Free Republic

The hostage deal which has seen the release of 26 Israeli hostages from Gaza so far includes a commitment by the Israeli government not to target the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization in Qatar, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported. According to the newspaper, Qatar received from Israel as part of the outline for the release of the hostages from Gaza a promise according to which the Mossad would not carry out assassinations of senior Hamas members on Qatari soil. It was also reported that the Qataris set conditions on their role as mediators between Israel and Hamas....

Israeli military officials said their bombardment of Gaza may “intensify” in the final hours before a four-day cease-fire begins early Friday — as reports say Hamas morale has plummeted, causing many terrorists to retreat south. “[It’s] business as usual,” said Lt. Col Richard Hecht, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told reporters Thursday. Artillery airstrikes “may even intensify” in the coming hours, Recht added, according to NBC News. Israeli shells have been reported falling north of Gaza and in the southern city of Khan Younis Thursday, according to the BBC, while heavy fighting is still raging in northern...

Israel's military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells. Nearly 1 million Palestinians have fled the north, including its urban center, Gaza City, as ground combat intensified. When the war ends, any relief will quickly be overshadowed by dread as displaced families come to terms with the scale of the calamity and what it means for their future. Where would they live? Who would eventually run Gaza...

Key bits: "A new poll released Tuesday finds a dramatic surge in Palestinian support for Hamas following last month’s Gaza war"; "The poll found that 53% of Palestinians believe Hamas is “most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people,” while only 14% prefer Abbas’ secular Fatah party."

I don’t care if you’re out on the street, waving your flag and chanting your slogans. We won’t die silently the way you want us to… I don’t care that you sympathize with Hamas. I know you wouldn’t tolerate any of the things they did to us if they would’ve done it to you. I don’t care that you’re outraged by Israel’s response to the massacre more than the massacre itself. I don’t care that this doesn’t fit neatly into your carefully constructed narrative of ‘Israel as aggressor’ and ‘Palestinian as victim I know you would do everything to eliminate...

Muslim-American leaders told President Joe Biden in a small private meeting Thursday he and his administration needed to show more empathy toward Palestinian lives and pushed back on his comment this week casting doubt on civilian death figures in Gaza provided by the health ministry there, according to two of the attendees. The meeting, described as frank and productive, also included calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. It came amid frustrations in the community over the White House’s handling of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The president was receptive to the group’s concerns and sought to clarify his comment...

New satellite images of Gaza show the extent of the destruction caused by Israel's intense aerial bombardment of the territory over the past three weeks. The pictures, released by Maxar Technologies, compare detailed images captured from space earlier this week with images from before the recent conflict began. They show three areas in the north of Gaza where aerial attacks have left dozens of tower blocks completely destroyed or badly damaged as well as large areas of tightly packed buildings reduced to piles of grey rubble.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced Thursday night the U.S. launched attacks on two bases in Syria used by Iranian proxy forces to attack American troops based in Syria and Iraq. U.S. troops have been attacked several times this month in Iraq and Syria; until this evening those attacks have gone unanswered by the Biden administration. About two dozen troops have been injured in the attacks. A contractor died from a heart attack during one assault. (UPDATE at end of article). The U.S. strikes come just hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian threatened the United States in English over...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — “Stop the bombs and save lives!” the Palestinian ambassador pleaded at an emotional U.N. meeting Thursday on the war in Gaza. But Israel’s envoy was adamant, declaring again, “We will not rest until Hamas is obliterated.” At the assembly’s resumed emergency special session on Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories Thursday, speaker after speaker backed the Arab resolution’s cease-fire call — except for Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who told the 193-member world body, “A cease-fire means giving Hamas time to rearm itself, so they can massacre us again.” After quoting several Hamas statements vowing to...

On October 7, thousands of Hamas terrorists together murdered over 1,300 Israelis in villages near the border of the Gaza Strip. Most of their victims were civilians. Among their infamies, the terrorists torched the homes of families hiding in in-home bomb shelters, burning the families to death; they killed 260 partygoers at a music festival and raped many of the young women in attendance; and they took some 200 Israelis into captivity in Gaza, including toddlers and grandmothers. All told, Hamas was responsible for the largest and most horrific attack on Jews since the Holocaust ended in 1945.Two days after...

A senior Hamas official told NBC News' Richard Engel that the group is willing to immediately release all civilian hostages — foreign and Israeli — if Israel stops its airstrikes on Gaza. The Hamas official said the hostages could be released within the hour as long as Israel meets its terms. He claimed that there is no safe place to release the hostages now. In exchange for the release of Israeli soldiers held hostage, the Hamas official said Israel must release all Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The Hamas official also claimed that the U.S. and Israel are already aware...

A Dublin woman has said that 28 members of her extended family have been killed in Gaza over the past eight days during Israeli air strikes. In a post on X, Yara Alagha said that seven of those who died were children. The 27-year-old’s mother comes from the West Bank, while her father is from Gaza. It is understood that 11 members of her extended family were killed yesterday when their building was shelled by Israeli forces.* She posted that four Palestinians killed in Khan Younis this evening were family members. Speaking to RTÉ News last night, Ms. Alagha said...

Planned Parenthood International, the apex predator of the baby-killing world, is pleading for donations after an Israeli airstrike on an adjacent building damaged the sole abortion clinic in Gaza and rendered it inoperable. The group, which undoubtedly inspired Hamas’ bloodlust in the first place, is seeking to raise funds to relocate to a safer location within the Palestinian territory. VIDEOS ON LINK Responding to the news, some critics of Planned Parenthood were unbothered by the bombing, writing: TWEET IMAGE ON LINK

When a country is invaded by a foreign power, the only sane response is to retaliate with massive, overwhelming, disproportionate force. And when an invader commits the kinds of atrocities that we have seen over the last week, unprecedented in modern times, vengeance must be the order of the day. War is a terrible thing. But the Gazans started this war, and war is what they are going to get. Every resulting casualty should be laid at the foot of Hamas and all Gazans who have supported and collaborated with Hamas–a large majority, by all indications.But there is something else...

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Iran's foreign minister on Saturday in Qatar, where they discussed the Palestinian militant group's deadly attack in Israel "and agreed to continue cooperation" to achieve the group's goals, Hamas said in a statement. During their meeting in Qatar's capital Doha, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian praised the rampage as a "historic victory" that had dealt a setback to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.

Friday on CNN’s “The Lead,” anchor Jake Tapper asked Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan if his country could “hold all 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza responsible” for the Hamas terror attacks in Israel by bombing Gaza. Erdan said, “Sadly, it’s very sad, because I really feel sorry for the suffering of the people of Gaza. But we should all remember, they elected Hamas 18 years ago. Hamas is the only one responsible for everything that is happening there. Hamas embedded its terrorist infrastructure within the civilian population under public facilities and there’s no other way to eradicate...

Defiant Gazans who refused to evacuate after Israel gave them 24 hours before launching an all-out assault have claimed they would rather die than leave their homes. While some heeded the call to leave, by Friday afternoon there was little sign of a mass exodus, despite the UN warning the area is 'fast becoming a hellhole'. 'Death is better than leaving,' said Mohammad, 20, standing in the street outside a building reduced to rubble in an Israeli air strike two days ago near the centre of Gaza. 'I was born here, and I will die here, leaving is a stigma.'...

This picture freezes a smart bomb dropped by IAF on a Gaza building.

We lack water, electricity, fuel, and our besieged services are staggering under the massive numbers of injured. No one is safe ... The bombardment of Gaza is now constant. My nine-year-old asked me if he would go to heaven or hell Mahmoud Shalabi We lack water, electricity, fuel, and our besieged services are staggering under the massive numbers of injured. No one is safe Here in Gaza, what is happening under Israeli military bombardment has never been seen before. Homes are being destroyed without residents being warned. Israeli missiles are hitting high-rise buildings, mosques, streets – and we are asking...

Civilians in Gaza sheltered in fear amid constant bombardments targeting residential buildings and communications infrastructure on Monday, as Israeli officials vowed to further tighten a punishing siege of the densely populated enclave. “I can see the plumes of smoke from the bombings through my window,” said Rama Abu Amra, 21, from south of Gaza City. She screamed as the bang of a nearby explosion could be heard. “The bombs are falling all around us, we can’t even tell where they’re hitting. I can even smell the gunpowder now,” said the university student. “It’s so scary. We don’t know what’s happening...