Friday, June 27, 2025

06/27 Links Pt1: Trump speculates Gaza ceasefire will be reached ‘within the next week’; ‘Ha’aretz’ article accusing IDF war crimes a ‘blood libel,’ Netanyahu says

From Ian:

Amit Segal: How Ron Dermer Helped Shape History Behind the Scenes
Just 24 hours later, dozens of meters underground, somewhere in the Jerusalem hills, the minister responsible for American affairs spoke moments before the decisive vote. “In every generation, they rise up to destroy us,” Dermer began, referencing a classic Jewish text. “Today, it is the Iranians who seek our destruction. I’ve spent 25 years working to prevent exactly this.”

He was referring to the mission that began in 2000, when Dermer, then a young private citizen, first met Benjamin Netanyahu, a worried private citizen himself, and discussed the Iranian threat. The current chapter started shortly after the recent U.S. elections, at Mar-a-Lago, when Dermer flew in to meet President-elect Trump. “If you strike Iran,” he argued, “you will experience the opposite of what Biden faced after Afghanistan. Biden’s hurried withdrawal weakened America, emboldening Putin to invade Ukraine and Hamas to attack Israel. A decisive strike on Iran will strengthen you—and America.”

What makes America’s decision to drop the bombs even more remarkable is the isolationist direction the country has been heading in. After the First World War, America retreated into isolationism, only to be shaken out of it by the horrors of Pearl Harbor. But then, following the Iraq War, another era of American withdrawal began. Today, we stand in a moment analogous to the 1930s—just before a local “Hitler” acquires a nuclear bomb. Democrats have overwhelmingly opposed foreign intervention, and this reluctance has also started to gain traction within the Republican Party.

What’s so extraordinary about the U.S. bombing of Iran, therefore, is that this dramatic shift occurred without an American tragedy, such as Pearl Harbor, provoking it.

Dermer told Israel’s security cabinet this week that America’s action represents a tectonic shift, beneficial for years to come: the use of force doesn’t necessarily lead to disaster. Indeed, Iran may have just corrected Iraq’s legacy.

American bunker-buster bombs and Tomahawk missiles sealed off Iran’s nuclear facilities, burying its uranium deep underground. Now the United States must prevent the enriched materials from being smuggled out. Once again, Dermer will be there to see the job through.
Amid ceasefire, struggle for Iranian freedom must accelerate
What’s different is that the Iranian people have a clear vision for what comes next. They are not simply saying no to dictatorship — they are saying yes to democracy, yes to secularism, yes to freedom. And they are not alone. For years, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi, has provided not just hope, but structure. Her 10-point plan for a free Iran is not a dream. It is a roadmap. It calls for universal suffrage, gender equality, freedom of belief and expression, an independent judiciary, and a non-nuclear Iran committed to peace.

This vision has real support — not just in the streets of Iran, but across the democratic world. The majority of the United States House of Representatives recently supported House Resolution 166, with strong bipartisan backing, affirming support for the Iranian people’s right to a democratic republic. Worldwide, over 4,000 political figures and parliamentarians have done the same. These are not symbolic gestures. They are declarations that the world no longer sees the regime as Iran’s future.

So what now?

This ceasefire creates a narrow, vital opening. The missiles may be grounded, but the mission is not complete. In fact, it is only now that the real mission begins. The time has come for the world to stop dancing around the question and answer it plainly: the future of Iran must be decided by the Iranian people themselves—not by foreign powers, and certainly not by a criminal regime desperate to survive another day.

The West must shift its strategy—from managing the regime to empowering its opposition. That means sanctioning the IRGC as a terrorist organization everywhere. It means freezing assets held by regime officials and their families abroad. It means cracking down on regime lobbies and propaganda in Western capitals. And most importantly, it means opening the door to direct engagement with the democratic alternative that already exists: the NCRI and its 10-point platform.

This is not a call for war. It is a call for alignment. A call to stop legitimizing a regime that murders its own children and start amplifying the voices of those who dare to dream beyond it. It is a call to match words with action — and action with conviction.

This moment — this brief pause — may be the last best chance we have. The regime is weakened, isolated, and increasingly desperate. But desperate regimes do desperate things. Only the people of Iran, organized, unified, and backed by a principled international community, can finally bring this dark chapter to an end.

Let us not waste this moment. Let us not confuse silence with stability. Let us make it clear: the ceasefire is not the goal. Freedom is. And it must come from the hands of the Iranian people — and the resistance they have built.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: Make Iran pay. Literally.
So, how do we stop the terror? How do we ensure Iran has no incentive to launch new threats? The answer is simple: make them pay for every act of terror – for the damage inflicted by their proxies, and for any future attack for which they are responsible.

This isn’t a novel idea. In 2003, Libya agreed to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to the families of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie bombing, as part of a deal to lift international sanctions. Similarly, Sudan agreed to compensate victims of the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam (carried out by al-Qaeda) in order to be removed from the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

American courts have already issued judgments totaling billions of dollars against Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Any future agreement with Iran must resolve the payment of those existing judgments and establish a mechanism, such as a dedicated victims’ compensation fund, financed by Iran, to address future claims.

In this way, Iran would be forced to pay both for past acts of terrorism and for any future involvement in such crimes, creating a real and tangible deterrent.

Of the three central goals in this campaign, stopping Iranian-sponsored terrorism may well be the most urgent and critical to regional stability. So many innocent people in so many countries have been killed in Iran’s decades-long global terror campaign. While other safeguards and enforcement mechanisms will be necessary, one thing is clear: any deal must make terror costly for Iran.

Terror must come with a price.


IDF chief believes Iran no longer a nuclear threshold state after Israeli, US strikes
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has told colleagues that Iran is no longer a nuclear threshold state following the Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear program, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday.

While Iran may still maintain parts of its nuclear program, it has been set back by years, Zamir has concluded, the source said, given the damage suffered by Iran to the entire bomb-making process, including the elimination of key scientists, and the attacks on key nuclear facilities and other elements of manufacture and weaponization.

The comments came as Iran rejected a request by the United Nations nuclear watchdog to inspect nuclear facilities and material affected by the Israeli and American bombing campaigns.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the IDF to thwart any further nuclear weapons efforts in Iran, adding that “immunity is over” for Israel’s enemies following the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.

“I’ve instructed the IDF to prepare an enforcement plan against Iran that includes maintaining Israel’s air superiority, preventing nuclear advancement and missile production, and responding to Iran for supporting terror activity against Israel,” wrote Katz on X.

“We will act regularly to thwart such threats,” he said, summarizing the IDF’s actions during its 12-day campaign against Iran.
Israel, US Monitoring Iran and Ready To Renew Strikes If Necessary, Defense Minister Says in Confidential Briefing
Defense minister Israel Katz told lawmakers on Tuesday evening that Israel and the United States are closely monitoring Iran and are prepared to resume strikes to prevent the regime from rebuilding its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, according to two officials familiar with the briefing.

Katz delivered the confidential update to members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv. The meeting came one day after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire ended a 12-day war between Israel and Iran. According to Katz, both countries believe diplomacy with Iran is unlikely to succeed and military action must remain on the table.

The coordinated Israeli-U.S. stance involves monitoring key Iranian sites, such as the Fordow enrichment facility and missile depots, to prevent the Iranians from accessing them.

Boaz Bismuth, a member of the committee, declined to confirm details of the briefing but said Israel and the United States "are in full agreement" about the need to prevent the Iranians from rebuilding their weapons programs.

"If they have the bad idea, the fantasy, of rebuilding, then I believe there will also be a restart in damaging their programs," he said. "A nuclear Iran should be not only a fantasy, but in the domain of science fiction."

President Donald Trump reinforced that message Wednesday at a NATO summit in the Netherlands. He said Iran no longer has a nuclear program and warned that any attempt to revive it could prompt additional U.S. military action—though he questioned whether Iran is capable of doing so in the short term.

"Sure," Trump answered after a reporter asked whether he would be willing to "strike again" should Iran attempt to "rebuild" its program. "But I'm not going to have to worry about that. It's gone for years, years. Very tough to rebuild."

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Wednesday that the U.S. strikes on Fordow had rendered the site inoperable and that overall Israeli strikes on the nuclear program had "set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years."
White House Tells Free Beacon: Trump Wants Middle East Peace but Is ‘Not Afraid To Use Strength’ Again
President Donald Trump hopes for peace in the Middle East but isn’t "afraid to use strength" again if necessary, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.

"We look forward to sustaining a long and durable peace in the region and the president wants to do that through a diplomatic solution. But as he proved on Saturday night, he is not afraid to use strength if we need to do it," Leavitt said during Thursday’s press briefing.

Her comments came in response to a Washington Free Beacon report that the United States and Israel are jointly monitoring Iran and are prepared to resume strikes if the regime attempts to rebuild its nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

"Does that align with the president's thinking?" the Free Beacon's Collin Anderson asked.

"The president … views the Middle East on its way to peace and prosperity, and the president used strength on Saturday night. The whole world saw that the United States is indeed the most lethal fighting force in the world with those precision strikes on Saturday evening. But the president wants peace. He always has," Leavitt said.

The president and his team are in continued communication with Iranian leaders as well as Gulf and Arab partners to negotiate the future of the Islamic Republic, according to Leavitt. Trump hopes diplomatic negotiations will lead to a "new era" of peace in the Middle East, she added.

"As for our alliance with the State of Israel and that friendship and that partnership between the United States and the State of Israel, I would argue it has never been stronger," Leavitt said.
Trump Drops Sanctions Relief for Iran Following 'Angry, Hostile, and Unhappy' Khamenei Address
President Donald Trump said Friday he has "dropped all work on sanction relief" for Iran, slamming Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei for condemning the United States and falsely claiming victory over Israel in an "angry, hostile, and unhappy" public address.

"During the last few days, I was working on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The sanctions are BITING! But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more."

"Iran has to get back into the World Order flow, or things will only get worse for them," Trump went on. "They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them—A burned out, blown up Country, with no future, a decimated Military, a horrible Economy, and DEATH all around them. They have no hope, and it will only get worse!"

Trump imposed sanctions targeting Iran's military networks, oil exports, and shipping industry throughout both of his terms, as part of his "maximum pressure" campaign aimed at dismantling the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Iranian state-controlled media in early June lashed out at the Trump administration's latest round of sanctions, accusing Trump of being insufficiently committed to a nuclear deal.

Trump's latest remarks come a day after Khamenei claimed in his first public comments since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran that the Islamic Republic "delivered a heavy slap to the U.S.'s face" and that the United States "achieved nothing." Khamenei in his speech also falsely declared victory over Israel.


PMO denies Israel-US talks on two-state solution took place
The Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Friday flatly denied claims published in Israel Hayom that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a high-level conversation with President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer about establishing a Palestinian state.

The PMO stated: “The conversation described in the article in [Israel Hayom on Thursday] did not take place. Israel was not presented with the political proposal supposedly described in the article, and it obviously did not agree to it.”

The Israel Hayom report, citing anonymous sources, claimed that the four leaders spoke by phone shortly after the American airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, codenamed “Operation Midnight Hammer.”

The article described the participants as “euphoric” over the operation’s success, following on from Israel’s sustained aerial bombardment of high-value human and infrastructure targets, and claimed the conversation pivoted to a far-reaching regional strategy.

This included an expanded Abraham Accords framework, Gaza war termination within two weeks, Arab-led governance in Gaza, and a conditional Israeli endorsement of a future two-state solution.

According to the article, the plan also involved exile for Hamas leadership, global resettlement options for Gaza residents, and eventual U.S. recognition of limited Israeli sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria.

It further alleged that Trump had pressured Netanyahu to conclude military operations in Gaza and grew irate when Israeli airstrikes in Iran continued after his ceasefire announcement.

The Prime Minister’s Office categorically rejected these claims, emphasizing that no such political plan was presented to or agreed upon by Israel.

The denial follows growing speculation in Israeli media over behind-the-scenes coordination between Jerusalem and Washington following the U.S airstrikes on Iran.
White House expresses hope Syria will join Abraham Accords
The United States is hopeful that Syria will be among a number of further Arab countries to join the Abraham Accords in the coming period, with the White House Press Secretary confirming that Donald Trump has spoken to his Syrian counterpart on the subject.

In response to a question on Thursday, Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Donald Trump “is certainly hopeful that more countries in the region will sign on to the Abraham Accords…we want to see a long, endurable peace in the Middle East and that’s the way to do it.”

She added that when Donald Trump had met with the new President of Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, “that was one of the requests that he made, for Syria to sign on to the Abraham Accords. I don’t have a timeline for you, but this administration wants to see that happen and our partners in the region should know that.”

The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020 between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates and later joined by Morocco and Sudan, were the most significant foreign policy success of the first Trump administration, marking the first normalisation between Israel and Arab countries for decades.

The downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December last year has led to stronger ties between the United States and the new Syrian government, with America lifting sanctions on Syria last month.

Meanwhile, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has officially denied elements of a story published by Israeli paper Israel Hayom. The paper claimed that on a call earlier this week, Trump and Netanyahu agreed a series of wide-ranging steps to end the war and Gaza and bring peace to the wider region. The paper claimed that, apart from an understanding that both Saudi Arabi and Syria would soon establish diplomatic ties with Israel, the two leaders had agreed that four Arab countries, including Egypt and the UAE, would jointly govern the Gaza Strip, and that the terrorist organisation’s leaders would be exiled and all hostages freed. Israel Hayom also reported that with regards to the West Bank, Israel would support a two state solution if the Palestinian Authority carried out clear reforms – but the United States would recognise Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judaea and Samaria.

Netanyahu’s office responded strongly, saying that “Israel was not presented with the diplomatic proposal that is described in the article, and would not have agreed to it, anyway.”
Trump speculates Gaza ceasefire will be reached ‘within the next week’
US President Donald Trump on Friday said he thinks a ceasefire will be reached in the Gaza Strip “within the next week.”

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he just spoke with some of the individuals involved in trying to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal, without further elaborating.

The remarks came amid reports that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is due to visit Washington next week for talks on Gaza and Iran. Trump is reportedly pushing Israel to wrap up the ongoing war with Hamas after the brief conflict with the Islamic Republic, and is seeking to expand the Abraham Accords.

After offering his assessment on a potential ceasefire, Trump pivoted to highlight the recent US decision to donate $30 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been distributing boxes of food in Gaza from militarized zones in the Strip for the past month.

“It’s a terrible situation that’s going [in] Gaza… and we’re supplying a lot of money and a lot of food to that area because we have to,” Trump said.

“We’re, in theory, not involved in it, but we’re involved because people are dying,” he continued. “I look at those crowds of people that have no food, no anything.”

Trump then lamented that some of the aid is being stolen by “bad people,” but said that the new GHF system was “pretty good.”
Nicole Lampert: The British Iranians cheering on Israeli bombers
It is certainly true that the Israeli and American attacks may not have done enough to foment internal revolution, even though Israel went as far as bombing the doors to the prison where critics of the regime were being kept. Within hours of the ceasefire, the IRGC was reported to be rounding up – and even executing – those it claimed were Mossad collaborators.

Potkin Azarmehr, an Iranian-British journalist, says one of the problems facing opponents of the IRGC is that the opposition is divided.

“In some ways the reason why the regime has lasted for so long is that its opponents refuse to come together,” he says.

“Khomeini was able to create a revolution because he had a network of mosques and so he had an apparatus to take power. But while there are lots of opposition expats calling themselves political actors, all they do is talk and host conferences.”

He believes Pahlavi is the only real opposition figure who commands at least some respect within Iran, but, of course, some see him as a traitor for siding with Israel and as a stranger who has spent most of his life abroad.

“He is probably the most popular amongst the Iranian opposition because of who he is and the nostalgia people have towards his parentage, but he doesn’t have a network behind him.” ‘Symbolic moments’

Azarmehr adds that the Israeli and American actions, while they did some work in dismantling the power of the IRGC, were not enough.

“People on the ground are a little bit despondent,” he says. “They are worried that if they come out on the streets against the regime, there will be a massacre like Iran has never seen before.”

Niyak Ghorbani, a prominent Iranian dissident, 39, who has been arrested 11 times by British police for brandishing a sign saying “Hamas are terrorists” in the middle of pro-Palestine demonstrations, talks excitedly of a new dawn for Iran. But speaking to The Telegraph after the ceasefire was announced, he too worried that the unfinished job had only made things worse.

“Israel’s strikes weren’t just military operations; they were symbolic moments. They sent a message to the Iranian people: We will not protect your killers. We stand with you.”

He is bitterly disappointed that the action has stopped.

“A ceasefire with the terrorist regime of the Islamic Republic reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of its true nature,” he says angrily.

“In recent weeks, Iranians who simply ‘liked’ pro-Israel posts on social media have received threatening messages. Let’s be clear, the Islamic Republic will take revenge for its fallen commanders not by attacking military targets but by targeting civilians – first in Iran and then once again in Israel and the West.”
Unconfirmed reports: Jewish community leaders in Iran arrested on suspicion of having ties to Israel
Unconfirmed reports claim that several Jewish community leaders in Iran have been arrested in recent days on suspicion of having ties to Israel, in the aftermath of the 12-day war between the two countries.

According to the French-Iranian women’s rights group Femme Azadi, rabbis and other religious leaders in both Tehran and Shiraz were arrested and accused, without any evidence, of having ties to Israel.

Without citing any sources, Israel’s Ynet news outlet reports that Iranian authorities arrested multiple members of one family and confiscated their electronic devices.

It says the women were later released from custody, but the men, one of whom it says is a rabbi, remain in detention.

Meanwhile, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency publishes photos of the Jewish community in Tehran gathering yesterday at the Abrishami Synagogue for an event in support of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Iranian military after the war with Israel.

Some 700 people have been arrested in Iran on suspicion of having ties to Israel since June 13, when Israel began its offensive against Iran’s nuclear program, Fars news reported yesterday.

Between 8,000 to 10,000 Jews are believed to live in Iran — meaning the Islamic Republic has the second-largest Jewish population of any country in the Middle East, after Israel.
Classified Report That Suggested Iranian Nuclear Program Still Intact Likely Relied on Faulty Info From Iranian Sources, Former Intel Officers Say
The top-secret Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment that claimed Iran’s nuclear sites suffered only moderate damage likely relied on faulty information from deceitful Iranian sources, according to several former U.S. intelligence officers, one of whom described the document as so unreliable "you can wipe your ass with it."

The classified DIA report ignited a media firestorm in the days after President Donald Trump authorized precision strikes on Iran’s top three nuclear sites. The findings were leaked to CNN and the New York Times, which presented them as bombshell evidence that the U.S. bombing run only set back Tehran’s nuclear ambitions by several months.

The U.S. intelligence community deemed that initial assessment "low-confidence," a fact CNN omitted from its original piece, and based it solely on satellite imagery and intercepted communications—known as signals intelligence, or SIGINT—from Iranian officials. Shortly after the assessment leaked, Axios reported that communications intercepted by Israel "suggest Iranian military officials have been giving false situation reports to the country's political leadership—downplaying the extent of the damage." Such communications likely made their way into the DIA report, according to three former U.S. intelligence operatives, a current U.S. official, and other veteran national security insiders who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon both on and off the record. Some of them referred to the DIA as the "discount intelligence agency."

"It's basically messaging by the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], messaging by Tehran," said Michael Pregent, a former intelligence officer with U.S. Central Command who operated in the Middle East for nearly 30 years. "DIA is taking a SIGINT report from the National Security Agency ... and putting together an assessment to leak. I know it’s messaging, the Iranians know it’s messaging, and for some reason, NSA believes it’s actual f—ing intelligence."

A current U.S. official familiar with the ongoing damage assessment process said that the DIA’s findings—as well as "the partisan hit job published by CNN"—have been "completely debunked" over the past 24 hours, including by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"It has now been established by the IAEA that Iran’s nuclear program suffered ‘enormous damage’ and the ‘centrifuges ... are completely destroyed,’" the official told the Free Beacon. "The military operation carried out by the United States was a huge success and we are grateful to our troops who valiantly carried out the president’s mission."


‘Ha’aretz’ article accusing Israeli soldiers of firing on aid seekers a ‘blood libel,’ Netanyahu says
The article “‘It’s a killing field’: IDF soldiers ordered to shoot deliberately at unarmed Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid” in the left-wing Israeli paper Ha’aretz contains “contemptible blood libels,” stated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Friday.

“These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world,” the Israeli leaders said.

The Israel Defense Forces “operates in difficult conditions against a terrorist enemy that operates out of a civilian population and hides behind it, using it as human shields, and uses a complete industry of lies to harm the legitimacy of the State of Israel,” the two continued.

“The soldiers of the IDF receive clear orders to avoid harming innocents and operate accordingly,” they said. “Israel calls on all of the free and democratic countries to stand alongside it in its just and moral fight against the murderous Hamas terrorist organization.”

The Ha’aretz article cites anonymous Israeli soldiers and officers, who it says accused the IDF of firing on Gazans who posed no danger to them.

The Israeli military has said that it fires warning shots in certain instances and that it has identified suspicious people among the aid seekers.

While Israel’s Military Advocate General ordered an investigation into the allegations on Friday, the IDF has denied the claims made in the article, stating, “IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.”


IDF Response Regarding Allegations of Deliberate IDF Fire Toward Gazan Civilians Waiting for Humanitarian Aid
The IDF is operating to allow and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid by the American “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF), and to secure the routes leading to the distribution centers, in order to allow the aid to reach the civilians rather than Hamas. These efforts are taking place alongside the IDF’s ongoing operational activities throughout the Gaza Strip.

We strongly reject the accusation raised in the article - the IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers. To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians.

As part of the operational activity in the access routes to the distribution centers, IDF forces are conducting systematic learning processes aimed at improving the operational response in the area and minimizing, as much as possible, potential friction between the civilian population and IDF forces. As part of this effort, IDF forces have recently taken steps to reorganize the area, including the installation of new fencing, signage, the opening of additional routes, and more.

In light of recent reports of incidents of harm to the civilians approaching the distribution centers, the incidents are being examined by the relevant IDF authorities. Any allegation of a deviation from the law or IDF directives will be thoroughly examined, and further action will be taken as necessary. The allegations of deliberate fire toward civilians presented in the article are not recognized in the field.
IDF confirms probe into killings near Gaza aid site, denies troops ordered to shoot civilians
Following the report, the GHF agency said it was “not aware of any of these incidents.”

The GHF statement makes a point of asserting that the shootings have not taken place at or in the immediate vicinity of its distribution sites.

GHF notes in its statement that the “IDF is tasked with providing safe passage for aid-seekers to all humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, including GHF,” its statement adds.

“These allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity called on Friday for the GHF relief effort to be immediately dismantled, saying it was “slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid” and that it “is degrading Palestinians by design, forcing them to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies.”

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies in Gaza after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants, as Hamas continues to hold 50 Israelis hostage.

GHF argues that its model is more effective than the United Nations’ methods, asserting that its aid convoys have not been looted, as it has its gunmen who prevent such takeovers. Gunmen are seen on trucks carrying aid after they entered the northern Gaza Strip from Israel, west of Beit Lahia on June 25, 2025. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)

But the organization only operates up to four distribution sites across the Strip, none of which are in the north, and Gazans are forced to walk long distances while crossing IDF lines to pick up the supplies.

International aid trucks and warehouses storing supplies have often been looted, with Israel accusing Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies, while others say the looters frequently are desperate and starving Palestinians.


travelingisrael.com: Top 5 Restaurants in Gaza – Summer 2025 (Genocide Never Tasted So Good?)
This is not satire. Not AI. Every restaurant shown in this video is currently open and active in Gaza — summer 2025. All footage comes from their real Instagram accounts, linked below.

But the real story here isn’t about food.

It’s about the narrative — what you're being shown (and what you’re not).
Because this is not what famine looks like.
And it’s not what genocide looks like.

Meanwhile, real famine is happening in Yemen, and real genocide is being carried out against Christians in the Middle East — but those stories don’t fit the script.




IDF dismantles Gaza terror tunnel used in deadly 2014 attack
Israel Defense Forces troops operating in the Gaza Strip have destroyed a tunnel Palestinian terrorists used to carry out a deadly attack during the 2014 war, the military said on Friday.

The tunnel, located in the Beit Hanoun area in northeastern Gaza, was approximately one kilometer long.

During “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014, terrorists emerged from the tunnel and killed four Israeli soldiers: Lt. Col. Dolev Keidar, Second Lt. Yuval Heiman, Sgt. Maj. Ksahoon (Dani) Bainsin and Sgt. First Class Nadav Goldmacher.

“This operation reflects the IDF’s commitment to dismantling previously utilized terrorist infrastructure and preventing its reuse,” the military said in a statement.

Troops from the IDF’s 97th Battalion, operating under the Northern Gaza Brigade and the 99th Division, a reserve infantry unit, have been active in the area over the past week. According to the IDF, the soldiers dismantled dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites and killed several terrorists.

IDF troops operating in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza dismantled more than 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) of terrorist tunnels, the military said on Monday.

Troops from the 401st “Iron Tracks” Armored Brigade, operating under the command of the 162nd Division, uncovered tunnels used by Hamas terrorists for extended stays.


IDF hits Hezbollah targets, blames terror group rocket fire for death of woman in area
Israeli Air Force fighter jets hit a Hezbollah facility in the Beaufort Castle area in south Lebanon on Friday, the military said. Lebanese media reported strikes in the area killed one woman, but the military said the death was caused by an errant Hezbollah rocket.

According to the IDF, the facility, used by the terror group to “manage its fire and defense array,” was part of an underground Hezbollah site that was previously targeted in Israeli strikes.

“In recent days, the IDF identified attempts by the Hezbollah terror organization to restore the site, and therefore the terror infrastructure in the area was struck,” the military said.

The IDF said that the “presence of this site and the attempts to reestablish it constitute a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”

The Lebanese health ministry said one woman was killed and 11 other people were injured in an Israeli strike on an apartment in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon.

However, the IDF later denied carrying out a strike in Nabatieh, instead blaming a Hezbollah rocket that was launched amid the strikes on the nearby facility.

“The IDF did not target any civilian building,” said the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee.

“According to the information we have, the building was hit by a rocket projectile that was stored at the site, and was launched and exploded as a result of the airstrike,” he said.

“The Hezbollah terror organization continues to store its rocket projectiles near residential buildings and the residents of Lebanon, thereby endangering them. Hezbollah continues to endanger the residents of southern Lebanon in light of its refusal to hand over its weapons to the Lebanese state,” Adraee said.


Call Me Back: How Iran built its nuclear program (Part 1) - with David Albright
On Saturday June 21st, the U.S. dropped 14, 30,000 pound bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s three key nuclear sites: Natanz, Esfahan and the infamous Fordo, where 12 of the 14 bombs were dropped.

Since the bombing of these three nuclear sites, which President Donald Trump said were “completely and totally obliterated,” there has been some speculation in the press as to how much damage was actually done.

While the world scrambles to figure out what was destroyed, what was damaged, and what was left intact, we are asking what was Iran’s actual nuclear program and how was it built?

To help answer those questions, we asked physicist and weapons expert David Albright, who is the President and Founder of the Institute for Science and International Security. David has written numerous books and assessments on nuclear weapons programs and has testified on multiple occasions on nuclear issues before the U.S. Congress.


What’s left of Iran’s nuclear program? (Part 2) - with Lahav Harkov & David Albright
In the first part of our conversation, we talked about how Iran built its nuclear program and gave a history and scientific tutorial on how it was / could be done.

In the second part, we talk about what is believed to be remaining after the Israeli and U.S. attacks.

We welcome back to the show, Lahav Harkov who has been covering this topic in detail for Jewish Insider. David Albright, a physicist and world renowned expert and author on nuclear weapons, and the President and Founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, also joins us.


Breaking Battlegrounds: Siding with Iran Is Insane, Hollywood’s Wake-Up Call, and the Path Forward for America
This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Chuck Warren is joined by guest co-host Shay Khatari for a compelling lineup of guests and conversations. Former British soldier and Middle East strategist Andrew Fox kicks things off, diving into his article, “The Moronic Obscenity of Siding with Iran.” With three tours in Afghanistan and firsthand experience with Iranian interference, Andrew explains why Western appeasement isn’t just misguided—it’s dangerous.




The Tikvah Podcast: What the War Reveals about Providence and Jewish History with Meir Soloveichik
On June 22, American B-2 bombers dropped hundreds of tons of explosives on three nuclear sites in Iran—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Right after President Trump announced that the pilots were out of Iranian air space, the world started to learn the details of Operation Midnight Hammer, the extraordinary American mission to neutralize Iran’s nuclear-weapons program. News coverage started immediately—and some of the most incisive and careful analysis appeared outside of the legacy media. Some of the best news coverage in English could be found at the Free Press, the Daily Wire, and the Call Me Back podcast.

Rather than bring on the guests who’ve already offered up their analysis in those venues, we thought it would be valuable to have a series of conversations on dimensions of this war—not only Operation Midnight Hammer, but the last two weeks beginning with the Israeli airstrikes on Iran—that take up some of the deeper, less immediate concerns. War is violent and bloody. But war is also a teacher, and it reveals things about the nations who wage it.

“Living Through History: Learning from the Twelve-Day War” is a series of conversations from the Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic and featuring its host, Jonathan Silver. These include a discussion with Rabbi Meir Soloveichik on what the war reveals about providence and Jewish history; with Hussein Aboubakr Mansour about what the war reveals about the clash of civilizations; with the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, about what the war reveals about the U.S.- Israel relationship at this moment in Zionist history; and with Victor Davis Hanson about what the war reveals about the American interest. Today you can listen to the first, with Rabbi Soloveichik.
Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 24: With Iran down, Turkey steps into the breach - with Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak
Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel. I was an ally and vital trading partner for decades -- until the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the Islamist AKP party, who began pursuing a "neo-Ottomanist" foreign policy of Turkish influence and expansionism in the region, and specifically identified Israel as a long-term ideological enemy.

Turkey is now forging alliances on all Israel's borders and looking to found an Islamic defense alliance a la NATO. Earlier this year, Turkish lawmakers formally declared Israel the country's top national security threat.

As Iran's influence retreats in the wake of the war, Erdogan has already energetically stepped into the breach, calling for Israel to be dismantled and trying to position himself as leader of the Muslim political world. Unlike Iran, he may well have the military and geopolitical clout in the region to get it done.

Are the two countries on a trajectory for a clash in, say, 20 years' time? Or can these two Middle Eastern powers find a modus vivendi that prevents more conflict in the region?

We posed this question to Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a scholar at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University who grew up in Turkey's Jewish community and is today one of Israel's top Turkey analysts.

This episode was sponsored by an anonymous sponsor and dedicated to Aviv Atzili, 49, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 was while fighting alongside the kibbutz’s emergency response team. His wife, Liat, was kidnapped that day, but was released as part of the first truce in November 2023.

Aviv's body was located and returned to Israel for burial in a joint IDF-Shin Bet operation in Gaza two days before the start of the Israel-Iran war together with the body of Yaakov Yagil, also from Nir Oz. We remember them.






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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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