News Digest — 10/17/24
Israeli Strike Said To Target Weapons Depot In Syria’s Latakia
Syrian State media said Thursday (17th) that an Israeli airstrike hit the coastal city of Latakia, targeting a weapons depot according to a war monitor.
Two people were injured and buildings were damaged, state media reported citing a military statement.
SANA claimed that Syrian anti-aircraft defense intercepted “hostile targets” in the skies above Latakia.
The news agency reported “fires were triggered by the Israeli strikes” at the entrance to Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad.
Video circulated on social media appeared to show large secondary explosions, suggesting the presence of weapons at the targeted site.
Since Hamas’ brutal October 7 massacre last year, which saw some 1,200 people killed in Israel and 251 kidnapped, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed terror targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.
The Syrian government is allied to the Hezbollah terror group, which began attacking Israel a day after Hamas’ devastating October 7 onslaught with what it said was a show of support for the war in Gaza.
The Israeli military, which has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, did not comment on the alleged Latakia strike.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the Israeli raid targeted a weapons depot in Latakia city.
Strikes have been rare on the port city, which is near the Russian air base in Hmeimim.
The Observatory on October 3 reported drones hit a weapons depot near Jableh, located in Latakia province next to Hmeimim. “Huge explosions were heard from far away,” the monitor said without detailing the source of the drones.
The Israeli military has intensified its raids on Syria parallel with its escalation in Lebanon, where for more than three weeks it has targeted Hezbollah bastions.
Israel has long accused Hezbollah of transferring weapons through Syria.
Last month, it was reported that Israeli special forces carried out a massive raid on an Iranian weapons facility in the Masyaf area in Syria, killing at least 14 people, wounding 43 and sparking fires.
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel, which rarely comments on individual strikes, is believed to have carried out hundreds of strikes, mainly targeting army positions and Iranian-backed fighters, including Hezbollah.
Northern Israel Including Haifa, Acre, Under Rocket Fire
Rocket fire targeted northern Israel early on Thursday (17th) with sirens activated in and around the cities of Haifa and Acre, in the Carmel Mountain Range and parts of the Jezreel Valley.
The IDF said two projectiles were fired into Israel from Lebanon. One was intercepted and another landed in an open area. No injuries or damages were reported.
Rocket fire targeted the north overnight with multiple sirens heard in the lower Galilee region around the city of Karmiel after one rocket made a direct hit on a home in the neighboring village of Majd al-Krum on Wednesday (16th), wounding at least four people.
Also, overnight, the military said it intercepted a hostile drone heading to the southern Arava Desert, over the Mediterranean Sea, before it entered Israeli airspace.
Israel Turns To Defense Industry For Help In Bolstering Capabilities Against Drones
The government has turned to the defense industry to bolster the military’s ability to intercept aerial drones launched by Iran or by its proxy terror groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The Defense Ministry said Tuesday (15th) that it had launched a competition among eight large and small companies.
“After analyzing the trial results, the Defense Ministry will select several technologies to enter an accelerated development and production process. This aims to deploy new operational capabilities within months,” it said.
In addition to missiles, rockets and an array of other arms, Iran, Hezbollah and others have used drones in attacks on Israel, a weapon that has proven tough to counter.
On Sunday (13th), a Hezbollah drone struck the Israel Defense Forces’ Golani Brigade training base near Binyamina, killing four soldiers and injuring dozens, after it eluded Israeli air defense radars.
The unmanned aerial vehicle, laden with explosives, evaded Israel’s multi-layered air-defense system and slammed into a mess hall at a military training camp deep inside Israel.
Over the past year of drone and rocket attacks from Iran-supported terrorist organizations in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, several drones have succeeded in hitting targets before they could be detected.
Last week, two soldiers were killed when a drone from Iraq hit a base in the Golan Heights, and another drone hit a retirement home with no injuries.
Drones were also used to kick off Hamas’ mass invasion and onslaught of October 7, 2023, successfully disabling electronic monitoring systems along the Gaza border.
“The UAV threat is a multi-arena threat originating from Iran, which supplies UAVs to Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, and even launches them itself,” said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“We must concentrate the national effort… to produce operational solutions quickly.”
Those participating in developing solutions include Israel’s top defense firms – Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries.
Defense Ministry Director-General spoke at the 2023 Herzliya Conference on May 22, 2023 saying, “Over the years, Israel has built up its aerial defense array to provide broad protection against short-range rocket fire and medium-and long-range missiles, although experts caution that it is not airtight. While the system has taken down drones repeatedly, many have penetrated Israel’s airspace and sidestepped its defenses, in some cases with deadly results.”
Drones are harder to detect than rockets or missiles because they fly slowly and often include plastic components, having a weaker thermal footprint with radar systems than powerful rockets and missiles. The trajectory is also harder to track. Drones can have roundabout flight paths, can come from any direction, fly lower to the ground and – because they are much smaller than rockets – can be mistaken for birds.
France Bans Israel From Defense Show, Gallant: ‘A Disgrace’
This week, France announced that Israeli delegations will be banned from exhibiting at the Euronaval defense show in November.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday (16th) blasted French President Emmanuel Macron after Israeli delegations were banned from exhibiting at the Euronaval defense show.
”French President Macron’s actions are a disgrace to the French nation and the values of the free world, which he claims to uphold. The decision to discriminate against Israeli defense industries in France a second time – aids Israel’s enemies during war. This builds on the decision to place an arms embargo on the Jewish state,” said Gallant.
“France has adopted, and is consistently implementing a hostile policy towards the Jewish people. We will continue defending our nation against enemies on seven different fronts, and fight for our future with or without France,” he added.
Gallant’s comments came hours after organizers of the major Euronaval defense show, which is set to take place in France in November, announced that Israeli delegations taking part in the show will not be permitted to set up any stand or exhibit hardware.
“The French government informed Euronaval of its decision to approve the participation of Israeli delegations at Euronaval 2024, without any stand or exhibition of equipment,” said the organizers of the show which is due to start November 4 in Paris, as quoted by the AFP news agency.
Euronaval, a biennial event that attracts naval defense exhibitors from around the world, said seven Israeli companies are affected by the decision.
The decision comes amid tense relations between France and Israel. Macron has grown increasingly critical of Israel’s counterterrorism operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Just last week, the French President said that “stopping the export of weapons” used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon was the only way to end fighting there.
“We all know it. It’s the unique lever that would end it,” Macron said at a summit of European and Mediterranean leaders in Cyprus.
Macron also claimed that Israel was “deliberately targeting” UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon and said this was “unacceptable.”
Those comments were the second time in a week that Macron has called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel. Netanyahu responded to Macron’s first call and said, “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side. Yet President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel.”
“Shame on them. Is Iran imposing an arms embargo on Hezbollah, on the Houthis, on Hamas and on its other proxies? Of course not. The axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this terror axis call for an arms embargo on Israel. What a disgrace!” he added.
He promised, “Israel will win with or without their support. But their shame will continue long after the war is won.”
On Tuesday (15th), Macron said that Netanyahu should not fail to forget that a UN resolution created Israel and, as such, “he should not liberate himself from the decisions of the UN.”
Later, Netanyahu spoke to Macron and told him that he opposes a unilateral ceasefire, while also clarifying that Israel would not agree to any arrangement that does not provide this and which does not stop Hezbollah from rearming and regrouping.
The Prime Minister’s Office stated following the conversation, “A reminder to the French President: It was not a UN decision that established the State of Israel but the victory that was achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of our heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, including from the Vichy regime in France.”
“It would also be worthwhile to recall that in recent decades, the UN has approved hundreds of anti-Semitic decisions against the State of Israel, the purpose of which is to deny the one and only Jewish State’s right to exist and its ability to defend itself.”
Kippah-Wearing Jewish Teen Attacked In Paris Hate-Crime
A 15-year-old Jewish boy who was wearing a kippah was attacked in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, French media reported. The attackers are reported to be of North African origin.
The incident joins a long line of cases in which Jews have been attacked in the French capital. Earlier this month, a Jewish woman was attacked at the entrance to her residential building. The attackers carved swastikas on her body and assaulted her.
According to reports, on Sunday (13th) around 7 p.m., the boy left the metro station in Levallois- Perret, a residential area in the Haute-de-Seine district of Paris. At this point, the two attackers approached him.
“They quickly removed his kippah. The two men turned to him and told him: ‘You, Jew, wait for us, wait for us,’ and then attacked him,” the boy’s mother told French media. “My son stopped and turned around to see who these people were, who were calling him.” After that, he continued to move forward, but one of them managed to catch him.”
The mother continued the description of the attack: “They pushed him in a corner near another subway exit and told him: ‘Jew , come here, give us your cell phone!” They ripped off the earpieces he had in his ears, and then they hit him in the face and mouth.”
According to the mother, the boy ran away and left the metro station. But the attackers caught up with him in the street. “My son was able to defend himself, but they succeeded in throwing him to the ground and kicking him in the mouth. My son screamed and they eventually ran away,” she said.
The mother told Le Parisien: “I think if he didn’t have his kippah, they wouldn’t have attacked him.” According to the report in the Jewish Chronicle, the mother asked her son to stop wearing a kippah. The victim’s parents filed a complaint at the police station for “intentional violence of an anti-Semitic nature.”
About 20,000 Jews live in Levallois and this is one of the Jewish communities in the country where the number of anti-Semitic incidents has jumped in the past year.
French politician Isabelle Balkany published on her X account a sharp condemnation along with a horrifying picture of the mouth of the boy who was attacked. She wrote: A young man from Levallois, wearing a kippah, was violently attacked by two people of North African origin who called him a dirty Jew.”
Cuba’s Dictator Leads Anti-Israel March
Havana’s streets erupted in a sea of Palestinian flags on Monday (14th) as Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel led hundreds in a charged march in support of Hamas.
The demonstration featuring some 250 Palestinian medical students studying in Cuba, saw Diaz-Canel and his cronies donning Keffiyeh scarves while parading behind a banner reading “Long live free Palestine.”
Originally scheduled for the anniversary of the Hamas October 7 massacre, the march was postponed due to Hurricane Milton. A delay that did nothing to temper the event’s anti-Israel fervor.
“We are here to support the just claim of the Palestinian people, for their sovereignty, their freedom against the genocidal crusade that Israel practices towards the Palestinian people,” Michel Marino, a 20-year-old international relations student, told AFP.
Notably absent from the Cuban government’s fictitious narrative was any mention of the Hamas attack that killed over 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages.
While Diaz-Canel grandstands on the world stage, joining South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel at the ICI, the regime continues to stifle dissent and basic freedoms at home.
Thousands of starving Cubans took to the streets in March to demand better living conditions amid persistent blackouts and food scarcity.
Despite the severity of these conditions, Diaz-Canel has made no substantive economic reforms, instead opting to hand out harsh and lengthy prison sentences to perceived threats.
