Eyal Zamir Archives - CrossFireArarbia

Israeli Army Probes 27 Cases of Looting by its Soldiers in Gaza, Lebanon

CrossFireArabia
August 31, 2026

Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot revealed, Monday, the Israeli army closed 25 out of 27 investigations it opened into looting committed by its soldiers in the Gaza war and the war on Lebanon.

“At the end of April, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir addressed the phenomenon of looting in the Israeli army,” the newspaper reported.

“If it exists, it is shameful and could tarnish the reputation of the entire Israeli army. If such incidents occur, we will investigate them,” it quoted him as saying at the time.

“He also instructed battalion commanders to submit a detailed report on the situation of their units in this regard within a week. If evidence of looting crimes is found, they will be referred to the Military Police for criminal investigation,” Yediot Aharonot stated.

“However, no data has been published about the Military Police investigations that were opened,” it noted.

The newspaper stated that, at its request, “the Movement for Freedom of Information submitted a request for data on the Military Police investigations opened regarding the looting incidents in Lebanon and Gaza, and this data is now being disclosed.”

“According to the Israeli army’s response, the Military Police opened 25 investigations in the Gaza Strip between 2023 and mid-2026, on suspicion of looting,” the newspaper noted.

“These included three investigations in 2023, 19 in 2024, two in 2025, and one by mid-2026,” it added. “Of these investigations, two indictments were filed—both in 2025—which ended in plea bargains.

“In one case, the defendant was convicted of looting, and in the other, the charge was amended, and he was convicted of theft,” the paper explained.

Regarding Lebanon, daily stated: “As for the northern front, where the IDF ground operations did not begin until the end of 2024, only two investigations were opened into suspected looting crimes in Lebanese territory—one in 2024 and another in 2025—but no indictments were filed.”

“In fact, the data shows a significant gap between the number of investigations and actual indictments. Of the 27 investigations conducted by the Military Police into looting cases on both fronts combined, only two (approximately 7 percent) resulted in charges,” the newspaper added. Anadolu

Uncategorized

Is Eyal Zamir ‘Restricting’ Raids on Gaza?

CrossFireArabia
August 4, 2026

Israel’s official Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) claimed, Tuesday, that Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir ordered a restriction on airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. It stated he is now stipulating his prior approval for targeted assassinations of specific Palestinians.

However, it is also thought that the latest directive does not mean a halt to the military strikes, allowing the current Israeli forces in Gaza to continue them to stop any “immediate threats,” according to unnamed sources in the Israeli army’s Southern Command.

This comes as a result of pressure exerted by the “Council for Peace” for Israel to stop its attacks, with the aim of seeking ways to implement the roadmap of the next phase of the ceasefire agreement.

On Monday, the High Representative of the Council for Peace, Nikolay Mladenov, and the Council’s advisor, US official Aryeh Lightstone, asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the airstrikes on Gaza, in accordance with plan put forwards by US President Donald Trump last year.

As a result Kan reported that Zamir has “directed, in recent days, a restriction in attacks on the Strip.”

It quoted an unnamed security source as saying: “The forces operating in the Gaza Strip will be able to continue thwarting any immediate threat should danger be perceived.”

The source claimed that assassinating Palestinians whom Israel alleges were involved in the 7 October, 2023 attacks, but who do not pose an immediate threat, would require prior approval from Zamir.

The agency also quoted an unnamed military source as saying that the Israeli army “implements decisions at the political level.”

However, and contrary to talk of restricting airstrikes, the Israeli army killed two Palestinians, Monday evening, in an airstrike that targeted their vehicle in the Sheikh Ajlin area, southwest of Gaza City.

The bombing came hours after Mladenov and his team called on Netanyahu to stop the attacks, marking the first Israeli airstrike following the request.

Israel also killed 18 Palestinians in separate airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday, one of the deadliest days since the ceasefire agreement came into effect.

On Monday, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey affirmed that the continuation of Israeli attacks constitutes a violation of the agreement and undermines efforts to implement its second phase.

Trump announced, Thursday, that an understanding had been reached regarding the implementation of the next phase of the agreement, while the “Peace Council” published the text of the roadmap on Friday.

The roadmap stipulates Israel cease its military operations, followed by the deployment of the Palestinian National Authority’s Gaza Administration and the international stabilization force, and the commencement of a phased process for dismantling and storing heavy weapons and dismantling tunnels, concurrent with a phased Israeli withdrawal.

It also stipulates that the weapons be placed under the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority and not be handed over to Israel or any non-Palestinian entity.

However, the Middle East Peace Council stated in a statement issued after the meeting between Mladenov and Netanyahu, Monday, that a complete Israeli withdrawal beyond the “yellow line” will only occur after the dismantling of light and heavy weapons and tunnels is completed.

This differs from the text of the roadmap published on Friday, which links the dismantling of weapons to a phased Israeli withdrawal and requires Israel to first fulfill its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, primarily the cessation of military operations.

In its response, Hamas stated that it adheres to what was agreed upon regarding the implementation of the second phase, including the obligations of all parties, and that it awaits a clear and official response from Mladenov and the mediators.

Two days ago, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an unnamed Israeli source as saying that Tel Aviv had informed the “Peace Council” of its rejection of three points in the Road Map.

These points relate to the non-destruction of weapons collected from Hamas, the participation of Qatar and Turkey in verifying the implementation of the Road Map, and the denial of freedom of action to the Israeli army in areas whose responsibility would be transferred to the international stabilization force.

Israel insists on not withdrawing completely before the dismantling of all weapons and tunnels, while it continues to occupy 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, amidst ongoing airstrikes and the killing of Palestinians.

Since the ceasefire agreement came into effect on 10 October, 2025, Israeli military attacks killed 1,252 Palestinians and injured 4,120 others, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

The agreement came after two years of a war of genocide launched by Israel on 8 October, 2023, which left more than 73,000 Palestinians dead and 174,000 wounded, most of them children and women, in addition to widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure according to Anadolu.

News

Zamir: Israel May Resume War on All ‘Active Fronts’

CrossFireArabia
April 29, 2026

Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said Monday that intense fighting could resume across all of Israel’s active fronts this year according to the Drop Site website.

“We remain ready and on alert for the possibility of a resumption of intense fighting on all these fronts—2026 could still be a year of fighting on each of them,” Zamir told army officers during a meeting. I

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to say whether the Trump administration would support Israel resuming the war in Gaza, but said that “the entirety of this project only works if Hamas is demilitarized.”

Hamas has consistently refused to discuss disarmament until Israel ceases its violations of the ceasefire and fulfills its Phase One obligations according to Drop Site.

Analyses

Analysis: Middle East in Iranian Eyes

CrossFireArabia
April 19, 2026

CROSSFIREARABIA – During the Israeli Genocide on Gaza Benjamin Netanyahu used to stand up and say with a smirk: ‘We are changing the face of the Middle East’.

Upbeat about murdering the women and children of Gaza from the late 2023 onwards, he was talking about the further normalization of the Arab world as established by the Abraham Accords, establish an economic order under Israel’s hegemony and end Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis while clipping the wings of Iran.

Of course, Netanyahu’s face soon changed, albeit two-and-a-half years later, when Iran and Hezbollah were forced into a war generated by Israel and the USA on 29 February, 2026. While Iran got a battering, in the next 39 days, US ships and military bases in the Gulf and Jordan received such a hammering that soon forced US President Donald Trump to plead for a ceasefire.

In this war, Israel received a great shock, being attacked literally on an hourly and daily basis with its buildings, military basis and infrastructure taking directs hits while its millions of people living in underground shelters around-the-clock.

To use a metaphor Tel Aviv’s nose was being rubbed in the sand in a way that has never been imagined by Netanyahu nor his ilk of extremist right wing fascist politicians who started calling for the expulsion of Gaza Palestinians from their homeland ever since the Israeli genocide on them since 7 October, 2023.

Today’s Netanyahu’s vision of a new Middle East has been drastically changed, thrown in his face in fact! Iran’s political stances and its missiles have changed things around. The US and Israel were not able to change the current Iranian government in Iran despite killing the country’s spiritual leader Ali Khameini, have not ended the country’s nuclear program nor ended its ballistic missiles.

So what is Netanyahu talking about? Yes, today there is clearly a new Middle East emerging but it is not according to Netanyahu’s eyes nor his wishful thinking. If anybody should be ‘celebrating’ it is clearly Iran, it’s government, revolutionary guard, its Generals, officers and soldiers who are very probably changing the face of the Middle East and may even be setting the map of how the region should look like in form from now on.

From day one of the war, Trump started running scared despite his outlandish mutterings! He came to realize quickly that Netanyahu and the Mossad pushed him against Iran, convincing him it would be an easy fight and the government there would fall like a pack of cards. Trump since, started kicking himself as he finally fell to Netanyahu’s squinted prism to go after that country. Netanyahu kept pushing for this wild step since the 1990s through previous US presidents from Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

But they did not listen to him however, Trump fell into the trap and maybe this is why he is now privately kicking himself because he basically sent the globe into an economic tailspin and soaring exorbitant oil prices, a potentially deep recession and financial chaos.

In this war Netanyahu may have shot himself in the foot. His alliance with the USA juxtaposed by Hezbollah whose fighters laid dormant since November 2024 when it stopped firing at Tel Aviv was a big surprise to the latter. Israel had previously thought that Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire out of weakness and thus their entry into military action was unexpected. Hezbollah kept the military pressure on for six more days after Washington signed off with Iran and beating the Israeli army into submission.

On day 46 Trump intervened calling on the Israeli army to stop fighting Hezbollah. He had ulterior motive, he wanted to extract a normalization agreement between the Lebanese government and Israel; their ambassadors had just started meeting in Washington at the invitation of the US State Department in an upbeat atmosphere and inline for a final agreement to establish an accord between Tel Aviv and Beirut alongside the ones signed between Israel and four Arab states, the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco starting September 2020.

Thus a normalization agreement would be a feather in Trump’s cap, a sort of prestige move for the US president. But his pressure may have been seen as a life-saving formula. Trump was saving Israel from Netanyahu’s insistence that his army to keep fighting in southern Lebanon. Its fight has already cost Israel at least 13 soldiers who were killed, more than 500 injured and more than 100 topnotch Merkava tanks destroyed. Israeli towns and cities were being hammered from the north.

Israel was being beaten from the north. Its towns, cities and military bases again were wide-open to incoming rockets from Lebanon and were not being deflected. It was a war that had to be stopped. This time Trump insisted. If a ceasefire with Iran was going to stick, then Netanyahu had to be forced to make his soldiers stop their fight in Lebanon.

Thus for the time being Netanyahu’s hand lie in check. Yet in the long run his dream for a new Middle East with Israel playing a central part in it may have been halted. After all, no Gulf or even Arab states now would think of normalizing with Israel despite the fact that Lebanon is being forced into it, but even for then its early days.

Netanyahu can kiss goodbye his long-life attempt to sign a normalization accord with Saudi Arabia for instance, a kingdom which is seen as a “major puller” in the Arab and Muslim world. It has already said that normalization is off the table with Israel. The Gulf has been disappointed in this war because it showed that America were not able to protect them from Iranian missiles that targeted their infrastructure as well the US military bases strewn across the region.

Netanyahu has lost on the economic level as well. His country stands economically devastated, army in ruins as admitted to by the Israeli chief of staff Eyal Zamir, and the dream of opening an ‘economic Middle East’ is definitely dashed for the time being.

America, as Trump knows, is left to pick up the pieces of a tattered world caused by war any choas in a region that is vital to the global system.

Analyses

Trump’s War Drums ‘Dampen’

CrossFireArabia
February 2, 2026

EDITOR’S NOTE: This editorial is written by Abdul Bari Atwan, chief editor of the Arabic Al Rai Al Youm website, on 2 February 2026, on the eve of increasing US military presence sorrounding Iran.

The fact that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ali Khamenei appeared three times in open and public meetings, chatting to ordinary Iranians recently, sends a shocking message to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It shows Khamenei still has the first and final word in Iran, and is not hiding in an underground bunker for fear of assassination; he has not relinquished his leadership and spiritual powers, as some Arab and Western media outlets have promoted in deliberate leaks part of the psychological warfare against Iran, coinciding with the US military buildup in the region.

In contrast top Israeli politicians and military officials are rushing to Washington fearing that President Trump will back down from his aggression threats and replace the military option for a peaceful, negotiated one and reaching an accord that does not include Israeli demands and conditions. Israeli Chief of Staff General Eyal Zamir made a surprise visit to Washington recently and met with senior US military leaders, accompanied by his own top military commanders, including the Israeli Air Force Commander.

Frankly however Trump may have already lost this war, just as he lost face and credibility by failing to follow up on his threats and translate them into aggressive actions on Iranian soil as he has resorted to sending mediators, with the latest being his friend, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to reopen negotiations with Iran after realizing his naval buildup and aircraft carrier deployments is not yielding results, nor are they intimidating the Iranian leadership into surrendering. Thus, he may be defeated either way, whether he goes to war or resorts to a political and diplomatic solution to the cri

The key to understanding this confusion and perhaps American retreat, and the postponement of military strikes, lies in the threatening message sent by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Trump during his meetings with the numerous Iranians on the anniversary of the late Ayatollah Khomeini’s death. The most prominent point was his assertion that “Iran does not initiate wars, but if it is subjected to aggression, it will confront it with all its might and inflict devastating blows on the enemy.” More importantly, he stated “this war will be a broad regional conflict, it will not be swift, decisive, or short-lived,” nor “clean”— meaning, free of casualties.

A “regional war” means all countries, movements, and military factions aligned with the “axis of resistance” will participate, starting with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and Ansar Allah in Yemen. American bases in the region, particularly on the Arabian side of the Gulf, will be legitimate targets, as will all the American soldiers stationed there and whose numbers exceed 70,000.

What terrifies Israel most is not only Trump’s failure to proceed with his aggression against Iran, but also the possibility of reaching an agreement that contradicts all three of Israel’s objectives:

First: Preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, halting all Iranian uranium enrichment at high levels, and surrendering all its existing stockpile (480 kilograms) to a neutral country. Second: Halting the development and launch of Iranian missiles, and dismantling all long-range missiles, whether hypersonic or multiple-warhead, capable of reaching deep into Israeli territory, particularly Haifa and Tel Aviv, as demonstrated in the 12-day war last June.

Third: Completely ceasing all financial and missile support for resistance movements, especially Hezbollah in Lebanon and its Iraqi counterpart, factions within the Popular Mobilization Forces such as Harakat al-Nujaba, and Ansar Allah in Yemen.

A Reminder

Everyone should be reminded the return of 5,000 American soldiers in coffins to Washington, killed by the Iraqi resistance after the 2003 invasion, forced the then-President Barack Obama to acknowledge defeat and withdraw 160,000 American troops from Iraq in November 2011. This was made to minimize losses. Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that any aggression against Iran today would result in four times that number of American casualties, if not more, in the initial days of the attack. This is due to Iran’s resolve, advanced missiles and drones, and other secret weapons that might be the biggest surprises of this war, should it start.

Perhaps the decline in oil prices, the collapse of gold and silver prices, and the dollar’s shocking depreciation in global financial markets are among the most prominent indicators confirming what was stated above: The diminishing likelihood of war, Trump’s reluctant inclination towards diplomatic solutions and negotiations, and his initial admission of his failure to achieve a military victory to avoid losses and the protracted regional war threatened by the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Time will tell.