Monday, August 13, 2018
MEMRI: Official Fatah Facebook Page Honors Japanese Terrorist Kozo Okamoto
On August 12, 2018, Fatah's official Facebook page posted a photo of Japanese terrorist Kozo Okamoto and information about him. Okamoto was one of three terrorists, members of the Japanese Red Army (JRA), who carried out an attack in Israel's Lod Airport on May 30, 1972, in which 26 people were killed and 79 were injured. Before participating in the attack, in 1971, Okamoto trained in Lebanon with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Okamoto's fellow terrorists were killed in the course of the attack, and he himself was sentenced by an Israeli court to three consecutive life sentences, but was released after 13 years as part of the Jibril Agreement, a prisoners exchange deal between Israel and the PFLP-General Command.Kushner is right about the United Nations
The following is a translation of the post on Fatah's Facebook page:[1]
The August 12, 2018 post on Fatah's Facebook page
"Who Is Kozo Okamoto?
"1. A Japanese fighter who carried out an attack against the Zionists in Palestine.
"2. Converted to Islam at the age of 24 and participated in an operation at Lod Airport in 1972, in which 26 Zionists were killed. He was captured after he ran out of ammunition.
"3. He was sentenced to death but following pressures by Japan his sentence was changed to life in prison.
"4. He was released in 1985."
It should be noted that this is not the first post about Okamoto to appear on Fatah's official Facebook page. On May 18, 2016, a post appeared headed "Who Is Comrade Kozo Okamoto, the International Revolutionary?," which said: "On May 30, 1972, a squad of three Japanese commandos stormed the Lod Airport. They threw five grenades: three at the planes parked at the airport, one at the customs office there, and another at the vehicles parked at the airport. As a result 26 Israelis were killed and over 80 were injured. After throwing the grenades the squad started retreating from the airport, and clashed on the way with an Israeli patrol near Ramla prison, wounding five members of the patrol unit.[2] Two of the three Japanese commandos gave their lives [in the attack]: Tsuyoshi Okudaira (whose nom de guerre was Bassam), and Yasuyuki Yasuda (whose nom de guerre was Salah). The third, Kozo Okamoto (whose nom de guerre is Ahmad), was wounded and captured. The operation was planned by the PFLP.
Jared Kushner may be right in seeking to disrupt the current structure of US assistance to the Palestinians. Since 1950, America has contributed more than $6 billion to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA supports roughly 5 million registered Palestinian refugees, and their descendants, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, who were displaced during the 1948 and 1967 Israeli-Arab wars. About 30,000 of UNRWA’s 5 million Palestinians are first generation refugees. UNRWA’s most visible operations are in Gaza, a nearly impossible responsibility made even more difficult, as Hamas and the Israelis are on the brink of a fourth war in the last decade. Like any organization established in the 1950s, it is time for 21st Century disruption. Re-visioning UNRWA, however, requires thoughtful diplomacy and economic nuance.Fearing Gaza crisis, Israel asks US to scale back aid agency cuts
The international community should not regard UNRWA as a monolith. Circumstances in Jordan, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem are vastly different than in Gaza, Syria, or the sealed refugee camps in Lebanon. UNRWA primarily provides health, education, and social services; make no mistake this assistance is life-saving to the most vulnerable. But after 70 years, the structure and incentives have ossified to create welfare dependency. Most Palestinians would prefer the dignity of a state, a job, and the potential of a real future than food basket deliveries, generation after generation. While acknowledging its good work in tough places, UNRWA subsidizes dysfunctionality and an unsustainable status quo in most of the Levant. Here are three suggestions to hack UNRWA.
Kushner is right to demand a fundamental re-ordering of UNRWA. The UN agency serves as a welfare and humanitarian relief provider which after 70 years subsidizes despair and continued conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. Yet, hacking UNRWA raises a few cautionary flags given that disruptive change can do real harm. The administration must ensure that UNRWA can start the school year for all of its students, particularly in Gaza. Imagine the Israelis and Palestinians on the brink of war with schools closed indefinitely. Further, an UNRWA exit strategy will require intense international cooperation. Lastly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the death bed of big ideas and failure is a real possibility. The world today is vastly different from the one in 1950 when UNRWA was created. Disrupting the UNRWA’s organizational model is essential if the Middle East wants to see a different future.
Israel has asked the United States not to withhold funds from the U.N. agency responsible for assisting Gazans out of concern that this would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in the Hamas-ruled enclave and increase the probability of armed conflict.
Sources familiar with the details told Israel Hayom on Sunday that the Israeli position was presented to the Trump administration several months ago, and remains unchanged.
Officially, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East provides educational, health and social services to some 5 million Palestinian "refugees" living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
However, the agency has been accused of engaging in anti-Semitic incitement, and Hamas terrorists have used UNRWA facilities in Gaza to target Israeli civilians.
In January, the Trump administration cut tens of millions of dollars in funding for UNRWA, demanding that it undertake a "fundamental re-examination."
The State Department notified UNRWA then that the U.S. was withholding $65 million of its planned $125 million funding, and said that additional U.S. donations would be contingent on major changes by UNRWA.
Peter Lerner: The question of proportionality
Over the recent days during the flareup with Hamas in Gaza, several foreign correspondents have raised questions of proportionality of the IDF conduct.UN Enabling Hamas's War Machine
However, contrary to some of the predetermined opinions, the bare figures scream credible level of proportionality. The IDF conducted, by its own admission, approximately 180 precision strikes. In the aftermath of those strikes the Hamas Ministry of Health announced that three people had been killed.
One of the dead was announced as a Hamas terrorist. The two others were reported as civilians. Inas Abu Khmash, a 23-year-old pregnant woman, and her 18-month daughter, Bayan. While their deaths are tragic, they are not an indication of a disproportionate response to Hamas’ bombardment of Israel’s southern communities. With some 200 rockets and mortars fired, 28 Israelis that required medical assistance, 30 Iron Dome interceptions, I would argue the heart-rending Palestinian deaths indicate the exact opposite.
The precision strikes, on Hamas’ assets with so few death goes to show how deep and thorough the planning process the IDF has put in place, it highlights the vast intelligence capabilities, and how the execution of that plan is nearly flawless. The military clearly understood that civilian deaths could make the step off of the cliff into another war inescapable. The last escalation was a result not of Israel’s intention to go to war, but the use of military force in order to try and prevent it. Kinetic diplomacy to send a clear message. That message was proportionate.
This ceasefire initiative is rather disturbing: it requires no meaningful concessions on the part of Hamas. It leaves, for example, wholly intact Hamas's extremist ideology, which calls for the destruction of Israel, and does not demand that Hamas lay down its weapons.The Gaza Conundrum and the Two-State Solution
A ceasefire may sound good, but in the current circumstances it will send a deadly message to Hamas and the other terror factions in the Gaza Strip: namely, that long-term terror bombardment of Israel gets you economic and humanitarian projects funded by the United Nations and Western donors, and perhaps even a seaport and airport. The ceasefire would give Hamas five to ten years to continue amassing weapons, tightening its grip on the Gaza Strip, and preparing for its next war with Israel.
Any ceasefire agreement will be perceived as a reward for Hamas-sponsored terrorism and violence against Israel. These negotiations will spur other terrorist groups around the world to continue their attacks with the hope of gaining legitimacy and forcing the UN and the international community to negotiate also with them.
Why is the UN apparently prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the Gaza Strip while keeping Hamas in power and even allowing it to become stronger? Why is the UN being allowed to play the role of savior of Hamas?
For Israelis, it’s a case of déjà vu all over again.Hamas Is Taking the Region to the Brink of War
As they have so many times in the last 11 years since the Hamas coup in Gaza, residents of southern Israel have been dashing to shelters as the Islamist terrorist group showered the region with rocket fire. Once again, the IDF struck back hard and prepared for the possibility that Hamas would make a fatal miscalculation. This would leave Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu no choice but to launch the sort of devastating military campaign that would — like Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014 — bring some quiet to the border.
But whether or not another temporary ceasefire is reached before things get out of hand, the one thing that everyone on both sides of the border knows is that a real solution to the problem is not in sight.
Neither Israel nor Egypt will lift the blockade of Gaza as long as Hamas is in power, for the very obvious reason that doing so would allow Iran and other bad regional actors to help arm the terrorists and make the Strip an even more formidable military stronghold.
Since Israel has no desire to rule Gaza again, let alone pay the price in blood and treasure in order to take back the territory it abandoned in 2005, the only possible candidate to replace the Islamist group is the Palestinian Authority (PA). But despite its occasional feints in the direction of a unity deal with Hamas, the PA has no interest in taking on the burden of administering Gaza. Indeed, it was the PA and its leader Mahmoud Abbas’ attempt to put financial pressure on Hamas that helped precipitate the new round of fighting.
The security escalation in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip shows that Hamas is prepared to take the region to the brink of war, and that it believes it can force new rules of conduct on Israel while paying a minimal price for its aggression. Its actions have placed the region in danger of a major new conflict.Calm, but still no Gaza ceasefire
Hamas’ leadership is dangling the option of a long-term truce before Israel with one hand and firing barrages of rockets at southern Israel with the other, terrorizing hundreds of thousands of Israelis and risking the security of the Gazan civilians it rules over.
Why is Hamas doing this? Essentially, it’s because its leadership wants to signal to Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority that it is willing to go all the way in its quest to end Gaza’s isolation, and that if it cannot get enough money into Gaza to save its regime and military wing, it is willing to drag the area into a new war, whatever the consequences.
The latest round of fighting began when a Hamas live-fire demonstration of snipers in Gaza was seen, apparently by mistake, as an attack on the IDF, drawing Israeli tank fire that killed two Hamas gunmen. Hamas swore to avenge their deaths and began rocketing the Israeli south. But the tank-fire incident is more of a secondary catalyst that acted as a spark in a powder keg.
Hamas is gambling on the assumption that Israel, preoccupied with greater threats to the north in the form of Hezbollah and Iranian forces in Lebanon and Syria, will make due with responding with limited airstrikes and seize on the opportunity to de-escalate in Gaza.
The Security Cabinet met on Sunday for the second time within four days to discuss the Gaza violence as well as UN and Egyptian efforts for a long-term truce.
Israel demands nothing less than a complete cease-fire from Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday before the weekly government meeting.
“We are in the midst of a campaign against terror in Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “It entails an exchange of blows; it will not end in one strike. Our demand is clear: a complete cease-fire. We will not suffice with less than this. As of now, we have destroyed hundreds of Hamas military targets, and in each round the IDF exacts an additional heavy price. I will not reveal here our operational plans; they are ready.”
The prime minister said Israel’s objective is to restore quiet to residents of the South and the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. “This goal will be achieved in full,” he added.
Netanyahu spoke as Israel is working on a three-pronged approach to Gaza: preparations for a military campaign; an understanding by which calm is restored; and the possibility of approving a long-term and extensive cease-fire deal.
Update on the situation in #Israel's south:
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) August 13, 2018
🔥 7,413 acres of land burned
🔥 1,364 fires started by incendiary kites/balloons
🔥 10-12 million NIS worth of damage from arson attacks
🔥 1,832 people treated for trauma pic.twitter.com/GVXJPLqcyC
Caught on video.......#Palestinians trying to infiltrate #Israel border during demonstrations at the security fence on Friday. pic.twitter.com/I7iigDV0Dk
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) August 12, 2018
Congress and Jewish Groups Express Solidarity with Israel after Hamas Rocket Barrage
Members of Congress and the American Jewish community are reacting to the most recent escalation between Hamas and Israel, with the former firing rockets from Gaza into the latter.Defense minister: All Gazans killed by Israel since March 30 were Hamas members
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) posted on Twitter, “150 rockets fired at Israel from Hamas and other terrorists last night. 11 wounded. Israel has the right to defend itself from any attacks on its people. These attacks must stop. Hamas’ brutality continues to threaten the lives of Israelis and Palestinians.”
Similarly, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, “strongly condemned” the rocket fire.
“I support Israel’s right to self-defense. No one should have to live under this threat, and no country should be asked to sit on its hands while citizens face a barrage of rockets,” Engel said in a statement.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said that he stands with Israel.
“As a key national security partner, we must strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself,” Rep. Fitzpatrick said on Twitter. “With the latest rocket attacks, Hamas continues to escalate conflict rather than seek peace.”
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday said every Palestinian killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip in the past four and a half months was a member of the Hamas terrorist group, apparently including a number of women and children in his overview of the fatalities.Defense minister’s office clarifies: Not all Gazans killed on fence were Hamas
The defense minister also said the next round of fighting with Hamas was a matter of “when,” rather than “if.” The current violence has largely subsided since Thursday under a de facto ceasefire agreement.
“Since the start of the ‘March of Return’ events, Hamas has sustained 168 deaths, 4,348 injured and dozens of terror facilities destroyed,” Liberman said, referring to a series of organized protests and clashes along the Gaza border.
A spokesperson for the defense minister’s office confirmed to The Times of Israel that Liberman’s intention was to state that all 168 people killed were Hamas members.
Since March, there have been near-weekly violent protests along the Israel-Gaza border supported by Gaza’s Hamas rulers, as well as rocket and mortar attacks on Israel and retaliatory IDF airstrikes. The deadly border clashes have seen Israeli security forces facing gunfire, grenades, Molotov cocktails, and efforts — sometimes successful — to damage or penetrate the border fence. Last month, an Israeli soldier was killed by a sniper.
Israel said to confiscate tens of thousands of balloons en route to Gaza
In the past several weeks, Israel has prevented tens of thousands of balloons from being shipped to Gaza, out of concern they would be used to launch incendiary devices into Israel, according to a television report on Sunday.Argentina blames Gaza violence on Palestinians
Three shipping containers destined for the coastal enclave and carrying tens of thousands of balloons were stopped at the Ashdod port and confiscated, Channel 10 reported.
Southern Israel has experienced hundreds of fires as a result of incendiary kites and balloons flown over the border from Gaza in recent months. Over 7,000 acres of land have been burned, causing millions of shekels in damage, according to Israeli officials.
Despite an apparent truce with the Hamas terrorist group since Thursday, incendiary kites and balloons from Gaza have continued to plague Israeli border communities, with a large incendiary kite landing on power lines near Kibbutz Sufa on Friday, causing blackouts in surrounding homes.
In a sign of Buenos Aires’ changing attitude toward Israel, the Argentine Foreign Ministry on Friday issued a statement that seemed to put the blame for recent clashes between the Israeli military and Hamas squarely on the Palestinians.Casualty Counts as a Moral Barometer and Virtue Signalling
Referring to the recent escalation in tensions which has seen the Hamas terror group fire hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory and the Israelis subsequently carry out numerous retaliatory strikes against Hamas outposts and fighters, the statement expressed its “deep concern” over the violence which is said had been “caused by the launch of rockets towards Israel.”
In a tweet on its official account the same day, the ministry reiterated this position in identical language.
“The Argentine Government reiterates the pressing need for the peace process to be resumed in order to reach a fair and lasting solution, so that the State of Israel can exist peacefully alongside its neighbors, within secure and internationally recognized borders, and the Palestinian people can establish a sovereign, independent and viable State based on the 1967 borders and in accordance with the agreements reached by the parties in the negotiation process,” the rest of the statement read.
I don’t know enough about the Yemeni incident to comment on Jones’ criticism of the Saudis. But as for Israel, I have five thoughts:Israeli-Palestinian support for 2-states at 20 years low, poll says
1. Using casualties as some kind of moral barometer is perverse. Jones simply strips the numbers of all context to sling his mud.
If the number of dead Israelis isn’t equal to (or greater than) the number of dead Palestinians, it’s not for lack of Palestinian effort. We don’t apologize for surviving years of suicide bombings, drive-by shootings, stabbings, rock throwings, firebombings and now incendiary kites and balloons. If Hamas was capable of producing more precise rockets or outgunning Iron Dome, it would.
2. Israel’s battle with Hamas is a battle with Hamas. Sorry, Jones, but the nearly 200 rockets fired on Wednesday night aren’t objects you frame (or spin or whitewash).
3. If Gaza is indeed “open-air prison camp,” it’s not because Israel is throwing its weight as a “regional military superpower.” It’s because Hamas is trying smuggle weapons into Gaza by sea and by land. When the Gaza terror threat ends, so will the blockade. For now, Hamas is remarkably persistent.
But Israel is too.
Deal with it.
Support for a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the lowest point in two decades, according to new data released by a private survey on Monday.Is South America Turning Pro-Israel?
Only 49% of Israelis and 43% of Palestinians support the idea, according to a poll conducted at the end of June. In 2010, 71% of Israelis believed in a two-state resolution and 57% of Palestinians. A look at only the June 2018 data for Israelis Jews shows that the Israeli support also drops to 43%.
The data was collected by Dr. Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin from the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University.
They have been conducting a survey, The Palestinian-Israeli Pulse: A Joint Poll, for the last eight years.
They commented that this particular data set is “the lowest in more than a decade, when a steady decline in support began, and the lowest in almost two decades of joint Palestinian-Israeli survey research.”
New Colombian government to review recognition of ‘Palestine,’ whereas leading Brazilian presidential candidate vows to shut Palestinian missionZionist NGO Calls on Swiss Ambassador to Stop Digging into Israel’s State Secrets
A day after Colombia’s foreign minister announced the country’s recognition of a Palestinian state, the government backtracked and vowed to review the move. The original decision was taken by former president Juan Manuel Santos right before he was replaced by Ivan Duque, who was sworn in on Tuesday.
The new leader—who has since promised to re-evaluate the position—reportedly was informed earlier this week of his predecessor’s behind-the-scene dealings, which were made official in an August 3 letter to the Palestinian representative in Bogota.
Colombia is the last country in South America to formally recognize the “State of Palestine,” a declaration made by some 130 nations worldwide.
“There may be excesses regarding the way this decision was taken by the outgoing president,” current Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes stated, adding that “the [Duque] government will carefully examine its consequences and act in accordance with international law.”
Hanan Jarrar, head of the Palestinian Government Directorate of the Americas & the Caribbean, contended to The Media Line that “the recognition is completely legal as the former president made the decision during his mandate.” She attributed the development to two years of hard campaigning by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Zionist Ad Kan NGO last week sent a letter to the Swiss Embassy in Israel following publication of its report on the conduct of the NGO Akevot—Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research. Akevot exposes classified materials from state archives and the security apparatus to the public, with financing from foreign governments.IDF Serves Demolition Order to Palestinian Family of Killer
Ad Kan asked the Swiss ambassador in Israel to explain his country’s reasons for funding the Akevot activities to the tune of some $200,000, and demanded that embassy staff be instructed to resume acceptable diplomatic protocol.
Ad Kan’s report revealed that Akevot maintains a problematic relationship with the State Archivist Dr. Yaacov Lozowick. Dr. Lozowick oversees all of Israel’s official archives, including the IDF Archive. He is in charge of implementing the state’s declassification policies, and makes the final rulings on which documents will be open for the public and which not. In recent years, Lozowick was at the center of a public debate over attempts to enhance transparency of archival content, which were met with increasing restrictions on access to numerous sensitive documents. Even more recently, Lozowick announced he would leave his position and published a long, condemning report, stating that at present “Israel is not dealing with its archival material in a manner befitting a democracy.”
The family of Muhammad Yousef, who infiltrated the town of Adam in July and stabbed Yotam Ovadia to death, received notice that their house will be demolished by the Israel Defense Forces.East Jerusalem woman charged with incitement for praising Hamas, terrorists
On July 26, Yotam Ovadia, a 31-year-old father-of-two, was stabbed multiple times in the upper body by 17-year-old Yousef, who had infiltrated Ovadia’s hometown of Adam, 11 miles from his own home of Kobar in Samaria. Yousef attacked another resident of the community, but was ultimately stopped by another Adam resident, who witnessed the attacks and shot Yousef dead.
Following the attack, Yousef’s family home was raided by the IDF. On Monday, the military issued formal notification to the family that their home would be destroyed. The Yousefs will have the opportunity to appeal to Israel’s High Court of Justice, although the body has rarely issued injunctions against demolition in such cases.
An East Jerusalem resident was indicted Monday for incitement over social media posts allegedly praising Hamas and terror attacks against Israelis.PMW: PA aligns with Saudi Arabia against Canada
Suzan Abu Ghannam, 39, from the mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood of Abu Tor, was also charged at the Jerusalem District Court with identifying with a terror group.
According to the indictment, since January 2017 Abu Ghannam frequently published on Facebook and Instagram praise for Hamas, its military wing and some of its late members, among them top bomb-maker Yahya Ayyash, who was responsible for dozens of Israeli deaths before he was assassinated in 1996.
She is also accused of calling for violence and terror acts against Israel. In May 2018 her Facebook account was blocked, but she opened another account and continued to post.
In response to the Canadian call to free 15 human rights and women's rights activists detained by Saudi Arabia, the Saudi authorities expelled the Canadian ambassador.Palestinian detained by the PA dies in hospital
Just days later, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared his support for Saudi Arabia and condemned the Canadian "interference" which he referred to as no less than "a blow to the sovereignty of the kingdom."
Headline: "The [PA] president opposes the Canadian interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia"
"[PA] President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas emphasized that the Palestinian people and its leadership stand alongside the brothers in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and heir to the throne Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
His Honor [Abbas] expressed his opposition to and condemnation of the interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom by any party. He said that it is a blow to the sovereignty of the kingdom over its land and its people... and described it as blatant interference.
His Honor called on the Arab states to stand alongside the kingdom, and to oppose the Canadian interference in its internal affairs and to condemn it (referring to Canadian call to release detained rights activists; see note below -Ed.)." [WAFA, official PA news agency, Aug. 6, 2018]
Ironically, it is the PA that often calls on the international community to apply pressure on Israel to release terrorist prisoners, including murderers, arrested by Israel.
A Palestinian detainee who was held in a Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho died on Sunday in a Ramallah hospital.Four Security Members, at Least Three Militants, Killed in Jordan Shoot Out
The man, Ahmed Abu Hamadeh, nicknamed “Al-Za’bour,” was the leader of an armed gang in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus. For several years, he was considered the PA’s No. 1 enemy in the Nablus area.
He was arrested several months ago by PA security forces in Nablus as part of a crackdown on gunmen in Balata, which is known as a stronghold for unruly Fatah activists.
Abu Hamadeh was transferred from the Jericho prison to the Ramallah al-Istishari Hospital 10 days ago, his family said in a statement. The family said that their 26-year-old son did not suffer from any health problems before he was transferred to hospital.
“The Palestinian security forces are responsible for his death,” the family said.
Security forces pulled the bodies of three suspected militants from the wreckage of a building in a central Jordanian city on Sunday following a shoot-out in which at least four security personnel were also killed, the government said.Egyptian Forces Kills 12 Suspected Militants in Sinai: Agency
In a huge security operation, Jordanian forces laid siege to the building in a residential part of Salt on Saturday night in a search for those responsible for a bomb attack on Friday on a police van.
The police vehicle had been maintaining security near a music festival in the majority Christian town of Fuhais, near the capital Amman and 15 kms (about 10 miles) from Salt.
Four security personnel were killed during the operation after the suspected militants sought sanctuary in the multi-story building in Salt, a hillside city, the government said.
The side of the building partially collapsed, possibly because of a blast from a suicide bomber inside, a security source said.
Security forces had seized automatic weapons in a “continuing operation,” government spokeswoman Jumana Ghunaimat told Reuters.
Egyptian security forces have killed 12 suspected militants in raids on their hideouts in north Sinai, state news agency MENA reported on Sunday, the latest in a campaign to uproot armed Islamists behind a wave of violence in the area.Observatory: Death Toll in Syria Blast Climbs to 69
The deaths raised to at least 325 the number of suspected militants killed in the Sinai campaign which began in February, according to a Reuters count based on military statements. At least 35 military personnel have also been killed.
The state news agency said security forces came under fire when they raided a walled compound in al-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, without giving a time frame for the incident.
It said the raiding forces responded in kind and 12 suspected militants were killed in the shootout. The authorities were trying to verify their identities.
Five rifles, four of them automatic guns, were recovered from the scene as well as some ammunition and two ready-to-use bombs, MENA said.
There were no reports of casualties among security forces.
The number of people killed when an explosion ripped through a building thought to be storing weapons in rebel-held northwestern Syria has climbed to 69 including 17 children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Monday.Syrian Rebels Build an Army With Turkish Help, Face Challenges
The explosion happened in a residential building in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province near the Turkish border on Sunday. Idlib forms part of the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.
A “National Army” being set up by Syrian rebels with Turkey’s help could become a long-term obstacle to President Bashar al-Assad’s recovery of the northwest – if they can end factional rivalries that have long blighted the opposition.U.S. ambassador urges Britain to ditch support for Iran nuclear deal
The effort is at the heart of plans by the Turkish-backed opposition to secure and govern a strip of territory that forms part of the last big rebel stronghold in Syria.
The presence of Turkish forces on the ground has helped to shield it from government attack.
Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has vowed to recover “every inch” of Syria, and though he has now won back most of the country, the Turkish presence will complicate any government offensive in the northwest.
Turkey’s role has gone beyond supporting allied Syrian forces to rebuilding schools and hospitals. At least five branches of the Turkish post office have opened in the area.
Colonel Haitham Afisi, head of the National Army, says setting up the force has been no easy task over the last year.
The United States urged Britain on Sunday to ditch its support for a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and instead join forces with Washington to counter the global threat it says Tehran poses.Iran's Khamenei bans holding direct talks with United States
Despite opposition from European allies, US President Trump in May pulled the United States out of a deal between world powers and Tehran under which international sanctions were lifted in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear program.
Since then, Britain, France and Germany have sought to keep the deal alive, while Trump has prepared new sanctions, saying a broader and more balanced deal is needed. Iran has denounced the sanctions as "US unilateralism".
US Ambassador to Britain Woody Johnson criticized Tehran for funding "proxy wars and malign activities" instead of investing in its economy. He said Iran needed to make tangible and sustained changes to behave like a normal country.
"Until then, America is turning up the pressure and we want the UK by our side," Johnson wrote in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
"It is time to move on from the flawed 2015 deal. We are asking global Britain to use its considerable diplomatic power and influence and join us as we lead a concerted global effort towards a genuinely comprehensive agreement."
Iran's Supreme Leader on Monday rejected US President Donald Trump's offer of unconditional talks to improve bilateral ties and he also accused the Iranian government of economic mismanagement in the face of reimposed US sanctions.Iran unveils new short-range Fateh ballistic missile
Washington reimposed the sanctions last week after pulling out of a 2015 international deal aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program in return for an easing of economic sanctions. Trump has also threatened to penalize companies that continue to operate in Iran.
"I ban holding any talks with America... America never remains loyal to its promises in talks," said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on policy in the Islamic Republic.
"America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal is a clear proof that America cannot be trusted," state TV quoted Khamenei as telling a gathering attended by thousands of Iranians.
Iran has unveiled a new generation of short-range Fateh missiles just days after the Islamic Republic fired a Fateh-110 ballistic missile, the first ballistic missile launch in more than a year.Iran plans to take back uranium given to Russia under nuclear deal
The new missile generation was unveiled by Iranian Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Amir Hatami, who said the new agile and precise tactile stealth missile was able to evade enemy radar, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.
According to Tasnim, Hatami said the latest Fateh missile – which has already been tested – will boost Iran’s defensive capabilities. He stressed Iran would not stop enhancing their missile capabilities.
“As I had promised the Iranian nation, I will spare no effort to boost the country’s missile capabilities and we will certainly increase our missile power everyday,” Hatami said. “With a powerful, smart and up-to-date defense industry, we will be able to preserve peace and stability, and today, the enemies are fully aware of the Islamic Republic’s defense power. Be sure that the greater the pressures and psychological warfare against the great nation of Iran, our will to enhance our defense power in all fields will increase.”
Fox News reported on Sunday that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired last week a third generation Fateh-110 in an anti-ship configuration from Iranian soil, crossing part of the Strait of Hormuz, before impacting a desert test range 100 miles away.
Iran will reclaim a portion of the 20%-enriched uranium stockpile it surrendered to Russia as part of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran's Fars news agency reported Sunday.Three Kurdish groups in Iran are now fighting the IRGC
Under the nuclear agreement, Iran committed to shipping out all except 300 kilograms (650 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium, and either to export its 20%-enriched uranium – a level after which further refinement to weapons-grade purity is relatively easy – or process it down into low-enriched uranium, or turn it into fuel plates to power a research reactor.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, deputy director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said the reimposition of U.S. sanctions following U.S. President Donald Trump’s pullout from the nuclear accord in May makes reclaiming the uranium necessary for "domestic needs."
"If the fuel is sold to us, we do not need to produce it by ourselves," Kamalvandi told Fars. "If the nuclear deal remains alive, the other sides should sell us the fuel and if the nuclear deal dies, then we would feel unimpeded to produce the 20% fuel ourselves."
Kamalvandi said Iran stopped producing 20%-enriched uranium and transferred its stockpile to Russia in 10 batches under the 2015 deal. Russia had already returned one batch of the fuel earlier this year at Iran’s request, and a second would be returned soon, he said.
The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday that they had killed “10 militants” in the Kurdish region of Iran. The same day the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) said they had engaged in “heavy clashes” with the IRGC near the city of Oshnavieh and had killed 12 “IRGC terrorists.”Iran TV Accused of Muting ‘Death to the Dictator’ Anti-Government Chants at Soccer Match
The battles come amidst a rise in tensions in Iran with US sanctions kicking in and after six months of protests in various parts of the country, including the Kurdish region. Sensing the regime is strained and the Kurdish groups are now trying to carry out more public attacks on Iran’s IRGC.
On Sunday, the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) suggested forming a more united front of Kurdish groups opposing the Iranian regime.
There are several Iranian Kurdish groups that have been resisting the regime over the last decade. The PDKI was a thorn in the side of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the 1980s during a time of tremendous upheaval when the country was transformed by the theocratic government and the war against Iraq.
In 1989, Iranian agents assassinated Dr. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, secretary-general of the PDKI, in Vienna. It viewed the Kurdish fighters as such a threat that it even threatened to invade Iraq and shelled their positions in Iraq where many Iranian Kurds had fled.
Iranians reported Saturday that the state broadcaster had muted stadium noise during the previous evening’s soccer match in Tehran, in an apparent attempt to drown out anti-government chants.
Mobile phone footage shared widely on social media showed thousands of fans in Tehran’s Azadi stadium chanting “Death to the dictator” during the fixture between the capital’s Esteghlal and Tractor Sazi from the northwestern city of Tabriz.
Although the video could not be independently verified, it coincided with a decision by state broadcaster IRIB to mute the sound and avoid shots of the crowd.
“Yesterday, when the football was being shown, the sound in the stadium was turned down to such a level that one would think they were playing in an alleyway,” said one Twitter user.
IRIB’s soccer commentators blamed “network disruption” for the low volume, without giving details.
The liberating chant of the "Death to the Dictator" can today be heard from anywhere, any place in #Iran! This clip is from yesterday football match in Tehran's Azadi stadium.
— Amir Bolurchi (@ablrchi) August 11, 2018
Iran protesters continue to say #IranProtests until #IranRegimeChange pic.twitter.com/M64eeWj5DO
