PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADER FROM TEHRAN: ‘ZIONIST ENTITY WILL BE ANNIHILATED’: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Ziyad Nakhalah stated on Lebanon media on August 5 that the “Zionist entity“ will be destroyed, and that the Palestinians must continue fighting and being patient.
According to the video published, Nakhalah claimed that there are no “red lines” in the current conflict between Israel and the PIJ, which he described as a “survival war.” Nakhalah spoke from Tehran. “This is a time for prolonged fighting. The Zionist entity initiated this aggression, and it should expect us to fight non-stop, until victory, inshallah [God-willing],” said Nakhalah. “Palestine is our land, and we will fight to regain it, no matter how long it takes. These are the goals for which we are fighting, and this is the will of the Palestinian people. The Palestinians will continue to adhere to their resistance,” he continued. Meanwhile, Israel has gradually begun lifting security restrictions on southern Israel and on the Gaza-Israel border crossings, as a ceasefire with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued to hold on Monday, August 8. (I365N / VFI News)
ISLAMIC JIHAD PLANNED TO FIRE ANTITANK MISSILE AT CIVILIAN BUS: Israel’s defense echelon did not estimate that the routine arrest of Islamic Jihad terrorist Basa’am Asadi last week Monday, August 1, would lead to a serious security situation.
According to a report, on the night following Asadi’s arrest, the Southern Command was informed that Islamic Jihad officials were preparing to fire an antitank missile at a civilian bus carrying dozens of Israelis. Upon receipt of this information, it was decided on Tuesday to close the roads near the Gaza border and isolate the spaces in the area. Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj. Gen. Rassan Alian began to send warnings to senior Islamic Jihad and Hamas officials, by means of agents. Islamic Jihad saw the decision to close the roads as “Israeli weakness,” and prepared to expand its attack on the Israeli home front. The more the Israeli public criticized the closure, the more confidence the senior Islamic Jihad officials in Gaza gained. According to the report, as the hours passed, the picture became clearer and the IDF gained an understanding that without an extensive attack against Islamic Jihad, the terror group would likely make use of the mistake in order to harm civilians, and if the IDF did not carry out a preventive operation now, it would likely face, in the future, a surprise terror attack. (INN/ VFI News)
LAPID OFFERS A NEW PATH TO RESIDENTS OF GAZA: LIVELIHOOD, DIGNITY, AND PEACE: In his first public statement since the close of the three-day military operation against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Yair Lapid addressed Gazans and said, “There is another way,” pointing to the Abraham Accords as a potential paradigm of peace, rather than war.
“I want to turn from here to the residents of Gaza and tell them: There is also another way. We know how to protect ourselves from anyone who threatens us, but we also know how to provide work, livelihood, and a life of dignity to anyone who wants to live in peace by our side,” Lapid said in televised remarks made from the Israel Defense Forces’ Tel Aviv headquarters. “There is another way to live. The path of the Abraham Accords, of the Negev Summit, of innovation and economy, of regional development and joint projects. The choice is yours. Your future depends on you,” the prime minister said, in a rare appeal directly to Gazan residents, rather than to their leaders, the Hamas terror group. His message comes at the close of Operation Breaking Dawn, which Israel initiated to address an immediate terror threat posed by Islamic Jihad against residents of Israel’s south. (TOI / VFI News)
IN RARE INTERVIEW TO ISRAELI TV, GAZA MOTHER SAYS SUPPORT FOR WARS FADING: In a rare interview with an Israeli media outlet on Monday, August 8, a woman who lives in the Gaza Strip described her terror during Israeli air strikes in recent days as part of Operation Breaking Dawn and said public support for the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror groups was fading.
She spoke as the Palestinian coastal enclave was recovering from three days of bombardments by the Israeli military, as PIJ fired over a thousand rockets and mortar bombs at Israel. An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into effect late Sunday. Speaking in English and on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals from Hamas, which rules the Strip, the woman said there has been a change in public sentiment. “The view, the perspective, the thought of Gaza people has changed completely. In the previous wars, they were with the resistance, with Hamas and Jihad, but now people are calling for the stop of war,” she said. (TOI / VFI News)
IN SHIFT, ISRAEL TO ALLOW PALESTINIANS TO FLY FROM EILAT’S RAMON AIRPORT: Israel will start allowing West Bank Palestinians to fly abroad via the Ramon airport outside the southern city of Eilat, the airport authority said Tuesday, August 9.
The new Israeli policy, which will allow Palestinians to fly to Turkey without needing to go to Amman, comes amid heavy crowding at the West Bank’s sole crossing with Jordan. However, it’s unclear how practical the imitative will be, with the airport a nearly three-hour drive from the West Bank at its closest point. Until today, Palestinians wishing to fly abroad needed to travel to Jordan and board a flight from there, or secure a hard-to-come-by entry permit into Israel to fly from Ben Gurion Airport. Turkish companies Pegasus Airlines and AtlasGlobal plan to launch twice-a-week flights for Palestinians out of Ramon airport to Antalya and Istanbul later this month and in early September, the Israel Airports Authority said in a statement. (TOI/ VFI News)
CYBER EXPERT: US-ISRAEL HOMELAND SECURITY CYBER DEFENSE COOPERATION SPIKING: Government-to-government cooperation on homeland security cyber defense between the US and Israel is spiking, Merlin Cyber founder David Phelps has said in an interview.
During Phelp’s visit to Israel following a parallel visit by the US Department of Homeland Security to the Jewish state earlier this summer, he discussed the implications of US President Joe Biden’s executive order opening new US federal cybersecurity contracts to Israeli companies, estimated to be worth $200 billion. Prior to Biden’s order, foreign companies, even from Israel, were often shut out of such sensitive US government cyber defense contracts. Phelps said he works “Day to day with the Department of Homeland Security across a number of components, especially CISA [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency]. I work with them both at senior levels” and at the implementation levels, including helping America decide which technologies to acquire and how to integrate them. But now there is an “increasingly pressing need for effective data protection in today’s uncertain world,” he said, noting the “special role of Israeli cyber technology in filling this need.” (JPost / VFI News)
NEW SOUTH WALES PARLIAMENT PASSES LEGISLATION BANNING NAZI SYMBOLS: Nazi symbols could soon be banned in New South Wales after the Australian state’s lower House of Parliament passed legislation criminalizing their use on Tuesday, August 9.
New South Wales Attorney General Mark Speakman said that the ban was needed as the swastika and other Nazi symbols harm Jews and other community members, media reported. “Hateful and vilifying conduct is completely unacceptable in our community,’ Speakman said. The new law would make displaying Nazi flags or memorabilia containing swastikas illegal, with offenders facing up to a year in prison or a maximum fine of $11,000, while companies would face up to $55,000 in fines. In February, a New South Wales parliamentary committee recommended that a bill to outlaw the swastika proceed with amendments for debate. (INN / VFI News)
The suggestions, opinions and scripture references made by VFI writers and editors are based on the best information received.
Blessings from Jerusalem,
Barry Segal with the Editorial Staff
