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Under the laws – which will not be implemented for several months – Unrwa could not “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly”.
Continue reading...Daughter of Jamshid Sharmahd says family let down by US and German governments’ failure to save him
Germany has recalled its ambassador to Tehran and summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires in Berlin in protest over the execution of a German-Iranian dual national, Jamshid Sharmahd, accused of terrorism by Iran.
His daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, who had pressed the German and US governments hard to save him, said she and her brother felt let down by the failure of both governments to do more. Sharmahd was executed on Monday.
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Al Jazeera has spoken with the director-general of the Gaza government’s media office, Ismail al-Thawabta, who has said at least 93 people were killed in the Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza’s town of Beit Lahiya. Gaza’s health ministry said earlier today that 60 people were killed in the strike this morning, which hit a residential building housing displaced civilians. Al-Thawabta said that the building Israel attacked housed 200 people. Dozens of people are reported missing and 150 others estimated to be injured. Medics said 20 children were among the dead.
Many of those injured have been rushed to nearby Kamal Adwan hospital inside the Jabalia refugee camp. But the hospital is struggling to treat them as it reportedly has run out of medical supplies and only has two paediatric doctors, with no surgeons. Israeli forces detained dozens of medical staff at the hospital days ago. Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the hospital, told Al Jazeera on Friday that most of the surgeons had been arrested by Israeli troops, meaning urgent surgeries could not be performed.
The UAV (drone) force of the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a specific military operation targeting the industrial zone of the Israeli enemy in the Ashkelon region.
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The Israeli army told residents in parts of Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre to leave immediately, warning that it would attack Hezbollah targets there.
“Hezbollah’s activities force the (Israeli army) to act against it forcefully,” military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a post on X that included a map of targeted areas in the coastal city.
Hezbollah’s activities force the IDF to act against it forcefully, as we do not intend to harm you.
You must immediately move out of the area marked in red and head north of the Awali River.
Continue reading...Berlin warns of ‘serious consequences’ for ‘inhumane regime’ after 69-year-old Jamshid Sharmahd put to death
Iran has executed a 69-year-old German-Iranian political scientist after years in captivity, sparking outrage in Germany and beyond.
Berlin warned of “serious consequences” for Iran’s “inhumane regime” after Jamshid Sharmahd was put to death on Monday, while a Norway-based human rights group labelled the execution the “extrajudicial killing of a hostage”.
Continue reading...Strikes also targeted military sites linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile production
Details have emerged suggesting Israel used precision air and drone strikes in its unprecedented attack on Iran this weekend to target air defence systems protecting crucial oil and gas facilities, as well as military sites linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme and ballistic missile production.
Israel openly attacked Iran for the first time on Saturday in the latest direct confrontation between the regional enemies, bringing the Middle East another step closer to a full-scale conflagration.
Continue reading...One killed and at least 29 injured after truck hits bus stop in Israel; protesters shout ‘shame on you’ as Israeli PM speaks at memorial ceremony for victims of Hamas attack
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has commented on Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, which the IDF said targeted missile factories and other sites near Tehran and western Iran on Saturday morning.
In a speech, Netanyahu said:
The air force attacked throughout Iran. We hit hard Iran’s defence capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us.
The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, and it achieved all its objectives.
Continue reading...It is unclear whether Iran is mulling direct military response as foreign minister calls for UN security council meeting
Iran’s leadership has said it is weighing a response to this weekend’s Israeli airstrikes, as the country called on the UN security council to meet on Monday.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Tehran was not looking for a war but would respond “appropriately” to Israel’s strikes.
Continue reading...Iran’s military suggests it would prioritise an agreement to end fighting in Gaza and Lebanon over any retaliation
The US President Joe Biden said on Saturday he hopes Israel’s latest strikes on Iran will mark the end of a months-long cycle of escalation, as his administration doubles down on efforts to reach a ceasefire deal for Gaza and Lebanon. “I hope this is the end,” he told reporters.
Waves of fighter jets and drones bombed military sites across Iran in an hours-long barrage on Saturday, the first time Israel has openly attacked its erstwhile enemy after decades of shadow warfare.
Continue reading...Face-to-face military confrontation on each other’s soil has now been normalised
For years, Israel and Iran have waged a “shadow war”, attacking each other indirectly using proxy forces, assassinations, informants, spies and hybrid, non-military covert means. Now this undeclared, largely silent war is undisguisedly out in the open. It’s become a shooting war, it’s noisy, it’s escalating, and there’s no end in sight.
This is not to say Israel’s large-scale, three-wave air assault on Tehran and other targets inside Iran early on Saturday morning means the two enemies are now engaged in all-out conflict. This is not yet the full-scale, region-wide conflagration so many in the Middle East fear. That may be coming, but it’s still in the future.
Continue reading...US and European states urge Tehran not to respond, while Middle Eastern countries condemn Israeli operation
World leaders have called for restraint after the first open Israeli airstrikes on Iran, after Tehran reiterated that it was “entitled and obligated to defend itself”.
The Israeli air force struck about 20 military bases across Iran, including missile and drone manufacturing sites and air defence systems, in the early hours of Saturday.
Continue reading...Political elite under pressure from variety of sources, with US urging Iran to step back from the brink
The Iranian government has belittled the scale and effectiveness of the Israeli attack on its military sites, but hardliners in the parliament insisted the strikes breached Iranian red lines and required a swift response, preferably at a time when Israel is already enmeshed in Lebanon and Gaza.
The internal Iranian debate on how to respond to the long-awaited Israeli attack turns on whether to treat Israel’s breach of Iranian national sovereignty as too grave to be ignored, or instead to heed the advice coming from the region and from the US to acknowledge the relatively limited nature of the attack and to step back from the brink by not launching reprisals.
Continue reading...Israeli forces say military targets hit in Iran in response to ‘continuous’ attacks on Israel, as UK and US warn against escalation
Israel has struck military targets in Iran in a retaliatory attack that a senior US official described as “extensive but precise”. Iran said three sites were hit and that “limited damage” was caused. Here is everything we know so far:
Israel struck military sites in Iran early on Saturday, saying it was in response to “months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the state of Israel”. The strikes were widely expected after Tehran’s attacks on Israel this month. The Israeli public broadcaster Kan said dozens of fighter jets were involved.
The Israeli military said on Saturday morning it hit missile manufacturing sites and aerial defences in several areas and had completed its “targeted” air attacks, and that its planes had safely returned home. Israel’s public broadcaster said three waves of strikes had been completed. The Israeli military said after its airstrikes: “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond.”
Two soldiers were killed in Saturday morning’s Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
The UK and US have warned against further escalation, while nations including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan have all condemned the attacks.
Israel bears “full responsibility” for the escalation of conflict in the Middle East, the Pakistan foreign ministry has said, adding that the Israeli strikes “undermine the path to regional peace and stability”.
Iran is “entitled and obligated to defend itself against external aggressive acts”, its foreign ministry has said. The ministry called the Israeli attack a violation of international law and said Tehran “recognises its responsibilities towards regional peace and security”.
The UK and US have warned against further escalation, while countries including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan have all condemned the attacks.
At least seven explosions were reported in the skies over the capital, Tehran, and nearby Karaj as well as the eastern city of Mashhad just after 2.30am local time on Saturday, as Israeli jets struck military targets in the country.
Iran said its air defence system successfully countered Israel’s attacks on military targets in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam, with “limited damage” to some locations. A semi-official Iranian news agency vowed a “proportional reaction” to Israeli moves against Tehran.
A senior Biden official said the strikes were “extensive”, “precise” and against military targets across Iran in order to deter future aggression. The official stressed that the US considered the operation to be an “end to the exchange of fire between Israel and Iran” and that the US had no involvement in the Israeli military operation.
The US news outlet Axios reported on Saturday that US and Israeli officials assess that Iran will respond militarily but in a limited fashion.
Iran and Iraq briefly suspended all flights after the Israeli strikes. Iran’s civil aviation authority later resumed flights from 9am (05.30 GMT) on Saturday.
Iranian media initially appeared to downplay the airstrikes, noting that Tehran’s airport was operating normally. State TV reported several strong explosions heard around the capital, while the state news agency, IRNA, said there had been no casualties. There was no immediate official comment about the source of explosions, which Iranian news outlets reported were under investigation. Air defence systems were activated around the country.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took the rare step of acknowledging the attack on Iran, in a statement that confirmed a decades-old shadow war between the enemy states has now firmly moved into the open. The IDF posted on X: “In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the state of Israel – right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran.”
The attacks were widely expected as a retaliation to a missile barrage launched by Iran on 1 October in which an estimated 180 ballistic missiles were fired towards Tel Aviv and military bases, in an unprecedented direct altercation between the two regional enemy states.
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We’ve launched video footage of the blasts and light flashes in Tehran early today and Iran’s air defences appearing to be at work. See here:
Meanwhile in Gaza, many believe Israel’s new offensive in the north – along with a tightening of its siege – is following a blueprint for removing the remaining population.
Continue reading...The attacks, widely expected as a retaliation to a missile barrage launched by Iran on 1 October, could bring the Middle East closer to a regional war
Israel has launched direct airstrikes against Iran in a high-stakes retaliatory attack that brings the Middle East closer to a regional war that could draw in the US.
The Israeli military said it had completed its air attack on Saturday morning, hitting missile manufacturing sites and aerial defences in several areas inside Iran. Israel’s public broadcaster said three waves of strikes had been completed.
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Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, has told reporters that over 163 rescuers and health workers had been killed and 272 injured in Israeli airstrikes during more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group, began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 7 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
We have been very clear that this cannot lead - should not lead - to a protracted campaign and that Israel must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese armed forces.
Continue reading...Yoav Gallant says his country still intends to strike back in response to 1 October missile attack by Tehran
Planned airstrikes on Iran will make the world understand Israel’s military might, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said.
The Middle East has been braced for more than three weeks for a threatened Israeli response to Iran’s 1 October missile attack, which was in turn a reprisal for Israel’s killing of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Continue reading...Justice department says eight were charged ‘for their efforts to silence and kill a US citizen because of her criticism of the Iranian regime’
A general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been charged in New York in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate a dissident Iranian American journalist.
The target of the alleged assassination plot was not named in unsealed court documents, but she has been widely identified as Masih Alinejad, who lives in New York.
Continue reading...John Kirby says Biden administration unsure if leak or hack led to secret documents appearing online on Telegram
The FBI has launched an investigation into the unauthorized release of classified documents describing Israel’s preparation for a potential retaliatory attack on Iran.
The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Monday that the Biden administration was still not certain if the classified information was leaked or hacked but that officials did not have any indication at this point of “additional documents like this finding their way into the public domain”.
Continue reading...Officials say no further leaks but investigation under way into how documents came to be published on Telegram
US government officials investigating the leak of two classified intelligence papers assessing Israel’s plans to attack Iran have said they did believe any more documents had been compromised.
However, the Biden administration remained “deeply disturbed” by the unauthorized release, John Kirby, the national security communications adviser, told reporters at a White House briefing on Monday.
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