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Israel Threatens to ‘Topple Hamas’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, August 12, 2018. (Jim Hollander/AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, August 12, 2018. (Jim Hollander/AFP)
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Israel Threatens to ‘Topple Hamas’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, August 12, 2018. (Jim Hollander/AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, August 12, 2018. (Jim Hollander/AFP)

Israel on Sunday escalated its rhetoric against 'Hamas' and threatened to topple it, while security sources revealed there was an “advanced plan” to resume a series of assassinations against the movement’s leaders.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israeli army is in the midst of a campaign against what he called “Palestinian terror.”

Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, he said: “We are in the midst of a campaign against terror in Gaza. It entails an exchange of blows; it will not end in one strike. Our demand is clear: a total ceasefire. We shall not be satisfied with less than that.”

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told reporters that Israel was "closer than ever" to toppling Hamas in Gaza "if there is no other option."

But he stressed that Israel was not interested in escalating the conflict into a full-scale war.

Meanwhile, an informed security source said that the Israeli army and other security apparatuses have been mulling plans in the past months to resort to past policies of assassinating senior Hamas leaders.

The source said such preparations had started after the Israeli army and the Shin Bet announced their preference for such option instead of engaging in a wide-scale military operation in Gaza.

Tension between the two sides have been mounting since Palestinians in Gaza started regular protests near the border with Israel.

Last week, Hamas announced that a ceasefire had been agreed upon with Israel, and was mediated by Egypt and other regional players.

However, Tel Aviv denied the reports. An Israeli military spokesperson said: “We are not speaking about a ceasefire but about muting shelling under the equation of quiet would be met with quiet.”

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Arab World

Israeli Military Kills 15-year-old Palestinian in West Bank

File: Palestinian Territories, Nablus: A view of a damaged vehicle following an attack by Jewish settlers, who also wrote Hebrew slogans on the walls of houses in the village of Deir al-Hatab, east of Nablus in the West Bank. Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
File: Palestinian Territories, Nablus: A view of a damaged vehicle following an attack by Jewish settlers, who also wrote Hebrew slogans on the walls of houses in the village of Deir al-Hatab, east of Nablus in the West Bank. Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israeli Military Kills 15-year-old Palestinian in West Bank

File: Palestinian Territories, Nablus: A view of a damaged vehicle following an attack by Jewish settlers, who also wrote Hebrew slogans on the walls of houses in the village of Deir al-Hatab, east of Nablus in the West Bank. Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
File: Palestinian Territories, Nablus: A view of a damaged vehicle following an attack by Jewish settlers, who also wrote Hebrew slogans on the walls of houses in the village of Deir al-Hatab, east of Nablus in the West Bank. Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

The Israeli military killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy near Bethlehem late on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry, as violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank surges.

The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that the 15-year-old boy had died after arriving at the hospital in a critical condition with a gunshot wound to the abdomen, according to Reuters.

The boy had been shot in the Dheisheh camp during an Israeli military raid, the Palestinian WAFA state news agency reported.

The Israeli military said a Palestinian was killed after soldiers opened fire during what it described as a "violent riot" in which stones were thrown at soldiers near Bethlehem. The statement did not identify the Palestinian killed or specify why Israeli forces were in the area.

It was the third reported Palestinian killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces on Friday. The WAFA earlier on Friday reported that two Palestinian men had been shot dead by Israeli forces.

The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since October 2023 when Hamas carried out its deadly attack on Israel from Gaza.

Since then, the military has tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank, and launched raids that have displaced entire communities, while violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has increased.

Arab World

Baghdad Orders Probe after Drone Targets Kurdistan President’s Home

File Photo: President of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani - AFP
File Photo: President of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani - AFP
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Baghdad Orders Probe after Drone Targets Kurdistan President’s Home

File Photo: President of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani - AFP
File Photo: President of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani - AFP

A drone attack targeted the home of the president of Iraq's Kurdistan Region early on Saturday, security sources said, in an incident that comes as tensions continue to rise across northern Iraq.

Air defences also shot down a drone near a Peshmerga fighters’ base in Duhok, the sources added.

The strikes come amid a surge in attacks on both Iran-aligned militias and Kurdish forces as the US-Israeli war against Iran spills over into Iraq, drawing in multiple armed groups and straining Baghdad’s efforts to contain the fallout.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned the attack on Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani’s home and spoke with him by phone, his office said.

Sudani ordered the creation of a joint federal-Kurdistan security and technical team to investigate the incidents and identify those responsible, the statement added.

Iraq's military accused the US and Israel of carrying out some of the airstrikes on the PMF.

Tehran-backed armed groups have also launched attacks on US bases in Iraq and the US embassy.

Arab World

Israeli Strike Kills Three Lebanese Journalists

Journalists Ali Shaib and reporter Fatima Ftouni (National News Agency)
Journalists Ali Shaib and reporter Fatima Ftouni (National News Agency)
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Israeli Strike Kills Three Lebanese Journalists

Journalists Ali Shaib and reporter Fatima Ftouni (National News Agency)
Journalists Ali Shaib and reporter Fatima Ftouni (National News Agency)

An Israeli strike on a car in southern Lebanon has killed three Lebanese journalists, Reuters reported.

Al Manar reporter Ali Shaib and reporter Fatima Ftouni, from broadcaster Al Mayadeen, were killed when their vehicle was hit. Ftouni's brother, cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, had also been killed in the strike.

The Israeli military said in a statement it had "eliminated" Shaib, whom it described as a "terrorist" in a Hezbollah intelligence unit who had reported on the locations of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. It accused him of "incitement" against Israeli soldiers and civilians.

The military's statement made no mention of any other deaths and provided no evidence to support the assertion that Shaib was a member of Hezbollah.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described them in a statement on X as "civilians doing their professional duty."

"It is a brazen crime that violates all treaties and norms through which journalists enjoy international protection in war," he said.

For his part, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also stressed that “targeting journalists constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a clear breach of the rules that guarantee the protection of journalists in times of war.”

He said: “Lebanon, which holds press freedom and its role in high regard, affirms its commitment to protecting journalists and calls for respect for international law, the safeguarding of civilian lives, and an end to Israeli attacks targeting them.”

Also, Information Minister Paul Morcos said that “the targeting of journalists is repeated and deliberate,” and that what occurred “constitutes a documented war crime against the media and the journalistic mission.”

He added that the incident “adds to a growing record of attacks targeting media outlets and journalists,” noting that Lebanon has submitted to the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, a detailed list of assaults against journalists as well as health and medical personnel.