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COGAT shames Hamas officials who asked to leave Gaza

 

The Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) revealed on Sunday that senior Hamas officials and senior officials from Gaza City recently sent requests to the mechanism operated by Israel that allows Gazans to exit via Jordan to a third country.

According to COGAT, over the past few weeks, several requests were received from senior officials, some of whom even asked to leave the Gaza Strip themselves, but Israel refused those requests.

While Hamas calls the residents of Gaza City NOT to move south, its operatives fear for their own lives and are seeking to leave the Gaza Strip. They are using residents of northern Gaza as human shields while looking out for their own interests.

Among those to ask to leave the strip were Mohammed Al-Madhoon, a Minister in the Hamas government; the family of Ismail Al-Ashqar, the Head of the Hamas Foreign and Security Committee; and the family of Alaa Al-Din Al-Batta, the Head of a Hamas government committee.

COGAT revealed that two weeks ago, Gaza City Council member Anwar Atallah fled the Gaza Strip together with his family through the mechanism operated by Israel that allows Gazans to exit via Jordan to a third country.

"While Hamas calls the residents of Gaza City NOT to move south, its operatives fear for their own lives and are seeking to leave the Gaza Strip. They are using residents of northern Gaza as human shields while looking out for their own interests," the Coordinator stated.

(Source https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/414921)

 

“Our lasers will be ready to intercept Iranian missiles in under five years”

 Elbit’s Michael Edelstein says airborne laser pods for fighter jets are nearing production, while Rafael’s Iron Beam, already proven in combat, will soon join the IDF as Israel bets on high-energy weapons to counter rockets, UAVs, and ballistic missiles at a fraction of current defense costs. 

“We are developing airborne laser systems that will soon be introduced, essentially lasers that operate above the clouds. These systems are far more efficient, offering performance improvements of tens of percent. We expect them to be operational within three to five years,” said Michael (Miki) Edelstein, Executive Vice President for Strategy and Business Development Israel at Elbit.

“Our starting point is a laser pod for fighter jets. The threats will increase gradually; not everything begins with ballistic missiles, so we must remain modest. But the technological breakthrough has already been achieved. Now the focus is on engineering and moving toward production,” Edelstein added at the Haifa Metropolitan Economic Future Conference during a panel on defense technology.

Iron Beam pod illustration.
(Photo: Ministry of Defense) 

Elbit is also working with Israeli defense company Rafael on the Iron Beam laser interceptor, which entered operational use last year. Earlier this year, Rafael unveiled its newly developed Iron Beam laser director alongside its full family of High-Energy Laser Weapon Systems (HELWS).

The laser defense system is designed to intercept incoming missiles, including ballistic missiles launched from Iran, at a fraction of the cost of current interceptor systems such as Iron Dome and Arrow. Defense analysts say such technology could offer Israel a more sustainable solution against large-scale rocket and missile barrages from hostile states and terrorist groups.

 

The Jerusalem massacre and the illusion of peace

 (Extracts from Jonathon Sacerdoti in the Spectator, https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/thejerusalem-massacre-and-the-illusion-of-peace/ )

You can tell a great deal about countries and people by how they react to a horrific act of terror. And this morning’s massacre at the Ramot junction in Jerusalem came at a moment heavy with symbolism: just as the world was waking up to reports of Donald Trump floating a new plan for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the illusion of a negotiated, civilised discussion with the Palestinian movement was shattered. The gunfire in Jerusalem was a brutal reminder that such fantasies collapse the moment they are tested against reality.

To speak of ‘bringing back peace’ in this context is not only ahistorical, it is delusional.

The official reaction of Hamas was to describe the killings as a ‘heroic operation’. In their statement, the gunmen’s slaughter of men and women waiting at a bus stop was described as a ‘natural response’ to alleged Israeli crimes, a ‘message’ that Israel’s plans will not go unpunished. It was Al Jazeera, as ever, which carried the statement first. The Qatari channel, lavishly funded by Doha, has long acted as Hamas’s official megaphone, amplifying every word of their propaganda.

And yet Qatar continues to be treated as though it were a neutral mediator, even by the United States and Israel itself. This pretense is dangerous. Qatar is not a broker of peace but Hamas’s survival mechanism, its banker and broadcaster. President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack, but spoke of the need for a ‘political solution’ that alone could ‘bring back peace.’ His words ring hollow. What peace is he referring to? There has been no peace to return to. For decades Palestinian terrorism has murdered Jews year after year through shootings, suicide bombings, rockets, kidnappings and invasions.

To speak of ‘bringing back peace’ in this context is not only ahistorical, it is delusional. Macron imagines that some political arrangement will dissolve what is in fact a religiously charged, maximalist campaign against the existence of the Jewish state. He fails to grasp that these murders are not random acts of desperation but deliberate executions of civilians because they are Jews, motivated by an ideology which sanctifies their killing. To respond with bromides about political solutions is to indulge the fantasy that appeasement can pacify jihadism.

If France’s reaction was weak, Spain’s is absurd. Among the dead in Jerusalem was a Spaniard, a young immigrant who came to build his life in Israel. One might expect Madrid to express outrage and solidarity. Instead, Spain has taken the opposite path. Only yesterday Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced punitive measures against Israel: closing Spanish ports and airspace to the transport of defensive weapons, blocking fuel shipments for the Israeli military and promoting an arms embargo.

This, at the very moment Israel is fighting an existential war against Islamist violence – the same violence that murdered a Spanish citizen in Jerusalem today. The sheer ridiculousness of such a response should be obvious. Rather than standing with the victims, Spain punishes them, while giving comfort to the cause of their killers.

Every decent person wishes to believe in the possibility of peace, to find those with whom life can be shared. Israel has tried. But the truth it must now face, and which the world must also confront, is that the battle is not with extremists on the margins alone. It is with a movement rooted in Islamist rejectionism, dedicated to the erasure of the Jewish state, and willing to murder Spaniards, Frenchmen, and above all Israelis in pursuit of that goal. Until that truth is acknowledged, there will be no peace to bring back.

Israeli defense company Rafael presents IRON BEAM 450 laser system

 

Rafael presents its new Iron Beam defense systems. (Rafael Spokesperson)

Israeli defense company Rafael is presenting its IRON BEAM 450 laser system at the DSEI defense exhibition in London. So, what does it do? According to Rafael, it: Locks onto targets—such as drones and missiles—at the speed of light. Has an “unlimited magazine.” Costs next to nothing per interception. Has a “rapid retargeting [capability] enabling engagement with swarms of attacking drones.”  No wonder countries are rushing to invest in Israeli defense technology.

Beware of this Website

 Dear friends,

A website is currently being circulated that claims to help Jews living abroad.

https://lionnights

The website collects information about Jewish and Israeli families living abroad and invites people to “host Jews and Israelis.”

There is a real suspicion that this website is operated by hostile elements whose goal is to locate Jewish and Israeli families and harm them!

Under no circumstances should you fill out personal information on this website!!

Keep your distance and spread the message – do not use this website, but only on the official channels of the Israeli government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies.

In urgent or emergency cases, you can contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Situation Room, which is open 24/7:

• Phone: ‎+972-2-5303155

• Fax: ‎+972-2-5303896

• Email: matzav@mfa.gov.il

90% of UN food stolen by Hamas, 0% from GHF

The GHF is expanding its operations in Gaza and to date has delivered 150 million meals since the start of its operations, WITHOUT ANY CASUALTIES. 

Meanwhile the  United Nations Office for Project Services has published data showing that since the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza on May 19 and up until August 5, a total of 2,604 aid trucks were collected by the UN after entering the Strip. Of those, 2,309 did not reach their intended destinations inside the enclave.

According to the organization, this was due to the trucks being “intercepted either peacefully by hungry people or forcefully by armed actors (Hamas) during transit in Gaza.” This accounts for 88% of all trucks.

In recent months, the percentages were even higher. According to UNOPS, in June, 1,155 trucks were collected by the UN and its partner organizations, and 1,048 of them — 90.7% — were intercepted before reaching their destinations. In July, the figure rose to 94%, with 1,161 trucks collected and 1,093 intercepted.