WASHINGTON DC: The Pentagon on Monday sought to dispel what it said were false perceptions on social media that Israel staged part of its hostage rescue operations on the US military’s floating pier off Gaza, saying that was not true and no US personnel were involved.
Still, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder acknowledged there were Israeli helicopter operations “near” the pier, which was announced by US President Joe Biden as a way to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
“It was near but I think it’s incidental. Again, the pier, the equipment, the personnel all supporting that humanitarian effort had nothing to do with the IDF rescue operation,” Ryder said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
In a raid in Gaza on Saturday, Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas since October. In Saturday’s operation 274 Palestinians were killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Ryder said the US military was trying to “push back on some of the inaccurate social media allegations” circulating about the pier.
“The humanitarian pier facility, including its equipment, personnel and assets, were not used in the IDF’s operation to rescue hostages in Gaza. And any such claim to the contrary is false.”
The US military’s pier operations resumed briefly on Saturday after nearly two weeks offline but have been halted against since Sunday due to bad weather. On Saturday, 492 metric tons of aid were delivered from the pier, the US military’s Central Command said.
The Israel-Hamas war has now entered its ninth month, since Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage in a rampage through southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to wasteland, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Any perception that the pier could be used by Israel militarily could undermine US efforts to increase the flow of aid to Palestinians and potentially increase the threat to US troops.
Ryder acknowledged misinformation and disinformation about what US troops were doing in the Middle East. But he dismissed the idea that the current misperceptions that the pier was used by Israel increased the threat to US forces, who have air defenses installed to shield them from possible rocket attack.
“No, I don’t think it puts our forces at greater risk,” he said, without explaining how he came to that conclusion.
Pentagon says Israel’s hostage operation did not involve Gaza pier
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Pentagon says Israel’s hostage operation did not involve Gaza pier
- The US military’s pier operations resumed briefly on Saturday after nearly two weeks offline
Daesh militants kill eight in Syria desert: monitor
- The attack occurred on Wednesday evening as the militiamen were en route to search for a shepherd who had been kidnapped
- The Observatory reported a death toll of eight, including "six members of the National Defence Forces and two sheep herders"
BEIRUT: Daesh group militants killed eight people, including two civilians, in an ambush on pro-government militiamen in Syria's Badia desert, a war monitor reported Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack occurred on Wednesday evening as the militiamen were en route to search for a shepherd who had been kidnapped and subsequently killed by Daesh militants.
The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor with sources in Syria, reported a death toll of eight, including "six members of the National Defence Forces and two sheep herders".
Daesh overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a so-called caliphate and launching a reign of terror.
It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants still carry out deadly attacks -- particularly in the Badia desert -- and mainly targeting government loyalists and Kurdish-led fighters.
The desert runs from the outskirts of Damascus to the Iraqi border.
Last month, the Observatory said Daesh fighters had killed nearly 4,100 people in Syria since its so-called caliphate fell in 2019 -- more than half of them in the Badia.
The United Nations in January said Daesh's combined strength in Iraq and Syria was 3,000-5,000 fighters, with the Badia serving as a hub for the group in Syria.
Syria's war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with Damascus's brutal repression of anti-government protests.
25 people drown in Sudan fleeing fighting: activists’ committee
- “Around 25 citizens, most of them women and children, have died in a boat sinking” while crossing the Blue Nile River, the local resistance committee said
- “Entire families perished” in the accident, they said, while fleeing the RSF’s recent advance through Sennar
“Entire families perished” in the accident, they said, while fleeing the RSF’s recent advance through Sennar
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Around 25 people have drowned in Sudan’s southeast while trying to flee fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces, a pro-democracy activists’ committee said Thursday.
“Around 25 citizens, most of them women and children, have died in a boat sinking” while crossing the Blue Nile River in the southeastern state of Sennar, the local resistance committee said in a statement.
The committee is one of hundreds across Sudan that used to organize pro-democracy protests and have coordinated frontline aid since the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began last year.
“Entire families perished” in the accident, they said, while fleeing the RSF’s recent advance through Sennar.
On Saturday, the RSF announced they had captured the military base in Sinja, the capital of Sennar state, where over half a million people had sought shelter from the war.
Witnesses also reported the RSF sweeping through neighboring villages, pushing residents to flee in small wooden boats across the Nile.
At least 55,000 people fled Sinja alone within a three day period, the United Nations said Monday.
Local authorities in neighboring Gedaref state estimated on Thursday that some 120,000 displaced people had arrived this week. The state’s health minister Ahmed Al-Amin Adam said 90,000 had been officially registered.
Over 10 million people are currently displaced across Sudan, in what the UN calls the world’s worst displacement crisis.
Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, with some estimates putting the death toll as high as 150,000, according to the United States envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello.
‘Unprecedented’ number of journalists arrested in Palestine since Oct. 7
- Number of Palestinian journalists in Israeli prisons likely higher due to the increasing difficulty of verifying data
- Fifty-one arrests took place in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem since Oct. 7 by Israeli and Palestinian authorities
LONDON: An “unprecedented” total of 51 arrests of journalists in Palestine have been documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists since the start of Israel’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, the press rights NGO said on Wednesday.
CPJ said that the arrests took place in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with 48 journalists detained by Israel and three by the Palestinian authorities.
Fifteen of the journalists, including those held by the Palestinian authorities, have been released, while 36 remain in Israel’s custody.
Moreover, 15 of those arrested by Israel are being held under administrative detention without charges. This form of detention can last from six months to years.
However, the number of Palestinian journalists in Israeli prisons is likely higher than what CPJ has documented due to the increasing difficulty of acquiring and verifying data during wartime.
“Since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much-needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York.
“If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence.”
Currently imprisoned journalists include Rasha Hirzallah, a reporter for the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA; Mahmoud Fatafta, a columnist and political commentator; Bilal Hamid Al-Taweel, who contributes to multiple outlets such as Al-Jazeera; Mahmoud Adel Ma’atan Barakat, a radio producer for the Wattan Media Network; and freelance journalist Rula Hassanein.
Released journalists include Khalil Dweeb, a freelance camera operator; Ahmed Al-Bitawi, a reporter for Sanad News Agency; Maher Haroun, a freelance journalist and media student at Al-Quds Open University; and Ismail Al-Ghoul, an Al-Jazeera correspondent.
Neither Israel’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet nor the Palestinian General Intelligence Service have replied to CPJ’s requests for comment about those arrested.
CPJ documented in 2023 the imprisonment of 17 Palestinian journalists by Israeli authorities, saying that it was the highest number of media arrests in Israel and the Palestinian territories since CPJ began tracking jailed journalists in 1992.
Tunisian police arrest candidate for presidential election
- Lotfi Mraihi faces charges of money laundering and opening bank accounts abroad without a license from the central bank
- Mraihi’s arrest comes as opposition parties accused Saied’s government of exerting pressure on the judiciary to track down Saied’s rivals in the 2024 elections
TUNIS: The head of a Tunisian opposition party, Lotfi Mraihi, who has announced his intention to run in a presidential election set for October, has been arrested by police on suspicion of money laundering.
Mraihi, the leader of Republican Union Party, and one of the most prominent critics of President Kais Saied, was arrested late on Wednesday, politicians and local media said.
Tunis court spokesman said earlier this week that Mraihi faces charges of money laundering and opening bank accounts abroad without a license from the central bank.
Mraihi’s arrest comes as opposition parties, many of whose leaders are in prison, accused Saied’s government of exerting pressure on the judiciary to track down Saied’s rivals in the 2024 elections and pave the way for him to win a second term.
Elected president in 2019, Saied has not officially announced his candidacy for the election expected in Oct.6, but is widely expected to seek a second term. He said last year he will not hand power to what he called non-patriots.
Abir Moussi, the leader of the Free Constitutional Party and a prominent candidate, has been in prison since last year on charges of harming public security.
Moussi’s party says she was imprisoned in an effort to remove her from the election race and avoid a strong candidate. The authorities deny this.
Other candidates including Safi Saeed, Nizar Chaari and Abd Ellatif Mekki are facing prosecution for alleged crimes such as fraud and money laundering.
Mondher Znaidi, a prominent potential candidate who is living in France, is also facing prosecution on suspicion of financial corruption.
The opposition says fair and credible elections cannot be held unless imprisoned politicians are released and the media is allowed to do its job without pressure from the government.
Saied seized almost all powers in 2021, dissolved parliament, and began ruling by decree in a move that the opposition described as a coup. Saied said his steps were legal and necessary to end years of rampant corruption among the political elite.
Prominent opponents of the president have been detained since last year on charges of conspiring against state security, in a crackdown that included businessmen, media figures and politicians.
Hezbollah launches big attack on Israel, sonic booms rattle Beirut
- The sound of sonic booms rattled nerves for the second successive day in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon
- Israeli jets broke the sound barrier over several areas of the country, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched a big rocket and drone attack at Israel on Thursday and threatened to hit new targets in retaliation for the killing of a top commander, in the latest surge of violence in the steadily worsening conflict across the border.
Sparked by the Gaza war, the conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel has been gradually intensifying for months, raising fears of a full-scale war, which both sides have indicated they want to avoid and diplomats are working to prevent.
As the latest violence played out in areas at or near the frontier — in keeping with the pattern of the last nine months — the sound of sonic booms rattled nerves for the second successive day in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.
Israeli jets broke the sound barrier over several areas of the country, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones at 10 Israeli military sites in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah commander Mohammed Nasser in the south on Wednesday. Nasser is one of the most senior Hezbollah commanders to be killed by Israel during the conflict.
The Israeli military said around “200 projectiles and over 20 suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” a number of which were intercepted by Israeli air defenses and fighter jets.
Israel’s ambulance service said no casualties were reported. The Israeli military said some of the drones and interceptor shrapnel set off fires.
The Israeli air force “struck Hezbollah military structures” in the areas of Ramyeh and Houla,” it said, referring to two villages in south Lebanon.
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, speaking at an event in Beirut commemorating Nasser, indicated his group would widen its targeting.
“The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit,” Safieddine said.
DIPLOMATIC PUSH
The United States has been leading diplomatic efforts to deescalate the fighting. Hezbollah has said it will not cease fire as long as Israel continues its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The hostilities have inflicted a heavy toll on both sides of the frontier, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
Amos Hochstein, a senior US official at the heart of the diplomacy, discussed French and American efforts to restore calm in meetings with French officials on Wednesday, a White House official said.
“France and the United States share the goal of resolving the current conflict across the Blue Line by diplomatic means, allowing Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return home with long-term assurances of safety and security,” the official said, referring to the demarcation line between the two neighbors.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday Israeli forces were hitting Hezbollah “very hard every day” and will be ready to take any action necessary against the group, though the preference is to reach a negotiated arrangement.
Hezbollah also launched rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for Nasser’s killing.
Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets along the border with Lebanon after its Palestinian ally Hams launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, declaring its support for the Palestinians.
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters and some 90 civilians, according to Reuters tallies. Israel says fire from Lebanon has killed 18 soldiers and 10 civilians.
