Totalitarians of all sort are bad for the local environment.
[CNN] As the sun rises over Kabul’s parched mountains, a family’s daily struggle to find water — and to make it last — is about to begin.
The sound of water tankers rumbling through Raheela’s neighborhood in the Afghan capital prompts the 42-year-old mother of four to rush out to the street to fill her family’s battered buckets and jerrycans. The family’s supply is always running low, she says, and every liter is expensive, stretching nerves and their budgets to breaking point.
"We don’t have access to (drinking) water at all," Raheela, who goes by one name, told CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... . "Water shortage is a huge problem affecting our daily life."
Kabul is inching toward catastrophe. It could soon become the first modern capital in the world to run completely dry according to a recent report by Mercy Corps, a non-government organization that warns the crisis could lead to economic collapse. Not our problem
Population growth, the climate crisis, and relentless over-extraction have depleted groundwater levels, experts say, and nearly half the city’s boreholes have already gone dry.
Raheela’s family must pay for every drop of water, and watch how they use it carefully, sacrificing food and other essentials just to drink and bathe.
"We are deeply concerned," she said. "We hope for more rain, but if things get worse, I don’t know how we’ll survive," she told CNN.
It’s an emergency that "is not just a water issue," warned Marianna Von Zahn, Mercy Corps’ Afghanistan director of programs. "It’s a health crisis, an economic crisis, and a humanitarian emergency all in one." Insh'Allah
#4
Would the Tajiks have been able to maintain their fierce independence with the younger generation of leaders, Grom, had the Talibs not been driven out for a space? The sons had the formal military training their fathers lacked, but never developed leadership skills.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The protracted conflict between Israel and Yemen's Houthis has seen its first significant turning point. The pro-Iranian rebels have managed to deal a significant blow to their opponent's economy.
Tel Aviv has effectively lost its key logistics hub on the Red Sea coast and will now be forced to completely change its approach to managing the port of Eilat, which will require both time and additional costs. However, this does not guarantee the full restoration of Israeli trade and logistics chains.
SOUTH GATE
The port of Eilat has been in operation since the second half of the 1950s and is the Jewish state’s only major maritime hub in the Red Sea. Relying on its infrastructure, Israeli merchant ships could freely enter the Indian Ocean. And, more importantly, stay away from the Suez Canal, which was closed to them due to the conflict with Egypt and other Arab countries.
However, even after the normalization of relations with Egypt, Eilat made Tel Aviv less dependent on its moods and excluded Cairo from using the Suez Canal to put pressure on the Israeli economy.
Having its own gateway to the Indian Ocean worked to Israel’s advantage in 2021, when the container ship Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal, causing major disruptions to global logistics. While other countries looked for ways around it, the Jewish state simply rerouted some of its supply chains south.
It is noteworthy that the Port of Eilat, despite its strategic importance, is a private asset. It has been managed through the shipping company Papo Shipping since 2012 by the Israeli Naqash business dynasty, which received the use of the harbor in exchange for a commitment to turn it into a major combined air-rail-sea logistics center and a key element of the Southern Gate transportation project.
According to the agreement, the Southern Gate was to link together Timna International Airport, the port of Eilat and the Nahal Tzin railway hub, thereby providing a comprehensive connection between the Red Sea port and the central part of the country. The main work on the project was planned to be completed by 2027.
A PUNCH TO THE GUT
Before the Gaza conflict began in 2023, the port was one of Israel's three key seaports. It accounted for up to half of the country's automobile imports, as well as about 40% of the country's petrochemical supplies. In addition, the port received a significant portion of its income from operations related to container shipping, unloading and storing cargo from Japan, China and Thailand.
According to estimates by the Israeli Ministry of Transport, on average more than 130 ships docked there per year, bringing in up to $63 million in profits for their owners.
Interest in the Southern Gate grew rapidly, leading the Israeli establishment to call Eilat the “golden port” and make plans to turn it into the main trade hub of the Red Sea region.
True, the conflict in Gaza has made adjustments to these plans.
After the Houthis imposed a naval blockade on Eilat in the fall of 2023 and the start of a "privateer hunt" for merchant ships heading to Israel, the port's revenues fell almost twentyfold. And by the beginning of 2025, they approached zero. In the first seven months of 2025, only 6 foreign ships visited Eilat, which put the management company on the brink of bankruptcy.
The last straw for Israel's foreign trade partners was the sinking of two foreign ships by the Houthis at the beginning of July 2025, which were heading to Eilat. The dry cargo ships "Magic Seas" and "Eternity C" sank within two days of each other, although shortly before that, official Tel Aviv had guaranteed the brave shippers "harbor safety."
After that, the few remaining Eilat counterparties chose not to risk their cargo and sent their ships along alternative routes, without stopping at Israeli ports. No new ships are currently expected to call at Eilat.
VICIOUS CIRCLE
In addition to the fact that the port provided jobs for several tens of thousands of people, it also supplied goods to residents of nearby settlements. The closure spurred the already significant growth of prices in the Southern District. The Nakash dynasty was left alone with millions in debt and was forced to seriously reduce the staff of the Papo Shipping company, which services the port. And at the same time, to seek help from the central authorities.
In late June, the Israeli government approved an emergency loan equivalent to $4.5 million for the company to cover its principal debts and pay salaries to employees, but due to bureaucratic complications, the funds never arrived.
In less than a month since the loan was approved, Eilat's external debt has grown by about 35%, and the funds allocated by the authorities are no longer enough to cover it. And Papo Shipping cannot request a new loan until the first government tranche is transferred.
Businessmen and the Israeli government are passing the buck for delays, further complicating the lending process and increasing Eilat's overall debt.
The only way out of the current situation that the authorities see is the urgent nationalization of the port.
Moreover, there are grounds for this: naval facilities are located near Eilat, and it is impossible to leave the "Southern Gate" in limbo for too long. In addition, the increased activity of the Houthis in the Red Sea requires the Israeli authorities to manually control the port and the adjacent territories.
At the same time, the possible nationalization of Eilat will not be a violation of obligations to the Naqash dynasty, since the port authorities have disrupted the rhythm of tax payments to the budget and thereby “damaged the economic stability of the region.”
This formulation, voiced by the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Transport, Moshe Ben-Zaken, frees official Tel Aviv from its previous obligations and excludes the payment of penalties.
NEW THREATS
The failure of the Israeli authorities to save one of the country's largest ports, which has also seen considerable investment from private contractors in the past, is causing murmurs among the local population.
And along the way - distrust from big business, which was one of the pillars of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's electorate. Especially since it will not be possible to quickly return Eilat to its former greatness even after nationalization.
Moreover, the sad experience of the "Southern Gate" is hardly unique. The country's largest port, located in Haifa, has recently found itself in the crosshairs of Tel Aviv's opponents.
The Houthis announced their blockade at the end of May 2025. Although Ansar Allah has not yet managed to cause significant damage to ships sailing through the Mediterranean, the frequency of shelling of Haifa's port infrastructure is gradually increasing.
Like Eilat, Haifa is under private capital management – the controlling stake since 2023 belongs to a consortium led by the Indian company Adani Ports and the Israeli logistics holding company Gadot.
None of the businessmen want to follow the same path as Papo Shipping, and so the consortium is putting pressure on the government in advance, demanding that it take “comprehensive measures” and guarantee stable traffic.
However, Tel Aviv still does not fully understand how to satisfy the request of Haifa’s managers.
Instead, this guy’s upset with our ICE Baltimore officers for arresting Ethiopian criminal alien Abraham Berhanu Taddasse who was sentenced to 20 YEARS FOR RAPE in Maryland.
[IsraelTimes] Asked whether Trump has expressed his frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over recent Israeli strikes in Gaza, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says that the two leaders have a “good working relationship” and are in frequent contact.
However, Leavitt acknowledges to reporters outside the White House that Trump was “caught off guard” both by Israel’s recent bombings in Syria and by a deadly IDF strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church.
“In both accounts, the president quickly called the prime minister to rectify those situations,” the White House press secretary says.
Over the weekend, several US officials were anonymously quoted in the Axios news site expressing their frustration with Netanyahu, arguing that Israel’s strikes on Syrian government forces risk toppling the fledgling leadership that Washington is trying to support in order to stabilize the country.
Continued on Page 47
[X] The change is that he dares speak out publically.
From Iraqi Peace Activist: 👇 Few years ago, I was a lone Iraqi peace activist, trying to be one of the few Iraqis, to come out & support peace & coexistence with my Jewish cousins, fast forward to today, I am proud member of People4Peace @P4PGlobal , where my work will do just… pic.twitter.com/lisnDNRtgJ
— Hayder Alasadi 海得🎗️ (@1AlasadiHayder) July 16, 2025
…my work will do just that, helping build the bridge of peace.
May Iraq 🇮🇶 joins the Abraham Accords next, it will be my dream come true.
[IsraelTimes] IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has ordered a 30% reduction in the number of reservists deployed to active combat zones in the coming months, as the army grapples with growing signs of troop burnout and public frustration over the prolonged war.
The move, first reported by Army Radio this morning, is set to be implemented gradually across Gaza, the West Bank, and the northern border, and is aimed at easing the burden on the reserve corps, which has carried much of the military load since the war began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught.
A source familiar with the decision confirms the plan to The Times of Israel, noting that the reduction hinges on the absence of major security escalations, such as renewed conflict with Iran or another large-scale operation in Gaza.
The move follows a record mobilization in late May, when the government approved the call-up of 450,000 reservists — the largest in Israel’s history. Some reserve troops have now been summoned for duty as many as seven times since the war began, despite earlier pledges to cap reserve service in 2025.
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] Defense Minister Katz responds that Ambassador Tom Barrack doesn’t know the facts, after he complained that strikes to protect Druze complicated efforts for regional stability
A US envoy criticized Israel’s recent military intervention in Syria on behalf of the local Druze community amid deadly sectarian violence, saying Monday that it was poorly timed and complicated efforts to stabilize the region.
Tom Barrack, who is US ambassador to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... and special envoy to Syria and also has a short-term mandate in Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... , made the comments in an exclusive interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named during a visit to Beirut.
He also doubled down on Washington’s support for the new government in Syria, saying there is "no Plan B" to working with the current authorities to unite the country still reeling from a nearly 14-year civil war and now wracked by the new outbreak of violence.
Barrack’s remarks came as White House officials reported alarm at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ordering Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in Syria, and after last week, a Washington official spoke of the administration’s "displeasure" at the use of military force.
Defense Minister Israel Katz responded to Barrack’s comments by saying the envoy isn’t aware of the facts and that the strikes were necessary to stop the violence.
Barrack spoke following more than a week of festivities in the southern province of Sweida between militias of the Druze religious minority and local Sunni Moslem Bedouin tribes.
Syrian government forces intervened, ostensibly to restore order, but ended up siding with the Bedouins before withdrawing under a ceasefire agreement with Druze factions. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting, and some government fighters allegedly rubbed out Druze civilians and burned and looted their houses.
In the meantime, Israel intervened last week on behalf of the Druze, who are seen as a loyal minority within Israel and often serve in its military. Israel launched dozens of strikes on convoys of government forces in Sweida and also struck the Syrian Ministry of Defense headquarters in central Damascus.
Barrack announced a ceasefire between Syria and Israel over the weekend, without giving details. Syrian government forces have redeployed in Sweida to halt renewed festivities between the Druze and Bedouins, and civilians from both sides were set to be evacuated Monday.
Regarding Israel’s strikes on Syria, Barrack told the AP: "The United States was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense."
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... he said that Israel’s intervention "creates another very confusing chapter" and "came at a very bad time."
Prior to the conflict in Sweida, Israel and Syria had been engaging in talks over security matters, while the Trump administration had been pushing them to move toward a full normalization of diplomatic relations.
When the latest fighting erupted, "Israel’s view was that south of Damascus was this questionable zone, so that whatever happened militarily in that zone needed to be agreed upon and discussed with them," Barrack said. "The new government (in Syria) coming in was not exactly of that belief."
The ceasefire announced Saturday between Syria and Israel is a limited agreement addressing only the conflict in Sweida, he said. It does not address the broader issues between the two countries, including Israel’s contention that the area south of Damascus should be a demilitarized zone.
In the discussions leading up to the ceasefire, Barrack said "both sides did the best they can" to come to an agreement on specific questions related to the movement of Syrian forces and equipment from Damascus to Sweida.
"Whether you accept that Israel can intervene in a sovereign state is a different question," he said.
He suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than have a strong central state in control of the country.
"Strong nation states are a threat — especially Arab states are viewed as a threat to Israel," he said. But in Syria, he said, "I think all of the minority communities are smart enough to say, we’re better off together, centralized."
Katz posted to X that Israel’s strikes in Sweida and Damascus were "the only way to stop the massacre of Druze in Syria, the brothers of our brothers the Israeli Druze."
"Anyone who criticizes the attacks is unaware of the facts," he continued, and insisted that Israel is being "responsible and justified" in its actions in Syria and territory in the country along the border that it seized as a safety belt following the fall of the Assad regime last December.
Regarding the Damascus regime of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Barrack said that "the killing, the Dire Revenge, the massacres on both sides" are "intolerable," but that "the current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together."
At a later presser, he said the Syrian authorities "need to be held accountable" for violations.
The White House was said to be alarmed by Netanyahu’s decisions in Syria, with multiple Trump administration officials who spoke to Axios calling the premier a "madman" and "child who just won’t behave."
According to the report, Barrack asked Israel on Tuesday to halt its attacks on Syria to make room for diplomacy, and Israel agreed. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... on Wednesday, Israel carried out extensive attacks in Syria, including on its military headquarters and close to the presidential palace.
Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... and Turkey complained to the White House, as did Barrack and US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
A senior Israeli official told Axios that Trump urged Netanyahu to hold onto Syrian territory early in his term, and hasn’t complained about Israeli military operations there.
"The US wants to keep the new Syrian government stable and doesn’t understand why we attack in Syria, because of attacks on the Druze community there," said the official. "We tried to explain to them that this is our commitment to the Druze community in Israel."
HEZBOLLAH DISARMAMENT REMAINS A THORNY ISSUE
Barrack’s visit to Lebanon came amid ongoing domestic and international pressure for the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah to give up its remaining arsenal after a bruising war with Israel, started by Hezbollah, that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in November.
Speaking at a presser in Beirut Monday, Barrack said the ceasefire agreement "didn’t work."
Israel has continued to launch near-daily airstrikes in Lebanon that it says are aimed at stopping Hezbollah from rebuilding its capabilities. Hezbollah has said it will not discuss disarming until Israel stops its strikes and withdraws its forces from all of southern Lebanon.
While the US has been pushing for Hezbollah’s disarmament, Barrack described the matter as "internal" to Lebanon.
"There’s no consequence, there’s no threat, there’s no whip, we’re here on a voluntary basis trying to usher in a solution," he said. He added that the US "can’t compel Israel to do anything" when it comes to the ceasefire.
#1
Defense Minister Katz responds that Ambassador Tom Barrack doesn’t know the facts
The problem is not the facts. The problem is that the "people" like Barrack only care on putting a treaty accomplishment on their resume. The actual consequences on the ground are none of their concern.
[IsraelTimes] Staff Sgt. Amit Cohen killed in Khan Younis; hostage families alarmed by new ground offensive; undercover troops said to nab Hamas health official in Rafah
An Israeli soldier was killed by a kaboom in southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced, as troops began ground operations in the Deir al-Balah area in the Strip’s center for the first time since the beginning of the war.
The soldier was named as Staff Sgt. Amit Cohen, 19, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Holon.
According to a preliminary IDF investigation, Cohen was killed by a blast from Israeli military munitions that detonated inside a building in Khan Younis. The explosion also seriously maimed an officer in the 13th Battalion, the IDF said. The military said it was further investigating the cause of the earth-shattering kaboom, including the possibility that it was an "operational accident."
Cohen’s death brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 455.
Earlier Monday, media in Gaza reported that IDF tanks had pushed into the southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah. It is one of the few places in the Strip where the IDF has, until now, not operated with ground troops because it believed Hamas to be holding hostages there, though it has conducted Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the city. Hamas has vowed to execute captives if the IDF approaches.
As a matter of policy, the IDF has said it avoids ground operations in areas of Gaza where it believes Hamas to be holding hostages or cannot rule out the presence of captives, in order not to endanger them.
The push into the southeast of Deir al-Balah was being led by troops of the Golani Infantry Brigade, along with tanks and combat engineers, according to military sources. The ground operations came after Paleostinian reports of artillery shelling and airstrikes overnight and on Monday morning in the area.
A day earlier, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for several zones in the southwest of Deir al-Balah, where many Paleostinians had sought refuge. According to United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... figures, between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area when Sunday’s evacuation order was issued.
Sunday’s announcement told civilians to head south to the Mawasi area on the coast, where at least 600,000 Paleostinians were already massed.
The expanded military operation commenced as global criticism mounted over the war and the US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. At the same time, negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release deal were ongoing in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... . Should those talks prove fruitless, the IDF is proposing a further intensification of the fighting, even as it acknowledges burnout among troops after more than 21 months of war.
Deir al-Balah resident Abdullah Abu Saleem, 48, told AFP that "during the night, we heard huge and powerful explosions shaking the area, as if it were an earthquake," which he attributed to "artillery shelling in the south-central part of Deir al-Balah and the southeastern area."
"We are extremely worried and fearful that the army is planning a ground operation in Deir al-Balah and the central camps where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering," he said.
Why? They told you where they will be. The IDF is very trustworthy about such things.
Local medics said tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others. At least 130 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Monday.
The ministry’s figures cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Also on Monday, Marwan al-Hams, an official in the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, was reportedly detained by an undercover Israeli force outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip. Hams is the director of Yusuf al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, and also serves as the head of all field hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas health ministry said that Hams was on his way to visit the ICRC hospital in Rafah when an Israeli force “abducted” him after opening fire, killing one person and wounding another civilian nearby.
Medics said the person killed was a local journalist who was filming an interview with Hams when the incident happened.
An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC hospital had admitted and treated patients injured in the incident but would not comment further on their status in order to protect their privacy. It said it was “very concerned about safety and security” around the field hospital.
The IDF did not immediately comment on the incident.
Negotiations over a 60-day ceasefire that would see the release of about half the hostages are continuing in Qatar, though difficulties reaching Hamas’s Gaza leadership are reportedly slowing the process. Should those talks fail, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was drawing up plans for an expansion of the fighting. A Channel 12 news report that quoted sources familiar with the proposal described it as “the plan for taking over Gaza,” and said it was an alternative to the controversial “humanitarian city” in Rafah pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, which Zamir opposes.
Global criticism of the war, and reports of a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, mounted on Monday. In a call for the war to end, 25 countries zeroed in on criticism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began operating aid distribution sites in May under American and Israeli backing.
25 governments out themselves, which will not give them their preferred result.
Hundreds of people have been reported killed around the sites, according to Hamas officials. Israel has acknowledged deaths near aid sites and has confirmed that troops have fired warning shots when crowds have gotten too close, but says the death tolls, which mostly come from Hamas-run authorities, are exaggerated.
The UN’s World Food Program, in a rare condemnation, said a crowd surrounding its aid convoy in northern Gaza on Sunday “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.” It said “countless lives” were lost. Hamas authorities reported nearly 80 dead from Israeli gunfire in the area of the convoy, which is unrelated to the GHF aid distribution sites.
Responding to the reports, the IDF said it had fired “warning shots to remove an immediate threat posed to the troops” in northern Gaza, but denied the steep death toll, insisting that the “reported number of casualties does not align with the existing information.”
An Israeli reservist told the Wall Street Journal that soldiers fired at aid-seeking Palestinians who veered off approved paths even though some of them were carrying white flags. The report, published Monday, said that Israeli soldiers fired on Palestinians who strayed from the paths or came too close to the troops.
“We have an unwritten rule that if you are worried and they get too close and you see that it could be something that puts you and your team at risk, you don’t take that risk,” the reservist said.
A spokesman for the GHF, Chapin Fay, said Monday that it was willing to deliver food to Palestinians for the UN, which he says “has given up distribution altogether.” He added that “desperation levels” in Gaza are rising.
“We can get their aid into Gaza safely and securely and have offered to help repeatedly, but they continue to reject our offers,” Fay said in a media briefing. The UN has argued that it will not cooperate with the GHF, as its distribution mechanism has placed Palestinians at risk.
[X]
Disgusting! 25 nations put pressure on @Israel instead of savages of Hamas! Gaza suffers for 1 reason: Hamas rejects EVERY proposal. Blaming Israel is irrational.
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) July 21, 2025
Footage shows renewed protests in Gaza against Hamas, in support of ceasefire
[IsraelTimes] Media outlets in Gaza published footage showing several dozen people, including children, protesting earlier today in the Khan Younis area against Hamas and in support of ending the war. In the footage, protesters can be heard chanting “Hamas out.”
One demonstrator is seen holding a sign reading “Stop the war,” while another sign says “Stop exploiting the blood.”
The demonstration appears to be the first in Gaza against the terror group, since it violently suppressed a series of protests in March and in April.
[IsraelTimes] Sign-off needed from Hamas chiefs in Strip, who source warns may become even harder to reach as IDF expands offensive into Deir al-Balah; progress made in aid talks with Egypt
Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... ’s negotiators in Doha have been unable to reach the terror group’s leaders in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... since late last week, preventing talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal from moving forward, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Monday.
Last week, Israel submitted updated maps showing its proposed redeployment of troops during the 60-day truce under discussion. The maps had mediators bullish about the chances for an agreement as they envisioned Israel coming down from previous demands to remain in control over larger swaths of Gaza territory, Arab diplomats told The Times of Israel at the time, adding that they expected Hamas to approve the Israeli maps.
But Hamas deliberations on the updated Israeli proposal have continued since Thursday without a response, the source said Monday, lamenting the daily loss of Paleostinian lives in the Gaza Strip that have taken place in the interim.
The source added that Israel’s decision to enter the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah for the first time since the start of the war may further harm efforts to reach Hamas leaders when seeking a response to developments in the Doha negotiations.
With frustration growing from mediators over the perceived foot-dragging by Hamas, the source indicated that Hamas would likely issue a statement declaring that it is still conducting internal deliberations on the Israeli proposal in a positive manner.
While talks in Doha have stalled, a separate track of negotiations has been taking place in Cairo between Israeli negotiators and Egyptian officials that have focused on advancing a new mechanism for aid distribution during the ceasefire under discussion.
The source said Monday that those talks have been progressing well and that a meeting was being planned for Tuesday between Egyptian, Israeli and UN officials to discuss the new mechanism.
The goal is to move away from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, while still satisfying Israel, which argues that Hamas has exploited existing UN distribution mechanisms to divert aid, the source said.
The US- and Israeli-backed GHF has been heavily criticized for forcing Gazooks to walk long distances, often coming under deadly fire as they cross IDF lines in order to pick up aid.
An Arab diplomat separately told The Times of Israel on Monday that despite the delay in Hamas’s response, mediators are still optimistic about the chances to reach an agreement in the coming days, given the softened Israeli stance on its troop redeployment and Hamas’s willingness to forgo its demand for an upfront Israeli commitment for a permanent ceasefire.
However,
a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... Channel 12 cited unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations who were less optimistic, saying that another week or possibly two may be needed due to the delays.
The network said Israel was threatening to pull its negotiating team from Doha if talks did not advance.
With the talks failing to yield a breakthrough, Israeli troops on Monday began ground operations in the Deir al-Balah area, one of the few places in the Strip where the IDF has, until now, not operated with ground forces because it believed Hamas to be holding hostages there, though it has conducted Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the city. Hamas has vowed to execute captives if the IDF approaches.
Amid the IDF advance, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it was "shocked and alarmed" at the decision and demanded the government explain the rationale behind it.
The IDF has long said it doesn’t operate in areas in which it knows that hostages are located, though, former captives have testified to having come under Israeli fire that nearly lost them their lives. Six hostages were executed last year in Rafah after troops unknowingly approached an area near where they were being held.
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] Iran tested one of its satellite-carrying rockets with a suborbital flight, state media reports, the first such test since a ceasefire was reached after a 12-day war waged by Israel against Iran in June, which also saw the United States strike nuclear-related facilities in the Islamic Republic.
The test was the latest for a program that the West says improves Tehran’s ballistic missiles.
A report by the official IRNA news agency says the Ghased satellite carrier test aimed at “assessing some emerging new technologies in the country’s space industry.” It said the test results will help improve the function of Iran’s satellites and space systems.
The report does not provide any further details on the test flight or from where the rocket was launched.
Iran from time to time Iran launches satellite carriers to send its satellites to the space. Last September, Iran launched a satellite into space with a rocket built by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The Ghased, a solid and fluid fuel rocket, was first inaugurated in 2020 by the Guard when it put a military satellite in the orbit.
The war in June killed nearly 1,100 Iranians, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientist. Retaliatory missile barrages by Iran killed 28 in Israel.
Continued on Page 47
[X] BREAKING: Calla Walsh, a proud member of Democratic Socialists of America [and former child actress for Disney], flew to the Islamic Republic of Iran and declares:
"Glory to all the martyrs, glory to the axis of resistance. May we see victory within our lifetimes. Death to America."
How cute that she dressed up like a village peasant woman while visiting Iran to promote terrorism. But in America watch how during her radicalized, pro-terrorist Nazi antisemitism she morphed from a woman into a man-boy figurine. pic.twitter.com/YFagSroDoE
— Saint James Hartline (@JamesHartline) July 21, 2025
Interesting. Iranian women are very stylish, groomed to the max, highly status conscious. Dressing like a Russian peasant will garner scorn from both men and women over there.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
