News Review 03/01/2024

‘Israel’ Assassinates Senior Hamas Leader

An ‘Israeli’ drone strike hit a Hamas office in Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least six people, including a senior Hamas official. A US official told The Washington Post that ‘Israel’ was responsible for the strike that killed Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau. Hamas has confirmed that al-Arouri was killed and released a statement on his assassination. “The cowardly assassinations carried out by the Zionist occupation against the leaders and symbols of our Palestinian people inside and outside Palestine will not succeed in breaking the will and steadfastness of our people or in undermining the continuation of their valiant resistance,” Hamas said. Al-Arouri's death is likely the Jewish entity's first extraterritorial assassination of a Hamas official since it publicized its plans to conduct targeted attacks in December 2023. On Dec. 1, 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that ‘Israeli’ intelligence services planned to track down Hamas leaders in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar as part of its objective to "eradicate Hamas.

Survivors of Nova Music Festival Sue ‘Israeli’ Security Establishment

Forty-two ‘Israelis’ who attended the Nova music festival near the Gaza border that was attacked on October 7 have sued the Israeli security establishment for failing to protect the event. The lawsuit filed a claim for $56 million against ‘Israel’s’ Shin Bet security agency, the ‘Israeli’ Defense Forces, the Defense Ministry, and the ‘Israeli’ Police and says the agencies’ “negligence and the gross oversight” allowed the Hamas attack on the festival to happen. “A single phone call by IDF officials to the commander responsible for the party to disperse it immediately in view of the expected danger would have saved lives and prevented the physical and mental injuries of hundreds of partygoers, including the plaintiffs,” the lawsuit reads. Haaretz has reported that top ‘Israeli’ military officials held consultations the night before October 7 to discuss warnings it received about a possible Hamas attack. But nobody in the military notified the Nova festival organizers of the threat even though the event was supposed to be under IDF protection. “On the night between October 6 and October 7, at least two IDF assessments were held due to unusual incidents on the Gaza Strip border, one near midnight and another assessment close to 3 am, several hours before the Hamas attack,” the lawsuit reads. The festival’s production team has said they could have evacuated the party even if they received a warning just one hour before the attack. Once the ‘Israeli’ military did show up, they started firing indiscriminately at Palestinian militants and ‘Israeli’ civilians. An ‘Israeli’ police investigation found that an IDF helicopter that arrived at the scene fired on Hamas fighters and also hit some festival participants.

UK Ready to Take ‘Direct Action’ Against the Houthis

British Defense Minister Grant Shapps has said the UK is willing to take “direct action” against Yemen’s Houthis over attacks on Israel-linked commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Writing in The Telegraph, Shapps pointed to a recent incident where a British warship shot down a Houthi drone. He said the interception was “the first time that our Navy had shot down an aerial target in anger in more than 30 years. ”Shapps said the British warship demonstrated that “we are willing to take direct action, and we won’t hesitate to take further action to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.” His comments came after the US sank three Houthi boats, killing 10 people the US military said were attacking a container ship. The incident marked a significant escalation as they were the first deaths in the Red Sea since the Houthis started targeting Israeli-linked commercial shipping in response to Israel’s Gaza onslaught. Shapps noted that the UK joined the US-led coalition in the Red Sea, known as Operation Prosperity Guardian, an initiative many countries, including close US allies, are reluctant to participate since the initiative was launched to back up the Zionist entity massacre in Gaza.