Iran says Israel bombed its embassy in Syria, killing a top commander By Reuters April 2, 2024 https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...sy-hit-syria-iranian-media-report-2024-04-01/ DAMASCUS, April 1 (Reuters) - Suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in Syria on Monday, a marked escalation in a war pitting Israel against its regional adversaries, and Tehran said the strike killed seven military advisers including three senior commanders. Reuters reporters at the site in the Mezzeh district of Damascus saw emergency workers clambering atop rubble of a destroyed building inside the diplomatic compound, adjacent to the main embassy building. Emergency vehicles were parked outside. An Iranian flag hung from a pole by the debris. The Syrian foreign minister and interior minister were both spotted at the scene. "We strongly condemn this atrocious terrorist attack that targeted the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed a number of innocents," Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said. Israel has long targeted military installations of its arch enemy Iran and those of its proxies in Syria, and has ramped up those strikes in parallel with its campaign against Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Monday's attack was the first time Israel hit the vast embassy compound itself. Israel typically does not discuss attacks by its forces on Syria. Asked about the strike, an Israeli military spokesperson said: "We do not comment on reports in the foreign media". Iran's ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, who was not injured, told Iranian state TV that five to seven people, including some diplomats, were killed and that Tehran's response would be "harsh". Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement that seven military advisers died in the strike including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran's elite Quds Force, an overseas arm of the corps. Iranian state media said that Tehran believed Zahedi was the target of the attack. His deputy and another senior commander were also killed along with four others. Iran's Arabic Language Al Alam Television said that Zahedi was a military adviser in Syria who served as the head of the Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016. Item 1 of 6 Smoke rises after what the Iranian media said was an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria April 1, 2024. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi [1/6]Smoke rises after what the Iranian media said was an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria April 1, 2024. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi BUILDING PARTLY USED AS AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE Citing a military source, Syrian state media said Israel launched an attack from the occupied Golan Heights onto the Iranian embassy, and that Syria shot down some missiles with its air defence system. The Iranian ambassador said the strike hit a consular building within the embassy compound and his residence was on the top two floors. The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at a regular news briefing that the United States remained "concerned about anything that would be escalatory or cause an increase in conflict in the region." Miller said he did not expect it to impact talks on freeing Israeli hostages held by Iran-backed Hamas. Since Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which precipitated the war in Gaza, Israel has escalated airstrikes in Syria against both Iran's Guards and the Tehran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, both of which support the government of President Bashar al-Assad. On Friday, Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria's Aleppo province and killed a senior Hezbollah fighter in Lebanon. It has also regularly struck the airports in Aleppo and Damascus in an attempt to halt Iran's weapons transfers to its proxies. The Israeli military said on Monday it had stopped advanced weapons, including shrapnel charges and anti-tank mines, from being smuggled into the West Bank from Iran. It said the weapons were uncovered during an operation against a Lebanese-based operative of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which it said was recruiting agents to smuggle weapons and carry out attacks in the West Bank.
The Biden administration strongly supports Israel defending itself. Good to see. Biden administration set to greenlight $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/01/politics/biden-administration-f15-fighter-jets-israel?cid=ios_app The Biden administration is close to approving the sale of as many as 50 American-made F-15 fighter jets to Israel, in a deal expected to be worth more than $18 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter. The transaction, which would amount to the largest US foreign military sale to Israel since the country went to war with Hamas on October 7, comes as the administration is also expected to notify Congress soon of a large new sale of precision-guided munitions kits to Israel, the people said. The new sales of some of the US’ most sophisticated weaponry underscore the extent to which the US continues to support Israel militarily, even as Biden administration officials criticize Israel’s operations in Gaza, which have killed more than 32,000 Palestinians since October, according to the Gaza ministry of health. The sale is likely to be hotly debated in Congress, particularly by members of the president’s own party. US weapons sales to Israel have come under intense scrutiny in recent months and Democratic lawmakers have called for restricting military aid to Israeli until it allows more humanitarian aid into Gaza and does more to protect civilians there. Since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, which killed over 1,200 Israelis, the US has made more than 100 foreign military sales to Israel. Most of those have fallen under the specific dollar amount that requires a notification to Congress, an official familiar with the matter previously told CNN. But an $18 billion F-15 sale is large enough that it requires congressional notification, and the administration informally notified the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees of the F-15 sale in late January, according to two of the people familiar with the matter. The informal notification gives lawmakers and congressional staff time to review the details and ask questions before the State Department sends a formal notification to all lawmakers. The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. James Risch, has already given his approval on the sale, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. A congressional aide told CNN that House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul has also approved the transaction to proceed to formal congressional notification. But Sen. Ben Cardin, the Democratic chairman of the committee, as well as the Democratic ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Rep. Greg Meeks, can still hold up the sale if they raise objections. If there are no objections, the State Department will send a formal notification to all lawmakers, who will then have 30 days to block the sale via a joint resolution of disapproval. Congress has never successfully blocked a proposed arms sale through such a resolution, which has to be passed by both chambers, according to the Congressional Research Service. There are also growing concerns among Democrats over the Biden administration’s continued practice of sharing intelligence with Israel, which was expanded on President Joe Biden’s orders in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas. Some of that intelligence support has been in the form of so-called raw intelligence that Israel is meant to use to locate hostages, but could also be used to identify Hamas targets, some sources told CNN. Hamas fighters are often embedded in civilian areas, officials have said. Meanwhile, a growing number of US diplomats are becoming frustrated over the administration’s reluctance to use its leverage over Israel to change their approach to the ongoing war. “What you hear about the frustrations within the administration over the Israel policy, it is real,” one US diplomat told CNN on condition of anonymity. “We are being asked to act in a way that ignores what we are seeing on the ground.” The diplomats also told CNN they were frustrated with the administration’s attempts to downplay the US abstention from a UN vote last week on a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. What could have been a bold message to Israel was diluted by the US insisting the resolution was non-binding and consistent with existing US policy, these diplomats said. These disaffected diplomats said they would like to see the US threaten future arms sales to Israel to help curtail the bloody fighting, but the proposed F-15 and precision-guided munitions sales indicate that the administration is not planning to restrict military assistance any time soon. (more at above url)
What I like. Zelensky a jew from Ukraine thought arming Israel was a great idea. Now Israel gets priority and Ukraine is starving. Cool trick. What especially cool, US is ok bombing Palestine but against bombing russia. NOT
Netanyahu says he will temporarily shut down Al Jazeera news network in Israel From CNN's Hande Atay Alam and Michael Conte 1 Apr 2024 https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/...s-04-01-24/h_7e84d154ed4648f4ce70bf919d6a5da9 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the media following talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany on March 16, 2023. Sean Gallup/Getty Images Israel's parliament approved a law on Monday that would allow the government to temporarily shut down the Al Jazeera news network in Israel. The law gives the prime minister and the communications minister the authority to order the closure of foreign networks operating temporarily in Israel that are deemed a threat to national security. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he intends "to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel's activity," according to a post on X. CNN reached out to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera for comment. Separately, the United States said it will “continue to make clear” to Israel that it supports “the work that the free press does,” including Al Jazeera, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “We think the work that the independent free press does is important everywhere in the world, and much of what we know about what has happened in Gaza is because of reporters who are there doing their jobs, including reporters from Al Jazeera,” Miller said Monday.
See whats left of the Al-Shifa hospital after the Israeli siege. See what's left of Al-Shifa hospital after Israeli siege | CNN edition.cnn.com › world › 2024/04/01
Israelis have channels on telegram of hundreds of thousands of people making fun of the people that were killed while trying to feed babies in war..
Israel targeted aid workers ‘systematically, car by car’: aid chief Jeff Mason Apr 4, 2024 https://www.afr.com/world/middle-ea...atically-car-by-car-aid-chief-20240404-p5fh9b Washington | Celebrity chef Jose Andres said on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) that an Israeli attack that killed seven of his aid workers in Gaza including Australian Zomi Frankcom had targeted them “systematically, car by car”. Speaking via video, Andres said the World Central Kitchen (WCK) food charity group he founded had clear communication with the Israeli military, which he said knew his aid workers’ movements. US First Lady Jill Biden and Spain’s Queen Letizia speak with Spanish chef Jose Andres of the World Central Kitchen in Spain in 2022. AP “This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” Andres said in an interview with Reuters. “This was over a 1.5, 1.8 kilometres, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, a very colourful logo that we are obviously very proud of,” he said. It’s “very clear who we are and what we do”. Andres said the IDF was aware of the convoy’s whereabouts. He called for investigations of the incident by the US government and by the home country of every aid worker that was killed, including Australia. “They were targeting us in a deconflicting zone, in an area controlled by IDF. They knowing that it was our teams moving on that road ... with three cars,” he said. The aid workers were killed when their convoy was hit shortly after they oversaw the unloading of 100 tons of food brought to Gaza by sea. Israel’s military expressed “severe sorrow” over the incident and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it unintentional. Andres said there may have been more than three strikes against the aid convoy. He rejected Israeli and US assertions that the strike was not deliberate. “Initially, I would say categorically no,” Andres said when asked if he accepted that explanation. “Even if we were not in coordination with the [Israel Defence Forces], no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians,” he added. Asked for comment on Andres’ remarks, an Israeli military spokesperson referred to prior comments by chief of staff Herzi Halevi in which he called the incident a grave mistake and said the attack “was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers”. Andres said he was personally supposed to be there with his team but was not able to go back to Gaza at the time. The US needs to do more to stop the war, said Andres who spoke to US President Joe Biden on Tuesday. “The US must do more to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu this war needs to end now,” he said. He questioned Biden administration moves to supply aid in Gaza while also arming Israel. “It’s very complicated to understand ... America is going to be sending its Navy and its military to do humanitarian work, but at the same time weapons provided by America ... are killing civilians,” he said. Car by car Andres said his organisation was still studying the safety situation in Gaza as it contemplates starting aid deliveries again. Australian, British and American citizens were among seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed as it was leaving its Deir al-Balah warehouse. Palestinians inspect a vehicle with the logo of the World Central Kitchen hit by an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. AP At least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since October, according to the United Nations, and Hamas has previously accused Israel of targeting aid distribution sites. Andres described how he learned of the attack, saying first his group lost contact with its team in Gaza, and did not realise what happened until seeing images of the bodies. He said that after the IDF attacked the first armoured car, the team was able to escape and move to a second car which was then attacked, forcing them to move to the third car. The aid workers tried to communicate to make clear who they were, he said, adding IDF knew they were in the area which it controlled. Then the third car was hit, “and we saw the consequences of that”. World Central Kitchen began last month moving food aid to starving people in northern Gaza via a maritime corridor from Cyprus, in collaboration with Spanish charity Open Arms. The charity coordinated closely with Israel’s military, Arab nations and others, Andres said earlier. Mr Biden said he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the deaths. But the US sided with Mr Netanyahu’s assertion that the strikes were not deliberate. Founded by Andres, 54, in 2010 after a Haiti earthquake, World Central Kitchen has tried to sidestep red tape around the world to rush aid to disaster-hit areas, including Ukraine after the Russian invasion. The conflict began after Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1200 people, according to Israeli figures. Since then, much of the densely populated territory has been laid waste and most of its 2.3 million population displaced. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.