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Hamas Sending Fighters to Yemen?

Today’s Top Stories 1. Hamas is rebuilding its tunnel infrastructure and rocket stockpiles with material smuggled into Gaza from Israel. Israel? According to the Times of Israel, Hamas is taking advantage of dual-use materials brought…

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Today’s Top Stories

1. Hamas is rebuilding its tunnel infrastructure and rocket stockpiles with material smuggled into Gaza from Israel.

Israel?

According to the Times of Israel, Hamas is taking advantage of dual-use materials brought by trucks through the Kerem Shalom crossing and a network of West Bank and Gaza merchants. Tunnel excavators find refrigerator motors and wooden pallets useful. Electrodes needed for rockets have been found hidden in butter containers. And don’t get me started on the rocket fuel . . .

The discoveries gave rise to a debate in Israel’s defense establishment: What to do? Do we stop the transfer of goods into Gaza in order to strike at Hamas’s ability to manufacture arms for use against Israel — an act that would increase the hardship in Gaza and increase the risk of a conflict? Or do we continue allowing products to flow into Gaza, with the understanding that there will be a military price to pay?

gaza tunnel
Hamas tunnel

2. Has Hamas agreed to send hundreds of men to Yemen to join the fight against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels? Is Iran spreading disinformation to disrupt thawing Hamas-Saudi ties? Whatever the case, the Jerusalem Post reports:

According to the Iranian news agency, the Saudi monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, asked Mashaal to dispatch 700 Hamas fighters to Yemen to help in the fighting against the Houthis. The report also claimed that Mashaal asked the Saudis for $20m. in monthly aid to Hamas to enable it to continue managing the affairs of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Gilad Shalit3. Israeli security officials have learned that the mastermind of last month’s terror attack near Shilo (25-year old Malachi Rosenfeld was killed in the drive by shooting) was a Hamas operative released from prison in the 2011 Gilad Shalit swap. According to Haaretz:

According to the Shin Bet security service, the person behind the terrorist cell that murdered Rosenfeld and wounded three other civilians, and also perpetrated two other shooting attacks in the Ramallah area, is Ahmed Najar. Najar is a Hamas operative who served eight years in an Israeli jail for involvement in the murder of six other Israelis before being freed in the Shalit deal. Under the terms of that deal, he was deported to Gaza rather than being allowed to return to the West Bank, but he later left Gaza for Jordan.

Overall, six Israelis have been killed by Palestinians freed in the 2014 Shalit swap. Meanwhile, Yoav Limor is disturbed that Najar was able to orchestrate the attack from Jordan. Is Amman turning a blind eye to Hamas activity on its soil?

4. Trumping Israel’s Security Barrier: The Washington Post dragged Israel into a debate sparked by Donald Trump. What could go wrong?

Israel and the Palestinians

• The Financial Times (click via Google News) updates the latest incremental news from the EU’s  efforts to label settlement products.

• Two main Israeli power grids providing 25 percent of Gaza’s electricity broke down because of a technical error. On a related note, Egypt recently raised the price of electricity to Gaza as part of Cairo’s effort to reduce subsidies.

• Truly bizarre: In a report about David Cameron’s plans to fight Islamic extremism in the UK, Sky News turned to Asghar Bukhari. He’s best known for an epic social media meltdown when he ranted on YouTube about the Mossad stealing his shoe last month. (The shoe turned up, prompting a second rant.)

Bukhari’s entitled to his opinions, but what does it say about Sky News that they treat someone like this as a credible talking head? Bukhari appears at the 1:52 point — presumably in a nice pair of Clarks. I found this video on the Voice of America’s YouTube channel.

Iranian Atomic Urgency

• The UN Security Council  unanimously endorsed the Iran deal today. Israel’s alleged “mistreatment of Palestinians” was also on the UNSC’s agenda. The European Union gave the deal its official endorsement today — as expected.

• Nuclear deal will see US and West actually help Iran protect its nuclear facilities from

Article 10 of the deal, included in a section titled “Reactors, Fuels, Facilities, and Processes,” stipulates that world powers and Iran will foster “cooperation through training and workshops to strengthen Iran’s ability to protect against, and respond to, nuclear security threats, including sabotage, as well as to enable effective and sustainable nuclear security and physical protection systems.” . . .

 

The U.S. has to protect Iran as it pursues nuclear weapons because its program is allegedly civilian?” the official wondered.

Reuters: Visting Tehran, Germany’s vice chancellor urged the mullahs to improve Iran’s ties with Israel, and offered Germany’s services to mediate.

“Questioning this state’s (Israel’s) right to existence is something that we Germans cannot accept,” he said, adding that now Berlin and Tehran can re-establish closer ties it was necessary to talk about human rights.

• Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed the Iran deal and Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s visit with ABC News.

I guess the question is, if this deal is supposed to make Israel and our Arab neighbors safer, why should we be compensated with anything?


ABC US News | World News

• Former IAEA official Olli Heinonen discussed the nuclear accord’s verification issues with Deutsche Welle.

Mideast Matters

• The Washington Post has bad news for Bashar Assad. He’s begun to lose the Druze.

Recently, however, the Druze have been defying Assad’s government. Many are refusing compulsory military service. Increasingly, Druze spiritual leaders are criticizing the embattled president and urging their community to adopt a neutral stance in the conflict . . .

 

But analysts say the Druze population’s changing attitude is significant because religious minorities have formed an important part of Assad’s base, with many of their members serving in the military and government-run paramilitary groups.

• Despite being blacklisted by the EU, Hezbollah continues to operate in Europe. The Daily Beast takes a closer look.

Commentary/Analysis

• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .

Shelley Berkley: Surrender on Iran nuclear deal makes U.S. less secure
Jackson Diehl: Obama, Iran, and the limits of engagement
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed: Thwarting Iran’s regional influence
Ray Takeyh: On Iran, Congress should just say no
Mary Anastasia O’Grady: A richer Iran will double-down in South America (click via Google News)

Iran

Austin Long: If you really want to bomb Iran, take the deal
Abraham Ben-Zvi: Obama’s rationale implodes
Smadar Perry: Iran deal will save Assad
Chuck Freilich: A good deal for Israel

 

Featured image: CC BY flickr/Stylianos Mystakidis with additions by HonestReporting; Gaza tunnel via YouTube/Vice News;

 

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

 

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