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)
DID GOD DESTROY THIS BRIDGE IN BALTIMORE MD AS GET BACK AGAINST TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME NEW YORK JUDGES.
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.
LUKE 21:11
11 And
great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and
pestilences;(BIOLOGICAL/CHEMICAL/NUCLEAR) and fearful sights and great
signs shall there be from heaven.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And
this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people
that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while
they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their
holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it
shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall
be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his
neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his
neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)
Leviticus 26:15-17 (KJV)
15-and
if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so
that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
16-I
also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror,
consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and
cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your
enemies shall eat it.
17-And I will set my face against you, and ye
shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over
you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
Job 22:4-22 (KJV)
4-Will he reprove you for fear of you? will he enter with you into judgment?
5-Is not your wickedness great? and your iniquities without end?
6-For you have taken a pledge from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7-You have not given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8-But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honorable man dwelt in it.
9-You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
10-Therefore snares are round about you, and sudden fear troubles you;
11-Or darkness, that you can not see; and abundance of waters cover you.
12-Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
13-And you say, How does God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?
14-Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he sees not; and he walks in the circle of heaven.
15-Have you marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
16-Who were cut down before their time, whose foundation was swept away with a flood:
17-Who said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do to us?
18-Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19-The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.
20-Surely our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumes.
21-Acquaint now yourself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto you.
22-Receive, I pray you, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
THIS
BRIDGE COLLAPSE IN BALTIMORE COULD VERY WELL BE JUDGEMENT FOR TRYING TO
STOP TRUMP FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT. FROM TRYING TO BREAK TRUMP. AND
DEALING UNFAIRLY WITH AN INNOCENT PERSON. LETS SEE THIS COLLAPSE OF THE
SHIP RUNNING INTO THE BRIDGE. WILL NOW COST THE GOVERNMENT AND BALTIMORE
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. ITS A PORT IN BALTIMORE LIKE NEW YORK. THE 9TH
LARGEST PORT IN FACT. I CAN SEE THIS JUDGEMENT IS CONNECTED TO THE NEW
YORK TRUMP FALSE CHARGES. TRUMP HAD TO TRY TO QUICKLY DIG UP THE HALF OF
BILLION DOLLARS IUNTILL YESTERDAY WHEN A SENSIBLE JUDGE SAID HE ONLY
HAS TO PUT UP 175 MILLION DOLLARS. AND HOW IS THIS CONNECTED TO THE
BRIDGE COLLAPSE IN BALTIMORE. THEIR COULD BE AT LEAST 20 DEAD SO THE
POLICE AND GUARDS HAVE TO QUICKLY TRY TO SAVE THE PEOPLE FROM WHO WERE
THROWN IN THE RIVER WHEN THE BRIDGE WAS DESTROYED.THE PORT AUTHORITY
SAID THAT THIS SAME SHIP HAD AN ACCIDENT IN BELGIUM IN 2016.
Baltimore bridge collapse sends vehicles tumbling into water-By Nathan Howard and Andy Sullivan-March 26, 20248:29 AM EDT
BALTIMORE,
March 26 (Reuters) - A container ship smashed into a four-lane bridge
in the U.S. port of Baltimore in darkness on Tuesday, causing it to
collapse and sending cars and people plunging into the river
below.Rescuers pulled out two survivors, one in a "very serious
condition," and were searching for more in the Patapsco River after huge
spans of the 1.6-mile (2.57 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge crumpled into
the water.The ship "lost propulsion" as it was leaving port, and crew on
board notified Maryland officials they had lost control of the vessel,
ABC News reported, citing an unclassified U.S. intelligence
report.Baltimore officials said at least seven vehicles plunged into the
water but could not give an exact figure.Kevin Cartwright, the
spokesperson for Baltimore City Fire Department, earlier told Reuters
that as many as 20 people could be in the river along with "numerous
vehicles, and possibly a tractor-trailer or a vehicle as large as a
tractor-trailer, (that) went into the river.""This is a mass-casualty,
multi-agency event," he said. "This operation is going to extend for
many days."A live video posted on YouTube showed the ship ploughing into
the bridge in darkness. The headlights of vehicles could be seen on the
bridge as it crashed into the water and the ship caught fire.Tuesday's
disaster may be the worst U.S. bridge collapse since 2007 when the I-35W
bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing
13.Maryland Governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency to quickly
deploy federal resources to deal with the emergency. The FBI in
Baltimore said on X its personnel were "on scene." At a news conference,
Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said there was no
indication of terrorism.Traffic was suspended at the Port of Baltimore
until further notice, Maryland transportation authorities said. It is
the busiest U.S. port for car shipments, handling more than 750,000
vehicles in 2022, according to port data.It was not immediately clear if
any other vessels had been damaged or whether operations had halted to
and from the port, shipping and insurance sources said."We received
several 911 calls at around 1:30 am, that a vessel struck the Key Bridge
in Baltimore, causing the collapse," Cartwright said.Baltimore police
said they had been notified of the incident at 1:35 a.m. ET (535
GMT).The ship was identified by LSEG ship tracking data as a
Singapore-flagged container ship, the Dali. The registered owner of the
ship is Grace Ocean Pte Ltd and the manager is Synergy Marine Group,
LSEG data show.Synergy Marine Corp said the Dali collided with one of
the pillars of the bridge and that all its crew members, including the
two pilots, had been accounted for and there were no reports of any
injuries.The Dali was chartered by shipping company Maersk
(MAERSKb.CO)-, opens new tab at the time of the incident, the Danish
company said in a statement."We are horrified by what has happened in
Baltimore, and our thoughts are with all of those affected," Maersk
said.Baltimore port's private and public terminals handled 847,158 autos
and light trucks in 2023, the most of any U.S. port. The port also
handles farm and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal,
according to a Maryland government website.The port handles imports and
exports for major automakers including Nissan, Toyota, General Motors,
Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and the Volkswagen group - including luxury
models for Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley.More than 40 ships remained
inside Baltimore port including small cargo ships, tug boats and
pleasure craft, data from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider
MarineTraffic showed. At least 30 other ships had signalled their
destination was Baltimore, the data showed.The port did not immediately
respond to Reuters' request for comment.The bridge, named after Francis
Scott Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner, opened in 1977.Get weekly
news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world
with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here.Reporting by
Shubham Kalia, Harshita Meenaktshi, Shreya Biswas, Jyoti Narayan and
Swati Verma in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Christian
Schmollinger, Arpan Daniel Varghese, Rich McKay and David Shepardson;
Writing by Ros Russell; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Philippa Fletcher,
Gerry Doyle and Nick Macfie
Trump warns Israel ‘losing support’
for Gaza war, with public relations ‘in ruin’Republican candidate
believes images of strikes on Gaza are fueling antisemitic backlash in
US, says he would have responded to Oct. 7 as Israel did but advises to
‘finish it up’By Agencies and ToI Staff 25 March 2024, 10:44 pm
Former
US president Donald Trump warned Israelis in an interview published
Monday that they were losing support for the war in Gaza, reiterating
his call to “finish it up.”The comments from Trump, the presumptive
Republican nominee to take on US President Joe Biden in November’s US
election, came as Washington abstained at a UN Security Council vote
calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.“You have to
finish up your war. To finish it up. You gotta get it done,” Trump told
the Israel Hayom newspaper in an interview the freesheet said had been
recorded over the weekend. Part of the interview was published on
Monday, with more expected later in the week.“And I will say, Israel has
to be very careful because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re
losing a lot of support, you have to finish up, you have to get the job
done. And you have to get on to peace, to get on to a normal life for
Israel, and for everybody else.”War erupted in Gaza after thousands of
Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel on October 7 by
land, air, and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages,
mostly civilians.“What I saw October 7 was one of the saddest things
I’ve ever seen,” Trump said.Trump told Israel Hayom he would have
responded to Hamas’s attack “very much the same way” Israel did, but
expressed concern about the optics of a war in which Israeli strikes
have left much of Gaza in ruins.Trump also appeared to explain the rise
in antisemitism in the US since October 7 as a result of images of
destruction coming out of Gaza from the ongoing war.“I think that’s one
of the reasons that there has been a lot of kickback,” Trump said when
asked about rising hate toward Jews, arguing the Israeli military should
not continue to release footage of its strikes.“If people didn’t see
that, every single night… I’ve watched every single one of those. And I
think Israel wanted to show that it’s tough, but sometimes you shouldn’t
be doing that.”The rise in antisemitism, he said, is “because you
fought back. And I think Israel made a very big mistake. I wanted to
call [Israel] and say don’t do it. These photos and shots. I mean,
moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza… And I said,
‘Oh, that’s a terrible portrait.’”Trump also faulted US President Joe
Biden for Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, which he claimed the terror
group perpetrated “because they have no respect for him.”Repeating an
assertion he has made in the past, Trump said that Hamas “would have
never done that attack if I were there…because they knew there would
have been very big consequences.”Asked about growing tensions between
Jerusalem and Washington over the war, Trump said support for Israel in
the US has been dropping for the past 15 years.Back then, “Israel had
the strongest lobby,” he said. “If you were a politician, you couldn’t
say anything bad about Israel, that would be like the end of your
political career. Today, it’s almost the opposite.“Israel has to get
better with the promotional and with the public relations because right
now they’re in ruin. They’re being hurt very badly,” Trump said.He said
there are “a lot” of American Jews who “actually fight Israel.” He cited
The New York Times as an example, as it is published by the Jewish
Ochs-Sulzberger family.“I’m not Jewish. And yet Israel for me is very
important,” Trump said.The former president has lashed out at Democratic
politicians including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for
criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.“I think it’s a
terrible thing to do,” Trump said of recent remarks by Schumer calling
for early elections in Israel.Trump and Netanyahu have had a checkered
relationship, with the former often indicating that he has never
forgiven the Israeli premier for congratulating Joe Biden after he
defeated Trump in the 2020 election. a result Trump never accepted as
legitimate.Earlier this month, Trump said he would tell Netanyahu to
finish the war against Hamas in Gaza “quickly and get back to the world
of peace” if he won the election in November.Trump frequently touts
himself as a devoted ally of Israel, pointing to his decision to move
the US embassy to Jerusalem and his administration’s role in brokering
the 2020 Abraham Accords, which saw Arab countries including the United
Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalize ties with Israel.Palestinians, who
claim East Jerusalem as their future capital, have opposed Trump’s
policies.
Rugrats’ Purim special has a grown-up lesson for wary
US Jews-As antisemitism hits new highs amid the Israel-Hamas war, the
cartoon adds to two past acclaimed holiday episodes with a message of
courage and unity-By Maya Zanger-Nadis Today, 2:52 am-MAR 26,24
The
beloved children’s television show “Rugrats” surprised Jewish fans
around the world with a special Purim episode on Friday, putting a
youthful spin on an ancient battle for the Jewish nation’s survival as
the modern-day Jewish state is fighting a battle of its own.“Rugrats,”
which originally aired on Nickelodeon from 1991 until 2004, follows a
group of mischievous toddlers on their grand — mostly imaginary —
adventures and features a significant amount of Jewish representation.
All three of its co-creators, Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, and Paul
Germain, are Jewish. The main character, Tommy Pickles, has a Jewish
mother and grandparents who speak in heavy Yiddish accents and are eager
to tell the children about their Jewish heritage.The show also made
waves in the mid-1990s with its Passover and Hannukah specials achieving
cult status among Jewish fans and garnering widespread critical
acclaim. “A Rugrats Passover” was even nominated for a Primetime Emmy
Award.“Rugrats” was rebooted in 2021 for Paramount +, the streaming
service associated with CBS. The reboot has the same Jewish creators
overseeing production and maintains the Jewish identity of Tommy and his
mother’s family.The 2024 Purim special features Tommy’s grandfather,
Boris (played by Henry Winkler), gathering the children to hear the
story of Purim while the babies play the characters in their imaginary
version of the story.Meanwhile, Tommy’s Uncle Jake teaches the parents
how to make traditional hamantaschen cookies while reconciling being
true to his Jewish identity with his desire to run a successful business
via social media. His father, Boris, urges him toward tradition, while
his mother, Minka, is more interested in reinventing herself and fitting
in.A lesson is learned about honoring heritage and traditions while
leaving room for growth and change.The episode features poignant
dialogue about antisemitism, as a large majority of American Jews say
they feel less secure in the US than they did a year ago. In a nod to
the Jew-hatred that has gotten more aggressive since the onset of the
Israel-Hamas war, Tommy’s mother, Didi, tells the group that it’s “such a
shame when people have to hide their identity because they’re afraid of
what will happen if others see who they really are.”Later on, inside
the story, Mordechai, played by Tommy, tells Esther that she must appeal
to King Ahasuerus because “if we’re not safe out there, you won’t be
safe in here forever either.”Like the Passover and Hannukah specials,
Boris’s narration uses terms such as “Jewish” and “Hebrews” to describe
the characters, and the in-story toddler characters substitute these
words for “baby.” In the Passover episode, Tommy-as-Moses famously tells
Pharaoh, “Let my babies go!”Similarly, in a moment holding dramatic
tension and comic relief, Tommy-as-Mordechai tells Haman: “I’m a baby.
Babies don’t bow down to people — not even to kings! I can’t break the
laws of my baby people.”The episode received relatively little promotion
from its network. However, it earned positive reviews from adults who
watched it, including Lior Zaltzman of the online Jewish parenting
magazine Kveller, who said that the show “did a truly great job.”
Small
Mossad team said to remain in Qatar to continue talks-Blaming UN vote,
Israel pulls negotiators from Qatar after Hamas rejects truce deal-Prime
Minister’s Office points to ‘damage’ caused by Security Council
resolution, as Gaza terror group digs in on demands Israel calls
‘delusional’By Lazar Berman-Today, 2:14 pm-MAR 26,24
Israel on
Tuesday recalled its negotiating team from Qatar after Hamas rejected
its latest offer in talks on a hostage deal and truce, an Israeli
official told The Times of Israel.The delegation had been in Doha for
eight days.However, several news outlets reported that a small Mossad
team remained in Qatar to continue talks. The Prime Minister’s Office
would not comment on the reports. Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters that negotiations on a truce in
Gaza were still ongoing, without providing details.In a statement,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas’s decision to
reject a US-brokered compromise is “clear proof it is not interested in
continuing talks, and a sad testament to the damage caused by the UN
Security Council resolution,” referring to a call for a ceasefire passed
Monday night that the US did not veto, thus enabling its passage.The
PMO accused Hamas of retreating to its “extreme demands,” including a
complete end to the war and full IDF withdrawal from Gaza.“Israel will
not cave to Hamas’s delusional demands,” it said.A diplomatic official
quoted by Hebrew-language media said Hamas demanded that Gazans be given
carte blanche to return to their homes in the north of the Strip and
did not even address a hostage release.“There is no one to talk to on
the other side and the Israeli negotiating team has nothing to do in
Qatar,” the source was quoted as saying.Hamas said on Monday night that
it had informed mediators that it will stick to its original position on
demanding a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from
Gaza, a return of displaced Palestinians, and a “real” exchange of
“prisoners” — demands Israel has repeatedly rejected as
delusional.Israel has dismissed Hamas demands for a full military
withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire, while the terror group has
conditioned any further hostage releases on an Israeli commitment to end
the war. Israel has insisted that its military campaign to destroy
Hamas’s military and governance capabilities will resume once any
hostage-truce deal is implemented.Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a
radio interview Tuesday morning that the US decision to withhold a veto
on the Security Council resolution would hurt Israel in talks to free
its hostages held by terrorists in the enclave.Katz drew a direct line
between Hamas’s rejection of Israeli terms for a truce and hostage deal
in exchange for prisoners and the US decision to allow the measure to
pass, which he called “a moral and ethical mistake.”“Hamas is building
on the fact that… there will be a ceasefire without it needing to pay a
thing,” he said.Katz said Israel will now need to up the military
pressure to prove its commitment to releasing the hostages and taking
down Hamas.“In our view, there was a message, a no-good message, to
anyone on Hamas’s side that the US does not support Israel as much, and
so we need to prove, militarily, that we will stand by our goals,” he
said.Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday
that the US decision gave Hamas reason to believe “they’re going to get a
ceasefire without giving up the hostages.”Saying the war is in “the
home stretch,” Dermer implored the US to “stand with us, let us finish
the job, and let’s get to a day after where can have a real peace
process that can give hope not only to Israelis, but also to
Palestinians.”The Security Council resolution demanded an immediate
ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages taken by Gazan terrorists
on October 7. The US abstained, and the 14 other council members voted
for the resolution, backed by Russia and China, that called for a
ceasefire without conditioning it on the release of hostages.In a
statement from the Prime Minister’s Office after the adoption of the
resolution, Israel warned that the US decision to abstain was harming
the war effort against Hamas and undermining attempts to free
hostages.The statement called the decision “a clear retreat from the
consistent US position in the Security Council since the beginning of
the war,” and one that “gives Hamas hope that international pressure
will allow them to get a ceasefire without releasing our
hostages.”Netanyahu also canceled a planned trip to Washington by his
top aides to discuss plans for an offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah, a
move the US viewed as an overreaction.The White House suggested on
Monday that Netanyahu was trying to manufacture a crisis in US-Israel
ties after he canceled the delegation’s planned visit.US officials
asserted that their position in favor of conditioning a ceasefire on the
release of hostages has not changed.“It seems like the Prime Minister’s
Office is choosing to create a perception of daylight here when they
don’t need to do that,” White House National Security Council spokesman
John Kirby said in a press briefing.Some 130 hostages — not all of them
alive — are believed to remain in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 massacre,
which saw terrorists kill some 1,200 people and abduct another 253,
mostly civilians. Dozens of hostages were released under a previous
truce deal in November, and some others were freed by Israel.Egypt and
Qatar had been trying to narrow differences between Israel and Hamas
over what a ceasefire should look like as a deepening humanitarian
crisis has the population in Gaza at risk of famine, according to the
United Nations.Reports circulating in Hebrew media on Sunday indicated
Jerusalem had softened its position and could be willing to release
hundreds more Palestinian prisoners than initially agreed to in the
first phase of a potential accord.Top Israeli and American officials
involved in the talks returned home over the weekend after flying to
Doha to participate in the negotiations, though sources in Jerusalem
were careful to curb any possible optimism over the likelihood of a
breakthrough, even as the sides appeared to move closer together after
months of painstaking discussions.“Right now, we’re feeling 50/50 about
the chances for a deal,” an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on
Sunday.During the talks, Israel had accepted a recent US compromise
proposal, which has since been sent to Hamas, a second Israeli official
told The Times of Israel on Sunday. The official did not say what the
proposal entailed, but reports suggested Israel was willing to nearly
double the number of security inmates it had already to release in
exchange for 40 hostages — women, children, the sick and elderly — in
the first phase of a 6-week truce deal.According to a report by Channel
12 news, Israel is now willing to release as many as 800 prisoners,
including 100 inmates convicted of murder. Other Hebrew media reports
suggested Israel was prepared to release 700 security prisoners in
return for the 40.Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
Up to
30 said dead in Syria strikes, including 8 Iran Guards fighters, top
commander-Syrian group reports airstrikes of unknown origin on villa
used by pro-Iran operatives as communications center; media close to
Syrian government says US behind raids-By AFP and ToI Staff Today, 10:49
am-MAR 26,24
Some 30 people were killed, among them at least
nine pro-Iranian fighters including a commander, in overnight strikes on
a villa taken over by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in eastern
Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday
morning.“Nine pro-Iranian fighters, including a leader and a Syrian,
were killed and more than 20 wounded in airstrikes targeting the villa
they were staying in, which served as a communications center,” said the
Britain-based war monitor, which did not yet know the origin of the
strikes.A later post from the rights group on X, formerly Twitter,
updated the death toll to at least 30 people.Media close to the Syrian
government said the strikes were American.The Observatory said that a
few hours earlier, an Iranian cargo plane flew from Damascus to the
eastern city of Deir Ezzor carrying technical equipment and soldiers of
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.Israel has for years carried out attacks on
what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s
influence has grown since it began supporting Syrian President Bashar
Assad in a civil war that started in 2011, but rarely comments on them
publicly.BREAKING: MULTIPLE AIRSTRIKES ON SYRIA NEAR SYRIA-IRAQ
BORDER-Over 10 airstrikes by American warplanes have simultaneously
targeted sites in Eastern Syria and the Syria-Iraq border.
pic.twitter.com/A1qOlLxScG— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) March 26,
2024-Since the Iran-backed Hamas terror group’s brutal October 7
massacre, which saw some 1,200 people killed in Israel and 253
kidnapped, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed terror
targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some
Syrian forces.The villa that was targeted and completely destroyed in
the strike had been taken over by the Guards, who are responsible for
Iran’s foreign operations.The strikes were the first of their kind in
eastern Syria since early February, the Observatory said.Then, US
strikes targeting the eastern cities of Deir Ezzor and Al-Madayeen
killed 29 pro-Iran fighters in response to a deadly drone attack on a US
base which killed three US soldiers just across the border in Jordan.
Israel
using weapons in line with international law, not blocking Gaza aid,
says US-State Department spokesperson says US has ongoing assessments of
Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law and has ‘not
found them to be in violation’ By Jacob Magid and ToI Staff Today, 5:59
am-MAR 26,24
The US has deemed Israel to be in compliance with a
new national security memorandum after it received a written assurance
from Jerusalem that it is using American weapons in line with
international law and is not blocking humanitarian assistance in
Gaza.This assurance came last week via a “credible high-level official
who has the ability and authority to make decisions and commitments
about the issues at the heart of the assurances,” State Department
spokesperson Matthew Miller said, referring to the letter sent by
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.“These assurances are prospective, but of
course, our view of them is informed by our ongoing assessments of
Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza,” Miller said during a press
briefing.“We’ve had ongoing assessments of Israel’s compliance with
international humanitarian law. We have not found them to be in
violation, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or the
provision of humanitarian assistance. We view those assurances through
that ongoing work we have done,” he said.The State Department has until
May 8 to provide Congress with a report on Israel’s compliance with the
memo.The announcement came on the same day that the US abstained from a
vote at the United Nations Security Council calling for a ceasefire in
Gaza and the release of the hostages taken on October 7, without linking
the two issues. The resolution, backed by Russia and China, passed with
14 votes.The vote sparked a spat with Israel, which argued that its
passage would make Hamas more obstinate in truce talks in Qatar. Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also canceled a planned trip to Washington
by his top aides to discuss plans for an offensive in the Gaza city of
Rafah.Tensions have been escalating over Israel’s plans for a
large-scale ground operation in the southern Gaza city, which is both
Hamas’s last major stronghold in the Strip and where over a million
Gazans displaced by the fighting are now located.Washington and
Jerusalem have also disagreed on the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza,
with Israel blaming the ailing humanitarian situation on aid agencies’
failure to distribute supplies, and on Hamas and armed groups who have
looted trucks entering the Gaza Strip.Hours after the Security Council
vote, Hamas said it would insist on demands for a permanent ceasefire, a
withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the return of displaced
Palestinians to central and north Gaza, and a release of Palestinian
security prisoners — demands Israel has already rejected repeatedly as
delusional.The White House has shown increasing willingness in recent
months to voice dissatisfaction with Israel over civilian casualties in
Gaza and the humanitarian situation there, including adopting a harsher
tone.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel over the weekend
on the last stop of his sixth diplomatic swing through the region since
war erupted on October 7, amid mounting tensions between Washington and
Jerusalem over the management of the conflict and Israel’s intent on a
Rafah offensive.Blinken held one-on-one meetings with both Netanyahu and
war cabinet minister Benny Gantz on Friday, along with the war
cabinet.Blinken told reporters after his meetings that the US shares
Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas and ensuring long-term security, but
that “a major military ground operation in Rafah is not the way to do
it.”“It risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking greater havoc
with the delivery of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating
Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and
standing,” Blinken said on the Ben Gurion Airport tarmac just before
boarding a plane to depart.According to the Walla news site, in his
meeting with Netanyahu and his war cabinet, Blinken also warned that if
Israel does not come up with a plan for the “day after” Hamas, it will
be stuck in Gaza for years.“You don’t understand this,“ Blinken
reportedly said, “and when you do, it might be too late.”In Washington
on Monday, Blinken met with a visiting Gallant at the State Department,
warning again of the US’s opposition to a large-scale offensive in
Rafah.Blinken “underscored that alternatives exist to a major ground
invasion that would both better ensure Israel’s security and protect
Palestinian civilians,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said
in a statement.Gallant and Blinken additionally “discussed the need to
immediately surge and sustain additional humanitarian assistance to meet
the needs of civilians in Gaza,” he added.Gallant’s written assurance
is a new condition the US placed on all aid recipients, laid out in a
memo signed by Biden on February 8. US security aid recipients were
already required to use the funds in line with international law, though
the request for written assurances was new.The directive does not
single out Israel, but it came at a time of increasing calls from
progressive lawmakers for conditions on US aid to the Jewish state, amid
concerns that Jerusalem was not doing enough to protect civilians in
Gaza.The February 8 memo stated that US departments and agencies will
“engage with foreign partners to share and learn best practices for
reducing the likelihood of and responding to civilian casualties,
including through appropriate training and assistance.”“In order to
effectively implement certain obligations under United States law, the
United States must maintain an appropriate understanding of foreign
partners’ adherence to international law, including, as applicable,
international human rights law and international humanitarian
law.”Countries receiving military aid from the US were given 180 days to
provide the required assurances, the memo said, but those, like Israel,
who were engaged in active conflicts had only 45 days.US officials left
open the possibility that arms sales could be halted or delayed without
the assurance.The memo was criticized by the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee at the time, which called it “an unnecessary directive
that imposes new requirements on Israel and our other most important
allies.”
Hamas tells mediators it’s ‘sticking to original
position’ on demand for full ceasefire-Palestinian terror group appears
to reject latest truce offer, hours after UNSC resolution demanding Gaza
cessation of hostilities, release of hostages-By Agencies and ToI Staff
Today, 3:59 am-MAR 26,24
Palestinian terror group Hamas said
Monday night that it informed mediators that it will stick to its
original position on demanding a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of
Israeli troops from Gaza, a return of displaced Palestinians and a
“real” exchange of “prisoners” — demands Israel has already rejected as
delusional multiple times.Israel has continuously dismissed Hamas
demands for a full military withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire, while
the terror group has conditioned any further hostage releases on an
Israeli commitment to end the war. Israel has rejected this demand as
delusional, and insisted that its military campaign to destroy Hamas’s
military and governance capabilities will resume once any hostage-truce
deal is implemented.Some 130 hostages — not all of them alive — are
believed to remain in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw
terrorists kill some 1,200 people and abduct another 253, mostly
civilians.Hamas claimed on Monday Israel “did not respond to any of the
basic demands of our people and our resistance (Hamas): a comprehensive
ceasefire, withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced,
and a real exchange of prisoners,” the terror group said in a statement,
appearing to reject the latest proposal on offer in Doha, where the
sides have held indirect talks via Egypt, Qatar, and the United
States.The terror group, which led the October 7 attack on Israel that
triggered the war, claimed “[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his
extremist government bear full responsibility for thwarting all
negotiation efforts and obstructing reaching an agreement so far.”The
Palestinian terror group’s statement came hours after the United Nations
Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire
in Gaza and a release of hostages taken on October 7, after the United
States abstained from the vote, sparking a spat with Israel. The
remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution, backed by Russia
and China, that called for a ceasefire without conditioning it on the
release of hostages.In a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office
after the adoption of the resolution, Israel warned the US decision to
abstain was harming the war effort against Hamas and undermining
attempts to free hostages.The statement called the decision “a clear
retreat from the consistent US position in the Security Council since
the beginning of the war,” and one that “gives Hamas hope that
international pressure will allow them to get a ceasefire without
releasing our hostages.”Netanyahu also canceled a planned trip to
Washington by his top aides to discuss plans for an offensive in the
Gaza city of Rafah, which the US viewed as an overreaction.Israeli
Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan also blasted the Security Council for
adopting the resolution that did not explicitly condition a ceasefire on
the release of the hostages.“On the one hand, the resolution says that
taking civilians hostage is in violation of international law, yet on
the other hand — despite the fact that you know Hamas won’t listen to
your calls and release the hostages — you demand a ceasefire,” Erdan
said in remarks to the body after the vote.Erdan said that the council’s
failure to condition a ceasefire on the hostages’ release “not only
isn’t helpful, but it undermines the effort to secure their release. It
is harmful to these efforts because it gives Hamas terrorists hope to
get a ceasefire without releasing the hostages.”Talks ongoing? Egypt and
Qatar have been trying to narrow differences between Israel and Hamas
over what a ceasefire should look like as a deepening humanitarian
crisis has the population in Gaza at risk of famine, according to the
United Nations.Reports circulating in Hebrew media on Sunday indicated
that Jerusalem had softened its position and could be willing to release
hundreds more Palestinian prisoners than initially agreed to in an
initial phase of an accord.Top Israeli and American officials involved
in the talks returned home over the weekend after flying to Doha to
participate in the negotiations, though sources in Jerusalem were
careful to curb any possible optimism over the likelihood of a
breakthrough, even as the sides appeared to move closer together after
months of painstaking discussions.“Right now, we’re feeling 50/50 about
the chances for a deal,” an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on
Sunday.During the talks, Israel had accepted a recent US compromise
proposal, a second Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Sunday,
which has since been sent to Hamas. The official did not say what the
proposal entailed, but reports suggested Israel was willing to nearly
double the number of security inmates it had already to release in
exchange for 40 hostages — women, children, the sick and elderly — in
the first phase of a 6-week truce deal.According to a report carried by
Channel 12 news, Israel is now willing to release as many as 800
prisoners, including 100 inmates convicted of murder. Other Hebrew media
reports suggested Israel was prepared to release 700 security prisoners
in return for the 40.A framework deal Israel agreed to in Paris last
month included the willingness to release 400 security inmates in the
first phase of the deal.An Israeli official told The Times of Israel
that the main sticking point in talks has been the number of high-value
prisoners Israel will release in exchange for female soldiers.According
to Channel 12, Israel showed increased flexibility as well by being
willing to discuss allowing Palestinian civilians to return to northern
Gaza, a first.Quoting an unnamed senior source close to the talks, the
channel reported that Israel has offered the return of 2,000 Gazans a
day to the north, beginning two weeks after an agreement goes into
effect and a temporary ceasefire begins.The source said there would be
unspecified conditions for a return to the north of the Strip, which
Israel demanded civilians evacuate from in the beginning of the war as
fighting focused on Hamas’s seat of power in Gaza City and its environs.
Men would likely not be permitted to return, according to the
report.The report added that Israel continued to reject Hamas’s demands
for a full military withdrawal and a permanent ceasefire.In mid-March,
Hamas presented a Gaza ceasefire proposal to mediators and the United
States that included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for
freedom for Palestinian prisoners, 100 of whom are serving life
sentences, according to the proposal seen by Reuters.Hamas said the
initial release of Israelis would include women, children, elderly and
ill hostages in return for the release of 700-1000 Palestinians held in
Israeli prisons, according to the proposal. The release of Israeli
“female recruits” is included.Netanyahu’s office later responded to
Hamas’ proposal saying it was based on “unrealistic demands,” vowing to
press ahead with its ground offensive until it eliminates Hamas.
Conditioning
aid to Israel not in the cards, says spokesperson-Perplexed by
‘overreaction,’ White House says PM stirring crisis in US-Israel
ties-Netanyahu choosing to ‘create perception of daylight,’ Kirby says,
when US hasn’t changed position linking truce to hostage deal; US
official says PM motivated by domestic politics-By Jacob Magid-Today,
1:42 am-MAR 26,24
The White House suggested on Monday that Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to manufacture a crisis in
US-Israel ties after he canceled plans to send an Israeli delegation to
Washington over the Biden administration’s decision to allow the
adoption of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate
Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.Netanyahu said the US abstention
marked a divergence from Washington’s policy linking a ceasefire to
Hamas releasing the hostages it abducted on October 7, but US officials
asserted that this wasn’t their interpretation of the resolution and
that their position in favor of that conditionality has not changed.“It
seems like the Prime Minister’s Office is choosing to create a
perception of daylight here when they don’t need to do that,” White
House National Security Council John Kirby said in a press
briefing.“We’re kind of perplexed by this. It’s a non-binding
resolution, so there’s no impact at all on Israel’s ability to continue
to go after Hamas,” Kirby said.A second US official briefing a small
group of reporters added that Biden aides had been in touch with their
Israeli counterparts in the days and hours leading to the vote,
explaining that it would not amount to a change in the US approach. The
official said Israeli officials understood this but that Netanyahu
decided to present things differently.The official said that the US
worked to ensure that the resolution’s demands for a ceasefire and
hostage release would be part of the same paragraph after they initially
were separated, to dispel the notion that the two aren’t linked with
each other. However, the text does not condition the ceasefire demand on
the release of the hostages.The official added that the Biden
administration was perplexed by what it views as a major overreaction by
Netanyahu to the US allowing the resolution to pass.“The Prime
Minister’s Office seems to be indicating through public statements that
we’ve somehow changed here. We haven’t,” Kirby said.For its part,
Netanyahu’s office called the US abstention a “clear retreat” from the
position Washington has held since the beginning of the war.“This hurts
both the war effort and the effort to release the hostages because it
gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow them to accept a
ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” the premier’s office
said.The statement added that Netanyahu had warned the US ahead of time
that he would cancel the Israeli plans for Strategic Affairs Minister
Ron Dermer and National Security Council chairman Tzachi Hanegbi to
visit Washington if the US abstained in the vote and that he was merely
following through.After the second US official said Netanyahu’s decision
to cancel the delegation was likely motivated by domestic Israeli
politics, Kirby was pressed on whether Biden is not influenced by his
own domestic politics.The White House spokesman rejected the idea
out-right, saying Biden’s decisions regarding the Israel-Hamas war are
based strictly on national security concerns.Kirby added that Netanyahu
is wrong to claim that the US abstention will give Hamas hope that it
can secure a ceasefire through means other than a hostage release. The
second US official noted that the US looked into whether an adopted
Security Council resolution might impact the hostage talks and
determined that it would not.Pressed on whether the US might now begin
conditioning aid to Israel, Kirby indicated that this is not in the
cards.“I would take issue with this idea that we’re not leveraging
everything we can. [But] it’s not a leveraging exercise. It’s not about
trying to use some sort of power dynamics here with our good friend and
ally, Israel. It’s about helping them defend themselves,” Kirby said.
“We still have Israel’s back. As you and I are speaking, we are still
providing tools, capabilities, and weapons systems so that Israel can
defend itself against what we agree is still a viable threat [from]
Hamas.”US President Joe Biden has no immediate plans to call Netanyahu
about the latter’s decision to cancel his top aides’ visit, nor did
Netanyahu call Biden about it in advance, the second US official
said.“We’re very disappointed that [the Israeli delegation] won’t be
coming to Washington DC to allow us to have a fulsome conversation on
the viable alternatives to going in on the ground in Rafah,” Kirby
said.The Biden administration will still have opportunities to present
its alternatives to a major Rafah offensive during meetings with
visiting Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, even though those will not be a
replacement for the inter-agency gathering it was hoping to hold with
some of Netanyahu’s other top aides later this week, Kirby
acknowledged.He said the US will continue to pursue other avenues to
discuss the matter with Israel, even though a Rafah operation does not
appear to be imminent after Israel withdrew most of its reservists from
the Strip last month.The second US official noted that Israeli officials
have even expressed their interest in receiving Washington’s
alternative plans to a Rafah operation. They said the US also wants to
see Israel’s plan for how it thinks it could pull off an offensive
without significantly endangering civilians — something Jerusalem has
yet to present to Washington.A third US official speaking to The Times
of Israel maintained that Netanyahu was looking for an excuse not to
send a delegation to Washington because it would force him to grapple
with alternatives to a Rafah invasion that would be more realistic, and
put him at odds with his far-right coalition partners who don’t want him
to compromise on the matter.The third US official lamented that
Netanyahu was trying to pick a fight with the US after the Biden
administration “stuck its neck out for Israel for months and continues
to provide weapons. Bibi knows that he wouldn’t be able to prosecute
this war without us, and is still choosing to go this route.”Meanwhile,
the Biden administration sought to publicly present a degree of
business-as-usual in its ties with Israel with US National Security
Adviser Jake Sullivan tweeting that he held a “constructive discussion
on how best to ensure Hamas’s lasting defeat in Gaza,” earlier Monday
with Gallant at the White House.“I conveyed President Biden’s iron-clad
support for Israel’s security and defense against all threats, including
Iran,” Sullivan wrote.“I welcomed Yoav’s commitment to take additional
steps to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Sullivan added,
noting that he was pleased to host Gallant.Monday was the first time
that the Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate
ceasefire in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7, when
thousands of Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people
across southern Israel and took 253 hostages.However, it does mark a
symbolic blow to Israel’s international standing nearly six months since
Hamas’s shock onslaught and appeared to highlight a new low in
deteriorating ties between the US and Israel.The resolution passed by
the UN Security Council “acknowledge[s]” the ongoing efforts to secure a
hostage deal but does not directly link those talks to the Gaza
ceasefire it is demanding.The US had previously vetoed resolutions
calling for an immediate ceasefire, which contained no mention or
linkage to the hostage talks.The acknowledgment of those negotiations,
while not directly linking them to the demanded ceasefire — along with
the inclusion of both the ceasefire and hostage release demands in the
very same sentence — appeared to be the compromise struck by Security
Council members to pass the resolution on Monday.The resolution “demands
an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all
parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the
immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” referring to the
Islamic holy month that ends in roughly two weeks anyway.US Ambassador
to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she had to suffice with
abstaining on the resolution, rather than voting in favor, chiefly
because it did not include a condemnation of Hamas.
Putin
concedes Moscow attack carried out by ‘radical Islamists,’ links them to
Kyiv-As hunt for masterminds behind the deadly concert hall massacre
continues, Russia’s president again accuses Ukraine of being involved in
‘bloody intimidation act’-By Dasha Litvinova Today, 12:20 am-MAR 26,24
AP
— Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the gunmen who
killed 139 people at a suburban Moscow concert hall are “radical
Islamists,” but repeated his accusation that Ukraine could have played a
role despite its strong denials.Speaking in a meeting with government
officials, Putin said the killings were carried out by extremists “whose
ideology the Islamic world has been fighting for centuries.”Putin, who
declared over the weekend that the four attackers were arrested while
trying to escape to Ukraine, said investigators haven’t determined who
ordered the attack, but that it was necessary to find out “why the
terrorists after committing their crime tried to flee to Ukraine and who
was waiting for them there.”The Islamic State group’s Afghanistan
affiliate claimed it carried out the attack, and US intelligence said it
had information confirming the group was responsible. French President
Emmanuel Macron said France has intelligence pointing to “an IS entity”
as responsible for the attack.“We are seeing that the US, through
various channels, is trying to convince its satellites and other
countries of the world that, according to their intelligence, there is
allegedly no Kyiv trace in the Moscow terror attack — that the bloody
terrorist act was committed by followers of Islam, members of the
Islamic State group,” Putin said during a meeting with top law
enforcement officials.He added that “those who support the Kyiv regime
don’t want to be accomplices in terror and sponsors of terrorism, but
many questions remain.”Putin went on to declare that Ukraine has sought
to deflect attention from its battlefield setbacks by waging
cross-border attacks on various Russian regions, adding that a “bloody
intimidation acts like the Moscow terror attack look like a logical part
of this chain.”The attack Friday night at the Crocus City Hall music
venue on the western outskirts of Moscow left 139 people dead and more
than 180 injured, proving to be the deadliest in Russia in years. About
100 people remained hospitalized, officials said.Putin warned that more
attacks could follow, alleging possible Western involvement. He didn’t
mention the warning about imminent terror attacks that the US
confidentially shared with Moscow two weeks before the raid or the
public. Three days before the attack, Putin denounced the March 7 US
Embassy notice urging Americans to avoid crowds in Moscow, including
concerts, as an attempt to frighten Russians and “blackmail” the Kremlin
ahead of the presidential election.The four suspected attackers, all of
them nationals of Tajikistan, were remanded by a Moscow court Sunday
night for carrying out the attack and ordered to remain in custody
pending official probe.Russian media reported that the four were
tortured while being interrogated, and they showed signs of being
severely beaten during their court appearance. Russian officials said
all four pleaded guilty to the charges, which carry life punishment, but
their condition raised questions about whether their statements might
have been coerced.Russian authorities reported that seven other suspects
have been detained, and three of them were remanded by the court Monday
on charges of being involved in the attack.As they mowed down
concertgoers with gunfire, the attackers set fire to the vast concert
hall, and the resulting blaze caused the roof to collapse.The search
operation will continue until at least Tuesday afternoon, officials
said. A Russian Orthodox priest conducted a service at the site Monday,
blessing a makeshift memorial with incense.Russian officials and
lawmakers have urged severe punishment for all those involved in the
attack, and some called for the restoration of capital punishment
outlawed since 1997.During Sunday’s court hearing, three of the suspects
showed signs of heavy bruising, including swollen faces. One of them
was in a wheelchair in a hospital gown, accompanied by medical
personnel, and sat with his eyes closed throughout. He appeared to have
multiple cuts.Another had a plastic bag still hanging over his neck and a
third man had a heavily bandaged ear. Russian media reported Saturday
that one suspect had his ear cut off during interrogation. The
Associated Press couldn’t verify the report or videos purporting to show
this.Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russia’s president from 2008-12 and now
serves as deputy head of the Russian Security Council chaired by Putin,
urged to “kill everyone involved. Everyone. Those who paid, those who
sympathized, those who helped. Kill them all.”Margarita Simonyan, head
of the state-funded television channel RT, argued that even the death
penalty — currently banned in Russia — would be “too easy” a
punishment.Instead, she said they should face “lifelong hard labor
somewhere underground, living there too, without the opportunity to ever
see light, on bread and water, with a ban on conversations and with a
not very humane escort.”Russian human rights advocates condemned the
violence against the men.Team Against Torture, a prominent group that
advocates against police brutality, said in a statement that the
culprits must face stern punishment, but “savagery should not be the
answer to savagery.”It said the value of any testimony obtained by
torture was “critically low,” and “if the government allows for torture
of terrorism suspects, it may allow unlawful violence toward other
citizens, too.”Abuse of suspects by law enforcement and security
services isn’t new, said Sergei Davidis of the Memorial human rights
group.Parading beaten suspects could reflect a desire by authorities to
show a muscular response to try to defuse any criticism of their
inability to prevent the attack, he said.The concert hall attack was a
major embarrassment for Putin and came less than a week after he
cemented his grip on Russia for another six years in a vote that
followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times.Many on
Russian social media questioned how authorities and their vast security
apparatus that actively surveils, pressures and prosecutes critics
failed to prevent the attack despite the US warning.Citing the treatment
of the suspects, Davidis told AP that “we can suppose it was
deliberately made public in order to show the severity of the response
of the state.”“People are not satisfied with this situation when such a
huge number of law enforcement officers didn’t manage to prevent such an
attack, and they demonstrate the severe reaction in order to stop these
accusations against them,” he said.The fact that the security forces
did not conceal their methods was “a bad sign,” he said.IS, which fought
Russian forces that intervened in the Syrian civil war, has long
targeted the country. In a statement posted by the group’s Aamaq news
agency, the IS Afghanistan affiliate said it carried out an attack in
Krasnogorsk, the suburb of Moscow where the concert hall is located.In
October 2015, a bomb planted by IS downed a Russian passenger plane over
Sinai, killing all 224 people aboard, most of them Russian vacationers
returning from Egypt.The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq
but also in Afghanistan and across parts of Africa, has claimed
responsibility for several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and
other regions in past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other
parts of the former Soviet Union.
UN chief: ‘Unforgiveable’ to
not apply Security Council Gaza ceasefire resolution-Guterres says
fighting must end ‘now,’ asserts there’s growing consensus an operation
in Rafah would be a humanitarian disaster-By Reuters and ToI Staff 25
March 2024, 11:59 pm-MAR 26,24
United Nations Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres on Monday called for the immediate implementation of a
UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in the war between
Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas, warning failure to do so
would be “unforgivable.”His remarks came after the UNSC for the first
time since the war started passed a resolution calling for an immediate
ceasefire in the conflict that began with Hamas’s massive attack on
Israel on October 7.“The Security Council just approved a long-awaited
resolution on Gaza, demanding an immediate ceasefire, and the immediate
and unconditional release of all hostages,” Guterres wrote on social
media platform X. “This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be
unforgivable.”Resolution 2728 is understood to be non-binding and is
not expected to have an immediate impact on the ongoing fighting in
Gaza, as has been the case with previous Security Council resolutions
that have been adopted in other conflicts that were subsequently
ignored.War erupted with Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, which saw some
3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air, and
sea, killing 1,200 people. Terrorists also seized 253 hostages, mostly
civilians and of all ages. Israel responded with a military campaign to
topple Hamas’s Gaza regime and free the hostages, some 130 of whom are
still in captivity.“The fighting in Gaza must end now,” Guterres said.
“The hostages must be released now. And we must not lose sight of the
big picture. A lasting end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only
come through a two-state solution.”The resolution “demands an immediate
ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a
lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and
unconditional release of all hostages.”The Security Council resolution
also “emphasizes the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian
assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire
Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to
the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale.”It passed 14-0, with
the US abstaining rather than using its veto power, as it had done for
previous proposed UNSC resolutions that called for a ceasefire.Speaking
on a visit to Jordan, Guterres said Israel should lift all obstacles to
aid into Gaza and allow convoys of the UN Palestinian refugee agency
UNRWA into northern Gaza, where starvation is looming. He called for a
massive supply of aid to Gaza to fight the threat of famine, saying
there was a growing international consensus to tell Israel a ceasefire
is needed in its war on Hamas.His remarks came after UNRWA head Philippe
Lazzarini said on Sunday Israel had informed the UN that going forward,
it would not be approving the agency’s food convoys to northern Gaza,
as it seeks to work with other organizations.“It is absolutely essential
to have a massive supply of humanitarian aid now. This means opening
more entry points, this means a concentration of efforts of all entities
and without obstacles and limitations from the Israeli side,” Guterres
said.During a tour of a center in Jordan’s Wihdat camp where UNRWA
provides health and education services, the top UN official said that
the agency was a lifeline of hope and dignity for millions of refugees
across the region.“The decision not to allow UNRWA’s convoys to go to
northern Gaza where we have a dramatic starvation situation is totally
unacceptable and those that took that decision must assume the
responsibility facing history of the consequences of the decision,”
Guterres added.The UN has repeatedly warned of looming famine in the
war-torn Palestinian enclave, particularly in the north, which has been
largely cut off from aid deliveries, due to the combat.Israel denies
accusations by Egypt and UN aid agencies that it has delayed deliveries
of humanitarian relief, saying that there is no limit to the amount of
aid that can enter the Strip.It blames the ailing humanitarian situation
on aid agencies’ failure to distribute supplies, and on Hamas and armed
groups who have looted trucks entering the Gaza.Its reported decision
to end cooperation with UNRWA on delivering food to the north comes amid
efforts by the Israel Defense Forces to shut out and find alternatives
to the UN agency after Jerusalem said that a dozen of its staff were
involved in the devastating October 7 onslaught, and alleged that around
1,500 had ties to terror groups.Israel has started working with other
groups in Gaza, such as the UN World Food Programme, to deliver
humanitarian aid to Palestinians instead of UNRWA.Also on Monday,
Guterres said he saw a growing consensus for telling Israel that any
ground operation in Rafah could mean a humanitarian disaster.Rafah has
become the last refuge for more than one million people, or half of
Gaza’s uprooted population, swollen by displaced Palestinians escaping
fighting elsewhere in Gaza after more than five months of war between
Israel and Hamas.Israel has said Rafah, where four Hamas battalions are
deployed, remains the terror group’s last major stronghold in the Strip
after the IDF operated in the north and center of the Palestinian
enclave. It has said an offensive is necessary to achieve the war’s
goals of eliminating Hamas and returning the hostages, and is not a
question of if, but when.
Israel pushes back on UN ceasefire
call; Gallant: We’ve ‘no moral right’ to end war-Gantz, Lapid say
Security Council resolution will mean very little practically, but pan
Netanyahu for canceling senior aides’ trip to Washington over US failure
to veto-By Emanuel Fabian, Lazar Berman and ToI Staff 25 March 2024
Israel
has “no moral right to stop the war in Gaza,” Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant said in a video statement from Washington on Monday, where he
was on an official visit, after the United Nations Security Council
adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel
and the Hamas terror group.As well as an immediate ceasefire, the
resolution called for the immediate and unconditional release of all
hostages. It passed after the United States withheld its veto and
abstained from the vote.Gallant’s remarks were released by his office
ahead of meetings with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.Calling the UN decision “scandalous,”
the defense minister said that in his meeting with Sullivan he would
“make clear the importance of bringing down the Hamas regime and
returning the hostages to their homes.”“We will act against Hamas
everywhere, even in areas where we have not been yet,” he added. “We
will create an alternative to Hamas so that the IDF can complete its
mission.”“We have no moral right to stop the war in Gaza until we return
all the hostages to their homes. If we don’t reach a clear and absolute
victory in Gaza, it could bring a war in the north closer,” Gallant
added.Monday’s vote was the first time that the Security Council passed a
resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza since the start of
the war in October.Resolution 2728 is understood to be non-binding and
is not expected to have an immediate impact on the ongoing fighting in
Gaza, as has been the case with previous Security Council resolutions
that have been adopted in other conflicts that were subsequently
ignored.While Gallant will attend meetings in the US as scheduled, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to cancel a planned trip to
Washington by his top aides Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi to discuss
Israel’s planned Gaza offensive in Rafah, citing the US’s refusal to
veto the resolution.His decision was met with criticism from war cabinet
minister Benny Gantz, who suggested that not only should the trip
proceed as scheduled, but that Netanyahu himself should be holding these
meetings.“The special relationship between Israel and the United States
is an anchor in Israel’s security and foreign relations, and the direct
dialogue with the American administration is essential, and must not be
abandoned, even when there are challenges and disputes,” Gantz said,
noting his displeasure.“The prime minister would do well to travel to
the US himself and hold direct dialogue with President Biden and senior
officials,” said Gantz, who is considered the main rival to Netanyahu in
any new election, and the likeliest to form the next government,
according to polls.In response, Netanyahu hit out at Gantz for
suggesting that the trip take place, especially after Hamas praised the
UN Security Council vote.“Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected the
suggestion,” his office said.Gantz also noted that the UN decision “has
no operational significance” for Israel, but echoed Gallant’s comments
about the country’s “moral obligation to continue fighting until the
hostages are returned and the threat of Hamas is removed.”Israel
Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, meanwhile, accused the council of
believing that “Israeli blood is cheap” in remarks to the body following
the vote.“On the one hand, the resolution says that taking civilians
hostage is in violation of international law, yet on the other hand —
despite the fact that you know Hamas won’t listen to your calls and
release the hostages — you demand a ceasefire,” he said.Erdan charged
that the council’s failure to condition a ceasefire on the hostages’
release “not only isn’t helpful, but it undermines the effort to secure
their release. It is harmful to these efforts because it gives Hamas
terrorists hope to get a ceasefire without releasing the hostages.”He
then read out a text of a resolution that he thought should have been
adopted by the council today — one that condemns human rights abuses
such as hostage-taking and rape and demands the terror group responsible
to immediately cease its abuses.He revealed that this was the text of
the resolution that the council adopted 10 years ago to condemn Boko
Haram’s kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria.“Why can this council call
on Boko Haram to lay down their arms, but the same can’t be demanded of
the murderous Hamas terrorists?” he asked. “Is the life of little baby
Kfir Bibas worth less than the life of a Nigerian child?”“Sadly, it’s
for the same reason why you can condemn terror attacks in Russia and
Iran, but not in Israel. To this council, Israeli blood is cheap. This
is a travesty and I’m disgusted,” the ambassador added.Echoing Erdan’s
accusation of the UN harming the chances of the 134 hostages held in
Gaza, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the US’s decision to
abstain from the vote rather than veto it, “plays into Hamas’s
hands.”The decision “harms efforts to return the hostages and stabilize
the region by eliminating the radical forces and strengthening the
moderate forces,” the ultranationalist lawmaker added.Israel’s
relationship with the US has “always been one of partners, not a patron
state,” Smotrich said, voicing support for Netanyahu’s government and
calling for unity during the ongoing war with Hamas“This is not the
first time that an Israeli government has needed to make decisions
contrary to the US government’s position,” he said.Other members of
Netanyahu’s governing coalition were quick to condemn the UN resolution
and the US abstention and to defend the prime minister’s decision to
cancel the visit by Dermer and Hanegbi.“The State of Israel will not
hold fire,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“We will destroy Hamas and continue to fight until the last of the
abductees return home.”Backing Netanyahu’s decision, Likud lawmaker and
former UN ambassador Danny Danon charged that Israel’s “enemies are
trying to forget what happened on October 7,” when the Hamas terror
onslaught on Israel launched the war in Gaza.Dismissing the Security
Council’s decision as having “no practical meaning,” Opposition Leader
Yair Lapid instead laid into Netanyahu’s handling of the disagreement
with the US.“It could have been managed differently. We are allowed to —
and sometimes have to — say no to the Americans. Israel is indeed an
independent country and we do not need anyone’s permission to defend
ourselves,” Lapid said.“But there is a way to do so. It is better to
keep the quarrels behind closed doors — on the international stage, it
is better to coordinate everything with the largest world power and our
most important ally.”“The irresponsibility shown by Netanyahu is
unimaginable,” the Yesh Atid leader added.Jacob Magid contributed to
this report.
