Orientul Mijlociu

To weaken Hamas’s grip on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government initiated a campaign to arm rival groups within the enclave, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in June. The first of these groups, the Popular Forces led by Yasser Abu Shabab, surfaced in May as a direct challenge to Hamas’s authority. Backed by Israeli funding and logistical support, additional anti-Hamas militias soon emerged, seeking to erode Hamas’s control from within. These groups, particularly the Popular Forces, have complicated Hamas’s internal governance and drawn retaliatory attacks.

The question of what should happen to the terrorists who committed the October 7 massacre remains at large. Now, after the release of the final living hostages, it will finally begin to be answered.

Working in apparent coordination with Abu Shabab, which also claims arms and other support from Israel, Hossam al-Astal says hundreds flocking to his base for food, power and escape from Hamas

In a village south of Khan Younis, emptied by months of fighting, a 50-year-old former Palestinian Authority officer is carving out what appears to be the latest attempt to pare back Hamas’s power in the Strip, establishing a small, armed enclave that promises an alternative to the terror group with the quiet support of Israel and the West.

The photo shows a lean, tanned man in a dark helmet. He’s grasping a rifle and UN vehicles move behind him as he waves through traffic.

The man is Yasser Abu Shabab, who says he commands hundreds of armed men known as the Popular Forces to offer protection to international organizations working in southern Gaza.

What’s new? Israel’s far-right government is restructuring the occupation of the West Bank, shifting governing powers from military to civilian agencies in order to gradually institute permanent control. With Israeli law reaching further into the territory and space for Palestinian independence shrinking, much of the territory has, in effect, already been annexed.

Armed militia and gangs supported by Israel are seizing control of parts of Gaza, exacerbating its humanitarian crisis and potentially threatening any efforts to bring order if Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza takes hold.

The Israeli military and security services have for several months been arming and training groups in Gaza as local auxiliary forces and as an alternative to Hamas, but the strategy appears to have gathered momentum in recent weeks.

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A video this week captured Hamas fighters in Gaza executing Palestinian rivals as the militant group tries to assert that it is still the dominant force in the territory after two years of war with Israel.

Without active and continuous deterrence, ISIS forces may look to take advantage of the deteriorating security and governance situation in areas formerly under their control.

After the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, Iraq faced the challenge of rebuilding the state first and foremost, along with political, economic, and social challenges that needed to be addressed in order to strengthen national identity. This was in order to contain the charged social and regional divisions alongside the behavior of the previous regime, which reached its peak interaction with the American invasion of Iraq. Moreover, terrorism represented a unique problem for Iraq that competed with and topped other issues through two waves that later spawned sectarian fighting, turning Iraq into a focal point for extremist Islamic groups and armed factions that emerged to fight the American presence and undermine the ongoing democratic process.

After several days of terror alerts, Israel announced that it launched Operation Breaking Dawn on Aug. 5 as part of an effort to reduce threats posed by the Iranian-armed and funded Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip, which had been planning a significant terror attack against the Jewish state.

Several Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in the northern Gaza Strip were struck. Among the terrorists killed in the strike were Taysir al-Jabari, a top Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander who was in charge of the group’s rocket arsenal and primary coordinator with Hamas.

Key Points – Israel’s F-16I “Sufa” (Storm) multi-role fighters likely played a crucial role in “Operation Rising Lion,” the massive air assault on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure that began on June 12th.

-Flying alongside F-35I and F-15I jets, the F-16Is surely launched follow-on strikes against hardened targets like the Natanz enrichment facility, using precision-guided munitions such as the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb.