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Israel Confiscates Funds Transferred by Hamas, PA to Families of Palestinian Prisoners

Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners (AFP)
Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners (AFP)
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Israel Confiscates Funds Transferred by Hamas, PA to Families of Palestinian Prisoners

Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners (AFP)
Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners (AFP)

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has signed seizure orders for Palestinian Authority and Hamas funds and property that had been transferred to family members of Palestinian martyrs and prisoners in Israel.

According to Jerusalem Post Newspaper, the four signed orders targeted funds transferred by both Hamas and the PA to Palestinians serving prison sentences in Israeli, as well as to family members of Palestinians who were killed during attacks.

The orders included the seizure of 187,000 shekels intended for the mother of a Palestinian who rammed his car into a crowd of people, killing a settler and a foreigner in Jerusalem in 2014.

“The seizure orders, which cumulatively amount to hundreds of thousands of shekels, were signed as part of an economic campaign by Israel against terrorism that includes the Defense Ministry’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing along with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the army, police, the foreign ministry, and other bodies,” said a statement by Gantz’s bureau.

His decision comes in light of a war declared by Israel on salaries of the families of Palestinian “martyrs and prisoners.”

Israel had earlier refused to pay the PA money that belonged to it, claiming it was using these funds to support and encourage “terrorism.”

The PA, however, rejected this claim and said it honored Palestinian heroes.

Meanwhile, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs denounced these orders.

It issued a statement stressing that they are “part of the escalation to loot more money belonging to families of the martyrs and prisoners.”

It affirmed that “that these funds are granted for these families to provide them with a minimum level of a decent life and allow them to overcome life challenges caused by the occupation itself.”

In late 2019, then Army Chief of Staff Naftali Bennett signed a decision to “confiscate the money transferred to 1948 prisoners and any other funds received by their families.”

The Commission urged the international community to break its silence and act immediately to put an end to the crimes committed by the occupation against families of the martyrs and prisoners.

This silence gives the occupation a green light to proceed and escalate with its crimes, it stressed.

Gantz previously Gantz issued a decree that would sanction banks in the West Bank for paying salaries for Palestinian prisoners and their families.

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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)

Israel is considering options to respond to repeated attacks fired from Yemen in the past few days, the latest of which was a Houthi missile strike that injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv.
But military experts say Israel should first consider an intelligence plan for confronting the new front after it faced significant difficulties in both defending against and responding to the Houthi attacks.
On Saturday morning, Houthis launched a missile that triggered sirens throughout central Israel at 3:44 am. It was the second attack since Thursday.
Israel's military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv's southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed.
“The incident is still being thoroughly investigated,” the army said, adding that following initial investigations by the Israeli Air Force and Home Front Command, “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, both regarding interception and early warning.”
Israeli military experts say the recent Houthi attacks have revealed serious security gaps in Israel's air defense systems.
“The pressing question now is why none of the other of Israel’s air defense layers managed to intercept the warhead,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth's Ron Ben-Yishai. “The likely explanation is the late detection and the flat trajectory, which prevented the operation of all available defense apparatus.”
He said these incidents might expose a critical vulnerability in the army’s air defense system protecting Israel’s civilian and military home front.
According to Ben-Yishai, two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure.
The first is that the missile was launched in a “flattened” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction.
As a result, Israeli defenses may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate.
He said the second, and more likely scenario is that Iran has developed a maneuverable warhead.
Such a warhead separates from the missile during the final third of its trajectory and maneuvers mid-flight—executing pre-programmed course changes—to hit its designated target, he wrote.
And while Israel has launched initial investigations into the failure of Israeli defense systems to intercept the missiles, it is now examining the nature, date and location of its response.
When Houthis launched their first missile attack on Israel last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them, saying, “The Houthis will learn the hard way.”
But Israeli political analyst Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Maariv newspaper that Israel should look at reality with open eyes and say out loud that it cannot deal with the Houthi threat from Yemen, and has failed to face them.
Last Thursday, 14 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi “military targets” along Yemen’s western coast and near the capital Sanaa.
The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
But the Maariv newspaper warned about the increasing involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthi forces.
“Iran has invested more in the Houthis in recent weeks following the collapse of the Shiite axis, making the Houthi movement a leader of this axis,” the newspaper noted.
Underscoring the failures of Israel’s air defense systems, Maariv said the “Arrow” missile defense system, Israel's main line of defense against ballistic missiles, had failed four times in a row to intercept missiles, including three launched from Yemen and one from Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Ben-Yishai also warned that the threat posed by maneuvering warheads on Iran's heavy, long-range missiles would become existential for Israel should Iran succeed in developing nuclear warheads for these missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 said that in recent months, the Middle East has changed beyond recognition.
The channel said that for the first time in more than half a century, a direct and threat-free air corridor has been opened to Iran through the Middle East. Israel will benefit from this corridor to launch almost daily attacks on the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, it said.
Channel 12 also reported that according to the Israeli military, the new threat-free corridor will help Israel launch a future attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“From Israel's perspective, the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Iranian ring of fire are changing the balance of power in the Middle East,” the report added.