Al Mayadeen – December 21, 2024
Israel fails to intercept Yemeni missiles
The Yemeni Armed Forces announced the successful launch of a hypersonic ballistic missile, Palestine 2, targeting an Israeli military site in occupied Yaffa in support of the Palestinian cause, in response to ongoing massacres in Gaza, and in support of the Resistance
.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, confirmed Saturday that the operation achieved its objectives and reiterated Yemen's commitment to continued military action.
The Yemeni Armed Forces confirmed that the operation is part of the fifth phase of the "Promised Victory and Holy Jihad" battle and declared that the missile struck its target with precision, while the IOF failed to intercept it.
In a statement, they emphasized that through this significant operation, they salute the "sons of the great Yemeni people" who have gathered in the squares and fields, reaffirming their determination to confront and challenge the "criminal Israeli enemy". They also extended their support to the fighters in Gaza, praising their ongoing heroic Resistance against the Israeli occupation.
"The armed forces are determined to strike all enemy targets in the occupied territories," they added, emphasizing that such operations would persist until the aggression against Gaza ends and the siege is lifted.
Yemen strikes Tel Aviv: IOF fails to intercept, several injured
Earlier, the Israeli occupation forces confirmed in a statement that it failed to intercept a missile launched from Yemen, which struck Tel Aviv, causing significant damage. According to Israeli media, a fire broke out at the site of the missile's impact, and several injuries were reported from the location of the strike.
Israeli media also reported, citing medical sources, that at least 11 Israeli settlers had been injured as a result of the Yemeni missile strike.
Despite sirens sounding across areas from Tel Aviv to northern Ashdod, both the Iron Dome and David's Sling air defense systems were reportedly unable to intercept the missile.
Israeli occupation police confirmed the missileﾒs impact in Tel Aviv and noted the damage caused. They also emphasized that an investigation will be launched to determine the cause of the interception failure.
Despite threats and bombings, Yemen reaffirms solidarity with Palestine
Yemenis filled streets across the country in massive demonstrations to reaffirm their support for Palestinians and the operations of the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) on Friday.
Million-man marches were organized in Sanaa and other provinces, where Yemenis expressed their readiness to confront any possible aggression on their country by the United States or "Israel".
These mass protests come a day after Israeli warplanes raided energy facilities and other civilian infrastructure in the port city of Hodeidah and the capital Sanaa.
World Socialist Web Site – December 21, 2024
Israel targets Gaza refugee camps and kills more than 100 in 2 days
By Kevin Reed
The murderous Israeli onslaught on Gaza continued Friday, as dozens of Palestinians were killed by airstrikes that targeted homes in refugee camps over a 24-hour period.
The Washington Post reported that Palestinian health officials said 77 people were killed in missile strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza and the Jabalya refugee camp in the north. Other media have reported more than 100 were killed in two days.
Staff at the two hospitals near Nuseirat where bodies were brought reported eight people killed. At the Jabalya camp, Gaza civil defense force spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said 10 people were killed, including seven children, and 15 others were injured.
The Post reported, “In a civil defense force video sent out after the Jabalya strike, Bassal holds up the lifeless body of a small child. ‘Why do they kill? Why are these children killed?’ he asks, his voice full of grief and anger. ‘Imagine this little girl is your daughter, imagine she is your child.’”
The Associated Press said an Israeli missile struck the Jaffa residential tower in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Speaking from Nuseirat, United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) emergency officer Louise Wateridge said aid was needed in Gaza to support people who have been uprooted multiple times by Israeli attacks and have little to protect themselves from the cold and rain.
Wateridge said, “The world is not seeing what’s going on with these people—it’s impossible for families to shelter in these conditions,” as more heavy rain was expected to hit Gaza on Friday evening.
“Most people are living under fabric. They don’t even have waterproof structures, and 69 percent of the buildings here have been damaged or destroyed. There’s absolutely nowhere for people to shelter from these elements.” She said that the horrific conditions across Gaza show, “An entire society here is now a graveyard.
“Over 2 million people are trapped. They cannot escape. And people continue to have basic needs deprived, and it just feels like every path here that you could possibly take is leading to death,” Wateridge said.
Late Friday, Palestinian media reported an Israeli aircraft had launched a raid on Sabra, southwest of Gaza City, and there are also reports of Israeli artillery shelling that targeted Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Health Ministry has confirmed at least 45,206 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the genocide began in October 2023. The ministry also reported 107,512 injured. The death and injury toll are likely many multiples higher than these numbers due to the numbers of dead and injured not being accounted for or adequately counted.
In July, a report published in the medical journal The Lancet estimated that the actual number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza genocide could be as high as 186,000 or more. This figure has no doubt grown significantly higher in the last five months.
Al Jazeera also reported that an Israeli drone was launched against Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The Palestinian Information Center also reported that Israeli artillery targeted the hospital’s gate.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is in the town of Beit Lahiya, has been the target of repeated brutal attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) going back to December 2023, including the arrest and disappearance of medical staff, the bulldozing of tents of displaced Palestinians outside the facility, the arrest and torture of the hospital director and, most recently, tank artillery and air strikes.
On Friday, a report published by Haaretz quoted Israeli soldiers describing the blatant murder of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Unnamed soldiers, including career officers and reservists, told the Israeli daily that commanders were given unprecedented authority to operate in Gaza.
According to Al Jazeera, the soldiers said commanders had “ordered or allowed the killing of unarmed women, children and men in the Netzarim Corridor, a seven-kilometer-wide (4.3-mile-wide) strip of land that cuts across Gaza from Israel to the Mediterranean, and which has been turned into a military zone.”
The Haaretz report quoted an officer who recounted an incident, where a commander had announced that 200 fighters were killed, when actually “only 10 were confirmed as known Hamas operatives.” The soldiers told Haaretz they received questionable orders to open fire on “anyone who enters” Netzarim.
The report also quoted a soldier, who said his battalion commander told them, “Anyone crossing the line is a terrorist—no exceptions, no civilians. Everyone’s a terrorist.”
The Haaretz report confirms allegations made against Israel since last October that the Zionist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu is engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing and extermination of Palestinians in Gaza.
The IDF justified its war crimes by claiming that the barbaric measures in the Netzarim Corridor “are carried out in accordance with structured combat procedures, plans and operational orders approved by the highest ranks in the (army).”
On Friday, Communication Specialist Rosalia Bollen of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) gave a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva in which she said:
Children in Gaza are cold, sick and traumatized. Hunger and malnutrition, and the dire living conditions more broadly, continue to put the lives of children at risk. Right now, over 96 percent of women and children in Gaza cannot meet their basic nutritional needs. Most are surviving on rationed flour, lentils, pasta and canned food—a diet that slowly compromises their health.
As winter sets in, Bollen said the conditions of Gaza’s children has “drastically diminished.”
In the West Bank, fascist Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque and vandalized property in the north on Friday, according to the head of the Palestinian village council.
Associated Press reported, “Nasfat al-Khafash, the head of the council in Marda where the attack occurred, said a group of settlers arrived early in the morning, setting the mosque on fire and scrawling hateful messages on it.”
Associated Press video showed spray-painted stars of David and the words in Hebrew, “the mosque will burn, the temple will be built,” an apparent reference to the ultranationalist desire to establish a Third Temple for Jews in Jerusalem at the holiest and most contested site in the Holy Land.
“These slogans reflect their upbringing and hatred towards Palestinians and Arabs,” said al-Khafash, adding that the settlers received “full support” from the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — the furthest-right government in Israel’s history.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/12/21/swbm-d21.html
Al Mayadeen – December 21, 2024
Day 442 of Israeli genocide in Gaza: 45,227 killed, 107,573 injured
The Israeli occupation commits three massacres across the Gaza Strip in 24 hours, killing 21 Palestinians and injuring 61 others.
he Israeli occupation forces have killed 45,227 Palestinians, while another 107,573 have been injured since October 7, 2023, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on the 442nd day of the ongoing Israeli genocide.
The Israeli occupation committed three massacres across the Gaza Strip in the previous 24 hours, killing 21 Palestinians and injuring 61 others.
While some victims were transported to the few partially functioning hospitals, many remain trapped under the rubble or in areas inaccessible to ambulance and Civil Defense teams.
On Friday, the Israeli occupation military committed new massacres, killing additional Palestinian civilians, including children.
The Gaza Civil Defense confirmed that 10 people, including seven children, were killed when the occupation forces targeted a house belonging to the Khella family in Jabalia al-Nazla, northern Gaza.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent affirmed that a large number of victims remain trapped under the rubble.
Our correspondent also said the occupation forces committed another massacre, targeting an apartment in the Yafa Tower in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing seven people and injuring 15 others.
Additionally, the al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza reported receiving four injuries caused by the occupation's intense bombardment of nearby homes.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/day-442-of-israeli-genocide-in-gaza--45-227-killed--107-573
Al Mayadeen – December 21, 2024
US scraps $10mln on Sharaa's head amid promises to protect US assets
The US will continue to monitor the actions of the new Syrian regime, especially relating to the implementation of principles outlined by Washington.
The reward for the arrest of the leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has been scrapped by the United States, following talks between a senior official and al-Sharaa, on Friday.
Barbara Leaf, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, met al-Sharaa on Friday and spoke to the press following the talks, which she described as "good" and "very productive".
"Based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing the Rewards for Justice reward offer that has been in effect for some years," Leaf said.
The US had offered a $10 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest of al-Sharaa. Also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, al-Sharaa headed the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which remains an internationally terror-listed organization.
Although al-Sharaa and HTS affiliates remain on Washington's terrorist blacklist, Leaf said that "it's a little incoherent, then, to have a bounty on the guy's head."
However, on the issue of sanctions, Leaf declined to discuss relevant deliberation. The United States will not discuss its deliberations with regard to lifting sanctions on Syria after a change of power in the Arab country, the Assistant Secretary of State said on Friday, as reported by Sputnik.
"I would just say that as a matter of course, we do not discuss deliberation over sanctions," Leaf told reporters.
She declined to clarify the details of her discussions but said her conversation with HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa was "positive".
Outlining US demands for new Syrian regime
Leaf's trip to Damascus marked the first formal visit by US diplomats to the country since the war on Syria ensued.
"We welcomed positive messages," Leaf said, pointing to promises made by the Syrian leader on fighting terrorism in the region, whom she said "came across as pragmatic."
"We will be looking for progress on these principles and actions, not just words," the senior US official added.
"I also communicated the importance of inclusion and broad consultation during this time of transition," she said.
"We fully support a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process that results in an inclusive and representative government which respects the rights of all Syrians, including women, and Syria's diverse ethnic and religious communities," Leaf explained.
A new Syrian state should also ensure that "terrorist groups" cannot pose a threat, she said.
"Ahmed al-Sharaa committed to this," Leaf said. "So, based on our discussion, I told him we would not be pursuing rewards for justice," she said, referring to a $10 million bounty that the US had put on the HTS leader's head.
In a related context, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs told reporters after visiting Damascus that Washington was working with Ankara and the SDF to find "a managed transition in terms of SDF's role in that part of the country."
"The conditions which led Kurds in northeast Syria to organise themselves and to defend themselves as they did, were one set of conditions and things have really changed in a very dramatic fashion," she said.
It is worth noting that US officials had scheduled a press conference following the meeting with al-Sharaa, however, the conference was canceled. Leaf denied reports that the conference was canceled due to security concerns, saying she was delayed by street celebrations.
Scrapping reward for protection of US troops
Axios reporter Barak Ravid reported that Leaf said that the reward was scrapped after al-Sharaa pledged that "terrorist organizations" would not be allowed to operate in Syrian territory and threaten US interests or "neighboring countries".
Moreover, Leaf said her assessment of the current situation in Syria led her to conclude that "Iran will have no role whatsoever" in Syria.
She also said she is working with Turkish authorities and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to reach a ceasefire in Kobane, in northern Syria.
US, Israel after partitioning Muslim states to advance Tel Aviv’s regional domination
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns about a long-term underway plot by the United States and the Israeli regime aimed at disintegration of regional Muslim countries as a means of enabling Tel Aviv to dominate the entire region.
The top diplomat made the remarks on Friday during an interview with the al-Ghad network in the Egyptian capital Cairo, where he earlier attended the 21st Session of the Council of Ministers of D-8 (Developing-8) Organization for Economic Cooperation.
He cited the regime’s US-enabled war of genocide and escalated deadly aggression against the Gaza Strip and Lebanon as well as its ongoing intensified attacks against Syria’s defensive and economic infrastructures as the proof of the Islamic Republic’s repeated warnings about the threat posed by the regime to the whole region.
The official also noted that “Israel has repeatedly tried to drag the entire region into a wide-ranging war,” adding that the Islamic Republic had, however, acted “very intelligently” in the face of the regime’s warlike provocations.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Araghchi pointed to Iran’s years-long support for Syria during the tenure of the Arab country’s former government, describing the support as a means of backing up not any certain individual, but the entire Arab nation, its national sovereignty, and territorial integrity in the face of the Israeli regime and the scourge of terrorism.
As part of the support, the Islamic Republic would provide Damascus with some pieces of advice concerning the manner of the latter’s interaction with the Syrian people and political opposition, he noted.
“The Syrian government, however, would act on its own initiative, and was not being controlled by Iran and Russia.”
Araghchi cited the case of the Islamic Republic’s advisory support, led by the country’s former top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani, for the Syrian military in the face of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and other terror outfits.
The official, meanwhile, cautioned about potential return of the threat of terrorism to Syria due to the unraveled state of the Arab country’s affairs, saying the threat was posed to all regional countries.
He also dismissed allegations of exertion of any control on the part of the Islamic Republic on resistance groups across the region, noting that the country and the movements were common in their objective of fighting the Israeli regime and supporting the people of Palestine, but each of the movements acted independently.
Araghchi hailed the groups for their delivering “heavy blows” to the regime, despite its assassination of some of their leaders, saying it was those blows that forced the regime into accepting a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.
The official described the resistance as a “lofty cause and sacred ideology in the face of the Zionist regime’s occupation and atrocities,” saying the martyrdom of resistance leaders would not weaken the movements, which restore their capabilities more strongly that before every time.
He also discussed the potential of creation of an Arab-Islamic coalition in the region, besides commending Iran and Egypt’s civilizational and historical stance, and their important and effective regional position.
Araghchi considered reinforcement of cooperation and coordination between the countries to be line with the interests of all regional countries and the whole Muslim world, noting that Tehran had always backed Cairo’s efforts in support of the Palestinian people and cessation of the Israeli regime’s atrocities against them.
Al Mayadeen – December 20, 2024
Yemenis organize massive marches, reaffirm support for Palestine
Yet again, Yemenis take to the streets to redeclare their support for Palestine and the operations of the Yemeni Armed Forces.
Yemenis filled streets across the country in massive demonstrations to reaffirm their support for Palestinians and the operations of the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) on Friday.
Million-man marches were organized in Sanaa and other provinces, where Yemenis expressed their readiness to confront any possible aggression on their country by the United States or Israel
.
These mass protests come a day after Israeli warplanes raided energy facilities and other civilian infrastructure in the port city of Hodeidah and the capital Sanaa.
Yemenis also marked the anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas and its military wing the al-Qassam Brigades. They also hailed the continued operations of Palestinian Resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip targeting invading Israeli occupation forces.
A statement issued by organizers called on Muslim and Arab countries to join in supporting the Palestinian people and to allocate resources for that end.
Saree announces joint operation with Iraqi Resistance
At the main demonstration in Sanaa, the spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF), Brigadier General Yahya Saree, addressed demonstrators, where he revealed the details of two operations conducted by the forces.
The YAF, in coordination with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, carried out a top-tier military operation targeting vital Israeli sites in southern occupied Palestine using several drones, Saree said.
Separately, the YAF's Unmanned Air Force executed a top-tier military operation targeting an Israeli military site in occupied Yafa (Tel Aviv) also with a drone, he added.
The spokesperson confirmed that the two attacks successfully achieved their targets, reiterating that the operations were "in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people and its Resistance fighters and in response to the massacres committed against our brothers in Gaza."
The YAF stressed that any escalation by "Israel" and the United States against Yemen "will be met with a proportional response," Saree said, warning that the YAF "will not hesitate to target the vital facilities of the Israeli enemy, as well as the American military movements that threaten Yemen."
He asserted that the ongoing crimes against Gaza would only lead to further strikes by the YAF and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq against "Israel".
Elsewhere, Saree reiterated that these operations will not cease until the Israeli aggression on Gaza stops and the siege imposed on the Strip is lifted.
Palestine Information Center – December 20, 2024
35,000 Palestinians attend Friday prayer at the Aqsa Mosque
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)
Tens of thousands of Palestinian worshipers performed Friday prayer at the Aqsa Mosque in Occupied Jerusalem, despite Israeli restrictions.
The Islamic Endowment Authority affirmed that around 35,000 Muslims performed the Friday prayer at the holy shrine.
A heavy contingent of Israeli police was deployed at the entrances, surroundings, and alleys of the city, as well as at the external gates of the Mosque.
Earlier Friday, thousands of Jerusalemites performed the Fajr prayer at the Aqsa Mosque despite the Israeli security restrictions at its gates.
Meanwhile, member of the Political Bureau of the Hamas Movement and head of the Jerusalem Affairs Office, Haroun Nasser al-Din, called for mass mobilization in the Aqsa Mosque in the coming days.
Nasser al-Din stressed that the Israeli escalation against the Islamic holy sites, and attempts to Judaize Jerusalem, represent a direct aggression against the entire nation, which requires escalating the resistance and breaking the Israeli restrictions.
Nasser al-Din said that the ongoing attacks on Aqsa Mosque, including settler raids and preventing worshipers from performing their prayers, require immediate action to protect Aqsa.
