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News And Features Articles

Israel will be forced to ‘cut deals’ for individuals if Hamas refuse complete hostage release

Hamas will not release all of its hostages, forcing Israel to “pay a lot of money” through individual deals to free its citizens, a member of Israel’s negotiating team has said. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the negotiator said there was “no way on earth” the terror group would cut a deal to release all of the hostages taken on Oct 7. “The hostages are the only cards left in the pack for the personal security of the leaders of Hamas and their families.”

Hamas refuses to reveal how many hostages are alive

More than 250 hostages were taken to Gaza when Hamas militia invaded Israel on Oct 7. In November, 105 of them – including 81 Israelis and 24 foreigners – were released from Gaza in exchange for 240 Palestinians, including 71 women and 169 children. Israel is demanding the release of all the remaining hostages as part of the ceasefire negotiations, while Hamas is demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Ghoulish ‘war safaris’ force Israeli kibbutzim to close doors to visitors

Kibbutzim in southern Israel have been forced to close their doors to visitors after busloads of souvenir-hunting tourists turned the sites of the Oct 7 attacks into a “safari”. Hundreds of people now arrive daily for “war tours” of the devastated communities to take selfies with the burnt-out homes and blood-stained walls left after the Hamas atrocities, in which 1,200 people died. Some tourists even enter abandoned homes without permission and steal “souvenirs” such as spent bullet casings.

‘Hot Houthi’ pirate says hijacked cargo ship’s hostages taken to Yemen

Yemen’s “Hot Houthi” claimed on Tuesday that the Iran-backed rebel group had taken 25 hostages from a hijacked cargo ship to a secret location on land. Rashid Al Haddad, 19, has emerged as the face of the Islamist militia after his TikTok videos on board the Galaxy Leader ship went viral. The Israeli-owned vessel was stormed in November by armed Houthi rebels and now functions as a tourist destination for curious locals.

How Houthis are using war in Gaza to tighten grip on Yemen

Houthis are seizing on Yemen’s humanitarian disaster to drive up recruitment and strengthen their iron grip on the country, aid workers have warned. The Iran-backed group behind the attacks on Red Sea shipping has been weaponising poverty, famine and popular support for Gaza to draw civilians to its cause, they said. So successful has their recruitment drive been, that the Houthis are now thought to number as many as 100,000 – over half of the total regional militia run by Iran.

Israeli hostages at risk from deadly fungus with ‘no treatment’ in Hamas tunnel network

A mysterious deadly fungus in the Hamas tunnel network poses a new threat to the 136 hostages being held in Gaza, Israeli officials have claimed. A member of the hostage team in Israel, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There is a deadly fungus in the tunnels with no treatment. Hamas members there are now more immune to it but there is a high chance many of the hostages are sick and deteriorating due to this fungus."

‘None of us are really alive’: displaced Israelis cling to hopes of normality

Across Israel, almost a quarter of a million people displaced from their homes by the war with Hamas are clinging to any semblance of normality. In hotels from Eilat and Tel Aviv to Tiberias, the rituals of Jewish life, like weekly sabbath prayers and dinners, are taking place in lobbies, while usually joyous celebrations continue amid the backdrop of mourning for the victims of the October 7 attacks, all far from home in strange surroundings.

Iran offers $100 a month to recruit Houthi rebels in war-torn Yemen

Iran is offering $100 (£79) a month to desperate Yemenis if they join the Houthi rebels in their war on Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Thousands of fighters have joined the ranks in recent weeks, according to sources in opposition-held territories, amid an aggressive recruitment drive. Yemen, where more than 80 per cent of the country lives below the poverty line, has proved a fertile recruiting ground, with more than 100,000 militiamen thought to be now backed by Iran.

Houthi rebels who attacked British ship trained at elite Iranian academy

A section is dedicated to the six-month training course for foreign mercenaries under the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) Quds Force, including the Houthis. The academy was established in 2013 and within four years, all IRGC naval training, including that of Iran’s proxies, was transferred there. The first course for Houthis in naval science and technology was launched in January 2020, and the Houthis were housed separately from other students ...

Hamas ‘using massive stockpile of Chinese weaponry’ in Gaza

Chinese weaponry including assault rifles and grenade launchers is being used by Hamas to wage war in Gaza, Israeli investigations have revealed. Stockpiles of hi-tech supplies uncovered by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) contained telescopic sights for rifles and cartridges for M16s as well as an array of communications equipment such as listening devices and tactical military radios. Israeli investigators are now working to determine how the equipment made it into Hamas’s hands.

‘Child bride’ hanged in Iran for murdering abusive husband

A former child bride has been executed in Iran after poisoning her husband in an attempt to escape a life of domestic violence. Samira Sabzian was hanged in the early hours of Wednesday at Ghezel Hesar prison after ten years of incarceration, leaving behind three children. She was married at 15 and was arrested four years later, charged with murdering her husband, when her youngest child was still a baby. She was subsquently sentenced to death.

Iran launches wave of executions with world fixated on Gaza

Iran has launched a spree of executions targeting activists and ethnic minorities since the war in Gaza broke out, rights groups and campaigners say. With the world’s attention diverted by the Israel-Hamas war, Iran has executed at least 229 people, they said, as the regime in Tehran clamps down in the wake of the uprising after the death of Mahsa Amini. Iran on Saturday said it had executed a man who was sentenced to death after being convicted of working with Israel’s intelligence services.

Israel planning to flood labyrinth of Hamas terror tunnels

Erik Prince, the controversial US security contractor who once controlled the military company Blackwater, persuaded Israel only days after the terrorist attacks of October 7 to buy his sophisticated mining equipment to flood Hamas’s 300 miles of tunnels in Gaza. The Times has learnt that Prince, a former US Navy Seal, flew into Israel just after Hamas attacked the country, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping at least another 240.

Qatar fears Mossad assassinations in Doha

Israel has promised Qatar that it will not try to assassinate Hamas leaders living in the Gulf state — but only for now. After the October 7 attacks, Israeli leaders promised vengeance against the whole leadership of Hamas, which is split between Gaza and overseas capitals, including Istanbul and Beirut. The group’s top political leaders are based in Doha, the capital of Qatar, by historic agreement with the country’s western allies which favour it as a venue for negotiations when necessary.

Hamas chief ‘back from dead’ to lead attack

A Hamas leader specialising in kidnappings and cross-border infiltration who was pronounced dead in 2014, is alive and masterminded the Oct 7 attacks, Israeli spies believe. Sources close to Israeli intelligence said Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of Yahya Sinwa, Hamas’s leader in Gaza and Israel’s most-wanted terrorist, has been living under a shroud of secrecy in the tunnels beneath the Strip for years.
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