Israel seems to be shooting higher and farther. One of the most prominent Iranian military commanders in Syria, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, lost his life this Monday in an aerial bombardment against the ambassador's residence in Damascus that has killed at least five other people. Both Syria and Iran point to Israel, which has attacked the country hundreds of times since the war in Syria began in 2011, although it usually remains silent about its involvement, as on this occasion. Another aerial bombardment attributed to Israel, last Friday, was the deadliest since 2021 in Syria. It caused around 40 deaths near the capital's airport and was directed against Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia allied to Tehran that fights on the side of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has blamed Israel for the “consequences” of the attack. The two actions, closely followed, increase the risk of further setting the Middle East on fire.
Reza Zahedi was a brigadier general of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, created by Ayatollah Khomeini after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. With some 125,000 men, the pasdarans (as they are often called) serve as the spearhead of politics. of Iran in the region.
Hossein Akbari, the ambassador who emerged unharmed from the attack, has indicated that F-35 fighter-bombers (which the United States provides to Israel) launched up to six missiles against the building, which appears completely destroyed in the images. His office is next door. Akbari, who promised that his country will respond “toughly,” put the death toll between five and seven. “We cannot give an exact figure until the rubble is removed,” he said on Iranian state television. Shortly after, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO with numerous collaborators on the ground, stated that the bombing killed five members of the Revolutionary Guard and two Iranian advisors.
It is the first attack against the Embassy compound, located in the protected Mezzeh district, where Pasdaran leaders or Palestinian militias close to Iran (especially the Islamic Jihad) usually reside and visit and other countries have their diplomatic legations.
“The head of the octopus”
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Israel points to its archenemy Iran as masterminding and financier of the October 7 Hamas attack and has made clear that its retaliation will not be limited to Hamas. “Who says we are not attacking Iran? We are attacking. Iran is the head of the octopus and you can see its tentacles everywhere, from the Houthis [en Yemen] to Hezbollah or Hamas,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a press conference last January.
The Israeli army has been escalating its attacks outside Gaza for weeks. It has increased the so-called “selective killings” and last week it launched its most lethal attack deeper into Lebanon, with 16 dead. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant then announced that he would “expand the campaign and increase the pace of attacks” against Hezbollah because it is going “from defending itself to persecuting it.” […] wherever it operates: in Beirut, Damascus or more distant places.”
The military affairs correspondent of Israeli television channel 13, Or Heller, has linked the attack to the negotiation of a second ceasefire that has been held for weeks in Qatar (also this Monday, although without the participation of Israeli delegates or Hamas). Heller assures that Tehran is urging Hamas to stand firm on its demands and a murder “in broad daylight inside the compound of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus is a clear message.”
Destruction and corpses in Al Shifa
The attack in Syria occurred hours after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza's largest hospital, Al Shifa, after two weeks of invasion. The march of the troops has allowed us to obtain the first images: burned buildings, corpses on the ground and piles of rubble.
The soldiers withdrew early Monday, ending an operation in which Israel claims to have killed “200 terrorists” and detained about 500. The army blames Palestinian militias for using hospitals to launch attacks, something Hamas denies. “Al Shifa is not a hospital, it is a house of terrorists,” Netanyahu said this Sunday. The Hamas Government in Gaza puts the death toll at around 400 and notes that these include civilians as well as patients, medical personnel and displaced people.
After the withdrawal, hundreds of Gazans came to see the state of the center. Health authorities speak of complete units destroyed. Videos on social networks show buildings with the black color of a fire and signs of shots and bombings on the walls. Raed al-Nims, a representative of the Palestinian Red Crescent, claims that the Israeli military burned down numerous apartments and that there are “many bodies” on the ground.
According to the spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense, Mahmud Busal, some bodies show signs of execution, are in an advanced state of decomposition or have been buried because military vehicles cleared the streets. The Ministry of Health reports “very significant damage,” while Israel speaks of a “precise operation” in which it protected displaced people, patients and staff while fighting hand-to-hand against militiamen.
The extent of the destruction in Al Shifa adds another problem to the Strip's health system, which is “barely surviving,” according to the latest report from the United Nations humanitarian affairs office, last Friday. 10 of the 36 hospitals that Gaza had before the war remain in operation, and only partially, and which also house tens of thousands of displaced people. The Ministry of Health of the Hamas Government has therefore asked the population this Monday to reserve them “only for the sick and wounded.”
Israel will prevent the “terrorist network” Al Jazeera from broadcasting
“The terrorist network Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to
stop their activity,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this Monday, after the Israeli Parliament approved a rule that allows temporary prohibition of broadcasting by foreign media that “harm the security of the State.” has by name Al Jazeera Law and will be in force until July or until the end of the war in Gaza.
In a surprise vote, the law received 71 votes in favor and 10 against. It had already passed in the first reading in February, in an atmosphere of hostility towards the important satellite network. In the months after the October 7 attack, some Israelis approached the press to ask if they were from Al Jazeera and have harassed some of its journalists.
The rule gives the Minister of Communications the power to order “content providers” to end retransmission from the country, close offices, confiscate equipment and block the web server. The current minister, Shlomo Karhi, has already made it clear that the network “will close in the coming days” because “Hamas spokespersons in Israel” do not deserve “freedom of expression.” The decision will apply for 45 renewable days and requires prior review by a district court.
The chain, based in Qatar, has been in the spotlight in Israel for years, but in the past decade the emirate was considered to be helping the stability of Gaza with its millions of dollars and the reconstruction of entire neighborhoods. After the October 7 attack — and with Netanyahu asking the United States to pressure Doha to force out threatening concessions to Hamas in the ceasefire dialogue — the discourse has changed. “Al Jazeera harmed Israel's security, actively participated in the October 7 massacre and incited against our soldiers,” Netanyahu said.
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