Latest Developments

The third-most senior Hamas figure, Saleh al-Arouri, was killed on January 2 in a Beirut blast that Lebanese authorities blamed on Israel. Arouri was among at least four people who died in an Israeli drone strike on a Hamas media office in the southern Dahiyeh suburb of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, authorities said. Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

After Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, Arouri was the top-ranked Hamas official. He pursued an especially aggressive Palestinian terrorism strategy, with a focus on the West Bank, where he ordered the 2014 abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers, sparking a Gaza war. After a period of being headquartered in Turkey, Arouri relocated to Lebanon, where he spearheaded Hamas coordination with Hezbollah and their shared Iranian patron.

Expert Analysis

“Israel has openly vowed to take the Gaza war to all leaders of Hamas, no matter where they are. That Arouri apparently thought he might be immune in the Hezbollah heartland suggests a major miscalculation on the part of Hamas. The question now is how Hezbollah will calculate the risks of stepping up its own attacks on Israel in retaliation.” — Mark Dubowitz, FDD CEO

“Israel sent a message to all terror allies of Iran that no matter where they hide, they will never be secure. Whether Hamas leaders reside in Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon, or another country, they should assume their days are numbered. Hezbollah’s leadership must also factor this escalation into the group’s next move.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor

“The elimination of Saleh al-Arouri stands as a significant blow to Hamas and a considerable victory for Israel in its current war against Palestinian terrorist groups. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that this accomplishment is merely one of many goals Israel must achieve in order to dismantle Hamas and its partners.” — Joe Truzman, Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

Source: FDD

The post Hamas No. 3 Killed in Beirut Blast appeared first on Ankara Haftalik.

If devastation is the goal, Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip has been a resounding success. More than two months after Hamas killed over 1,100 people on October 7, Israeli air and ground operations have killed some 20,000 Palestinians, many of them children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry. Much of Gaza lies in ruins, with the United Nations estimating that almost 20 percent of the territory’s prewar structures have been destroyed. More than half of Gazans are experiencing severe hunger, unemployment has risen to 85 percent, and disease is spreading.

But the statements of a few extremist ministers notwithstanding, Israel’s goals in Gaza are broader and more strategic than inflicting pain on the Palestinians. On December 12, I landed in Israel for a weeklong research trip, joined by colleagues from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and several other experts. In an effort to understand Israel’s goals and strategy, we spoke with current and former Israeli military leaders, senior security officials, diplomats, and politicians, as well as ordinary citizens. The interviewees related their perspectives on October 7, the state of the war today, and the future of their country.

Israel’s war in Gaza differs from many other conflicts in that there is not a single finite objective. There is no invading force to be expelled, no territory to be conquered, no dictator to be toppled. Nonetheless, two months on, a more or less clear list of goals is emerging. Israel seeks to destroy Hamas, capturing or killing its leaders, shattering its military capacity, and ending its power in Gaza. It seeks the release of the hostages who were kidnapped on October 7 and remain alive, as well as the bodies of those who have been killed. It wants to prevent another attack, particularly by Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon. It wants to maintain international support, especially from the United States, and safeguard the diplomatic gains it has made with Arab countries in recent years. And it seeks to rebuild the trust in security institutions that the public lost after the attacks.

Israel’s response can seem confusing to outsiders, but it makes more sense when these competing goals are considered. Each has its own metrics and complications, and some are in direct conflict with one another. So far, the results of Israel’s campaign have been mixed: Israel has hit Hamas hard, but it is falling short in many areas, inflicting a devastating toll on civilians in Gaza and paying a heavy price in terms of international support. Israel’s leaders are often trying to have it all. Instead, they need to make hard choices about which goals to prioritize and which to downplay.

Because maintaining U.S support is vital, Israel should focus on targeting Hamas’s leaders more than destroying the group’s broader military forces and infrastructure. It should make more of an effort to reduce civilian casualties. It should seek to deter, rather than destroy, Hezbollah, maintaining larger numbers of forces near Gaza and Lebanon even after active hostilities end to reassure the Israeli people. And it should focus more on who will replace Hamas in Gaza, which requires bolstering the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian technocrats. If Israel instead tries to have it all, it risks having nothing.

Appetite for Destruction

No visitor to Israel can miss the sense of pain, fury, and mistrust that pervades every conversation. The term “earthquake” came up again and again when I asked about October 7. One Israeli security official declared that “something fundamental broke” in the country that day. (To encourage candor, we agreed to not to identify our interview subjects.) Israelis believe that they cannot go back to a pre–October 7 world, with a hostile and intact Hamas across the border in Gaza. In their eyes, the brutality of the attacks showed Hamas to be beyond redemption, unable to be deterred or contained.

The problem goes beyond Gaza, however. With justification, many Israelis blame Iran for Hamas’s impressive arsenal and the innovative methods of its fighters. They fear that Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, will also attack Israel, using its exponentially larger rocket arsenal and far more skilled fighters to launch a much more devastating attack on Israel’s north. Since October 7, over 200,000 Israelis have fled areas near Gaza and Lebanon.

At the same time, Israelis no longer trust their own security institutions. As one Israeli security official explained, “Before October 7, intelligence told the country, ‘We know Hamas,’ while the military said, ‘We can handle Hamas.’” Both, he added, were wrong. It is now hard for Israeli leaders to reassure the public that next time, the military and intelligence services will keep them safe.

To rebuild public confidence, Israeli leaders have vowed to utterly destroy Hamas. Days after the attack, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued one such pledge. “We will wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth,” he said. “It will cease to exist.” But destroying Hamas can mean many different things in practice.

Israelis no longer trust their own security institutions.

The focus of Israel’s current military campaign is to destroy Hamas’s military wing, which boasted around 25,000 to 30,000 members before October 7. At the time of my interviews, most Israeli officials estimated that 7,000 of those fighters had been killed in the war. That figure is hard to verify, however, and it may include Palestinians who fought back against invading forces yet were not formally part of Hamas’s military wing. The number of fighters appears to be dwindling further: some Israeli officials told me that more and more are fleeing or surrendering.

Although the Israel Defense Forces are inflicting a steep toll on Hamas, the group’s large numbers and ability to blend in with the population make it difficult to eradicate, especially without killing a huge number of Palestinian civilians. Urban warfare is a nightmare for even the best militaries, and the IDF has already lost more than 100 soldiers in its current campaign. Adding to the difficulty, Hamas has located many of its military assets near or in civilian facilities such as mosques and schools. In addition, Gaza has a vast tunnel network, more extensive than Israeli intelligence had originally thought, where fighters can move undetected and leaders can hide. Hamas also has deep roots in Gaza, with decades-old ties to mosques, hospitals, schools, and charities, and since 2007, it has been the government there. The group permeates everyday life in Gaza: the doctor, the police officer, the garbage collector, and the teacher may all have links to Hamas, making it difficult to eradicate the group beyond its military wing.

Israel, of course, will not be able to kill every single Hamas fighter. But it may be able to kill enough members, especially leaders and veteran forces, to shatter the group’s military capacity. In this vision of victory, Hamas’s units would no longer be able to fight effectively and launch operations against Israel. And if there were a new government in Gaza, the remnants of Hamas would be more easily suppressed because that administration’s security forces would have a decent chance of finding and suppressing isolated cells of fighters.

Hamas also has a vast military infrastructure. This includes not only its tunnel network but also its rockets, missiles, launch pads, and ammunition depots. The assets are everywhere: Hamas has been preparing for an Israeli invasion for more than a decade. Part of the purpose of Israel’s invasion is to destroy this infrastructure, which in turn requires bombing or occupying much of Gaza. There isn’t much publicly available data for quantifying this progress, but it can be measured by the frequency and size of Hamas’s rocket and missile attacks, the quantity of ammunition Hamas fighters have, and the territory that Hamas controls—all of which, according to the officials I interviewed, are steadily shrinking. Some of these observations are visible to outsiders, whereas others require detailed intelligence to judge.

Hide and Seek

Another metric of success is whether Hamas’s leadership has been destroyed. Israel has a long history of killing terrorist leaders, and Israeli officials have announced plans to assassinate Hamas’s leaders after the war ends. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Hamas’s top official, Yahya Sinwar, a “dead man walking,” and even before October 7, Israeli forces had repeatedly tried to kill Hamas’s military leader, Mohammed Deif, as well as his second-in-command, Marwan Issa. The Israeli government reports that it has already killed many Hamas leaders in the current military campaign, with Netanyahu claiming that half of Hamas’s battalion commanders are now dead.

Yet like destroying Hamas’s military infrastructure, eliminating its leadership is difficult. Deif, Issa, and Sinwar are believed to be hiding underground. More junior leaders are clearly being killed, but at least some of them will be replaced by other competent leaders. Because of the difficulty of destroying infrastructure and killing Hamas members and leaders, most of the Israeli security officials I spoke with estimated that another six to nine months of high-intensity military operations are necessary.

Even if the current cohort of leaders is killed, however, Hamas has a deep bench of replacements. Ever since Hamas’s founding in 1987, Israel has routinely killed or jailed its high-level leaders, yet the organization has endured. It has ample lower-level leaders and large support networks to draw on. That said, killing Sinwar and Deif, in particular, would have political value for Israel, even if Hamas replaced them with equally competent and hostile leaders. Both have become symbols of October 7, and an Israeli government could more credibly claim victory if they were killed, even if many of their fellow leaders survived.

Beyond any individual leader, Hamas embodies an ideology that will be even harder to eliminate. The idea behind muqawama, or resistance, is that the way to defeat Israel (and, for that matter, the United States) is through persistent military force, a credo also embraced by Hezbollah and Iran. Should Israel devastate Hamas but a strong new organization with the same mindset take its place, Israel will only have replaced one foe with another. In the past, Israel has nearly eliminated individual Palestinian terrorist groups, such as Al Saiqa, a once-strong Baathist group backed by Syria in the 1960s and 1970s whose leader, Zuheir Mohsen, was gunned down by Israeli agents in 1979. Israel has greatly diminished others, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist group famed for its airplane hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s and a hang-glider attack on Israel in 1987. But would-be terrorists simply joined other groups, including Hamas.

The ideology of resistance is popular among Palestinians, and October 7 has made it even more so. Hamas deeply hurt Israel, which many Palestinians, humiliated by decades of occupation, regard with glee. Israel’s destructive military campaign, with its large civilian death toll, has further angered Palestinians, and Hamas’s seizure of hostages has forced Israel to release some detained Palestinians, a goal that past negotiations by moderate Palestinians were unable to achieve. A poll conducted in late November and early December by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 82 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank support the attack. Eventually, Palestinians may look at the destruction in Gaza and conclude that violent resistance makes their lives worse, and polls show that there is less support for October 7 in Gaza, which is paying the price of Hamas’s brutality. But so far, support for Hamas has grown.

A very different aspect of destroying Hamas involves its long-term replacement as the government of Gaza. Someone must govern the strip and prevent Hamas from returning to power, and Israel has no interest in being a long-term occupier. On this question, however, there is little progress, and if anything, the situation for Israel is worse than on October 7. No outside power wants to act as Israel’s police force in Gaza.

U.S. President Joe Biden has called for a “revitalized Palestinian Authority” to govern Gaza. The PA now controls the West Bank and works closely with Israel there on security, but its leadership is incompetent and unpopular. Israel’s harsh policies and expansion of settlements in the West Bank steadily undermined the PA there, and its invasion of Gaza has worsened the organization’s legitimacy problem, as Palestinians admire Hamas’s defiance and see the PA as complicit in Israel’s occupation. “There is no Palestinian leadership,” one interviewee noted acidly, even as he added, “Palestinians must control Gaza.” If the PA were put in charge of Gaza, Palestinians would see it as a handmaiden of the brutal Israeli occupiers. Without significant support from Israel, the PA’s forces would be overwhelmed even by a remnant of Hamas.

Held Hostage

Everywhere I looked in Israel, the faces of hostages stared out from posters. Their treatment in Gaza and the need for their release came up constantly in my conversations. Hamas took roughly 240 hostages on October 7, and a little under half have been freed. The remainder, estimated at 129 today, are still in Gaza, and it is unclear how many of them survive. (Israel believes at least 20 of them have died.) At a psychological level, the presence of over 100 hostages is an open wound for Israel. At a tactical level, it complicates the IDF’s operations.

To comprehend the scale of the trauma for Israelis, consider how Israel has handled hostage situations in the past. In 2011, it traded more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for a single Israeli soldier whom Hamas had captured, Gilad Shalit. Since October 7, it has already freed around 240 prisoners in exchange for Hamas’s liberating more than 100 of those captured on October 7, including 23 citizens of Thailand and one from the Philippines, as well as many dual nationals. Many of the remaining hostages are young Israeli men of fighting age, and Hamas has vowed to extract a high price for their release—part of the reason that talks collapsed after the initial releases. Remaining hostages also include women whom Israelis believe were raped or otherwise brutalized, and Hamas is reluctant to release them lest they publicize their abuse. Further complicating the hostage problem, perhaps around 30 of the remaining hostages are under the control of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group, or other factions in Gaza.

Conducting high-intensity military operations while trying to free prisoners is exceptionally difficult. Just as Hamas places its forces among civilians, it uses hostages as shields. Friendly fire by the IDF has killed some Israeli prisoners, and IDF bombing has undoubtedly killed more. If military operations continue, Israel will likely be able to liberate some of those kidnapped, but it will also lose many in the fighting.

The Northern Front

Israel has long relied on deterrence to counter its enemies, trying to convince them that any attack would leave them worse off. Measuring deterrence is difficult. Most Israelis would have said before October 7 that Hamas was successfully deterred, but Hamas nonetheless attacked, and its success may inspire other enemies to do so as well. In general, it is hard to understand the risk-reward calculus of a foe, especially a highly ideological one.

Even as Israel fights on in Gaza, it has engaged in a back-and-forth with Hezbollah on its northern border, with Hezbollah firing rockets and attacking Israeli border posts and the IDF bombing Hezbollah positions. Israeli leaders hope to demonstrate resolve by making Hezbollah pay a price for its aggression, but they also wish to avoid a larger war while their forces are occupied with fighting Hamas. For now, Hezbollah also seems to want to avoid full conflict, launching limited attacks to show solidarity with Hamas but avoiding a more intense campaign. The devastation of Gaza has probably reinforced deterrence: Hezbollah may not want to risk its strongholds in Beirut looking like the moonscape that is much of Gaza today.

Eventually, however, Israel may want to wage a larger war against Hezbollah in the belief that unless it does so, deterrence will not hold and Israel might be surprised again. As one Israeli security official put it to me, “Deterrence is something that lasts until the other side is ready for war.” Hezbollah keeps elite commando units—its Radwan forces—on the Lebanese border with Israel. It also has a substantial rocket arsenal that can reach targets throughout Israel and is big enough to overwhelm the country’s missile defense system.

Israel may be able to continue deterring Hezbollah from launching a war, but the threat of rockets and commando attacks—a repeat of October 7, but in the north and from a far more capable foe—keeps Israeli military planners up at night. In early December, in fact, Gallant, the defense minister, threatened to open up a second front against Hezbollah if the group didn’t remove its Radwan units from the border.

Foreign Friends

Israel is a small country, and despite its military prowess, it cannot operate alone indefinitely. It also sees itself as a Western democracy and is sensitive to criticism from other members of that club. So Israeli leaders have looked on with worry as Western support appears to slip. Anti-Israeli protests have broken out across Europe, and 17 of 27 EU members supported a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a cease-fire.

Arab leaders, including ones who have recently signed peace treaties with Israel, are very critical of Israel publicly—even if they strongly oppose Hamas and its brand of political Islam privately—because Arab publics are outraged by the Palestinian death toll. Yet the new peace deals with Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates have held, and there is little sign that they are in jeopardy, even as their leaders’ rhetoric grows more heated.

Israel can live with fraying European ties and growing criticism from Arab states, but losing American support would be an altogether different matter. The Israelis I spoke with were uniformly glowing about Biden—a “mensch,” in one interviewee’s words, and, in another’s, “the biggest friend of Israel since Harry Truman,” who was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel. On top of the more than $3 billion Israel receives from the United States in military aid every year, Congress and the White House are now considering a package that would provide a $14 billion supplement. Israel also depends on the United States for munitions, which it needs in Gaza and would need far more of in a war in Lebanon. The United States also regularly provides cover for Israel at the United Nations—for instance, vetoing a recent Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

So far, support for Hamas has grown among Palestinians.

But many Israeli leaders worry that American support may not last forever, and those who don’t harbor that fear should. Biden’s own party is increasingly split over Israel’s conduct in the war, the president himself has now criticized “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza, and officials in his administration are pressing for an end to major military operations. The Biden administration has also strongly discouraged a preventive war in the north against Hezbollah, with senior U.S. officials, including Biden, telling their Israeli counterparts not to expand the war. The United States deployed two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean Sea with the explicit purpose of deterring Iran and Hezbollah and the implicit goal of reassuring Israel that the United States has its back—a marked change from before October 7, when many in the Middle East believed the United States was turning its back on the region to focus on China.

To maintain strong U.S. support and avoid putting Arab leaders into a box from which they cannot escape, Israel will need to tone down its military operations in Gaza. But a less aggressive and less destructive campaign will make it harder to kill Hamas’s fighters and demolish its infrastructure. In the north, Israel is also constrained. Barring a serious act of provocation by Hezbollah, Israel cannot launch a war in Lebanon and maintain U.S. support.

Keeping the Faith

Israel was a divided country before October 7, with Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government pushing to weaken the judiciary, expand settlements in the West Bank, and protect the prime minister from allegations of corruption. Now, Israelis are united behind the goal of destroying Hamas, but many hold Netanyahu responsible for failing to prevent the attack and want to see him resign.

Israelis’ loss of faith in their leaders might simply seem like normal politics, not anything to do with counterterrorism, but in fact such an outcome represents a major goal of terrorists. Hamas was probably seeking to destroy Israelis’ confidence in their government institutions, and even if that wasn’t a goal, this consequence has surely been a welcome bonus for the group. Absent such confidence, displaced Israelis will not return to their homes near Gaza or Lebanon. And skeptics of the Israeli government will see some of its continued anti-Hamas operations as a way for Netanyahu to keep himself in power, not as a genuine necessity in the fight against terrorism.

When it comes to restoring faith in government, Israel has a long way to go. Although Netanyahu has brought some opposition figures into a war cabinet, his own support has plummeted, with a November poll finding that just four percent of Israeli Jews considered him a trustworthy source of information on the war. As operations in Gaza ebb, commissions will investigate the military and intelligence failure on October 7, and the revelations will in the short term no doubt cause Israelis to lose even more confidence in their security institutions. Some confidence will be restored as the IDF and Israeli intelligence services demonstrate their combat proficiency in Gaza, as most Israelis agree they have already by hitting Hamas hard and limiting Israeli casualties. And as a new generation of military and intelligence leaders replaces those who have taken responsibility for the October 7 debacle and promised to resign, some trust should be rebuilt. But in the end, it will probably take years of relative calm for Israelis to regain their faith.

No Way Out

All of Israel’s goals are difficult to achieve, and some are at cross-purposes. A continued military campaign, which would be necessary to severely degrade Hamas and to help rebuild public confidence in the military, will take months to succeed—and even then, it will be unlikely to kill every last Hamas leader and destroy every last tunnel. Releasing hostages and maintaining U.S. support, however, will be difficult to achieve without reducing military operations. And an intense campaign will not help find a solution to the long-term problem of who will govern Gaza: when the dust has settled, Israel will need a Palestinian partner to run the strip, and destructive military operations diminish its credibility among the population there.

Because its goals are difficult to achieve separately and even harder to achieve together, Israel is likely to fall short. Whatever happens, more of Hamas’s leaders and fighters will probably survive than Israel would prefer, and Hezbollah will probably continue its rocket attacks as the war rages in Gaza. Yet a lack of complete success does not mean failure. Hezbollah, like Israel, does not appear to want an all-out war. The October 7 attack has brought Israel and the U.S. government closer and diminished concerns that Washington will abandon the Middle East.

But what became clear from my conversations is that Israel’s current approach to Gaza is too ambitious, and the time has come to correct course. In the coming months, Israel should move away from high-intensity operations while continuing to eliminate Hamas’s top leaders through drone strikes, raids by special operations forces, and other means, doing so even if some of Hamas’s military infrastructure and regular forces remain. Israel needs U.S. backing, and that requires limiting civilian casualties in Gaza, greatly expanding humanitarian efforts in the strip, and avoiding an unprovoked war with Hezbollah. To reassure the Israeli population without fully destroying Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel should station more military forces near Lebanon and Gaza. Perhaps most important, Israel and the international community should begin the long process of bolstering the PA and other alternatives to Hamas to govern Gaza.

Israel must also accept the reality that in many ways, it is damned if it does, damned if it doesn’t. Its leaders must make hard choices about which goals to prioritize and which to set aside. One Israeli security official put it to me best: “The only resource in the Middle East more plentiful than oil is bad options.”

Source: Foreign Affairs

The post Israel’s Muddled Strategy in Gaza appeared first on Ankara Haftalik.

It’s an old story, a broken record: war crimes in the Middle East, encouraged and stoked by outsiders with their own agenda. Israel, offended and humiliated by the 7 October attacks (for which they had repeatedly been warned by Egypt.

Hamas, encouraged and bankrolled by Israel initially, in its effort to undercut the appeal of Al-Fatah, has turned into Frankenstein’s Monster, breaching a border that was trumpeted as the most invincible in the world, with 24/7 surveillance, sensors to detect tunnels, full camera coverage and on and on – yet several thousand Hamas warriors parachuted in unimpeded, like autumn leaves, cut through the fence and barreled along, killing and kidnapping as they went. Where was the much-vaunted Israeli military, multi-billion-dollar funded by Washington, kitted out with the latest armaments and electronic surveillance?

Every Israeli politician should be held to account for the failure to defend the border, and the crimes of Hamas were immediately followed by indiscriminate bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military, which finally woke up and got moving. How many noncombatants dead? Woman, children, the elderly? Let’s say 9,000. The world looks on, displeased.

A billion Muslims worldwide see this as yet another attack by an infidel west on Islam. The 7 October attack was notable in its cruelty to kibbutz-dwellers, party-goers – absolute innocents going about their lives on the Israeli side of the border. Babies were murdered, women beheaded. What was the objective of this, as Hamas (just like all combatants in all contemporary conflicts) is playing to an audience of Telegram, TikTok and other internet witnesses. The surprising aspect is that there have been massive demonstrations throughout the western world in support of Hamas; while they do not call for the destruction of Israel they are demanding human rights for the Palestinians. The killings of Israelis are intentionally ignored.

Was Netanyahu not suckered in to this mess? Is the massive retaliation currently thundering down on Gaza not precisely what Hamas expected from its enemy, so average Palestinians could be seen by the world as victims once again?

Other Arab nations are mostly keeping their distance, and avoiding any inflammatory moves beyond grave, angry pronouncements. The Islamic Republic of Iran, always ready to stir up trouble in the Arab East, is talking tough but moving cautiously, even as they sponsor terror groups in Syria Yemen and Iraq.

There was a recent interview, carried on YouTube, with Hezbollah honcho Hassan Nasrullah, notably silent about the war in Gaza until now. He claims that the recent attacks were “100% Palestinian” thereby clearing Hezbollah of any responsibility. 90 minutes of threats, harangue and fundamentalist rhetoric was his contribution to the dialogue. Evidence to the contrary exists, Hezbollah like the Iran were informed by HAMAS. The political aims are also very clear. Undermine the wider peace talks between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Muslim world. A first in 50 years for the region.

What is Hezbollah, one of many radical Islamic groups that have sprung up in the past 30 ~ 40 years? Presumptuously calling itself the “Party of God”, its role in Lebanon is that of a political party/armed militia/Iranian proxy. Its militia consists of more than an estimated 100,000 fighters, well-trained, battle-hardened and ready to fight and die. Hezbollah is said to be unlike Hamas or the Islamic Jihad – different in that it is an integrated part of Lebanese society.  

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has struck 19 locations along the Israeli border with rocket fire, and carried out skirmishes against the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). The Hamas surprise attack impressed Muslims worldwide, who see it as a natural revenge move on behalf of the suffering Palestinians.

“What’s happening in Gaza today is not like any previous war. It’s not just another battle – it’s a historic and decisive one. What unfolds after it will differ significantly from what there was before,” thundered Nasrullah. The assembled masses drank it up. Shops were closed and tens of thousands gathered for a full-throated hatefest.

Still, Nasrullah has sufficient problems facing him in a sick, broke and weak Lebanon, and the idea of going to war now looks definitely unappealing. Beards waggle and fanatics whoop – but what the hirsute mullah actually indicated was “And now, more of the same”: limited strikes and exchanges but no full-scale war.

“All options are on the table with Israel. What will happen depends on Israel’s actions in Gaza.” Rather lukewarm support for the Palestinians – noting once again that NO Islamic country in North Africa, the Middle East or Asia has invited the suffering Palestinians to emigrate there. They know trouble when they see it.

“America is the Great Satan, Israel is lying, their soldiers will fail in Gaza and Hamas did a great job on October 7.” Typical Hezbollah yakkity-yak.

The subtext for the greybeard leader in his televised talk was “Cool it. Take no action … yet.” But Hezbollah is in fact a very unpredictable and deeply violent force.

Israel, of course has the “Samson Option”, embodied in its 200+ nuclear weapons nestled safely away in a Negev Desert “research facility”. One of those babies would blow Teheran off the map. Or Damascus, or Mecca. It would also take out a whole army, leaving behind a glowing radioactive crater dangerous for a thousand years afterwards.

While the Islamic masses may be frothing at the mouth to go to war, their leaders do not look forward to national suicide.

The post Hezbollah and the Reluctance for a Wider War: Cui Bono? appeared first on Ankara Haftalik.

Much like its ideological counterparts at HispanTV (Iranian-owned) and Actualidad RT (Russian-owned), Telesur wraps its incitement into a sophisticated and slick twenty-four-hour news platform through its website, broadcasts, and social media presence. Though it is difficult to gauge its influence, numbers suggest that Telesur’s message is impactful. Telesur has two million followers on its Spanish X account, 117,500 on its English X account, and more than half a million on Instagram. Its YouTube account has over 1.7 million subscribers, with 100,000 new subscribers and almost 7.4 million video views since October 7 (It also posts its videos on the Daily Motion).

The network traditionally pushes out conspiracy theories, fake news, “whataboutism,” and disinformation that serve a common agenda: demonize the West, undermine the credibility of Western news outlets, paint Western leaders as hypocrites, and promote a narrative of global resistance against America and its allies. Aware that a worldwide audience of half a billion Spanish speakers—including almost sixty million in the U.S.—could be receptive to its anti-imperialist spin, Telesur began broadcasts in 2005. Since then, Telesur has routinely packaged its allies’ imperialism as resistance, their terrorism as anti-terrorism, and their authoritarianism as democracy. It has platformed conspiracy theorists, like Thierry Meyssan, the French author of the 2002 screed, 9/11: The Big Lie, the earliest 9/11 “truther” libel, accusing the United States of orchestrating the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. It has also peddled anti-Semitic tropes, insinuating that “the Zionist Lobby” manipulates and controls U.S. media, falsely accusing Israelis of trafficking children and Israel of supporting ISIS.

Telesur news coverage since October 7, then, is hardly surprising. However, it has gained a new obsessive intensity, broadcasting a daily media diet of hatred. In its breaking news report on Hamas’ October 7 massacre, Telesur news anchor described that morning’s atrocities as an operation by the Hamas “resistance movement” in response to “continued Israeli aggressions.” The broadcast defined the event as “a new stage in the Palestinian struggle against Zionist occupation.” It then showed its viewers a news segment produced by their Syria-based correspondent, which made no mention of atrocities or Israeli civilian casualties. Telesur’s initial denial and distortion set the stage for the ensuing news coverage, which amplified a pro-Hamas narrative.

For example, after Western media corrected their reporting about Palestinian claims that on October 17, Israel bombarded the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, killing 500 people, Telesur doubled down, relying on a report from Al Jazeera.

Opinion pieces have been even more inflammatory than news segments, consistently espousing bigotry. Telesur commentators have routinely compared Israel to Nazism, denying and, at the same time, justifying the October 7 massacre. On October 9, as the gory details of Hamas atrocities were emerging, a blog entry celebrated them as a “very special page” in the history of the great battles for freedom. On October 15, TeleSur’s special envoy in Lebanon wrote a column entitled “Agony of a macabre implant,” where, after defining Israel as a European colonial-settler “implant” and accusing it of committing genocide, he proceeded to dismiss Hamas’ atrocities, lamenting a “Western media narrative, which focuses on Hamas, and not on the unprecedented fact of the united action of all Palestinian resistance organizations.”

After denial comes the systematic demonization of Israel through the casual recourse to antisemitic tropes, with Israel described as a worthy successor of Nazi Germany. 

On October 16, another blog post accused Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of pursuing a final solution in Gaza and pleaded that the international community should not allow “the Jews to continue murdering the Palestinians in their land.”

On October 21, another commentator evoked the old Antisemitic canard of Jewish control of world media to denounce what its author considered a global media coverup of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Those controlling the “spiral of silence” in the mainstream media were, according to the author, “the transnational Jewish lobby.” On November 3, the theme of a conspiracy of silence orchestrated by Israel, the United States, and “the hegemonic media” recurred in another column. Its goal, thundered the author, was to enable Israel to turn Gaza into “a Palestinian cemetery.” The next day, Telesur published another blog post accusing Israel, whose creation the author described as the machinations of the “international Zionist oligarchy,” of committing “the third largest genocide in history.” And on November 7, Chilean columnist Pablo Jofre Leal (an author frequently posting on HispanTV as well and a government advisor to Gabriel Boric’s ministry of health in Chile) attacked what he labeled “the Ukraine-Israel national socialist-national Zionist alliance,” called the Hamas massacres a “legitimate action of the Palestinian resistance,” and described Israel’s response as a modern version of 1942 Wannsee Conference, the Nazi gathering that finetuned Hitler’s final solution.

Telesur, whose broadcast includes an English language channel and a Washington, DC, based correspondent, continues to spread misinformation and incitement through the ether, the internet, and social media. Washington, whose battle against disinformation has taken multiple steps to curb Russia’s and Iran’s misinformation channels in the anglosphere, seems mostly oblivious to Spanish language propaganda by Maduro’s Venezuela, despite its ability to shape public opinion in Latin America.

Downplaying the importance of the battle of ideas in Spanish will have long-term implications, especially in Latin America, where the Maduro regime continues to leverage a long history of anti-Americanism to its own advantage. Commenting on Russia’s Spanish language propaganda in Latin America, Southern Command’s General Laura J. Richardson recently said, “In 2020, Russia Today (RT)’s Spanish-language media outlets more than doubled their social media followers from 7 million to over 18 million. These disinformation campaigns are just one part of Russia’s broader efforts to influence national elections throughout the region this year.”

With much of the region’s political winds blowing leftward, the pro-Iran and pro-Hamas echo chamber of the Maduro regime should draw as much urgent attention from the White House and State Department as Russia’s disinformation does.

If Washington does wake up to the threat, it can take three initial steps to address it. First, it can slap sanctions against Telesur, much like it did against Iran’s Press TV, for its key role in supporting censorship and televising forced confessions, and Russian state-owned propaganda outlets for their role in Russia’s disinformation campaign. Second, it can lobby the telecom private sector to have Telesur de-platformed. Third, it can appeal to U.S.-based social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, X, the Daily Motion, and YouTube, to ensure they restrict Venezuelan regime disinformation.

The pro-Hamas, pro-Iran disinformation that Telesur spews daily is inflammatory, inciteful, and rife with antisemitic hatred. Telesur should be treated as a foreign state influence operation of the Maduro dictatorship for its continued rhetoric inciting hatred against Jews and driving global antisemitism. It should not be given free rein. Washington has sanctioned similar media disinformation campaigns before. Telesur should not be an exception.

Source: FDD

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Away from the football field, Makram Daboub, the head coach of the Palestinian national football team, grapples with challenges exacerbated by the Israel-Hamas conflict, now in its second month.

This conflict casts a shadow over the team’s training plans for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Daboub had hoped to include key players, Ibrahim Abuimeir, Khaled Al-Nabris and Ahmed Al-Kayed, in a crucial training camp in Jordan ahead of the World Cup qualifying clashes against Lebanon and Australia.

Unfortunately, the conflict has left them stranded in Gaza, unable to join the team.

Daboub finds solace in the safety of his players still in Gaza, even though many of their relatives have lost their lives due to the ongoing Israeli bombings.

“So far, they are fine,” Daboub said. “Many of their relatives have died, however, as a result of the bombing.”

The psychological toll on the players is undeniable. With families in danger and the weight of the conflict on their minds, the coach acknowledges the immense challenge of maintaining focus on football.

“With the death and destruction in Gaza, the players are in a difficult psychological state,” Daboub said.

Yet, amid the chaos, there is a resounding determination from both players and the Palestinian people to see the games through.

Susan Shalabi, the vice-president of the Palestine Football Association, emphasized the significance of the national team in representing the aspirations of a people seeking recognition and normalcy.

“This is a people that wants to be heard and seen by the rest of the world; they want to live normally like everyone else, so people care about their national team,” Shalabi passionately expressed to The Associated Press (AP). “It represents the yearning to be recognized as a free and sovereign nation.”

The Palestine Football Association, a full member of FIFA since 1998, dreams of a World Cup appearance in 2026, an achievement that would mark a historic milestone for a team that has yet to reach the finals through the Asian Football Confederation’s qualifying route.

Hope flickers with Asia’s increased automatic qualification allocation from four spots in 2022 to eight in 2026, with the tournament hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The Palestinian team, boasting the highest FIFA ranking of 73 in 2018, has previously appeared in the Asian Cup and secured a spot in the 2023 continental tournament in Qatar.

Daboub, pragmatic yet optimistic, recognizes the unpredictability of football but believes in the team’s potential to advance in the World Cup qualifiers.

“To be among the 18 teams that advance into that next stage of Asian qualifying, the Palestinians need to finish in the top two of a group containing Australia, Lebanon and Bangladesh,” Daboub explained.

Despite their current FIFA ranking of 96, the team remains hopeful, sitting eight places above Lebanon and a substantial 87 places above Bangladesh.

The journey is not without its disruptions.

Originally slated to host Australia, security concerns have moved the game to a neutral venue in Kuwait.

Preparations were further hampered when players could not participate in a Malaysian tournament last month.

Now, the team is stationed in Jordan to ensure smooth travel for upcoming games.

A pivotal match against Lebanon in the United Arab Emirates awaits, moved from Beirut due to security considerations. Daboub sees it as a significant step toward the next stage, expressing determination: “We will do our best. Football is the most popular game in the world. It brings people together. We aspire to achieve good results and qualify to show the Palestinian identity and that this is a people who deserve life and love peace.”

Source: Daily Sabah

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Students from two Turkish universities adopted a novel method to convey their outrage over Israel’s ongoing military attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip, creating a video featuring messages in multiple languages and sharing it on social media platforms.

Students from Galatasaray University and the Turkish-German University in Istanbul expressed their feelings about Israel’s attacks in Gaza in a video they created in Turkish, French and German.

The students shared the video via their educational institutions’ social media accounts.

In the video, students described the Israeli attacks on Gaza in messages such as “Don’t stop talking about Palestine,” “The ones dying are not just people but humanity,” “Humanity is being ignored, bombed and killed,” “In the 21st century, Gaza is being besieged in front of the world’s eyes,” “People are left without food, water, medicine and electricity,” as well as “Israel, the baby killer, uses white phosphorus bombs considered a war crime.”

Earlier, students from Galatasaray University’s Civilization Club organized an exhibition depicting Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

The exhibition, which included photos, maps, cartoons and explanations about Gaza, was held at the Soma Tunnel on campus and featured 46 visuals.

Speaking about the exhibition, Esma Yılmaz, a student in the International Relations department, said their club aimed to express their solidarity with the oppressed people in Palestine.

“The primary goal of our exhibition, consisting of 46 visuals, is to emphasize that the Israel-Palestine issue is not a recent development, but rather, Israel’s occupation policy, unjust detentions and incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque have been ongoing for years, and this process did not start on Oct. 7,” said Yılmaz.

Anger and support

Türkiye consistently denounces Israel’s relentless attacks on Palestine and expresses unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people, with the Turkish public actively demonstrating their support. Recently, the Turkish nongovernmental organization (NGO) Humanitarian Relief Fund (IHH) organized a convoy to demonstrate their support for Palestine amid Israel’s persistent attacks on the Gaza Strip, heading to the U.S. base in the country’s southeast.

The “Freedom Convoy for Palestine,” consisting of 250 vehicles adorned with Turkish and Palestinian flags, departed Friday from Istanbul to Incirlik Air Base in Adana. On Sunday, the convoy protested Israel’s attacks on Palestine in front of Incirlik Air Base in the southeastern city of Adana, where a number of U.S. forces are stationed.

Numerous NGOs and individuals across Türkiye assembled under the leadership of the IHH gathered in front of the air base. Participants chanted slogans against Israel and expressed their outrage over the attacks on Gaza. The police stepped in when some protesters broke the barricades, trying to enter the air base.

Israel has repeatedly urged Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to head south as fighting intensified, spurring fears of mass displacement.

The Israeli army this week expanded its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless airstrikes since a surprise offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.

At least 10,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, have been killed in Israeli attacks since then, while the Israeli death toll has topped 1,500, according to official figures.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Türkiye’s religious authority Diyanet actively promotes global mobilization through awareness-raising meetings to address Israeli aggression in Gaza

Türkiye’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has consistently demonstrated a steadfast commitment to humanitarian causes, particularly in the face of dire circumstances such as the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

With a history of advocating for justice and compassion, Diyanet has taken a proactive role in addressing the plight of the Palestinian people and has emerged as a key voice, not only within the Islamic world but on a global stage.

Only in November, the key religious authority organized several meetings to raise awareness and mobilize the Turkish and global society.

On Nov. 7, Diyanet organized an event, where the role of digital media and the internet are highlighted to address the crises humanity faces. In the gathering, professor Ali Erbaş, the head of Diyanet, said: “As in every field, it is our most fundamental responsibility to work to guide our nation in digital media.”

“We must utilize the full potential of technology. Those who have a vision for the future of humanity, life, and the world cannot ignore the current realities. Therefore, our primary duty is to guide our nation in digital media and all other aspects,” Erbaş said.

On Nov. 6, Erbaş hosted Nawaf Tekruri, the head of the Union of Palestinian Scholars, and his delegation at the Diyanet headquarters in Ankara, where religious scholars discussed the Gaza crisis and sought solutions for it.

In the meeting, Erbaş reaffirmed Türkiye’s unwavering support for Palestinian brothers and sisters, underscoring the country’s commitment to stand by their side. Tekruri expressed happiness with the reception and thanked Erbaş and Diyanet for consistently supporting the Palestinian cause.

On Nov. 5, within the scope of the “We Stand to Pray for Gaza” organized by Diyanet, prayers were offered for the Palestinian victims after the Isha prayers in all mosques across the country.

On Nov. 3, representatives from non-Muslim religious communities and foundations, who united with the Palestinian cause upon the call of Erbaş, urged a cease-fire to halt the bloodshed in Gaza.

Speaking at the event, Erbaş said: “Palestine, once a land of peace and tranquility, has unfortunately become a place of suffering and despair in the past century. Presently, Gaza is enduring inhumane and devastating attacks.”

“Today, Gaza is a test of law, morality and conscience for all humanity. We need to find a solution to the cries of people groaning under oppression and make our voices heard. This is a human duty,” he said.

In a gathering on the first day of November, Diyanet also called for a mass boycott against Israel. “It is important to boycott products of companies that support Zionism and fight against oppression and oppressors in every possible way,” Diyanet said.

‘Emergency Gaza Meeting’

Just before the start of November, Diyanet organized a mass gathering on the last day of October, and brought together over 200 people from 94 countries, including religious heads, ministers and scholars, in an online call as part of the “Emergency Gaza Meeting” to discuss ways to stop Israel’s oppression.

Following the key video call meeting, a final communique was announced.

In the statement, Erbaş condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza, stating that, “They have no humanitarian, moral or legal basis.” He expressed concern for the innocent people, including women, children and older adults, who are being brutally slaughtered in front of the world.

Currently, tens of thousands of civilians are being displaced from their homes, deprived of basic necessities and subjected to bombings in the region.

Erbaş accused the Israeli regime of committing genocide in Gaza for its Zionist ambitions and called for action to stop the violence.

Credibility lost

Erbaş criticized the Western states for remaining silent in the face of Israel’s attacks and genocide, questioning the credibility of ideologies and policies that claim to bring peace and prosperity to humanity.

He also expressed deep sadness and concern for the brutal attacks on Muslims and holy places of Islam, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was the scene of a great tragedy.

“The only way to achieve peace and tranquility in the region is for the occupiers to withdraw from Palestinian lands and for the Palestinian people to achieve complete freedom,” he said.

“The Islamic world has a responsibility to support the oppressed Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom. Cooperation is necessary to achieve common goals and ideals and to ensure peace and tranquility in the world.”

The final communique included key articles, one of which said: “The endless ambitions, inhumane policies and cruelties of murderous Israel, backed by the imperialists, are dragging the world into a total catastrophe. Israel must immediately cease its attacks on Gaza and the Palestinians. The eviction of Palestinians from their homes and homelands, the occupation of their lands, is never acceptable.”

The piece followed with the second article, saying: “The struggle of the people of Gaza against Israel’s invasion and occupation is a legitimate and honorable struggle in terms of religion, morality and international law. It is the responsibility of faith and servitude for every Muslim to support this noble struggle in all respects and to fight materially and spiritually to stop the genocide that is taking place.”

“Al-Quds belongs to Muslims; Palestine and Gaza are Muslim homelands and will remain so until the Judgment Day.”

The statement’s third article called for international organizations such as the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take immediate action. It said, “Peacekeepers should be sent to the region as soon as possible to protect the oppressed.”

“In this respect, it is an unavoidable necessity to urgently open a humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza to deliver basic living products, especially electricity, and water, to Gaza and to take the necessary measures to ensure the transfer of the wounded to hospitals in neighboring countries.”

The reports highlight the lack of basic needs of people stuck in the Gaza Strip.

The final communique highlighted the Gaza conflict as “not only a problem for Muslims but also a common problem for all humanity.”

“Sensible Jews do not approve of these genocides and massacres by the Zionist Israeli government. Raising their voices more will contribute significantly to stopping these attacks that disregard human dignity and try to destroy the law of coexistence,” the communique read.

“For this reason, it is important for people of faith and conscience to communicate with members of other religions to unite their power and prepare a joint action plan to stop this barbarism that is dragging humanity into disaster,” it added.

Source: Daily Sabah

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed Palestine-Israel developments, as Erdoğan highlighted that it is necessary to take steps to de-escalate tensions as soon as possible, a statement made by the Presidential Communications Directorate said Monday.

The two leaders held a phone conversation, in which they exchanged views on regional and global developments, especially the Palestine-Israel conflict, the directorate said.

Erdoğan told Mitsotakis that Türkiye has been striving to end the crisis, which may have regional and global consequences, and will continue to do so. He also said it is necessary for regional countries to strive to immediately halt the violence and human rights violations and that the countries should take steps to de-escalate tensions, rather than to further exacerbate them.

At least 2,750 Palestinians, a quarter of them children, died in indiscriminate Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, according to the besieged enclave’s Health Ministry. Some 9,700 others were injured and 1,000 others are thought to be trapped under the rubble, according to civil defense units.

Türkiye is among the few vocal opponents of Israel’s attacks targeting civilians in the Gaza Strip and urges a two-state solution to permanently end the conflict. It also spearheads efforts for humanitarian aid for Gazans trapped in the enclave amid the ongoing conflict, especially after Israel cut off electricity and other vital resources.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Drawing from its prior clashes with Israel, Hamas has gained vital insights on how to effectively counter Israel. Despite being at a military disadvantage in nearly every area, Hamas has developed unconventional methods to attack Israel, including a powerful propaganda system to garner global backing for its objectives.

For example, on Tuesday, Hamas employed extensive propaganda tactics as reports emerged of an alleged Israeli airstrike targeting the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. One of the earliest pieces of evidence demonstrating the dissemination of disinformation appeared when a member of the Hamas-operated health ministry was quoted by al-Jazeera – a fervent advocate of Hamas and Islamic Jihad – alleging that five hundred individuals at a hospital had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Subsequently, this information rapidly proliferated across various social media platforms, including mainstream news web sites.

The news spurred the Israeli military to deny the accusation and declassify intelligence demonstrating that it did not strike the hospital and that it was an errant rocket fired by Islamic Jihad. Allied countries like the United States and France publicly supported Israel’s assertion that it was not responsible for the blast.

Another point of significance is that rockets launched by Palestinian armed groups are unreliable and often times strike the civilian population in Gaza. Last year, video evidence surfaced that rockets fired by terrorist organizations were falling short and hitting civilian infrastructure.

Although the explosion at the hospital was probably caused by a misdirected rocket, and the casualties initially reported were inflated, the damage had already been done to Israel’s image on the international stage.

Another example of Hamas propaganda emerged during the first days of the war when its spokesperson, Abu Obeida, threatened that Hamas would begin executing hostages if Israeli airstrikes did not cease. Since the statement, Israel has continued striking military infrastructure, and Hamas has not made any more public threats about the hostages.

Lastly, Hamas disseminated a recording showing a seemingly injured Israeli hostage receiving medical care. The video was an attempt to show that Hamas cared for the prisoners. Still, in reality, Hamas was trying to restore its image after much of the brutality and kidnappings by the group were published online.

Hamas has implemented various propaganda techniques throughout previous wars, including during times of general calm. Specific methods have effectively dispelled inaccurate information, primarily because of mainstream media’s limited comprehension of the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Given the propensity of journalists to at times conduct insufficient research when reporting events during war because of the urgency to provide speedy information on social media platforms, Hamas will undoubtedly attempt to continue exploiting these vulnerabilities.

Source: FDD

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Israel was among the countries that sent rescue teams to help put out the massive firefights raging across Greece, with planes dropping substantial quantities of water from the air in close coordination with Greek authorities. 

“The Israeli team successfully completed the mission, and the operational and professional cooperation enabled us to meet tight schedules. Our primary focus was to suppress the fires, preventing further outbreaks, and despite challenging weather conditions, we achieved our goal,” said Superintendent Chaim Bar-Gil, from the Israel Police Air Division, who served as the mission commander.

The fires across Greece also affected dozens of Britons who had their holidays disrupted as a blaze sweeps across the island of Rhodes, with some holidaymakers forced to evacuate from resorts.

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British tourists described “terrifying” scenes of turmoil as the five-day fire continues to rage, with power cuts causing “chaos” and an absence of information from travel agencies.

In previous days the wildfire was confined to the island’s mountainous centre, but aided by winds, very high temperatures and dry conditions, it spread on Saturday towards the coast on the island’s central-eastern side.

Local media reported the fires had reached three hotels, which had already been evacuated, while three coast guard vessels, plus one from the army, were evacuating people from two beaches.

Fire Service spokesman Yannis Artopios said on Saturday that more wildfires could break out as temperatures are set to reach 45C on Sunday.

Thomas Cook said 40 of its customers were at hotels in Lardos and Kiotari – the areas most affected by the fire.

Corinne Watson, 42, who is holidaying with her husband and two sons, told the PA news agency she had only received one automated text message from Tui, telling her they were “sorry for any disruptions”.

The mother-of-two said: “Our hotel has accepted some evacuees and hosted a few while other accommodation was found.

“Power losses affecting the kitchens has caused chaos but hotel staff are working exceptionally hard to manage the situation – they must be very worried for their island.

“Hotel staff [are] working flat out under desperate worry.”

However, she said Tui had offered a “poor service” with no information on whether her area was safe or what to do in the event of an evacuation.

Ms Watson, a local government worker from Cumbria, added: “Today the sky has rarely been blue and we have had the water planes above us frequently collecting from the sea.

“Getting information is very difficult. Currently we are lucky, in a lovely hotel and hope it stays that way.

“For others, both tourists and locals, it is awful and terrifying. I hope they bring them under control quickly with limited damage.”

Speaking to the BBC, Simon Wheatley said: “We were told by police that we had to evacuate the building because the air was just unbreathable – it had turned bright orange and black above our heads.”

Katie Piercefield-Holmes told the BBC it was “really quite terrifying.” A spokesman for Thomas Cook said: “We are monitoring closely the wildfires in Rhodes and are in touch with our customers who are on holiday there.

“Our teams are in regular contact with our holidaymakers on the island currently as well as those about to depart to discuss their options.”

There will be a brief respite in the heatwave on Monday, but it will resume on Tuesday and could last until at least Friday, meteorologists have said.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted: “The safety of British Nationals is our top priority. I encourage those in Rhodes, and those with family and friends there, to continue checking FCDO travel advice for updates.”

The Foreign Office updated its foreign travel advice on the heatwaves and wildfires in Europe. It said: “If you are a British national affected by wildfires in Rhodes, please follow the guidance from the emergency services. Call the Greek emergency services on 112 if you are in immediate danger.

“The Greek government has established a crisis management Unit to facilitate the evacuation of foreign citizens from Rhodes. They can be contacted on +30 210 368 1730. For 24/7 British consular assistance, call +4420 7008 5000.

“If you are planning to travel to Rhodes, please check with your travel operator or hotel prior to travel that the area you plan to visit is not impacted by the current wildfires,”

Firefighting forces from eight EU countries are either operating or due to arrive soon, Mr Artopios said.

Israel, Jordan and Turkey have also sent reinforcements, mostly aerial equipment. A Tui spokeswoman said they are “continuing to do all they can in a fast moving situation” and had representatives at evacuation points.

She said: “We’re closely monitoring the situation in Rhodes where wildfires have led to the evacuation of a number of hotels in the South of the island.

“Our resort teams are doing everything they can to support customers and asking them to follow the advice of the local authorities who we are working closely with.

“Our main priority is always the safety of our customers and we’ll continue to do all we can to assist those impacted.”

Source: Jewish News

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