CrossFireArabia
An image captures the extensive destruction and the leveling of entire residential blocks in the Jabalia refugee camp caused by the ongoing full-flagged annihilation implemented by Israeli occupation forces in northern Gaza for nearly three months.
CrossFireArabia
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid thanked the Biden administration for allowing Israel to wage a war on Gaza, supporting Israel with ammunition during the past 15 months. His post on X comes after Biden provided $8bn boost in military aid to Israel as a genocide is under way in Gaza.
Mark Seddon commented:
A further $8 billion to pulverise Palestinians into the dust of the stinking rubble the billions already sent have created. This is what the American empire will be remembered for long after the footling Biden & Blinken are gone.
CrossFireArabia
Military analyst for the Israeli channel i24News, Yossi Yehoshua, confirmed that the Hamas movement has “succeeded in rebuilding its capabilities and recruiting new fighters, while Israel is still stuck in a complex situation, which is difficult to get out of, and is waiting for the deal to be concluded.”
The Israeli military analyst believed waiting for the deal is “the most correct and logical way out for Israel, otherwise it will continue to remain stuck in the mud,” explaining “no plan can be useful through the use of force and pressure on Hamas to sign an agreement.”
Yehoshua acknowledged Hamas is capable of recruiting the number of fighters it wants with young men amongst them, indicating this number is increasing, whilst also pointing out that the Islamic Resistance Organization “has doubled its fire as of lates, recently firing about 30 rockets towards the Gaza envelope.”
As for Israel, it is facing problems in their operations in the camps in central Gaza. Although it “carried out airstrikes, Israel faces a problem in carrying out ground activity, due to concerns that the bodies of Israeli prisoners and living prisoners are there.”
Former Israeli Minister, Haim Ramon, confirms that the achievements made by the Israeli army in the battlefields outside Gaza, “confirm the depth of the failure in the Strip,” after its “inability to achieve the main goal of the war, which is to overthrow the Hamas rule and eliminate its military capabilities.”
Ramon pointed out, in an article in the Israeli Maariv, the Hamas military force is still operating, and its civilian rule still extends throughout the Gaza Strip, despite being subjected to severe blows, and the martyrdom of both Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, along with thousands of other fighters according to Jo24.
CrossFireArabia
Since October 7, 2023, the United States has spent over $22 billion in military aid for Israel. This includes assaults on Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports that the US supplied 69% of Israel’s arms from 2019 to 2023. This share rose to 78% by the end of that period.
In December 2023, the US delivered over 10,000 tons of weapons worth $2.4 billion to Israel. By August 2024, this number increased to 50,000 tons, transported via hundreds of planes and ships.
The US has provided advanced military equipment to Israel. This includes Iron Dome missiles, precision-guided bombs, CH-53 helicopters, AH-64 Apache helicopters, 155mm artillery shells, bunker-busting munitions, and armored vehicles.
Since 1946, US military and economic aid to Israel has totaled over $310 billion, adjusted for inflation. A 10-year, $38 billion military aid deal signed in 2016 remains active, allocating $3.8 billion annually. Emergency packages in 2024 added billions more, including $14.1 billion approved in February and a $2.5 billion arms shipment in March.
US weapons used mainly against civilians have drawn condemnation. Critics point to limited Congressional oversight and ongoing scrutiny over the impact on Palestinians in Gaza.
In December 2023, a group of Palestinians filed a lawsuit against the US State Department. The lawsuit accuses the department of bypassing US human rights laws to fund Israeli military units accused of committing atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank.
Filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawsuit states that Secretary of State Antony Blinken ignored the Leahy Law. This law prohibits US military aid to units committing gross human rights violations without accountability.
One plaintiff, a teacher from Gaza, was displaced seven times during the genocide. He lost 20 family members in the genocide.
The lawsuit criticizes the US for supporting Israel amid escalating human rights abuses since the genocide began in October 2023.
The US Senate is set to vote on legislation to block specific arms sales to Israel. Senator Bernie Sanders, along with Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley and Peter Welch, introduced resolutions to prevent the sale of 120mm mortar shells and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs).
Another resolution, supported by Senator Brian Schatz, seeks to halt tank shell sales. JDAMs, manufactured by Boeing, convert unguided bombs into GPS-guided weapons.
Despite these efforts, bipartisan support for Israel makes it unlikely the resolutions will pass. Advocates argue that Israel has obstructed aid shipments desperately needed by Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Criticism of US military aid to Israel continues to grow as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens as reported in the Quds News Network.
CrossFireArabia
By Abdul Bari Atwan
What are the options Israel and America’s has to confront the continuing Yemeni drones and hypersonic missiles? Is it bombing Tehran and/or implementing the latest Syrian case in Sanaa? Why not rule both out?
The Israeli occupation, government and settlers, are today in a state of hysterical panic due to the never-ending hypersonic ballistic missile attacks and the advanced drones bombing the heart of Tel Aviv and causing serious human casualties and huge fires.
This state of hysteria is reflected in four distinguishing signs:
First: Threats by more than one Israeli official to launch a massive attack on Yemen similar to that on Gaza whilst carring out assassination campaigns targeting the political and military leaders of Ansar Allah, especially Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
Second: More than two million Israeli settlers took refuge in shelters, and sirens sounded in more than 80 locations in occupied Palestine over the past four days.
Third: Closing the airspace of Ben Gurion Airport to air traffic, which created confusion, chaos, isolation, and moral collapse.
Fourth: Failure of Israeli celebrations of two major successes achieved according to Hebrew newspapers, namely: In Imposing a ceasefire in Lebanon, stopping attacks from the southern Lebanese border, and the second by toppling the Syrian regime, the jewel of the resistance axis as boasted by Netanyahu that it was he who played the biggest role in achieving this.
Israeli Minister of War Yisrael Katz broke with all established Israeli norms by officially acknowledging, for the first time, responsibility for the assassination of the Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, and Yahya Sinwar in Rafah.
Katz threatened the Houthis leaders that they would face the same fate, and that the destruction that occurred in Gaza and Beirut would be repeated in Sanaa and Hodeidah.
But what terrifies the Israelis most, and worries their leadership is the arrival of the incessant Yemeni missiles and drones to the heart of major Zionist cities, like Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ashkelon, and Eilat with millions of settlers descending into shelters.
Indeed, this points to the failure of Israel’s highly advanced air defense systems to intercept these missiles, prevent them from reaching their targets, and inability to provide security and protection for the settlers in these major cities.
Perhaps the threats of Israeli officials to launch attacks on Yemeni cities reflect the extent of the pain they are suffering as a result of these incoming deadly projectiles.
These, and before them the Israeli, American and British air strikes on Sana’a and Hodeidah, have not achieved the goals of deterring Yemeni missile attacks and stopping their bombing of the Israeli depth.
On the contrary, they gave completely opposite results with their continual launching of hypersonic missiles and drones, and more dangerously, the downing of the advanced US F-18 jet, and the damaging of American aircraft carrier Harry Truman in the Red Sea and its escape to the north to prepare to leave the region, like its predecessors, the Eisenhower, the Lincoln, and many other naval destroyers.
The Yemeni military statements by Brigadier-General Yahya Saree in the past three days confirmed the bombing of Tel Aviv, Ashdod and Ashkelon deep inside Israel will continue as long as the extermination war on Gaza continues.
These statements were backed by the launch of more hypersonic missiles and drones in quick and direct responses to the Israeli threats, which means Yemen is not afraid and is responding in kind, has patience, and is ready to sacrifice.
Yemen has become the spearhead of the axis of resistance, and main front after the situation in Lebanon calmed down following the ceasefire agreement, and the commitment of the Islamic resistance there despite the violations. It is not unlikely that the Israeli occupation state, with American support, and perhaps Arab support as well, will present two main military options in the coming few days:
First: Going to the head of the octopus, i.e. Iran, as described by the Israelis, by launching an expanded tripartite Israeli-American-British attack to destroy it, according to the recommendation of Mossad Chief David Barnea as targeting Sana’a and Hodeidah again will not stop the Yemeni attacks with missiles and drones from reaching the occupied Palestinian depth.
Second: Repeating the Syrian scenario in Sana’a, i.e. an attempt to undermine and exhaust the Houthis by supporting the other Yemeni military groups and movements hostile to it by supplying them with modern weapons, providing air cover for their attacking forces, and mobilizing regional support for this step.
Launching a large tripartite aggression on Yemen may fail and give adverse results, and the same can be said about the expected attack on Iran, and it will be the occupying state and its military bases that may be exposed to bombing with thousands of ballistic and supersonic missiles, because the loss of the resistance axis of its last, most powerful and effective arena (Yemen) means its end and its Iranian leadership, and the creation of a new Middle East led by a “Greater Israel”.
However great Yemen will not surrender, and will not be defeated, as history tells of its victory over all previous invaders. Its steadfastness for more than eight years in the US-backed Gulf War against it confirms it will withstand any new Israeli-American-British targeting it, as its internal incubator is strong and solid and difficult to break due to the rallying of people around its leadership, which is embodied in the massive million-person demonstrations every Friday now for several months in solidarity with our people in the Gaza Strip.
Abdel Bari Atwan is the Chief Editor of Al Rai Al Youm
