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Archive for May 6, 2019

Gaza ceasefire leaves Israel and Hamas exactly where they were before

May 6, 2019

Source: Gaza ceasefire leaves Israel and Hamas exactly where they were before | The Times of Israel

The latest flareup and truce were born of Jerusalem’s past capitulation to extortion by the rulers of the Strip

By AVI ISSACHAROFF Today, 12:11 pm

A picture taken in Gaza city on May 5, 2019, shows rockets fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

A picture taken in Gaza city on May 5, 2019, shows rockets fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

The morning after the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas looks exactly like the morning before it began. It’s as if nothing had happened.

In two days of conflict, more than 700 rockets were fired toward Israel; four Israelis were killed, along with 29 Gazans (at least 11 of them members of the terror groups); and considerable damage was done to Hamas and Islamic Jihad infrastructure in the Strip.

But as usual, Israel and Hamas find themselves in a shaky truce without the situation having changed in the slightest. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Neither side has any substantive achievement to boast of, nor have they made a move that has altered the status quo.

A car bursts into flames after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on May 5, 2019. (Flash90)

Hamas has shown that its military capabilities have improved, with the lethality of the rocket attacks and their ability to overcome the Iron Dome missile defense system on multiple occasions, as well as the minimal harm sustained by members of the terrorist organization.

This attests to constant improvements to the terrorists’ military wing in the run-up to the next campaign.

On the other hand, the Israel Defense Forces improved its list of targets and managed to hit important Hamas military facilities. It also showed its ability to carry out a targeted assassination against a member of the terrorist group who had tried to remain under the intelligence radar, with a missile strike on the car of Hamed Hamdan al-Khodari, who funneled Iranian money to Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian emergency personnel try to put out the fire on a car belonging to Hamas terror group senior member Hamed Hamdan al-Khodari after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on May 5, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP)

There are, nonetheless, many causes for concern on the Israeli side.

It is clear that Hamas has learned to defend itself. Most of its senior operatives took cover in the subterranean bunkers and tunnels the terror group has dug underneath the enclave, and escaped the flareup unharmed. Its missile launch and command and control capabilities were impressive.

All of these things should ring warning bells in Israel.

The big problem for Hamas is that on the first morning of the holy month of Ramadan, it cannot present any hope of an economic solution to the people of Gaza — and certainly not of a political one.

This failure on Hamas’s part comes despite the fact that many Gazans expressed willingness for a major military operation, if only to bring about a change in their situation.

While Qatari money may enter Gaza in the coming days, it will not alleviate the overall crisis: Unemployment stands at 51 percent and there is abject poverty.

Postal workers aid Palestinians who arrived at the central post office in Gaza City on January 26, 2019, to receive financial aid from the Qatari government given to impoverished families. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

Hamas does nothing to help the local population. Instead, it imposes more and more taxes, which it uses for military infrastructure (including the aforementioned tunnels and bunkers for senior Hamas officials) rather than improving the overall situation in Gaza.

Gazans are starting to show signs of discontent with Hamas — although not enough to bring them out to the streets as was the case earlier this year. But there is now criticism of the terrorist organization on social networks.

The latest round of fighting was likely also an attempt by Hamas to divert Gazan public anger away from the organization and toward Israel.

Ultimately, both sides are hostages to Israel’s decision six months ago to approve the transfer of Qatari money to pay the salaries of Hamas employees.

That money was interpreted in Gaza in only one way — an Israeli surrender to Hamas’s extortion.

It is clear that whoever on the Israeli side made the deal with Hamas — whether they were from the Mossad or the Prime Minister’s Office — did not understand this.

An apartment building hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on May 5, 2019. (Noam Rivkin Fenton/Flash90)

What appeared to those on the Israeli side as an opportunity to cut a deal with Hamas was interpreted on the other side as sign of a weakness that could be exploited.

Thus, when the Qatari money was delayed last weekend, not due to any fault of Israel, Hamas immediately triggered a broader conflict than usual, thinking and believing that what had worked six months ago would work again this time.

And it seems that Hamas was right.

While the Qataris didn’t get involved initially, the money is expected to be transferred to Gaza shortly — just in time to ensure a Ramadan kareem.

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Netanyahu slammed for continuing to duck a decisive campaign against Gaza terrorists – DEBKAfile

May 6, 2019

Source: Netanyahu slammed for continuing to duck a decisive campaign against Gaza terrorists – DEBKAfile

May 6, 2019 @ 10:45 Diane Shalem Benny Gantz, Binyamin Netanyahu, Gaza ceaasefire,Hamas/Islamic Jihad rocket blitz

“After 700 rockets, 4 fatalities and 250 injured, Israel has again capitulated to Palestinian terrorist blackmail,” said opposition Blue-White leader Benny Gantz on Monday, May 6, after the Palestinians announced that a ceasefire went into effect at 4.30 a.m. with Israel’s consent.

For once, Gantz voiced widespread popular sentiment when he warned that this lame curtailment of massive terrorist rocket aggression held the key to recurring violence on an even greater scale. However, this process also represents a recurring pattern of the Netanyahu’s premiership.

The prime minister and defense minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is widely seen – even in his own Likud – as letting down the general expectation which he himself fostered, for the IDF to be allowed, at long last, to cut short in the long term the violent harassment which Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists have meted out on the population for years. It was hoped that this time, Netanyahu would break with his long practice, and finally tough it out for the sake of a better future for the battered population of the South.

That his government allowed the Palestinians to inform the Israeli public of the ceasefire post factum – leaving it to the IDF Home Security Command to simply tell people to go back to their normal routines, without explanation – was an especially bitter pill . On Sunday, after the heaviest Palestinian rocket barrage since the 2014 war hit Israel’s southern towns and villages, killing 4 people and injuring 250, the IDF Home Command ordered schools closed on Monday for a second day and 200,000 children kept at home. On Monday morning, they woke up and were told suddenly that it was back to school and their normal routines.

How were people expected to behave normally? On Monday, as scores of rockets landed on their heads, they heard a senior Likud minister, MK Avi Dichter, declaring that this time, the IDF was fully prepared to repeat in Gaza the Jenin operation that ended the Second Intifada 15 years ago. Dichter may have been naively convinced with the rest of the country that this scenario was finally about to unfold. However, the IDF spokesman also announced the transfer of the 7^thArmored Brigade and the Golani Brigade troops to the Gaza border for a buildup of strength “in preparation for an operation that could go on for days.”

Monday morning, that statement was exposed as a deliberate smoke screen for concealing the secretly ongoing, ceasefire negotiations with terrorists while they intensified their rocket blitz.

While the army defers to government policy and directives, its spokesman takes his orders from the chief of staff. Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi would be well advised to urgently repair the senior IDF spokesperson’s current strategy of issuing false and misleading statements. An effort must be made to restore credibility to this institution considering is important role in shaping public morale especially in times of stress.

As for the army’s morale, large-scale combat units were transferred on Sunday to the Gaza sector for the second time in two weeks – the first time in the last week of March and this week again – only to be sent back to their former bases a few hours later after doing nothing.

DEBKAfile’s sources offer the following motivation for Netanyahu’s apparently purposeless exercises around the Gaza Strip and failure to go all the way against massive terrorist aggression: He appears to be putting his trust in the eventual rise of an independent Palestinian state – even under Hamas rule – that will finally force the break-up of Mahmoud Abbas’ crumbling Palestinian Authority. This goal is in line with the US Middle East peace plan on whose final draft President Donald Trump’s advisers, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, are putting the final touches before publication. This goal would also fit the plans of Egypt’s president Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi.

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Iran Accuses U.S. Of ‘Not Being Genuine’ Over Carrier Strike Group Deployment

May 6, 2019

Source: Iran Accuses U.S. Of ‘Not Being Genuine’ Over Carrier Strike Group Deployment

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CybersecurityI write about security and surveillance.

On Sunday night, the U.S. National Security Adviser announced that “the United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

The move came a week after an Iranian news agency had published drone footage that it claimed showed “U.S. warships being closely monitored in the Persian Gulf waters, south of Iran.”

John Bolton said the move came in response to “a number of troubling and ‘escalatory’ indications and warnings,” albeit “the United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or regular Iranian forces.”

According to ABC News, a U.S. official told them that “the deployments were in response to ‘clear indications’ Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were preparing for a possible attack, and that the decision to send forces was made on Sunday.”

But Iran, responding through its state media platform Press TV, said that “the deployment seems to be a ‘regularly scheduled’ one by the U.S. Navy, and Bolton has just tried to talk it up. Back on April 8, the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (ABECSG) Public Affairs announced that the Strike Group has departed a naval station in Virginia on April 1 for a regularly scheduled deployment. Therefore, what Bolton describes as a ‘response’ to Iran’s warning does not seem to be genuine, as the ABECSG started its mission long before Iran’s warning.”

The carrier group would likely have transited through the Middle East on its return to the U.S. and Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, conceded to reporters that the deployment was “something we’ve been working on for a little while.” Although he added that “it is absolutely the case that we have seen ‘escalatory’ actions from the Iranians, and it is equally the case that we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests. If these actions take place, if they do by some third-party proxy, a militia group, Hezbollah, we will hold the Iranian leadership directly accountable for that.”

Iran has been heavily vocal in its criticism of Israel over the country’s retaliation against the rocket strikes into the country from Gaza. Iran’s Farsnews agency reported that “Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Iran strongly condemned the Zionist regime’s savage attack,” adding that “due to unlimited American support for this regime and the embarrassing silence of some Islamic governments, there is no end to Zionist crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The U.S. has denied any link between the carrier deployment and the situation in Gaza, where the U.S. has publicly supported Israel’s actions. “The United States strongly condemns the ongoing barrage of rocket attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Gaza upon innocent civilians and their communities across Israel,” said State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus. “We call on those responsible for the violence to cease this aggression immediately. We stand with Israel and fully support its right to self-defense against these abhorrent attacks.”

“Notably,” wrote Haaretz, “the statement did not call for restraint, a feature of such statements in previous administrations.”

Press reports early on Monday, citing Palestinian sources, suggested that “a ceasefire agreement has been reached to end a recent surge of violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel that has led to the deaths of at least 24 Palestinians and four Israelis.” There was no confirmation from Israel side at the time of writing.

On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Al Jazeera that “we have been very clear that we have no interest in escalation. We have been clear that the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are our lifeline. We depend on them for our livelihood, and we want them safe, secure, and free for navigation of all countries, including Iran. As we have stated before, Iran won’t permit the US to threaten the Persian Gulf.”

Earlier in the week, following the passing of a law in Iran designating all U.S. forces operating in the Middle East as terrorists and the U.S. government itself as a sponsor of terrorism, Zarif had said that “[Iranian and U.S.] forces, which have been reciprocally designated as terrorist groups, may engage in clashes in the Persian Gulf or any other region, [and] there is no doubt that the U.S. will be held accountable for such a situation.”

The ramping up of U.S. military presence in the region will be seen as inevitable. As I wrote on Wednesday, “the actual risk is that the whole situation is doomed to result in military skirmishes that will gradually escalate towards a scale of conflict that nobody with a healthy view of geopolitics and reality should want to see.”

The ending of waivers over oil sanctions is set to have a devastating impact on Iran’s already beleaguered economy, whatever rhetoric comes out of Teheran. “I believe President Trump’s intention to put a policy of maximum pressure on Iran in order to bring Iran to its knees is doomed to failure,” Zarif said in a U.S. television interview last weekend.

Since then the veiled threats have come thick and fast from Iran. Now, with a U.S. military deployment in its vicinity, the potential for the Iranian regime to provoke action as the world’s media watches on is about to get very real. This is Washington’s first major move in the Middle East since Teheran designated U.S. military forces in the region as terrorists – with it, the two countries are soon set to be within easy striking distance of one other.

Find me on Twitter or Linkedin or email zakd@me.com.

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US deploying carrier, bombers to Middle East to deter Iran

May 6, 2019

Source: US deploying carrier, bombers to Middle East to deter Iran – www.israelhayom.com

Move comes in response to “clear indications” that Iranian and Iranian proxy forces are preparing to possibly attack U.S. forces in the region. U.S. will retaliate with “unrelenting force” to any attack on U.S. interests or those of its allies, warns National Security Adviser John Bolton. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: Deployment “separate” from events in Israel.

by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Published on 2019-05-06 07:53

Last modified: 2019-05-06 07:53

US deploying carrier, bombers to Middle East to deter Iran

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln transits the Strait of Gibraltar, entering the Mediterranean Sea, April 13, 2019 | Photo: U.S. Navy via Reuters

The defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said the Pentagon approved the deployments and that U.S. forces at sea and on land were thought to be the potential targets. The official declined to be more specific.

With tensions already high between Washington and Tehran, another U.S. official said the deployment was ordered “as a deterrence to what has been seen as potential preparations by Iranian forces and its proxies that may indicate possible attacks on U.S. forces in the region.” However, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was not expecting any imminent Iranian attack.

National Security Adviser John Bolton said the carrier deployment was also to show that the U.S. will retaliate with “unrelenting force” to any attack on U.S. interests or those of its allies, adding that the move was in response to “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings.”

Speaking to reporters while flying to Europe, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the actions undertaken by the U.S. had been in the works for a little while.

“It is absolutely the case that we have seen escalatory actions from the Iranians and it is equally the case that we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests,” Pompeo said. “If these actions take place, if they do by some third-party proxy, a militia group, Hezbollah, we will hold the Iranian leadership directly accountable for that.”

Asked about “escalatory actions,” Pompeo replied, “I don’t want to talk about what underlays it, but make no mistake, we have good reason to want to communicate clearly about how the Iranians should understand how we will respond to actions they may take.”

Asked if the Iranian action were related to the deadly events in Gaza and Israel, Pompeo said, “It is separate from that.”

Bolton – who has spearheaded an increasingly hawkish U.S. policy on Iran – said the decision, which could exacerbate problems between the two countries, was meant to send a “clear and unmistakable message” of U.S. resolve to Tehran.

Though he cited no specific Iranian activities that have raised new concerns, Iran has recently warned it would block the Strait of Hormuz if it was barred from using the strategic waterway. About a fifth of the oil consumed globally passes through the strait.

“The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or regular Iranian forces,” Bolton said in a statement.

It marked the latest in a series of moves by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration aimed at ratcheting up pressure on Iran in recent months.

Washington has said it will stop waivers for countries buying Iranian oil, in an attempt to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero. It has also blacklisted Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, taking the unprecedented step of designating it as a foreign terrorist organization, which Iran has cast as an American provocation.

The Trump administration’s efforts to impose political and economic isolation on Tehran began last year when it unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal it and other world powers negotiated with Iran in 2015.

“The United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force,” Bolton said.

Bolton did not provide any further details.

A U.S. Navy statement issued early last month said the aircraft carrier and its accompanying convoy of ships had steamed out of Norfolk, Virginia, on April 1 “for a regularly scheduled deployment,” but it did not give any destination at the time.

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Military lifts emergency measures, in implicit confirmation of truce

May 6, 2019

Source: Military lifts emergency measures, in implicit confirmation of truce | The Times of Israel

Palestinians say Egyptian mediators brokered ceasefire overnight; no comment from Israel, but most students in border communities back to school after deadly escalation

By TOI STAFFToday, 7:59 am

A picture taken on May 5, 2019 from the Israel-Gaza border shows a barrage of rockets being fired from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

A picture taken on May 5, 2019 from the Israel-Gaza border shows a barrage of rockets being fired from the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.

Gantz slams reported ceasefire, says Israel capitulated to Hamas ‘blackmail’

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz says the rocket onslaught from the Gaza Strip over the past two days is the result of Israel losing deterrence against Palestinian terrorist groups.

The former IDF chief of staff, who is expected to become opposition leader, says that in order to end the violent flareup, Israel surrendered to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“Nearly 700 projectiles were launched at Israeli territory, four were killed and many are wounded,” Gantz posts on Twitter. “All of this is the result of losing our deterrence, and it’s ending with another surrender to blackmail from Hamas and other terrorist groups.”

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz gives an impromptu press conference in a bomb shelter at Yad Mordechai as rockets fly overhead on May 5, 2019. (Raoul Wootliff/Times of Israel)

“All the government has done is, once again, lead us to the next confrontation,” he says.

Yesterday, Gantz said that Israel must respond to the latest barrage of rockets from Gaza with “uncompromising force” in order to “restore the deterrence that has been eroded catastrophically for more than a year.”

IDF says it bombed 350 ‘terror targets’ during Gaza airstrikes

The Israeli military says it bombed some 350 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours, in response to the barrages of rockets fired from the coastal enclave.

The military says it targeted “rocket launch sites, terror squads & operatives, command and training centers, weapon facilities, observation posts and military compounds” after hundreds of rockets and mortars were fired at Israel over two days.

Israel Defense Forces

✔@IDF

· 1h

The last 48 hours in Israel:

690 rockets fired from Gaza at Israeli civilians
240 Iron Dome Aerial Defense System interceptions
210,000 children had school cancelled
4 Israeli civilians killed

Israel Defense Forces

✔@IDF

The last 48 hours in Gaza:

We targeted 350 Islamic Jihad & Hamas targets including:

• rocket launch sites
• terror squads & operatives
• command and training centers
• weapon facilities
• observation posts
• military compounds

Terror targets civilians, we target terror. pic.twitter.com/9wSS22PEjt

2,042

7:37 AM – May 6, 2019

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The army says the targets are connected to both the Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza, and the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“Terror targets civilians, we target terror,” the military says.

Israel lifts emergency measures in implicit confirmation of Gaze truce

The IDF is lifting all emergency measures for residents of southern Israel after a reported ceasefire with terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip appears to take affect.

Schools in Beersheba, Sderot, Yavne and Kiryat Malachi announce that there will be classes as usual today. School in the the Eshkol, Shaar Hanegev and Sdot Negev regions, which are closer to Gaza, is still canceled.

Overnight Saturday, as terror groups continued to fire rockets and mortar shells at Israel, the IDF had announced a number of security measures for Israeli cities and towns within 40 kilometers of the Gaza border, including cancelling all schools and public gatherings.

According to reports in Palestinian media, Israel and the Gaza groups reached a ceasefire that went into effect from 4:30 p.m. Israel has not officially confirmed the ceasefire, in keeping with its policy of refraining from commenting on its negotiations with terror groups.

Islamic Jihad says ceasefire conditioned on Israel easing Gaza blockade

An Islamic Jihad official says the reported Gaza ceasefire is contingent on Israel easing its blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

The official says the measures include the easing of limits on fishing and improvements in Gaza’s electricity and fuel situation.

The IDF has declined to comment on the deal, but there has been no rocket fire or Israeli strikes after the Egyptian-brokered deal was due to take effect.

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Four Israelis dead, 700 rockets and a weekend full of terror in Israel

May 6, 2019

Source: Four Israelis dead, 700 rockets and a weekend full of terror in Israel – Middle East – Jerusalem Post

On Sunday afternoon, Israel’s security cabinet met and instructed the military to intensify its attacks in the Strip.

BY ANNA AHRONHEIM

MAY 6, 2019 01:40

The house in Ashkelon hit by a rocket fired from Gaza

The house in Ashkelon hit by a rocket fired from Gaza. (photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

The IDF has reinforced troops along the Gaza border after close to 700 rockets were fired towards southern Israel since Saturday by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) from the Gaza Strip, killing four civilians and injuring close to 80 others.

Terrorist groups fired dozens of rocket barrages toward southern Israel on Sunday, as well as several longer-range projectiles towards central Israel. According to the IDF, terrorist groups in the Strip also tried to carry out a terrorist attack using a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) attached to a drone. The RPG-laden drone, which landed on a tank deployed along the border, did not explode.

On Saturday night, Moshe Agadi, a father of four, was killed when a rocket struck his home in Ashkelon when he went out to smoke a cigarette. He was struck by shrapnel to his stomach and chest and was taken by Magen David Adom teams to Barzilai Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Moshe Feder, 64, from Kfar Saba, was killed Sunday afternoon after a Kornet anti-tank guided missile struck a car near the Gaza border between the communities of Yad Mordechai and Sderot.

A Bedouin man was killed after he was critically injured in his chest by shrapnel from a direct strike on a factory in Ashkelon, dying from his wounds shortly after.

A 23-year-old Israeli man was also killed Sunday evening after he suffered severe shrapnel injuries to his chest while running to a shelter in Ashdod.

On Sunday afternoon, Israel’s Security Cabinet met and instructed the military to intensify its attacks in the Strip.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday night that he does not rule out the possibility of reaching a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

In a statement, Haniyeh said that the “return to calm is possible and depends on the commitment of the occupation to a complete ceasefire.”

Haniyeh said any ceasefire should also include the weekly protests along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, also known as the Great March of Return.

“The response of the resistance is linked to the level of Zionist aggression,” Haniyeh said, adding that Israel must also abide by the recent Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire understandings between the Gaza-based groups and Israel.

“The slow pace of the implementation of the understandings and the attempt to gain time have created an increased state of tension among our people in Gaza because of the crimes committed by the occupation during the current aggression,” the Hamas leader added.

Due to the violence in the South, the IDF has deployed the 7th armored brigade, “which would be ready to act as an offensive force within the Gaza Division” as well as the Golani brigade. The Paratroopers brigade is on standby to deploy south if needed, the military said.

A senior Israel Air Force officer said Sunday that over 600 hundred rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip since Saturday morning, and that over 150 had been intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. While the majority struck in open areas, 35 struck urban areas in Israel.

In retaliation, the IAF struck over 280 targets belonging to PIJ and Hamas, IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis said. In addition, Manelis and the senior Air Force officer both confirmed that the military had begun carrying out targeted assassinations in the Strip against Hamas militants.

The first targeted strike since 2014 hit a vehicle carrying 39-year-old Hamed Ahmed Abed Khudari, who the IDF said was in charge of large-scale money transfers from Iran to terror groups in the Strip.

The officer told reporters that the IDF “had not carried out a targeted assassination in a long time” and that a number of aircraft participated in the strike, which was carried out in the heart of Gaza City with the approval of Israel’s political echelon.

“We are prepared to continue operating with the message that Hamas and its men are vulnerable,” the officer said, adding that this is in an attempt to “renew deterrence” against the terrorist group.

“We are acting against Hamas and the PIJ – but for us, Hamas is the sovereign and its role is to stop PIJ,” he said, explaining that under this directive, the IDF has carried out over 100 sorties, striking weapon warehouses, terror infrastructures, terrorist cells, tunnels and more.

“We are prepared for the possibility of escalation,” he continued, warning that “we have not used everything yet: there’s a lot more we can do.”

The targets struck by Israel’s military overnight included rocket launchers and a Hamas military position in the northern Gaza Strip, as well as dozens of private homes belonging to Hamas and PIJ commanders. Also struck were attack tunnels, military compounds and emplacements, storage houses and weapons factories belonging to Hamas and PIJ.

Israel’s navy also struck several naval targets belonging to the two groups.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, 16 Palestinians have been killed including several members of the terror groups’ rocket-launching cells. Another 80 Palestinians were said to have been injured. The ministry also claimed that a Palestinian woman and her 14 month-old niece were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday night, a claim repeatedly denied by the IDF which says that the two were killed by a Hamas rocket which failed to launch within a populated area.

On Sunday morning, the two groups threatened to increase the range of their rocket fire, saying in a joint statement that they are considering firing rockets to cities over 40 kilometers from the blockaded coastal enclave.

“We are prepared for additional days of fighting,” Manelis told reporters in a telephone call, adding that the military is “prepared” for rocket fire on central Israel, including Tel Aviv.

The Home Front Command instructed residents living within 40 km. of the Gaza Strip to consult with heads of local authorities, and remain near protected spaces. Public gatherings were limited to 300 people in enclosed spaces only, and agricultural work was banned. All studies in southern Israel were also canceled due to the security situation.

While Tel Aviv did not open public shelters, many municipalities did, including Beersheba, Rishon Lezion, Netanya and others.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz decided on Sunday to temporarily halt natural gas supplies from the offshore Tamar field due to a surge in violence with Gaza militants, the ministry said in a statement.

Steinitz declared an emergency to ensure that power generation is not interrupted, the ministry said. This typically means using more expensive fossil fuels like diesel and fuel oil.

Israel receives most of its natural gas supplies from Tamar. The field is located some 90 kilometers (56 miles) in deep Mediterranean waters, but its production platform stands just 25 kilometers off the coast of southern Israel.

Khaled Abu Toameh and Reuters contributed to this report.

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US sends aircraft carrier to Middle East, warns Iran of ‘unrelenting force’.

May 6, 2019

Source: US sends aircraft carrier to Middle East, warns Iran of ‘unrelenting force’. | The Times of Israel

USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force sent to the region in response to troubling warnings and escalatory indications, says John Bolton

By RON KAMPEASToday, 4:09 am

A picture taken on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012, through the bridge of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) shows U.S. aircraft jets parked on the flight deck in the Strait of Hormuz. The USS Abraham Lincoln sailed from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration is deploying air and sea strike forces to the Middle East in response to what it described as “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran.

“In response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force,” National Security Adviser John Bolton said Sunday evening in a statement.

“The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces,” Bolton said.

It’s not clear what Iranian escalations Bolton is referring to. Israel blames a deadly escalation over the weekend on the Gaza Strip border in part on Iranian arming and funding of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.

The Trump administration is also backing Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and the Saudis say the Houthi forces they are engaging in that country are a proxy for Iran. The Syrian civil war is in its final stages and parties to that conflict, including Iran and its ally, the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group, are seeking to establish permanence in that country. The United States also wants to diminish Iranian influence in Iraq.

Carrier strike groups project power through combat ships and aircraft.

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21-year-old Israeli-American killed in Ashdod rocket attack laid to rest

May 6, 2019

Source: 21-year-old Israeli-American killed in Ashdod rocket attack laid to rest | The Times of Israel

‘I don’t understand why this is happening, but I am sure that you have fulfilled your purpose on this earth,’ says Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman’s father as he is laid to rest

By TOI STAFFToday, 2:03 am

Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman. (Courtesy)

Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman. (Courtesy)

Hundreds gathered in Jerusalem late Sunday night to bury Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman, who was killed earlier in the day after being struck by rocket shrapnel while running for cover in the coastal city of Ashdod.

Prezuazman, 21, was a dual American and Israeli citizen, according to Consul General of Israel in New York Dani Dayan.

“I don’t understand why this is happening, but I am sure that you have fulfilled your purpose on this earth,” his father Haim Dov Prezuazman said as he was laid to rest.

“I had a great blessing to raise you for 21, nearly 22 years,” he said.

Prezuazman leaves behind a wife and a small child.

The rocket that killed Prezuazman was part of an early evening fusillade of dozens of rockets aimed at the southern Israeli cities of Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Yavneh, Gedera, and Beersheba, which have a combined population of over 600,000 residents.

Ultra Orthoodx Jews stand outside the funeral of Pinchas Menahem Prezuazman in Jerusalem on May 5, 2019. Prezuazman was killed by shrapnel from a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashdod earlier Sunday . Hadas Parush/Flash90)

He was the fourth Israeli killed in the latest round of fighting.

Earlier Sunday an Israeli man killed in a rocket attack on the southern city of Ashkelon was identified as Ziad al-Hamamda, 47, and a second victim killed earlier in the day when an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip struck his car was named as 68-year-old Moshe Feder.

Fifty-eight year-old father of four Moshe Agadi was the first fatality after being rushed to Barzilai Medical Center with shrapnel wounds he sustained when the rocket hit his home in the city at around 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

At least 10 others were injured by shrapnel from rockets, missiles and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

The latest round of violence has seen over 650 rockets fired at Israel over the weekend by Gaza terror groups and the Israel Defense Forces responding with strikes against some 300 targets throughout the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Israel has responded to over 650 rockets, missiles, and mortar shells fired into its territory since Saturday with over 300 airstrikes on Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terror group targets in Gaza.

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Amid Gaza violence, Trump says US supports Israel 100% as it defends citizens

May 6, 2019

Source: Amid Gaza violence, Trump says US supports Israel 100% as it defends citizens | The Times of Israel

President warns Gazans that rockets will only bring ‘more misery,’ tells them to give peace a chance; Democratic group urges 2020 hopefuls to stand with Jewish state

By ERIC CORTELLESSA Today, 4:35 am

President Donald Trump pauses while speaking during a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 3, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump pauses while speaking during a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 3, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States supports Israel “100%” as it protects its people from an onslaught of rockets fire from Gaza.

“Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” Trump tweeted Sunday evening in his first remarks since the surge in violence over the weekend. “We support Israel 100% in its defense of its citizens.”

In the worst outbreak from the coastal enclave since the 51-day 2014 war, Gaza militants have fired more than 600 rockets into Israel since Friday, killing four Israelis, including a 21-year-old Israeli-American, and sending much of the country into bomb shelters.

Trump also had a message to the Palestinians.

“To the Gazan people — these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery,” the president said. “END the violence and work towards peace – it can happen!”

The eruption in violence comes as the Trump administration is preparing to unveil its long-awaited peace plan, which officials have said will come as early as June, after the Ramadan holiday, which starts Monday in many places.

Trump’s full backing for Israel is unlikely to impact the Palestinian reaction to the plan, as they have already rejected it, citing previous pro-Israel moves by the Trump administration.

The latest violence began on Friday after a Palestinian sniper wounded two Israeli soldiers, and Gaza terrorists fired rockets and mortars toward Israeli cities and towns.

Israel responded with airstrikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza. Hamas officials said that 22 Palestinians died in the offensive, including a pregnant woman and two young children. The IDF said the pregnant woman was killed by a failed rocket launch from withing the Strip. At least 11 of the Palestinian dead were terrorists.

A car bursts into flames after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on May 5, 2019. (Flash90)

A White House official declined to comment on Sunday when asked how the latest flareup would affect the rollout of the proposal.

Vice President Mike Pence condemned Hamas attacks and said that Israel had a right to protect itself militarily. “We strongly condemn the attacks in Gaza by Hamas terrorists,” he tweeted. “Israel has the absolute right to defend itself & the U.S. stands by our great ally Israel.”

Not everyone in Washington, however, was so unequivocally supportive of Israel.

Freshmen Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, suggested that the root cause of the fighting was Israel’s “occupation” of Gaza and the impoverished conditions there.

“How many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends? The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unsustainable,” she tweeted. “Only real justice can bring about security and lasting peace.”

Under former prime minister Ariel Sharon, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, forcibly evicting 7,000-8,000 settlers and pulling out all its military forces.

After Hamas overtook control over Gaza from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction in a bloody coup in 20007, Israel installed a naval blockage and siege of the strip to prevent weaponry from being smuggled in and block Hamas militants from exacting terror attacks in Israel.

Omar has, in the past, been intensely critical of Israel. She tweeted during the last Israel-Hamas war of 2014 that Israel had “hypnotized the world.”

Friends and relatives mourn as they attend the funeral of 58-year-old Moshe Agadi, who was killed from shrapnel wounds after his house was hit directly by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on May 5, 2019. (Noam Rivkin Fenton/Flash90)

Earlier this year, she accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee of paying public officials to support Israel and said pro-Israel activists were pressuring her to forge an “allegiance” toward Israel, which critics said amounted to her levying the charge of dual loyalty.

The Democratic Majority for Israel, a recently established pro-Israel advocacy group aligned with the Democratic Party, castigated Hamas for firing “deadly and unprovoked rocket attacks on Israeli civilians” and urged all of the party’s presidential hopefuls to publicly express support for Israel in this conflict.

“This is the time for political leaders in both parties to express solidarity with Israel,” the organization’s CEO Mark Mellman. “We urge all of the Democratic presidential candidates to condemn these terror attacks and reaffirm their support of Israel’s right to defend itself.”

As of this writing, none of them have commented.

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Palestinian reports say ceasefire reached, in effect from 04:30 AM

May 6, 2019

Source: Palestinian reports say ceasefire reached, in effect from 04:30 AM | The Times of Israel

No comment from Israel; no rockets fired for several hours; previous reports of truce breached by rocket fire, Israeli air strikes

By TOI STAFFToday, 5:54 am

Israeli emergency personnel gather at the site of rocket attack in the southern Israeli town of Ashdod on May 5, 2019. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Israeli emergency personnel gather at the site of rocket attack in the southern Israeli town of Ashdod on May 5, 2019. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Israel and the Gaza terror groups have reached a ceasefire to end two days of intense fighting that saw more than 600 rockets fired into Israel and 4 civilians killed, which went into effect at 04:30 AM, Arabic-language media reported early Monday, citing sources in Hamas and Islamic Jihad. There was no confirmation or comment from Israel.

The reports come after several hours of quiet and after a previous report of a truce appeared premature, ruptured by rocket fire and airstrikes.

Late Sunday, Hebrew and Arabic media reported that mediators from Egypt and the European Union were on the verge of successfully brokering a ceasefire between Israel and terror groups in the coastal enclave.

The reports cited a Western diplomat, who said the nascent agreement would go into effect around midnight on Monday. UN Middle East Envoy Nikolay Mladenov was said to be mediating the talks along with Egyptian intelligence officials.

But as midnight came, the IDF continued to strike targets in Gaza and rocket sirens were heard across southern Israel. A salvo of rockets fired at the Ashkelon area was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. There were no reports of injuries.

Israeli emergency personnel evacuate a wounded woman from the site of rocket attack in the southern Israeli town of Ashdod on May 5, 2019.(Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

There were no further rockets or airstrikes after 02:00 AM, perhaps indicating progress in the ceasefire talks.

The Arabic media reports said the original ceasefire had floundered over an Israeli refusal to allow in Qatari cash. Hamas was adamant it wanted the money ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that starts Monday in the Palestinian territories and much of the Muslim World.

For it’s part, Israel did not comment reports of the deal, but it has refrained from doing so in the past, even denying reported ceasefires, which went on to hold for days, weeks and or months at a time.

Despite reports on a truce, local authorities announced Monday schools would remain closed within a 40 kilometer (25 miles) radius from Gaza.

Rockets are launched from Gaza Strip to Israel, Sunday, May 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Shortly after midnight, the Gaza terror groups said the fighting would continue until Israel gives in to their demands and acknowledges the understandings reached.

“The battle will not end until the occupation responds affirmatively to our people’s demands,” the Joint Command Center of Armed Palestinian factions in Gaza said in a statement early Monday.

“We will not allow the settlers to leave their shelters as long as the enemy’s leadership denies its understandings with the resistance,” it said.

Earlier Sunday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that restoring calm in and around the Gaza Strip would be possible if Israel agreed to stop all retaliatory strikes in the Palestinian enclave.

Smoke billows from a targeted neighborhood in Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave on May 5, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

A senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad official said the group would also be willing to hold its fire if Israel agreed to its “obligations” — an apparent reference to pledges from Jerusalem last month to ease restrictions around the Gaza Strip and allow $30 million dollars in Qatari aid into the coastal enclave.

On Sunday night, the Israeli military said it bombed some 40 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip in its latest round of airstrikes, bringing the IDF’s total number of raids up to 320 in the past two days. The military said it targeted “observation headquarters, underground bunkers, weapons caches, military facilities, launchpads, observation posts and more” in its most recent air raids.

The army said it targeted sites connected to both the Hamas terror group, which rules Gaza, and the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Palestinian medical officials reported 29 dead since Friday, including at least 11 terrorists, The Times of Israel confirmed.

The high-level security cabinet huddled for five hours on Sunday over the violence that killed four Israeli civilians in a single day, the deadliest casualty rate for Israel since the 2014 Gaza war.

Following the meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a brief statement saying that the army has been instructed “to continue the strikes and prepare for them to continue.”

Palestinians carry an injured boy outside a hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza strip on May 5, 2019. (ANAS BABA / AFP)

The statement added that the government’s “main consideration is the security of the state and its citizens.” This appeared to refer to claims that Israel might cave to the demands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in order to prevent the fight from continuing into Israel’s Memorial and Independence Days later this week and the international Eurovision Song Contest planned for May 14-18 in Tel Aviv.

As of Sunday evening, four people in Israel were killed and at least 10 injured by shrapnel from rockets, missiles and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

Fifty-eight year-old father of four Moshe Agadi was the first fatality after being rushed to Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center with shrapnel wounds he sustained when the rocket hit his home in the city at around 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

In a barrage aimed at the same southern city later in the day, a rocket directly hit a factory, killing a Zaid al-Hamamdeh, a 47-year-old father of seven, and injuring two others.

A short while later, a third man, Moshe Feder, 60, was fatally wounded when an anti-tank guided missile slammed into his car as he was driving along the Route 34 highway near the community of Kibbutz Erez, just north of the Gaza border. He sustained a serious shrapnel wound to the leg, causing significant blood loss. Feder was pronounced dead at Barzilai’s Medical Center after CPR efforts failed. The Hamas terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Sunday evening, a fourth man was killed after being struck by rocket shrapnel while running for cover in the southern city of Ashdod, medics said. Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman, 21, was survived by his wife and son. He was laid to rest in Jerusalem.

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