Yemeni Military Commander Survives Assassination Attempt in Adenhttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3647931/yemeni-military-commander-survives-assassination-attempt-aden
Yemeni Military Commander Survives Assassination Attempt in Aden
A photo circulated on social media of Saleh Ali Hassan.
A Yemeni military commander survived on Sunday an assassination attempt in the interim capital Aden.
Commander of joint operations at the Aden-based 4th Military Zone Saleh Ali Hassan's convoy was the target of a car bombing as it was traveling the main street in the al-Maala district.
His armored vehicle helped protect him and he was unharmed.
The booby-trapped car exploded as soon as his car approached, with witnesses telling Asharq Al-Awsat that the explosion rocked the main port area and the district's main police station.
A security official told Asharq Al-Awsat that the attack was similar to mode of operation of the Iran-backed Houthi militias.
They had used the same style of attack in previous assassinations, he said.
A police official remarked that the Aden attack was aimed at destabilizing the image of security in the interim capital and impact the positive atmosphere that has prevailed in wake of last month's intra-Yemeni consultations in Riyadh and the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council.
He added that the Houthis had the most to lose from the formation of the council and the most to gain from the destabilization in Aden and other government-held regions.
He revealed that the security agencies, in cooperation with the Saudi-led Arab coalition, have managed to thwart several plots and they are capable of thwarting more.
Barghouti’s Son to Asharq Al-Awsat: Father Shot, Denied Treatment as Incitement Continueshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5296035-barghouti%E2%80%99s-son-asharq-al-awsat-father-shot-denied-treatment-incitement
Barghouti’s Son to Asharq Al-Awsat: Father Shot, Denied Treatment as Incitement Continues
Prominent Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti appears in court in Jerusalem. (AP file)
Arab Barghouti, the son of detained prominent Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, 67, said an Israeli prison guard fired a rubber bullet at his father last week at Ganot Prison in the Negev desert in southern Israel and that he received no treatment for the injury.
“The guard shot my father in the foot,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that the family learned of the incident through Barghouti’s lawyer, prominent Israeli civil rights attorney Avigdor Feldman.
The Israel Prison Service told AFP that the allegation was “false and baseless”, saying its staff operated “in accordance with the law and under continuous judicial oversight”.
Barghouti remains a prominent figure in Palestinian politics despite having been imprisoned for nearly a quarter of a century. He won the highest number of votes among those elected to Fatah’s Central Committee in an internal vote held two months ago.
His son described the shooting as “a new attempt to undermine him amid continued Israeli incitement”, which he said had intensified in recent weeks as an international campaign for his father’s release expanded.
He said the scale of the targeting reflected Marwan Barghouti’s stature, influence and symbolic importance, and expressed confidence that he would ultimately regain his freedom.
Many Palestinians regard Barghouti as a potential savior because of his broad popularity within Fatah and other factions, including Hamas, which has repeatedly sought his release through prisoner-exchange deals. Israel has refused.
The latest Israeli campaign against him was led by the Israel Prison Service, which sought to compare him to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel killed during the war in Gaza.
The reported incident was not the first assault alleged against Barghouti.
A lawyer who visited him on April 12 said he had been attacked three times, on March 24, March 25 and April 8, leaving him bleeding from several parts of his body without adequate medical treatment.
Israeli lawyer Ben Marmarelli said Barghouti had been severely beaten and, on one occasion, left bleeding for more than two hours. The Israel Prison Service said it was unaware of the incident.
Marwan Barghoutyi's son, Arab. (AFP file)
Call for international investigation
The Arab League called on Sunday for an international committee to investigate the “repeated assaults” against Barghouti and for the perpetrators to be brought before an international court.
Barghouti is believed to have been held in solitary confinement for two and a half years.
Last year, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a short video showing him confronting Barghouti inside his cell and speaking to him in a condescending and threatening manner.
The confrontation brought Barghouti further into the spotlight, and US President Donald Trump later said he was considering his case and whether he should be released.
Trump said last October that he might call on Israel to free Barghouti and had discussed the possibility with White House aides.
His remarks increased Barghouti’s political importance among Palestinians, many of whom describe him as the “Palestinian Mandela”.
Informed Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat after Trump’s comments that Barghouti would certainly run in the next presidential election.
“He will most likely be Fatah’s candidate,” the sources said. “But even if that does not happen for any reason, he will run because he is Marwan.”
An election process canceled at the last moment five years ago indicated the path Barghouti intended to take.
He formed a list with Nasser al-Qudwa, then an expelled member of Fatah’s Central Committee, to challenge the movement’s official list. Barghouti’s name was not included because he planned to run for president.
The reported shooting came as the Israel Prison Service issued an unusually harsh report against him.
The service said Barghouti had not fundamentally changed but had changed his image, replacing weapons with words and the image of a convicted terrorist with that of Nelson Mandela, while continuing to direct matters from his isolation cell.
The report, published on Friday in the “Seven Days” supplement of Yedioth Ahronoth, said Barghouti no longer fired weapons but that his ideology and ideas had become “a form of intellectual terrorism”.
It accused him of trying to influence Israel’s Arab community and its voting patterns before the next election.
The report said he had built “relationships with Arab members of the Knesset to interfere in Israeli politics, influence elections in Israel and affect voter turnout among Arab citizens of Israel”.
“He is like Yahya Sinwar, only more cunning,” an Israeli officer was quoted as saying. “A wolf in sheep’s clothing. He will mobilize an extremist force and, as soon as he has the opportunity, he will attack us. He is far more dangerous.”
Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker rejected the report, writing in Haaretz that it was so disgraceful that he wondered whether it was Barghouti’s way of mocking Israel.
Drucker accused Israeli intelligence of acting as a tool for Ben-Gvir.
A view of an art installation of Marwan Barghouti in his birthplace, the West Bank village of Kobar, north of Ramallah, November 27, 2025. (AP)
He said Barghouti could play an important role in building a new Palestinian leadership and expressed hope that someone in the security establishment would know how to deal with him more wisely than Israeli intelligence.
Israel’s right-wing Channel 14, which is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responded that Drucker had not yet understood the new reality and was supporting a political role for “a terrorist convicted of five murders”.
Channel 14 presenter Lital Shemesh rejected the idea that a Palestinian leadership seeking peace could emerge.
“Barghouti must remain in prison until the last day of his life,” she said. “Without hope, without glory and without a single moment of freedom.”
International campaign for his release
Barghouti’s wife, lawyer Fadwa Barghouti, issued a statement on Monday in response to the latest Israeli campaign against her husband.
She said the Israel Prison Service report coincided with the expansion of the international “Freedom for Marwan, Freedom for Palestine” campaign, the participation of international figures and leaders, and growing official and public support around the world.
“What the occupation has failed to understand throughout the past quarter of a century, and still fails to understand today, is that Marwan has never abandoned his conviction that freedom is a right and that the occupation will come to an end,” she said.
“Incitement and assault will not change this truth. They will not remove Marwan from the consciousness of his people or from the conscience of free people around the world, nor will they take from Marwan his love for his homeland, his love for the people and his commitment to them.”
“We will meet again soon, Marwan,” she added. “And our people have an appointment with life, freedom and dignity.”
Lebanon Arrests ‘Israeli Agent’ Whose Intel Led to Assassination of Top Hezbollah Officialshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5296028-lebanon-arrests-%E2%80%98israeli-agent%E2%80%99-whose-intel-led-assassination-top-hezbollah
Mourners gather during the funeral of Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon August 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Lebanon Arrests ‘Israeli Agent’ Whose Intel Led to Assassination of Top Hezbollah Officials
Mourners gather during the funeral of Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon August 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Lebanese security and judicial authorities have opened a new espionage case involving Israel after arresting a Lebanese man suspected of links to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and of passing detailed security information about Hezbollah leaders and targets.
The military judiciary took over the case after the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch completed its preliminary investigation.
A Lebanese judicial source familiar with the case said the detainee was considered one of the most dangerous agents because of his ties to Hezbollah officials and his ability, according to initial investigations, to access sensitive information used in operations targeting senior leaders.
The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that security forces arrested the man, a member of the Khalifeh family, at Rafik Hariri International Airport last week after previously tracking him, monitoring telephone numbers that were in contact with suspicious numbers abroad, and obtaining detailed information about his dealings with Israel.
The source described him as “a high-level Israeli agent” who posed a serious threat.
The suspect was preparing to leave Lebanon for Iraq when he was arrested.
The source said he traveled between Beirut and Iraq and was married to an Iraqi woman. Initial investigation findings indicated that he traveled from Iraq to Türkiye to meet people linked to Mossad, where he handed over information collected in Beirut about specific targets.
The judicial source said the information he passed to Israel helped identify targets that led to the assassination of Hezbollah officials in 2024, including four senior security commanders.
They are believed to have included Fuad Shukr, who was assassinated in August 2024, and Ibrahim Aqil, who was assassinated in September that year.
The arrest comes amid a series of detentions involving dozens of people who formed espionage networks for Israel, particularly after the latest war, which saw complex security and intelligence operations targeting Hezbollah leaders and facilities.
The source said the case’s seriousness was linked not only to the accusations against the detainee but also to his position and relationships.
According to the investigation, he was close to several Hezbollah leaders, giving him access to sensitive information.
The detainee underwent preliminary questioning and was referred to the Military Court to begin his trial.
The case is expected to face further scrutiny because of the volume of information he is believed to have collected and the parties with which he is suspected of communicating.
Israel Allocates $434 Million for 34 New West Bank Settlementshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5296006-israel-allocates-434-million-34-new-west-bank-settlements
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israel Allocates $434 Million for 34 New West Bank Settlements
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks at a press conference regarding settlements expansion for the long-frozen E1 settlement, that would split East Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank, near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, August 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Israel's security cabinet approved a budget of 1.3 billion shekels ($434 million) for establishing 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday, adding to tensions over territory widely viewed as central to a potential Palestinian state.
UN bodies, Palestinians and most countries view the settlements as illegal under international conventions - a stance disputed by Israel - and a primary obstacle to peace.
Smotrich, who has long opposed Palestinian statehood, is head of the Religious Zionism party that draws much of its support from settlements and is running in the upcoming legislative election on October 27.
The planned settlements would bring the total established under his four-year tenure to 103.
Smotrich said another 1.075 billion shekels would be approved to pave roads to the new settlements.
Last month, government ministers referred the settlement funding plan to the security cabinet.
Smotrich called the cabinet's decision historic and a "day of celebration for Israel and settlements", thanking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his support.
Opinion polls point to Netanyahu losing in the October election.
"We are strengthening the security of the State of Israel, killing the idea of establishing a terrorist state in the heart of the country, and strengthening our hold on the homeland in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said in a statement, using the biblical term for the West Bank.
There has been a rise in settler violence in recent months against Palestinians and their property. About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel has not extended sovereignty to the occupied West Bank, while refuting international objections to the settlements and arguing that it is a disputed territory where Jews have lived for thousands of years.
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