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)
SAUDI, SYRIAN FIGURES VISIT KNESSET TO TALK UP CHANCES FOR NORMALIZATION.
ISAIAH 6:9-12
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
10
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut
their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
11 Then
said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted
without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly
desolate,
12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with
violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the
earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and,
behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11
And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with
child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF
THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And
he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS)
man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be
against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against
him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL
ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his
brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the
morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-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 (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above
the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF
THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
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 MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
ISAIAH 41:11
11
Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be
ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they
that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY
DESTROYED)
Turban complications-The turban represents the Shi'ite
clergy that, ever since its creation in Iran almost four centuries ago,
has had an ambivalent attitude towards the exercise of political power.
Broadly speaking, turbans come in two contrasting colors. A white
turban means that the man who wears it is not a descendant of the
Prophet, and thus is of non-Arab origin. In contrast, the wearer of the
black turban is marked as a descendant of the Prophet through one of the
twelve imams of Twelver Shi'ism.The semiology of turbans is still more
complicated. Students of theology are allowed to wear very thin turbans,
denoting their position as novices. A hujjat al-Islam, or mid-ranking
mullah, can wear a slightly fatter turban. The very fat turbans that
require several yards of cloth are reserved for the grand ayatollahs.
Rafsanjani’s white turban marked him as someone of non-Arab origin.
Khatami and Khamenei both wear black turbans, as did Khomeini, denoting
their Arab descent on the paternal side.The experience of the past three
decades shows that many of the most senior clerics are not eager to
enter the realm of politics. Once in power, however, a man with a thin
turban could quickly thicken his headgear and grow a longer beard to
bolster the religious aspect of his image. When first elected president,
Ayatollah Khamenei was not a particularly senior cleric, but was
promoted so that he could succeed Ayatollah Khomeini.
THE CITIZENS OF IRAN (ELAM IN THE BIBLE) MIGRATE TO ALL NATIONS ON EARTH.
JEREMIAH 49:34-39
34
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam
(IRAN) in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
35
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of
Elam,(IRAN) the chief of their might.(IRAN SUPLIES ARABS WITH WEAPONS
AGAINST ISRAEL)
36 And upon Elam (IRAN) will I bring the four winds
from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those
winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam (IRAN)
shall not come.(WORLD MIGRATION)
37 For I will cause Elam (IRAN) to
be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life:
and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger,(REG BOMBS) saith
the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed
them:(GROUND TROOPS)
38 And I will set my throne in Elam,(IRAN) and
will destroy from thence the king (KHEMEINI )and the princes,(IRANIAN
GUARDS) saith the LORD.
39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam,(IRAN) saith the LORD.
Psalms-Chapter 110:1-6
1 (A Psalm of David.) The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
3
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of
holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
Israel
urges UN to act on report detailing how Hamas used sexual violence on
Oct. 7-Decrying lack of action, Israeli envoy says United Nations ‘took
far too long to even acknowledge that such violence took place,’ says
findings should be taken up to ‘highest level’By Agencies and ToI Staff
Today, 5:38 am-JUL 9,25
Israel urged the UN Wednesday to act on
an independent report on how Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon of
war during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.The United Nations has
long faced Israeli criticism for reacting too slowly to the rape and
sexual violence carried out by Palestinian terrorists during the
Hamas-led atrocities that sparked the Gaza war, in which some 1,200
people were killed and 251 taken captive.“It took far too long for the
UN to even acknowledge that such violence took place,” Israeli
Ambassador Daniel Meron told reporters at the UN in
Geneva.“Conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence was used
against Israelis … in a brutal and calculated way, and yet the United
Nations has not acted.”Meron spoke with members of the Dinah Project, an
independent Israeli group of legal experts who released a report this
week saying that “sexual violence was widespread and systematic” on
October 7 in at least six locations.Hamas, it said, “used sexual
violence as a tactical weapon, as part of a genocidal scheme and with
the goal of terrorizing and dehumanizing Israeli
society.”‘Silenced’Dinah project director Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, speaking
to a briefing hosted by the UN correspondents’ association ACANU,
described the use of sexual violence in conflict as “the perfect crime,”
since many victims are killed and thereby “silenced.”The group said it
had testimony from witnesses, first responders, security forces and
mortuary attendants, as well as visual and audio evidence to document at
least 15 sexual assault cases on October 7.Those included “rapes and
gang rapes and mutilations of sexual organs and executions after the
assault,” said project member Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a law professor at
Bar-Ilan University who has previously worked as an independent UN
rights expert.Testimonies and photographs indicated a “pattern where
bodies, mostly of women, were found naked or half naked in recurring
positions, some cuffed to trees or poles with shots into their
genitalia,” she said.The terror group has categorically denied
allegations of using sexual violence.‘Failure’Halperin-Kaddari voiced
outrage at the relative “silence” of the international community in
condemning the alleged assaults, lamenting “a total failure of the
international human rights system.”She said the aim was to present the
report at UN headquarters in New York and to UN chief Antonio Guterres.
Meron said the UN should take up the findings at “the highest level.”
'This
report tells the truth — shocking, painful, necessary'Rape as weapon of
war: Report lays groundwork for prosecuting Oct 7. sexual
violence-Dinah Project findings confirm Hamas systematically weaponized
sexual assault as part of a broader campaign to terrorize, humiliate and
dehumanize Israelis-By Ariela Karmel-8 July 2025, 2:23 pm
A new
report providing the first legal framework to prosecute Hamas terrorists
for the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war during the October 7,
2023, massacre was presented Tuesday to First Lady Michal Herzog at the
President’s Residence in Jerusalem.The report by the Dinah Project
confirms that Hamas systematically used rape and sexual violence during
the massacre as part of a broader campaign of terror, collective
humiliation, and dehumanization of Israeli society.Titled, “A Quest for
Justice: October 7 and Beyond,” it is the first report to offer a legal
roadmap based on international law for identifying and pursuing justice
for the use of sexual violence as a weapon of warfare, which constitutes
a crime against humanity.Tuesday’s gathering of primarily women
included former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, 31, who has publicly spoken
out about being sexually assaulted by her captors in Gaza.Gritzewsky
recounted her abduction on October 7 from her home on Kibbutz Nir Oz,
where she lived with her partner, Matan Zangauker, who was also
kidnapped and remains in captivity.“I remember that they hit me and I
screamed, and then there was darkness. When I woke up, I was half-naked
surrounded by terrorists,” she told the gathering.“They beat me. I went
through hell. My bones were broken, but that didn’t compare to the
psychological pain I was put through,” she said. “Nobody should
experience what I did.”Gritzewsky was released after 55 days in
captivity, during the first ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in
November 2023. She and Zanguaker’s mother, Einav, have emerged as
central figures in protests seeking a ceasefire deal to return the
remaining hostages.“Almost two years later, there are those who still
ask if this really happened. I’m here to tell you that it did and it’s
still going on,” she said. “My Matan is still there. I don’t know what
they’re doing to him, but I know what they did to me. I wake up every
morning with the fear that he is experiencing what I did.”With Prime
Minister Netanyahu in Washington for meetings on a potential hostage
release and ceasefire deal with Hamas, Gritzewsky addressed the
government directly: “To the prime minister and the cabinet — don’t
waste this opportunity. Sign a deal and end the war.”“This report tells
the truth as it is — shocking, painful, but necessary. On behalf of all
those who were harmed, we are committed to continuing the fight until
their cries are heard everywhere and justice is done,” said Herzog.“We
are sending a universal message: that sexual violence cannot be accepted
as a tool of war,” she said, drawing attention to the plight of the
remaining 50 hostages, including Inbar Hayman, the single remaining
female captive, who is believed to be dead.“Sexual violence in conflict
is a weapon. It is not random, not targeted only at individuals, and not
without intent from above. It is time for the international community
to treat it as such,” said Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a legal expert
at Bar-Ilan University, who co-authored the report alongside retired
judge Nava Ben-Or, and Col. (res.) Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, former chief
military prosecutor of the IDF.‘A perfect crime’The Dinah Project, an
initiative formed following October 7 that works to achieve recognition
and justice for survivors of sexual violence in conflict zones, spent a
year and a half consolidating all available evidence and reports on
sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas during the attack and subsequently
against hostages.Research for the report ran into several challenges
that the findings seek to address: the scarcity of direct testimony from
victims, the often inadvertent destruction of evidence from sites of
the crimes, and the difficulty of linking specific perpetrators to
specific crimes or victims in the fog of war.“Sexual crimes during war
are — forgive me — a ‘perfect crime,’” said Zagagi-Pinhas, explaining
that, amid the chaos of war, “perpetrators can rely on the silence of
their victims, either because they murder them, which was the case for
most of the victims who were assaulted on October 7, or for the
survivors. There is so much trauma and shame unique to the crime that
they often won’t talk about it.”The report consolidated data on sexual
violence on October 7 and grouped it methodologically based on testimony
from first-hand survivors, eyewitnesses, first responders, workers at
the Shura military base, which served as a morgue, healthcare workers,
and therapists, as well as captured photos and video footage.The authors
acknowledged that it is not the first report to collate data on the use
of sexual violence on October 7. Such research has already been
conducted by others, including by the Office of the Under Secretary
General of the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in
conflict, Pramila Patten, in March 2024.Based on existing doctrine in
international and Israeli law, the authors call for the promotion of a
key legal principle: the imposition of collective criminal
responsibility on all participants in the attack — even if they did not
personally commit rape — on the grounds that they knew, should have
known, or took part in enabling sexual violence during the attack.“Our
goal is to demonstrate how perpetrators and commanders can be prosecuted
even without direct testimony against each individual,” said
Halperin-Kaddari.The next steps they intend to pursue include calling on
the Israeli government and judiciary to apply the doctrine of
collective responsibility in order to prosecute terrorists for sexual
crimes as crimes against humanity and urging the UN Secretary General to
add Hamas to the blacklist of organizations that use sexual violence as
a weapon of war, in accordance with past Security Council
resolutions.The authors of the report then want to establish a legal
process and framework that can be used internationally for prosecuting
sexual crimes in war before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in
The Hague and UN human rights bodies.Finally, they are seeking to use
their research to develop a new legal protocol for addressing sexual
violence in armed conflict, including rules for evidence collection, the
use of indirect evidence, and recognition of the community-wide harm
caused by such acts.Several speakers referred to the feeling of
“betrayal” they felt from the world, especially from other women, who
they expected to show empathy and solidarity. The widespread denial of
the sexual crimes committed against Israeli women and men on and since
October 7 was one of the other motivations for producing the
report.“There was an expectation that women around the world would
understand and support us, like in other conflicts. The feeling of their
backs turned on us was painful,” said Herzog. “As Israeli women, we
need to scream for those who cannot anymore and bring them
justice.”“This report is about breaking the silence. It is a physical
object that was put together by spirits — those of the tortured,
murdered victims, but also in the spirit of sisterhood,” said the
event’s moderator, journalist Tali Lipkin-Shahak.
Hezbollah chief
admits to wildly underestimating Israeli capabilities before pager
blasts-Naim Qassem says Lebanese terror group ‘didn’t know the supply
chain had been exposed,’ suggests operatives’ growing suspicions about
the beepers led Israel to detonate them-By ToI Staff 9 July 2025, 6:51
am
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem admitted that the Lebanese terror
group drastically underestimated the extent of Israel’s surveillance
capabilities in the run-up to the pager operation last September, when
thousands of beepers used by Hezbollah operatives exploded across
Lebanon, injuring thousands and killing dozens.In an interview released
Tuesday with the pro-Hezbollah al-Mayadeen news outlet, Qassem said an
investigation in the wake of the pager operation uncovered serious flaws
in Hezbollah’s procurement process, dating back more than a year.“We
didn’t know the supply chain had been exposed,” he said.He said that
although Hezbollah’s security checks failed to find the explosives that
had been placed within each individual pager, operatives began
suspecting something was wrong with them in the days leading up to the
attacks.“There were efforts to examine the pager differently, including
attempts to break it open, prompted by some anomalies that raised
questions,” he said, suggesting that those efforts may have prompted
Israel to detonate the pagers sooner than planned.Qassem, who took over
as the leader of the Iran-backed terror group following the
assassination of his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah, also conceded that
Hezbollah had no idea that Israel’s surveillance capabilities were as
advanced and far-reaching as they are.He said they were aware that there
had been possible wiretapping but “did not realize the extent — that it
was near-total and very extensive.”The Hezbollah chief estimated that
Israel has been collecting data through aerial surveillance for the past
17 years — since the end of the Second Lebanon War — and that the
terror group “couldn’t grasp how deep” it went.He denied, however, that
there were any serious cases of Israeli spies infiltrating Hezbollah’s
senior ranks, saying no evidence had so far been uncovered of “vast
human infiltration.”The pager attack marked the opening blow in an
Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah, following nearly a year of
cross-border skirmishes that began when the terror group began carrying
out solidarity attacks a day after its ally Hamas’s October 7, 2023,
onslaught. The fighting ended in November with a US-brokered ceasefire
deal.In the al-Mayadeen interview, Qassem explained Hezbollah’s decision
to launch near-daily attacks on Israel in wake of the Hamas attack
rather than a full-scale war.“The outcome of a full war is predictable.
It requires preparedness that simply wasn’t available,” he said. “We had
to enter the battle with limited support and observe developments
closely. Based on how things evolved, we could make a clearer
choice.”According to Qassem, Hamas did not coordinate with Hezbollah in
advance of October 7, and the two terrorist organizations later
discussed whether the latter should intensify attacks on Israel.“Doing
more than support would not have changed the outcome,” he insisted,
saying “we came to see that the Israeli aggression was extreme,
supported by new rules of engagement and US backing.”Addressing recent
Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Qassem threatened that
“resistance will not wait forever. There are limits.” Israel says it
reserves the right under the ceasefire agreement to act against imminent
threats by Hezbollah, and accuses the terror group of ceasefire
violations, which it denies.“There is no third option between victory
and martyrdom. We do not have surrender as an option,” Qassem said.
PM
says he’s in sync with Trump on hostage deal, won’t agree to one ‘at
any price’Netanyahu insists Trump’s strategy for agreement doesn’t
involve pressuring Israel; Hamas says it will free 10 hostages during
potential Gaza ceasefire, in rare statement amid talksBy Jacob Magid-and
Nurit Yohanan-Today, 2:32 am-JUL 10,25
WASHINGTON — Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that he and US President
Donald Trump were in lock-step with their efforts to secure a hostage
deal.In a seeming attempt to project unity with the United States amid
the ongoing ceasefire negotiations, the premier insisted that both he
and Trump would not agree to a deal “at any price,” as the American
president again suggested that a deal was close to being
finalized.“President Trump and I have a common goal. I want to achieve
the release of our hostages. We want to end Hamas rule in Gaza. We want
to make sure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel anymore,”
Netanyahu told reporters at the US Capitol in Washington before meeting
with Senate Majority Leader John Thune.Netanyahu insisted he and Trump
have the same strategy for securing a deal, which does not involve US
pressure on Israel.“President Trump wants a deal, but not at any price. I
want a deal, but not at any price. Israel has security requirements and
other requirements, and we’re working together to try to achieve it,”
Netanyahu said, dismissing reports to the contrary.On Tuesday, however,
the US leaned on Israel to ease its stance regarding the partial
withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza during the temporary truce being
discussed, an Arab official told The Times of Israel.Trump, meanwhile,
once again asserted that there was a “very good chance that we’ll have a
[Gaza hostage] deal of some kind this week and maybe next week.”“I
think we have a chance this week or next week — not definitely. There’s
nothing definite about war and Gaza,” he said on Wednesday.Trump said
last week that he believed a deal would be reached this week. The week
before that, Trump said a deal would likely be reached within a
week.Hamas claims ‘flexibility’ in hostage talks-As the negotiations
continued, Hamas put out a statement claiming that it has evinced
“flexibility” and agreed to release 10 hostages as part of the
deal.However, the terror group noted that other issues were still under
negotiation, including the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza
Strip, the withdrawal of IDF forces from the territory and real
guarantees for a permanent ceasefire.Hamas claimed in its statement that
despite the challenges in the talks, it continues to act “seriously and
in a positive spirit with the mediators in order to overcome the
obstacles.”The statement marked an unusual declaration from Hamas during
the negotiations with Israel, but did not appear to indicate any
progress.The outline currently being discussed in the talks in Doha,
based on a proposal by US special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, would see
the release of 10 living Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the return
of the bodies of 18 deceased hostages, in exchange for a 60-day
ceasefire.Witkoff told reporters Tuesday that he was hopeful a deal
could be reached this week, claiming that three of the four sticking
points between the two parties had been resolved in proximity talks in
Doha.But sources speaking to The Times of Israel said the US is more
optimistic than Egyptian and Qatari mediators about the chances of a
deal being reached this week, as significant gaps still remain in
negotiations.One of the main sticking points in talks has been the issue
of whether Israel would be able to restart its military campaign at the
conclusion of a proposed 60-day ceasefire.The US was also said to have
told mediators that it does not intend to allow Jerusalem to resume
fighting, even if not explicitly included in the text of a deal being
hashed out in Washington and Qatar, an Arab diplomat and a second source
familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.Hostage
families skeptical of current framework-In the wake of Netanyahu’s
meetings with Trump, a group of families of hostages met Wednesday with
senior administration officials at the White House.“We heard for an
additional time about the Trump administration’s commitment to returning
all the hostages. They won’t stop until all 50 hostages return home.
These moments are critical, and we trust the Trump administration to
bring everyone [home], with a complete agreement,” the Hostages and
Missing Families Forum said in a statement.Witkoff said Tuesday that the
administration was planning on holding the meeting in order to update
the families on the state of the hostage talks in Doha.The hostage
families currently in Washington are opposed to the hostage deal
framework that is being advanced as it does not secure the release of
all the captives, with the return of the remaining hostages dependent on
the outcome of subsequent negotiations on a permanent ceasefire.Israel
has preferred such a framework, however, as it does not want to give an
up-front commitment to permanently end the war.Trump officials have
reportedly assured the families that the deal will ultimately see the
release of all the hostages.Netanyahu denies Israel looking to ‘push
out’ Gazans-Also on Wednesday, Netanyahu insisted that Israel is not
seeking to forcibly displace Palestinians, rather simply wants to offer
those interested in leaving the opportunity to do so.“We’re not pushing
out anyone, and I don’t think that’s President Trump’s suggestion,”
Netanyahu said in response to a question from a reporter at the
Capitol.When Trump introduced his plan to take over Gaza for the first
time in February, though, he talked about permanently relocating the
entire population.He has since distanced himself from such rhetoric and
rarely speaks publicly of the plan while Israel has latched onto it,
framing it as an effort to “encourage the voluntary migration” of
Gazans.Israel is insisting that it remain in the Morag Corridor in
southern Gaza, near where it says it plans to create a “humanitarian
city” in which the Strip’s entire population will be herded and
prevented from leaving once vetted.On Monday, Defense Minister Israel
Katz briefed reporters on plans to create a “humanitarian city” in which
the Strip’s entire population will be herded and prevented from leaving
once vetted. His remarks sparked international uproar with talk of
concentrating a population of 2 million people in such a small area
while barring them from leaving.The statement also apparently marred
talks in Doha by causing Hamas to dig its feet in regarding the partial
withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip during the prospective
60-day truce.Netanyahu has reportedly told Likud lawmakers that Israel
is destroying every building in Gaza so that Palestinians have nowhere
to go other than outside the Strip.“It’s called the freedom of choice,
and nothing more than that. No coercion, no forcible dislocation. If
people want to leave Gaza, they should have the right to do so and not
be held at the point of a gun by Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
US
official waived safeguards to rush $30 million to Gaza Humanitarian
Foundation-Jeremy Lewin, a former DOGE operative, also overrode 58
objections from USAID staff experts about operations of contentious US-
and Israel-backed aid group-By Reuters 9 July 2025, 11:42 pm
WASHINGTON
— A top US State Department official waived nine mandatory
counterterrorism and anti-fraud safeguards to rush a $30 million award
last month to a Gaza aid group backed by the Trump administration and
Israel, according to an internal memorandum seen by Reuters.Jeremy
Lewin, a former Department of Government Efficiency associate, signed
off on the award despite an assessment in the memorandum that the Gaza
Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) funding plan failed to meet required
“minimum technical or budgetary standards.”The June 24 action memorandum
to Lewin was sent by Kenneth Jackson, also a former DOGE operative who
serves as an acting deputy US Agency for International Development
administrator. The pair has overseen the agency’s dismantling and the
merger of its functions into the State Department.Lewin also overrode 58
objections that USAID staff experts wanted GHF to resolve in its
application before the funds were approved, according to two sources
familiar with the matter.Lewin, who runs the State Department’s foreign
aid program, cleared the funds only five days after GHF filed its
proposal on June 19, according to the June 24 “action memorandum”
bearing his signature, seen by Reuters.“Strong Admin support for this
one,” Lewin wrote to USAID leaders in a June 25 email — also seen by
Reuters — that urged disbursement of the funds by the agency “ASAP.”The
action memorandum was first reported by CNN. Lewin and Jackson did not
respond to requests for comment.The documents underline the priority the
Trump administration has given GHF despite the group’s lack of
experience and the killing of hundreds of Palestinians near its Gaza aid
distribution hubs.GHF, which closely coordinates with the Israeli
military, has acknowledged reports of violence but says they occurred
beyond its operations area.Lewin noted in the email that he had
discussed the funds with aides to Steve Witkoff, President Donald
Trump’s negotiator on Gaza, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s
office.He acknowledged that authorizing the funds would be
controversial, writing: “I’m taking the bullet on this one.”The White
House did not respond to requests for comment. Witkoff and Rubio did not
reply to a question about whether they were aware of and supported the
decision to waive the safeguards.The State Department said in a
statement that the $30 million was approved under a legal provision
allowing USAID to expedite awards in response to “emergency situations”
to “meet humanitarian needs as expeditiously as possible.”“The GHF award
remains subject to rigorous oversight, including of GHF’s operations
and finances,” the statement said. “As part of the award, GHF was
subject to new control and reporting requirements.”In response to a
request for comment, a GHF spokesperson said: “Our model is specifically
designed to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. Every dollar we receive is
safeguarded to ensure all resources, which will eventually include
American taxpayer funds, reach the people of Gaza.”The spokesperson
added that such requests for clarification from the US government about
fund applications were routine.Speaking about the nine conditions that
were waived, the spokesperson said: “We are addressing each question as
per regulations and normal procedure and will continue to do so as
required.”GHF says its operation is preventing Hamas from hijacking food
aid and using it to control the enclave’s population, charges denied by
the terror group.In the June 24 action memorandum, Jackson wrote that
GHF is “uniquely positioned to operate in areas with restricted access,”
and said it has delivered millions of meals and diluted Hamas’s control
over Gaza’s 2.1 million Palestinians.He acknowledged that GHF “is a new
organization that has not met USAID’s various formal criteria for
eligibility” for the $30 million award.Jackson listed nine conditions
that applicants normally must satisfy before receiving USAID funds,
explicitly outlining the terms of each and the risks of waiving them.For
instance, he noted a “legal requirement” that aid organizations working
in Gaza or the West Bank undergo vetting for ties to extremist
organizations before they are awarded USAID funds, the document
said.“Waiving the requirement could increase the risk” that an aid
group, its subcontractors or vendors “could be found ineligible due to
terrorism-related concerns,” said the document.Jackson also wrote that
USAID was required to examine whether an organization has sufficient
internal controls to manage awards. He warned that waiving the condition
“could raise the risk of misuse of taxpayer resources,” according to
the document.GHF submitted a plan – required prior to approval of funds –
that was incomplete on how it would deal with legal and operational
risks of operating in Gaza, the document said.Waiving the need for a
full plan “could risk programmatic diversion, reputational harm, and
potential violations of US counterterrorism laws,” it continued.Despite
the risks, Jackson recommended waiving all nine requirements and
allowing GHF to fulfill them later because of the “humanitarian and
political urgency” of its operation, the memo said. Lewin checked a box
labeled “Approve” on each of the recommendations, it showed.In addition
to waiving the nine requirements, two sources familiar with the matter
said, Lewin overrode 58 objections from USAID staff reviewing GHF’s
application.Two former top USAID officials said they had never heard of a
senior official like Lewin expediting an award over the objections of
professional staff.“I oversaw something like 1,500 grants. I never saw
it happen,” said Sarah Charles, who led USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian
Assistance from 2021-2024. “Very occasionally, we would do the vetting
after an award in a sudden onset emergency — think earthquake — but that
was at the recommendation of staff.”In the review, the USAID experts
questioned how GHF would ensure the safety of Palestinians collecting
food packages at its sites; whether its staff had proper humanitarian
training and its plans to distribute powdered infant formula in an
enclave with scarce access to clean drinking water, the sources said.
Missing
sailors feared kidnapped by Houthis after deadly attack on cargo
ship-Six rescued from water as Yemeni rebel group takes responsibility
for sinking Eternity C, claims it took some crew from Liberian-flagged
vessel to a ‘safe location’By Agencies 9 July 2025, 10:18 pm
A
Liberian-flagged cargo ship attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels sank
Wednesday in the Red Sea, with a European naval force in the Mideast
saying that only six of 25 people who were on board had been
rescued.Four of the crew were killed and 15 remained missing,
authorities said, as the Houthi group officially claimed responsibility
for the attack and raised fears it may have kidnapped some of the
missing sailors.Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had
attacked the Eternity C as it was heading toward Eilat. The attack was
carried out with an unmanned vessel and six cruise and ballistic
missiles, he added.Saree said the Houthis had “moved to rescue a number
of the ship’s crew, provide them with medical care and transport them to
a safe location,” seemingly implying that the terror group may have
kidnapped some members of the crew.“After killing their shipmates,
sinking their ship and hampering rescue efforts, the Houthi terrorists
have kidnapped many surviving crew members of the Eternity C. We call
for their immediate and unconditional safe release,” the US embassy said
in a statement on X.The attack on the Eternity C represents the most
serious assault carried out by the Houthis in the crucial maritime trade
route that once saw $1 trillion in cargo pass through annually.????⚡️
BREAKING:Yemeni Houthi group has released footage of the targeting and
sinking of the cargo ship Eternity C in the Red Sea.U.S. Embassy in
Yemen:“The Houthis have taken the ship’s crew hostage. We demand their
immediate release.”The ship had 22 crew members onboard:…
pic.twitter.com/rAyIpTGOXJ— RussiaNews ???????? (@mog_russEN) July 9,
2025A statement from the European Union naval mission in the Red Sea
said the crew of the ship included 22 sailors, among them 21 Filipinos
and one Russian, as well as a three-member security team. Those rescued
were five Filipinos and one Indian, and another 15 people are considered
missing, including a Greek member of the security team.Four of the 25
people aboard the Eternity C cargo ship were killed before the rest of
the crew abandoned the vessel, which sank on Wednesday morning after
being attacked on Monday and Tuesday, sources at security companies
involved in a rescue operation said.The six seafarers who were rescued
had spent more than 24 hours in the water, they said. The EU force
earlier said one of the wounded crew had lost his leg.“We will continue
to search for the remaining crew until the last light,” said an official
at Greece-based maritime risk management firm Diaplous.Two security
sources told Reuters that the vessel was hit with sea drones on Tuesday,
forcing the crew and armed guards to abandon it. The Houthis stayed
with the vessel until the early hours of Wednesday, one of the sources
said.In November 2023, the Houthis hijacked and captured the “Galaxy
Leader” vessel, kidnapping its crew of 25 people — who hailed from the
Philippines, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Mexico — and only freeing
them in January 2025. Israel carried out airstrikes on the vessel as
part of a larger operation earlier this week.The EU force said that the
armed rebels had attacked the Eternity C on Monday with rocket-propelled
grenades and small arms, later using two drones and two drone boats
carrying bombs to strike the vessel. The Eternity C sank at 7:50 a.m. on
Wednesday, it added.The ship likely had been targeted like the Magic
Seas was on Sunday over its firm doing business with Israel. Neither
vessel apparently requested an escort from the EU force.Both of the
ships that were attacked flew Liberia flags and were operated by Greek
firms. Some of the sister vessels in each of their wider fleets had made
calls to Israeli ports in the past year, shipping data analysis
showed.The US military has two aircraft carriers in the Mideast, the USS
Nimitz and the USS Carl Vinson, but both are likely in the Arabian Sea,
far from the site of the attacks. There are two American destroyers
believed to be operating in the Red Sea. However, the ships attacked had
no US ties and a ceasefire between the Houthis and America announced
after the bombing campaign earlier this year still appears to be
holding.From November 2023 until the following December, the Houthis
targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones in a campaign the
rebels describe as supporting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the
Israel-Hamas war. The Iranian-backed rebels stopped their attacks during
a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the target of an
intense weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered by US President Donald
Trump.The attack on the Eternity C, as well as the sinking of the bulk
carrier Magic Seas in another attack Sunday, raises new questions about
the Red Sea’s safety as ships had slowly begun returning to its waters.
The assaults are the first Houthi attacks on shipping since late 2024 in
the waterway that had begun to see more ships pass through in recent
weeks.The attacks on the ships drew immediate international
condemnation.“We are now with grave concern seeing an escalation in the
Red Sea with attacks on two commercial ships earlier this week by Ansar
Allah, resulting in civilian loss of life and casualties as well as the
potential for environmental damage,” warned United Nations special envoy
Hans Grundberg, using another name for the rebels.“These attacks
demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to
freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,”
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. “The United States
has been clear: We will continue to take necessary action to protect
freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist
attacks.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Saudi,
Syrian figures visit Knesset to talk up chances for
normalization-Syrian activist Shadi Martini tells lobby new president
called peace with Israel a ‘unique opportunity’; Gulf journalist
Abdulaziz Alkhamis says Israel must commit ‘to coexistence’By Nava
Freiberg-and ToI Staff 9 July 2025, 7:25 pm
A Syrian activist who
paid a rare visit to the Knesset Wednesday said new Syrian president
Ahmed al-Sharaa had called the movement toward forging peace with Israel
a once-in-a-century opportunity, but worried the chance could slip
away.Businessman and political activist Shadi Martini recalled his
meeting with Sharaa while speaking at the inaugural conference of a
Knesset lobby aimed at advancing a regional security arrangement,
attending alongside Saudi journalist Abdulaziz Alkhamis.The two attended
the meeting of the Lobby for Advancing a Regional Security Arrangement
against the backdrop of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to
Washington and public optimism about potentially expanding the Abraham
Accords normalization agreements. The lobby was jointly founded by
opposition MKs Ram Ben Barak, Gilad Kariv and Alon Schuster.Speaking in
English about new opportunities for cooperation between Israel and the
new Syrian government, Martini — who fled Syria during its civil war in
2012 — told lawmakers at the conference that he had an “interesting
meeting” with Sharaa around two weeks ago.“I was with two other
colleagues, one is a priest and one is a rabbi… We entered the
presidential palace in Damascus. I really appreciated that meeting. It
went on for two hours, and the topic of Israel was dominant,” he
said.Martini noted that “one thing that stuck with me that President
al-Sharaa said was: ‘We only have these opportunities one time every 100
years, it’s a very unique opportunity, but the window will not always
stay open.'”He suggested that Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah last year
and the killing of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, were the key
events that allowed opposition forces in Syria to rapidly overthrow the
government in December: “For Syrians, we were very happy with what
Israel did, we really appreciated it.”That sentiment, however, was
reversed by extensive Israeli military activity in Syria in the wake of
Bashar al-Assad’s fall, he said.“Israel needs to explain what’s the end
game here,” he said, decrying Israeli troops blocking Syrian farmers
from accessing their land on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. “We
need to understand.”Martini noted that he was born and raised with
strong “negative stereotypes” about Israelis, and was surprised to hear
from Israelis who reached out to help him and his family amid the civil
war.Trust, he said, “is one big commodity that is lacking in the Middle
East.”He described Hamas’s October 7 attack as a “huge, huge tragedy,
and a massacre,” expressing hopes for a ceasefire and the return of the
hostages, enabling “the Palestinian people in Gaza to be able to go home
and live peacefully.”Also addressing the meeting on Wednesday, Alkhamis
pointed out that “from the Saudi lens,” the fate of Palestinians in
Gaza “lies [at] the heart of the matter.”“No state can expect to be
impressed when our people next door are encaged and disenfranchised,” he
said in English. “Normalization from Saudi Arabia’s perspective is not
merely a dual agreement, it’s a regional realignment, and such
realignment must include a credible and tangible path to Palestinian
sovereignty.”Israel must commit “not just to security but to
coexistence,” Alkhamis added. “From Riyadh to Abu Dhabi, the lesson is
not about who won the battle, but what comes after.”“Today Saudi Arabia
and Israel stand at the edge of a new era, one shared not by old slogans
but shared interests — energy transition, economic modernization, AI
innovation, climate security, Red Sea security,” he continued. “Do we
cling to the 20th century, with its borders soaked in blood and
ideologies stuck in time? Or do we redraw the map — geopolitically,
economically, morally?”Israel and Saudi Arabia were reportedly on the
verge of signing a normalization deal before Hamas’s October 7
onslaught, which set off the ongoing Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza,
currently in its 22nd month. Saudi leaders have indicated in recent
months that they are still interested in normalizing ties with Israel,
but it would only come after a ceasefire and include a commitment to
establishing a Palestinian state.Also speaking at the conference,
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said that if Sharaa were to take demands
for the Golan Heights off the table in a potential peace agreement, he
intends for Israel to lead a regional effort to help rebuild Syria.“I
told the Emiratis in Abu Dhabi: We will know how to build a complete
regional coalition around [Sharaa] that will assist in the
reconstruction of Syria if he takes the Golan Heights issue out of the
equation,” declared Lapid, who briefly served as prime minister in
2022.Lapid held a brief meeting last week with Emirati President
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al
Nahyan during his visit to Abu Dhabi.Last week, Foreign Minister Gideon
Sa’ar said that Israel is interested in expanding “the circle of peace,”
including with Syria and Lebanon, adding that the Golan Heights “will
remain part of Israel” under any future peace agreement.The fall of the
Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria last year opened up the previously
unthinkable possibility of Jerusalem and Damascus cementing a peace
deal, with interim Syrian leader Sharaa not ruling out such a deal.
Israeli officials have admitted that the two nations are in “advanced
talks” on a bilateral agreement to end hostilities between them that
would stop short of a full peace deal.While Netanyahu declined to reveal
earlier this week whether Israel is engaged in direct talks with Syria,
National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel Hayom last month
that “there is direct daily dialogue at all levels between Israel and
the regime in Syria.”Israeli officials initially branded Syria’s new
rulers “terrorists” due to their al-Qaeda-linked past, and the Israeli
Air Force waged a fierce campaign of aerial bombardment on what it said
were military targets across the country. The hostilities have subsided
since mid-May, when US President Donald Trump turned decades of American
policy on its head by lifting sanctions on Syria and meeting Sharaa in
Riyadh.
Troops destroy Hezbollah arms in rare southern Lebanon
ground raids, IDF says-Infantry forces inside Lebanon operated in Jabal
Blat, Labbouneh areas, about a kilometer from border; Hezbollah
commander killed in Tuesday night drone strike, army announces By
Emanuel Fabian-9 July 2025, 4:36 pm
Israeli ground troops raided
several sites inside Lebanon in recent days, destroying Hezbollah weapon
depots and other infrastructure, the Israel Defense Forces said
Wednesday.The announcement of the rare special operations in the
Lebanon’s south, where Israel has kept troops deployed at five points
just north of the border since a November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah,
came days after a US envoy expressed optimism about pushing ahead with a
plan to disarm the Iran-backed terror group.According to the Israel
Defense Forces, soldiers of the 300th “Baram” Regional Brigade who
raided a site in the Jabal Blat area — around a kilometer from the
Israeli border — located a Hezbollah compound that included a weapons
depot and firing positions. The military said the troops demolished the
site.In another raid, the IDF said reservists of the Oded Brigade
located weapons hidden in a forested area near Labbouneh — just across
from the western portion of the border — including a multiple rocket
launcher, a machine gun, and dozens of explosive devices. The weapons
were also destroyed.In the same area, the soldiers also located an
underground site used by Hezbollah to store weapons, and it was
demolished by combat engineers, the IDF said.Under the ceasefire
agreement, Hezbollah was required to withdraw its fighters north of the
Litani River and dismantle all military infrastructure in southern
Lebanon. Israel was to withdraw from Lebanon, while maintaining the
right to strike threats to its security.Israeli airstrikes against
Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire have been frequent in the months
since, but IDF ground operations by troops beyond the areas of the five
posts have been much rarer.The “special, targeted” raids were launched
“following intelligence information and the identification of Hezbollah
weapons and terrorist infrastructure in several areas of southern
Lebanon,” and were intended to “prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing
itself in the area,” the military said in a statement.The IDF also
announced that a Hezbollah commander had been killed in an Israeli drone
strike in southern Lebanon a night earlier.The strike in the town of
Babliyeh, south of Sidon, killed Hussein Ali Muzhir, who the IDF said
was the commander of Hezbollah’s firepower in the Zahrani River area,
under the terror group’s Badr regional division.“As part of his role,
Hussein advanced numerous [rocket] fire attacks toward the State of
Israel and IDF troops. Additionally, recently he was involved in
attempts to restore the artillery capabilities of the Hezbollah terror
group in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.The IDF
said his actions “constitute a blatant violation of the understandings
between Israel and Lebanon.”Israel says it has killed over 180 Hezbollah
operatives in strikes against the terror group since the late November
ceasefire, alleging violations of the truce agreement.The ceasefire
agreement brought to an end more than a year of fighting with the
Iran-backed Hezbollah, including two months of open war in southern
Lebanon late last year.Hezbollah began attacking military outposts and
communities in northern Israel unprovoked on October 8, 2023, in a show
of support for fellow Iranian terror proxy Hamas in Gaza after it led an
invasion and onslaught in southern Israel a day earlier.On Monday, US
envoy Thomas Barrack said he was “unbelievably satisfied” satisfied by
the response of Lebanon’s authorities to a request to disarm Hezbollah,
part of a process meant to bring a remove the need for Israel to take
military action in Lebanon.“It’s thoughtful, it’s considered. We’re
creating a go-forward plan,” he said.Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem said
Sunday that the group would not give up its weapons.Since the
ceasefire, the Lebanese state has been working methodically to dismantle
Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the south of the country, and is
estimated to have seized the majority of the terror group’s weapons
stockpile in the same area.The IDF says its presence at the five points
near the border are necessary to ensure the safety of Israeli
communities.AFP contributed to this report.
Trump said he told
Putin he’d ‘bomb the sh*t out of Moscow’ if he attacked Ukraine –
report-CNN releases audio of Trump at 2024 gathering of donors during
election campaign; US president claims to have issued similar warning to
China’s Xi over potential Taiwan invasion By Reuters and ToI Staff 9
July 2025, 3:21 pm
US President Donald Trump once said he had
threatened to bomb Moscow to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from
attacking Ukraine, CNN reported Tuesday.The report cited audio
recordings of Trump telling a private gathering of donors amid his
election campaign in 2024 that he had once warned Putin that he would
“bomb the shit out of Moscow” if Russia attacked Ukraine.Russia annexed
Crimea in 2014 before launching an invasion of Ukraine in 2022, sparking
the ongoing war.The Kremlin said Wednesday that it was not sure of the
veracity of the CNN article.Asked about the report, Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov said: “I cannot confirm or deny this, even if I wanted to…
Whether it is fake or not, we do not know either. There is a lot of
fake news these days.”The CNN report did not say when exactly Trump
reportedly made the comments about bombing Moscow to Putin.The
Washington Post reported that Trump had spoken to Putin by phone last
November — after he won the presidential election but before he returned
to the White House — and warned him not to escalate in Ukraine. The
Kremlin dismissed reports of the phone call as “pure fiction.”The first
acknowledged phone call between the men this year took place on February
12.Trump, who promised to swiftly end the war in Ukraine, has grown
increasingly frustrated with Putin in recent months as the conflict has
dragged on.He directed his ire at the Kremlin chief during a meeting
with his cabinet officials at the White House on Tuesday, saying, “We
get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin.”Trump also said he was
considering levying additional sanctions on Moscow.CNN said that Trump
also claimed to have delivered a similar warning to Chinese President Xi
Jinping over a potential invasion of Taiwan, telling him that the
United States would bomb Beijing in response.
A new strategy for
destroying Hamas? Trump’s Middle East envoy Witkoff says the latest
phased deal is almost finalized, and believes it ‘will lead to lasting
peace’. We’ll know soon enough-By David Horovitz-9 July 2025, 3:07 pm
This
Editor’s Note was sent out earlier Wednesday in ToI’s weekly update
email to members of the Times of Israel Community. To receive these
Editor’s Notes as they’re released, join the ToI Community here.US
President Donald Trump wants to end the war in Gaza as soon as possible.
“We’ve got to get that solved,” he told his cabinet on Tuesday. A deal
is close at hand, he indicated. Both Israel and Hamas want it, he
said.Added the president’s most trusted envoy, Steve Witkoff: “We think
it will lead to a lasting peace in Gaza.”Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu was hurriedly called back to the White House, a day after he,
his team and his wife had dinner there. He left more than an hour later,
with both he and Trump, uncharacteristically, eschewing meetings with
the media before, during or after their talk, at which Vice President JD
Vance was also present.Happy, smiling pictures were released, however,
including one showing Netanyahu holding a baseball cap emblazoned,
“Trump was right about everything!”Plainly, things are cooking.Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a cap with the message “Trump was
right about everything!,” in a photo posted by the White House on July
8, 2025, after Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump. (via
X)-Netanyahu has not been prepared to back a one-time deal to end the
war in exchange for all the hostages because he fears, he says, that the
US and international community will not permit Israel to resume
fighting Hamas, when, as it inevitably will, it breaches the terms of
any permanent ceasefire.Witkoff helped finalize the last phased
hostage-ceasefire deal, in January, but it collapsed in March because
Netanyahu was not willing to negotiate substantively on ending the war.
Thirty-eight soldiers, a police officer and a civilian Defense Ministry
contractor have been killed in Gaza since then.The redoubtable envoy
says three of the four areas of dispute that have prevented a new phased
accord have been resolved in this week’s “proximity talks” in Doha. “We
had four issues and now we’re down to one,” he said on
Tuesday.Curiously, however, many reports indicate that the one
outstanding issue relates to the specifics of the IDF’s withdrawal in
the course of the initial 60-day temporary truce period, during which 10
living and 18 slain hostages held in Gaza are to be freed.Why is this
curious? Because the specifics of where the IDF is deployed in those
first 60 days would appear to be a relatively marginal issue, given that
the ostensible goal of this new phased deal, just like the last one, is
to secure a permanent ceasefire in which all of the hostages would be
freed, the IDF would fully withdraw from Gaza and the war would be
over.If the only unresolved issue is the matter of the IDF’s interim
deployment, that would suggest that Hamas, battered and much depleted by
21 months of war, knows that this deal, too, will not in fact lead to a
permanent end of hostilities.The last reliable published text of the
so-called Witkoff proposal stated that if “negotiations on the
arrangement for a permanent ceasefire are not concluded” within the
first 60 days, “the temporary ceasefire may be extended under conditions
and for a duration to be agreed upon by the parties so long as the
parties are negotiating in good faith.” To date, Hamas had been
demanding that the phrase “in good faith” be deleted, assessing that
Netanyahu would exploit that clause to resume the campaign to destroy
its military and governance capacities, and it had been seeking reliable
guarantees, from the US and the UN Security Council, that the deal will
indeed bring the war to an end.Yet shortly before returning to the
White House, Netanyahu held a lengthy session with reporters on Capitol
Hill in which he repeated, very deliberately, several times, that Israel
remains absolutely and completely “determined to complete all the goals
of the war in Gaza: to free all our hostages; to bring about the
destruction of Hamas’s military and governance capacities, and to ensure
that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel.” He stressed, over and
over again: “That means no Hamas. This must be understood.”He further
specified that “no Hamas” means “Hamas needs to put down its weapons, to
be dismantled, and Gaza demilitarized. We have the power [to achieve
this]. I won’t give up on this. And I won’t give up on the hostages.”So
Trump wants to end the war. Witkoff believes the deal under discussion
can bring lasting peace. Netanyahu insists he’s not compromising on the
declared goal of utterly destroying Hamas, as a fundamental requirement
for long-term security and stability. And Hamas is reportedly fixated on
the location of the IDF for the first 60 days of the agreement?
Presumably, we’re missing something here, something wider and still more
dramatic. Because as things stand, Hamas will be signing on to an
arrangement carefully crafted to ultimately enable its elimination. It
knows the deal will not extend beyond the first 60 days because, this
time around, just as in March, Netanyahu will not agree to end the war.
It will thus use the 60-day temporary ceasefire period to regroup,
recruit and rearm. And the war will then resume, with 22 hostages, at
least 10 of them alive, still held in captivity.“We are fighting a very
cruel, cynical enemy and we don’t need to tell it our plans,” the prime
minister noted during that Capitol Hill appearance on Tuesday.
Twenty-one months into the war, achieving all of Israel’s goals, he
added cryptically, “entails a certain strategy, which I will not detail
here.”Let’s hope the Israeli and US leaderships have found one. We’ll
know soon enough.
UK, France to enable 'co-ordinated' nuclear deterrent.
London,
July 9 (AFP) Jul 09, 2025-The UK and France will declare that the two
nations' nuclear deterrents, while independent, can be co-ordinated and
that they will jointly respond to any "extreme threat to Europe," both
countries said Wednesday.The declaration, to be signed Thursday, will
state that the respective deterrents of both countries remain under
national control "but can be co-ordinated, and that there is no extreme
threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by both nations," the
UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the French presidency said in an
overnight statement.French President Emmanuel Macron will sign the
agreement Thursday as he wraps up his three-day state visit to the UK
with a bilateral summit, where the allies will "reboot" defence ties
with a focus on joint missile development and nuclear
co-operation.France's leader and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will
co-host the London summit, with the two sides also expected to discuss
maintaining support for Ukraine and curbing undocumented cross-Channel
immigration.Ahead of the gathering, which follows two days of varied
events spanning pomp and politics, trade and culture, France and Britain
announced their "defence relationship" will be "refreshed".It will see
London and Paris order more Storm Shadow cruise missiles -- long-range,
air-launched weapons jointly developed by the two countries and called
SCALP by the French -- while stepping up work on a replacement
system.The missiles have been shipped to Ukraine in significant numbers
in recent years to help Kyiv in its war with Russia.The new partnerships
herald a new "Entente Industrielle" making "defence an engine for
growth", said the MoD."As close partners and NATO allies, the UK and
France have a deep history of defence collaboration and today's
agreements take our partnership to the next level," Starmer said in the
statement.Starmer and Macron will also on Thursday dial into a meeting
of the so-called "coalition of the willing" on Ukraine, a group of
countries backing the embattled nation.
China denies directing laser at German plane over Red Sea.
Beijing,
July 9 (AFP) Jul 09, 2025-Beijing dismissed on Wednesday claims by
Berlin that the Chinese military had directed a laser at a German
aircraft over the Red Sea as "completely inconsistent with the
facts".The foreign ministry in Berlin said on Tuesday that a German
aircraft participating in a "routine" EU-led mission to protect marine
traffic in the Red Sea had been targeted by a laser, endangering
personnel.Its counterpart in Beijing rejected the accusation."Both sides
should adopt a pragmatic attitude, strengthen communication in a timely
manner, and avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations," Chinese
foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.She said Chinese naval
vessels had been carrying out escort duties in the Gulf of Aden and in
Somali waters, "contributing to the safety of international shipping
lanes".Berlin however on Wednesday insisted its findings were based on a
"thorough investigation"."We expressed our position and our findings
very clearly and very explicitly (to the Chinese ambassador), and of
course also our expectation that incidents of this kind will not be
repeated," foreign ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said.Defence
ministry spokesman Mitko Mueller added that "we have clear evidence that
a Chinese warship used a laser against our aircraft".When reporting the
alleged incident on Tuesday, Berlin had said the reconnaissance
aircraft involved had been forced to abandon its mission and returned to
a base in Djibouti.It was not immediately clear whether the laser was a
weapon or a laser guidance system.The Bild daily said the incident took
place on July 2 near the Yemeni coast and involved a "blinding laser"
aimed at disrupting the operation of an aircraft.China has been accused
several times in recent years of using lasers in similar incidents.It
established its first permanent overseas naval base in Djibouti in 2016,
reportedly at a cost of $590 million and strategically placed between
the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.Beijing has said the base is used to
resupply navy ships, support regional peacekeeping and humanitarian
operations and combat piracy, although its proximity to a US military
base has raised concerns of espionage.The Philippines said in February
2023 a Chinese military vessel had used a military-grade laser against
one of its patrol boats in the disputed South China Sea.In 2022,
Australia said the Chinese army had directed a laser at one of its
surveillance aircraft in an "act of intimidation".
Ukraine says Russia launched largest drone, missile attack of war.
Kyiv,
Ukraine, July 9 (AFP) Jul 09, 2025-Russia pummelled Ukraine with its
largest missile and drone attack in more than three years of war,
claiming to have targeted an airfield in a region bordering EU and NATO
member Poland.The attack comes after US Donald Trump said he would ramp
up arms deliveries to Ukraine and accused his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin of talking "bullshit" on Ukraine.AFP journalists in Kyiv
heard explosions ringing out and drones buzzing over the capital after
air raid sirens sounded.The latest strike beat a previous Russian record
of 550 drones and missiles set last week.The air force said Russia
attacked with 728 drones and 13 missiles, adding that its air defence
systems intercepted 711 drones and destroyed seven missiles."This is a
telling attack -- and it comes precisely at a time when so many efforts
have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire, and yet only
Russia continues to rebuff them all," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote
on social media.Zelensky, who arrived in Rome later ahead of meetings
with the pope and president, called for allies to step up sanctions on
Russia, particularly targeting its energy sector, an important revenue
stream for the Russian war chest.- Russia advances on front -"Our
partners know how to apply pressure in a way that will force Russia to
think about ending the war, not launching new strikes," Zelensky
added.Kyiv has repeatedly accused China of supplying parts and
technologies central to the Russian drone and missile program, and urged
the West to step up penalties.On Wednesday, its security services
announced it had detained two Chinese nationals accused of attempting to
smuggle missile technology out of the war-torn country.Igor Polishchuk,
the mayor of the western city of Lutsk whose surrounding region borders
Poland, said fires had broken out at an "enterprise," but that no one
had been reported killed or wounded.The Russian defence ministry said
its "long-range" and "precision" strike had targeted military airfield
infrastructure claiming that "all designated targets were destroyed."
There was no response to that claim in Kyiv.Russia's latest record
barrage comes just after the United States U-turned on an announcement
that it would reduce some weapons supplies to Ukraine."It is quite
telling that Russia carried out this attack just as the United States
publicly announced that it would supply us with weapons," the Ukrainian
president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on social media.A
representative of Ukraine's air force said new Ukrainian drones had
played an important role in thwarting the Russian attack. Another
official said most of the drones launched were decoys.The Kremlin
meanwhile said Wednesday it was unfazed about Trump's comments about
Putin."Let's just say that Trump in general has quite a harsh rhetorical
style in terms of the phrases he uses," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said.Two rounds of direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian
delegations since Trump returned to the White House have resulted in an
increase in prisoner exchanges but no progress on securing a ceasefire,
proposed by the United States and Ukraine.The Kremlin has since said it
sees no diplomatic path out of the conflict, launched by Moscow in
February 2022, and vowed to pursue its war aims -- effectively seeking
to conquer Ukraine and remove its political leadership.Ukraine has also
sought to increase its own attacks on Russia, with Moscow's defence
ministry saying Wednesday its air defence units had downed 86 unmanned
aerial vehicles, mainly over western regions of the country.The exchange
of aerial broadsides come as Russian forces are slowly but steadily
gaining ground at key sectors of the sprawling front line in eastern
Ukraine.The Russian defence ministry announced the capture of another
village, Tolstoy, on Wednesday in the eastern Donetsk region, which the
Kremlin has claimed as part of Russia since 2022, despite not fully
controlling it.
Gaza civil defence says 20 killed in Israeli air strikes.
Gaza
City, Palestinian Territories, July 9 (AFP) Jul 09, 2025-Gaza's civil
defence agency on Wednesday said that 20 people, including at least six
children, were killed in two Israeli air strikes overnight in the
Palestinian territory.Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the first
hit a tent housing displaced people in Khan Yunis in the south shortly
after midnight local time (2100 GMT Tuesday) and the second struck a
camp in the north soon afterwards.The Israeli military said it was
looking into the report when contacted by AFP.The bombings came as
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US President Donald Trump
in Washington and discussed the ongoing campaign to defeat Hamas in
Gaza.Afterwards, he restated Israel's aims to secure the release of all
hostages taken during the Palestinian militants' October 7, 2023 attack,
and "the elimination" of its "military and governing
capabilities".Gaza's civil defence agency said 29 people were killed in
Israeli strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, with victims also including
people displaced by 21 months of conflict.Bassal said the first strike
on Wednesday killed 10 members of the same family sheltering in the
Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis while the second, on the Al-Shati camp near
Gaza City, also left more than 30 wounded.The victims were from two
families, he added."The explosion was massive, like an earthquake," said
Zuhair Judeh, 40, who saw the Al-Shati air strike."It destroyed the
house and several nearby homes. The bodies and remains of the martyrs
were scattered," he added, calling it "a horrific massacre".Several
people remained missing, presumed trapped under the rubble, he
said.Abeer al-Sharbasi, 36, described the air strike as "terrifying" and
said it happened as she and her family were asleep in a nearby
tent."You can't predict when or why they'll bomb you. We have nothing
left but to surrender ourselves to God."Due to restrictions imposed on
media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties accessing the area, AFP is
unable to independently verify the death tolls and details shared by the
parties involved.Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in
the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally
based on Israeli official figures.Of 251 hostages seized during attack,
49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are
dead.Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,575 people in
Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's
health ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.
Visa's 24/7 war room takes on global cybercriminals.
Ashburn,
United States, July 7 (AFP) Jul 07, 2025-In the heart of Data Center
Alley -- a patch of suburban Washington where much of the world's
internet traffic flows -- Visa operates its global fraud command
center.The numbers that the payments giant grapples with are enormous.
Every year, $15 trillion flows through Visa's networks, representing
roughly 15 percent of the world's economy. And bad actors constantly try
to syphon off some of that money.Modern fraudsters vary dramatically in
sophistication.To stay ahead, Visa has invested $12 billion over the
past five years building AI-powered cyber fraud detection capabilities,
knowing that criminals are also spending big."You have everybody from a
single individual threat actor looking to make a quick buck all the way
to really corporatized criminal organizations that generate tens or
hundreds of millions of dollars annually from fraud and scam
activities," Michael Jabbara, Visa's global head of fraud solutions,
told AFP during a tour of the company's security campus."These
organizations are very structured in how they operate."The
best-resourced criminal syndicates now focus on scams that directly
target consumers, enticing them into purchases or transactions by
manipulating their emotions."Consumers are continuously vulnerable. They
can be exploited, and that's where we've seen a much higher incidence
of attacks recently," Jabbara said.- Scam centers -The warning signs are
clear: anything that seems too good to be true online is suspicious,
and romance opportunities with strangers from distant countries are
especially dangerous."What you don't realize is that the person you're
chatting with is more likely than not in a place like Myanmar," Jabbara
warned.He said human-trafficking victims are forced to work in
multi-billion-dollar cyber scam centers built by Asian crime networks in
Myanmar's lawless border regions.The most up-to-date fraud techniques
are systematic and quietly devastating.Once criminals obtain your card
information, they automatically distribute it across numerous merchant
websites that generate small recurring charges -- amounts low enough
that victims may not notice for months.Some of these operations
increasingly resemble legitimate tech companies, offering services and
digital products to fraudsters much like Google or Microsoft cater to
businesses.On the dark web, criminals can purchase comprehensive fraud
toolkits."You can buy the software. You can buy a tutorial on how to use
the software. You can get access to a mule network on the ground or you
can get access to a bot network" to carry out denial-of-service attacks
that overwhelm servers with traffic, effectively shutting them
down.Just as cloud computing lowered barriers for startups by
eliminating the need to build servers, "the same type of trend has
happened in the cyber crime and fraud space," Jabbara explained.These
off-the-shelf services can also enable bad actors to launch brute force
attacks on an industrial scale -- using repeated payment attempts to
crack a card's number, expiry date, and security code.The sophistication
extends to corporate-style management, Jabbara said.Some criminal
organizations now employ chief risk officers who determine operational
risk appetite.They might decide that targeting government infrastructure
and hospitals generates an excessive amount of attention from law
enforcement and is too risky to pursue.- 'Millions of attacks' -To
combat these unprecedented threats, Jabbara leads a payment scam
disruption team focused on understanding criminal methodologies.From a
small room called the Risk Operations Center in Virginia, employees
analyze data streams on multiple screens, searching for patterns that
distinguish fraudulent activity from legitimate credit card use.In the
larger Cyber Fusion Center, staff monitor potential cyberattacks
targeting Visa's own infrastructure around the clock."We deal with
millions of attacks across different parts of our network," Jabbara
noted, emphasizing that most are handled automatically without human
intervention.Visa maintains identical facilities in London and
Singapore, ensuring 24-hour global vigilance.
Taiwan kicks off military drills in face of China threat.
Taipei,
July 9 (AFP) Jul 09, 2025-Taiwan kicked off its largest military drills
Wednesday with regular troops joined by a record mobilisation of
reservists for 10 days of training aimed at defending against a Chinese
invasion.The annual "Han Kuang" exercises, which are being held at the
same time as civilian defence drills, will run from July 9-18 and
feature newly delivered US high-tech rocket systems.The self-ruled
island democracy faces the constant threat of an invasion by China,
which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use
force to seize it.Chinese military pressure has intensified in recent
years, with Beijing deploying fighter jets and warships around the
island on a near-daily basis.In the lead-up to the drills Wednesday,
Taiwan detected 31 sorties by Chinese military aircraft and seven
warships around the island in the 24 hours to 6:00 am (2200 GMT
Tuesday), according to the defence ministry.Taiwan has boosted defence
spending and acquired smaller and more nimble weaponry, including
drones, to enable its military to wage asymmetric warfare against its
more powerful foe.Twenty-two thousand reservists -- the largest ever
call-up -- are participating in this year's drills, having begun a
training programme Saturday.Reservist training includes familiarisation
with rifles, squad and platoon machine guns, and tactical
manoeuvres."Because these reservists have been discharged and away for a
long time, upon return they need to undergo specialty refresher
training," said an army officer who asked not to be named.On Wednesday,
reservists wearing camouflage uniforms, helmets and boots were put
through their paces, practising cleaning, assembling and aiming 65K2
rifles and machine guns.Taipei is eager to show the world, especially
its key security backer Washington, that it is serious about boosting
its military capability.The drills will "let the international community
know that we are determined to defend ourselves, and to pass on to
China that the nation's military has the confidence and ability to
defend a free and democratic life", Taiwanese Defence Minister
Wellington Koo said recently.This year's drills have been extended to 10
days and nine nights, from five days and four nights last year.- 'Grey
zone' scenario -The Han Kuang began in 1984 when the island was still
under martial law.Troops will simulate various scenarios including "grey
zone harassment" -- tactics that fall short of an act of war -- as well
as "long-range precision strikes" to combat a Chinese invasion in 2027,
defence officials have said.Officials in the United States -- Taipei's
biggest arms supplier -- have previously cited 2027 as a possible
timeline for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.Recently delivered High
Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the United States will
be used during the drills.There will also be a separate live fire event
involving US-made advanced M1A2 Abrams tanks.Taiwanese defence officials
have been closely monitoring the war in Ukraine and their use of a
decentralised command and control structure."When we think practically
about combat, we consider what kind of scenario Taiwan might face," a
senior defence official said on the eve of the drills."Commanders at all
levels need to be able to decide what to do based on their
understanding of their superior's intent. This usually requires
peacetime training to build up their awareness in this regard."The
exercises are being held as President Lai Ching-te, who is a staunch
defender of Taiwan's sovereignty, tours the island delivering speeches
aimed at "uniting the country".China has carried out several large-scale
military drills around Taiwan since Lai took office last year, as the
island rejects China's sovereignty stance.China specialists at risk
analysis firm Eurasia Group said Beijing was "likely" to carry out more
military exercises at the end of July.
US sanctions UN expert
Francesca Albanese, critic of Israel's Gaza offensive-Tom Bateman -
State department correspondent-Wed, July 9, 2025 at 8:36 p.m. EDT
The
Trump administration is imposing sanctions on the UN Human Rights
Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, an outspoken critic of
Israel's military offensive in Gaza.Secretary of State Marco Rubio
linked the move to her support for the International Criminal Court
(ICC), some of whose judges have already been sanctioned by the US.Rubio
said the US was sanctioning Albanese for directly engaging with the ICC
in its efforts to prosecute American or Israeli nationals, accusing her
of being unfit for service as a UN Special Rapporteur.The sanctions are
likely to prevent Albanese from travelling to the US and would block
any assets she has in the country.In a post on X, Albanese did not
directly address the sanctions, but wrote: "[O]n this day more than
ever: I stand firmly and convincingly on the side of justice, as I have
always done."The message, in which the Italy-born special rapporteur
reposted a thread of support for ICC, said she came from the court's
founding country, where lawyers and judges had "defended justice at
great cost and often with their own life"."I intend to honor that
tradition," she added in the post.Albanese declined to comment to the
BBC, but was quoted by Al Jazeera as describing the sanctions as "mafia
style intimidation techniques".It is the latest escalation by the Trump
administration as it wages a campaign against the ICC, having already
sanctioned four of its judges.The US took the action after the court
last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and his then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war
crimes in Gaza, accusations they reject.Rubio also accused Albanese of
having "spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism,
and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West".The move
is likely to provoke a fierce backlash from those who argue for
accountability over the civilian death toll from Israel's military
offensive in Gaza.The special rapporteur has long argued that Western
governments are not doing enough to support the rights of Palestinians
in the occupied Palestinian territories.Her outspoken stance has
attracted significant support among those who accuse Israeli and US
leaders of weaponising accusations of antisemitism in order to silence
scrutiny of their policies.Her critics have pointed to language used in
the past by Albanese, including a 2014 comment when she suggested the
"Jewish lobby" was influencing US government decisions when it came to
Israel and the Palestinians.She is since reported to have said she
regretted the remark, but rejected claims it was antisemitic.The head of
Amnesty International and former UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard
said she was dismayed by the decision to sanction Albanese."Governments
around the world and all actors who believe in the rule-based order and
international law must do everything in their power to mitigate and
block the effect of the sanctions against Francesca Albanese," she
said.Rubio said Albanese had shown contempt for the US by writing
"threatening letters" to several US companies, making what he called
unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue prosecutions of
the companies and their executives."We will not tolerate these campaigns
of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national
interests and sovereignty," Rubio said.Earlier this month Albanese
called on dozens of multinational companies to stop doing business with
Israel, warning them they risked being complicit in war crimes in Gaza
and the occupied West Bank.She said the companies "profited from the
Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide" in
the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel rejected her report as
"groundless", saying it would "join the dustbin of history".Albanese has
criticised Donald Trump's plan, announced in February, to take over the
Gaza Strip and displace its residents elsewhere."It's unlawful, immoral
and... completely irresponsible because it will make the regional
crisis even worse," she said in February.The timing of the sanctions
announcement is notable with Netanyahu currently in Washington, where he
received an extended honour cordon at the Pentagon on
Wednesday.Albanese has previously rejected similar claims against her,
telling the BBC in October: "I don't take these remarks and the
defamation they carry lightly, but at the same time, I know this is not
about me, as my predecessors knew that it was not about them."I also
know these member states [making accusations of antisemitism] have done
absolutely nothing to abide by international law."Her office has been
approached for comment.Some 125 countries are parties to the Rome
Statute that established the ICC and are protected by it, as well as
bound by their membership to uphold the court's decisions.The US, like
Israel, is not a member of the court.It has sided with Israel, its
staunch ally, which it has armed throughout the Gaza war, against the
Netanyahu arrest warrant, while many European countries have said they
respect the court's independence in the case.The Israeli military
launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on
southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were
killed and 251 others were taken hostage.At least 57,575 people have
been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run
health ministry.Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced
multiple times. More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or
destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have
collapsed; and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.
Netanyahu, Trump Push Gaza Truce as IDF Expands Operations Against Hamas and West Bank Militants July 9, 2025
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. President Donald Trump
for the second time in 24 hours on Tuesday, continuing urgent
discussions over a possible ceasefire agreement in Gaza and efforts to
secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.The 90-minute closed-door
meeting, held in the Oval Office, followed a lengthy dinner the previous
night—Netanyahu’s fourth face-to-face with Trump in six months and part
of his third official visit since Trump began his second term in
January.Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, President Trump emphasized
the importance of resolving the Gaza conflict, calling it a “tragedy”
that he, Netanyahu, and even Hamas are motivated to end.Following the
meeting, Netanyahu stated that talks centered on efforts to free the
remaining hostages in Gaza. “We are not letting up for a moment,” he
said, crediting Israel’s military pressure for sustaining momentum. He
reaffirmed Israel’s aim to dismantle Hamas’s military and governing
structures to ensure Gaza never again threatens Israeli
security.Netanyahu also conferred briefly with Vice President JD Vance
after the Trump meeting. The Prime Minister noted they discussed
regional opportunities following what he described as Israel’s “great
victory” over Iran. He said this shift could expand the Abraham Accords
and deepen regional cooperation.In a symbolic gesture, Netanyahu
presented Trump with a mezuzah shaped like a B-2 bomber, a nod to the
American airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites last month.White House
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the administration is
backing a ceasefire plan, already approved by Israel, and is pressing
Hamas to accept the Qatar-mediated proposal. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is
heading to Doha to support those negotiations.A senior official told
Israel Hayom that Washington sees Qatar as key to pushing Hamas toward
an agreement, especially now that Jerusalem has accepted the latest
deal.Qatari spokesperson Majed Al Ansari confirmed that while formal
negotiations haven’t begun, preliminary efforts are underway to set a
framework.Trump last week suggested a breakthrough could be near.
“There’s a good chance we’ll have a deal this week,” he said, hinting
that several of the 50 remaining hostages—20 of whom are believed
alive—may soon be freed.Israeli Forces Arrest Militant Planning Terror
Network in Jenin-Israeli security forces arrested a terror suspect in
the northern Samaria town of Al-Yamun overnight, foiling a plot to
establish a new militant network in the volatile Jenin area, the IDF
reported early Wednesday.The operation was led jointly by the IDF and
Shin Bet and relied on targeted intelligence. In a separate but related
raid in the village of Bir al-Basha, four armed individuals were
detained and six illegal weapons were confiscated.Further
counter-terrorism sweeps across Judea and Samaria led to the arrest of
six more suspects involved in terror activities, according to the
military. All detainees were handed over for further interrogation. No
injuries to Israeli personnel were reported.Later in the day, Israeli
forces launched a brigade-level counter-terror operation in the village
of Surif, near Bat Ayin. The move came after locals reportedly threw
rocks and torched cars near the Jewish community overnight. Two suspects
were arrested and dozens of buildings were searched.In a separate
incident, six Israeli civilians were rescued overnight from
Palestinian-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria. According to the
Civil Administration, the individuals mistakenly entered high-risk
zones, including Jericho, Qalqilya, and Bethlehem, and were safely
returned with assistance from both Israeli and Palestinian officials.The
IDF also announced it will demolish the homes of four Palestinian
terrorists responsible for recent deadly attacks. The residences
targeted belong to militants linked to shootings and bombings that
killed six Israelis and injured nine more. The families were given legal
notice and a chance to appeal.Over the weekend, Col. A., commander of
the IDF’s Samaria Brigade, reported a 90% increase in counter-terror
raids in the region. The intensified efforts, he said, have helped
reduce stone-throwing incidents by 75%, bolstering security for local
Jewish communities.IDF Encircles Beit Hanoun in Key Offensive Against
Hamas-Israeli forces have surrounded the city of Beit Hanoun in northern
Gaza as part of a sweeping military campaign to eliminate Hamas’s
remaining strongholds, the IDF announced Tuesday.The assault, which
began Monday night, has come at a heavy price. Five Israeli soldiers
were killed and 14 wounded during fierce clashes with Hamas operatives.
According to IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effi Defrin, troops advancing
alongside armored vehicles encountered a series of explosive traps and
came under intense gunfire.The fallen soldiers were all young men in
their early twenties, hailing from Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beit Shemesh.
The IDF offered condolences to their families, calling the loss “deeply
painful.”Beit Hanoun, situated just a mile from the Israeli border, is
known for its dense Hamas infrastructure and underground tunnel systems.
Defrin explained that controlling the city is essential to securing
nearby Israeli towns like Sderot and Nir Am.The Netzah Yehuda Battalion
led the charge, killing dozens of Hamas fighters, including senior
commanders, and demolishing strategic terror sites. The battalion has
operated in multiple conflict zones, including Syria and southern
Lebanon.The IDF now controls more than 65% of the Gaza Strip. Five
divisions are currently active in Gaza as part of “Operation Gideon’s
Chariots,” targeting Hamas assets in northern, central, and southern
parts of the territory.The military also reported the elimination of
Taha Abu Ayadeh, the Hamas commander responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023,
gas station attack near Kibbutz Magen. He was killed on July 1 in an
airstrike in Khan Yunis.In Shejaiya and Zeitoun—eastern Gaza
neighborhoods—troops found a cache of explosive devices hidden in
civilian buildings. Operations elsewhere dismantled Hamas weapons
facilities and anti-tank posts, and airstrikes hit over 100 targets in
the past 24 hours.IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir visited
southern Gaza this week to assess operations firsthand. Addressing
troops, he emphasized the mission: dismantle Hamas, bring the hostages
home, and restore security to Israeli communities.“We are determined to
reach every goal we’ve set,” Zamir declared. “We will continue with
resolve, with strength—and we will achieve victory.”
From Doorpost to Ear: Netanyahu’s Mezuzah Gift Honors Trump’s Divine Protection-Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz-July 9, 2025
The
enduring partnership between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
President Donald Trump was powerfully demonstrated during their recent
dinner meeting, where Netanyahu presented Trump with a mezuzah crafted
in the distinctive shape of an American B-2 bomber. This meaningful gift
honored the US aircraft that successfully struck Iran’s nuclear
facility at Fordo, representing the deep military cooperation and shared
security interests that have defined their relationship.The exchange of
meaningful gifts has become a cherished tradition between these two
leaders, reflecting their mutual respect and shared commitment to
Israeli security. Five months prior, Netanyahu had presented Trump with
both a golden pager and a standard pager, commemorating the highly
successful pager operation that targeted Hezbollah operatives in
Lebanon. Trump’s immediate recognition of the operation’s
significance—stating “That was a tremendous operation”—demonstrated his
intimate knowledge of and support for Israel’s security efforts.The
choice of a mezuzah as a gift carries profound spiritual meaning. A
mezuzah contains a parchment inscribed with the Shema Yisrael prayer,
beginning with “Hear, O Israel, the Lord (is) our God, the Lord is One.”
The parchment must be prepared from a kosher animal and hand-written by
a God-fearing Jew using specific ink and a quill. When affixed to
doorposts, it serves as a visible reminder of the covenant between the
Jewish people and God.The mezuzah’s historical significance traces back
to the lamb’s blood painted on Jewish homes’ lintels to protect them
from the angel of death before the Exodus from Egypt. The back of the
parchment bears “Shaddai,” one of God’s names, whose letters also
represent “shomer daltot yisrael”—the guardian of the doors of
Israel.The gift of a mezuzah may have been an oblique hint at Trump’s
miraculous salvation from an attempted assassination in July 2024 when a
bullet narrowly missed, wounding him in his right ear. Many Bible
scholars noted the similarity to the laws regarding a Hebrew slave who
chooses not to go out to freedom on the seventh year. The slave is
brought to a doorpost and his ear pierced with an awl. The medieval
French Biblical commentator Rashi, quoting the Midrash, explains that
the ear was chosen for piercing for two reasons. One reason offered is
that it was the ear that heard from Heaven that we must be in the
constant service of God, as is explicitly stated in the Shema written in
the Mezuzah on the doorpost. Yet the slave chose to ignore his ear and
the mezuzah, says Rashi, and chose to serve a human master instead.This
connection between divine protection, doorposts, and ears resonates
deeply with Jewish tradition and may reflect Netanyahu’s recognition of
Trump’s providential preservation to continue his support for Israel.The
Netanyahu-Trump relationship represents more than diplomatic
courtesy—it embodies a genuine alliance between leaders who share
fundamental values regarding Israel’s security, regional stability, and
the importance of strong US-Israel cooperation. Their exchange of
symbolic gifts reflects the deep personal trust and mutual appreciation
that have characterized their partnership.The B-2 bomber mezuzah stands
as a unique symbol of this relationship: combining American military
capability with Jewish spiritual tradition, representing both the
practical support the United States provides to Israel and the spiritual
bond that connects the two nations’ destinies.
Evangelical
Leaders Call on Trump to Stand with Israel’s Biblical Covenant in Open
Letter-Picture of Staff Writer-Staff Writer-July 6, 2025
A group
of prominent evangelical leaders has penned an urgent open letter to
President Donald Trump, calling on him to recognize Israel’s biblical
right to its covenant land without restriction and warning against any
attempts to divide the Holy Land through diplomatic pressure.The letter,
dated July 5, 2025, arrives amid ongoing Middle East tensions and
active diplomatic negotiations in the region. The signatories appeal
directly to Trump’s previous pro-Israel record while urging him to take
an even stronger stance based on biblical principles.“You have done more
for Israel than all U.S. Presidents combined,” the letter begins,
praising Trump’s previous actions, including moving the U.S. Embassy to
Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and
withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.However, the evangelical leaders
are calling for something unprecedented: complete restraint from
pressuring Israel on matters concerning what they term “covenant land” —
the biblical territories of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.“No U.S. president
— not George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Biden, nor even
during your first term — successfully controlled Israel’s internal
decisions regarding their covenant land,” the letter states. “Each
attempt invited instability, judgment, or unintended consequences on
America.”The letter grounds its arguments firmly in Scripture, citing
Genesis 12:3: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that
curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be
blessed.”Most significantly, the authors invoke Genesis 15:18, which
they describe as God’s irrevocable covenant: “In the same day the Lord
made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this
land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river
Euphrates.”“The land of Judea, Samaria, and even Gaza was deeded — not
by the UN or any earthly government — but by Almighty God,” the letter
declares. “This covenant is irrevocable.”The evangelical leaders issue a
stark warning about the consequences of pressuring Israel to divide its
land, claiming such actions could result in consequences “far greater
than 9/11 or the COVID-19 pandemic.”They argue that both of these
catastrophic events followed diplomatic pressure on Israel regarding its
covenant land, costing the U.S. over $13 trillion and fundamentally
reshaping the nation.“This is not just geopolitics. This is covenant.
This is prophetic,” the letter states, citing Joel 3:2 as a warning
about God’s judgment on nations that divide His land.The letter makes
several concrete requests of the president:
Recognize Israel’s right to act without restriction in its covenant land
Remove any reference to Israel’s land in future Abraham Accords negotiations
Refrain from pressuring Israel into military or political concessions, especially regarding Gaza
Publicly affirm opposition to any two-state plan that divides Israel’s biblical inheritance
Declare that Israel’s boundaries, as defined in Genesis 15:18, are not subject to negotiation
While
praising Trump’s Abraham Accords as a diplomatic achievement, the
signatories urge him to ensure that future negotiations “categorically
exclude any notion of transferring Israel’s covenant land — whether in
part or in full — for political or economic incentives.”They emphasize
this as a “firm, non-negotiable position” that should be communicated
clearly to all Middle East leaders involved in future accord
discussions.The letter concludes by referencing Trump’s Ambassador to
Israel, Mike Huckabee, who reportedly reminded the president: “Mr.
President, you hear many voices — but the most important of all is His
voice. And you know you love Him.”“Now is the time to listen to that
voice — and to act accordingly,” the evangelical leaders write,
promising daily prayers for God’s wisdom and the Genesis 12:3 blessing
promised to those who bless Abraham’s descendants.Several notable
evangelical figures sign the letter: Michele Bachmann, the former
congresswoman and presidential candidate who has been a longtime
advocate for Israel and biblical prophecy; William Koenig, a White House
correspondent and author who has written extensively on U.S.-Israel
relations from a biblical perspective; Tania Curado-Koenig, who works
alongside William Koenig in ministry focused on Israel and prophecy; and
Jan Markell, founder of Olive Tree Ministries and a prominent voice in
evangelical eschatology and Israel advocacy.The open letter represents a
significant moment in evangelical engagement with Middle East policy,
directly challenging the president to align U.S. foreign policy with
biblical principles rather than conventional diplomatic approaches.
Whether the administration will heed this call remains to be seen, but
the letter underscores the continued importance of evangelical voices in
shaping American policy toward Israel.
IDF Unleashed: Secret Command, Gaza Offensive, and Syrian Counterterror Ops in Full Swing-Zahava Schwartz-July 7, 2025
As
Israel launched a major offensive against Iran’s nuclear program on
June 13, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) quietly activated a contingency
plan designed to safeguard command continuity in case of a decapitation
strike by Tehran.Known as the “Shadow General Staff,” this covert
command center was led by Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai
and comprised primarily of reserve officers. The unit was relocated to
an undisclosed location prior to the initial Israeli strikes and
remained disconnected from the IDF’s standard communication networks to
shield it from potential cyber or physical threats.Its mission: to serve
as an emergency leadership hub if Iran managed to disrupt or destroy
Israel’s central military command infrastructure — a scenario that
ultimately did not unfold.Throughout the 12-day conflict, Iran launched
numerous missiles and drones, some aimed at the Kirya military
headquarters in Tel Aviv. One missile landed near the Da Vinci Towers
and the Azrieli Center. According to The Telegraph, Iranian attacks hit
five Israeli military sites directly.Israel’s first strike reportedly
eliminated key Iranian military figures, including the chief of staff of
Tehran’s army. Over the following days, more senior commanders were
targeted and killed.Meanwhile, Israeli security forces foiled a plot to
assassinate Defense Minister Israel Katz. According to Channel 12, two
Jewish Israeli citizens were arrested in April on suspicion of working
for Iranian intelligence in connection with the plan.IDF Advances in
Gaza While Ceasefire Negotiations IntensifyDespite heightened
international efforts to broker a ceasefire agreement with Hamas,
Israeli ground and air operations continue in full force across the Gaza
Strip.As part of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” five IDF divisions are
engaged in extensive combat operations targeting Hamas strongholds and
infrastructure. The 162nd Armored Division is operating in Gaza’s north,
eliminating enemy combatants and dismantling command centers used to
plan attacks.In the Gaza City area, the 98th Paratroopers Division has
neutralized militants and struck numerous terror-related sites,
including observation posts and meeting points. Concurrently, the 99th
Reserve Infantry Division has been clearing underground tunnels and
surface-level structures tied to Hamas operations.In Beit Hanoun, the
646 Brigade focused on anti-tank positions and military compounds.
Farther south, the 143rd “Gaza” Division took out dozens of enemy assets
and weapons caches, while the 36th Armored Division remains active
around Khan Yunis.The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has been instrumental,
conducting strikes throughout Gaza. Over the weekend alone,
approximately 130 Hamas-affiliated sites were hit, including command
hubs, rocket launchers, and weapons depots.Since the end of a previous
ceasefire on March 18, the IAF has carried out more than 7,500 strikes.
IDF officials estimate that Israeli forces currently control about 65%
of the Gaza Strip.Brig. Gen. Efie Defrin stated that the current phase
of the operation is nearing its conclusion and that military leadership
is preparing to present new recommendations to government officials. He
emphasized that Hamas’s governing capabilities have been significantly
undermined, and efforts are underway to prevent the group from
regrouping.IDF Captures Iranian-Backed Terror Cell in Southern
Syria-Israeli forces operating in southern Syria have detained a
terrorist cell reportedly run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC), the military confirmed Monday.The operation, led by the
IDF’s 3rd Alexandroni Brigade and informed by intelligence gathered by
Human Intelligence Unit 504, took place in the Tel Kudne region near
Mount Hermon. The cell was affiliated with the IRGC’s Quds Force and was
allegedly planning hostile activities against Israeli targets.IDF
activity continues along the Syrian border, particularly in areas neawzr
Mount Hermon, even as signs emerge of a possible thaw in relations
between Jerusalem and Damascus’ new leadership.In another recent
operation, troops from the 810th Brigade, supported by Yahalom Unit
specialists and overseen by the 210th Division, dismantled several
former Syrian military outposts. These positions, previously used by
hostile forces, posed a threat to Israeli personnel stationed near the
Golan Heights.According to the IDF, these actions are defensive in
nature, aimed at ensuring the safety of Israeli citizens living in the
northern region.While Syria’s new government recently expressed a
willingness to revisit the 1974 disengagement agreement through U.S.
mediation, Israeli leaders have reaffirmed their intent to expand
regional normalization efforts. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar reiterated
that while Israel seeks to include Syria and Lebanon in broader peace
efforts, it will not compromise on national security.
BRENNAN HEAD JAB MUSLIM CONVERTER AND COMB HEAD COMEY BETTER PAY FOR THEIR SINS AGAINST TRUMP.
Former FBI and CIA directors under investigation by Trump’s Justice Department-Josh Marcus-Wed, July 9, 2025 at 9:38 p.m. EDT
The
FBI has reportedly launched criminal investigations into former CIA
Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey after a
referral from current CIA chief John Ratcliffe.While the full nature of
the alleged investigations are unclear, a source told CNN the probe
concerned the potential of false statements to Congress. Sources told
Fox News the FBI believed the pair of Obama-era officials had engaged in
an unspecified “conspiracy.”“I am clueless about what it is exactly
that they may be investigating me for,” Brennan said Wednesday on MSNBC,
where he is a contributor, adding that he hadn’t been contacted by the
FBI, DOJ, or CIA.The Justice Department told CNN it does not comment on
ongoing investigations. The Independent has contacted the CIA and a
representative of Comey for comment.President Donald Trump was asked
Wednesday about Comey and Brennan reportedly being under criminal
investigation related to the Trump–Russia probe."Well, I know nothing
about it other than what I read today," Trump said. "But I will tell
you, I think they're very dishonest people. I think they're crooked as
hell. And, maybe they have to pay a price for that.""I believe they are
truly bad people and dishonest people," the president added."So whatever
happens, happens."The reported investigation comes less than a week
after the CIA publicly released a June memo to Ratcliffe, which
criticized intelligence officials’ handling of allegations in late 2016
that Russia aspired to assist the first Trump presidential campaign.The
CIA review, which delved into the creation of a December 2016
intelligence community assessment on the Russia allegations, accused
Brennan of pushing to include information from a Democrat-funded dossier
in the assessment, even though the CIA official later testified in
Congress he did not want the information included.Information from the
dossier was ultimately included in an annex to the assessment, which
noted its claims only had “limited corroboration” and were not used in
the review’s ultimate analytic conclusions.The partially redacted CIA
review does not mention Comey in any of its public portions, though
Ratcliffe suggested the memo concerned him as well.The current CIA
director wrote in a July 2 post on X that the document showed Brennan,
Comey, and others had “manipulated intelligence and silenced career
professionals — all to get Trump.”The handling of the Russia
allegations, which eventually prompted an FBI investigation into the
Trump campaign, have already been subject to numerous reviews.The
Justice Department’s inspector general concluded in 2019 that FBI
officials had sufficient reason to open an investigation into potential
ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and had acted without bias,
though it noted major errors in the process, including around an
application to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser.A special counsel
appointed during Trump’s first term found no wrongdoing in the handling
of intelligence about potential Russia links, though it ended in the
indictment of three people, including a former FBI lawyer who pleaded
guilty to falsifying information.Comey, a longtime subject of criticism
from President Trump, was interviewed in May by the Secret Service,
after he posted on social media, and then took down, an image of
seashells he saw on a beach spelling out “8647.”Trump officials have
argued the message was a coded threat calling for someone to “86,” or
eliminate, Trump, the 47th president.
Inside story-The West Bank
economy runs on shekels. So why aren’t Palestinian banks accepting them?
For 30 years, Israel has imposed a cap on how many shekels the
Palestinian Authority may convert into foreign currency, giving banks a
surplus of shekels – and triggering an economic crisisNurit Yohanan-By
Nurit Yohanan-Today, 4:46 am-JUL 10,25
After selling a car a
couple of weeks ago, Muhammad took the NIS 10,000 ($3,000) check to his
bank — but he couldn’t make the deposit.“If you just want to deposit
money in the bank, they won’t take it,” said Muhammad, a father of three
from Ramallah who asked to remain anonymous to protect his privacy.
“Even if it’s for a transaction or a check that needs to be deposited,
it’s hard.”So he waited, check in hand, depleting his account until he
was in overdraft. Then he tried to deposit the money again.“They saw I
was in the red,” Muhammad recalled. “And then when I came in and said,
‘I have an NIS 10,000 check,’ they said, ‘Oh, you do? Then give it to
us.'”Such experiences have become common across the West Bank, where an
Israeli policy that dates back more than 30 years has given Palestinian
banks a buildup of surplus shekels. That, in turn, has led the
Palestinian Authority to place a ban on accepting any more — a decision
that is hobbling the local economy, which runs on the Israeli currency
and is intertwined with the Israeli market.The glut of shekels has had
concrete consequences across the territory and it has created a severe
liquidity crisis in a region already feeling economic strain from the
war in Gaza and the PA’s own chronic financial problems.“Palestinian
imports and exports are primarily to and from Israel, and they are
conducted in shekels,” Sameh Al-Ataout, an economics expert at An-Najah
University in Nablus, told The Times of Israel. “Many Palestinians work
in Israel and earn shekels. More than 2 million Arab citizens of Israel
enter the Palestinian territories each year, they shop, they eat — all
in shekels.”A three-decade-old Israeli limit on currency exchanges-The
roots of the problem go back to the Oslo Accords, the 1994
Israeli-Palestinian treaty that created the PA. The accords’ economic
annex, known as the Paris Protocol, designates the shekel as the
official currency of the Palestinian territories. Palestinian banks were
to rely on the Bank of Israel to exchange currency, primarily into US
dollars and Jordanian dinars.While the protocol did not specify a cap on
how much currency could be exchanged, it did state that “to avoid
undesirable fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate, monthly ceilings
for conversion will be agreed upon in annual and semiannual meetings”
between the Bank of Israel and its counterpart, the Palestinian Monetary
Authority.Also created in the 1994 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian
Monetary Authority serves as the regulatory body overseeing the banks
operating in the Palestinian territories — most of which were
established long before the PA was founded.In practice, for nearly three
decades, Israel has imposed an informal currency exchange limit of NIS
18 billion per year ($5.4 billion), or NIS 4.5 billion ($1.35 billion)
per quarter. This number has remained static despite considerable
inflation — and Palestinian economic expansion — since the mid-1990s.
The PA’s GDP has grown from $5 billion in 2005 to $17 billion in 2023,
according to the World Bank.“The Palestinian economy has grown over the
past 25 years. There’s been real growth,” Al-Ataout said. “This ceiling
no longer matches the scale of the economic relationship between the
Israeli and Palestinian sides.”The Palestinian Monetary Authority said
recently in a public statement that Israel had placed “restrictions and
ceilings… on money transfers.” In other words, it stopped converting
shekels out of concern that the annual cap would be exceeded.That policy
means that Palestinian banks now have growing piles of shekels they
can’t convert. On May 29, the Palestinian Monetary Authority made an
open-ended announcement that the banks would stop accepting shekels.In
response to a request for comment, the Bank of Israel told The Times of
Israel: “There has been no change in instructions or directives
regarding these matters.” Israel’s Finance Ministry spokesperson
similarly stated that “there has been no change in instruction on this
matter from the Finance Ministry.”‘A black market for currency
exchanges’The shekel ban is exacerbating an existing economic crisis in
the West Bank. A sharp reduction in Israeli work permits for
Palestinians following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack has
deprived the territory of a major source of income. Now, the ban means
Palestinians are facing frozen bank accounts, a black-market currency
exchange and growing disruptions to daily economic activity.“If I go to
deposit a check in shekels, the bank refuses to take it — they ask for
Jordanian dinars instead,” a Nablus resident who asked to remain
anonymous told The Times of Israel. “If you try to exchange shekels for
dinars or dollars at the bank, they won’t do it.The Nablus resident
explained that, “for the first time, a black market for foreign currency
exchanges has emerged in the West Bank,” where consumers’ shekels end
up losing value and are exchanged at four shekels to the dollar as
opposed to the official rate of approximately 3.3.In addition to
individuals, institutions and businesses are also struggling to deposit
revenues. Palestinian gas stations — where customers pay mostly in cash —
have been hit particularly hard. With banks refusing to accept their
accumulated stocks of shekels, some stations have had to reduce their
services.On July 2, the Palestinian Monetary Authority announced that it
had resumed transferring surplus shekels from Palestinian to Israeli
banks, sending NIS 4.5 billion in the third of four planned quarterly
transfers for the year.But according to Iyad Zaitawi, a senior official
at the authority who gave an interview to a PA media channel, that
amount is just a dent in the whole. Palestinian banks are still holding
another NIS 13 billion in surplus and are still not accepting more
shekels. He added that the PMA is currently trying to negotiate an
increase in the annual conversion cap from Israel from NIS 18 billion to
NIS 25 billion.The PA has no practical way to create an independent
currency, which would require Israeli consent and economic cooperation,
something that would only be possible under a final-status
agreement.Finance minister threatened to cut ties with Palestinian
banks-The crisis highlights Israel and the Palestinian territories’ deep
economic interdependence. The two economies function as one integrated
system, with a shared currency and cross-border trade.According to
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the Palestinian Authority was
Israel’s third-largest export market in 2022, accounting for 0.7% of
Israel’s GDP in the most recent figures available. Thousands of Arab
Israelis study, visit and stay in the West Bank, and tens of thousands
of Palestinians work in Israel, primarily in construction and
agriculture.But recently, Israel has taken steps to limit its economic
coordination with the PA. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who
oversees the exchange policy, has voiced hostility toward the PA. He has
also previously frozen PA tax revenues, which Israel collects, in
retaliation for diplomatic developments or Palestinian policies the
Israeli government opposes.Last month, just hours after the United
Kingdom and other countries sanctioned Smotrich and National Security
Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for “inciting violence against Palestinians,”
Smotrich ordered the cancellation of key protections that enable
cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian banks. Specifically, he
moved to revoke a government guarantee (known as the “indemnity”) that
shields Israeli banks from liability when working with Palestinian
institutions.For that decision to take effect, Smotrich must formally
sign it, and the security cabinet must approve it. Neither step has so
far occurred. (Smotrich’s office did not respond to a request for
comment.)“Today, the Israeli finance minister’s goal is to dismantle the
Palestinian Authority economically,” Nidal Foqaha, director of the
Geneva Initiative, a group promoting a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, told The Times of Israel.“If there were a
different government in Israel, we wouldn’t be in this situation,”
Foqaha said. “Israel has no problem accepting shekels — it’s their
currency.”
'The donkey was the Cadillac of the times'Donkey bone
study unlocks how Canaanites hauled ass from Egypt 4,700 years
ago-Isotope teeth analysis from donkey skeletons at Gath shows valuable
female asses were imported for ritual burial under homes, whereas local
animals were butchered and eaten-By Rossella Tercatin-9 July 2025, 11:29
pm
Some 4,700 years ago, four exotic female donkeys were brought
hundreds of miles from Egypt to Canaan to be sacrificed and buried
under middle-class homes. Curiously, roughly around the same time at the
same Canaanite settlement, a local donkey was butchered and ended up on
a dinner table.A new study based on the animals’ dental analysis,
published in the prominent journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday, sheds light on
the Canaanites’ perception of imported and local animals, and proves
ties between Egypt and Canaan, long considered by scholars to be
virtually non-existent during that period.Researchers used
multiple-isotope analysis to track the origins of four complete donkey
skeletons from the Early Bronze Age III (c. 2900–2600/2550 BCE) found in
Tell es-Safi/Gath, a site in modern-day central Israel, some 12 miles
(20 kilometers) from the coast. A millennium and some centuries later,
the city became well-known as the birthplace of the Philistine giant and
King David’s nemesis, Goliath.All the sacrificed donkeys’ skeletons
were uncovered in shallow pits 8-12 inches (20-30 centimeters) below the
floors. The first was identified in 2008, and the other three in 2016.
The lone butchered donkey mandible used for comparison was found in
2017.The first donkey was unearthed with its head completely severed and
placed on its abdomen. The other three were found intact, with the legs
gathered together. All were facing east.“When I joined the excavations
at Safi, the first donkey burial had already been discovered,” said Dr.
Elizabeth Arnold from Grand Valley State University in Allendale,
Michigan, an author of the paper whose expertise focuses on animal
remains and isotope analysis.“As we carried out isotopic analysis on the
donkey’s teeth, it emerged that only at the end of her life she had
come to Safi and was sacrificed,” Arnold told The Times of Israel over
the phone. “I kept jokingly saying to everybody, ‘Let’s find more
donkeys.’ And then, somewhat unexpectedly, they actually obliged, and we
found these additional animals.”A long haul of isotopes-Isotopic
analysis can be conducted on bones or teeth to investigate strontium,
carbon and oxygen isotopes. The three types of isotopes are found in
soil, vegetation and water. Animals and humans absorb these elements
through their diet, and they are encapsulated in their teeth or bones,
providing scientists with a “fingerprint” of the locations where they
resided.In the case of the Safi donkeys, the researchers analyzed their
teeth and examined all three types, obtaining consistent results in each
round of testing.Arnold and her team found that for most of their
lives, the four donkeys ate very dry plants prevalent in the Nile
Valley, as opposed to local Safi vegetation, because the bones’ oxygen
signatures matched those of the Nile Valley rather than the local Safi
signatures.The animals were about five years old when they died. (Modern
donkeys live up to 40 years.)“One of the things that surprised me is
that because we suspected they were trade animals, I would have expected
that isotopes had shown them moving back and forth between Egypt and
Safi, and they didn’t do that,” said Arnold. “They spent the early part
of their life in Egypt, and then they came to Safi and were
sacrificed.”The study’s results also demonstrate that ties between Egypt
and Canaan persisted in the Early Bronze Age III. In the past, scholars
had held a consensus that, contrary to trade and other ties evident in
previous centuries, the connection had all but disappeared.“Now we have
very clear and direct evidence of this association with Egypt, which was
obviously a valued association,” Arnold said.Illustrating the high
worth of the animals, Arnold said she was amazed to find out that not
only were all the donkeys female but also in their breeding years:
“These were very valuable animals to sacrifice,” she noted.In the
comparison case — the butchered donkey mandible — the isotopes showed
that it, as well as bones from butchered sheep and other animals found
at the site, were all local.Arnold explained that the researchers used
Carbon-14 analysis of the organic remains uncovered in the same
archaeological strata as the animals to date the donkeys, but could not
perform it directly on the skeletons due to a paucity of viable
specimens.The absence of organic remains also meant scientists couldn’t
extract any DNA, preventing them from learning more about the donkeys’
appearance.The Safi discovery does not mark the first time donkey
burials have been found in the region.Two ritual donkey burials from the
same period, for example, were found in nearby Tel Azekah. However,
this is the first time that researchers have traced the geographical
origins of the animals.“I hope our results will encourage others to do
the same,” Arnold said.A donkey mezuzah? During the Early Bronze Age
III, Safi was one of the region’s fortified cities.“It was one of the
medium to large cities throughout Canaan at the time,” said Prof. Aren
Maeir from Bar-Ilan University, one of the article’s authors and the
longtime excavation director at Tell es-Safi/Gath.According to Maeir,
although there is no definite archaeological evidence or written source,
it is likely that the city’s residents were culturally Canaanite, or
part of the Semitic population living in several city-states across the
region, which centuries later would be recorded in the Bible and other
ancient texts.Even before receiving the results on the first donkey’s
origin, the archaeologists had already hypothesized that the
neighborhood they were excavating was home to traders.“Based on the
material culture, we believe the residents might have been merchants,”
Maeir told The Times of Israel over the phone.The archaeologist
explained that donkeys were the preferred animals for carrying loads
during this era.“Only later, horses became more popular,” he noted. “We
can say that the donkey was the Cadillac of the times.”He noted that the
buildings did not appear to have belonged to the city’s elites, but
neither to its poorest residents, making them something of a middle
class.“Perhaps the very fact that they buried donkeys under their houses
reflects that they used donkeys in their activities,” he
hypothesized.Some fragments of donkey-shaped figurines were also
unearthed in Safi.Maeir explained that the practice of placing
foundation deposits — objects buried beneath buildings to invoke divine
protection — was a common practice across many historical periods.“The
Jewish mezuzah is perhaps something similar,” he said.Amanda
Borschel-Dan contributed to this report.
STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES
OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and
the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,(7X OR 7-DEGREES HOTTER) as the
light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of
his people,(ISRAEL) and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold,
the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the
burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his
tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,29
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22
And except those days should be shortened,(DAY LIGHT HOURS SHORTENED)
there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE)
those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)(THE ASTEROID
HITS EARTH HERE)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9
And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God,
which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him
glory.
EZEKIEL 32:6-9
6 I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.
7
And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the
stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon
shall not give her light.
8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.
9
I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy
destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not
known.
REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his
vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every
living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5
And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord,
which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6
For they(False World Church and Dictator and baby murderers by abortion)
have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them
blood to drink; for they are worthy.
EARTHQUAKES
EZEKIEL 37:7,11-14
7
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a
noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his
bone.(POSSIBLE QUAKE BRINGS ISRAEL BACK TO LIFE-SO NOISE AND
SHAKING-QUAKES WILL ALSO DESTROY ISRAELS ENEMIES)
11 Then he said
unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold,
they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for
our parts.
12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to
come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14
And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place
you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it,
and performed it, saith the LORD.
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation
shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall
be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be
earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles:
these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great
earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME)
and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall
there be from heaven.
FAMINE
EZEKIEL 5:16
16 When I
shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their
destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase
the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
REVELATION 6:5-6
5
And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say,
Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him
had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the
midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three
measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the
wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there
shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS
REVELATION 8:7
7
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with
blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees
was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
JAMES 1:11
11
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the
grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of
it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
The
Hebrew noun accurately translated “oven” refers to a “baking oven” as
distinct from a kiln or smelting furnace—both of which burn much hotter.
(The Hebrew nouns for “kiln” or for “smelting furnace” are more likely
to appear in contexts of God's wrath or judgment.)
21 They have
roused me to jealousy with a non-god, they have exasperated me with
their idols. In my turn I shall rouse them to jealousy with a
non-people, I shall exasperate them with a stupid nation.
22 Yes, a
fire has blazed from my anger, it will burn right down to the depths of
Sheol; it will devour the earth and all its produce, it will set fire to
the footings of the mountains.
23 I shall hurl disasters on them, on them I shall use up all my arrows.
Ephesians 2:2
2
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air,(LIBERAL GODLESS AIR
WAVES) the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience:(GODLESS)
2 Peter 3:6-7 Amplified Bible (AMP) (HOT SUN, NUKES ETC)
6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
7
By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire,
being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
We
shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only
question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or
consent.James Paul Warburg appearing before the Senate on 7th February
1950-Like a famous WWII Belgian General,Paul Henry Spock said in 1957:We
need no commission, we have already too many. What we need is a man who
is great enough to be able to keep all the people in subjection to
himself and to lift us out of the economic bog into which we threaten to
sink. Send us such a man. Be he a god or a devil, we will accept
him.And today, sadly, the world is indeed ready for such a man.
JUDGEMENT-WE ALL(EVERYONE) STAND IN FRONT OF GOD TO GIVE ACCOUNT
JOHN 14:3
3
And if I (JESUS OUR JEWISH MESSIAH) go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye
may be also.
MATTHEW 24:33
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall
see all these things,(IN THERE BEGGINING STAGES-NOT FINAL STAGES) know
that it is near, even at the doors.
LUKE 21:32
32 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:10
10
For we must all (MEANS EVERYONE EVER BORN ON EARTH FROM ADAM-EVE ON)
appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive
the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad.(THIS IS THE CHRISTIANS IN FRONT OF JESUS)
LUKEWARM CHURCHES
REVELATION 3:15-19
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I(GOD) will spue (VOMIT) thee out of my mouth.
17
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need
of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried
in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou
mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear;
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
THE LEFT LIBERAL DEMOCRAPS TRYED TO BLAME TRUMP FOR THE TEXAS FLOOD.
The
U.S. faces more frequent extreme weather events, but attitudes and
actions aren't keeping up-Despite the grim trajectory, society isn’t
acting with enough alarm, climate scientists say.A person cover their
face with their hand while standing in flood debris and fallen
trees-July 9, 2025, 1:43 PM EDT / Source: The Associated Press-By The
Associated Press
After deadly flooding in central Texas in 1987,
some thought they’d proven they could handle Mother Nature’s best punch.
Then came this month’s horrific flash floods, when unfathomable amounts
of rain fell in only hours and more than 100 people died.Climate change
is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense, according
to climate scientists and government data. But people and governments
are generally living in the past and haven’t embraced that extreme
weather is now the norm, to say nothing about preparing for the nastier
future that’s in store, experts in meteorology, disasters and health
told The Associated Press.“What happens with climate change is that what
used to be extreme becomes average, typical, and what used to never
occur in a human lifetime or maybe even in a thousand years becomes the
new extreme,” Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer
said. “We start to experience things that just basically never happened
before.”The 10-year summer average of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s climate extreme index, which tracks
hurricanes, heavy rain, droughts and high and low temperatures, is 58%
higher than it was in the 1980s.Despite the grim trajectory, society
isn’t acting with enough alarm, Oppenheimer said.“There’s plenty of
evidence that we sit there and do absolutely nothing while these risks
are coming right at us like a moving railroad train and we’re standing
in the tracks. And then all of a sudden, bam,” he said.Shifting public
perspective-Although the changing climate is the biggest problem, the
way we react to or ignore the changes could make a bad situation worse,
experts said.Marshall Shepherd, a University of Georgia meteorology
professor who previously served as president of the American
Meteorological Society, said people tend to base decisions on how they
fared during past extreme weather events, including storms that didn’t
end up directly affecting them. This leaves them overly optimistic that
they’ll also fare well today, even though storms have grown more
fierce.He points to the Texas flooding.“That is flash flood alley. We
know that floods happen in that region all the time. ... I’ve already
seen normalcy bias statements by people in the regions saying, well, we
get flooding all the time,” Shepherd said, pointing out that the amount
of rain that fell in only a few hours last week was anything but
normal.People need to shift how they think about disasters, even if they
don’t live in the most disaster-prone locations, said Kim Klockow
McClain, an extreme weather social scientist at the University
Corporation for Atmospheric Research who studies communicating disaster
warnings and risk.“The message needs to be, if you’re used to some
degree of nuisance flooding, every so often, look at what happened in
Texas and realize that this is a shifting baseline,” she said.Ignoring
the problem won’t make it disappearTime and again after catastrophic
storms and wildfires, people whose lives were upended say they didn’t
think it could happen to them. This mindset helps people cope, but with
extreme weather happening more frequently and in more places, it can
prevent them from adequately preparing.“It’s sort of a psychological
mechanism to protect us that it can’t happen to me,” said Susan Cutter,
co-director of the Hazards Vulnerability & Resilience Institute at
the University of South Carolina.Surviving past extreme events can leave
people believing that it won’t happen again or, if it does, that
they’ll be fine, said Lori Peek, director of the Natural Hazards Center
at the University of Colorado. She said this overconfidence can be
dangerous: “Just because I’ve lived through a fire or a flood or a
hurricane or a tornado, that does not mean that the next time is going
to look like the last time.”What’s being done-As the weather has grown
more extreme, our ability to prepare for and react to it hasn’t kept
pace, the scientists said.“Infrastructure is aging in our country and is
more vulnerable given the fact that there are just simply, as a matter
of fact, more people living in harm’s way,” Peek said. “As our
population has continued to rise, it’s not only that we have more people
in the country, it’s also that we have more people living in
particularly hazardous areas like our coastal areas.”US-FIRE-HAWAII-The
Trump Administration’s mass layoffs and planned cuts to agencies that
study climate and help warn of and deal with disasters — the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, the National Weather Service and research
labs at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the U.S.
Geological Survey — could further worsen the situation, several experts
said.Smart and experienced people have already left these agencies and
it could take years to make up for their knowledge and abilities, they
said.“We’re destroying the capability we have that we’re going to need
more and more in the future,” Oppenheimer said.As for future disasters,
the country needs to figure out and plan for the worst-case scenario
instead of looking to the past, Peek said.“This is our future,” Peek
said. “It’s obvious that we’re living into a future where there are
going to be more fires and floods and heat waves.”
Central Texas
flood death toll at least 120 with hundreds missing-Mike Heuer &
Allen Cone-Wed, July 9, 2025 at 9:28 p.m. EDT·5 min read
July 9
(UPI) -- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday ordered state legislators
to convene a special session on Monday as the death toll rose to at
least 120 people and 172 reported missing in Fourth of July flooding in
theHill Country.It's the deadliest flash flood in the United States
since 1976 in Thompson Canyon, Colo., when 144 people were killed,
according to the Weather Channel. In 1972, 238 died in flooding in Black
Hills, S.D.Kerr County has the most fatalities with 96, including 36
children, and 161 missing, CNN reported. One of the dead was a
20-month-old Austin boy who died after his family's home was inundated
by water from the Guadalupe River, which runs 230 miles between Austin
and San Antonio.At least 27 of those fatalities were children and
counselors at Camp Mystic, a girls Christian camp along the Guadalupe
River, which swelled to 20 feet.Among the missing are five campers and
one counselor from Camp Mystic, officials said.Travis County has the
next-highest number of flood casualties with seven killed and 10
missing, and Kendall County has eight reported fatalities with none
missing, the Austin American-Statesman reported.Other counties with
flood casualties are Burnet, with five dead and one missing; Williamson,
with three dead and one missing; and Tom Green, with one fatality and
none missing.The area is known as "flash flood alley" because the area
can become inundated due to the terrain."The hearts of our fellow Texans
are breaking every single day because of what people in this community
and the surrounding area are going through,'' Abbott said.He ordered
flags to be held at half-mast until Monday.The special session ordered
by Abbott that day includes giving attention to flood warning systems,
emergency communications and relief funding for Hill Country flood
victims and affected communities in central Texas."There is more work to
be done, particularly in the aftermath of the devastating floods in the
Texas Hill Country," Abbott said in a news release on Wednesday."We
must ensure better preparation for such events in the future," he
added.Abbott wants state lawmakers to improve early warning systems,
emergency communications and flood-response infrastructure in
flood-prone areas in Texas.The governor also said he wants state
legislators to enact measures that provide relief funding for local
costs for responding to and recovering from the flooding events,
including local match funding for Federal Emergency Management Agency
assistance.Texas lawmakers also are tasked with enacting legislation to
evaluate and streamline rules and regulations that make natural disaster
preparedness and recovery more efficient.Search and recovery
efforts-Rescuers from local, state and federal agencies, as well as
volunteers, are involved in the search and recovery.NASA said Wednesday
it has deployed two high-altitude WB-57 aircraft equipped with the
DyNAMITE sensor for "high-resolution imagery critical to assessing
damage and supporting coordination of ground-based recovery
efforts."There hasn't been a live rescue since Friday."The first 72
hours, we were here on the scene right away to save lives," Dr. Rajeev
Fernando, chief medical officer of Heal-Corp, a nonprofit organization
providing emergency aid in Kerr County, told NBC News. "But as time goes
on, the recovery takes precedence, unfortunately."Rescue crews are
dealing with treacherous terrain, downed trees, debris and temperatures
in the mid-80s and high humidity.Ryan Logue, an incident coordinator
with the United Cajun Navy, told CNN it is unlikely for anyone to
survive for long in the rough conditions.He said "there's nothing
remaining" where he has searched-Capt. Max McQuarrie of the Virginia
Beach Water Rescue Team told CNN: "It's going to be a slow, methodical
process that's going to take us, you know, days if not weeks, I think,
to really provide the answers that everyone's looking for."The Federal
Emergency Management Agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland
Security, responds to disasters.On Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem
reiterated the need to "eliminate" FEMA."Federal emergency management
should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for
decades," Noem said about FEMA, which was established in 1979."It has
been slow to respond at the federal level," Noem, who visited the area
on Sunday, added. "It's even been slower to get the resources to
Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be
eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency."FEMA
provides grants to individuals and communities for rebuilding."Regular
home insurance doesn't typically cover flood coverage, and it usually is
an add-on that you have to buy in a separate private flood policy, or
through FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program," attorney Nishi
Kothari, with Brasher Law Firm out of Houston, told Realtor.com.Flood
insurance costs an average of $783 a year for a home.Only 7% of
residential properties in Texas have flood insurance. In FEMA-designated
high-risk zones, just 28% of homes are insured.More than 12,000 homes
were damaged, according to local officials.
Donations are being
accepted by the American Red Cross of Central and South Texas, the
Salvation Army, Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.
3 dead after
historic flash flooding hits New Mexico town ravaged by wildfires-Two of
the victims were identified as the children of a soldier on leave from
Fort Bliss, Texas.New Mexico river rose 18 feet in just 30 minutes,
turning deadly-July 8, 2025, 8:52 PM EDT / Updated July 9, 2025, 2:51 PM
EDT-By Tim Stelloh, Phil Helsel and Patrick Smith
At least three
people were killed by historic flash floods in a New Mexico mountain
community that suffered devastating wildfires last year, officials said
late Tuesday.The remote village of Ruidoso, about 180 miles south of
Albuquerque, said a 4-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy and a man age 40
to 50 were all “swept downstream by the unprecedented floodwaters."The
boy and girl were identified as the children of a soldier on leave from
Fort Bliss, the military post in El Paso, Texas, officials said
Wednesday. The family were caught in the flood while they were camping
near Ruidoso, the base said in a statement.The soldier and the soldier's
spouse sustained serious injuries and were hospitalized in Texas,
according to the statement."Our hearts are heavy with grief following
this devastating loss,” Brig. Gen. Rory Crooks, deputy commanding
general of the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss, said in a
statement.Additional details about the man who was killed were not
immediately released.Four people remain missing, officials said
Wednesday. They added that three people were hospitalized and are stable
and that 20 people remain displaced.The New Mexico medical
investigator's office, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office and other
agencies are investigating."All three individuals were caught in the
rushing floodwaters and carried downstream during the catastrophic
flooding event that saw the Rio Ruidoso rise to a record-breaking 20
feet, five feet higher than the previous record," the statement
said.Emergency services carried out 65 rescues in fast-moving waters
Tuesday, officials said Wednesday."We are united in our sorrow and our
commitment to supporting one another as we face this devastating loss
together," Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said in the statement.The
flooding was caused by monsoonal rains that fell on burn scars from the
South Fork and Salt fires that occurred last year.The storms that
triggered the floods occurred during monsoon season, which runs from
late June to early September. The storms can cause flash floods.
Crawford said Tuesday's monsoon flood was one of the worst he has
seen.Videos posted on social media and verified by NBC News showed roads
submerged in fast-moving floodwaters and a home smashing into trees
after it was swept down Rio Ruidoso.Crawford said that before the rains,
the river that swept away the house was so small "you could have jumped
across it."The National Weather Service reported that the river
appeared to have crested at a record 20.24 feet Tuesday. The previous
record was 15.86 feet, set last year.The South Fork Fire ignited on June
17, 2024, and burned through more than 17,000 acres. The fire was so
hot that it turned the soil hydrophobic, meaning it does not absorb
water, Crawford said. There was flooding in the community last year.New
Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an emergency declaration
request Tuesday night, seeking aid from the federal government."Ruidoso
endured devastating wildfires and flooding last summer, and now
catastrophic flooding is hitting this resilient community again. This
crisis demands immediate action," she said in a statement.Ruidoso, with a
population of 7,600, is in the Sierra Blanca mountain range.The village
notes on its website that the surrounding mountainous terrain makes it
susceptible to flash flooding. Burn scars can worsen flash
flooding."This one hit us harder than we were expecting," Crawford
said.As the floodwaters subside, the recovery operation will have to
contend with hazardous heat this week as temperatures reach near or
above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Weather Service said.
Deadly China-Nepal flood caused by glacial lake: experts.
Kathmandu,
July 9 (AFP) Jul 09, 2025-Flash floods that killed at least nine people
in a mountainous region between China and Nepal and swept away a key
bridge linking the two countries, were caused by the release of water
from a glacial lake, experts said Wednesday.About 30 people are still
missing after Tuesday's floods, including 19 people in Nepal and 11 in
China, according to officials and media reports."Our initial assessment
shows that the origin of the flood was the draining of a supraglacial
lake located on the north side of the Langtang mountain," geologist
Sudan Bikash Maharjan of the Nepal-based International Centre for
Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) told AFP.Supraglacial lakes are
formed on the surface of glaciers, often beginning as small meltwater
ponds that gradually expand to form larger lakes.The lake in question
used to be a small pond, but it grew significantly in size over the past
month, ICIMOD said in a statement Wednesday, citing satellite photos.In
Nepal, nine bodies have been recovered and 19 others -- 13 Nepalis and
six Chinese -- are listed as missing, according to police.China's state
television CCTV reported that a "mudslide disaster" hit the border area
around dawn Tuesday, with 11 people missing on the Chinese
side.-'Completely unprecedented'-In the 2000s, glacial origin floods in
the Hindu Kush Himalaya region typically occurred every five to ten
years, according to ICIMOD, but they have become notably more frequent
in recent years.A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is the sudden
release of water collected in former glacier beds.These lakes are formed
by the retreat of glaciers, with the warmer temperatures of
human-caused climate change turbocharging the melting of the icy
reservoirs.Glacial lakes are often unstable because they are dammed by
ice or loose debris.In the last two months, Nepal, Afghanistan and
Pakistan have all seen glacial origin floods.In addition to the border
disaster on Tuesday, Nepal's Upper Mustang region was also hit by a
flood."The acceleration of these types of events is completely
unprecedented in the region. We need to delve deeper into the triggers
that are resulting in cascading impacts," said Saswata Sanyal, ICIMOD
Disaster Risk Reduction lead.Experts predict that the risk of glacial
lake outburst floods is expected to peak this year, as rising
temperatures create more lakes.In 2020, more than 2,000 lakes were
mapped across Nepal by ICIMOD, with 21 identified as potentially
dangerous for their size and other criteria.But recent floods have been
caused by smaller, lesser noticed lakes."These events are signals and
symptoms of really rising temperatures, and are more destructive than
normal floods due to the debris and steep topography," said Sharad
Prashad Joshi, a cryosphere monitoring specialist at ICIMOD.
Very large hail threat with Thursday storm risk in Manitoba, NW Ontario-Forecast Centre-Wed, July 9, 2025 at 10:01 p.m. EDT
The
heart of the summer season is seeing plenty of severe weather
opportunity on the Prairies.Wednesday evening saw tornado watches issued
in parts of central Alberta, but no warnings materialized out of them
while they were in place. Thursday will see the severe chance shift away
from Alberta and Saskatchewan and move into southern Manitoba and
northwestern Ontario.Very large hail, possibly as large as two to four
centimetres in size, will be the main hazard, alongside strong wind
gusts and heavy rain.You'll want to stay updated on the weather alerts
in your area as conditions can change quickly when severe weather
hits.The cold front continues east into Manitoba and northwestern
Ontario Thursday.There will be a threat for mid-afternoon, rapid storm
development along the lake breezes surrounding the Interlake region in
Manitoba. By the late afternoon, severe storms are possible along the
provincial borders.Extremely large hail up to three or four centimetres
is possible, especially in humid conditions.Models were initially
hesitant to develop a continuous storm threat from North Dakota through
the Interlake region, but the latest models are more confident in a
persistent line of storms by the time the front reaches
Winnipeg.Isolated, severe storms will be possible as far north as Hudson
Bay.Make sure to stay weather-aware and pay attention to local weather
alerts in your area as conditions can change quickly when severe weather
hits.Conditions will be very humid in Winnipeg, with humidex values in
the 40s.The cold front will lower temperatures, returning much of the
region to seasonal conditions by the weekend.Be sure to check back for
the latest weather updates across the PrairiesThumbnail courtesy of
Donna Clarke/Facebook, taken in Fisher River, Man.
PLD Space selected as leading contender for ESA sovereign launch initiative-by Clarence Oxford.
Elche
Spain (SPX) Jul 08, 2025-PLD Space has been chosen by the European
Space Agency (ESA) as a preselected participant in the European Launcher
Challenge (ELC), a major initiative designed to strengthen Europe's
independent launch capabilities. Backed by up to euro 169 million per
company, the ELC represents one of Spain's most significant space
contract opportunities and will culminate in final selections following
ESA's Ministerial Conference this November in Bremen.Launched this year,
the ELC includes both institutional launch service contracts running
from 2026 to 2030 and a development path requiring enhanced launcher
demonstration by 2028. PLD Space submitted a proposal that aligns with
its long-term roadmap through 2030, first revealed at its October 2024
Beyond event.The proposal features MIURA 5, the company's initial
operational launcher, and MIURA Next, a forthcoming large reusable
rocket designed to meet Europe's institutional launch needs while
promoting sustainable space access.The MIURA program is already an
economic catalyst, involving a network of 397 partner entities across
Spain and Europe. ESA's preselection positions PLD Space as a national
leader in the space launch sector, highlighting Spain's emerging role in
the European aerospace landscape.The ELC also reflects a broader move
toward public-private partnerships, echoing Spain's Aerospace PERTE
program. Under PERTE, PLD Space has received euro 42 million from the
CDTI to advance the nation's first indigenous launch vehicle."The
European Launcher Challenge marks a milestone for Europe's space
industry, but it is also a unique national opportunity to have a Spanish
prime leading launcher development. Our project directly impacts the
entire value chain, mobilizes cutting-edge technology, and places Spain
at the center of Europe's future access to space," said Ezequiel
Sanchez, Executive President of PLD Space.
