News Digest — 1/13/26
Head Of Gaza Militia Claims Killing Of Senior Hamas Cop
An anti-Hamas militia claimed responsibility on Monday (12th) for killing a senior Hamas police officer in southern Gaza.
Hussam al-Astal, the leader of an anti-Hamas group based in an area under Israeli control east of Khan Younis, claimed responsibility for the killing of Lt. Col. Manmoud al-Astal in a video he posted on his Facebook page. The last name he shares with the dead man, al-Astal, is common in that part of Gaza.
“We announce today the assassination of the head of investigations in Khan Younis,” the head of the group said in a video message posted to his Facebook page. He threatened to keep targeting Hamas officials and pointed to guns and ammunition that he said are spoils of his militia’s battles. Pointing to a faint red stain on a semi-automatic rifle, he says, “This is blood of the Hamas dogs and pigs.”
“To those who work with Hamas, your destiny is to be killed. Death is coming to you,” he added, dressed in a black military-style uniform and clutching an assault rifle.
The video claim came just a few hours after Hamas’ interior ministry announced that the police officer in question had been killed in a drive-by shooting in Mawasi, near Khan Younis, with shots fired from a car occupied by “agents of the Israeli occupation.”
Hamas said that Mahmoud al-Astal, 40, was the Khan Younis police investigations chief. The interior ministry claimed, without providing evidence, that an initial investigation indicated that his killers, who had not been caught, worked for Israel.
“The security apparatus has launched an investigation into the incident and is working to apprehend the perpetrators” the ministry said.
The killing comes a month after Hamas claimed that Israeli-backed assassins shot dead Lt. Col. Ahmed Zamzam in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.
The emergence of armed anti-Hamas militias, though still small and localized, has added pressure on the Islamists and could complicate efforts to stabilize and unify a divided Gaza, shattered by two years of war.
These groups remain unpopular among the local population as they operate in areas under Israeli control, although they publicly deny they take Israeli orders. Hamas has publicly executed people it accuses as collaborators.
Under a ceasefire in place since October, Israel has withdrawn from nearly half of the Gaza Strip, but its troops remain in control of the other half, largely a wasteland where virtually all buildings have been leveled.
Nearly all the territory’s two million people now live in Hamas-held areas, mostly in tents or damaged buildings, where the group has been reasserting its grip. Four Hamas sources said it continues to command thousands of fighters despite suffering heavy losses during the war.
Israel has been allowing rivals of Hamas to operate in areas it controls. In later phases, US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza calls for Israel to withdraw further and for Hamas to yield power to an internationally-backed administration, but there has so far been no progress towards those steps.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Israeli backing for anti-Hamas groups in June of last year, saying that Israel had “activated” clans, but has given few details since then.
The ceasefire has ended major combat in Gaza over the past three months but both sides have accused the other of regular violations.
AI, Robots And Defensive ‘Beepers:’ IDF Chief Advances Five-Year Plan For Israeli Military
IDF Chief of Staff LTG Eyal Zamir is starting concrete processes to move forward with his five-year plan for the military in a variety of areas, from potentially inventing a defensive “beeper” plan, to integrating robots on a larger level, to space wars, to expanding the use of artificial intelligence, as well as all of the traditional arms of the IDF.
According to the IDF, as part of its new plans to defend the border, it may seek to develop a game-changing “beeper” defense strategy, in reference to the beepers used to wound around 3,500 Hezbollah operatives simultaneously in September 2024.
It was unclear if the mentioned plan or devices would be located within Israel’s borders, on Israel’s borders, or would be planted within various enemies and be made ready to activate should they invade.
But the statement was the first time the IDF had discussed a defensive beeper operation as opposed to the offensive operation used against Hezbollah.
According to the IDF, the plan, dubbed “Hashem” in reference to the biblical priestly breastplate, will be led by Planning Command Chief MG. Hedi Ziberman who will cover the years 2026-2030.
The plan is expected to start implementation as of April 1, but around 12 different teams are already starting work to frame their goals and tactics.
In the near future, the various teams will present their plans in a seminar-style-format to other parts of the IDF.
A notable aspect of the plan will be getting to use half of an NIS 350 billion budget, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently announced will be allocated from the national budget toward technological advancement and increasing Israeli weapons independence.
Netanyahu announced these funds would be spent over a 10-year period.
The last such IDF multi-year plan was “Tenufah,” developed by then IDF Chief Aviv Kochavi. However, his plan was disrupted by the October 3, 2023 invasion by Hamas and the subsequent two-year war.
The war also disrupted the most recent IDF chief, Herzi Halevi, from implementing his multi-year plan, which had been expected to be rolled out in late 2023 or early 2024.
Another area discussed by the IDF was employing far more robots and autonomous systems.
The idea would be to use these new systems with air, sea and land forces, sometimes operating alone, and sometimes in coordination with human soldiers.
Regarding space wars, the IDF said that it will be necessary to develop a host of new and different kinds of capabilities and operations, which means that the military will invest in many new fronts relating to space.
Recently, Iran launched additional satellites into space with Russian assistance, a growing trend causing fears among Israel and the West about these countries, reducing prior advantages by Jerusalem and Washington in those areas.
Further, the IDF will seek to incorporate artificial intelligence far more in all areas of military operations including management issues.
To keep up with the ongoing use of AI warfare, the military has also developed larger, more powerful data centers and will continue to invest more in this area.
Other areas where the IDF is investing include building and restoring the military’s readiness and resilience after a long two-year war, for reservists, mandatory-service-soldiers, and career officers.
Regarding the air force, a notable new task is assigning them to support the land forces in preventing potential ground invasions.
All of this is also taking place as Israel and the United States begin negotiations over the next Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
From 2018-2028 , the US is committed to $38 billion of aid to Israel.
However, this is expected to change and will impact what Israel can invest in going forward.
Suspect Admits Torching Mississippi Synagogue ‘Due To its Jewish Ties’
Federal authorities say the man accused of setting fire to a historic Mississippi synagogue, identified as Stephen Spencer Pittman, admitted he targeted the building because of its “Jewish ties,” reported the Associated Press.
The suspect was charged Monday (12th) with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive. According to an affidavit filed in US District Court in Mississippi, the FBI said he confessed to lighting the fire “due to the building’s Jewish ties.”
The blaze erupted shortly after 3:00 a.m. on Saturday (10th) at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, ripping through the building but causing no injuries to congregants or firefighters. Security footage released Monday (12th) showed a masked and hooded individual pouring liquid from a gas can onto the floor and a couch in the lobby.
During an interview with law enforcement, the suspect referred to the synagogue as the “synagogue of Satan,” the affidavit states. He also “admitted to starting a fire inside a Beth Israel Congregational building,” according to investigators from the Jackson Fire Department and Hinds County Sheriff’s Office.
The suspect told investigators he stopped at a gas station on the way to purchase fuel used in the attack and removed his vehicle’s license plate there. He then used an ax to break a window, poured gasoline inside, and ignited it with a torch lighter, the affidavit says.
The FBI later recovered a burned cell phone believed to belong to the suspect, along with a hand torch that a congregation member found and turned over to authorities.
A Torah scroll that survived the Holocaust was protected behind glass and was not damaged, the congregation said. Five Torahs in the sanctuary were being evaluated for smoke damage. Two Torahs, kept in the library – the area hit hardest – were destroyed, according to a synagogue representative.
The affidavit notes that the suspect’s father contacted the FBI to report that his son had confessed to setting the fire. Data recovered from Pittman’s phone corroborated the account, an agent wrote.
Beth Israel Congregation is the oldest synagogue in Jackson and was previously targeted in a 1967 Ku Klux Klan bombing that damaged the synagogue’s offices and the home of the rabbi at the time. No one was killed in that attack.
The Ideological Roots Of Holocaust Denial In Arab Societies – Dalia Zada
Growing up in Cairo nearly every middle-class home had two main books on its shelves – the Quran and the Arabic edition of Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Struggle). These well-educated professionals, including government officials, as well as knowledgeable secular journalists, writers and intellectuals, were indoctrinated with the belief that Israel and the Jewish people are responsible for their domestic, political and economic troubles.
Although ‘classical Islamic societies’ were discriminatory toward the Jews, they were not driven by extermination or conspiracy theories. Jews existed as a ‘protected‘ yet unequal community. What fundamentally changed this dynamic was the encounter with modern European anti-Semitism in the 20th century.
Nazi Germany heavily invested in Arabic-language propaganda aimed at the Middle East, utilizing radio broadcasts, print media, and political alliances to embed anti-Semitic narratives. These ideas persisted after Germany’s defeat and were absorbed into postwar Arab political culture.
Zionism was recast, not as a nationalist movement rooted in Jewish history, but as a global conspiracy. Jews were portrayed as all powerful actors capable of instigating wars, financial crises, and political upheavals across continents. This narrative was reinforced through state-controlled education systems, media outlets, cultural events, and mosques. In Egypt, Syria and Iraq, popular TV shows and movies depicted Jews as greedy, treacherous, and morally corrupt.
The Muslim Brotherhood and later jihadist organizations redefined anti-Semitism in religious terms. Jews were seen as an “eternal” ideological enemy, transforming anti-Semitism into a moral duty. In this context, normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel became seen as betrayal and Muslim coexistence with Jews was considered blasphemy.
Arab Holocaust denial logically stems from this worldview. If Jews are viewed as inherently deceitful and excessively powerful, then Jewish testimony cannot be trusted and Jewish victimhood must be fabricated or exaggerated . After the deadly massacre of Jews on October 7, 2023, with lots of evidence provided by the perpetrators themselves, denial and justification spread quickly through Arabic-language media and social platforms. Atrocities were dismissed as fabrication, relativized as resistance, or erased altogether.
The writer, an Egyptian scholar, is a Senior Fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. (Jerusalem Report)
The Arabs’ Anti-Colonial Delusion – Hannes Stein
Encouraged by anti-colonial fights all over the world – by the successes of the Vietnamese communists, the Algerian nationalists, and so on – the Arab fighters against Zionism expected an easy victory. Arab propaganda is full of this expectation: Israelis are decadent, they are weak, Israel is “like a spider web,” one strong wind and it will be gone. As soon as the colonial enterprise becomes too costly, the colonizer packs his bags and shuffles off. He has a home to go to.
But the Israelis do not have another home to go to. And this is the crux of the matter. The fanatics among the Arabs still believe they are fighting a colonial war. But they are not. They are fighting against a desperate minority which has nowhere else to go. This is the reason why every war of annihilation the Arabs wage against Israelis so far has ended in catastrophe for the attacker.
They are not triggering the flight reflex of colonizers, they trigger the reflex to fight and defend one’s life at all costs. As they are dealing with Jews, the Arab fanatics are also unleashing furies that stem from fears deep within the Jewish soul.
The precondition for peace is that the Arabs give up their anti-colonial delusion. The intruder who has settled in their home is not a stranger. He has lived in this house before. And the other places where he once stayed have all gone up in flames. (Quillette-Australia)
