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Tag: Israel-Iran War

  • US-Iran War Could Be Imminent and Take Weeks, Sources Warn After Latest Nuclear Talks

    US-Iran War Could Be Imminent and Take Weeks, Sources Warn After Latest Nuclear Talks

    A military confrontation between the US and Iran could begin in the coming days and be an intensive, multi-week campaign, sources said Wednesday, despite ongoing diplomatic talks between Washington and Tehran.

    Former IDF Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin suggested Wednesday that such a confrontation could be imminent.

    “Last week I allowed myself to fly to the Munich Security Conference. I would think twice about flying [abroad from Israel] this weekend,” Yadlin told Channel 12 news on Wednesday, a day after a second round of nuclear talks was held in Geneva.

    “We are much closer than we were before, but I remind you — a superpower does not go to war in a matter of days. There is a diplomatic path that must be exhausted,” said Yadlin, who now heads a national security consultancy.

    Yadlin added that “many oppose the attack. The Pentagon is not clear what they want it to achieve. The president is very determined. The statement that all options are on the table is based on a credible military threat, which comes alongside the preparations off the coast of Iran and in the skies.”

    Sources told the Axios news site on Wednesday that a potential US-Iran war would be a long, multi-week campaign, with a White House official putting the chances of a strike in the coming weeks at 90 percent.

    Security and rescue forces at the scene of an Iranian ballistic missile strike in Holon, June 19, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)
    Security and rescue forces at the scene of an Iranian ballistic missile strike in Holon, June 19, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

    It would likely be a joint US-Israeli operation, said the source, even larger than the 12-day Israeli-led bombing campaign last June. According to the sources, the war could come earlier than most people expect, and could be far larger than many anticipate. Iranian missiles in June killed 32 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel.

    US President Donald Trump “is getting fed up,” said a Trump adviser. “Some people around him warn him against going to war with Iran, but I think there is 90% chance we see kinetic action in the next few weeks.”

    Two Israeli officials told the outlet that Israel is preparing for a war to break out “within days,” adding that Israel is pushing an operation aimed at toppling the regime.

    Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Wednesday that Israel is facing “challenging days,” following a hearing with the IDF Home Front Command chief.

    “There is no citizen of Israel who doesn’t ask himself several times a day ‘when will the Iran conflict happen?’” said Bismuth. “The public is prepared and the authorities are prepared. We in the Knesset are also ensuring that the home front is prepared for every scenario.”

    Iran said following the talks on Tuesday in Geneva that the sides had agreed on “guiding principles” for a deal to avoid conflict. US Vice President JD Vance, however, said Tehran had not yet acknowledged all of Washington’s red lines.

    Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on after he delivered a speech during a session of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, on the sideline of a second round of US-Iranian talks with Washington in Geneva, on February 17, 2026. (Valentin Flauraud / AFP)
    Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on after he delivered a speech during a session of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, on the sideline of a second round of US-Iranian talks with Washington in Geneva, on February 17, 2026. (Valentin Flauraud / AFP)

    US Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned Wednesday that the United States was determined to deter Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

    “They’ve been very clear about what they would do with nuclear weapons. It’s entirely unacceptable,” Wright told reporters in Paris on the sidelines of meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

    “So one way or the other, we are going to end, deter Iran’s march towards a nuclear weapon,” Wright said.

    On Tuesday, open-source flight tracking data showed that the US military had moved dozens of fighter jets toward the Middle East in a day. The aircraft included F-22, F-35, and F-16 jets. Several refuelers were also spotted on the move, according to social media accounts dedicated to tracking military flights.

    Meanwhile, Iranian media reported Wednesday that Iran and Russia will conduct naval maneuvers in the Sea of Oman on Thursday.

    “The joint naval exercise of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia will take place tomorrow in the Sea of Oman and in the northern Indian Ocean,” the ISNA agency reported, citing drill spokesman, Rear Admiral Hassan Maghsoudloo. “The aim is to strengthen maritime security and to deepen relations between the navies of the two countries,” he said, without specifying the duration of the drill.

    On Monday, the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran’s military, also launched exercises in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a challenge to US naval forces deployed in the region. Iran announced Tuesday that it would partially close the key strait for a few hours for “security” reasons during its drills.

    -The Times Of Israel

  • Israeli Hospital Damaged and Injuries Reported in Wave of Iranian Missile Strikes

    Israeli Hospital Damaged and Injuries Reported in Wave of Iranian Missile Strikes

    A hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel has been hit after Iran launched a wave of missiles overnight.

    Soroka hospital has been extensively damaged, a spokesperson says, while Israel’s emergency service says at least 65 people have been injured across the country.

    Iranian state media reports that the missile strike targeted a military site next to the hospital and not the facility itself.

    In Iran, Israel’s military says it targeted nuclear sites including the “inactive” Arak heavy water reactor and Natanz facility.

    The attacks this morning come at a critical time, as Donald Trump considers the possibility of direct US involvement in Israel’s campaign, writes Hugo Bachega.

    Trump has reportedly approved plans to attack Iran, but has not made a final decision – Iran’s supreme leader warned of “irreparable harm” if the US intervenes.

  • Iran Tells Citizens To Delete WhatsApp, Claims it Spies for Israel

    Iran Tells Citizens To Delete WhatsApp, Claims it Spies for Israel

    Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel.

    In a statement, WhatsApp said it was “concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.” WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning a service provider in the middle can’t read a message.

    “We do not track your precise location, we don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,” it added. “We do not provide bulk information to any government.”

    End-to-end encryption means that messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If anyone else intercepts the message, all they will see is a garble that can’t be unscrambled without the key.

    Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University and cybersecurity expert, said it’s been demonstrated that it’s possible to understand metadata about WhatsApp that does not get encrypted.

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    “So you can understand things about how people are using the app and that’s been a consistent issue where people have not been interested in engaging with WhatsApp for that (reason),” he said.

    Another issue is data sovereignty, Falco added, where data centers hosting WhatsApp data from a certain country are not necessarily located in that country. It’s more than feasible, for instance, that WhatsApp’s data from Iran is not hosted in Iran.

    “Countries need to house their data in-country and process the data in-country with their own algorithms. Because it’s really hard increasingly to trust the global network of data infrastructure,” he said.

    WhatsApp is owned by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

    Iran has blocked access to various social media platforms over the years but many people in the country use proxies and virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access them. It banned WhatsApp and Google Play in 2022 during mass protests against the government over the death of a woman held by the country’s morality police. That ban was lifted late last year.

    WhatsApp had been one of Iran’s most popular messaging apps besides Instagram and Telegram.

  • Khamenei Says Iran Will ‘Never Surrender’, Warns Off US

    Khamenei Says Iran Will ‘Never Surrender’, Warns Off US

    Tehran (AFP) – Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday the nation would never surrender as demanded by President Donald Trump and warned the United States it would face “irreparable damage” if it intervenes in support of its ally.

    The speech came six days into the conflict, with Trump demanding Iran’s “unconditional surrender” while boasting the United States could kill Khamenei and fuelling speculation about a possible intervention.

    The long-range blitz began Friday, when Israel launched a massive bombing campaign that prompted Iran to respond with missiles and drones.

    “This nation will never surrender,” Khamenei said in a speech read on state television, in which he called Trump’s ultimatum “unacceptable”.

    “America should know that any military intervention will undoubtedly result in irreparable damage,” he said.

    Khamenei, in power since 1989 and the final arbiter of all matters of state in Iran, had earlier vowed the country would show “no mercy” towards Israel’s leaders.

    The speech followed a night of strikes, with Israeli attacks destroying two buildings making centrifuge components for Iran’s nuclear programme near Tehran, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.

    “More than 50 Israeli Air Force fighter jets… carried out a series of air strikes in the Tehran area over the past few hours,” the Israeli military said, adding that several weapons manufacturing facilities were hit.

    “As part of the broad effort to disrupt Iran’s nuclear weapons development programme, a centrifuge production facility in Tehran was targeted.”

    Centrifuges are vital for uranium enrichment, the sensitive process that can produce fuel for reactors or, in highly extended form, the core of a nuclear warhead.

    The strikes destroyed two buildings making centrifuge components for Iran’s nuclear programme in Karaj, a satellite city of Tehran, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

    In another strike on a site in Tehran, “one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested”, the agency added in a post on X.

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles at Tel Aviv.

    Hypersonic missiles travel at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre mid-flight, making them harder to track and intercept.

    No missile struck Tel Aviv overnight, though AFP photos showed Israel’s air defence systems activated to intercept missiles over the commercial hub.

    Iran also sent a “swarm of drones” towards Israel, while the Israeli military said it had intercepted a total of 10 drones launched from Iran.

    It said one of its own drones had been shot down over Iran.

    ‘Unconditional surrender’

    Trump fuelled speculation about US intervention when he made a hasty exit from the G7 summit in Canada, where the leaders of the club of wealthy democracies called for de-escalation but backed Israel’s “right to defend itself”.

    He boasted that the United States could easily assassinate Khamenei.

    “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

    Trump met with his National Security Council to discuss the conflict. There was no immediate public statement after the hour and 20 minute meeting.

    US officials stressed Trump has not yet made a decision about any intervention.

    Evacuations

    Israel’s attacks have hit nuclear and military facilities around Iran, as well as residential areas.

    Residential areas in Israel have also been hit, and foreign governments have scrambled to evacuate their citizens from both countries.

    Many Israelis spent another night disrupted by air raid warnings, with residents of coastal hub Tel Aviv repeatedly heading for shelters when sirens rang out warning of incoming Iranian missiles.

    In the West Bank city of Ramallah, perched at 800 metres (2,600 feet) above sea level and with a view over Tel Aviv, some residents gathered on rooftops and balconies to watch.

    An AFP journalist reported cheers and whistles as dozens of missiles flew overhead, with Israeli air defences activating to intercept them, causing mid-air explosions which lit up the sky.

    Since Friday, at least 24 people have been killed in Israel and hundreds wounded, according to Netanyahu’s office.

    Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. It has not issued an updated toll since then.

    On Tuesday in Tehran, long queues stretched outside bakeries and petrol stations as people rushed to stock up on fuel and basic supplies.

    Iran’s ISNA and Tasnim news agencies on Wednesday reported that five suspected agents of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency had been detained, on charges of tarnishing the country’s image online.

    Nuclear facilities

    The UN nuclear watchdog said there appeared to have been “direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls” at Iran’s Natanz facility.

    Israel has maintained ambiguity regarding its own atomic activities, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says it has 90 nuclear warheads.

    The conflict derailed a running series of nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington, with Iran saying after the start of Israel’s campaign that it would not negotiate with the United States while under attack.

  • Israel Hits Iran Nuclear Facilities, Missile Factories; Tehran Launches Drones

    Israel Hits Iran Nuclear Facilities, Missile Factories; Tehran Launches Drones

    (Reuters) – Israel launched widescale strikes against Iran on Friday, saying it targeted nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders and that this was the start of a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.

    Iran had launched about 100 drones towards Israeli territory in retaliation, which Israel is working to intercept, Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said.

    Iranian media and witnesses reported explosions including at the country’s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, while Israel declared a state of emergency in anticipation of retaliatory missile and drone strikes.

    Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards corps said its top commander, Hossein Salami, was killed and state media reported the unit’s headquarters in Tehran had been hit. Several children had been killed in a strike on a residential area in the capital, it said.

    “We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded video message.

    “Moments ago Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”

    Defrin said 200 Israeli fighter jets took part in the strikes, hitting more than 100 targets in Iran.

    Israel could now confirm that the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards and the commander of Iran’s Emergency Command were all killed in the strikes across Iran, he told an online briefing.

    Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Israel had “unleashed its wicked and bloody” hand in a crime against Iran and that it would receive “a bitter fate for itself”.

    Airlines cleared out of the airspace over Israel, Iran and Iraq and Jordan on Friday after the Israelis strikes, Flightradar24 data showed, with carriers scrambling to divert and cancel flights to keep passengers and crew safe.

    An Israeli military official said Israel was striking “dozens” of nuclear and military targets including the facility at Natanz in central Iran. The official said Iran had enough material to make 15 nuclear bombs within days.

    The United States said it had no part in the operation, which raises the risk of a fresh escalation in tensions in the Middle East, a major oil producing region.

    Alongside extensive air strikes, Israel’s Mossad spy agency led a series of covert sabotage operations inside Iran, Axios reported, citing a senior Israeli official. These operations were aimed at damaging Iran’s strategic missile sites and its air defence capabilities.

    Iranian state media reported that at least two nuclear scientists, Fereydoun Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi were killed in Israeli strikes in Tehran.

    The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said the country’s oil refining and storage facilities did not sustain damages and their activities were ongoing.

    Iran closed its airspace and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was closed until further notice.

    Israeli military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said tens of thousands of soldiers had been called up and “prepared across all borders”.

    “We are amidst a historic campaign unlike any other. This is a critical operation to prevent an existential threat, by an enemy who is intent on destroying us,” he said.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar was holding a “marathon of calls” with counterparts around the world regarding Israel’s attack on Iran, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

    TALKS WITH IRAN

    U.S. President Donald Trump said that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and that the United States was hoping to get back to the negotiating table, in an interview with Fox News after the start of the Israeli air strikes on Iran.

    “We will see,” Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin quoted Trump as saying in a post on X.

    U.S. officials have repeatedly said that any new nuclear deal with Iran – to replace a failed 2015 accord between Tehran and six world powers – must include a commitment to scrap enrichment, viewed as a potential pathway to developing nuclear bombs.

    The Islamic Republic has repeatedly denied such intentions, saying it wants nuclear energy only for civilian purposes, and has publicly rejected Washington’s demand to scrap enrichment as an attack on its national sovereignty.

    Iran’s government said in a statement that Israel’s “cowardly” attack shows why Tehran insists on enrichment, nuclear technology and missile power.

    Trump would convene a meeting of the National Security Council on Friday morning, the White House said. He had said on Thursday an Israeli strike on Iran “could very well happen” but reiterated his hopes for a peaceful resolution.

    The U.S. military is planning for the full range of contingencies in the Middle East, including the possibility that it might have to help evacuate American civilians, a U.S. official told Reuters.

    Iran’s armed forces spokesperson said Israel and its chief ally the United States would pay a “heavy price” for the attack, accusing Washington of providing support for the operation.

    While the U.S. tried to distance itself from Israel’s military operation, an Israeli official told public broadcaster Kan that Israel had coordinated with Washington on Iran.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was not involved in the strikes and Tel Aviv had acted unilaterally for self-defence.

    “Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel,” he said.

    The attacks triggered sharp falls in stock prices in Asian trade on Friday, led by a selloff in U.S. futures, while oil prices jumped as investors scurried to safe havens such as gold and the Swiss franc.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned any military escalation in the Middle East, said deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq.

    “The Secretary-General asks both sides to show maximum restraint, avoiding at all costs a descent into deeper conflict, a situation that the region can hardly afford,” Haq said.

    NUCLEAR TALKS

    U.S. and Iranian officials were scheduled to hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran’s escalating uranium enrichment programme in Oman on Sunday, according to officials from both countries and their Omani mediators.

    A U.S. official said those talks were still scheduled to proceed despite the Israeli attack.

    The Israeli military said on Friday that it was forced to act based on new intelligence information showing that Iran was “approaching the point of no return” in the development of a nuclear weapon.

    A source familiar with U.S. intelligence reports said there had been no recent change in the U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei had not authorised the restarting of the nuclear weapons programme that was shuttered in 2003.

  • ‘Hit The Nuclear First And Worry About The Rest Later’ : Trump Israel To Strike Iran

    ‘Hit The Nuclear First And Worry About The Rest Later’ : Trump Israel To Strike Iran

    Israel should carry out a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities to avenge Tehran’s recent missile attack on the Jewish state, US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has argued.

    Earlier this week, Iran fired around 180 missiles at Israel in retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, both of whom had close ties to Tehran. The attack killed one Palestinian in the West Bank, while the Israeli military acknowledged that some of the projectiles hit its air bases.

    The attack followed what Israel called a “limited ground operation” in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.

    Speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina on Friday, Trump, known for his hawkish stance on Iran, disagreed with US President Joe Biden, who had earlier refused to support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

    “They asked him, what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran? And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right? I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons,” he said.

    “When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump added.

    As president, Trump spearheaded the US withdrawal in 2018 from the nuclear deal with Iran. Under the agreement, Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. At the time, however, Trump argued that the deal did little to permanently prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

    Following the Iranian strike on Israel, Axios reported that West Jerusalem is eyeing a “significant retaliation” for the missile barrage and that all options are on the table, including strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Other potential targets could reportedly include gas and oil rigs or air defense systems, while targeted assassinations could also be considered.

    Meanwhile, according to an Al Jazeera report, Iran warned the US that any Israeli attack could be met with an “unconventional response.” As tensions continue to soar in the Middle East, Politico reported that Biden is growing increasingly frustrated by Israel’s conduct, including recent attacks on Hezbollah and the war in Gaza, with the White House said to be acknowledging the possibility that it may not be able to prevent a full-scale “regional war.”

  • Why The US Has Suspended The Shipment Of Weapons To Israel

    Why The US Has Suspended The Shipment Of Weapons To Israel

    (France 24)-Is this the end of unconditional US support for Israel? With Netanyahu’s government seemingly ignoring Washington’s warnings of the dire humanitarian consequences of a ground incursion for Rafah’s civilian population, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday threatened to stop deliveringcertain types of munitions to Israel if it pushes into the southern Gaza city, notably the 2,000-pound bombs Israel has been using in its offensive.

    “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden acknowledged in a one-on-one interview with CNN.

    “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah … I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities.”

    The US president’s ultimatum came as Netanyahu’s government said it was preparing a “limited” offensive in Rafah despite UN warningsthat a ground assault could lead to a “bloodbath”. Around 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them displaced by Israel’s months-long assault on the besieged enclave, are believed to be crammed into the city.

    Biden’s threat has already partly been carried out, US officials have said. Washington last week suspended the delivery of 1,800 of the 2,000-pound bombs, a US official told AP on condition of anonymity, likely MK-84s as well as 1,700 smaller 500-pound bombs.

    US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that an area as densely populated as Rafah demanded less powerful and more precise weapons. The city, which borders Egypt, has an average of 20,000 inhabitants crammed into every square kilometre, according to the UN – the same urban density as the city of Paris.

    “We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said. “But that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”

    Austin said the US was pausing shipment of “high-payload munitions” over Israeli plans for an incursion into Rafah without an adequate plan for protecting the 1 million civilians who have sought shelter there.

    A history of violence

    MK-84 bombs have been used by the US militarysince the 1970s, first in Vietnam and then, more sparingly, in Iraq and Afghanistan due to their devastating impact on urban areas. Human Rights Watch has said that these munitions were also used by the Saudi-led coalition in the 2016 bombing of a market in Yemen that killed more than a hundred civilians.

    Although these bombs can be modified with the addition of a precision guidance system, this measure would likely do little to avoid civilian deaths in an enclave as densely packed as the Gaza Strip.

    Containing 900 pounds of explosives, these 4.5-metre-long bombs leave immense craters in their wake and scatter thousands of potentially lethal fragments in all directions. Nothing within a 350-metre radius can survive.

    Military experts say these deadly bombs may have already contributed significantly to the horrific death toll of the war in Gaza. According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, almost 34,000 Palestinians have been killed since war broke out following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that killed almost 1,200 people.

    Israel has frequently used these US-supplied bombs in an effort to dislodge Hamas militants from a labyrinthine network of underground tunnels beneath Gaza. According to a New York Times investigation published in December 2023, Israel dropped MK-84 bombs on Gaza every day during the first six weeks of the conflict. On at least 200 occasions, Israeli armed forces have directly targeted areas that were specifically designated as safe for Gazan civilians.

    Israel has been criticised for years by human rights NGOs for its widespread use of these gratuitously powerful bombs during previous conflicts in the Gaza Strip.

    “These bombs are used to inflict extremely heavy damage, either indiscriminately or completely deliberately, on residential areas or civilian infrastructure, which is forbidden under international law,” Amnesty International France director Jean-Claude Samouiller said. “This has not been respected by Israel, either during this current war in Gaza or in the past.”

    ‘Be careful’

    Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan described the US move in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 as “a very disappointing decision, even frustrating”.

    The US is Israel’s leading arms supplier by far. Last month, Congress approved the sale of $14.3 billion in additional arms as part of a larger package that also earmarked military aid for Ukraine and Taiwan. That comes on top of the $3.8 billion in military aid the US sends Israel every year, most of which Israel must use to purchase US military equipment and services.

    But this generous support has been called into question since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. Amid outcry from the Muslim community and the progressive left as well as pro-Palestinian protests at major universities, some Democrats are worried about the consequences of the Middle East crisis on the November presidential election.

    This decision is the most spectacular sign to date of the mounting disagreements that are poisoning the Biden administration’s relationship with the Netanyahu government, which has brushed off US requests to take greater care to avoid the loss of Palestinian civilian lives.

    “It’s an insufficient first step, but it sends a strong signal to Israel,” Samouiller said.

    Biden’s announcement also comes amid the ongoing failure of ceasefire talks in Cairo. The latest ceasefire talks collapsed on Thursday with no agreement to halt the fighting or release hostages.

    Netanyahu instead maintains he is determined to annihilate Hamas by launching a bloody assault on Rafah, which he maintains is the Palestinian militant group’s last refuge.

    Israeli troops seized control of the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday – essential in the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza – and ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians. The IDF has also launched what it calls “targeted strikes” in the city’s east.

    Washington’s decision is “some kind of diplomatic message to Mr Netanyahu that he needs to take into consideration American interests more than he has over the last few months”, former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council Itamar Yaar told the Associated Press. Yaar added that while the decision would not have an immediate impact on Israel’s military capacities, he stressed that it was “a kind of a signal, a ‘Be careful’”.

  • How Israel-Iran War Could Affect Kenya

    How Israel-Iran War Could Affect Kenya

    The attack launched on Israel by the Islamic Republic is causing jitters across the globe with many concerned that the it not only posses a threat to the Middle East peace but would escalate to an international security crisis.

    Speaking on the matter on Sunday, Kenya’s president William Ruto condemned the incident saying it contravene the UN Charter, “Kenya is deeply concerned by Iran’s attack on the State of Israel. This disturbing development only serves to aggravate an already delicate situation in the Middle East. The attack represents a real and present threat to international peace and security, contravenes the Charter of the United Nations and should be condemned by all peace loving countries.” The president posted on X.

    Kenya’s Trade Minister Rebecca Miano has sounded a warning that the conflict could pose real trade logistical challenges to the country.

    Ms Rebecca cautioned that the skirmishes in the Middle East could interrupt the free movement of goods and services in Africa, thereby affecting Kenya’s exports and imports from Europe and the Gulf region.

    “Most of the effect is the interruption of the supply chain. It is likely to affect the whole of Africa,” said Ms Miano.

    Kenya’s top imports, which include refined petroleum, palm oil, wheat, packaged medicaments and cars imported mostly from China, United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia are likely to be affected logistically.

    She cautioned that should matters escalate, then Kenya and her neighbours must start looking for home grown solutions.

    “It is a wake-up call and an opportunity for countries to be self-sufficient as much as possible in terms of manufacturing. We must start looking at the strategic commodities that are absolutely necessary the same way we learnt during Covid when we started manufacturing things that we used to import,” said Ms Miano.

    Due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the cost of sea freight immediately went up by $500 on average per container as global trade volumes decreased by 42 per cent, according to a situational report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released in March.

    Along the Northern corridor, which serves Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and the DR Congo, coffee and tea from Uganda and Kenya was in March stuck in warehouses as exporters experienced high cost of sea freight due to increasing demand for vessels.

    Apart from the war in the gulf, closer home, the war in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has affected the flow of goods and services within the East African region.

    Iran attack on Israel

    Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sunday that Iran launched more than 300 projectiles toward Israel, including launches from Yemen and Iraq, with 99% intercepted by Israeli air defences outside of Israeli airspace.

    The attack on Israel was in retaliation for an April 1 deadly strike on its consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus, which killed senior Iranian commanders.

    According to the Israeli military, 99% of the more than 300 missiles and drones Iran fired at Israel late on Saturday were intercepted. Here’s how the Jewish state and its allies repelled the attack.

    Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said the attack was aimed at “specific targets”

    Israel has not said it carried out the consulate strike but is widely believed to have been behind it.

    Iran’s attack is the first time the country had attacked Israel directly.

    The two states had previously been engaged in a years-long shadow war – attacking each other’s assets without admitting responsibility.

    Animosity betweem them escalated considerably during the current war in Gaza sparked by Hamas’s assault on nearby Israeli communities October 7.

    The two countries were allies until the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, which brought in a regime that has opposed Israel as a key part of its ideology.

    Iran does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and seeks its eradication to free Palestine.

    Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has previously called Israel a “cancerous tumour” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed”.

    US President Joe Biden pledged “ironclad” support in the wake of the missle attacks on Israel saying “We helped Israel take down nearly all” of them.

    In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Netanyahu said the military is “ready for any scenario”.

    “Our defensive systems are deployed; we are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively. The State of Israel is strong. The IDF is strong. The public is strong.”

    Netanyahu thanked allies, including the US and UK, for “standing alongside” Israel.

    The situation is developing rapidly, with Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, the three nations located on the likely flight path of the drones having shut their airspace.

    Iran and Israel have also closed their airspace to all but military aircraft.

  • Israel Is Fully Prepared For Potential War With Iran, Says Defense Minister

    Israel Is Fully Prepared For Potential War With Iran, Says Defense Minister

    Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that Israel has completed its preparations to respond to any possible scenario against Iran days after Iran’s consular building in Damascus had been subjected to a bombing.

    This came in light of Israeli preparedness for Iran’s response to the assassination of several Revolutionary Guard officials in Damascus, according to the daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

    “The defense system has finished preparations for a response against any scenario that may develop with Iran,” said Gallant at an assessment conducted at the headquarters of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv.

    At least seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two top generals, were killed on April 1 in an attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus.

    Iran has accused Israel of carrying out the attack and vowed to respond.

    Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the attack.

    The escalation in tensions came as Israel waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack in early October by Hamas killed less than 1,200 people.

    More than 33,100 Palestinians have since been killed and over 75,800 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

    Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

    The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

    Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which last week asked it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.