JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Sunday he had spoken three times with US president-elect Donald Trump over the past few days about the “Iranian threat” to Israeli security.
“In the last few days, I have spoken three times with President-elect Donald Trump... Talks designed to further tighten the strong alliance between Israel and the US,” Netanyahu said, quoted in a statement issued by his office.
“We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in every aspect,” he added during a weekly cabinet meeting, according to the statement.
Netanyahu also said he had talked to Trump about “great opportunities before Israel in the field of peace and its expansion.”
The United States is Israel’s top ally and military backer, and the election came at a critical time for the Middle East amid wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Analysts believe Netanyahu had hoped for a Trump return to the White House, given the longstanding personal friendship between the two as well as the former president’s hawkishness on Israel’s arch-foe Iran.
During his first term, Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights and helped normalize ties between Israel and several Arab states under the so-called Abraham Accords.
Netanyahu says spoke again with Trump about Iran ‘threat’
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Netanyahu says spoke again with Trump about Iran ‘threat’
- “We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in every aspect,” Netanyahu said
- Analysts believe Netanyahu had hoped for a Trump return to the White House
Iran president visits Sistan-Baluchistan after deadly attack
Sistan-Baluchistan, located some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from the capital Tehran, shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan and has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups and drug traffickers.
On October 26, ten police officers were killed in what the authorities described as a “terrorist” attack.
Pezeshkian arrived at the airport in the regional capital Zahedan for a one-day visit during which he was set to meet the families of the dead police officers, state television reported.
Since the October 26 attack, Iranian forces have launched a vast counterterrorism operation in Sistan-Baluchistan that is ongoing, during which at least 26 militants have been killed and around fifty people arrested, according to the authorities.
The Sunni jihadist group Jaish Al-Adl — Army of Justice in Arabic — based in Pakistan and active in southeastern Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on Telegram.
The Iranian president is also scheduled to visit the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone, a major project aimed at developing southern Iran.
Chabahar Port, which bypasses the heavy traffic of the Strait of Hormuz, is aimed at attracting businesses from nearby Pakistan, India, the Gulf and China among others.
Chabahar, located on the edge of the Indian Ocean, was exempted by Washington from the economic sanctions it unilaterally reimposed after withdrawing from a landmark nuclear agreement.
Sistan-Baluchistan, one of the most impoverished provinces in the country, is home to a large number of the Baluch minority, an ethnic group spread between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan which practices Sunni Islam in contrast to the country’s predominantly Shiite population.
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant
- The decision turns Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects and is likely to further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to end the 13-month conflict
THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas officials, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza and the October 2023 attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory.
The decision turns Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects and is likely to further isolate them and complicate efforts to negotiate a ceasefire to end the 13-month conflict. But its practical implications could be limited since Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court and several of the Hamas officials have been subsequently killed in the conflict.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have condemned ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for warrants as disgraceful and antisemitic. US President Joe Biden also blasted the prosecutor and expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. Hamas also slammed the request.
“The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity,” the three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision to issue warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in September that it had submitted two legal briefs challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction and arguing that the court did not provide Israel the opportunity to investigate the allegations itself before requesting the warrants.
“No other democracy with an independent and respected legal system like that which exists in Israel has been treated in this prejudicial manner by the Prosecutor,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein wrote on X. He said Israel remained “steadfast in its commitment to the rule of law and justice” and would continue to protect its citizens against militancy.
The ICC is a court of last resort that only prosecutes cases when domestic law enforcement authorities cannot or will not investigate. Israel is not a member state of the court. The country has struggled to investigate itself in the past, rights groups say.
Despite the warrants, none of the suspects is likely to face judges in The Hague any time soon. The court itself has no police to enforce warrants, instead relying on cooperation from its member states.
Israel rescuers say man killed after rocket fire from Lebanon
JERUSALEM: Israeli first responders said a man was killed on Thursday after rocket fire from Lebanon hit the northern Galilee region.
“Emergency medical technicians and paramedics have reported a 30-year-old male with no signs of life and have declared him deceased,” the Magen David Adom emergency medical service said.
US envoy to meet Israel’s Netanyahu on Thursday: spokesman
- Israeli media outlets reported that Amos Hochstein had arrived in Israel on Wednesday evening
JERUSALEM: US envoy Amos Hochstein, seeking to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war, will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the premier’s office said.
The announcement by spokesman Omer Dostri came after Israeli media outlets reported that Hochstein had arrived in Israel on Wednesday evening and held talks with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
The meeting between Hochstein and Netanyahu was scheduled to take place at 12:30 p.m. (1030 GMT), according to a statement from the Israeli leader’s Likud party.
In Beirut on Wednesday, the US envoy met twice with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group.
Wednesday’s meeting “made additional progress, so I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can,” Hochstein told reporters in the Lebanese capital.
Hochstein had said on Tuesday that an end to the war was “within our grasp.”
Ahead of his arrival, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said: “In any agreement we will reach, we will need to keep the freedom to act if there will be violations.”
Dozens feared dead in Gaza after Israeli strikes
- The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from the resulting war has reached 43,985 people, the majority civilians
Dozens of people were killed or unaccounted for after Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, a hospital director and the civil defense agency said Thursday.
One strike on a residential area near the Kamal Adwan hospital in the territory left “dozens of people” dead or missing, the facility’s director Hossam Abu Safiya told AFP.
The process of retrieving the bodies and wounded continues, he said, adding: “Bodies arrive at the hospital in pieces.”
Another strike was reported in a neighborhood of Gaza City.
“We can confirm that 22 martyrs were transferred (to hospital) after a strike targeted a house” in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.
Since Hamas conducted its October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza, which the militant group rules.
It vows to crush Hamas and to bring home the hostages seized by the group during the attack.
Israel is also fighting Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both groups are backed by Israel’s arch-foe Iran.
On Thursday, US envoy Amos Hochstein will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a truce in the war in Lebanon.
Hochstein’s meetings in Lebanon this week appeared to indicate some progress in efforts to end that war.
On the Gaza front, the United States vetoed on Wednesday a UN Security Council push for a ceasefire that Washington said would have emboldened Hamas.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll from the resulting war has reached 43,985 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
In October last year, Hezbollah began cross-border attacks on Israel in support of its ally Hamas.
In late September, Israel expanded the focus of its war from Gaza to Lebanon, vowing to fight Hezbollah until tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the cross-border fire are able to return home.
With Hochstein in Lebanon, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Wednesday said that any ceasefire deal must ensure Israel still has the “freedom to act” against Hezbollah.
In a defiant speech, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem threatened to strike Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv in retaliation for attacks on Lebanon’s capital.
“Israel cannot defeat us and cannot impose its conditions on us,” Qassem said in his televised address.
In Lebanon, Hochstein met with officials including parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah.
On Tuesday, Hochstein said the end of the war was “within our grasp,” and on Wednesday, he said the talks had “made additional progress.”
Since expanding its operations from Gaza to Lebanon in September, Israel has conducted extensive bombing primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds.
More than 3,544 people in Lebanon have been killed since the clashes began, authorities have said, most since late September. Among them were more than 200 children, according to the United Nations.
Israel has also recently intensified strikes on neighboring Syria, the main conduit of weapons for Hezbollah from its backer Iran.
In the latest attack, a Syria war monitor said 71 pro-Iran fighters were killed in strikes on Palmyra in the east of the country.
Those killed in Wednesday’s strikes included 45 fighters from pro-Iran Syrian groups, 26 foreign fighters, most of them from Iraq, and four from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the monitor said.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.
On Thursday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah’s main bastion, following an evacuation call by the Israeli military.
Strikes also hit south Lebanon, including the border town of Khiam where Israeli troops are pushing to advance, according to the agency.
On Wednesday, Israel said three soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon — bringing the total fallen to 52 since the start of ground operations on September 30.
The Lebanese army said Israeli fire killed one of its soldiers in the area, after it announced the deaths of three other personnel in a strike.
While not engaged in the ongoing war, the Lebanese army has reported 18 losses since the start of the escalation on September 23.
The Israeli military later said, without mentioning the deaths, that it was looking into reports of Lebanese soldiers wounded by a strike on Tuesday.
“We emphasize that the (Israeli military) is operating precisely against the Hezbollah terrorist organization and is not operating against the Lebanon Armed Forces,” the military told AFP in a statement.
Hezbollah was the only armed group in Lebanon that did not surrender its weapons following the 1975-1990 civil war.
It has maintained a formidable arsenal and holds sway not only on the battlefield but also in Lebanese politics.
The United States, Israel’s top military and political backer, has been pushing for the UN Security Council resolution that ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war in 2006 to form the basis of a new truce.
Under Resolution 1701, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces deployed in south Lebanon.
