Middle East Conflict
At least 100 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza– www.euronews.com
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At least 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday, including 27, or more sheltering at a school in the north of the strip, according to Palestinian medical authorities.The attacks come as Israel heightens its offensive in what it said is a campaign intended to ramp up pressure on Hamas and eventually expelling the Gaza-based group.
The bodies of 14 children and five women were recovered from the school in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. The death toll may continue to rise as some of the 70 wounded sustained critical injuries, according to the spokesperson of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, Zaher al-Wahidi.
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Israeli troops have moved into an area of northern Gaza to expand what they refer to as a “security zone” around the enclave, the military said today.
It comes days after Israel announced plans to seize large areas with an operation in the south.
Israeli forces issued evacuation warnings for Shejaia, a suburb on the edge of the enclave, on Thursday.
Civilians are now being let out of the area via organised routes, the military said in its statement.
Hundreds of residents have streamed out, with some on foot carrying their belongings while others are in vans, on donkey carts and bikes.
Imprisonment of Christians Jumps Six-Fold in Iran as Persecution Intensifies – Center for Human Rights in Iran
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Israel announces plan to seize ‘large areas’ in Gaza – latest updates | Israel-Gaza war– www.theguardian.com
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Excerpt:Airstrikes continued on Gaza on Wednesday morning after the Israeli defense minister announced that Israel intended to expand its war. In a statement, Israel Katz said the offensive was “expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel.”
The move has been condemned by the Hostages Families Forum, who said it appeared that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were making the return of 59 hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas “a secondary task” that had been “pushed to the bottom of the priority list.”
In a post to social media, Katz said:
I wish success to the IDF soldiers who are fighting bravely and powerfully in Gaza for the return of the kidnapped and the defeat of Hamas. The goal of Operation “Strength and Sword” is first and foremost to increase pressure for the release of all the hostages in the face of Hamas’ refusal.
Expanding the operation this morning will increase the pressure on the Hamas murderers and also on the population in Gaza and advance the achievement of the sacred and important goal for all of us. I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to remove Hamas and return all the hostages. This is the only way to end the war.
DOJ Charges Men Over Plot to Steal U.S. Technology for Iranian Regime– townhall.com
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Excerpt:Federal prosecutors have charged an Iranian company and two Iranian nationals with trying to funnel money to the country’s military while obtaining U.S. technology to improve drones.
The Justice Department made the announcement on Tuesday.
A criminal complaint was unsealed today charging Hossein Akbari, 63, and Reza Amidi, 62, both of Iran, and an Iranian company, Rah Roshd Company (Rah Roshd), with conspiring to procure U.S. parts for Iranian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, also known as drones), conspiring to provide material support to the IRGC – a designated foreign terrorist organization – and conspiring to commit money laundering.
Akbari is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rah Roshd. Amidi is the company’s commercial manager and was previously the commercial manager of Qods Aviation Industries (QAI), an Iranian state-owned aerospace company. They are both citizens of Iran and remain at large.
Sue J. Bai, head of the DOJ’s National Security Division, explained, “Today’s charges lay bare how U.S.-made technology ended up in the hands of the Iranian military to build attack drones.”
U.S. Attacks on Yemen Kill 4 as Pentagon Deploys Second Aircraft Carrier to Middle East – Democracy Now!
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House Intelligence Committee Democrats Demand Independent Review of Signal Chat Leak– slaynews.com
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Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are demanding that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard conduct an independent review of the recent Signal chat leak.
It comes after an anti-Trump journalist was inadvertently added to a Signal chat about a military attack, WPRI-TV reported.
Ranking member Jim Himes (D-CT) sent a letter to Gabbard Monday demanding a written response.
The issue occurred because National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally added an Atlantic journalist to the Signal chat with officials.
The left-wing “news” outlet subsequently published the messages.
They were discussing a strike on Houthi terrorists.
White House desperately wants you to forget national security fail– www.dailykos.com
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The Trump administration is attempting to shut down growing concerns over the war plans leak, even as congressional requests for independent investigations have begun to surface.
Senior members of the Trump administration—including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz—discussed confidential war plans in a Signal group chat, in which journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally included.
“As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team, and this case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
Leavitt, who has a history of lying, said that “steps have been made” to ensure that another leak doesn’t happen in the future but gave no details on what those purported steps were.
Top Netanyahu Aides Arrested on Corruption Charges as Anti-Government Protests Continue – Democracy Now!
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Houthis accuse US of carrying out fresh wave of airstrikes in Yemen – orissapost.com
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Iran, Facing Trump Threats, Says It Positioned ‘Launch-Ready Missiles’ To Strike ‘US-Related Positions’– freebeacon.com
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Iran says it has readied “a significant number” of advanced missiles capable of striking American bases and military outposts in the Middle East, drawing a sharp warning from the Trump administration.
Iran’s “armed forces have readied missiles with the capability to strike U.S.-related positions,” the Tehran Times, a state-controlled newspaper, reported on Monday. “A significant number of these launch-ready missiles are located in underground facilities scattered across the country, designed to withstand airstrikes.”
The announcement came in response to President Donald Trump’s threat over the weekend to bomb the country if it does not enter into negotiations over its contested nuclear weapons program. But Trump is not backing down—the White House, in response to Tehran’s war preparations, told the Washington Free Beacon it does “not take kindly to military threats.”
“President Trump and his administration do not take kindly to military threats,” said White House National Security Council communications director James Hewitt. “The President has made clear he prefers direct diplomatic channels with Tehran, or they will face serious consequences if they do not end their work to obtain nuclear weapons.”
Fresh US strikes extend air campaign targeting Yemen’s Houthis | News– www.aljazeera.com
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Houthis claim to down US drone. President Donald Trump declares Yemeni rebel group ‘decimated’ by air strike campaign.
The United States military launched a series of air attacks on Yemen overnight, targeting Houthi rebels.
Strikes hit an area near the capital, Sanaa, as well as the northern province of Saada early on Tuesday as the US extended a bombing campaign against targets in Yemen that began in mid-March and has killed dozens of people.
The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported that US forces launched 15 raids on the northern province of Saada, including the city of Saada and the districts of Majz and Sahar. Mount Nabi Shuaib, in the Bani Matar district of Sanaa province, was also reported to have been targeted.
Thousands flee Gaza’s Rafah after Israel issues new evacuation orders– www.euronews.com
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UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said 140,000 people are impacted by the Israeli military’s latest displacement orders, which indicate it could soon launch another major ground operation in Gaza’s southernmost city.
Thousand of Palestinians fled Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah on Monday after the Israeli military issued new sweeping evacuation orders, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation.
At least 140,000 people were affected by the evacuation order, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees.
“People are treated like pinballs with constant military orders playing with their fate and lives,” Lazzarini wrote on the social platform X.
Germany Turns to U.S. Playbook: Deportations Target Gaza War Protesters – The Intercept
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Israel estimates Houthis only have ‘few dozen’ ballistic missiles left; PM Netanyahu praises ‘forceful’ US strikes in Yemen – All Israel News
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Israel Issues Evacuation Order for Southern Gaza– www.nytimes.com
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The Israeli military issued a sweeping evacuation order for the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, signaling that it could relaunch intensive assaults in the area.
The order — which came during the Eid al-Fitr holiday — heralded renewed hardship for Palestinians in the southernmost city of Rafah, which has been battered by the war between Israel and Hamas, and has endured periods of being overwhelmed with displaced people and depopulated by evacuation orders. The war restarted two weeks ago after a monthslong cease-fire collapsed.
In the past, the Israeli military has ordered evacuations ahead of both aerial attacks and ground maneuvers that it has said were targeting Hamas.
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, on Monday posted a map of the affected areas on his social media accounts, including Rafah and parts of neighboring Khan Younis. He said Palestinians must relocate to shelters in a costal region to the north.
Hamas slams Israel’s ‘colonial’ road project meant to split West Bank, isolate East Jerusalem – The Cradle
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Hamas has strongly condemned Israel’s approval of a new road project connecting Jerusalem to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank, calling it a colonial effort to expand illegal settlements and displace Palestinians from occupied East Jerusalem.
In a statement issued on 30 March, the Palestinian resistance group described the Israeli cabinet’s decision as part of a broader plan to isolate Palestinian towns and dismantle hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
“These colonial plans will ultimately be shattered by the steadfastness of the Palestinian people,” the statement read, urging Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem to escalate resistance and confront the occupation.
“The continued implementation of settlement projects in occupied Jerusalem reveals the occupation’s malicious intent to expand settlements and push for the displacement of Palestinians from the holy city.”
The Israeli Security Cabinet on Saturday approved the final phase of the so-called “Fabric of Life Road,” also known as the “Texture of Life Axis.” The project, long delayed, will create a new route allowing Palestinian vehicles to travel between the northern and southern West Bank without passing through Israeli checkpoints or Route 1 — the main highway connecting Jerusalem to Ma’ale Adumim. That road will now be reserved exclusively for Israeli traffic.
Crowd At Anti-Hegseth Town Hall In Deep Red District Reeks Of Astroturf– www.newsbusters.org
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Sunday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Weekend featured a clip from a town hall in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. In November, Trump and Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz carried the district handily: by 16 and 18 points, respectively.
Yet the crowd overwhelmingly and raucously cheered the suggestion that the congresswoman should demand Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s resignation, given the Signal chat that mistakenly included a journalist.
Co-host Symone Sanders claimed the cheering people were district “constituents,” and co-host Michael Steele took it a step further, saying they were Republicans. The show provided no evidence to support either statement. Did MSNBC make any effort to confirm the residence or registration of the crowd members?
Hypocrisy-proof Steele concluded the segment by saying:
“This sets up additional narratives, I think, for voters as well as journalists to dig a little bit deeper and find out a little bit more.”
Amen, Michael!
Stephen A. Smith goes scorched Earth on media’s SignalGate obsession: “Were y’all talking about 13 lives lost in Afghanistan?”– www.louderwithcrowder.com
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Stephen A. Smith won’t change the way he votes any more than Bill Maher or Jon Stewart will. It’s still entertaining and valuable when he calls out the left and the media (but I repeat myself) to a mainstream audience that wouldn’t typically hear such things. Like with SignalGate. And how the people calling for Pete Hegseth to be fired weren’t this outraged when the People Who Controlled Joe Biden Adminstration’s incompetence led to thirteen service members being killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal.
To recap SignalGate, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, or someone working for him, “accidentally” invited anti-Trump jorunalismer Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat about the Houthis being taken out. And because of Waltz’s f*ck up… the media and the left (but I repeat myself) still butthurt they couldn’t collect Hegseth’s scalp are demanding HE resign.
To be clear: Waltz SHOULD resign. This was a colossal f*ck up.
Stephen A., who is no fan of the Defense Secretary, thinks Afghanistan was worse.
We operate in a biased and partisan industry. Sometimes we can be unfair to the left, the media, and the People Who Controlled Joe Biden administration. I get that. It’s one thing for us to blame the previous team for Afghanistan. So here are the families of the servicemembers who lost their lives during the incompetent withdrawal blaming them.
The left and the media (but I repeat myself) weren’t upset about this. They didn’t call for anyone to be held accountable. Yet because a reporter was added to a group chat by the National Security Advisor, the Defense Secretary needs to either resign or be fired.
Trump calls ‘never ending’ Signal leak story ‘old and boring,’ blasts media – The Hill
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Republicans can’t stop making pathetic excuses for war chat fiasco– www.dailykos.com
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As fury mounts over the Trump administration’s leaking of classified military operations in an unsecure Signal group chat that included a reporter who did not have a security clearance, GOP lawmakers have continued to downplay the seriousness of the situation.
The ridiculous defenses—ranging from lies about the contents of the messages to conspiracy theories about how the reporter got added to the conversation in the first place—are even rankling some Trump administration allies, who told Politico that President Donald Trump and his team need to own up to the error, fire those involved, and end the controversy.
But that message has clearly not been heard by congressional Republicans, who are still defending the monumental fuck-up that risked U.S. troops who were carrying out an attack on a rebel group in Yemen—even as more details emerge confirming that classified information was shared on an insecure platform.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said that he stands by the Trump administration officials who were involved—including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared in the chat the exact timing of the forthcoming attack and the weapons systems that would be used.
“President Trump and his team have admitted that having a journalist in the group text was wrong, will be reviewed and falls in the category of ‘lessons learned’ so that it doesn’t happen again. I think President Trump has handled this matter well. Further, I believe that all the participants in the chat were under the impression they were using an appropriate and secure form of communication. This will also fall into the category of ‘lessons learned,’” Graham said in a statement.
Hostage protests and anti-government demonstrations again join forces to pressure Netanyahu – All Israel News
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Egypt’s plan for the reconstruction of Gaza– thehill.com
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For over 16 months, Palestinians in Gaza have endured unspeakable humanitarian circumstances unseen since the Second World War. Almost 2 million people in Gaza have been internally displaced, with more than 150,000 people killed or injured according to the UN, 50 percent of hospitals and medical facilities destroyed, 88 percent of schools partially or fully shattered, 68 percent of agricultural areas damaged and 68 percent of roads have become dysfunctional.
As the statistics reflect, Israel’s war didn’t turn out to be just a war against Hamas, but expanded to the entire civilian population and its critical infrastructure.
To address this crisis of colossal magnitude, two critical steps need to be taken. First, we must immediately provide a comprehensive and thorough humanitarian plan that alleviates the suffering of Palestinians and restore life back to Gaza through early recovery programs and reconstruction.
Second, it is imperative that we offer a political roadmap that brings decisive closure to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict once and for all culminating in an independent Palestinian state and ensure that this latest horrific round of violence becomes the final one. Let me address both steps.
Israel says it has launched new ground operation in Gaza – Reuters
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The Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, as a second day of airstrikes killed at least 48 Palestinians, according to local health workers.
The renewed ground operations came a day after more than 400 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in one of the deadliest episodes since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023, shattering a ceasefire that has largely held since January.
Video: Palestinians flee as Israeli attacks resume in Gaza | Gaza– www.aljazeera.com
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NewsFeed Thousands of Palestinians are once again fleeing towns in northern Gaza. They’re travelling, mostly by foot, to areas in the south like Khan Younis, after deadly Israeli strikes and evacuation warnings spread fears of further attacks.
US strikes Houthi strongholds in Yemen where leaders are hiding, Yemeni sources say– www.investing.com
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The U.S. hit targets across Yemen in airstrikes overnight, including Saada province, which Yemeni sources say is a long-time hideout for Iran-aligned Houthi leaders, and the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported more than 10 strikes on various locations, including the Al-Safra district of Saada. The area houses weapons storage and training sites, and is considered one of the group’s most important and heavily fortified military strongholds, according to Yemeni sources.
The strikes, launched on Saturday over the Houthis’ attacks against Red Sea shipping, are the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January.
The Iran-aligned Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping after Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians. The attacks have disrupted global commerce and set the U.S. military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles.