News Digest — 7/31/24
Hamas Political Chief Ismail Haniyeh Assassinated In Tehran
In a stunning development that could reshape the 9-month war in Gaza, multiple Iranian television channels reported Wednesday morning (31st) the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh within Iran’s borders. Haniyeh had traveled to the country to attend the inauguration of Iran’s newly elected President, Masoud Pezeshkian, who replaced Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash several weeks ago.
Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, has officially confirmed the reports of their leader’s death, sending shockwaves through the region and beyond.
Details surrounding the assassination remain shrouded in mystery. As of now, no footage or documentation of the incident has emerged, leaving many questions unanswered about the circumstances.
The assassination of Haniyeh, who was also the terrorist group’s prime minister when he lived in the Gaza Strip about a decade ago, comes fewer than 24-hours after the assassination of Hezbollah’s de facto military chief Fuad Shukri in Beirut. But unlike the Beirut killing, Israel has not claimed responsibility for taking out Haniyeh.
Hamas announced Wednesday morning (31st) that Ismail Haniyeh, a top-ranking official in the organization, was killed in central Tehran in what they described as an Israeli strike. Arab news sources reported that Haniyeh was eliminated alongside an Iranian guard who was with him at the time.
In an official statement, Hamas said, “The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) mourns with our Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nation.” The statement noted that Haniyeh was killed in an airstrike on his residence in Tehran following his participation in the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president, which took place the previous day.
Saudi media, citing unnamed sources, reported that Haniyeh was killed in his bedroom by a precision-guided missile at 2 a.m. local time in Tehran. Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of Hamas’ political bureau, denounced the assassination as a “cowardly act.”
Haniyeh, one of Hamas’ most recognizable and influential figures, began his career as an aide to the organization’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. He steadily rose through the ranks of the political bureau, eventually becoming the head of the bureau in Gaza and later the overall chief. In these roles, he was responsible for shaping the organization’s strategy and spearheading fundraising efforts.
Just a day before his death, Haniyeh was seen in Tehran alongside Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh. The event they attended also included other key figures aligned with Iran, such as Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem, a representative of the Houthis, and notably, Ismail Qaani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
During the recent conflict, several of Haniyeh’s sons were killed in strikes on the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh himself had been seen celebrating the October 7 attack on the day it occurred, along with other senior officials of the organization who were in Istanbul, Turkey at the time.
IDF Confirms Hezbollah’s Number 2, Fuad Shukri, Responsible For The Majdal Shams Massacre, Was Eliminated In Beirut
The IDF announced on Tuesday night (30th) that in a targeted, intelligence-based attack, Israeli Air Force fighter jets eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s most senior military commander and the head of its Strategic Unit, Fuad Shukri “Sayyid Muhsan,” in the area of Beirut.
Fuad served as Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s right-hand man and was Nasrallah’s adviser for planning and directing wartime operations, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
Fuad Shukri has directed Hezbollah’s attacks on the State of Israel since Oct. 8th, and he was the commander responsible for the murder of the 12 children in Majdal Shams in northern Israel on Saturday (27th), as well as the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign nationals over the years the statement continued.
As the Head of Hezbollah’s Strategic Unit, Fuad was responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs. He was responsible for force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel.
Fuad joined the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the 1980s and has since held a number of senior positions. As part of his role, he was a member of the Jihad Council – Hezbollah’s most senior military forum.
In the 1990s, Fuad advanced numerous attacks against the IDF and the Southern Lebanon Army. In 2000, he was directly involved in the abduction of the bodies of three IDF soldiers – SSGT Benjamin Avraham, SSGT Adi Avitan, and SSGT Omar Sawaid – who were killed by Hezbollah terrorists while patrolling the security fence adjacent to Har Dov. Since then, he has planned and directed numerous terrorist attacks against innocent civilians.
Shukri had also played a role in the 1983 bombing of the US army barracks in Beirut in which 241 American servicemen were killed. The US had placed a $5 million bounty on his head.
The Al Arabiya and Al Hadath Arabic news stations reported that Shukri was eliminated and that his body is being held in a secure hospital, contradicting reports that he had left before the strike.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said following the airstrike that “Hezbollah crossed the red line.”
Eyewitnesses reported hearing an explosion in the Lebanese capital Tuesday evening (30th).
The strike comes three days after 12 Druze children were murdered in a Hezbollah rocket attack in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.
Hezbollah Rocket Hits Private Home In Northern Israel, Killing One
A man in his 30s was killed Tuesday afternoon (30th), when a rocket launched by Hezbollah terrorists operating out of southern Lebanon exploded in the yard of his home at Kibbutz HaGoshrim in northern Israel.
The victim suffered severe shrapnel wounds leaving him fatally injured.
Emergency first responders from Magen David Adom and United Hatzalah were dispatched to the scene to treat the victim. Despite efforts to resuscitate him, paramedics were ultimately forced to declare the man dead at the scene.
Tuesday’s rocket attack was part of a larger barrage by Hezbollah terrorists targeting northern Israel.
At approximately 2:53 p.m., rocket launches were detected in southern Lebanon targeting Kfar Yuval, Ma’ayan Baruch, Tel Hai, Kfar Giladi, Shear Yashuv, Beit Hillel, Kiryat Shmona, HaGoshrim, and Dafna.
An hour later, aerial incursions by terrorist drone aircraft were reported across the northern border.
The IDF said at least 10 rocket launches were recorded, adding that Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense network intercepted most of the incoming projectiles.
In response to the attack , IDF artillery shelled Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.
Early on Tuesday (30th), Israeli warplanes bombed a Hezbollah position in Jibchit.
The deadly rocket attack on HaGoshrim came days after a rocket launched by Hezbollah terrorists struck a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, killing 12 children and youths, and injuring dozens more.
Iran Hosts Hamas, Islamic Jihad Leaders At New President’s Inauguration, Bolstering Support
Iran hosted the leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Iranian state media reported Tuesday (30th). Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Palestinian Islamic Jihad Leader Ziyad Nakhaleh and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political bureau chief, on Tuesday (30th), the report said.
The terrorist leaders were in Iran to attend the swearing in of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. This demonstrates how the Iranian regime will continue its support for various terrorist groups in the region under the new president.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas continue to carry out attacks on the IDF in Gaza. In addition, both groups are seeking to increase their power in the northern West Bank. Hamas leaders live in Qatar, which is a U.S. ally. The Hamas leaders in Qatar, including Haniyeh, were able to fly around the region and meet with countries that support Hamas, such as Iran and Turkey. This ability to fly around the region has not changed in the wake of the October 7 massacre.
In fact, despite carrying out the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust, the terrorist leaders in the region have suffered no consequences or new sanctions on their movements. Iran sees this as a major benefit of October 7, for instance, since it can leverage the war in Gaza, it can continue to position Hamas to destabilize the West Bank.
“The Hamas and Islamic Jihad heads, along with their accompanying delegation, met with Ayatollah Khamenei before the start of the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran this afternoon,” Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iran’s official news agency reported Tuesday (30th).
The terrorist leaders joined 70 other foreign delegations for the swearing in, the report said, adding that “at least five presidents and 10 speakers participated in the inauguration ceremony.
Iran treats Hamas an Palestinian Islamic Jihad as the main representatives of the Palestinians and generally ignores the Palestinian Authority. This is the same template Iran uses in Lebanon, Yemen, and other countries, where it prioritizes proxy groups over the official government. This results in undermining these countries and empowering various terrorist groups and militias.
The Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders’ visit to Iran is symbolic and important. Almost 10 months into the Gaza war that Iran believes it is winning. China also recently hosted 14 Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Iran and China work closely together.
All of this points to a trend in which Iran, Turkey, Russia, Qatar, and China would like to see Hamas come to power in the West Bank in the wake of the Gaza war.
Appeasing Iran Will Suck The U.S. Into Another Middle East War – Gadi Taub
In his speech before a joint session of Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defined the war with Hamas as one tributary of the larger struggle against Iran and called on the whole of Western civilization to unite around it. The speech created the illusion of wide consensus around self-evident moral truths. But in reality, the Biden administration is not exactly part of such a consensus.
The designation of Iran as a common enemy of both the U.S. and Israel may strike many Americans as uncontroversial, even trivial. But from day one, the Biden administration has been doing its best to ignore, deny, and downplay Iran’s role in the war Israel is fighting against Tehran’s proxy in Gaza. The administration has done this to divert attention away from its own policy towards Iran, which has replaced deterrence with “de-escalation.”
From the moment it took office, the Biden administration has been signaling to Iran that it is seeking accommodation, not confrontation. One of the first acts of the Biden administration was to take the Houthis off the list of designated terror organizations and then withhold from the Saudis weapons with which to wage war against them. It then forced Israel to make concessions to Lebanon to the benefit of Hezbollah in a 2022 maritime border agreement that granted the Lebanese – and therefore Hezbollah – access to presumed underwater gas reservoirs in return for nothing.
All the while, the administration has loosened sanctions on Iran, filling the coffers of the mullahs with oil sales revenue, which they then use to boost their proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, West Iraq, Yemen, and Judea and Samaria. All this was a carefully planned – though seriously misguided – policy. But there’s a limit to what the administration can do because it can’t appear to the American public to be favoring Iran over Israel. The reactions to Netanyahu’s speech were a strong reminder of that fact. Most Americans, including Democratic voters, will not approve of throwing Israel under the bus to appease Iran and save Hamas.
The writer is a senior lecturer at Hebrew University’s Federmann School Of Public Policy. (JNS)
(jns.org)
Anti-Semitic Protesters Make The Case For Zionism – Gerard Leval (Wall Street Journal)
• The anti-Semitic demonstrators roiling our campuses and cities certainly don’t mean to, but they’re making a powerful case for Zionism. In 1896, Theodor Herzl, a Viennese journalist and very assimilated Jew, published The Jewish State, a manifesto calling for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the biblical land of Israel. That set into motion the modern Zionist movement.
• Herzl had awakened to his Jewish origins when he covered the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer falsely accused of betraying France. Dreyfus was an assimilated Jew and a proud Frenchman. Yet he was being treated as a traitor because he was a Jew, with cries of “Death to the Jews” reverberating on the streets of Paris. Confronted with this, Herzl came to the reluctant conclusion that Jews, observant or assimilated, needed their own nation to be safe from persecution.
• In the wake of Oct.7, we can’t deny being witness to a worldwide paroxysm of hate against Israel, which has steadily morphed into classic anti-Semitism.
• Since its founding, the U.S. has been a most extraordinary haven for Jews. Yet today, even in the halls of Congress, anti-Semitism has dramatically surfaced, and Jews are being intimidated. It turns out that Herzl was right about the need to re-establish the Jewish homeland.
• Those in the forefront of the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish demonstrations are giving full credence and impetus to the Zionist dream. Even in the most welcoming nation on earth. Jews feel at risk.
• Only in a secure Israel can Jews be certain that they won’t be persecuted by reason of who they are. The purveyors of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda are the best recruiters any Zionist could ever want.
(wsj.com)
