Sunday, December 8, 2019

Updates From Israel (Liveblogging Sunday)


Netanyahu: No ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza if rocket fire continues


The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s developments as they unfold.



Houthi defense minister threatens to attack Israel

The Iran-backed Houthis’ defense minister in Yemen’s Sanaa threatens to attack Israel.
Major General Mohammed Al-Atefi tells Al-Mayadeen that Israel has been involved in the Yemen conflict between the Iran-backed rebels and Saudi Arabia since it began in 2015.
Yememi armed forces “have completed all aspects of military preparation to qualify it to launch a strategic attack leading to the paralysis of the enemies’ abilities,” he says.
“There’s no doubt revenge is coming,” he says.

Shaked urges Netanyahu: Annex Jordan Valley now

New Right leader Ayelet Shaked calls on Netanyahu to disregard the limitations of a transitional government and annex the Jordan Valley immediately.
“Of course a transitional government has the ability to annex the Jordan Valley,” she tells a conference of the Makor Rishon newspaper in Jerusalem, claiming that Israel’s current government, which has been considered “transitional” since the April elections, should be able to act as any other government without additional limits.
Netanyahu in September vowed that if reelected he would immediately annex the Jordan Valley, a swath of land linking the West Bank to Jordan that Israel views as a vital security asset, in what was widely seen as a bid to attract support from right-wing voters.
Shaked says he needn’t and shouldn’t wait.
“I think that the Netanyahu government must annex the Jordan Valley right now. I hope it does. I want it to. It must,” she says.

Thousands of Iraqis return to streets despite spiraling death toll

Thousands of Iraqi protesters stream into streets and public squares in the capital and restive south on Sunday, saying they are not deterred by deadly violence meant to “scare” them.
In Baghdad, crowds of anti-government demonstrators throng Tahrir Square, the epicenter of their movement.
Late Friday, unidentified gunmen attacked a parking complex near Tahrir where demonstrators had been squatting for weeks, leaving 20 protesters and four police officers dead, medics tell AFP.
Protesters feared it signaled that their movement would be derailed but by Sunday, the numbers gathered under the sun in Tahrir are staggering.
“They’re trying to scare us in whatever ways they can, but we’re staying in the streets,” says Aisha, a 23-year-old protester.
At least 452 people — the vast majority of them protesters — have died and 20,000 have been wounded since the rallies erupted.


Strike targeted Iran-controlled warehouse on Saturday, killing 4

A Syrian opposition news site reports that unidentified aircraft bombed Iranian-controlled weapons storehouses last night, killing at least four members of Tehran-supported militias.
According to the Syrian Step News agency, the airstrike occurred around 10 p.m. on Saturday, targeting munitions depots in the Boulkamal region of Syria, near the Iraqi border, an area that has reportedly been hit by many Israeli raids in the past year.
The outlet cites “well-placed sources” as saying that the four people killed were guards at the storehouses who were members of militias backed by Iran.




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