International

Islamic Jihad launches 20 rockets from Gaza to Israel, the largest attack in months

The terrorist group Islamic Jihad launched 20 projectiles from Gaza on Monday against several communities in southern Israel, most of which were intercepted and others fell on the ground without causing victims, according to the Israeli Army in a statement.

The attack, which the Islamists carried out from the southern city of Jan Yunis, is the largest launched from the Strip in recent months, in which the missiles that crossed the border into Israeli territory rarely reached the ten.

“We have bombed Kissufim, Ein Hashlosha, Nirim, Sofa, Holit and the settlements of the Gaza area with rocket launches in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people,” Islamic Jihad wrote in a statement with which he claimed the attack.

The Israeli Army, for its part, said it was “attacking” the point of origin of the rocket launch in the statement in this regard.

At the same time, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported an Israeli bombing in the town of Khuza’a, east of Jan Yunis, in which a Palestinian was killed and an indeterminate number were injured and taken to the European Hospital in Gaza.

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Israel also reported that it has eliminated about twenty alleged Palestinian militiamen in its “selective incursions” in Shujaiya, a neighborhood in the southeast of Gaza City where Hebrew troops resumed their military offensive last Thursday before the return of Hamas to the area.

Since the war began, about 37,900 people have died in Gaza (mostly women and children) and almost 87,000 have been injured, according to data collected by the Ministry of Health of the Strip, controlled by Hamas.

To these are added the more than 10,000 bodies that continue under the rubble without ambulances or rescue teams having access to them.

On the other hand, the Israeli Army released Mohamed Abu Salmeya, director of the Al Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, after spending seven months in detention, Palestinian sources told EFE.

Abu Salmeya returned to Gaza along with at least 50 other Palestinian detainees, whose release is due to the fact that “the prisons are full,” according to the Israeli public radio Kan, although the exact number of Gaza detainees in Israeli prisons is not known.

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In statements to the Qatari chain Al Jazeera after his release, Abu Salmeya denounced that the prisoners are in “tragic conditions,” defined by the lack of food, medicines, and the torture carried out against them.

“We have been subjected to severe torture and the (Israeli) occupation assaults the prisoners’ cells and assaults them almost daily,” he explained.

The former director of the largest hospital in Gaza was arrested on November 23 to be interrogated for the “terrorist activities” of the Islamist organization Hamas in the clinic, after the discovery of one of its tunnels under the center.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an “immediate” investigation after the release of Abu Salmeya, seven months detained by Israel allegedly in a detention center in the Negev.

And several Israeli ministers also rejected that release.

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The Minister of National Security, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, denounced on social network X the release of Salmeya and the rest of the prisoners as a “security negligence.”

Ben Gvir seeks a tightening of the treatment of prisoners, and in 2023 he already proposed a death penalty law only for Palestinians that was approved in first reading two months later, although he still has to receive the green light from the Knesset (Parliament).

According to lawyer Khaled Mahajneh, who visited a detainee in Sde Teman prison, in Néguez (in southern Israel), known for the harsh treatment to which prisoners are subjected, the Palestinians go so far as to remain chained and blindfolded for up to 24 hours.

On the other hand, a Palestinian child and woman died and four other people were injured during a military incursion by the Israeli Army in the Nur Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarem, in the occupied territory of the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced.

Tulkarem is one of the hottest spots in the West Bank and, so far in 2024, Israel has already killed about 57 Palestinians here, according to an EFE count, sometimes in multi-day raies with great destruction of homes and roads.

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The refugee camp, the birthplace of the Tulkarem Brigade that brings together different armed factions of both Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, became this morning the scene of armed fighting between militiamen and soldiers in military vehicles and two excavators.

International

Two killed in shooting at restaurant near Frankfurt Airport

Two people were shot dead early Tuesday at a restaurant in Raunheim, near Frankfurt Airport, according to local police.

Preliminary findings indicate that an armed individual entered the establishment at around 03:45 local time (02:45 GMT) and opened fire on the victims, who died at the scene from their injuries.

The suspect fled and remains at large, while the motive behind the shooting is still unclear, German media reported. Authorities have launched a large-scale search operation.

International

U.S. counterterrorism chief resigns over opposition to war in Iran

Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced Tuesday that he has resigned from his post, citing his opposition to the ongoing war in Iran.

In a post on X, Kent said he could not, “in good conscience,” support the conflict, arguing that Iran did not pose an imminent threat to the United States. He also claimed that the war was driven by pressure from Israel and its lobbying influence in Washington.

In a resignation letter addressed to Donald Trump, Kent alleged that at the start of the current administration, senior Israeli officials and influential figures in U.S. media carried out a disinformation campaign that undermined the “America First” platform and fostered pro-war sentiment aimed at triggering a conflict with Iran.

Kent further stated that he could not support sending a new generation of Americans to “fight and die in a war that provides no benefit to the American people and does not justify the cost in American lives.”

Since the United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran on February 28, at least 13 U.S. service members have been killed, while 10 others have been seriously wounded and around 200 have sustained minor injuries, according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal.

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International

German president warns Iran war could spread and disrupt Strait of Hormuz

The president of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, warned Monday that the war involving Iran could expand and further disrupt shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. He urged a swift end to hostilities between Iran, United States and Israel.

Speaking in Panama City during a joint appearance with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, Steinmeier said available information suggests Iran has significant capacity to disrupt maritime traffic through the key oil route.

“Iran has considerable potential to interfere with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz,” Steinmeier said through an interpreter. “We should therefore reach an end to the hostilities as soon as possible and call on all parties involved to make that happen.”

The remarks came during Steinmeier’s visit to Panama, the first by a German president to the Central American nation.

The German leader described the possibility of the conflict spreading as “very dangerous,” saying recent developments indicate that such a scenario cannot be ruled out.

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Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump urged allied nations to help ensure safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran moved to block the waterway in response to U.S. strikes. However, several allies—particularly in Europe—have shown little support for the proposal.

“Some are very enthusiastic, others are not, and some are countries we have helped for many years,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have protected them from terrible external threats, and they’re not that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm is important to me.”

Meanwhile, Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said the Strait of Hormuz falls “outside NATO’s scope” and stressed that “the war involving Iran is not Europe’s war.”