Free Republic

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children, health officials said Sunday, as the United States was on track to approve billions of dollars of additional military aid to Israel, its close ally. Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from...

Fox News host Mark Levin lays out the organizations funding anti-Israel protests nationwide on 'Life, Liberty & Levin.'

We could call this A Tale of Two Facilities. Iran launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel in retaliation for the targeted strike on IRGC and Hamas commanders. That attack did little damage despite a volley of well over 300 missiles and drones, thanks to the regional defenses and the several hours of lead time necessitated by Iran's launch from its own territory.That demonstrated the facility Iran has for offensive operations in the region. Israel responded by demonstrating its facility, and as the New York Times hears from officials in Iran and the West, the result shocked the Iranians:An Israeli...

The Israeli attack on an Iranian air base in Isfahan hit a crucial part of an air defense system, a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery found. Images showed that the precision attack at the Eighth Shekari Air Base damaged or destroyed the “flap-lid” radar, which is used in S-300 air defense systems to track incoming targets. The Times used several satellite images in its analysis; the location of the damaged area was first pointed out on the social media platform X by Aurora Intel, and the findings have also been confirmed by a former U.S. government imagery analyst,...

In a move that has the world talking, Israel has responded to Iran's provocation not with overwhelming force but with a strategic, measured action. According to the Drudge Report, in the pre-dawn hours of a Friday, April 19, Israel launched what can only be described as a "pin prick" attack on the Iranian city of Isfahan. This was not the wide-scale military retaliation many had expected following Iran's aggressive launch of 350 drones and missiles against Israel. Instead, Israel, aiming to avoid a broader conflict, sought to convey a clear message to the radical mullahs of Iran: even their most...

Traffic analysis on X reveals that Iranians have significantly tweeted more about the recent escalation of the hijab crackdown than about the heightened tensions between Iran and Israel. Iranian media Thursday widely reported that the number of Persian tweets about tensions with Israel rose to nearly 6,000 on Tuesday when less than 2,000 users tweeted about the hijab crackdown. On Wednesday, however, after a host of videos of harsh treatment of women and violent arrests by the morality police emerged on social media, tweets about hijab rose to around 7,000 and those addressing the tension with Israel dropped to a...

A massive explosion was reported near Isfahan, Iran today. Isfahan is considered to be the primary location of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Explosions were also reported in Syria and Iraq on Friday morning. The Iranian media is reporting three major explosions in Isfahan. IRANIAN MEDIA: 3 HUGE EXPLOSIONS WERE HEARD IN ISFAHAN, SOUTH OF TEHRAN JERUSALEM POST: SIMULTANEOUS EXPLOSIONS REPORTED IN IRAN, SYRIA, AND IRAQ ACCORDING TO INITIAL REPORTS — zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 19, 2024 This is not the first time the Isfahan nuclear facility has been targeted. IRANIAN MEDIA: 3 HUGE EXPLOSIONS WERE HEARD IN ISFAHAN, SOUTH OF...

An Iranian athlete who posted criticism online of Iran’s April 14 attack on Israel has reportedly been arrested, and her whereabouts have been unknown since Wednesday, according to media reports. Iranian national volleyball team player Mobina Rostami posted on her Instagram account: “As an Iranian, I am truly ashamed of the authorities’ attack on Israel, but you need to know that the people in Iran love Israel and hate the Islamic Republic.” She was reportedly arrested shortly afterwards. One of the comments on her post came from an account associated with Iranian security forces, stating: “We will shove you in...

Explosions were heard in Isfahan in central Iran, in the As-Suwayda Governorate of southern Syria, and in the Baghdad area and Babil Governorate of Iraq early Friday morning, according to initial reports.

The US has approved a potential Israeli Rafah operation in exchange for the Jewish state not conducting counterstrikes on Iran, according to a Thursday report from the Qatari newspaper The New Arab. A senior official told The New Arab that "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to obtain American approval for a military operation in Rafah, in exchange for [Israel] refraining from carrying out a wide military operation against Iran in response to its recent attack." He claimed that "discourse of an Israeli response to Iran contradicts the desires of the American administration, and is not realistic, given the Israeli claims...

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden reinstated oil and gas sanctions on Venezuela on Thursday, a recognition that lifting the sanctions did nothing to entice the socialist regime to host a free and fair election. The Biden administration lifted some of the strictest U.S. sanctions on dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime last year as part of a dialogue in which Maduro agreed to host a presidential election sometime in 2014. The deal collapsed rapidly; Maduro scrapped it in October and launched a new wave of violence against anti-socialist dissidents, likely bankrolled by new oil profits. The Biden sanctions relief lasted...

Iran could review its “nuclear doctrine” following Israeli threats to strike the country, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander said on Thursday, as the world braces for an Israeli response to Tehran’s unprecedented April 13 drone and missile attack on it. Tehran has always insisted its nuclear program was strictly for peaceful purposes, a claim Israel and much of the Western world doubt.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told regime media on Thursday that Tehran “told the Americans in messages clearly” that the rogue terrorist regime would bomb Israel this weekend. “We told the Americans in messages clearly that the decision taken by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council headed by the president to punish the Zionist regime [Israel] was definite and final” the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Amir-Abdollahian as saying, “and after the punitive action (Operation True Promise), approximately at 2:30 am on Sunday of this week, we sent another message to the United States through diplomatic channels mentioning that we...

By unleashing war in the Middle East and targeting Israel, Iran may soon learn that Israel, or America, or both might retaliate for a half-century of its terrorist aggression. The theocracy of Iran has been the world’s arch-embassy attacker over the last half century. So it has zero credibility in crying foul over Israel’s April 1 attacks on its “consulate” in Damascus and the killing of Iran’s kingpin terrorists of the Revolutionary Guard Corps there. Remember, the world was first introduced to the Iranian ayatollahs by their violent takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1980. Iranian surrogates next...

In joint statement, the Permanent Representatives of 48 countries at the UN condemn Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel: It could have caused significant damage and loss of life.) The Permanent Representatives of 48 countries at the United Nations on Wednesday issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel. “We unequivocally condemn the April 13 attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its militant partners on the State of Israel, which involved launching several hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones against multiple targets, and note this large-scale attack could have caused significant...

Numerous foreign policy experts are urging Israel to deliver a “disproportionate” military response to Iran’s attacks over the weekend and are warning that time is winding down to deal with the Islamic Republic before it becomes a nuclear state. Part of what is driving the concern from foreign policy and military experts is that Iran has strengthened its relationship with Russia and may soon acquire more advanced military hardware from the Russians that will make it much harder for the U.S., Israel, and Arab allies in the region to counter Iranian threats. The Washington Post reported on Monday night that...

On the eve of the October 7 massacres, National Security Advisor bragged in an essay that his Mideast portfolio was “quieter than it has been for decades”. Now we are on the verge of a multifront Middle East war. How did Joe Biden inherit a decades-long regional calm and turn it into a precursor to a gargantuan war? [1] Talk loudly and carry a twig. Issue hollow Obama-like “redlines” or serial Biden threats to aggressive enemies like the vapid “Don’t!” Witness a U.S. President who works a 3-day week, struggles to read a teleprompter, and shouts more at conservative Americans...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left no doubt in a statement on Wednesday, regarding what his Jewish country might do should current tensions with Iran escalate further. "Israel will do whatever it needs to defend itself," Netanyahu said in a statement. The comment came after separate meetings with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Israel on Wednesday, where the ministers discussed actions Israel could pursue to retaliate for Iran’s unprecedented, direct attack on Israel over the weekend. "They have all sorts of suggestions and advice. I appreciate that. But I want to be clear:...

Half of the Iranian missiles launched at Israel over the weekend were duds, misfiring because of “technical issues” — while US forces shot down nearly all of the rest, a report said Tuesday. Of the more than 330 missiles and armed drones fired by the Iranian military Saturday night, only about 165 actually got airborne and headed toward their target, Israel, a senior US Air Force officer told the outlet the Intercept, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “US intelligence estimates that half of the weapons fired by Iran failed upon launch or in flight due to technical issues,” the...

Reagan promoted missile defense and Biden opposed it in the Senate. But it's what is defending IsraelIran fired more than 320 warheads at Israel on Saturday. The explosives were carried by about 170 propeller-driven drones of the kind Iran has sold Russia for use against Ukraine, more than 30 cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles — mostly fired from Iranian territory at least 1,100 miles away to the east with a few launched from more distant Houthi-controlled Yemen to the south. The attack failed to deliver any meaningful damage, though a 10-year-old girl was injured, as 99% of...