Al Mayadeen – December 23, 2024
Day 444 in Gaza: 45,317 killed, 107,713 injured by 'Israel'
The Israeli occupation continues brutally massacring Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and resumes its offensive on Kamal Adwan Hospital.
The Israeli occupation's genocidal onslaught in the Gaza Strip continues for the 444th day, resulting in massive losses across the entire territory, between killed, severely injured, and missing Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of whom are women and children.
Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli occupation forces committed five massacres, murdering 58 Palestinians and injuring 86 others, raising the death toll to 45,317 martyrs with 107,713 injured, according to the daily report issued by the Health Ministry in Gaza.
While several victims were transported to the partially functioning hospitals across the enclave, countless others remain trapped beneath the rubble, as rescue operations have neared impossible due to constant Israeli obstruction.
'Israel' massacres, injures 50 Palestinians in Nuseirat
In the al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the IOF committed a horrific massacre in its new camp, killing and injuring at least 50 Palestinian civilians, women, and children.
Around 17 Israeli military vehicles and tens of occupation soldiers, accompanied by quadcopters and reconnaissance aircraft, raided the new camp in al-Nuseirat, bombarding and destroying more than 20 residential buildings, the Gaza Media Office reported.
The Government Media Office condemned the "brutal aggression committed by the Israeli occupation army against the New Camp area in al-Nuseirat," asserting it as part of "the crime of genocide, systematic killing, destruction, and forced displacement against civilians." It called on "the entire world to denounce these compounded crimes committed by the occupation against our Palestinian people."
The office held the Israeli occupation, the US administration, and complicit countries, such as Britain, Germany, and France, fully responsible for the ongoing crimes, blatant violations, and the continuation of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
It urged the international community and global organizations to take urgent and effective action to stop the occupation's crimes and repeated violations, ensuring the protection of civilians, children, women, and public facilities.
Meanwhile, three Palestinians were killed and others were injured in airstrikes in easternmost Rafah and Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Since dawn, 16 Palestinians were martyred in the Israeli bombardment, 14 of whom were killed in southern and central Gaza.
Aggression on Kamal Adwan continues
On Sunday night, Israeli tanks fired at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, directly targeting the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the birth suite, and the specialized surgery department.
Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital director, stated that patients were evacuated from hospital corridors. However, ammunition detonated inside the hospital, causing panic and fear among patients.
He also revealed that the Israeli occupation intentionally targeted an electricity generator, setting it ablaze and putting it out of service. Attempts to bomb the fuel reservoir were also recorded but ultimately failed.
Attacks on the hospital resumed throughout the night, while nearby houses and buildings were pulverized. The aggression extended to Monday morning when Israeli drones dropped bombs on the hospital roof and courtyards, jeopardizing its oxygen and fuel supply lines. Abu Safiya stressed that the situation was extremely hazardous, necessitating international intervention "before time runs out."
"Currently, we have 91 patients in the hospital, including the elderly, women, and children, and we are still providing basic services. But we have continuously asked for the protection of the international community and the opening of humanitarian corridors for aid provisions, however, up till this moment, we have received very little aid. We will continue to rally the international community to fulfill its responsibilities," Abu Safiya said.
He confirmed that the hospital faces daily threats, with ongoing shelling from all directions, affecting the building, departments, and staff, stressing the extremely dangerous and terrifying situation, and urging the world to understand that the hospital is being targeted with the intent to kill and forcibly displace those inside.
Abu Safiya called on the international community to urgently intervene and "stop the violent attack to protect the healthcare system, workers, and patients."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCikwaaeQpA&ab_channel=DrShahbazGill
Qassam Brigades claims killing 3 Israeli troops in northern Gaza
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas resistance movement, says it has killed three Israeli soldiers during an operation in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Qassam Brigades announced in a brief statement published on its Telegram channel that its fighters “stabbed and killed” the Israeli troops on Monday as the latter were guarding a building in Beit Lahiya city.
The statement noted that the fighters then stormed the house in question, eliminated the soldiers inside from zero distance and seized their weapons.
The group added that the fighters also released the people held inside, without giving specific numbers.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Qassam Brigades says it shot downed Israeli quadcopter
In a separate statement, the Qassam Brigades said it attacked an Israeli Merkava tank and armored personnel carrier with Yassin-105 rockets in “the New Camp area” of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
It also said it shot down a quadcopter in the same area, without providing further details.
Israeli army committing ‘horrific, brutal crimes’ in Nuseirat
Meanwhile, the Government Media Office in Gaza stated that the Israeli military raided “the New Camp” in Nuseirat in central Gaza with more than 17 military vehicles, dozens of soldiers and jets.
It noted that the forces killed and wounded more than 50 civilians, including children and women, in the camp, while also leveling more than 20 housing units to the ground.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the barbaric aggression committed by the [Israeli] occupation army against the New Camp area in Nuseirat,” it said, calling the military’s actions a “crime of genocide”.
It added, “We call on the international community to condemn these complex crimes committed by the occupation against our Palestinian people.”
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the Israeli regime in response to the occupying entity’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured at least 107,700 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.
The Israeli military has systematically blocked the entry of lifesaving food, medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and tents into the besieged Palestinian territory since October 2023.
The territory's critical infrastructure such as water networks, sanitation facilities and bread mills has all been razed to the ground.
Palestine Information Center – December 23, 2024
Oxfam: 12 trucks delivered aid in northern Gaza during the last 2.5 months
GAZA, (PIC) Only 12 UN trucks have distributed food and water in northern Gaza since October (2024), Oxfam reported Sunday, accusing Israel of systematic delays and obstruction of aid amid the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The aid group highlighted an incident where shelters were shelled soon after delivering aid to them.
“Of the meager 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just 12 managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians,” Oxfam said in a press release.
“For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours.”
Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid for the North Gaza governorate have escalated since October (2024) when Israel started imposing a tight siege on the area.
North Gaza has been under an all-out siege since October 6, 2024 and people there have been ordered to evacuate. Despite evacuation orders, the Palestinians trying to go south have been targeted by Israeli snipers and drones.
“The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a set of standard tools that provides common global scales for classifying the severity and magnitude of food insecurity, has warned that there is a strong likelihood that famine is already occurring in the north and the risk of famine persists across the whole of Gaza,” Oxfam pointed out.
“The situation in Gaza is apocalyptic and people are trapped, unable to find any kind of safety. The absolute desperation of having no food or shelter for your family in the biting cold of winter,” Sally Abi-Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Director, said.
“It is abhorrent that despite international law being so publicly violated by Israel and starvation being used relentlessly as a weapon of war, world leaders continue to do nothing,” Abi-Khalil added.
Oxfam has called for “an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire” and “an unhindered access for all lifesaving aid to the Gaza Strip, including the North Gaza Governorate.”
“Palestinians must be given the freedom to move home, rebuild, and live in peace and dignity, free of occupation or blockade,” it added.
Abi-Khalil warned that “every day that passes without a ceasefire is a death sentence for hundreds more civilians.”
https://english.palinfo.com/news/2024/12/23/330961/
Occupation of Syria’s highest peak Mount Hermon part of ‘Greater Israel’ project
By Alireza Akbari
After days of aggression and land theft, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described his December 17 visit to Mount Hermon in Syria as an “assessment” of the Israeli military’s activities on the Arab country's highest mountain range.
Flanked by Israeli occupation soldiers and senior military officials, Netanyahu, wearing a bulletproof jacket, visited Mount Hermon on Tuesday and issued a video message from the summit.
He justified his presence as part of an “assessment to decide the development" of Israeli forces, while hiding the fact that it was part of the regime's "Greater Israel" project.
Netanyahu's remarks came just nine days after another video message in which he described the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria as a “great opportunity.”
In the same message, he defended Israeli airstrikes and the incursion of tanks and armored bulldozers into Syrian territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights, calling them a “temporary defensive position.”
“I'm here on the summit of Mount Hermon," Netanyahu stated during his visit to the strategic mountain. "We will determine the best arrangement that will ensure our security,”
“This is nostalgic for me. I was here 53 years ago with my soldiers in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit,” he added, reflecting on his past presence in Jabal al-Shaykh.
The Mount Hermon cluster, forming the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon at its summit and overlooks three countries - Syria, Lebanon and Palestine - making it strategically important.
Netanyahu’s visit came on the heels of his approval of a controversial plan to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights. The move, aimed at doubling the number of illegal settlements in the area, was framed by Tel Aviv as a measure to bolster its so-called "defensive posture."
The Israeli-occupied Golan Heights is home to approximately 20,000 Druze population, a small ethno-religious community.
The movements of Israeli forces around the Mount Hermon area in the days leading up to Netanyahu’s visit have raised alarm among analysts and observers with many suggesting that the regime aims to position Mount Hermon as a strategic asset in the post-Assad era.
Reports preceding Netanyahu’s visit said the Israeli regime has been planning to dig a “trench” in the area, ostensibly to sever supply lines to Lebanon. Observers noted the deployment of Israeli engineering equipment on the slopes of Mount Hermon, signaling intensified activity in the region.
Israeli forces also entered the village triangle of Qusayr, Kouia, and Maaria near the Syrian-Jordanian border. Their incursion into Daraa province sparked concerns, as it positioned Israeli forces closer to crossing the Yarmouk River via the Unity Dam, a vital waterway shared between Syria and Jordan.
Israeli forces have also reportedly been conducting intensive searches and systematic destruction in parts of the occupied territories in Syria, aiming to force residents to flee.
Coupled with Netanyahu’s remarks and the incursions by Israeli forces into Syrian territory in the days leading up to his Mount Hermon visit, observers say the Israeli regime is exploiting Syria’s power vacuum to pursue further expansionist ambitions.
They suggest this strategy is aimed at consolidating control over Mount Hermon, a site of critical geographic and strategic significance.
Mount Hermon, a snowcapped ridge on the Lebanon-Syria border west of Damascus, rises to 9,232 feet (2,814 meters), making it the highest point on the eastern Mediterranean coast.
Often regarded as the southernmost extension of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, its slopes give rise to vital waterways. The summit lies in a buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces for over 50 years.
Known historically by names such as Sirion and Senir, Mount Hermon has been a sacred landmark since the Bronze Age, marking the northwestern boundary of Israelite conquest under Moses and Joshua. Its slopes are home to temples with Greek inscriptions dating back to approximately 200 CE.
Revered for its beauty, the mountain has earned titles like the “snowy mountain,” the “gray-haired mountain,” and the “mountain of snow.”
However, Israelis refer to it as “the eyes of the nation,” underscoring its elevation role as the centerpiece of Israel’s primary Strategic Early Warning System (SEWS).
Since the Arab-Israeli War of June 1967, approximately 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) of Mount Hermon’s southern and western slopes have been under Israeli occupation.
However, following the collapse of the Assad government, Israeli forces have advanced beyond the mountain’s summit, reaching as far as Beqaasem, a village located just 25 kilometers from Damascus, according to the Syrian activist group, Voice of the Capital.
Israel also occupies the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in southwestern Syria adjacent to Mount Hermon. Seized during the 1967 war, the area has remained under Israeli control despite international condemnation and demands for its return to Syria.
According to analysts, Mount Hermon’s summit represents a critical asset under Israeli control. At 9,232 feet (2,814 meters), it is the highest point in both Syria and the occupied Palestinian territories, surpassed in elevation only by one peak in Lebanon. This geographic dominance has significant strategic value, offering a commanding view of the surrounding region.
The summit is also home to the United Nations buffer zone, which separates Syrian and Israeli-occupied territories. The UN maintains the world’s highest permanently manned position at this location, known as "Hermon Hotel," situated at the peak's 2,814-meter altitude (9,232 feet).
The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend into the Israeli-occupied portion of the occupied Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located.
Located about 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) southwest of Mount Hermon, Mitzpe Hashlagim is the highest peak in both Palestine and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, rising to 2,236 meters (7,336 feet).
Mount Hermon itself is a cluster of mountains with three distinct summits, each roughly the same height. The majority of the mountain within the Israeli-occupied area is designated as the Hermon Nature Reserve, underscoring its environmental and strategic significance.
“This is the highest place in the region, looking upon Lebanon, Syria, and Israel,” said Efraim Inbar, director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS). “It’s strategically extremely important. There is no substitute for mountains.”
Inbar elaborated on the mountain's critical role, noting that it allows for extensive electronic surveillance deep into Syrian territory, offering Israel crucial early-warning capabilities in the event of an attack.
“Advanced technological alternatives like airborne surveillance simply cannot compare," he was quoted as saying, “Unlike a mountain-based installation, they cannot support heavy equipment like large antennas and can be shot down by anti-air missiles.”
On December 13, Israeli military affairs minister Israel Katz ordered Israeli troops to prepare for a winter stay on the 2,800-meter-high, snow-capped Mount Hermon.
Katz’s directive was interpreted as a sign that Israel's presence in Syria is set to continue for a prolonged period, with the Tel Aviv regime viewing the summit as a strategic asset for observation.
A day later, Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi echoed Katz, stating that Israel was closely monitoring movements from the mountain “to ensure that local elements aren’t moving in our direction.”
He also warned of a “very strong offensive and defensive response” if the situation escalated.
Mount Hermon,known for its military significance and geopolitical sensitivity, has been the subject of multiple UN resolutions, particularly regarding its occupation by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War.
Resolution 242, adopted in the aftermath of the 1967 war, remains a cornerstone of international discourse on occupied territories, including Mount Hermon.
It calls for the withdrawal of the Israeli regime's armed forces from territories seized during the war and affirms the inadmissibility of acquiring land by force.
While Mount Hermon is not specifically mentioned, the resolution applies to all territories Israel occupied in 1967, including the occupied Golan Heights, of which the mountain is a key part.
In 1973, Resolution 338, adopted during the Yom Kippur War, reinforced the principles outlined in Resolution 242 and called for a ceasefire along with the initiation of peace negotiations.
In 1981, Israel unilaterally annexed the Golan Heights, including Mount Hermon, in defiance of international law. The annexation was condemned by the UN Security Council in Resolution 497, which declared the action "null and void."
The resolution reaffirmed that the occupied Golan Heights, including Mount Hermon, are considered Syrian territory under international law, demanding that Israel reverse its annexation decision.
This resolution underscores Mount Hermon's status as occupied land and highlights the illegality of any unilateral attempts to alter its status.
Despite the UN resolutions calling for Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights, the Israeli regime’s recent actions around Mount Hermon have come under heavy criticism from activists and observers on social media.
Many have labeled the movements as “a mortal threat” to Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Journalist S￩amus Malekafzali pointed to the presence of Israeli figures alongside Netanyahu at Mount Hermon, openly signaling Israel’s ongoing occupation of Syrian territory.
“Netanyahu, his defense minister, and the IDF Chief of Staff are on Mount Hermon in occupied Syrian territory. No worries, no concerns, and announcing they will stay in the territory they have now seized for the foreseeable future,” Malekafzali wrote on his X (formerly Twitter).
“Guys, forget about geopolitics for a moment while Netanyahu is taking credit from the occupied Golan,” wrote American journalist Max Blumenthal, criticizing how Netanyahu has openly taken credit for Israel's control over the occupied territories.
Investigative journalist and analyst Ben Norton also highlighted Netanyahu's claims about Israel's control over Mount Hermon, emphasizing the implications for regional tensions.
“Israel is colonizing Syrian land. Wanted war criminal Netanyahu boasts that his regime seized Mount Hermon, Syria's highest mountain,” he stated.
Norton detailed Israel's intentions regarding the mountain, saying the regime "plans to use it to host radar systems to spy on Syria and Lebanon."
Al Mayadeen – December 23, 2024
Israeli Army establishing posts on top of Mount Hermon: Exclusive
The Israeli occupation has been conducting combing operations across Mount Hermon's peak, seeking to establish a position overlooking rural Damascus.
The Israeli occupation forces are combing the entirety of Mount Hermon's peak, and are establishing a new post overlooking Damascus' southwestern countryside, local sources told Al Mayadeen on Monday. 
According to exclusive sources, the Israeli army seized military equipment in the area, as well as the wreckage of an Israeli helicopter downed during the 1973 war.
On Sunday, a local source told Al Mayadeen that Israeli tanks and armored patrols infiltrated the al-Hamidiyah axis in the countryside of Quneitra towards the provincial center in the town of al-Baath, southwest of Syria, coinciding with inspection campaigns carried out by Israeli forces, which targeted some homes and farms in the villages of the central countryside.
Israeli occupation forces also indiscriminately opened fire toward the al-Hamidiyah and al-Hurriya forests in the Quneitra countryside, local sources reported, amid movements the IOF suspected near the "disengagement line".
Israeli Army establish permanent posts along Syria 'disengagement line'
This comes in light of the IOF having established seven permanent positions throughout the buffer zone along the line, which stretches across the rural areas of Damascus, Daraa, and Quneitra.
The positions are as follows: Hermon 1, Hermon 2, and the Beit Jinn Gap on the slopes of Mount Sheikh in the southwestern rural area of Damascus; Qurs al-Nafal Hill, west of Hader in northern Quneitra; Kassarat Jubat al-Khashab in northern Quneitra; the 74th barracks in southern Quneitra; and the al-Jazeera barracks at the Syrian-Jordanian border in the Yarmouk Basin in western Daraa.
Points 1 and 2 in Mount Hermon provide a strategic vantage point, overlooking the capital Damascus, and its entire western suburbs.
To date, "Israel" has completely occupied nearly 500 square kilometers of southern Syria, demolishing all Syrian military sites on the slopes of Mount Hermon and the hills of Quneitra and Daraa.
Ansarullah says ‘Israeli terrorists’ incapable of confronting Yemen, warns of secret weapons
Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement has called the Israeli regime “powerless” in its efforts to face up to Yemen’s anti-Israeli strikes in the occupied Palestinian territories and elsewhere.
“Our operations seek to stop the genocide in Gaza. The Zionist regime is incapable of confronting us alone, and is, therefore, seeking help from those who support it,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the group’s Political Bureau said.
Yemen’s Armed Forces have been conducting numerous such strikes since October 7, 2023, when the Israeli regime began taking the Gaza Strip under a United States-backed genocidal war that has so far claimed the lives of more than 45,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The strikes have been targeting the American military assets that are deployed off Yemen’s coastline, strategic and sensitive targets across the occupied territories as well as the Israeli ships and the vessels heading towards the territories.
Bukhaiti’s remarks came after Yemen’s Defense Minister Mohammed Nasser al-Atifi warned Washington that the country was capable of sinking the US’s naval fleets, and was in possession of weapons that it had refused to deploy so far.
Yemen’s pro-Palestinian strikes have mounted enormous pressure on the Israeli regime by forcing the vessels trying to ship military hardware and other commodities to the occupied territories to take the longer route around Africa.
The operations have, among other things, effectively shut down the port of Eilat, which is located in the southernmost tip of the occupied territories.
Bukhaiti told Al Jazeera that the operations have mounted an economic siege against the Israeli regime and undermined its security.
He, meanwhile, pointed to the intense deadly attacks that the US, the UK, and the regime have been conducting against Yemen as a means of trying to stop its pro-Palestinian strikes.
“We are likely to receive painful blows, but the more the enemy mobilizes its forces against us, the more certain we become of achieving victory.”
Whenever Yemen comes under Western and Israeli aggression, “it emerges stronger and triumphant from the situation, and its internal unity increases,” the official noted.
“We are prepared to pay the price of standing by the side of Gaza, and are not afraid of the enemy’s targeted killing operations.”
‘The real terrorists’
Referring to the West’s designation of Ansarullah as a “terrorist organization,” Bukhaiti said, “The terrorists are actually those who perpetrate crimes in Gaza, and those who support them.”
“Our operations seek to stop the genocide in Gaza. The Zionist regime is incapable of confronting us alone, and is, therefore, seeking help from those who support it.”
Yemeni strikes 'confused' US air missile systems
The official, meanwhile, said Yemen’s attacks against American targets baffled the United States missile systems, thus resulting in the friendly fire that recently brought down an American warplane.
“Our attacks confused the US’s missile systems, and caused the country’s fighter plane to crash due to friendly fire,” he said.
The official described Yemen’s pro-Palestinian attacks against American and Israeli targets as “effective,” saying the strikes had succeeded in achieving their intended results since their onset last October.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/12/23/739571/Yemen-attacks-American-targets-confuses-United-States-air-downing-warplane-Israel-Gaza-war-genocide
Al Mayadeen – December 22, 2024
Yemeni Army shoots down F-18 jet; forces USS Harry Truman to withdraw
The Yemeni Armed Forces successfully thwarted an American-British attack on the country, shooting down an F-18, forcing the USS Harry Truman to withdraw, and warning of further action to defend Yemen and support Palestine.
The Yemeni Armed Forces have announced a significant victory in repelling an American-British attack against the country, which was reportedly orchestrated to support the oppression of the Palestinian people and in retaliation for the ongoing support front that the Yemeni people have launched after October 7.
According to a statement from the Yemeni military, an operation was carried out with eight cruise missiles and 17 drones. The operation led to several key outcomes;
First, the Yemeni forces successfully shot down an F-18 aircraft, while enemy destroyers attempted to confront the Yemeni drones and missiles launched against the aircraft carrier simultaneous to the US-UK aggression against the country.
Second, the statement noted, that most of the hostile aircraft retreated from Yemeni airspace to international waters in the Red Sea in an effort to defend the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman, which was being targeted.
Third, the attack launched by the coalition on Yemeni territory failed, and the Yemeni Armed Forces marked a crucial defeat for the aggressors.
Fourth, the USS Harry S. Truman, after being subjected to multiple attacks from the missile force, naval forces, and air force, withdrew from its previous location in the Red Sea towards the northern waters.
The Yemeni Armed Forces, while confirming their success in thwarting the American-British aggression, reaffirmed their readiness to confront any further American-British-Israeli provocations in the future.
The statement concluded with a strong warning directed at the Israeli and American forces; "The Yemeni Armed Forces warn the Israeli and American enemy against aggression on Yemen and that the Yemeni Armed Forces will use their full right to defend Yemen and continue to support the Palestinian people until the aggression against Gaza stops and the siege is lifted."
It is worth noting that earlier, the US Armed Forces had claimed that a US Navy F/A-18 fighter jet was shot down by friendly fire over the Red Sea.
US-UK aggression on Sanaa, Israeli media rush to deny IOF involvement
A violent explosion rocked the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Saturday evening, with reports of intensive fighter jet activity in the skies, according to Al Mayadeen's correspondent who confirmed that two airstrikes targeted Mount Attan, located south of the city.
Yemen's state news agency, SABA, reported that American-British warplanes carried out an aggression targeting Sanaa's Attan area.
In turn, Israeli media quickly denied any involvement, which comes amid escalating tensions between "Israel" and Yemen.
These tensions have been further fueled by "Israel's" increasing threats against Sanaa, particularly in light of its continued support for Palestine, its people, and its Resistance.
CENTCOM published a statement on X announcing the aggression against Yemen. In the statement, CENTCOM claimed to have targeted Ansar Allah's "missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility."
The statement also claimed that the attack aimed "to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden."
Additionally, it stated that "CENTCOM forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea," adding that the aggression "involved U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy assets, including F/A-18s."
Meanwhile, Sanaa's Information Minister Hashem Sharaf al-Din commented on the aggression saying that Washington has clearly "learned from [past] mistakes," adding that the US will continue to be "humiliated" by Yemenis.
On his part, Sanaa's Foreign Minister Jamal Ahmad Amer said that any state that assists Israeli aggression on Yemen would be considered a partner of the aggression.
Al Mayadeen – December 23, 2024
Iran major power, Israel' may back down from war: Israeli media
Israeli reporter Avi Ashkenazi highlights Iran's military and economic strength, raising concerns about "Israel's" ability to sustain a war of attrition, suggesting "Israel" would ultimately avoid conflict with Iran.
Israeli Maariv's North and Military Affairs correspondent, Avi Ashkenazi, acknowledged on Saturday that "Iran remains a major power, with hundreds of thousands of missiles, an economy many times larger than Israel's, and vast resources including minerals, natural gas, and oil."
Ashkenazi questioned whether "Israel is capable of engaging in a war of attrition with Iran," emphasizing that the issue is more complex.
He also mentioned that "at the Mossad, there was anger yesterday over leaks from political reporters who claimed that the Mossad chief had recommended launching a campaign against Iran. In Barnea's circle, they refused to confirm these reports, stating that the publications were not entirely accurate."
Ashkenazi stressed the importance of "not underestimating the Iranians, even when they are wounded," adding, "I assume Barnea was referring to an operational plan that could damage the Iranians. I believe that's what he meant."
Finally, he acknowledged that "ultimately, Israel will back down from going to war with Iran."
Mass destruction of defenses allows Israeli attacks on Iran via Syria
After dropping nearly 1,800 bombs over around 500 targets in Syria, the Israeli military command said earlier this month that it has destroyed the vast majority of Syrian air defenses.
The Israeli Air Force now assesses that it is capable of safely conducting operations over Syrian airspace after achieving air superiority in the area.
According to Israeli media outlets, the quick dismantlement of Syrian military capabilities now allows the occupation to use Syrian airspace for long-range strikes on Iran. Syrian air defense array was described as one of the strongest in the region. However, with the fall of the former regime's government, the Israeli occupation quickly violated Syrian sovereignty and launched a large aerial campaign on the country.
Seeing that forces that assumed power in the country could not operate these systems, Israeli warplanes made quick work of the defenses, destroying nearly 87% of Syrian air defense capabilities.
This includes Russian-made Pantsir and Buk air defense systems, which played a crucial role in engaging and thwarting Israeli strikes on the country in the past.
