Israel has continuing protest’s by hostage families and others against the Netanyhu Government which seems to NOT be holding the release of hostages held by Hamas high on their list of objectives these days….Released hostage have revealed rough treatment while in capativity and also want the remaining held freed….
Hmas and Israeli forces are still engaged in fighting at the al-Shifa hospital …
Some US lawmakers are NOT happy with the Biden admin resupplying Israel with arms…
Along with thousands of those in Gaza , Israel has lost 254 soliders….
Israel IS talking to the Us about a expected military posh thru Rafah, that Egypt is worried about sending those in the area to sstorm their border….
I have posted below a report on the underlining political and military force in the Midddle East….
Iran…..
Protesters clashed with police in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday evening. Photos and videos showed large crowds of demonstrators calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to free the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, with some calling for Netanyahu’s resignation and new elections. Israel’s national police said 16 protesters were arrested in Tel Aviv after “several hundred protesters violated public order, lit bonfires, shook a police car, blocked roads and confronted the police.”
Released hostages demanded that Netanyahu make a deal in talks in Doha to free those still held captive. Speaking at a rally Saturday evening, freed hostage Aviva Siegel, whose husband is still captive in Gaza, said Netanyahu was acting “as if the negotiations are a child’s game.” She added, addressing Netanyahu: “Do not dare to bring the delegation back from Qatar without a deal!”
The Israeli raid of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza is ongoing, the IDF said Saturday. The IDF said in a statement about its operations at the hospital this week that it raided a building in the hospital complex, finding Hamas militants. “A number” of them were killed outside of the hospital, and in another “encounter,” in the maternity ward, Israeli forces killed two Hamas militants, the IDF said. It added that forces killed militants in “close combat” and found weapons and “intelligence materials” at the complex. The claims could not be independently verified by The Washington Post. The World Health Organization has expressed concern about the raid amid a shortage of medical centers for the sick and wounded in Gaza.
A new Biden administration authorization for the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel has drawn criticism and accusations of hypocrisy, including from some lawmakers. The transfer includes more than 1,800 2,000-pound bombs, the likes of which experts say have been linked to the soaring death toll during Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called the move “obscene,” while Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) called the transfer “wrong on every level.” “We have continued to support Israel’s right to defend itself,” a White House official told The Washington Post. “Conditioning aid has not been our policy.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said 26 members of its team have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza,including 15 workers it says were targeted while wearing the aid group’s emblem, which is protected by international law.
At least 32,705 people have been killed and 75,190 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and says 254 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza…..
US and Israeli officials may discuss a possible Israeli clearing operation into Rafah in a high-level meeting in Washington, DC, as soon as April 1, according to unspecified US officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for a clearing operation into Rafah on March 15. Axios reported on March 27 that Netanyahu is expected to send Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi to Washington for the high-level meeting with US officials….
At flashpoints in conflicts spanning 1,800 miles and involving a hodgepodge of unpredictable armed actors and interests, there has been a common thread: Iran. Tehran has left its imprint with its behind-the-scenes backing of combatants around the region.
On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that tracks the war in Syria, said that an Israeli strike killed at least 36 soldiers and hit multiple targets, including a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia that also has a presence in Syria. Israel did not comment on the claim.
Here’s a look at Iran’s proxies.
What’s the back story?
Ever since the 1979 revolution that made Iran a Shiite Muslim theocracy, it has been isolated and has seen itself as besieged.
Iran considers the United States and Israel its biggest enemies — for more than four decades, its leaders have vowed to destroy Israel. It also wants to establish itself as the most powerful nation in the Persian Gulf region, where its chief rival is Saudi Arabia, an American ally.
With few allies of its own, Iran has long armed, trained, financed, advised and even directed several movements that share its enemies. Iran calls itself and these militias the “Axis of Resistance” to American and Israeli power.
Why does Iran outsource its conflicts?
Although Iranian forces have been involved directly in wars in Syria and Iraq, Tehran has mostly fought its enemies abroad by proxy.
Investing in proxy forces — fellow Shiites in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, and the Sunni Hamas in the Gaza Strip — allows Iran to cause trouble for its enemies, and to raise the prospect of causing more if attacked. This helps Iran project its power and influence without courting major retaliation or all-out war.
“If they are to avoid fighting the Americans and Israelis on Iran’s soil, they’ll have to do it elsewhere,” said Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a policy analysis group. “And that’s in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine, Afghanistan.”
Yet how well the strategy works is open to question. Terrorist groups have attacked on Iranian soil, and for years Israel has carried out targeted attacks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Iranian officials have publicly denied being involved in or ordering Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people. But they also praised the assault as a momentous achievement, and warned that their regional network would open multiple frontsagainst Israel if the country kept up its retaliatory war against Hamas in Gaza.
Some of those proxies have stepped up attacks on Israel, but have avoided full-fledged warfare.
Who are these proxies for Iran?
Hezbollah in Lebanon, widely considered to be the most powerful and sophisticated of the Iran-allied forces, was founded in the 1980s with Iranian assistance, specifically to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. The group, which is also a political party in Lebanon, has fought multiple wars and border skirmishes with Israel.
Hezbollah has been trading fire across the border with Israel’s military almost daily since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, but it has refrained from fully joining the fight.
The Houthi movement in Yemen launched an insurgency against the government two decades ago. What was once a ragtag rebel force gained power thanks at least in part to covert military aid from Iran, according to American and Middle Eastern officials and analysts.
Since the war in Gaza began, the Houthis have waged what they call a campaign in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment. They have launched missiles and drones at Israel, and have disrupted a significant part of the world’s shipping by attacking dozens of vessels heading to or from the Suez Canal.
Hamas, in the Palestinian territories, has also received weapons and training from Iran, and has fought repeated wars with Israel. This week, the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was in Tehran for meetings with top Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s chief of staff of the armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqeri.