Eye on Extremism

October 19, 2023 

Associated Press: The US Sanctions 10 Hamas Members And Its Financial Network Over The Surprise Israel Attack

“The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a group of 10 Hamas members and the Palestinian militant organization’s financial network across Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar in response to the surprise attack on Israel that left more than 1,000 people dead or kidnapped. Targeted for sanctions by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control are members who manage a Hamas investment portfolio, a Qatar-based financial facilitator with close ties to the Iranian regime, a Hamas commander and a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. “is taking swift and decisive action to target Hamas’s financiers and facilitators following its brutal and unconscionable massacre of Israeli civilians, including children.” “The U.S. Treasury has a long history of effectively disrupting terror finance and we will not hesitate to use our tools against Hamas,” she said in an emailed statement. The sanctions are financial penalties meant to block access to funds held in the U.S. and to prevent the people and entities from doing business with American people and firms. Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that the sanctions are “directed at Hamas terrorists and their support network, not Palestinians.”

Wall Street Journal: U.S., Experts Say Evidence Suggests Palestinian Militants’ Rocket Hit Gaza Hospital

“Israel, the U.S. government and independent security experts said Wednesday the preliminary evidence for a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital compound pointed to a local militant group, casting doubt on Palestinian claims that an Israeli airstrike was responsible. Independent analysts poring over publicly available images of Tuesday’s explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza and its aftermath say the blast site doesn’t bear the hallmarks of a strike with a bomb or missile of the types usually used by Israel. The amount of damage also appears inconsistent with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry’s assertion that 471 people were killed, experts said. “We have none of the indicators of an airstrike—none,” said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an expert on military and security issues. The U.S. has collected “high confidence” signals intelligence indicating that the blast at the hospital in Gaza was caused by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, U.S. officials said, buttressing Israel’s contention that it wasn’t responsible for the blast. A video verified by The Wall Street Journal recorded a shrieking sound and the explosion that followed.”

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United States

The New York Times: The U.S. Vetoes A Security Council Resolution On The Israel-Hamas Conflict.

“The United Nations Security Council displayed deep divisions on Wednesday when it failed to pass a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war as the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorated and the conflict risked spreading to the region. The resolution had the support of the majority of the Council members and had been expected to be adopted. The U.S. veto generated criticism of American double standards and accusations that the United States, which had criticized Russia for paralyzing the Council on the war in Ukraine, was impeding the work of the Council. But the American ambassador said the U.S. couldn’t support the resolution without a mention of Israel’s right to self-defense. Brazil, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council this month, had put forth the resolution, which called for humanitarian access and protection of civilians in Gaza, the immediate release of Israeli hostages and condemned Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel. The ambassador from the United Arab Emirates, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, said the resolution may not have been perfect but that it clearly stated “basic principles” that the Council “is obliged to reinforce and uphold.””

Reuters: Biden Vows Aid For Gaza, Israel As Protests Rock Middle East

“U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to help Israel and the Palestinians during a lightning visit on Wednesday, but a deadly hospital blast that he ascribed to an errant rocket fired by Gaza militants derailed talks to prevent the war spreading. Raising fears of wider instability, protesters staged anti-Israeli demonstrations around the Middle East over the fireball that engulfed the Gaza Strip's Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital late on Tuesday, which Palestinian officials said killed 471 people. They blamed what they said was an Israeli air strike, while Israel said it was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied responsibility. Biden promised more aid to Israel at the end of his impromptu one-day visit to the country, which is bombarding Gaza to try to root out militants from its ruling Hamas group after they killed 1,400 Israelis in a cross-border assault on Oct. 7. He said of the hospital blast: "Based on the information we have seen today, it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza." In Washington, the White House National Security Council echoed Biden, saying the U.S. assessment was based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information.”

Iraq

Associated Press: Troops Hurt After Three Drones Attack US Bases In Iraq As Tensions Flare After Gaza Hospital Blast

“Coalition forces were slightly injured in Iraq in a spate of drone attacks over the last 24 hours at U.S. bases in Iraq as regional tensions flare following the deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza. Two drones targeted the al Asad airbase in western Iraq used by U.S. forces and one drone targeted a base in northern Iraq, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. U.S. forces intercepted all three, destroying two but only damaging the third, which led to minor injuries among coalition forces at the western base, according to a statement Wednesday by U.S. Central Command. The U.S. official were not authorized to speak publicly on the attacks and spoke on the condition of anonymity. “In this moment of heightened alert, we are vigilantly monitoring the situation in Iraq and the region. U.S. forces will defend U.S. and coalition forces against any threat,” Central Command said in the release. Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have threatened to attack U.S. facilities there because of American support for Israel. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias, issued a statement afterward claiming responsibility for the two attacks and saying it “heralds more operations” against the “American occupation.””

Afghanistan

Voice Of America: Taliban Leaders Conspicuously Silent On Israel-Hamas War In Gaza

“Amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, the Taliban's supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has been notably quiet on the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — in sharp contrast to the fervent, daily anti-Israel comments from neighboring Iran. While Akhundzada has no public-facing digital accounts, his edicts and statements often reverberate across the Taliban's online platforms via other channels. Akhundzada’s second in command, Mullah Mohammad Hassan, and his trio of deputies have also been reticent. The only senior Taliban official who has broken the silence so far is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister, who remains on the United States’ most-wanted list with a $10 million reward offered for information leading to his arrest. “We do not interfere in others’ internal affairs,” Haqqani said in terse remarks at an event last week, “but we have faith-based sympathy with Muslims.” Last week, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, issued a statement in condemnation of Israel’s besieging of Gaza while calling on the international community to address the crisis. “Official messaging from the Taliban has been comparable to what we've seen from other Muslim countries, with expressions of solidarity and support for the Palestinians,” Michael Kugelman, an expert at the Wilson Center, told VOA.”

Middle East

Wall Street Journal: Map Shows Labyrinth Of Tunnels Made By Hamas Under Gaza Identified By Israel

“As part of its campaign to eradicate Hamas from Gaza, Israel has targeted strikes against a network of tunnels underneath the enclave that are used by the militant group to transport weapons and people without detection by Israeli air surveillance. The map above shows tunnels as they have been identified by the Israel Defence Forces running underneath Gaza City and other locations in the Palestinian enclave. Tunnel construction varies, but the more sophisticated ones are reinforced with concrete and are high enough for a man of average height to stand up in. They often include power and communication lines. One tunnel found by the Israeli military two months before a 2014 clash with Hamas had a 165-foot-deep entry shaft and stretched about 2 miles underground before emerging above the ground at the Ein HaShlosha kibbutz in Israel. Its arched concrete roof was about five feet high. Telephone and electric wires, along with rails for ferrying goods, ran its length. The dense labyrinth under Gaza City is an important military asset for Hamas, giving militants places to hide and move between houses undetected. Hamas also has cross-border tunnels which it used in the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was released five years later in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners.”

Associated Press: Israel Will Let Egypt Deliver Some Aid To Gaza, As Doctors Struggle To Treat Hospital Blast Victims

“Israel said Wednesday that it will allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The first crack in a punishing 10-day siege on the territory came one day after a blast at a hospital killed hundreds and put immense strain on Gaza’s struggling medical system. The announcement to allow water, food and other supplies happened as fury over the blast at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital spread across the Middle East, and as U.S. President Joe Biden visited Israel in hopes of preventing a wider conflict in the region. There were conflicting claims of who was behind the explosion on Tuesday night, but protests flared quickly as many Arab leaders said Israel was responsible. Hamas officials in Gaza blamed an Israeli airstrike, saying hundreds were killed. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim. The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence. Israel shut off all supplies to Gaza soon after Hamas militants rampaged across communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7. As supplies run out, many families in Gaza have cut down to one meal a day and have been left to drink dirty water.”

Europe

ABC: Europol Director Says Islamist Terrorism Remains The Biggest Terror Threat To Western Europe

“With two deadly acts of terrorism confirmed in Western Europe in the last six days, the European Union's top law enforcement official said she is worried about what might happen in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's military response. "I am concerned," executive director of Europol Catherine De Bolle told ABC News. "With our latest report on terrorism and the status in the European Union, we see that a lot of youngsters, in fact, are influenced and recruited through internet. We see a lot of lone actors that believe that they have to go and commit a terrorist attack because they want to belong to a bigger family." On Oct. 13 in northern France, a man who was under surveillance since the summer by French security services stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and wounded three other people over Islamic radicalization, authorities said. Just three days later in Brussels, authorities claim a gunman who killed two Swedish soccer fans on Oct. 16 was likely inspired by ISIS, according to U.S. officials briefed on the situation told ABC News.”

Associated Press: Italy Suspends Open Border With Slovenia, Citing Increased Terror Threat As Mideast Violence Spikes

“Italy on Wednesday announced it will suspend an open-border agreement with neighboring Slovenia, citing an increased threat of terrorism in Europe due to violence in the Middle East. Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led government said authorities in the northeastern border region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia had identified 16,000 people so far this year who had entered Italy illegally across the Slovenian border, the last stop on the Balkan route that some migrants take to enter western Europe. That is in addition to the 140,000 migrant arrivals in Italy by sea, an increase of 85% over 2022. The government said in a statement that the Interior Ministry’s anti-terrorism committee was looking into the situation, which “confirms the necessity of” reinforcing Italy’s border. Italy said it would resume border controls starting Oct. 21 for 10 days. Italy and Slovenia are among 27 countries that belong to the Schengen area, the world’s largest free travel zone.”

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