Author: M Barbu

Iran-backed terrorist groups, including Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and Hamas, have proliferated in number and strengthened their presence in the West Bank in recent years. The groups have established battalions (Katibat) in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and beyond. Iranian arms and funding have primarily fueled this violent escalation.
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FDD’s Long War Journal has identified 26 West Bank branches belonging to established terrorist organizations, and two independent armed groups.

Abstract: The key mission of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) is to defend the Iranian Islamic Revolution and create armed militias in the countries of its “Axis of Resistance.” Its organization is opaque and complex, coordinating combat operations with soft-power actions aimed at, among other initiatives, establishing a Pax Irania in the Middle East, a ‘peace’ of which it is the initiator and guarantor. Although the Quds Force’s apparatus in Syria has been under pressure from Israeli airstrikes, Tehran is sticking to its mission set: infiltrating Syrian civil society and sending fighters to the north, where the civil war will one day end, and to the south, on the edge of the Golan Heights, to establish a base against Israel if necessary.

At least 18 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on a number of military sites in central Syria, the Syrian health minister says.

State news agency Sana cited Hassan al-Ghabbash as saying another 37 people were injured in the attacks in the vicinity of Masyaf, in Hama province, on Sunday night.

Latest Developments

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on September 7 called for the formation of an Islamic alliance to halt what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from the Jewish state. Falsely claiming that Israeli officials “openly state” their desire to occupy the entire region, Erdogan maintained that an alliance of Islamic countries is the “only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism.” Erdogan alleged that, after Gaza, “the turn will come for other countries in the region. It will come for Lebanon, Syria. They will set their eyes on our homeland between the Tigris and the Euphrates.” He then applauded Hamas — an Iran-backed, U.S.-designated terrorist organization — for “defending Gaza” and “Islamic lands,” including Turkey.

A Jordanian truck driver killed three Israelis present at the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on September 8.[1] The driver arrived at the Israeli-controlled side of the border crossing, exited his vehicle, and opened fire at Israeli forces working there.[2] Israeli forces at the border crossing killed the shooter.[3] The gunman killed three Israeli civilians working at the border crossing.[4] The Israel Airports Authority—the Israeli government entity responsible for airports and land-to-land border crossings—closed Allenby Bridge, the Rabin crossing, and Jordan River crossing with Jordan until further notice following the shooting attack.[5]