeli attack was a "clear violation of the sovereignty" of Iran which "reserves the inherent right... to respond to this criminal aggression."The Israeli military said it hit Iranian missile factories, missile installations and other systems in several regions, and warned Tehran against responding.Iran has downplayed the attack, saying it caused "limited damage" to a few radar systems, while media outlets dismissed the assault as "weak", signalling what analysts say is the Islamic republic's reluctance to escalate further.

Iran’s Guards chief warns of ‘bitter, unimaginable consequences’ for Israel’s strike-Tehran says it will use ‘all available tools’ to respond to targeted assault on military sites; Iraq lodges complaint at UN over alleged use of its airspace during Israeli op-By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 1:46 pm-OCT 28,24

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday that Israel had “failed to achieve its ominous goals” with its Saturday strikes on Iranian military sites.Hossein Salami, quoted by the Tasnim news agency, said the Israeli attack, which came in retaliation for Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile barrage on the country, was a sign of “miscalculation and helplessness” as Israel battles the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.“Its bitter consequences will be unimaginable” for Israel, Salami warned according to Tasnim.Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei warned that Tehran would use “all available tools” to respond to Israel’s strikes.Speaking at a weekly televised news conference, Baghaei said Iran would “use available tools to deliver a definite and effective response to the Zionist regime.”The nature of Iran’s response depends on the nature of the Israeli attack, Baghaei added without elaborating.Iran has attempted to downplay the retaliatory strike launched by Israel on Saturday, almost four weeks after the Islamic Republic’s barrage of some 200 ballistic missiles. The Israeli military said that the retaliatory attack had targeted strategic military sites — specifically, drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries.Iranian state media also reported on Monday that a civilian security guard had been killed in the attacks, the fifth confirmed person to die.“The martyr Allahverdi Rahimpour, a civilian who was killed near Tehran during the recent attack by the Zionist regime, has been buried,” the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency reported.Tasnim reported that Rahimpour had worked “as a security guard in a company” in the city of Nassimshahr, southwest of Tehran.” It did not elaborate further on the company in question.Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that the attack “should neither be exaggerated nor minimized,” but claimed that Israel, in its decision to retaliate, had underestimated “the power, initiative, and determination of the Iranian people.”Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said, meanwhile, that Iran does “not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country,” and stressed that there would be “an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime.”Israel has indicated it will not take further action if Iran holds its fire after its two strikes on the Jewish state — in April and in October — but has threatened escalation if the Islamic Republic launches a third barrage.The head of the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that Israel had restrained itself in its weekend attack on Iran.“We drew upon only some of our abilities,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said. “We have the ability to do much more.”“We hit strategic systems in Iran… and we will see how things develop now. We are ready for all scenarios on all fronts,” he added.Tehran’s allies abroad were quick to criticize Israel’s attack, and an Iraqi government spokesperson said on Monday that Baghdad had submitted a complaint to the United Nations over the alleged use of its airspace to carry out the strikes.Images and videos on social media from Iraq appeared to show booster sections of missiles used by Israel. The fragments of the missiles appeared to have fallen in an area north of Baghdad.— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller) October 26, 2024-The Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah group in Iraq condemned the use of Iraqi airspace as a “dangerous precedent” and accused the United States of being complicit in the attack, warning that there would be a response to the “aggression.”The terror group, along with several other pro-Iran factions, has claimed responsibility for drones launched at Israel throughout its year-long war with Hamas — sparked by a brutal assault on southern Israel by Hamas-led terrorists that killed some 1,200 and saw 251 abducted on October 7, 2023 — and has launched attacks on US forces in the region.

Khamenei’s day-old Hebrew account on X suspended after threats against Israel-Social media platform does not offer reason for action; profiles run by Iranian supreme leader in other languages with similar content remain active-By ToI Staff Today, 10:06 am-OCT 28,24

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s new Hebrew-language account was suspended from social media platform X on Sunday night, just one day after he opened the account following Israel’s reprisal strikes on Iran over the weekend.The account was suspended after Khamenei posted a message warning that “The Zionist regime made a mistake” when it decided to retaliate for the October 1 ballistic missile attack carried out by Tehran.Israel “erred in its calculations on Iran,” the post read. “We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has.”Rules on X, formerly known as Twitter, ban content from “violent and hateful entities,” but the guidelines make an exception for posts from “state or governmental entities.”There was no immediate comment from X or owner Elon Musk on the matter.Multiple other accounts operated by Khamenei’s office, including in Persian, Arabic, English, and Bengali, remained active despite sharing similar sentiments to those published on the Hebrew account.Zionists are making a miscalculation with respect to Iran. They don't know Iran. They still haven't been able to correctly understand the power, initiative, and determination of the Iranian people. We need to make them understand these things.— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) October 27, 2024-A message posted on Khamenei’s English account earlier on Sunday warned that Israelis “still haven’t been able to correctly understand the power initiative, and determination of the Iranian people. We need to make them understand these things.”That post, and several others like it, amassed more than 14,000 likes and remains online.Khamenei opened the Hebrew-language account following Israel’s long-awaited retaliatory strike against Iran early Saturday, in which the Israeli Air Force carried out targeted strikes on strategic military sites, including air defense batteries and drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites.His first post, published Saturday evening, simply read, “In the name of Allah the merciful and compassionate.”The Iranian supreme leader has a history of publishing posts on X in broken Hebrew, mostly making threats against the Jewish state. Prior to Saturday, however, he had done so on his main account, where items are mainly written in English.Following the October 1 attack, in which the Islamic Republic fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, Khamenei warned in Hebrew that the “blows of the uprising front will become stronger and more painful on the worn and rotting body of the Zionist regime.”He is no stranger to being suspended from social media. In February, Meta removed his Facebook and Instagram accounts over his support of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel.AP contributed to this report.

Netanyahu has denied tipping off Islamic Republic-Iran says it had advance notice of IDF strikes; UN Security Council to meet Monday-Tehran invokes UN charter to assert right to respond; Israeli envoy Danny Danon says claim that Saturday attack violated international law ‘ridiculous,’ Israel must defend itself-By Reuters and ToI Staff 27 October 2024, 8:21 pm

The United Nations Security Council is expected to meet on Monday to discuss Israel’s strikes on Iran, diplomats said on Sunday, as Iran’s top diplomat said his regime received advance notice of the widespread attack.Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called on the Security Council to “convene an urgent meeting” about the Saturday attack and diplomats said the council was likely to discuss the situation on Monday.In a letter to the 15-member council on Saturday, Araghchi denounced what he called “the Zionist regime’s unlawful and aggressive actions, which constitute a serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a flagrant breach of international law and the United Nations Charter.”He added that the “Israeli regime’s actions constitute a grave threat to international peace and security and further destabilize an already fragile region.”“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in alignment with the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and under international law, reserves its inherent right to legal and legitimate response to these criminal attacks at the appropriate time,” he wrote.Israel launched a long-awaited retaliatory strike against Iran early Saturday, almost four weeks after the Islamic Republic’s massive ballistic missile barrage on the country, with the military saying the Israeli Air Force strikes targeted strategic military sites — specifically drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries.Separately, Araghchi said Sunday that Iran had received indications on Friday evening that Israel was about to attack, according to Iranian media. He said that “hours before the Israeli attack, messages were exchanged with different parties,” and that Tehran subsequently took unspecified actions.The Prime Minister’s Office denied reports that it gave an advance notice to Iran about the attack.Iran had been bracing for a reprisal after its latest direct attack on Israel, in which it fired 200 ballistic missiles that sent most of the population to bomb shelters on October 1, killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank, and caused damage in residential areas and at military bases, though the IDF says the attack had no operational impact.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday that Iran did not seek war with Israel, but was ready to deliver “an appropriate response” to the airstrikes by the “Zionist regime.”UN Ambassador Danny Danon rejected Iran’s complaint at the United Nations, saying in a statement on Sunday that Iran was “trying to act against us in the diplomatic arena with the ridiculous claim that Israel has violated international law.”“As we have stated time and time again, we have the right and duty to defend ourselves and will use all the means at our disposal to protect the citizens of Israel,” Danon said.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed “to all parties to cease all military actions, including in Gaza and Lebanon, exert maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war and return to the path of diplomacy,” his spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.AFP contributed to this report.

We hit strategic systems; we'll see how things develop now'IDF chief on Israel’s attack in Iran: ‘We have the ability to do much more’Islamic Republic ambiguous about possible response to Israeli strike, but Channel 13 reports Israel expecting attack at some point-By Emanuel Fabian-and ToI Staff Today, 9:13 am-OCT 28,24

The head of the Israel Defense Forces has said Israel restrained itself in its weekend attack on Iran, in comments published Sunday, as the country girds for a possible response from Tehran.In a video released Sunday, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi was seen telling other officials that the hours-long bombardment of military sites across Iran early Saturday had struck “strategic systems.”“We drew upon only some of our abilities,” Halevi said in the clip, part of a meeting in which top brass assessed the results of the assault, a retaliation for Iran’s massive Oct. 1 ballistic missile barrage on Israel. “We have the ability to do much more.”“We hit strategic systems in Iran… and we will see how things develop now. We are ready for all scenarios on all fronts,” he added.Israel has indicated it has no wish for further escalation, but that it could take more aggressive action if Iran once again launches an attack on its territory. It is widely reported to have considered hitting Iranian oil sites — key to the country’s struggling economy — but to have been dissuaded by the Biden administration from hitting such sensitive targets.Halevi said the strike on military targets had been a “clear message.”“We know how to reach and hit any threat, in any place, at any time.”The unprecedented strike, undertaken in response to the Islamic Republic’s missile barrage on Israel four weeks ago, saw IAF warplanes roam freely above Iranian skies and target strategic military sites.The IDF said the air force specifically targeted drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries, adding that the operation was in response to “months of continuous attacks from the Iranian regime against the State of Israel.”Reports on Sunday indicated that Israel was gearing up for an expected Iranian response to the assault, even as Tehran remained ambiguous about escalating the conflict.Channel 13 news reported Sunday that Iran had had missiles prepared for launch at Israel as the attack was underway, but decided against using them. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is still weighing his options regarding a response, which may include terror attacks outside Israel, the report said.Israel’s targeting of Iranian air defenses in the strike — reportedly Russian S-300 batteries — appears to have left the country far more open to further attacks, if it should launch another direct barrage on the Jewish state.The Channel 13 report added that the Islamic Republic considers its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah to now be largely ineffective, after being battered by Israel over the past month, so a drone strike executed by the terror group would not achieve a significant result.While visiting families of Iranian soldiers killed in the attack Sunday, Khamenei said, “There’s no need to exaggerate Israel’s evil and there’s no need to downplay it. Israel made a mistake in its calculations, and it’s important to understand the will of the Iranian people.”He added that Tehran’s “response will be determined by senior officials, in a manner that best serves the interest of the people and also takes the state into account.”

Analysis-Weakened by Israel, Iran seeks to save face without sparking a war it would likely lose-With its air defenses shaken, Tehran can’t afford a flare-up but doesn’t want to seem frail before its battered terror proxies, analysts say, noting the standoff is uncharted territory-By AP and ToI Staff 27 October 2024, 5:52 pm

It’s Iran’s move now.How the Islamic Republic chooses to respond to the unprecedentedly public Israeli aerial assault on military sites in its homeland could determine whether the region spirals further toward all-out war or holds steady at an already devastating and destabilizing level of violence.In the coldly calculating realm of Middle East geopolitics, a strike of the kind that Israel delivered before dawn Saturday would typically be met with a forceful response.Israel struck Iran — which is openly committed to Israel’s destruction — in response to Iran’s massive October 1 missile barrage, which came days after Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Iran had been bracing for the reprisal after its latest direct attack on Israel, in which it fired 200 ballistic missiles that sent most of the population to bomb shelters on October 1, killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank, and caused damage in residential areas and at military bases, though the IDF says the attack had no operational impact.Responding militarily to Saturday’s Israeli strike would allow Iran’s clerical leadership to show strength not only to its own citizens but also to Hezbollah and Hamas, the terror groups that form the vanguard of Tehran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance.”It is too soon to say whether Iran’s leadership will follow that path.Tehran may opt to hold back for now, not least because doing so might reveal its weaknesses and invite a more potent Israeli response, analysts say.“Iran will play down the impact of the strikes, which are in fact quite serious,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House.She said Iran is “boxed in” by military and economic constraints, and the uncertainty caused by the United States election and its impact on American policy in the region.Even while the Middle East wars rage, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, considered a relative moderate in Iranian politics, has been signaling his nation wants a new nuclear deal with the US to ease crushing international sanctions.A carefully worded statement from Iran’s military issued Saturday night appeared to offer some wiggle room for the Islamic Republic to back away from further escalation. It suggested that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon was more important than any retaliation against Israel.Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ultimate decision-maker, was also measured in his first comments on the strike Sunday. He said the attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” and he stopped short of calling for an immediate military response.Saturday’s strikes targeted Iranian air defense missile batteries and missile production facilities, according to the Israeli military.With that, Israel has exposed vulnerabilities in Iran’s air defenses and can still step up its attacks, analysts say.Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press indicate Israel’s raid damaged facilities at the Parchin military base southeast of Tehran that experts say was previously tied to Iran’s nuclear weapons program and another base tied to its ballistic missile program.Current nuclear facilities were not struck, however. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that on X, saying “Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been impacted.”Israel stepped up operations against Lebanon’s Hezbollah in late September, after almost a year of the terror group’s relentless rocket fire at northern Israel, which has led to the internal displacement of some 60,000 residents.Hezbollah says its attacks are in support of Gaza amid the war there, sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. Hamas had reportedly lobbied both Hezbollah and Iran to assist in the attack.Amid the escalation in Lebanon, Israel has all but decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and allegedly targeted its operatives in an audacious exploding pager attack.“Any Iranian attempt to retaliate will have to contend with the fact that Hezbollah, its most important ally against Israel, has been significantly degraded and its conventional weapons systems have twice been largely repelled,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, who expects Iran to hold its fire for now.That’s true even if Israel held back, as appears to be the case. Some prominent figures in Israel, such as Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, are already saying the attacks didn’t go far enough.Regional experts suggested that Israel’s relatively limited target list was intentionally calibrated to make it easier for Iran to back away from escalation.As Yoel Guzansky, who formerly worked for Israel’s National Security Council and is now a researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, put it: Israel’s decision to focus on purely military targets “allows them to save face.”Israel’s target choices may also be a reflection at least in part of its capabilities. It is unlikely able to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities on its own and would require help from the US, Guzansky said.Besides, Israel still has leverage to go after higher-value targets should Iran retaliate — particularly now that nodes in its air defenses have been destroyed.“You preserve for yourself all kinds of contingency plans,” Guzansky said.Thomas Juneau, a University of Ottawa professor focused on Iran and the wider Middle East, wrote on X that the fact Iranian media initially downplayed the strikes suggests Tehran may want to avoid further escalation. Yet it faces a dilemma.“If it retaliates, it risks an escalation in which its weakness means it loses more,” wrote Juneau. “If it does not retaliate, it projects a signal of weakness.”Vakil, the Chatham House researcher, agreed that Iran’s response was likely to be muted and that the strikes were designed to minimize the potential for escalation“Israel has yet again shown its military precision and capabilities are far superior to that of Iran,” she said.One thing is certain: The Middle East is in uncharted territory.For decades, leaders and strategists in the Middle East have speculated about if and how Israel might one day openly strike Iran, just as they wondered what direct attacks by Iran, rather than by its regional proxies, would look like.Today, it’s a reality. Yet the playbook on either side isn’t clear, and may still be being written.“There appears to be a major mismatch both in terms of the sword each side wields and the shield it can deploy,” Vaez said.“While both sides have calibrated and calculated how quickly they climb the escalation ladder, they are in an entirely new territory now, where the new red lines are nebulous and the old ones have turned pink,” he said.

Analysis-Israel’s strikes in Iran set the stage for future attacks and a change in US policy-Tehran is assessing the damage from Israeli strikes, possibly hiding that nuclear sites were targeted; the ‘limited’ strikes allow for de-escalation and leave Iran vulnerable-Amir Bar Shalom-By Amir Bar Shalom and ToI Staff 27 October 2024, 4:22 pm

With the passage of time since Israel’s airstrikes on Iran early Saturday, the tone coming out of Tehran appears to be changing.In the first hours immediately after the attack, the official line was that Iran managed to repel the Israeli attack and that the damage, if any, was minor. The Tasnim news agency, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, hastened to announce that only 20 Israeli jets were involved in the attack and that they were prevented from entering Iranian airspace by the regime’s anti-aircraft forces.But then later on Saturday, the Iranians began to understand the intensity and depth of the damage. General Ismail Kosri, a senior member of the Revolutionary Guards and a member of Iran’s Supreme Security Council, said, “Israel must pay for the intrusion into Iranian skies and the Israelis must get used to the reality of living in shelters.”The assessment coming out of Iran is now starting to match that of the US and Israel, who believe that the strike did significant damage to Iran’s air-defense systems and missile program.The decision on whether to respond currently rests with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and while he spoke somewhat ambiguously on Sunday, so far other senior Iranian officials have stayed silent — either out of embarrassment or out of fear of making promises they cannot keep. One thing seems clear: Iran suffered a bigger blow than it expected.The US issued a warning to Tehran not to respond, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying, “Iran should not make the mistake of responding to Israel’s strikes, which should mark the end of this exchange.”US President Joe Biden told reporters that “it looks like [Israel] didn’t hit anything other than military targets,” saying that his “hope is this is the end” of the exchange of fire between the two major Middle Eastern military powers.Israel may have hoped for a more forceful statement from the US to deter Iran from responding, but such a threat is unlikely to be issued just over a week before the presidential elections.Israel made a clear choice to not push Iran into a corner, choosing limited strikes on military targets instead of a larger attack on energy infrastructure or government targets as had been discussed in recent weeks. The IDF spokesman’s statement at the time of the attack put clear emphasis on the fact that the strikes were “targeted” and aimed at military sites alone.Iran said its October 1 missile attack on Israel, which involved the launch of almost 200 ballistic missiles, solely targeted military sites. The IDF Spokesman’s statement indicates that the Israeli response was aimed at proportionality and deterrence, not escalation.While the damage from Israel’s attack is clearly extensive, the fact that most of the damage was away from population centers and was limited to military bases leaves the Iranians room to say that the strikes were unsuccessful, or that they don’t need to respond.Hidden damage-Israel may have also attacked sites in Iran that the regime is unlikely to reveal to the public, some of which are secretive and related to the country’s nuclear project.One such target may have been in the city of Karaj, northwest of Tehran, where Israel struck a number of anti-aircraft batteries. Karaj, however, is home to the centrifuge industry of Iran’s nuclear system, and it is entirely possible that Israel’s strikes in the city were not limited to the missile systems.The Karaj centrifuge facility has been targeted in the past, with a major attack in 2021 being widely attributed to Israel though it never claimed responsibility.According to a report in the New York Times, Israeli also targeted the secretive Parchin military base on the outskirts of Tehran on Saturday. The report cited Iranian officials as saying that the site was hit during the Israeli attack.Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show damage to the Parchin base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency has accused Iran of conducting tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, though the IAEA, Western intelligence agencies and others say Tehran had an active weapons program at least up until 2003.The site came under renewed scrutiny by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2015 when Tehran reached a landmark deal with major powers under which it agreed to curb its nuclear activities under UN supervision in return for the lifting of international sanctions. The deal has since fallen apart.Iran had previously denied the IAEA access to Parchin, insisting it was a military site unrelated to any nuclear activities, but the agency’s then-chief, the late Yukiya Amano, paid a visit to the site. The IAEA reported finding traces of enriched uranium in soil samples taken from the site, but Iran has consistently denied the validity of those findings.Since then, there has been continued suspicion that Iran uses the site for nuclear detonation research, and Israel’s reported targeting of the site this weekend may renew international interest in the facility.Groundwork for the next attack-The main target of the Israeli attack, Iran’s air defense systems and missile industry, laid the groundwork for the next attack. The alleged damage to Iran’s flagship air-defense systems, the Russian-made S-300, allows Israel greater freedom of action over Iranian skies.The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had four S-300 systems before the attack, and that all four were destroyed by Israel, citing an Israeli official.The attacks on the air defenses caused “deep alarm” in Iran, The New York Times reported, citing three unnamed Iranian officials — one from the country’s oil ministry — since it rendered key energy sites defenseless to future strikes.Israel also reportedly delivered a “crippling” blow to Iran’s missile industry, striking at least 12 planetary mixers used to make solid fuel used in long-range ballistic missiles, reports said, with some putting the number of mixers struck at 20.The Saudi Elaph news site reported, citing an unnamed informed source, that the heavy fuel mixers had been used to power Khaybar and Qassem missiles, ballistic missiles that were launched at Israel in the Iranian strike earlier this month.The source claimed it would take two years to repair the factory, which was completely destroyed. It did not say where the factory was located.The Axios news site cited Israeli sources and a US official as saying Iran can’t produce the mixers on its own and must acquire them from China, which may take more than a year. The report also said the development would limit Tehran’s ability to supply ballistic missiles to its proxies, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, both terror groups.America’s decision time-As much as the United States tries to tread lightly regarding the Iranian issue, it seems that the Israeli strikes are pushing the US, regardless of who the next president is, toward a decision on a new policy regarding Iran.The current situation, where Iran is very close to acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities — posing threats to regional countries, global fuel supplies, shipping lanes and US interests — even as it engages in direct and indirect conflict with Israel, makes it much more than just background noise. The US knows this situation needs to be resolved.So far, Washington has refrained from making direct threats against Tehran, both declaratively and practically, even in recent weeks. According to sources in Israel, this must change.Now that Israel has officially struck in Iran for the first time, and did so in compliance with the Biden administration’s stringent conditions, it expects an appropriate change in US policy.Translated and edited from the original Hebrew on The Times of Israel’s sister site Zman Yisrael.

Gallant: 'There's no place too far away for us' Netanyahu: Attack on Iran was precise, powerful, achieved all goals; Khamenei: A mistake
PM says airstrikes hit Iran defense capabilities, missile production; Iran’s supreme leader warns of ‘response to Zionist regime,’ says its ‘incorrect assessment must be corrected’By ToI Staff and Agencies 27 October 2024, 1:51 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel’s air attack on Iran over the weekend was “precise and powerful” and achieved all its goals, while Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that Tehran officials would determine how best to respond to the strikes.“We promised we would respond to the Iranian attack and on Saturday we struck… The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, achieving all of its objectives,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year.Israel launched a long-awaited retaliatory strike against Iran early Saturday, almost four weeks after the Islamic Republic’s massive ballistic missile barrage on the country, with the military saying the Israeli Air Force strikes targeted strategic military sites — specifically drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries.Iran had been bracing for a reprisal after its latest direct attack on Israel, in which it fired 200 ballistic missiles that sent most of the population to bomb shelters on October 1, killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank, and caused damage in residential areas and at military bases — although the IDF said that the attack had no operational impact.“Iran attacked Israel with hundreds of ballistic missiles and this attack failed,” Netanyahu said. “We kept our promise. The air force attacked Iran and hit Iran’s defense capabilities and missile production.”Saturday’s strikes followed a systematic, months-long campaign to “sever the arms of the Iranian octopus, Hezbollah and Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “Two days ago, we struck the head of the octopus, the Iranian regime.”Addressing the Iranian people, he said, “Our fight is not against you,” but rather against the regime that oppresses them and threatens the region.Also speaking at the October 7 memorial ceremony, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the “precise, lethal and surprising” attack on Iran sent a clear message — “Israel’s long arm will reach anyone who tries to harm us.”“There is no place too far away for us,” he said.Khamenei: Don’t deride or exaggerate the Israeli attack-Following the strikes on Saturday, Iran confirmed Israel had targeted military sites around the capital and in other provinces but appeared to downplay the impact, saying the raids caused “limited damage” but killed four soldiers.In his first public comments since Israel’s reprisal attacks, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Tehran officials should determine how best to respond.“Israel made a mistake [with its attack]. They exaggerated, of course,” Khamnei said. “To exaggerate about this is a mistake. But deriding this [attack] is also a mistake. To say, ‘nothing happened; it wasn’t important,’ is also a mistake.”He added: “The incorrect assessment by the Zionist regime must be corrected. They have a mistaken assessment about Iran.”According to the state IRNA news outlet, Khamenei also said Israel “should understand the strength, will, and initiative of the Iranian nation.”He added that Tehran’s “response would be determined by senior officials, in a way that best serves the interest of the people and also takes the the state into account.”Israel’s airstrikes on Saturday crippled Tehran’s ability to produce long-range ballistic missiles, in a blow that will be hard and time-consuming to recover from, and rendered crucial energy facilities vulnerable to future attacks by destroying air defense batteries protecting them, according to multiple reports citing Israeli, American and Iranian officials, as well as satellite images analyzed by experts.The operation, hitting targets some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away, was unprecedented in terms of its scale and duration, and Israel’s immediate acknowledgment of responsibility. Iranian media quoted the country’s parliament speaker as saying that Tehran would respond to the strikes “decisively and appropriately,” citing the right to self-defense provided by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.“Israel has become a laughingstock in the face of Iran. Tehran’s response to the Israeli attack is inevitable,” Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was quoted as saying.He described the strikes, which were carried out in several waves over several hours, in various areas of Iran, as “a sign of desperation, resulting in another failure for the regime.”Ghalibaf also cautioned the United States, which he called Israel’s “main supporter and partner in all its war crimes,” to work to restrain Jerusalem and to pursue diplomatic channels to prevent a further escalation, according to the Iranian reports.A short while after the strikes on Saturday morning, the Israeli military said the operation had given the IAF “wider freedom of aerial action in Iran,” and that it had a broad bank of targets that it could hit in the future if required.In recent weeks, the Biden administration had pressed Israel not to strike nuclear or oil sites, while backing its right to respond to Iran’s October 1 ballistic missile attack.American officials have said that Israel notified Washington ahead of the strikes, stressing the US was not involved in the operation.Iran said that the October 1 attack came in response to strikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and much of the terror group’s senior leadership last month, as well as the killing of Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July in a blast which has been widely blamed on Israel despite its silence on the matter.Lazar Berman contributed to this report.

A clear message to Iran: Your nukes and oil are next-Ayatollah Khamenei now understands the depth of Israeli intelligence capabilities and Iran's own potential vulnerabilities-OCT 28,24

Israel’s recent strike on Iranian soil conveyed a clear message to the Iranian regime: Israel is fully capable of directly targeting any site within Iran, including nuclear, oil, and gas facilities. This action was taken in response to Iran’s earlier ballistic missile attack on Israel, aligning with the message Iran issued soon afterward. “Message is Clear: Iran says ready to respond to any aggression,” blared the headline in the Islamic Republic’s English mouthpiece The Tehran Times.The full details of Israel’s recent attack in Iran, and the exact extent of the damage, remain unclear and may never be fully confirmed by either side. However, reports based on satellite imagery, analysis, and leaks from credible international sources indicate substantial damage to Iran’s defense and offensive capabilities.The strike appears to have destroyed most, if not all, of Iran’s S-300 air defense systems and some of the advanced S-400 systems acquired from Russia. In a simultaneous assault on air defense systems in Syria and Iraq, Israel significantly reduced Iran’s ability to detect and intercept hostile aerial vehicles. As the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson stated, “Now, the State of Israel has wider air freedom of action in Iran as well.” This development marks a serious setback for Iran’s defensive posture.Related: Netanyahu: Israel’s air attack on Iran ‘precise and powerful,’ achieved all goals-Additionally, Israel’s strike targeted Iran’s solid-fuel engine installations, which are essential for producing solid fuel for ballistic missiles such as the ones fired at Israel. This loss directly affects Iran’s capacity to quickly produce advanced missiles, representing a significant blow to its offensive capabilities.Israel has released limited information regarding its attacks on 20 targets across Tehran, Ilam, and Khuzestan provinces, likely because the intended audience for this message is not the Iranian public but rather Iran’s leadership. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was likely briefed within hours on the scope and implications of the attack, regardless of how authorities and state media may attempt to downplay the extent of the damage. Khamenei now understands the depth of Israeli intelligence capabilities, the operational penetration that made the strike possible, and the potential vulnerability of nuclear, oil, and gas facilities. Israel has, in effect, cleared a path to these strategic assets by disabling key defensive and offensive capabilities in this operation.Khamenei’s analysis of the situation should lead him to realize that if Israel refrained from targeting nuclear sites this time, possibly due to US objections, it may seize a future opportunity to do so – perhaps even with US involvement.Before contemplating a response, Khamenei should consider Israel’s underlying message: “Message Is Clear: Your Nukes and Oil Are Next!”

Smotrich urges ramping up West Bank, Gaza settlements, pushing Palestinians out-At conference, Religious Zionism leader says Palestinians who insist on statehood should be encouraged to emigrate to an Arab state; other coalition members urge Israeli sovereignty from Jordan River to sea-By Sam Sokol-Today, 4:25 am-OCT 28,24

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called Sunday for Israel to effectively annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip, calling for the establishment of new settlements deep inside Palestinian areas and the departure of Arabs harboring nationalist aspirations.The comments from the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party marked the latest instance of one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political allies urging the re-establishment of Israeli settlements inside the Gaza Strip while reversing the country’s 2005 withdrawal from the enclave.Addressing the Middle East Summit, a conference in Jerusalem organized by Israel 365, an Israeli media outlet aimed at American evangelicals, Smotrich described repeated attempts to reach a two-state solution as wrongheaded, urging they be abandoned and replaced by an “unequivocal Israeli statement to the Arabs and the entire world that a Palestinian state will not be established.”The figurative statement, he argued, would come via “the establishment of new cities and settlements deep in the [West Bank]” housing hundreds of thousands of new settlers.In Gaza, where Israel has fought a year-long war to topple the Hamas terror group but has yet to determine how the Strip will be governed, Smotrich also called for Israeli sovereignty to be extended, claimed that its war gains would dissipate without troops, and civilians, being posted there on a more permanent basis.“Where there is no civilian presence, there is no long-term military presence… there is no security and there is an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, and we must not allow this,” he said.He indicated that the October 7, 2023 massacre carried out by Hamas could have been prevented had Israeli troops and settlements still been inside the Strip.In his remarks, Smotrich envisioned Palestinians being given limited local self-rule “devoid of national characteristics,” saying those who continued to support Palestinian statehood would be unwelcome.“Those who do not want or are unable to put aside their national ambitions will receive assistance from us to emigrate to one of the many Arab countries where the Arabs can realize their national ambitions, or to any other destination in the world,” he said.Smotrich was one of several government ministers who attended an event last week calling for the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza. During the conference, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that “encouraging emigration” of Palestinian residents of the territory was the best and “most ethical” solution to the conflict.Other coalition politicians at the Israel 365 event also rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood. Gideon Sa’ar, who recently joined the coalition as a minister without portfolio and is considered next in line to become defense minister, told attendees that Israel must abandon any policy based on concessions and “put up a political iron wall” against international efforts for a two-state solution.“There… will never be any substitute for full operational Israeli military control of the territory from the sea to the Jordan,” the New Hope chairman asserted.“We must recognize that there can be only Jewish sovereignty between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea,” agreed Religious Zionism MK Ohad Tal, one of the organizers of the conference.“Some will say this is not realistic and we respond that the two-state scenario has itself proven to be a dangerous delusion. Others will say that the world will not permit it and we respond that once the Jewish people is determined that this is the right way, no obstacle is too great to be overcome,” he said.Despite suggesting moves that would likely deepen Israel’s international isolation, both Smotrich and Sa’ar said Jerusalem could expand regional partnerships. Both mentioned Saudi Arabia, which has insisted that moves toward Palestinian statehood accompany any normalization.Smotrich claimed that Israel’s war gains would woo Riyadh, so long as Jerusalem and the West joined together to overthrow the Iranian regime.Sa’ar suggested regional alliances could shift, noting that Turkey and Iran used to be Israel’s allies while Egypt and Jordan were adversaries. But he also cautioned that Sunni states in Israel’s corner could abandon it.“Our set of expectations from our relationships with them must be realistic and grounded in reality,” he said.According to Sa’ar, as a national and religious minority in the region, Israel ought to work to strengthen ties with groups such as the Kurds and Druze.With some 40 million people split between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, the Kurds are “one of the largest nations in the world without their own state” but Israel’s cooperation with them remains limited, he argued, stating that Israel has an interest in deepening both security and political ties.Moreover, he added, the Druze minority in Lebanon and Syria are both threatened by Iran and ISIS-affiliated groups, creating opportunities for Jerusalem.Regarding Syria, Sa’ar said that the country must not be allowed to be used as a supply route for Iranian weapons being sent to Hezbollah, and “Israel must make it clear to Assad that if he chooses to harm Israel’s security… he is putting his regime in danger.”

IDF: Hundreds evacuated from hospital compound ahead of raid-IDF ends raid against Hamas at north Gaza hospital, says dozens of suspects detained-Among arrested Palestinians are terrorists who participated in Oct. 7 onslaught; detainee says Hamas uses ambulances meant for civilians to transport terror operatives-By Emanuel Fabian-Today, 4:07 pm-OCT 28,24

Israeli troops have withdrawn from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday, having wrapped up a raid launched Friday against Hamas operatives it said were using the Jabalia hospital as a command and control base.The hospital raid did not bring the IDF’s activities in northern Gaza to a close, however, with the military saying that according to its assessments, hundreds more Hamas operatives remain in the Jabalia area. Thus, it said, the operation launched there three weeks ago would continue.In the weeks before the hospital raid, the military said it enabled the evacuation of patients and staff from the compound while ensuring that the medical center’s emergency systems continued to function, including by activating an additional generator for patients on life support.Hundreds of civilians using the hospital as a shelter were also evacuated from the area, the IDF said.Kamal Adwan is the last functioning hospital in Gaza’s north. The facility said that the shortages it has struggled with since the start of the war last year have been increasingly aggravated by the latest Israeli offensive in the north of the Strip.The IDF said that some 40 terror operatives were detained during the evacuations from the hospital, and the Navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commando unit detained dozens more during the subsequent raid, including some who had participated in the October 7 terror onslaught in southern Israel.The detained operatives were taken to Israel for further questioning.The IDF released footage from the interrogation of a detained individual, who identified himself as a driver and paramedic for Kamal Adwan Hospital and Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.He alleged in the footage that Hamas was using ambulances at the hospital to move operatives around.“Hamas military operatives are present. They are in the courtyards, at the gates of the buildings, in the offices,” he said when asked about the terror group’s operations around Kamal Adwan Hospital.“They operate ambulances to transport their wounded military operatives and to transport them for their missions,” he went on. “This is instead of using the ambulances for the benefit of civilians.”“We, the public in the northern Gaza Strip, are sick of this situation,” he said when asked if he had anything more to add. “We have had enough; they [Hamas] are stationed in the hospitals, stationed in the schools.”The military said that troops operating inside the hospital and in the surrounding area located weapons, cash and documents belonging to Hamas. Some 20 gunmen were killed during fighting in the area surrounding the hospital, the IDF said.Footage circulated by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claimed to show damage to several buildings after Israeli forces withdrew. The footage could not be independently verified. Throughout its wider, ongoing operation in Jabalia and the surrounding area, the IDF said it has detained and killed hundreds of terror operatives. At the same time, it said that some 50,000 Palestinians have been evacuated from the area.The raid on Jabalia began with the 162nd Division’s 401st and 460th armored brigades encircling the area’s refugee camp (historically named, with no relation to the current war), following intelligence that Hamas’s remaining forces in the northern Gaza Strip were largely concentrated there and working to regroup.The IDF’s Givati Brigade later joined in the operation, and on Sunday, the 460th Brigade withdrew from the area. The operation, however, is still ongoing.After encircling the camp, the army worked to clear civilians out and detain members of Hamas and other terror groups hiding among them. The goal was to prevent Hamas operatives from fleeing the area, and to force them to surrender or fight, IDF sources said.Within 24 hours of the operation’s launch, the civilian population began to slowly evacuate, the sources said.Hamas was surprised by the military’s quick push into the area, the IDF sources said, and hundreds of its members — including top commanders — were trapped.Still, the evacuation of the civilian population took longer than the army initially expected, the sources said, as Hamas was allegedly holding them back. According to the sources, Hamas was physically preventing civilians from leaving shelters, including by shooting at the legs of some trying to flee.Eventually, troops reached the shelters and called upon those inside to come out, which the sources said “broke the fear barrier” that the Palestinian civilians had.Over 50,000 Palestinians passed through the army’s checkpoints, with those suspected of being terror operatives — mainly fighting-age males — being detained for questioning. In all, the IDF said that some 600 Palestinians it identified as terror operatives were arrested at its checkpoints during the evacuation of the civilian population from Jabalia.Some claimed that IDF soldiers have targeted those trying to flee — a charge that the army denies.The evacuated civilians have headed south, mostly to Gaza City — not south of the Netzarim Corridor where the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone is located.Several hundred thousand civilians who are either unable or unwilling to evacuate are still believed to be in northern Gaza, despite repeated calls for them to relocate to designated safe zones elsewhere in the Strip.The humanitarian situation in the north has caused alarm after no humanitarian aid entered for the first two weeks of the renewed IDF offensive. The US expressed concern that Israel was attempting to implement the so-called General’s Plan, aimed at evacuating civilians and then laying siege to northern Gaza, in order to flush out remaining Hamas fighters.The IDF has denied that this is the case and has since allowed aid to enter the area, after the US warned it was risking the supply of some offensive weapons if it did not do so.Ten Israeli soldiers, including the commander of the 401st Brigade, have been killed during the operation.Headcam footage from killing of Sinwar-The IDF on Monday released new footage from the headcam of a soldier of the Bislamach Brigade, which was taken during the killing of Hamas leader and October 7 architect Yahya Sinwar earlier this month in southern Gaza’s Rafah.The troops had engaged and killed four gunmen in Rafaj’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, one of whom was later revealed to be Sinwar.The IDF also published an audio recording of the radio communications between commanders during the incident.“Another dirty (terrorist) we eliminated him, we identified him with a blanket on him, he’s currently eliminated, over,” one officer could be heard saying in the recording.“There might be more walking around between you, between the debris, but amazing work of the company, the battalion, and the sharpshooter,” another officer said.The building that Sinwar was in was also shelled by tanks. It remains unclear if the marksman or the tank shelling dealt the killing blow.The war in Gaza erupted with the October 7 terror onslaught carried out by Hamas in southern Israel last year, in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and seized 251 hostages, of whom 97 are believed to still be captive in Gaza.The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 43,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.

Cabinet meeting moved to secure underground location in wake of drone attack on PM’s home-Ministers also prohibited from bringing along advisers; future meetings expected to be held at changing locations-By ToI Staff Today, 3:20 pm-OCT 28,24

The cabinet met Monday in an underground secure location in Jerusalem’s governmental complex and not at the Prime Minister’s Office due to security concerns, at the recommendation of the Shin Bet.The decision was made due to an increase in threats against senior Israeli officials and in light of last week’s Hezbollah drone attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home.Government sources told news outlets that the move would not be a one-time event, and that cabinet meetings are expected to be held in changing locations for the near future due to the same security concerns.Ministers were notified of the decision only in the morning, and were told that their advisers would not be allowed in due to the constraints of the space.Three drones were launched from Lebanon in the attack on Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea earlier this month. Two were intercepted over Rosh Hanikra and Nahariya, respectively, and the third exploded on the home in the central seaside town known for its high-end villas and Roman ruins.Days after the attack, the IDF cleared for publication the fact that the blast cracked glass in a bedroom window, but did not penetrate the home, apparently because of reinforced glass and other protections. Afterward, the Prime Minister’s Office requested NIS 2 million to boost security.Senior Israeli officials have increasingly become targets of Iran and its proxies, and security forces have recently made numerous arrests of individuals in Israel hired by Iran to commit acts of espionage and terror, including assassinations.Iran on Monday stepped up threats against Israel following the IDF’s weekend strike on the Islamic Republic in response for Tehran’s October 1 ballistic missile barrage at Israel.The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Hossein Salami said the Israeli strike’s “bitter consequences will be unimaginable,” according to the Tasnim news agency.

Oil prices fall after Israel avoids energy sites in its strike on Iran-Costs drop as much as 5% in early trade; analysts believe Tehran’s downplaying of attack signals wariness about escalation-By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 1:26 pm-OCT 28,24

HONG KONG, China — Oil prices tumbled Monday with markets relieved that Israel’s strikes on Iran had avoided the country’s energy infrastructure.Israel carried out airstrikes on military sites in Iran on Saturday in response to Tehran’s massive October 1 ballistic missile barrage, which sent millions of people to shelters and caused some damage to Israel Air Force bases, killed a Palestinian in the West Bank and lightly hurt two civilians in Tel Aviv.Oil prices fell as much as five percent in early trade before paring some of their losses.“Israel’s strike, carefully avoiding energy sites, has softened fears of a full-scale conflict with Iran,” said Stephen Innes, analyst at SPI Asset Management.“Even more telling is Iran’s response, downplaying the attack’s impact and signaling that its warnings may have deterred any more aggressive action from Israel,” he said.Iran has downplayed Israel’s attack, saying it caused “limited damage” to a few radar systems and that Iranian air defense systems had successfully countered the strikes, an assertion dismissed by Israel, which said all of the operation’s goals — crippling air defenses and missile sites — were achieved.Analysts say the Islamic Republic’s downplaying of the damages signals the regime’s reluctance to escalate further. Israeli media, however, has reported that Israel expects Iran to respond.“If tensions cool further or peace talks unexpectedly gain traction, we could see oil slide down to $60 per barrel as traders shift focus back to the looming 2025 supply glut — especially if China’s economic stimulus underwhelms,” Innes added.Iran said its October 1 strike was retaliation for the killing of a Revolutionary Guards commander and Iran-backed terrorist leaders. Iran has long said it seeks to destroy Israel, but had never attacked the country directly, sufficing with proxy terror groups until an April drone and missile barrage and the October 1 assault.War broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists — backed by Iran — infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251.Since October 7, Israel has been waging a war on several fronts as it faces incessant threats and attacks from Iranian-backed terror groups in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, as well as from Iran itself.

US, 7 more nations warn PM not to let Smotrich buckle Palestinian economy in West Bank-8 Western treasury chiefs pen letter to Netanyahu urging him to ensure far-right minister extends agreement allowing Israeli banks to correspond with Palestinian ones-By ToI Staff and Jacob Magid-27 October 2024, 9:07 pm-OCT 28,24

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and seven of her counterparts sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week expressing their alarm over the potential collapse of the Palestinian economy in the West Bank if Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich fails to renew a soon-to-expire agreement letting Israeli banks transact with Palestinian ones.“Actions taken by some members of your government to deny the West Bank access to financial resources endangers Israel’s security and threatens to further destabilize the entire region in an already perilous moment,” the Western treasury chiefs wrote in a letter obtained by the Axios news site.The letter was addressed to Netanyahu, as Western countries have maintained a de facto boycott of Smotrich, since he became finance minister in December 2022.Yellen — along with her counterparts from Japan, Canada, the EU, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, and France — said that failure to extend the corresponding banking agreement, which is set to expire on Thursday, would weaken oversight of finance flows, disrupt the transfer of much-needed donor funds, and destabilize the Palestinian Authority.The Palestinian economy relies heavily on the banks’ relationships with their Israeli counterparts to process transactions made in shekels, as the PA does not have its own currency. Some NIS 53 billion ($14 billion) were exchanged at Palestinian banks in 2023, according to official data.And US officials have warned that failure to maintain banking relations between Israel and the Palestinians would turn the West Bank into a “cash economy,” which would benefit terrorist organizations in the territory and make it harder for the already-weakened PA to fight such groups.The West Bank economy has been in dire straits over the past year, as tens of thousands of Palestinian day laborers were denied entry into Israel during the war in Gaza sparked when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.The treasury chiefs urged Israel to extend the banking agreement for at least a year. While the decision currently lies with Smotrich, Netanyahu could bypass the far-right minister by passing a decision during a meeting of his cabinet, which is likely to discuss the matter on Sunday evening.But Netanyahu has shown little appetite in the past to clash with Smotrich and has preferred placating him by allowing steps to expand Israel’s footprint in the West Bank, in exchange for the finance minister halting punitive measures against the Palestinian economy. Such was the case in late June, when Smotrich agreed to sign a three-month extension to the corresponding banking agreement.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 13, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)-After signing that extension, Smotrich’s office informed US President Joe Biden’s administration that he would be willing to do so once again if the PA took several steps to prevent the illicit funding of terrorism, US officials told The Times of Israel last week, adding that it had informed Jerusalem that Ramallah had met those requirements.The notification was aimed at leaning on Israel, in light of concerns that Smotrich would not sign the extension. The far-right minister has long spoken in favor of collapsing the PA and annexing large parts of the West Bank.The US has considered sanctioning Smotrich over his policies, but has held off on the drastic step. US officials told The Times of Israel last month that the move would likely be reconsidered after the presidential election next month.Reuters contributed to this report.

As Mossad head goes to Doha, Egypt proposes 2-day ceasefire for release of 4 hostages-While Hamas wants a comprehensive agreement that ends the war and keeps it in Gaza, Israel looks for initial deal to understand who calls shots after terror chief Sinwar killed-By Lazar Berman-27 October 2024, 8:40 pm-OCT 28,24

Mossad chief David Barnea flew to Doha on Sunday to discuss attempts to move toward a hostage release deal with CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the officials will discuss “the various possibilities to restart negotiations for the release of hostages from Hamas captivity, based on recent developments.”Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by IDF troops earlier this month, a development Israeli and Western leaders have described as an “opportunity” to make progress on a deal that would see the release of some or all the hostages held in Gaza.Hamas will not be involved in this round of meetings, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel, but could potentially join a subsequent round, with mediators shuttling between the terror group and Israeli negotiators.Qatar hosts a number of top Hamas leaders on its territory.Israel is exploring the possibility of a small deal designed to kick-start talks with Hamas about a comprehensive deal, said the official, and to understand Hamas decision-making after Sinwar’s death.Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in a Cairo press conference on Sunday that his country had proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange four Israeli hostages for some Palestinian prisoners.The Egyptian proposal — which would include 10 days of negotiations after the release of the 4 hostages — was presented by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar last week to the national security cabinet, Channel 12 reported. Though most of the ministers and all the security chiefs present supported the idea, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir opposed it, according to the news outlet.Netanyahu decided not to bring the proposal to a vote because of the initial two-day ceasefire before the hostages are released, said Channel 12, and sent Bar back to Egypt to improve the terms.According to Al Arabiya, Hamas is willing to accept the Egyptian proposal as long as it is incorporated into its July 2 demands for a hostage deal. It also wants guarantees that Israel will commit to the Egyptian proposal being part of a comprehensive deal.Hamas will present negotiators with a comprehensive deal for an immediate end to the war and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, and the exchange of a certain number of Palestinian detainees in return for the release of all Israeli hostages at once, Hamas officials told the Saudi channel Asharq News.The offer is expected to be submitted following the meeting in Doha on Sunday.The unnamed Hamas source told Asharq, “We will listen to the offers [of the negotiators], but for our part, we prefer a comprehensive deal that takes place in one stage and ends the war once and for all, in return for a prisoner exchange under which all Israeli captives are released in exchange for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”Earlier in the day, Barnea attended the national ceremony honoring the Israeli forces who have fallen since the Hamas onslaught on October 7 last year.In Egypt last week, according to The Wall Street Journal, Barnea offered Hamas leaders safe passage out of the Gaza Strip if they disarmed and freed the 101 hostages they are holding.Hamas “swiftly” rebuffed the proposal, with Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s deputy leader for Gaza, saying the offer showed Israel misunderstood the terror group and risked extending the war for months or years, according to the report.Although Egypt will not send a delegation to the talks, it has been closely involved in efforts to get the negotiating process up and running again. In addition to meeting with Barnea, it hosted a Hamas delegation last week to discuss the group’s expectations for a potential deal.Barnea’s meeting with newly appointed Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad was productive, Ynet reported, and the two discussed a new proposal for a hostage release and ceasefire deal, as well as the importance of maintaining and strengthening security cooperation.Rashad’s meeting with Barnea followed the talks earlier in the week with Shin Bet chief Bar.Before Sinwar was killed, Israel and Hamas clashed in indirect negotiations over whether a ceasefire would constitute an end to the war; over the numbers and identities of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be freed; over whether Israel would maintain control over the Gaza-Egypt border; over whether Israel would allow a return of residents to north Gaza; and more.It is believed that 97 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 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.Senior Israeli officials pledged during the state ceremonies Sunday to do all they could to bring the hostages home.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the return of living and dead hostages is a “holy mission.Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stressed that not every goal can be achieved through military force.“Returning the hostages to their homes demands painful compromises,” said Gallant. “We must do this for the hostages, for their families, for the soldiers who fell for this goal, for the IDF’s legacy, and in the name of the Jewish and national ethos.”President Isaac Herzog called for seizing the opportunity to bring home hostages held in the Gaza Strip after the slaying of Sinwar, describing it as the “supreme task” facing the country.On Friday, the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper published three documents allegedly handwritten by Sinwar, in which he laid out instructions for the captors of hostages. The report did not say when the documents were from.The first document stresses the obligation to “take care of the lives of the enemy’s prisoners and keep them safe, since they are an important bargaining chip” to free Palestinian security prisoners. The document also included Quranic verses on the matter of hostage-taking, Al-Quds reported.The second document includes data on 112 unnamed hostages held in three areas: Gaza City (14 hostages), central Gaza (25 hostages), and southern Gaza’s Rafah (51 hostages). A fourth group of 22 hostages is listed without a location.The hostages in each location are broken down into different categories according to their gender, age — above or below 60, or young — and whether they are civilians or soldiers.The document also notes that one Bedouin hostage was held in Gaza City, and four in Rafah, among them a 55-year-old man. The four are presumed to be Youssef Ziyadne and his three children, two of whom were released in a week-long ceasefire last November.The third document includes a list of 11 female hostages who were released early on in the war, most of them during the November truce. The 11 hostages are listed with their names, ages, and whether they held foreign citizenship.

Satellite images show damage at two secretive Iranian bases after Israeli strikes-Attack damaged Parchin military base, previously linked to push for nuclear weapons, and Khojir base, believed to hold missile production sites; UN watchdog: Nuclear sites untouched-By AP and ToI Staff 27 October 2024, 6:56 pm

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel’s attack on Iran early Saturday damaged facilities at a secretive military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts in the past have linked to a nuclear weapons program, as well as at another base tied to its ballistic missile program, satellite photos analyzed Sunday by The Associated Press show.Some of the buildings damaged sat in Iran’s Parchin military base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in the past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon.The IAEA, US intelligence and others say Iran had a comprehensive nuclear weapons program that it shuttered in 2003. Iran denies having such a program, while Jerusalem says Tehran has never fully abandoned it, pointing to current uranium enrichment levels that have no civilian use.More damage from Israel’s attack on Saturday — which was a response to an Iranian barrage of some 200 ballistic missiles earlier this month — could be seen at the nearby Khojir military base, a sprawling missile production site near Tehran that analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.Iran’s military has not acknowledged damage at either Khojir or Parchin from Israel’s attack, though it has said the assault killed four Iranian soldiers working in the country’s air defense systems.Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military declined to comment.However, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday told an audience that the Israeli attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” while stopping short of calling for an immediate retaliatory strike.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu separately said Sunday that Israel’s strikes “severely harmed” Iran and that the barrage “achieved all its goals.”@planet 3m imagery taken this morning of Khojir and Parchin missile production facilities show precise strikes on warehouses and mixing buildings associated with the production of solid-fueled ballistic missiles. pic.twitter.com/Qpodu4pN5m — Decker Eveleth (@dex_eve) October 26, 2024-Damage spread across three Iranian provinces-It remains unclear how many sites in total were targeted in the Israeli attack. There have been no images of damage so far released by Iran’s military.Iranian officials have identified affected areas as being in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces. Burned fields could be seen in satellite images from Planet Labs PBC around Iran’s Tange Bijar natural gas production site in Ilam province, on the Iran-Iraq border, on Saturday, though it wasn’t immediately clear if it was related to the attack.The most telling damage could be seen in Planet Labs images of Parchin, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of downtown Tehran near the Mamalu Dam. There, one structure appeared to be totally destroyed while others looked damaged in the attack.At Khojir, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) away from downtown Tehran, damage could be seen on at least two structures in satellite images.Analysts including Decker Eveleth at the Virginia-based think tank CNA, Joe Truzman at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former United Nations weapon inspector David Albright, as well as other open-source experts, first identified the damage to the bases.The locations of the two bases correspond to videos obtained by the AP showing Iranian air defense systems firing in the vicinity early Saturday.Satellite images provided to me by a source reveal that the Parchin military base, east of Tehran, was targeted overnight by the IAF. The image on the left depicts the site prior to the strike, while the post-strike image on the right indicates two areas affected by an attack. pic.twitter.com/Um2WbPh0Y6— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) October 26, 2024-Base linked to past Iranian nuclear weapons activity-At Parchin, Albright’s Institute for Science and International Security identified the destroyed building against a mountainside as “Taleghan 2.” It said an archive of Iranian nuclear data earlier seized by Israel identified the building as housing “a smaller, elongated high explosive chamber and a flash X-ray system to examine small-scale high explosive tests.”“Such tests may have included high explosives compressing a core of natural uranium, simulating the initiation of a nuclear explosive,” a 2018 report by the institute says.In a message posted to the social platform X early Sunday, the institute added: “It is not certain whether Iran used uranium at ‘Taleghan 2,’ but it is possible it studied the compression of natural uranium hemispheres, which would explain its hasty and secretive renovation efforts following the IAEA’s request to access Parchin in 2011.”It’s unclear what, if any, equipment would have been inside of the “Taleghan 2″ building early Saturday. There were no Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil industry, nor its nuclear enrichment sites or its nuclear power plant at Bushehr during the assault.Rafael Mariano Grossi, who leads the IAEA, confirmed that on X, saying “Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been impacted.”“Inspectors are safe and continue their vital work,” he added. “I call for prudence and restraint from actions that could jeopardize the safety & security of nuclear & other radioactive materials.”Damage seen at facilities for Iran’s ballistic missile program-Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included a warehouse and other buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted “missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year.”Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after its two attacks on Israel, on April 14 and October 1. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be “over 3,000” by General Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the US military’s Central Command, in testimony to the US Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world.

Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.Officials at TIECO requested the AP write the company a letter before responding to questions. The firm did not immediately reply to a letter sent to it.Victim was Bezalel Carmi, 72; Hamas praises 'heroic attack' One dead, 32 wounded in suspected terror truck-ramming at bus stop north of Tel Aviv-Driver ‘neutralized’; medics say 8 people were trapped under truck that plowed into crowd at Glilot near intel, Mossad bases; many of the injured were elderly Israelis on day trip-By Emanuel Fabian-and ToI Staff 27 October 2024, 4:06 pm

A man was killed and 32 people were wounded in a suspected terror truck-ramming attack at a bus stop near Herzliya on Sunday morning — five in serious condition, seven moderately wounded, and 20 lightly hurt.Police said that the driver who rammed his truck into people at a bus stop outside the IDF’s Glilot base in central Israel, north of Tel Aviv, was shot and “neutralized” by armed civilians in the area.The victim in the attack was later named as Bezalel Carmi, 72, from Rishon Lezion.Hebrew media outlets named the perpetrator Rami Nasrallah, an Arab Israeli driver from Qalansawe in central Israel. His body was sent to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for an autopsy to check if he suffered a medical condition that caused the accident, the reports said.According to the police’s initial probe, a bus had stopped at the station outside the base to drop off passengers, and then a truck rammed into the stop, hitting the people there.Many of the injured were senior citizens who had disembarked from the bus ahead of a day trip to a nearby museum to mark the national memorial day for those killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and subsequent war.Hamas put out a statement a short while after the incident, praising the “heroic ramming attack” that was carried out near “Mossad headquarters.”The Glilot area near Herzliya is home to the Mossad headquarters, along with several IDF intelligence units, including the high-profile signals intelligence Unit 8200.Without taking responsibility for the apparent attack, the terror group said that it was “a natural response to the crimes of the Zionist occupation against our Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, and its ongoing brutal massacres, especially in the northern Gaza Strip.”The Magen David Adom emergency service said eight people were trapped under the truck when medics arrived at the bus stop, and others were lying or walking nearby.Officers and ambulances rushed to the scene, where police cordoned off the area, as medics helped the injured and a helicopter hovered above.Following the attack, Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital said one of the victims of the suspected terror attack was in critical condition. A short while later, the hospital released a statement saying that doctors had pronounced Carmi dead. It was unclear whether he was the same victim who was critically injured.Police were probing further details, including the motive of the attack.The owner of the truck company where the driver worked told the Kan public broadcaster that he deviated from his set route and drove towards the area where the attack took place: “He shouldn’t have been there.”But Nasrallah’s brother Muhammad told the Ynet news site that he believed the attack was “not terrorism,” claiming his brother suffered from an unspecified illness, and that the family was not linked “to these things.”“This was a regular accident. He never did anything bad to anyone in his life,” he זירת האירוע בגלילות >>> pic.twitter.com/z8yqwrjedS— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) October 27, 2024-In a separate incident in the West Bank on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said a Palestinian motorist who tried to carry out a ramming and stabbing attack against IDF troops near the West Bank town of Hizma was shot dead.According to the IDF, the assailant accelerated his car toward troops of the Binyamin Regional Brigade’s 43rd Battalion, as they were operating near Hizma.“The terrorist drew a knife… and tried to carry out a stabbing attack,” the IDF said, adding that the soldiers opened fire at the assailant, killing him.Hebrew media named the perpetrator as Amudi Sami, an East Jerusalem resident of the Shuafat refugee camp.There were no other injuries in the incident.Police said the Route 437 highway in the area was blocked to traffic following the incident.The attacks on Sunday came as Israel marked the first anniversary on the Hebrew calendar of Hamas’s October 7 mass onslaught against southern Israel, the worst terror attack in Israel’s history, when 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza.Since then, 41 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in a string of additional terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.In mid-October, a policeman was killed and four people wounded when a terrorist opened fire along the Route 4 highway north of the coastal city of Ashdod, and a man was killed in a terror-stabbing rampage in Hadera the previous week. Seven people were killed and at least eight wounded in a shooting and stabbing attack in Jaffa on October 1, just minutes before Iran launched a massive ballistic missile attack on Israel.Agencies contributed to this report.

Wary of Japan's "Asian NATO" proposal, neighbours stick with web of alternatives.by David Caprara

Washington DC (UPI) Oct 25, 2024-In the lead-up to his election, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba floated the idea of an "Asian NATO" to deter the increasing aggressiveness of China in the Asia-Pacific region. The prospect of setting up an alliance in the Asia-Pacific region resembling the collective defense promised by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty is hindered by the reality that few, if any, countries are willing to commit to the collective defense of an area where a nuclear nation is already actively testing the limits of its power.The proposal faced skepticism from regional players, particularly ASEAN countries, which fear that such an alliance could increase economic tensions with China and disrupt their stance of non-alignment. Prime Minister Ishiba has since backed away from this proposal and did not mention it during his first overseas visit with ASEAN leaders earlier this month."There are two ways to read it," said Robert Ward, Japan Chair and Director of Geo-economics and Strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in an interview with UPI."One is to take it literally. It is a complicated thing to bring about, not least of which because you would need constitutional change [in Japan]....The other thing is to look at it as Ishiba floating ideas...this idea not in itself, but what he's trying to convey with this in terms of where Japan's future security debate should go. What he's really saying is that 'the threat from China is so significant that we really need to link up with like-minded countries.'"Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said in a statement earlier this month in response to Ishiba's proposal that Japan "often hypes up the non-existent 'China threat' to divert the international community's attention from its own military expansion."China's military exercises earlier this month encircled Taiwan, setting a record with the highest number of Chinese military aircraft crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, while Chinese coast guard vessels intentionally collided with Philippine ships during maritime standoffs earlier this year. Japan and its regional allies are concerned that China's threats to the region are far from "hyped-up" and are part of a greater normalization of incremental encroachments in the region."We are facing a post-peak globalization planet that now is operating essentially under new rules of the game," said Mike Studeman, National Security Fellow at MITRE and former Rear Admiral and Commander of the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, at a Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) press conference on October 25th."When one country that size becomes very zero-sum and mercantilist, then it has very strong repercussions for many other countries that are interdependent."One effect of this, however, has been the recent doubling down on Japanese defense spending proposals that would have, in the recent past, seemed unthinkable. Although there is skepticism about the proposed timeline, Japan's latest National Security Strategy, published in 2022, announced an increase in military spending to 2% of its GDP. While on par with the proposed military spending for NATO members, this potentially puts Japan on track to become the third-largest military in the world. However, constitutional limitations prevent this from being called a "military" and would still restrict its offensive capabilities. The weakening of the yen is another obstacle that could prevent many of Japan's defense ambitions from coming to fruition.While an "Asian NATO" might be a bridge too far, a plethora of smaller formal and informal defense alliances already exist in Asia and are expanding in addition to the many cooperative trade agreements in the region set up with half an eye on balancing China's influence. The Japan-Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), created in July, is an example, which allows Japanese forces to deploy in the Philippines for joint military exercises. Japan has also signed RAA agreements with Australia and the United Kingdom.The Quad (an informal alliance between the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India) meets frequently to discuss defense and security in the Asia-Pacific region. There has been support for the idea that this alliance should be expanded into a "Quint" or a "Quad Plus" to include South Korea. South Korean President Yoon has signaled in the past that South Korea would accept an invitation if one were made."What you've got now is these groupings, many laterals, some of them more formal than others," says Ward."The beauty of these is that you can link like-minded countries together on specific issues and deal with specific strategic issues in a kind of spot way, whereas if you try to link everybody up, you'd never get agreement."An "Asian NATO" may not be possible to create given the geopolitical diversity of the Asia-Pacific. However, the diversity of ideas within Asia on how to manage Chinese aggression have in effect acted as a multiplier, creating a broad spectrum of alliances and approaches that make managing the balancing forces that China is up against much more complex."China would love to be able to only deal with these things bilaterally where they maintain all of the advantages," says Studeman. "This is a time when many states need to work together as a coalition."

Germany's Scholz says war-torn Ukraine cannot join NATO now.by AFP Staff Writers

Berlin (AFP) Oct 24, 2024-German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday rejected Ukraine's request to immediately join NATO, made by President Volodymyr Zelensky when he presented his "Victory Plan" to Western allies."It is important to realise that a country at war absolutely cannot become a member of NATO," Scholz told public broadcaster ZDF. "Everyone knows that, there is no disagreement on this subject."The German leader added that for the trans-Atlantic defence alliance, "an invitation is normally quite quickly linked to membership".Scholz said that in the past "we have described a perspective" towards Ukrainian membership in the longer term, at NATO summits in Vilnius last year, then in Washington this summer."But I think that beyond that, there is currently no need for any new decision," he said.The Ukrainian leader has been on a diplomatic offensive to press Western leaders for more support to help Ukraine win the war with Russia now grinding through a third year.Zelensky this month unveiled his "Victory Plan", where chief among the proposals was a call for Ukraine to be given an "immediate" invitation to the join the US-led NATO military alliance.He also called for the lifting of restrictions on the use of long-range weapons that allies have supplied to Ukraine, but none of the demands have so far met with unanimous support from the allies.Scholz in the interview reaffirmed his stance that the conflict must not escalate into a direct war between Russia and NATO.He also reiterated his opposition to the delivery of long-range Taurus missiles, which could reach targets deep inside Russian territory, and which Ukraine has long asked for.

Taiwan says China holds 'combat' patrol after latest US arms sales.by AFP Staff Writers

Taipei (AFP) Oct 27, 2024-China deployed fighter jets and drones as part of a "joint combat readiness patrol" around Taiwan on Sunday, Taipei said, as Beijing slammed the latest round of US arms sales to the island.The US State Department on Friday approved a $2 billion arms sale package for Taiwan, including advanced surface-to-air missile systems and radar. The deal awaits approval by Congress. Taiwan's defence ministry said it detected 19 Chinese aircraft on Sunday, including fighter jets and drones, flying near the island over a nearly four-hour period as part of Beijing's "joint combat readiness patrol" with warships.It was the third such patrol reported by Taiwan's defence ministry this month."Taiwan's military closely monitored the situation with joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, deploying aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems as an appropriate response," the ministry said.Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office said Sunday that the latest arms package showed that Washington "time and again contradicts the promises of its leaders not to support 'Taiwan independence'... and damages peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region"."'Taiwan independence' is as incompatible with peace across the strait as fire is with water," spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said in a statement."We urge the US... to stop arming Taiwan and stop sending the wrong signals to 'Taiwan independence' forces."On Saturday, Beijing's foreign ministry condemned the arms package and said it had "lodged solemn representations" with the United States.A ministry spokesperson said Beijing would "take all necessary measures to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity".Taipei's defence ministry expressed its "sincere gratitude" for the sale on Saturday, saying it would "help the military continue to improve its defence resilience and jointly maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait".China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.Beijing maintains a near-daily presence of fighter jets, drones and warships around the democratic island, and held large-scale war games in Taiwan's vicinity this month.On October 15, Taiwan said it had detected 153 Chinese military aircraft in the previous 25 hours -- the most for a single day.The United States is Taipei's key partner and weapons supplier despite having no official diplomatic ties with the island.In September, Beijing sanctioned US defence companies in retaliation for Washington's approval of the sale of military equipment to Taiwan.

China slams latest US arms sales to Taiwan.

Beijing (AFP) Oct 27, 2024 - China has slammed the latest round of US arms sales to Taiwan, vowing to take "all necessary measures" to assert its sovereignty over the self-ruled island it claims as its own.The US State Department on Friday approved a $2 billion arms sale package for Taiwan, including advanced surface-to-air missile systems and radar. The deal awaits approval by Congress.Taipei's defence ministry on Saturday expressed its "sincere gratitude" for the sale, saying it would "help the military continue to improve its defence resilience and jointly maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait".Beijing's foreign ministry hit back in a statement late Saturday, saying the latest arms package "seriously violates China's sovereignty and security interests, seriously damages China-US relations, and endangers peace and stability" in the strait."China strongly condemns and firmly opposes it, and has lodged solemn representations with the US," a ministry spokesperson said.It added that Beijing would "take all necessary measures to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity".China has refused to rule out using force to bring Taiwan under its control.Beijing maintains a near-daily presence of fighter jets, drones and warships around the democratic island, and held large-scale war games in its vicinity this month.Earlier this month, Taiwan detected a record 153 Chinese aircraft in one day.The US is Taipei's key partner and provider of weapons despite having no official diplomatic ties with the democratic island.In September, Beijing sanctioned US defence companies in retaliation for Washington's approval of the sale of military equipment to Taiwan.