Iran reportedly behind latest escalation on Gaza border

Head of Iran’s Quds Force wants to divert attention from his failures in Syria, Gaza news outlets report • IDF tanks, jets attack Hamas targets after Palestinian sniper shoots IDF officer • Netanyahu cancels Qatari donation of $15 million to Gaza.

By Nikki Guttman, Lilach Shoval, Daniel Siryoti, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

An explosion is seen during Israeli air strikes in Gaza, overnight Tuesday 

Israeli tanks shelled Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing one Hamas terrorist after an IDF officer was shot and wounded by a Palestinian sniper near the border. Armed Palestinian factions in Gaza later convened “to discuss a proper response to the crimes of the Zionist occupier.”

Later Tuesday, Israeli aircraft carried out multiple strikes on a Hamas military site in northern Gaza.

Reports that largely cited Hamas sources inside the coastal enclave, however, said the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, is behind the current efforts to escalate hostilities in Israel’s south.

In all likelihood, it was also Soleimani who gave the “green light” to the Palestinian sniper who shot the IDF officer, who miraculously was only lightly wounded after the bullet hit his helmet.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has orchestrated the provocations along the border in recent days and unlike Hamas, it is beholden first and foremost to its patrons in Iran. As a reminder, Soleimani’s forces in Syria were dealt a resounding operational blow on Sunday by Israel, which destroyed numerous Iranian military targets in response to an Iranian missile fired at the Golan Heights.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also canceled a Qatari donation of $15 million for the impoverished enclave that had been due on Wednesday as part of international efforts to head off an escalation. The prime minister made the decision after consulting with senior defense officials and convening an emergency meeting of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: “Israel is solely responsible for the latest escalation in Gaza. Israel continues to hurt our people and the brave resistance will not agree to a situation where Netanyahu uses elections for his personal interests and harms the Palestinian people in a premeditated manner.”

Worried about a potential flare-up escalating into a full-on conflict, Egypt and the United Nations have sought to calm the situation in Gaza, while Qatar in November pledged $150 million in donations, to be transferred via Israel over six months, in the hope of easing economic pressure.

The Israeli official who announced the postponement did not say when the next $15 million payout might now take place. Netanyahu has previously stipulated that the cash injection was contingent upon calm along the Gaza border.

In a statement, the IDF said it “sees the Hamas terror organization as being solely responsible for what happens in and originates from Gaza. The IDF is prepared and willing to act against all acts of terror from Gaza and is determined to defend the citizens of the State of Israel.”

‘A disgrace to the residents of the south and the IDF’

Also on Tuesday, residents of southern Israel protested against the transfer of the Qatari funds to Hamas.

One protester, a member of Kibbutz Ruhama, said that transferring the third Qatari payout would be a slap in the face to the residents of the south and the IDF.

“When you see the deterrence in the north, it’s hard to understand the weak policy in the south. The IDF is very capable of coping on all fronts, and here we have an evil organization whose might is equal to one one-hundredth of the might of the enemy in the north, so what’s the problem with preventing Hamas terror?” he said. “Why surrender and give them $15 million when they use some of the money for terror in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria? It’s absurd.”

January 23, 2019 | 3 Comments »

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  1. Iran never complied with its part of the 2015 nuclear deal, but cheated from the moment it was made (they never signed it) and lied and photoshopped to cover up their cheating. Now they are very close to nuke-producing capability. Either the US or Israel will have to bomb them or they will soon have nukes. Could then hand them off to Syria, Hizbollah, Hamas or all three. This from today’s Arutz Sheva:

    Iran nuclear chief: ‘We have replacements for equipment we agreed to destroy’
    Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization says Iran never actually filled Arak reactor with cement, secretly acquired replacement tubes.

    Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said in a television interview this week that the negotiations surrounding the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement had required Iran to destroy the Arak reactor’s calandria by filling it with cement, but Iran had secretly acquired replacement tubes ahead of time so that the reactor’s functionality would not be ultimately affected.

    Salehi also said that pictures that had circulated that showed the Arak reactor’s pit filled with cement had been photoshopped. He explained that Iran has no intention to build a nuclear weapon, and that the Arak reactor is nonetheless incapable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.

    The interview aired on Iran’s Channel 4 TV on Wednesday. Excerpts from the interview were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

    The cement, explained Salehi, was poured “into the calandria we pulled out [of the reactor]. Inside the calandria, there are tubes where the fuel goes. We had bought similar tubes, but I could not declare this at the time. Only one person in Iran knew this. We told no one but the top man of the regime [Khamenei].”

    “When our team was in the midst of the negotiations, we knew that [the Westerners] would ultimately renege on their promises. The leader warned us that they were violators of agreements. We had to act wisely. Not only did we avoid destroying the bridges that we had built, but we also built new bridges that would enable us to go back faster if needed,” he continued.

    “God willing, in the coming week, on the 30th or 31st of January, I will be going to Ardakan. From there, we will transfer 30 tons of yellowcake to Isfahan. Thirty tons. Ardakan has become operational,” claimed Salehi, adding, “We have advanced significantly in the field of nuclear propulsion. However, we must wait until we are certain about it before we announce it. For now, we have no intention to report about the nuclear propulsion [technology], but we are working on it. Suffice it to say that we are making rapid progress in this field, thank God.”

    Iran has been threatening to restart its nuclear program ever since US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal in May of 2018 and imposed two rounds of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

    Iran several months ago reopened a nuclear plant that was idle for nine years as it prepared to increase uranium enrichment capacity in response to Trump leaving the 2015 agreement.

    Earlier this month, Salehi said Iran is taking preliminary steps to design uranium fuel with a purity of 20 percent for reactors instead of having to copy foreign designs.

    The European signatories to the deal did not agree with Trump’s decision to leave the deal and have been trying to save the accord, which they see as crucial to forestalling an Iranian nuclear weapon.

    Tehran has demanded that Europe come up with an economic package to offset the effects of the US withdrawal but so far has found Europe’s proposals to be unsatisfactory.

  2. Disgrace and Madness, paying protection money to Hamas and handing over control of Gaza to Israel’s enemy Qatar. This from today’s Arutz Sheva:

    Report: Hamas refuses Qatari money
    Hamas leader refuses ‘to turn Gaza into an area for managing Israel’s elections’ after Cabinet approves transfer of funds.

    Hamas members receive salaries in Rafah in south Gaza
    The Hamas deputy leader in Gaza announced that the organization’s leadership met with a Qatari envoy in the Gaza Strip and informed him that they refused to accept the third round of Qatari money, Arab media reported.

    “We will not turn Gaza into an area for managing elections in Israel,” senior Hamas officials told the Qatari envoy.

    The Hamas statement comes shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Security Cabinet approved the transfer of the $15 million from Qatar to Hamas in Gaza.

    Israel had halted the money transfer on Tuesday following the shooting of an IDF soldier by a terrorist from Gaza. The soldier was lightly injured.

    Israel has already allowed two installments of Qatari money to enter Gaza, which is used for the payment of Hamas employees in Gaza.

    On Wednesday evening, it was reported that the defense establishment recommended that the $15 million be given to Hamas in order to calm tensions between the two sides. Senior security officials also said during the cabinet meeting that the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization was responsible for shooting the IDF officer and not Hamas.

    They also claimed that the Hamas terrorist organization has refrained from creating provocations against Israel in recent days.

  3. It wouldn’t have taken a genius to bomb the original area, then wait for the terrorist factions to meet to discuss it…as they announcedly did, then lay it thick right on that spot. Maybe that’s what they did in the later attack… but since they’re going “public” I’d appreciate it if they’d tell us, if that’s what happened.

    Your reporter should also take a course in kindergarten mathematics.. $15 mill a month is not $150 mill over six months; it’s over 10 months. Alternately to be over 6 months it needs to be $25 mill a month.