The bill of the United States House of Representatives on assistance to Israel that has been approved includes the allocation of 26 billion dollars to counter threats from Iran. The US Embassy in Israel has recommended that the country’s citizens refrain from traveling outside of cities where American diplomatic and consular institutions are located. The alert therefore remains high.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana on the approval of the aid package for Israel by the US House of Representatives: “Today’s vote in Congress sends a loud and clear message to our enemy: the alliance between Israel and the United States It’s stronger than ever.”
Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, clarified that the United States cannot support the major Israeli military operation in Rafah. The operation was given the green light on April 21: Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces Herzi Halevi approved plans to “continue the war” in a southerly direction, the army press service reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has deployed additional artillery and armor on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip, Maariv reports. According to Maariv, these preparations could indicate immediate preparation for a ground offensive on Rafah. The newspaper notes that the army has been placed in combat readiness, and that the main parameters of the operation in Rafah have been agreed upon by the IDF General Staff and Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
According to CNN, Israel and Iran will not launch new attacks on each other, citing sources from the two countries. And again according to the same newspaper, quoting experts: Israel is not capable of waging a large-scale and prolonged war without external support.
US Secretary of State Blinken will announce sanctions in a few days against the Israeli army’s Netzah Yehuda battalion over allegations of violence against Palestinians. The US sanctions will prohibit the transfer of US military aid to the battalion, prevent its soldiers and officers from taking part in training with the US military or in activities that receive US funding.
In response, former IDF Chief of Staff and member of the military administration’s cabinet, Gadi Eisenkot, explains to the Americans how to impose sanctions: “The idea of imposing sanctions on an IDF combat battalion is fundamentally wrong . We will work together to prevent such a decision, because if there are complaints, they should be addressed to the political and military leadership and not to commanders at the tactical level. After the founding of the Netzach Yehuda Battalion, I saw firsthand the battalion’s contribution to the fight against terrorism and the price the fighters paid with their lives. This is also further evidence of the importance of a full and detailed investigation and the independence of Israel’s legal and law enforcement systems.”
After weeks of announcements and denials, the chief of the intelligence directorate of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) general staff has announced his resignation and retirement from August 1: General Aharon Haliva announced his resignation due to the security forces’ failure to prevent an attack by the radical Palestinian movement Hamas against Israel on October 7.
Over the weekend, Sabreen News reported that the network affiliated with pro-Iranian militias was hit by an attack on their base in the Iraqi province of Babylon.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has assured that the authorities continue to assume that the country does not need nuclear weapons, the EFE agency reports. “Nuclear weapons do not appear in Iranian military doctrine,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said. He stressed that Tehran aims only at the peaceful use of nuclear energy.” The first images of the destruction of the radar destroyed by the Israeli air attack in Isfahan have appeared online.
Also over the weekend, Iranian sources reported that Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian army radar installation in the Daraa region of southern Syria.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Hamas political office has in recent days begun to consider the idea of leaving its headquarters in Qatar and moving to another country. Hamas has contacted two countries to see if they would be willing to host members of the Hamas politburo, one of which is Oman.
It is estimated that any such move would significantly complicate the continuation of the negotiations for the release of the abductees. The head of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said he would like to see Russia among the guarantors of Gaza’s security. Turkey is ready to act as a peace guarantor for Palestine through its military presence in the region, the pro-government Turkish daily Sabah reported earlier, citing sources.
“Our demands in this area remain in force. We want Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Russia, the UN to be guarantors. Of course, the United States will also be guarantors in the future. However, Israel constantly opposes this. We always put the request of guarantor countries first,” Haniyeh said in an interview with Turkish TV channel A Haber.
Germany also announces the withdrawal of its F221 Hessen frigate from the Red Sea citing technical problems. According to the Yemenis, this withdrawal is yet another strategic failure of the West in the Red Sea.
“The German frigate Hessen departed after failing to counter the operations of the Yemeni armed forces under the pretext of technical problems. The number of warships off the coast of Yemen has decreased significantly. First, the frigate Ever Huitveldt returned to Denmark, whose air defense systems had failed to work with the Yemeni suicide drones. The French then sent the Alsace to sea after running out of supplies. A few days ago it became known that the Belgians canceled the dispatch of the Louise Marie frigate due to the discovery of problems with the Mk48 launchers of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow. The Germans have promised to send the frigate Hamburg as a replacement at the beginning of August.”
Posts on Yemeni social channels close to Ansar Allah comment: “Taking into account these changes, the only US ships remaining in the Red Sea are the destroyer Carney, which the Pentagon announced last December had engaged 14 Yemeni suicide planes, the destroyer British Diamond and the Dutch Navy frigate Tromp.
Meanwhile, the Diamond’s crew is already preparing to return to Misty Albion. The destroyer Duncan, which will replace her counterparts in the Red Sea, was recently refitted for cruising in Portsmouth. Therefore, the naval coalition to confront the Yemeni armed forces has largely failed in light of the repeated withdrawal of warships.”
The CEO of the Port of Eilat, Gideon Golber, revealed the weakness of the American-British-European alliance in repelling attacks against Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea and also confirmed to the Israeli newspaper Calcalist that they are no longer there almost no activity in the port for almost 6 months due to attacks in the Red Sea.
And now a look at the frontline Israel Hamas updated at 4.00pm on April 22nd.
Israeli Defense Company President Rafael said that 16,000 rockets and missiles had been fired at Israel since the start of the war. Benjamin Netanyahu declared that: “Israel will increase pressure on Hamas and will soon deal “painful blows” to it.
In the social sphere relating to Hezbollah, the shooting down of an Iranian Hermes-450 drone over Lebanon has made the rounds online. The IDF confirmed on April 22 that one of its drones “was shot down by Hezbollah last night in southern Lebanon.”
Throughout the weekend the IDF struck Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah responded by attacking northern Israel and the Upper Galilee. The Lebanese resistance targets Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Dhahira site and the Metulla settlement. On the 22nd, Islamic Resistance artillery shells fired near the Hanita site and hit Israeli soldiers again behind the Al-Samaqa site, on the Lebanese hills of Kfar Shuba. Israel’s “spy equipment” targeted in front of Al-Wazzani village. Strong explosions heard in the Upper Galilee on the afternoon of the 22nd
Terrorist attack in Jerusalem, hit by cars in two different places, three injured.
The recovery of bodies in Gaza continues. We are talking about hundreds of corpses. On April 22, four Palestinians were killed and others injured in Israeli shelling in the center of the Gaza Strip in the Bureij and Nuseirat camps in the center of the Gaza Strip. Hamas-affiliated forces responded to the assault on the Balata camp by Israeli forces, firing live rounds and detonating numerous explosive devices. During the clashes, Hamas battalions managed to wound an Israeli soldier.
The Mujahideen of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack against the Israeli army with mortar shells east of the Bureij refugee camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli air raids recorded in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood, south of Gaza City and further artillery bombardments on the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south-east of the Gaza Strip
Two raids on the mainland in the Tallet Zaroub area, south of Rafah.
An Israeli resident was slightly injured when an improvised explosive device detonated near the West Bank settlement of Kochav HaShahar. The victim was trying to remove a Palestinian flag on the side of Highway 458 when the IED exploded.
One Palestinian was injured in Shuafat camp and six were injured in a settler attack in Barqa, east of Ramallah. On the evening of the 21st, clashes broke out in the Shuafat camp, north-east of occupied Jerusalem, between Palestinians and the IDF, following which a young man was injured.
Israel launches arrest campaign in West Bank.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
