world news
Blinken to Abbas: US opposes relocation of Gaza Palestinians to Egypt
The Biden administration is opposed to the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring Egypt, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas when he met with him in Ramallah on Sunday.
Blinken “made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said after their meeting.
They also spoke about the importance of restoring stability to the West Bank and “the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians and hold those accountable responsible,” Miller said.
The two met during Blinken’s visit to the region close to one month into the start of the Gaza war. He met with Abbas after holding talks with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv and Arab leaders in Jordan over the weekend.In his meetings with Arab leaders, such as King Abdullah in Jordan on Saturday, he attempted to assuage their fears over the possibility of a forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.
US President Joe Biden issued the same message to Abdullah when he spoke with the monarch last Tuesday.They “agreed that it is critical to ensure that Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza,” the White House said after the call.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby echoed that sentiment in speaking with reporters last Wednesday.
He rejected any reports of a plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza.
“I want to stress that is not our policy. That is not what we are after. We want to make sure that the people of Gaza, should they want to go back home, can go back home. But if they want to get out in the interim, they should be able to get out.”
Palestinians flee homes in Gaza to escape IDF bombings, failed rocket launches
Some 1.4 million of the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip have fled their homes in an attempt to escape IDF bombings or explosions from failed Palestinian rocket launches.
Hamas claims that close to 10,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war on October 7.
Israelis have suggested that Palestinian civilians in Gaza should be temporarily allowed to relocate to Egypt for their safety until the war ends.
Palestinians have voiced concern that this would be a second expulsion, akin to what happened to them during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 when invading Arab countries encouraged them to flee while they “pushed the Jews into the sea.” Some 750,000 Arabs fled or in some cases were forcibly expelled from their homes during the war, an event that Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba” (catastrophe).
PA envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour told the Security Council last Monday that “Israel wants to depopulate the Gaza Strip completely… and throw them [Gazans] into the lap of Egypt in the Sinai desert.”
Kirby last Wednesday stressed that “there is no US policy for endorsement for some sort of permanent settlement” of Palestinians outside of Gaza.
The war in Gaza was ignited by the infiltration into southern Israel of Hamas terrorists who murdered over 1,400 people and took more than 240 people hostage.
Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told a Lebanese news outlet this week that his organization would execute more October 7 attacks, because it does not believe that Israel should exist.
Kirby said, “This is what is at stake for the Israeli people, that is what is at stake for the people of Gaza, that Hamas is willing to continue this fight and will continue to try and slaughter innocent Israelis. Those are chilling comments and we all ought to take them seriously.”
Hamas, he said, cannot remain in power after the war, he added.
An Israeli diplomatic source told reporters on Sunday that the IDF must retain security control of Gaza after the war.“I don’t see a situation where Israel will not have supreme security responsibility in Gaza,” the source stated. Work must also be done to change the mindset of Palestinian society there, the source added.
“It is not enough to restore Gaza. It must be put through a process of de-Nazification,” the source added.The source noted that the problem was not limited to Gaza, but also included the West Bank.
“This culture [of wanting to kill Jews] still exists in the Palestinian Authority,” the source said, warning during the conversation that West Bank settlements were in danger of Hamas attacks.
Blinken told Abbas that Washington believes the PA “should play a central role in what comes next in Gaza,” said a senior State Department official who briefed reporters traveling with Blinken.
The official said the future of Gaza was not the focus of the meeting but that PA officials appeared willing to play a role.
Abbas told Blinken that Gaza is “an integral part” of the state Palestinians want, according to an account of the meeting from the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, which suggested any PA role in governing Gaza would have to be part of a wider settlement of the decades-old conflict.
“We will fully assume our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip,” Abbas was quoted by WAFA as saying.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Special forces killed four terrorists in a vehicle during an operation in Nablus in the West Bank, army radio reported on X/Twitter Wednesday evening.
They were seen armed moments before they were killed, footage published by army radio showed.
A source told Kan that the terrorists killed in Nablus were a squad of terrorists from the Balata Camp that were preparing to carry out an attack against Israelis.4 מחבלים חוסלו ברכב במהלך פעולה של כוחות מיוחדים בשכם, כך הם תועדו רגע לפני שנהרגו pic.twitter.com/mFUGTHFqYg
— הוד בראל Hod Barel (@hod_barel) October 9, 2024
Riots in Nablus
Riots broke out on Wednesday afternoon, during which the IDF killed four terrorists following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), Maariv reported.
Commander of the Balata Battalion of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade (which is aligned with Fatah) Issam a-Salaj was allegedly eliminated in the operation, Walla noted.
This is a developing story.
Following Hezbollah’s success at striking the Haifa area on Tuesday, the IDF later Tuesday and early Wednesday significantly increased its pace of airstrikes to try to roll back the groups’ rocket attacks.
The IDF announced on Wednesday that it had upped its airstrikes over the last 24 hours to 185 targets across all of Lebanon.
This was a significant increase compared to days when the strikes were in the dozens or even from Monday when the air force struck around 120 targets, but almost exclusively in southern Lebanon.
IDF strikes in southern Lebanon (Credit: IDF’ Spokesperson’s Unit)
Also, the targets were once again more spread out as opposed to being focused on the south, which had been the trend since the IDF invasion started on September 30. These changes could also mark a shift in strategy as the IDF possibly moves into a third phase of its major moves against Hezbollah, which started in mid-September.
The phases in question
The first phase saw two days of Hezbollah operatives and communications being torn apart by beeper and walkie-walkie explosions. It also included the killing of Ibrahim Aqil and around 20 of his top sub-commanders of the Radwan special forces. On September 23, it included the air force hitting 1,300 targets in only one day. Finally, on September 27, it included the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as well as a number of other top Hezbollah officials, like Ali Karaki.
IDF officials have said that the strategy for Phase I was to disable Hezbollah’s capability to harm the Israeli home front in a devastating way as well as to lay the groundwork for a potential invasion if needed.
Phase two saw the invasion of southern Lebanon to take apart Hezbollah’s Radwan potential invasion weapons, tunnels, and positions. The air force, likewise, since September 30, has focused much more on southern Lebanon, especially providing real-time support to maneuvering ground forces facing ambushes from Hezbollah.
Every few days, the IDF sent in an additional division: first Division 98, then Division 36, then Division 91, and on Tuesday, Division 143, with more increases expected. They have increased the pace of destroying Hezbollah infrastructure in certain southern Lebanon villages, such as Mavarchin.
However, in what might be Phase 3, Division 98 is already receiving new maneuvering orders and IDF sources have said that they believe some initial missions of clearing Hezbollah positions will soon be taken care of sufficiently to move on to additional missions.
In turn, the air force may be refocusing on wider rocket threats throughout Lebanon.
If by September 30, it was assumed that Hezbollah’s failure to fire deeper into Israel and cause serious damage had shown they were truly losing that capability, Tuesday’s attacks on the Haifa area may have convinced top defense officials to return to striking beyond southern Lebanon to cause greater damage to those long-range capabilities.
All of this could be a prelude to the IDF shifting its focus from merely clearing southern Lebanon of Hezbollah’s presence to also trying to truly get the longer-range rocket threat under control.
These new efforts come with as the military also faces increased time pressure to succeed in restoring security for 60,000 northern border residents as Lebanon’s mountainous winter and the November 5 US presidential election both bear down on the timing calculus.
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. Announced on Tuesday that it will be showcasing its latest defense capabilities at the defense AUSA exhibition October 14-16 in Washington D.C., including a new Lite Beam laser-based interception system integrated into the Trophy multitasking defense platform.
While not as much of a watershed moment as when Israel can finally deploy its Iron Beam laser defense system, the Lite Beam is still a powerful example of Israel succeeding in using layers, at least for short-range defense.
Defense sources told the Jerusalem Post that the Lite Beam’s operational capabilities have been proven, though they declined to disclose exactly when and how the IDF has used such capabilities in the field in Gaza or Lebanon.
The implication was that the Lite Beam would be effective against drones and possibly against mortars but would not shoot down most rockets or long-range missiles, which Israel eventually hopes the Iron Beam will do.In general, laser defense technologies are viewed as a major part of future air defense because they would end the arms cost race in which Israel and other wealthy countries constantly waste huge amounts of money to protect themselves from weaker adversaries using low-attack cheap forms of threats.
The sources added that the Lite Beam has hard kill neutralization capabilities which can be integrated on any vehicular platform and operational capabilities, and that it also can be a component of the drone dome which utilizes both soft kill and jamming.
The advantage of Lite Beam
Rafael said that Lite Beam “offers advantages such as engagement at the speed of light, an unlimited magazine, and negligible cost per interception.”
Further, Rafael stated that its “latest modular C-UAS solutions for force protection can operate alongside the Trophy Active Protection System (APS) in a combat formation to enhance ground maneuver capabilities across the battlespace.”
Moreover, it said, “The C-UAS Drone Dome solution, with its laser interception capability, can be integrated on 4×4, 6×6, and 8×8 wheeled and tracked vehicles to support counter-drone missions as well as other force protection missions.”
As part of its display, Rafael will introduce a unique modular Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) concept, combining advanced detection and interception technologies.
One of the defense systems on this platform is the Lite Beam laser-based interception system, but it also includes “the Samson 30mm Remote Weapon Station (RWS), on a 4-wheeled platform. These solutions provide maneuvering forces with robust force protection and flexibility against a wide range of airborne threats, including UAVs.”
Also, the Trophy’s “cutting-edge technology is operational on over a dozen platforms worldwide, including Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs), Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFVs), and Main Battle Tanks (MBTs). It has consistently demonstrated its adaptability and reliability in complex combat scenarios, providing comprehensive protection for vehicles and crews,” said Rafael.
“This latest presentation at AUSA highlights RAFAEL’s ongoing commitment to delivering advanced battlefield defense solutions. As global threats evolve, we continue to equip armed forces with cutting-edge technologies to ensure their operational superiority in diverse and challenging environments,” said Mr. Tzvi Marmor, EVP & General Manager of the Land & Naval Systems Division.
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