Daesh ‘trying to reconstitute’ in Iraq, Syria, says US Central Command
Daesh ‘trying to reconstitute’ in Iraq, Syria, says US Central Command/node/2551551/middle-east
Daesh ‘trying to reconstitute’ in Iraq, Syria, says US Central Command
A coalition of more than 80 countries, led by the US, was formed to fight Daesh, which lost its hold on the territory it controlled in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. (Reuters)
Daesh ‘trying to reconstitute’ in Iraq, Syria, says US Central Command
Attacks double compared to 2023
Updated 17 July 2024
AFP
BAGHDAD: The US Central Command said on Wednesday that the Daesh group is trying “to reconstitute” as the number of attacks in Syria and Iraq is on track to double this year, compared to the year before.
Daesh claimed 153 attacks in the two countries in the first six months of 2024, CENTCOM said in a statement.
According to a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t allowed to speak publicly on the matter, the group was behind 121 attacks in Syria and Iraq in 2023.
“The increase in attacks indicates Daesh is attempting to reconstitute following several years of decreased capability,” CENTCOM said.
In northeastern Syria, Kurdish-led authorities issued a general amnesty on Wednesday that would include hundreds of Syrians who have been held by the main US-backed force over their roles within IS.
The US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, are holding over 10,000 captured Daesh fighters in around two dozen detention facilities — including 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them. The SDF captured the last sliver of land in Syria from Daesh in March 2019.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria said a life sentence will be reduced to 15 years in jail, while those detainees serving life sentences who have incurable diseases will be set free, as will those who have reached the age of 75.
It said the amnesty will not include Daesh officials and members who fought against the SDF, nor those who carried out attacks with explosives that killed people. Legal expert Khaled Jabr said the amnesty will include some 600 Syrian citizens who are held on terrorism charges and links to Daesh, as long as their hands are not tainted with blood or they were detained while fighting SDF members. The announcement comes just after the 10-year mark since the militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria.
At its peak, the group ruled an area half the size of the UK where it attempted to enforce its extreme interpretation of Islam, which included attacks on religious minority groups and harsh punishment of Muslims deemed to be apostates.
Netanyahu says Israel will not leave Gaza border corridor until it is secure
Updated 7 sec ago
“Until that happens, we’re there,” he told a news conference in Jerusalem “We’re open to consider it, but I don’t see that happening right now“
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will only agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza that guarantees the border area between southern Gaza and Egypt could never be used as a lifeline for the Islamist movement Hamas. “Until that happens, we’re there,” he told a news conference in Jerusalem. Netanyahu repeated his outright rejection of a withdrawal from the so-called Philadelphi corridor in the first phase of a deal, expected to last 42 days, saying international pressure would make it effectively impossible to return. For a permanent ceasefire to be agreed upon after that, Israel would need guarantees that whoever ran postwar Gaza would be able to prevent the corridor from being used as a route for smuggling weapons and supplies for Hamas. “Somebody has to be there,” he said. “Bring me anyone who will actually show — not on paper, not in words, not on a slide — but day after day, week after week, month after month, that they can actually prevent a recurrence of what happened there before,” he said, referring to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “We’re open to consider it, but I don’t see that happening right now.” The Philadelphi corridor, along the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, has been one of the main obstacles to a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and bring Israeli hostages home in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu has insisted on retaining control of the corridor, where Israeli troops have uncovered dozens of tunnels that officials say have been used to supply Hamas with weapons and ammunition. The prime minister has faced heavy criticism from many in Israel for holding out on the issue, including from many in his own security establishment who believe Israeli troops can make targeted interventions if needed to prevent any smuggling. The families of many hostages, including some of the six whose bodies were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza on Sunday, have accused him of sacrificing their loved ones by insisting on keeping troops in the corridor. But he said maintaining pressure on Hamas was the best way to return the 101 hostages still remaining in Gaza. “You need to squeeze them, to put pressure on them to release the remaining hostages. So if you want to release the hostages, you’ve got to control the Philadelphi corridor,” he said.
How the hostage killings in Gaza have deepened Israel’s political divisions
As anger over the prime minister’s handling of the Gaza hostage crisis mounts, internal splits in Israel deepen
Protests and strike action highlight growing public distrust of Netanyahu, but experts question if it will lead to his ouster
Updated 2 min 52 sec ago
Jonathan Gornall
LONDON: The message on the placard held by one of the tens of thousands of Israelis who flooded on to the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday was as clear as it was damning: “Bibi, their blood is on your hands.”
It is rare for any country at war to experience internal dissent on the scale of the protests that have convulsed Israeli society this week — let alone the state of Israel, whose citizens are famously patriotic.
But the sense of shock and grief that gripped the nation following the discovery on Saturday that six of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza had been shot dead turned quickly to anger — directed not at Hamas, but at “Bibi,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The world has watched extraordinary scenes unfolding on the streets of Israel.
Relatives of Israeli hostage Edan Alexander speak during a demonstration by the families. (AFP/File)
At mass protests in Tel Aviv, speakers calling for a peace deal shared a stage with six coffins draped in the Israeli flag. Outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem a peaceful sit-down demonstration was broken up by police.
On Monday, Israel’s biggest trade union, Histadrut, staged a nationwide general strike that closed schools, businesses, government and municipal offices, and Ben Gurion International Airport.
The strike, backed by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, was called with one aim — to put pressure on Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition government to reach a deal for the return of the remaining hostages.
A US-backed deal with Hamas has been on the table since May, and there is now a growing belief in Israel and around the world that Netanyahu is perpetuating the war with the sole aim of saving his own political skin.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden accused Netanyahu of not doing enough to secure a hostage deal. And, after months of trying to bring Israel and Hamas to an agreement, reports suggest that frustrated US negotiators plan to present Israel with a final “take it or leave it” deal.
In a statement issued before Monday’s general strike, Arnon Bar-David, the chairman of Histadrut, said he had “come to the conclusion that only our intervention can shake those who need to be shaken. A deal is not progressing due to political considerations, and this is unacceptable.”
The world has watched extraordinary scenes unfolding on the streets of Israel. (AFP)
The traumatized relatives of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum accused the government of cynically frustrating peace efforts with “delays, sabotage and excuses,” without which the six hostages found dead in a tunnel in Rafah on Saturday afternoon “would likely still be alive.”
The divisions in Israeli society run deeper than the fault lines that have opened up since Oct. 7, said Ahron Bregman, a senior teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and a veteran of the Israeli military.
“The Gaza war coincides with a significant change in Israeli society that has been in the making for many years, namely the emergence of a new elite,” he told Arab News.
“The old elite, mainly left-wing or centrist Ashkenazi, Kibbutzniks, and so on, are now replaced by right-wing nationalists, with settlers being the most active and dominant among them.”
Dividing Israeli society over the issue of hostages “was certainly one of Hamas’s aims,” Sir John Jenkins told Arab News. (AFP)
These groups, he said, “have been fighting each other for years, but now this fight has reached its climax, and it is out in the open for all to see. Netanyahu, by appointing people from the new elite, settlers like Itamar Ben-Gvir (national security minister) and Bezalel Smotrich (finance minister), to critical positions in his government, gave this change of guard a big push.
“And in the Gaza war, and particularly over the issue of the hostages, many of whom belong to the old elite, the new elite practically dictates Israel’s policies.”
To survive, Bregman said, “Netanyahu needs the war to continue, otherwise, his coalition partners, who want the war to continue, might abandon him. Therefore, whenever there’s progress in talks to have a ceasefire, which will include the release of Israeli hostages, Netanyahu puts new obstacles in the way.”
His “latest toy,” Bregman added, was the Philadelphi corridor, on the western edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, which Netanyahu insists must continue to be occupied by Israeli troops.
“This, of course, is nonsense and only an obvious attempt to kill a deal with Hamas. We now know that all the tunnels under Philadelphi have been blocked on the Egyptian side for years, and nothing came through.
“Whatever was smuggled into Gaza came through the Rafah crossing. And anyway, 80 percent of the weapons used by Hamas are produced inside the Strip.”
Iranian-Israeli author and commentator Meir Javedanfar, a lecturer at Israel’s Reichman University, agrees that “the government’s handling of the hostages and the war in general, has created incredible division within the State of Israel.”
One of the main causes is that “Netanyahu does not have much credibility with many Israelis,” Javedanfar told Arab News.
“He had already lost credibility prior to Oct. 7 because of the judicial reform crisis,” during which months of large-scale protests erupted last year after Netanyahu’s cabinet moved to weaken the ability of the Supreme Court to block “unreasonable” government decisions.
“Now people are concerned that, just as with the judicial reform, Netanyahu is acting to serve his personal political interest, which is mainly to stay in power as long as possible.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. (AFP)
But “while the demonstrations are putting pressure on him, I’m not optimistic that it’s going to make him reach a deal. Right now, the Israeli parliament is not in session, so he doesn’t have to worry about his government being toppled. But as we get closer to the next session, I think he will have to show more leniency, at least.”
The Knesset returns from a three-month recess on Oct. 27.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, says it is important to remember that in Israel “there is a consensus and support for Israeli attacks on Hamas and that the government does have a mandate to go after them.”
Doyle told Arab News: “The opposition to Netanyahu is far more about the man than the policy against Hamas. Where a lot of these protesters differ with Netanyahu and his coalition is that they would have put the survival and the return of the hostages above politics, which is actually a strong tradition within Israel’s history.
“But if you look at the polling, there isn’t actually a lot of antipathy and opposition toward the actual conduct of the war amongst Israeli Jews. So the difference is, who’s prepared to pay a price in negotiations to get the hostages back, and who’s not?”
Displaced Palestinians returning to Bani Suhayla and neighbouring towns east of Khan Yunis in July, 2024. (AFP)
On Wednesday CAABU was one of 18 UK charities and NGOs that signed a joint statement welcoming the British government’s decision to suspend some arms licenses to Israel, but called for it to go further and “immediately end ALL arms transfers to Israel to prevent their use in violations of international law.”
“Yes, the demonstrations are large, but they are in the more liberal Israeli Jewish cities, such as Tel Aviv, and not in the more conservative right-wing ones,” Doyle said.
“Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. I disagree with him politically and morally, but in terms of Israeli politics he is a superb political operator.
“I thought that in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7 he would have to go, because of the colossal failure on his watch. But one underestimates him at one’s peril. He is a survivor, he’s very obstinate and not somebody who is going to give up. He would have to be forced out.
“He knows that these protesters aren’t the people who support him, or are ever likely to. So what would finish Netanyahu is not protests, but more likely any rifts within his coalition.”
A poll published by Israel’s Channel 12 news on Saturday, carried out before the discovery of the six murdered hostages, illustrated this dynamic.
Although a large majority of Israelis — 69 percent — said they believed this should be Netanyahu’s last term in office, opinion was more finely balanced among supporters of his coalition parties, with an almost 50-50 split between those who believed he should go and those who wanted him to run again.
The same poll also revealed a telling split between the 18 percent of respondents who supported the state ceremony being planned to commemorate the events of Oct. 7 and the 60 percent who favored the alternative ceremony being organized by the families of the dead and hostages. Only a quarter of Israelis plan to watch the government event on TV.
The traumatized relatives of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum accused the government of cynically frustrating peace efforts. (AFP)
Bregman, who served six years in the Israeli army, believes that “only civil resistance in Israel could force Netanyahu to reach a deal with Hamas” — and that such an event is now more a possibility than ever before in a fundamentally divided Israel.
“A violent, bloody civil war in Israel is a real possibility, as the Israeli tribes disagree on so many things and, in many cases, literally hate each other,” he said.
“And now, ‘thanks’ to the initiative of Ben-Gvir, Israeli society is armed to the teeth, as he has distributed weapons left and right.”
Since Oct. 7, Ben-Gvir’s ministry has issued hundreds of thousands of gun permits to private Israeli citizens and distributed thousands of assault rifles to “civilian security teams,” including those operated by right-wing settler groups in the West Bank.
“In the past, external threats, such as wars, used to unite the Israelis, bringing them together,” said Bregman.
“But now, the Gaza war seems to have worked in the opposite direction, leading to ever-growing divisions among Israelis over a possible ceasefire and the release of Israelis from Hamas captivity.”
Sir John Jenkins, former British ambassador to Iraq and Saudi Arabia and UK consul-general in Jerusalem, cautions that one should not forget that Hamas also has a big say in how events might unfold in the weeks and months ahead.
Dividing Israeli society over the issue of hostages “was certainly one of Hamas’s aims,” he told Arab News.
“They know from long experience the importance Israel attaches to freeing hostages and captives. The hostages are a powerful card they think they can play into the game when it best suits them.
“Even shooting hostages gives Hamas the chance to exert moral pressure on Israel, as we’ve just seen.”
“Only civil resistance in Israel could force Netanyahu to reach a deal with Hamas,” said Ahron Bregman. (AFP)
But “Hamas needs to end the fighting and the hostages are a wasting asset. The tactic hasn’t worked so far, and Netanyahu shows no sign of relenting, and that means continued fighting is almost certain — and continued suffering for the people of Gaza.
“Hamas could end this immediately by releasing all the hostages, of course. But I guess they think that if they wait then something else will turn up — a war in Lebanon, an Iranian attack on Israel, a new US president or whatever — that will benefit them.”
German foreign minister heads to Middle East in Gaza truce push
Baerbock said the “nightmare” of the conflict must end and called for all efforts needed “toward a humanitarian ceasefire”
Updated 04 September 2024
AFP
BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday set off for a diplomatic tour of the Middle East as efforts continue toward a deal between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war.
Pressure has mounted on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal to end the fighting, days after Israel’s military recovered six killed hostages from a Gaza tunnel.
Baerbock said the “nightmare” of the conflict must end and called for all efforts needed “toward a humanitarian ceasefire that will lead to the release of the hostages and put an end to the deaths.”
A ceasefire plan proposed by US President Joe Biden in May “must now finally be adopted,” Baerbock said.
The trip will be Baerbock’s ninth to Israel and her 11th to the Middle East since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Baerbock set off first for Saudi Arabia, where she was due to meet Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said.
The ministers will discuss “the dramatic situation in the region” and “the ongoing attacks by the radical Islamist Houthi militia from Yemen on international shipping,” Deschauer said.
Baerbock will then head to Jordan and meet her counterpart Ayman Safadi to discuss “in particular the issue of coordinating humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza.”
She will then travel to Israel and meet Foreign Minister Israel Katz before heading to the occupied West Bank, the site of recent heavy clashes.
There she will meet Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammed Mustafa to discuss “how an imminent escalation of violence in the West Bank can be prevented.”
“Nothing will be gained if a new, young generation becomes radicalized because they have to watch the destruction on their doorstep,” Baerbock said.
“The Palestinians have a right to live in security and dignity.”
The October 7 Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians and including hostages killed in captivity, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas since October 7 has killed at least 40,861 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
UK’s Starmer defends Israel arms suspension as ‘legal decision’
“We will of course stand by Israel’s right to self-defense but it’s important that we are committed to the international rule of law,” Starmer said
Updated 04 September 2024
AFP
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended Wednesday his government’s partial suspension of arms exports to Israel over fears they could be used in a breach of humanitarian law as “a legal decision.”
Starmer said that Monday’s announcement to suspend 30 of 350 arms exports licenses did not signify a change in UK support for Israel’s right to self-defense.
He also said that allies “understand” the UK’s move.
“This is a difficult issue, I recognize that, but it’s a legal decision, not a policy decision,” Starmer told lawmakers during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in parliament.
He said the decision was taken following a review by the foreign ministry into Israel’s conduct of its war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
The review was begun shortly after Starmer’s center-left Labour party swept to power in a landslide general election victory over the Conservatives in early July.
“We will of course stand by Israel’s right to self-defense but it’s important that we are committed to the international rule of law,” Starmer said.
The partial ban covers items that could be used in the current conflict in Gaza including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones but not parts for advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets.
The decision has angered Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming it as “shameful.”
Starmer also denied that the move indicated a spilt with the United States.
On Monday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said London had informed Washington of its move before it was announced.
“We’ll let other nations decide for themselves if they’re going to support Israel and to what degree,” Kirby told reporters. “That’s what sovereignty is all about.”
He added that for its part there had been “no determination” by the United States that Israel had violated humanitarian law.
In London, Starmer told MPs: “We have talked this through with our allies, they understand, they have a different legal system, that is the point they have made.”
Starmer’s government is pursuing a more nuanced approach to the Middle East conflict than his predecessor Rishi Sunak’s Tory administration.
It has similarly repeatedly called for a ceasefire and for speeding up aid deliveries to Gaza, and demanded that Hamas release all hostages seized in its October 7 attacks.
But it has also resumed funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and dropped a legal challenge over international arrest warrants for senior Israeli figures, including Netanyahu.
“It was determined this system presented an imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region,” CENTCOM said
Local media and people reported hearing loud explosions and seeing heavy smoke pouring from a Houthi military facility in the province of Ibb
Updated 04 September 2024
Saeed Al-Batati
AL-MUKALLA: The US Central Command said on Wednesday that its forces had destroyed a missile system in a Houthi-held Yemeni territory that was targeting ships in international waters.
This is the second time in the past 24 hours that the US military has said that it is targeting Houthi missile systems in undefined locations in Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory.
“It was determined this system presented an imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region,” CENTCOM said.
Local media and people reported hearing loud explosions and seeing heavy smoke pouring from a Houthi military facility in the province of Ibb on Tuesday, apparently struck by the US, as CENTCOM announced the destruction of two Houthi missile systems on the ground in Yemen.
Since January, the US and the UK have launched dozens of strikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa, Hodeidah, Saada, Ibb and other Yemeni provinces held by the Houthis, reportedly striking drone and missile launchers and storage facilities, as well as remotely controlled and explosives-laden boats preparing to target ships in international shipping lanes off Yemen.
Houthi leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi on Tuesday night denied that their troops had targeted the Saudi oil ship Amjad in the Red Sea on Monday and accused the US military of “spreading false information.”
This came as Saudi shipping company Bahri said that its vessel, Amjad, was in the Red Sea when another oil tanker was targeted, and that it was not the target.
Since November, the Houthis have destroyed two commercial ships, including one carrying more than 21,000 tons of fertilizer, seized another, and fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and drone boats at more than 100 ships in Yemen’s commercial channels.
The Yemeni militia claims that they exclusively target ships with links to Israel to put pressure on Israel to halt its war in the Gaza Strip.
Similarly, Yemen’s government has asked that the Houthis be designated as a terrorist group and their leaders’ assets frozen for attacking ships and endangering the environment off Yemen’s coast.
In a post on X, Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani said the Houthi attack on the MV Blue Lagoon I oil tanker is the 10th attack on oil and chemical tankers since the start of their campaign, and that the attack on the tanker is a “systematic terrorism” that risks an environmental, economic, and humanitarian disaster that would primarily affect Yemenis.
“The Houthi militia’s repeated targeting of oil and chemical product tankers demonstrates its disregard for the catastrophic consequences of any oil spill in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait, and Gulf of Aden on our country’s economic, agricultural, and fisheries sectors,” the Yemeni minister said.
