Bad news from the negotiations front for the release of prisoners and kidnapped: Yedioth Ahronoth on the authority of an Israeli official states that “the exchange agreement with Hamas will not happen in days but weeks”. According to the Israeli newspaper, Israel has backtracked on its request to inspect Palestinians returning to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip.
A suspicious envelope was found at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a security check. After the envelope was found, security forces were called and the envelope was handed over to the police for further investigation.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will not travel to Poland for events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, fearing he could be detained there under an arrest warrant issued by the ICC. There are reportedly urgent calls in the Israeli media to establish the “Iron Swords” settlement in the Shebaa Farms, as Hezbollah did by erecting two tents on “Israeli” lands before the war.
Tensions remain high in domestic politics: Benny Gantz: “Netanyahu is not worthy of Israel’s leadership, as the state and society deserve another leadership.” Gantz is not new to these statements and he is not alone.
Jordan announced that 48 Jordanian trucks entered Syria through the Nasib checkpoint, these are humanitarian aid to Syria.
The Minister of Transport of the Syrian transitional government, Bahaa El-Din Al-Sharm, told LBCI: “The new Syrian leadership will not attack Hezbollah members in Syria who have defected and abandoned their weapons, but we will report anyone suspected of possessing weapons to the police and the judiciary.”
The Pentagon spokesman said there are currently about 2,000 American troops in Syria, not 900 as previously reported. A high-level American delegation led by Barbara Leaf, Under Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, arrived in Syria and met with the de facto leader Ahmed al-Shara, who is still considered a terrorist in the United States. They discussed the transitional government. In the early afternoon of December 20, the US Central Command reported that the ISIS leader was killed by a precise air strike that targeted him in the Deir ez-Zor governorate in Syria.
German Foreign Minister Bärbock, who recently said that “Turkey must stop the attacks on Kobane,” has arrived in Ankara. Bärbock will meet with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Ahead of the visit, Berbock said: “The Kurds in northeast Syria must also be included in the reform process,” and added: “I will emphasize this very, very clearly in Turkey.”
According to Syrian sources, it is assumed that the Turkish armed forces will place part of their bases in the Idlib region, in the Golan Heights, and this could lead to friction with Israel. Turkish President Erdogan plans to travel to Damascus within 15 days, visit the Umayyad Mosque and meet with Jawlani/al Shara.
The International Monetary Fund has said it is ready to help Syria rebuild itself together with the international community. It is also learned that although HTS is still listed as a terrorist group, the new Syrian government has placed 20 officials of the Assad administration on the Interpol wanted list. In the meantime, Syria’s largest oil refinery, in Baniyas, has stopped due to the cessation of crude oil supplies from Iran.
Iraq has announced the resumption of its diplomatic mission in Syria. And it has sent back to Syria all 2,500 Syrian soldiers who have sought refuge in Anbar.
Meanwhile, the Houthis’ war on Israel continues. The IDF Spokesperson in a statement said: “The Air Force recently intercepted a suspicious aerial target (presumably a Houthi UAV) in the Mediterranean Sea area, the target was intercepted before it even entered the country”.
The official spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said at a press conference on December 20: “The Yemeni Armed Forces, in cooperation with the Islamic resistance in Iraq, targeted vital targets of the Israeli enemy in southern Israel with a series of drones, and they successfully achieved their goals. The drone division carried out a quality military operation that targeted with a drone a military target belonging to Israel in Jaffa, and the operation achieved its goal.” He concluded by saying: “The Yemeni Armed Forces will meet any Israeli-American escalation against Yemen with a similar escalation. The Yemeni armed forces will not hesitate to target the vital installations of the Israeli enemy, as well as the military movements of the American enemy that target Yemen. The continuation of the crimes committed against our brothers in Gaza will only lead to further attacks against the Israeli enemy.”
The attacks claimed together with the Iraqi Islamic resistance between December 19 and 20 are two attacks on Giada.
And now a look at the military situations opened by Israel updated at 16:00 on December 20.
Syrian sources report that 30 Israeli soldiers, supported by bulldozers and armored vehicles, entered a military point west of the city of Al-Rafid, in the southern countryside of Quneitra.
Kan Channel, from Associated Press: “The Israeli military has set up a site at an abandoned military base belonging to the former Assad regime in southern western Syria, located outside the separation zone.” An online video shows the presence of Israeli soldiers in a former Assad weapons depot.
Elders of villages in the buffer zone in the Syrian Golan in Quneitra governorate have published a statement demanding that the Israeli army withdraw beyond the border lines. Channel 14: “The shooting in the buffer zone in Syria occurred as part of a demonstration led by local residents against the Israeli presence in the region.” According to the correspondent of Al-Mayadeen: “The protesters “in Daraa called on the international community to intervene to end the new Israeli occupation of the country. Syrians demonstrate in villages in the Yarmouk basin, rejecting the Israeli occupation and demanding that it be forced to withdraw from their lands.
Israeli bombing continues in Lebanon. Homes bombed on the outskirts of the city of Alma al-Shaab, in southern Lebanon explosions in Yaroun where a massive operation by the Israeli military is reportedly underway explosions also in Maroun. Bombings also recorded in Wadi Saluki and Israeli artillery in action in the valleys located between Qabrikha in Wadi Saluki and near the city of Ghandouriya.
Three Israeli drones recorded in the skies of the city of Al-Sama’iya, with an intense flight of several drones in the skies of the Tyre region. A huge bombing operation carried out by the Israeli army in Kafr Kila. Drones also spotted south of Beirut, while artillery bombed the outskirts of the city of Halta. Israeli military aircraft in the airspace of Nabatieh and the surrounding area at low altitude. According to Lebanese sources, the Israeli army kidnapped 3 Lebanese citizens on the Wadi Al-Hujair road on Thursday evening. They are Mahdi Shamout, Fouad Qataya and Ali Younis, and contact with them has been lost. The body of a Syrian woman killed by Israeli shelling was found in a dairy in Khiam. Israel bombed houses located between Blida and Aitaroun, in southern Lebanon.
Al-Akhbar correspondent Reports smoke from the town of Naqoura following Israeli artillery shelling that hit houses.
Palestinian sources report that Israeli aircraft bombed a residential apartment in the Nuseirat camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip. Schools for displaced people and a house in the Al-Shaaf area, east of the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza, were hit. According to Israel Today: “Hamas has taken advantage of the year that has passed since the outbreak of the war and has made Jabalia more difficult militarily than at the beginning of the war.” Jabalia attacks resumed in the afternoon, Israeli helicopter fires machine guns toward Abu Qamar area in Jabalia refugee camp, north of the Gaza Strip. A major security incident involving at least six Israeli soldiers is reported. Suicide bomber blows himself up after killing an Israeli sniper in Jabalia.
In the latest toll: 7 dead and several wounded as the IDF bombed a residential apartment inside the “Jaffa” tower on Mabrouk Street in Nuseirat camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip.
Clashes between Israeli and Palestinian forces were reported in the town of Husan, west of Bethlehem. In a statement, the IDF: “Overnight (Thursday), the IDF, the ISA and the Israeli Border Police conducted counterterrorism operations and confiscated weapons in several areas of Judea and Samaria.” “Security forces confiscated five weapons and large quantities of ammunition in As-Samu and Halhul. The forces also arrested four wanted suspects in Halhul, Dayr Ghazale and Silat ad-Dhahr.”
Finally: “In the past week, the IDF confiscated dozens of illegal vehicles throughout Judea and Samaria, as well as terrorist funds worth over one million shekels and approximately ten weapons. The arrested suspects and weapons were transferred to the security forces for further processing. No IDF injuries were reported.”
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
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