Israel

16 October 2023; MEMO: Israel yesterday announced that it would stop its security exports to Colombia in response to statements by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in which he likened Israel’s targeting of Gaza to the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said that Colombian Ambassador to Israel Margarita Manjarrez had been summoned over “hostile and anti-Semitic statements” against the state of Israel made by Petro.

16 October 2023; MEMO: The Israeli Army’s Home Front Command yesterday announced that it will hand over 20,000 rifles to so-called “alert teams” – civilian militias, according to directives issued by Defence Minister Yoav Galant.

So far, 1,000 members of these militias have been armed.

JERUSALEM, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Israel's defence minister said on Sunday that Israel has no interest in waging war on its northern front and that if the Lebanese group Hezbollah restrains itself then Israel will keep the situation along the border as it is.

Sporadic fire across the Israel-Lebanon border over the past week has raised concerns that fighting with Hamas militants in Gaza could escalate into a broader conflict.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Women, children and older adults hiding in safe rooms gunned down mercilessly. Homes set ablaze with terrified residents still inside them. Children, some bound, forced into a room and slaughtered. Jews, helpless.

For many Israelis and Jews around the world, the horrors committed by Hamas militants during their stunning onslaught on southern Israeli communities is triggering painful memories of a calamity of a far greater scale: the Holocaust.

TEL AVIV, October 14. /TASS/: The Israeli army’ strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip are "just the beginning," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"We are responding to our enemies with great force, with unprecedented force. I would like to point out that it’s just the beginning. Our enemies have just begun to pay. I will not go into detail of what will come next, but I will say that it is just the beginning," Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation.

JERUSALEM, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Israel's military said on Saturday it killed two Hamas commanders who were behind the cross-border deadly rampage into Israel a week ago.

The military said it killed Merad Abu Merad, who was the head of the Hamas aerial system, and Ali Qadi, a company commander of a commando force.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured Israel that “we have your back” as he and America’s top diplomat met Friday with Israeli and Arab leaders. There was no indication the U.S. was trying to prevent an expected Israeli ground offensive into Gaza that could worsen a humanitarian crisis for the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the blockaded territory.

The visits to the Middle East by Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken came as Israel escalated its war against Hamas militants in response to their shocking and brutal rampage last weekend.

14 October 2023; AA: The number of Palestinians killed by a massive Israeli air assault against the Gaza Strip has risen to 2,215, the Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday.

In a statement, the ministry said that 724 children and 458 women were among the people killed in the Israeli attacks.

The ministry also said that the number of wounded has risen to 8,714, including 2,450 children and 1,536 women.

13 October 2023; MEMO: Hamas, on Friday, launched its longest-range missile reaching northern Israel before it was intercepted after sirens sounded in several northern areas, Anadolu Agency reports.

"A missile was launched from the Gaza Strip towards the northern region of the country" the Israeli army said in a statement. "Air defence fighters succeeded in intercepting the missile" it added.

JERUSALEM, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Israeli shelling struck a Lebanese army observation post at the border on Friday, three sources in Lebanon told Reuters, after the Israeli military warned of a suspected armed infiltration that it said it was responding to with artillery fire.

Israel later ruled out that any incursion had occurred and residents of a village near the border, who had been instructed to hole up at home and lock doors and windows, were told they could again go outdoors.