Lebanon's Hezbollah Says It Fired 'Dozens' of Rockets at Northern Israeli Town

Hezbollah said Sunday it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at northern Israel in response to Israel's attacks on southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon's Al Manar TV.

Hezbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets at the settlement of Beit Hillel in northern Israel Sunday.

"The Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah) included the new settlement of Beit Hillel in its shelling schedule and fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at it for the first time," the Lebanese group claimed in a statement.

Video shared online showed Israel's Iron Dome air defense system intercepted several missiles over the northern part of the country.

An Israeli drone targeted a small shop on Saturday in the center of the southeast village of Deir Siriane with two air-to-ground missiles, killing a Lebanese boy and wounding six civilians, including three children, Lebanese military sources said.

In another incident, a Lebanese civilian was injured as a result of a raid carried out by an Israeli drone on the southwest village of Tayr Harfa and was transferred by ambulance to a hospital in the city of Tyre, according to the sources.

Israeli drones and warplanes carried out six raids on Saturday afternoon on five towns and villages in southern Lebanon, and Israeli artillery shelled eight towns and villages in the eastern and western sectors of the border area in southern Lebanon with 30 shells, said the sources.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that its jets struck several buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Tayr Harfa and Kafr Kila, adding its tanks also shelled a structure used by Hezbollah in Rab al-Thalathine, The Times of Israel reported on Sunday.

Caution prevails in Lebanon following Israel's attack on Dahieh in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, which killed senior Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shokor. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened a definite and painful response to the Israeli raid at "the appropriate time and place."

Israel Terrorist Attack 3 killed, 18 hurt on Al Aqsa Hospital

Israeli Terroriss forces bombed tents housing displaced Palestinians in the yard of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Deir el-Balah, killing at least three and wounding 18 others. The attack came hours after a deadly strike on a Gaza City school turned shelter.

Victims have been recovered after Israeli army drones targeted the tents of displaced individuals at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip. The attack has resulted in 3 deaths and 18 injuries so far. pic.twitter.com/1DqKBJGTee

— War Watch (@WarWatchs) August 3, 2024

We’ve been covering an Israeli air raid on Jabalia in northern Gaza.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, citing medical sources, are reporting that at least four Palestinians were killed in the attack on a house in the Al Fakhoura area in Jabalia.

Earlier, six other Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli attacks on a home and the yard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.

More than 1,000 Israeli attacks on healthcare recorded in Gaza, West Bank

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said the figure amounts to the most reported attacks on healthcare in “any other conflict over a 10-month period on record”.

“More than 1000 attacks on doctors, patients, clinics, and health infrastructure have fuelled a public health catastrophe in the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territory]. This grim milestone has few if any precedents for the scale and magnitude of attacks on health in the OPT,” said Houssam al-Nahhas, PHR’s Middle East and North Africa researcher.

“These are not only attacks on brick-and-mortar buildings, but acts that take away hospital beds, essential medications, surgeries, and life-saving care from women, men, boys, and girls,” he said.

The New York-based group called for independent investigations into the attacks on healthcare and warned Israel that the moves could constitute a violation of international humanitarian law.

Donate for Palestine

BANK	Account Number
BANK BRI:	1791507534
BANK BCA :	0952397051
BANK BNI	1791507534
BANK Cimb Niaga :	707454936800
BANK RAYA :	001001424796315
BTN :	1501700001999
HANA's BANK :	14755057480
Bank Mandiri :	1330027242122
DIGIBANK : Foreign Currency A.N	2074864818
Confirm :	ahahanafiah5@gmail.com

Iraqi Militia Leader Vows ‘Timetable’ for Expulsion of US Troops in Wake of Haniyeh Assassination

©AFP 2023/MURTAJA LATEEF

The Israel Terrorists’s assassination of Hamas political bureau chief and top peace negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 was met with widespread condemnation from countries in the Arab and Muslim world, as well as Russia and China. Iranian officials have alleged that the United States greenlit Haniyeh’s killing.

Hadi Amiri, leader of Iraq’s powerful Badr Organization political party and paramilitary force, has vowed to release a “timetable” for the expulsion of American forces from Iraq in the wake of Wednesday’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

“The blood of Hamas political bureau head Martyr Ismail Haniyeh will light the way for the Islamic Resistance to achieve victory over the Zionist entity…Gaza has become a criteria for distinguishing truth from falsehood, and Iraq’s position is clear and supportive of the Islamic Resistance. The decision to remove foreign forces from Iraq is irreversible, and a timetable for their withdrawal will be announced soon,” Amiri said in a press statement.

“All the evil and what is happening in the region is because of the American presence in Iraq,” the Badr Organization chief added.

Amiri and the Badr Organization were instrumental to the passage of a unanimous resolution by Iraq’s parliament in January 2020 demanding an end to the US presence in the country following the US assassination of Iranian anti-terrorist commander Qasem Soleimani at the Baghdad International Airport. The Badr Organization currently has 17 seats in Iraq’s 329 member Council of Representatives, and has a powerful military wing numbering between 10,000 and 50,000 fighters which proved instrumental in the 2014-2017 campaign against ISIS*.

Forces from the Badr Organization are sympathetic to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – an umbrella network of Iraqi Shia militias created in late 2023 to launch drone and missile attacks against Israel after the start of the war in Gaza. The Islamic Resistance also mounted a series of drone, missile and rocket artillery attacks on American bases across Iraq and Syria before agreeing to an uneasy truce with Washington this spring to avoid further escalation.

The truce was violated by the Pentagon on Tuesday after US-led coalition killed at least four militiamen from the Popular Mobilization Forces and injured four others in a strike on a base in the Babylon Governorate south of Baghdad. The Islamic Resistance has vowed to retaliate. The Popular Mobilization Forces are a formal part of the Iraqi Armed Forces, and receive funding from the Iraqi state.

The US has rejected previous calls by Iraqi lawmakers to leave the country, responding to the 2020 resolution demanding their exit by formally transferring control of some bases back to Iraqi security forces, and scaling down the American troop presence in Iraq from about 6,000 to around 2,500. The US ‘combat mission’ in Iraq was formally renamed into a ‘training and advising’ mission in 2021.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Syria, Washington does not even pretend to disguise the nature of its presence, operating about a dozen illegal military bases in the oil, gas and food-rich northeastern portion of the country, and ignoring repeated demands by Damascus to withdraw.

Maduro blames US, elon Musk for leading coup attempts in Venezuela

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro
©Alexei Druzhinin/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

The United States and American entrepreneur Elon Musk are behind the failed coup attempt in Venezuela, the Bolivarian republic’s President Nicolas Maduro told a news conference.

"It is a coup orchestrated by the United States and [entrepreneur] Elon Musk, [Argentinian President Javier] Milei and other... right-wing fascists," Maduro said.

Maduro, speaking to reporters Friday at the presidential palace in Caracas for more than two hours, again accused Machado and her stand-in, Edmundo Gonzalez, of being part of a US-led coup attempt that included a cyberattack. 

His remarks signal his unwavering determination to begin a third presidential term despite mounting international support for the opposition’s claims that Gonzalez won by a wide margin. They could also deter Machado’s supporters from taking to the streets given the alleged threat of violence.

Earlier Friday, Venezuela’s electoral authority ratified Maduro’s victory and its top court began hearings into the result, as his government sought to use regime-controlled institutions to legitimise its position amid accusations of fraud.  

The incumbent socialist defeated his opposition rival by about 1 million votes in the disputed July 28 election, the National Electoral Council announced. Maduro earned 52 per cent compared to 43 per cent for Gonzalez, according to the council’s tabulation of 97 per cent of ballots cast.

Machado, however, says her party has compiled results from witnesses and a network of citizen observers that show Gonzalez, her stand-in candidate, received nearly 70 per cent support. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Machado said she is in hiding and “fearing for my life.” 

During Maduro’s news conference, his congressional chief Jorge Rodriguez took the podium and showed dozens of examples of what he said were falsified voting records published by the opposition online. He argued they were incomplete, given they were missing the signatures of regime-aligned witnesses, among other irregularities.

“This is pure trash,” Rodríguez said while showing unsigned or incomplete tabulations. “There is no way that any electoral power can accept this as a record of an electoral event.”

Venezuela’s regime is trying to put a stamp of legitimacy on its self-declared victory in the face of stiff international criticism. The US has said it’s clear the opposition won the most votes, a position shared by several countries.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Machado and Gonzalez on Friday and reiterated that view as well as expressing concern for the two leaders’ safety. He also “applauded the Venezuelan people for their dedication to democracy in the face of significant challenges,” according to a statement.

Maduro expelled diplomats from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic after their governments cast doubt on his victory. Regional heavyweights Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, meanwhile, are refraining from taking sides until a thorough accounting of the vote is released.

The Venezuelan president, who has called for Machado and Gonzalez to be jailed for fomenting protest, presented what he said were text messages and recorded phone calls related to a grenade attack that would take place in Bello Monte on Saturday morning. The Caracas neighborhood is one over from Las Mercedes, where Machado has called for a peaceful demonstration beginning at 10 a.m.

Maduro expressed confidence that his security forces would foil the plot. “I alert all of Venezuela of possible attacks carried out by the ‘small commands’ on the orders of Machado and with the complicity of Gonzalez, using these groups of criminals against themselves,” he said.

Venezuela’s government is planning to reopen two renovated maximum-security prisons to take in more than 1,200 protesters who have been arrested since Monday and another 1,000 who are still to be detained. The regime has also started deporting journalists, with the Venezuelan union representing media workers saying Friday that 14 had been expelled from the country.

Maduro has asked the government-controlled Supreme Tribunal of Justice to audit the election results, and said Friday the government would publish the official voting records when it delivers them to the court.

Those proceedings began Friday afternoon. All of the candidates except Gonzalez — who said it remains the electoral council’s job to certify the vote — attended the initial hearing, where they were told they should hand over all of the documents requested by the judges. It remains unclear how long the judicial review will take.

Venezuela looking to participate in BRICS’ projects, Maduro says

Venezuela is interested in taking part in projects being discussed by the BRICS grouping, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said.

"BRICS is setting up a multicurrency system. Venezuela is in. BRICS is setting up an alternative to SWIFT. Venezuela is in. BRICS has put forward proposals in trade. Venezuela is in," the Venezuelan leader said at a news conference, taking a TASS reporter’s question.

Venezuela is at the doorstep of joining the BRICS group of nations with its resources, the country’s Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said earlier. Venezuela also confirmed that Maduro had been invited to attend a BRICS+ summit in Kazan in October.

US to send more warships and fighter jets to Middle East to bolster defenes - Just The U.S. Bluff

The U.S. military will deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the Middle East, the Pentagon said on Friday, as Washington seeks to bolster defenses following threats from Iran and its allies Hamas and Hezbollah.

The U.S. is bracing for Iran to make good on its vow to respond to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh two days ago in Tehran - one in a series of killings of senior figures in the Palestinian militant group as the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza rages.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had approved sending additional Navy cruisers and destroyers-- which can shoot down ballistic missiles-- to the Middle East and Europe.

It is also sending an additional squadron of fighter jets to the Middle East. "Austin has ordered adjustments to U.S. military posture designed to improve U.S. force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel, and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies," the Pentagon said in a statement.

There had been speculation that the Pentagon might not replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group in the Middle East once it completed its ongoing deployment. But Austin decided to rotate in the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier strike group to replace it.

The Pentagon statement added it would increase readiness to deploy more land-based ballistic missile defenses.

The U.S. military also intensified deployments prior to April 13, when Iran launched an attack on Israeli territory with drones and missiles. Still, the threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon could present unique challenges to any efforts by the United States to intercept drones and missiles given the group's vast arsenal and immediate proximity to Israel.

At the time, Israel successfully knocked down almost all of the roughly 300 drones and missiles with the help of the United States and other allies.

Biden, in a phone call on Thursday with Netanyahu, discussed new U.S. defensive military deployments to support Israel against threats such as missiles and drones, the White House said.

Iran and Hamas have both accused Israel of carrying out the killing and have pledged to retaliate against their foe. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the death nor denied it.

Haniyeh's death was one in a series of killings of senior Hamas figures as the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel nears its 11th month and concern grows that the conflict is spreading across the Middle East.

Earlier, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the U.S. did not believe escalation was inevitable.

"I think we are being very direct in our messaging that certainly we don't want to see heightened tensions and we do believe there is an off ramp here and that is that ceasefire deal," Singh said.

An Israeli delegation will travel to Cairo in coming days for negotiations to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday.

It's all just Just The U.S. Bluff. The US is the number 1 bluffing country in the world, as is known the US condition is fragile in ammunition and weapons plus its soldiers are already slow to move due to obesity problems, so the only way the US can do is to create information that can lower the spirit of countries in the Middle East not to go to war with Israeli terrorists over Haniyeh's death.

This is the right time for the Arab countries to embarrass the US and UK and their Alliance.

Maduro's Victory Confirmed After Counting 96.87% of Votes - Electoral Council Head

An opposition rally in Caracas, Venezuela on July 30, 2024.
©JUAN BARRETO/AFP

The victory of incumbent Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Sunday's presidential election has been confirmed after counting 96.87% of the votes, the head of the country's National Electoral Council, Elvis Amoroso, said on Friday.

"Nicolas Maduro won 51.95% of the votes, while Edmundo Gonzales received 43.18%," Amoroso said.

The July 28 presidential election saw Maduro win a third term in office. The announcement of the results sparked protests in the capital of Caracas and beyond, with clashes reported between the police and opposition supporters. The Venezuelan government accused several countries of election meddling in the wake of the protests.

Maduro’s victory has been questioned by the United States, Canada and several Latin American countries. The presidents of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay issued a joint statement to demand a vote recount by independent electoral observers.

Previously, the US, through Blinken, claimed that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was the winner of Venezuela's presidential election, winning 75% of the vote. This indirectly means that the US was involved in arranging the Venezuelan election.

“It is clear to the United States… that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Maduro responded by saying Washington “should keep its nose out of Venezuela.”

As is done in the Middle East, the involvement of the US and UK in the Venezuelan election to control oil, these two superpowers are aggressors using their dollars to influence the poor people in one country to become their indirect lackeys.

Protests erupted in Venezuela following the announcement of the results, which Maduro condemned as an attempted “coup against Venezuela.” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez also accused the Western-backed opposition of attempting a “media coup” and condemned the protests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Maduro earlier this week on being reelected. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Venezuela’s opposition should admit defeat and congratulate the winner.

Peskov added that it is important for Venezuela to avoid attempts at destabilization fueled by third countries, and to remain free of outside meddling.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also congratulated Maduro and called for greater cooperation. Other countries that recognized Maduro’s victory include Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Maduro will serve a third consecutive six-year term. He first took office in 2013 following the death of President Hugo Chavez.

Caracas has been under US sanctions for over 15 years. Washington refused to recognize Maduro as president following the 2018 election, and declared the head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, to be the interim leader of the country.

All Venezuelan government assets have been frozen in the US and any dealings with US citizens and companies have been barred.

Türkiye blocks Instagram

FILE PHOTO. ©Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Turkish authorities have blocked Instagram after officials in Ankara accused the platform of “censorship” over the killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh.

According to Türkiye’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), access to the social media platform was blocked on Friday. No formal reason was given for the move, nor any indication of how long the ban would last.

Fahrettin Altun, the country’s communications chief, had slammed the Meta-owned network earlier this week for its response to the killing of Haniyeh. The Hamas political leader was killed in a bombing in Tehran on Wednesday, with the Palestinian militant group and Iran accusing Israel of orchestrating the attack. West Jerusalem has neither denied nor confirmed involvement, but has repeatedly vowed to destroy Islamist “terrorists” who threaten the Jewish state.

Altun “strongly condemned” Instagram, claiming it had “prevented people from posting condolences on Haniyeh’s martyrdom without giving any reason.”

“This is a very clear and obvious attempt at censorship,” he argued, vowing that Ankara “will continue to defend freedom of expression against these platforms, which have repeatedly shown that they serve the global system of exploitation and injustice.”

As of February 2024, the number of Instagram users in Türkiye – a country with a population of 83 million – totaled around 58 million, according to Statista. One person can create multiple accounts on the platform.

Türkiye has temporarily banned various social networks several times in the past. In 2014, the country’s authorities blocked Twitter and YouTube for two weeks and two months respectively, after leaked videos purporting to show corruption at the highest levels of government went viral.

Wikipedia was also blocked by Türkiye in 2017 and 2020, over an article that described the country as a state sponsor of several terrorist groups. In 2019, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that the move violated human rights and ordered the ban to be lifted.

PM’s Office slams Meta for removing Instagram post featuring PM Anwar Ibrahim and Hamas leaders, demands apology

The Media and Strategic Communications Division of the Prime Minister’s Office today condemned Meta’s action of removing an Instagram post that featured a meeting between the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, last May and called on the tech giant to issue an apology.

In a statement posted on Facebook today, it said the action clearly demonstrated discrimination against the situation in Palestine and its leaders.

"We demand an explanation regarding this matter and urge Meta to issue an apology,” said the statement.

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, Iran, along with one of his bodyguards earlier today.

The news was confirmed by Hamas political bureau member Musa Abu Marzuk.

Last Saturday, MCMC said it would introduce a new regulatory framework for safe Internet use by children and families on August 1, with implementation set for January 1, 2025.

Under the new framework, social media and Internet messaging services with at least eight million registered users in Malaysia must apply for an Application Service Provider Class Licence under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588).

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday said the social media licence targets online crime and safeguards freedom of speech. He also reaffirmed that it is to tackle the spread of crime and harmful information online.

Removal Of PM's Posts Probably Done By Higher Power At Meta - Fahmi

The decision to remove Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s social media posts relating to the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was probably done by those at the higher level at Meta Platforms Inc (Meta) and not by their team in Southeast Asia, according to Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

He said in a series of discussions he had with the management of Meta at the Southeast Asia level so far, they hinted that they were not the ones who removed the Prime Minister’s posts from Facebook and Instagram.

“There is a possibility that it involved a higher-level decision. The Meta team in the region is also confused as to why it happened, so I don't blame them because this is not an action on their part. So, we are waiting for further explanation.

“I was made to understand that a Meta delegation will come to Kuala Lumpur next week to explain the matter, so we’ll give them until then,” he told reporters after joining the Prime Minister and some 3,000 congregants in performing Friday prayer and absentee funeral prayer for Haniyeh at Masjid Negara here today.

Also present were Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Dr Mohd Na'im Mokhtar and Chief of Defence Forces General Tan Sri Mohammad Ab Rahman.

Elaborating, Fahmi said the removal of social media posts by Meta, like what happened to the Prime Minister, should not have happened to anybody.

“It’s quite funny because the United States is talking about freedom of expression and freedom of speech. So in Meta’s case, I think they really have to practice what they preach. Otherwise, it’s just hypocrisy,” he said.

Haniyeh, who was also the former Prime Minister of Palestine, was reported to have been killed in an airstrike that targeted his residence in Tehran, Iran, in the early hours of July 31.

He was there to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.