Hamas Israel Conflict….Day 382…Israel attacks expand to Syria….

Mr. Blinken spoke from Qatar, where he was meeting with senior officials from the Persian Gulf state, which has acted as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas. Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said at a news conference alongside Mr. Blinken that Hamas’s political representatives in Doha have not so far signaled a softer position since the death of the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, last week.

“We haven’t yet really determined whether Hamas is prepared to engage,” Mr. Blinken said. “The fundamental question is, is Hamas serious?”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing the families of captives in Gaza, said in a statement on Thursday that it welcomed the resumption of talks. “We must leverage the last military achievements, particularly the elimination of Sinwar, to secure a single comprehensive deal for all hostages’ return,” the group said.

Mr. Blinken said the United States was “looking at whether there are different options we can pursue” for a cease-fire beyond a longstanding, U.S.-backed proposal for a weekslong truce. U.S. officials said Wednesday that they were open to the possibility of a shorter cease-fire — lasting roughly a week and a half — in exchange for the release of a small number of the dozens of hostages remaining in Gaza.

U.S. officials would welcome even a short pause in the fighting to allow a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where the situation is growing increasingly dire in the northern part of the territory amid a renewed Israeli military offensive. On Wednesday night, Palestinian Civil Defense, a local emergency service, said it had been forced to halt rescue operations in the area, calling the situation there “catastrophic.”

Here’s what else to know:

• Israeli soldier deaths: The Israeli military on Thursday announced the deaths of four reservists who were killed in combat in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. All four were members of a reserve infantry brigade involved in Israel’s nearly monthlong invasion of Lebanon.

• Lebanon: Lebanon’s military said that an Israeli attack had killed three more of its soldiers in the southern part of the country, after a new wave of airstrikes hit residential areas near Beirut overnight. The attacks came as international officials gathered for a conference about the crisis in Paris, where Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, repeated his call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

• Gaza aid: Mr. Blinken announced that the United States would provide an additional $135 million in humanitarian assistance “for Palestinians in Gaza, in the West Bank as well as in the region.” He added that as part of his trip to the Middle East, he had been discussing “concrete ideas” for the reconstruction of Gaza after the war.

• Central Gaza: The Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas command center inside a compound formerly used as a school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. Video taken after the strike and obtained by the Reuters news agency showed injured people, including children, at the compound, which has been housing displaced Palestinians.

• Hospital claim: Lloyd J. Austin III, the U.S. secretary of defense, said that Washington had “not seen evidence” of Israeli claims that Hezbollah had set up a bunker complex under a hospitalsouth of Beirut. The Israeli military has asserted that Hezbollah had stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in an underground command center beneath al-Sahel hospital. Fadi Alameh, the hospital’s director, called the claims baseless.

• Syria strikes: Syria’s state news agency reported that one soldier was killed and seven people were wounded in Israeli strikes on the capital, Damascus, and in Homs, about 100 miles to the north. There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military, which has been targeting Iran’s network of proxies in the region. That network includes the Syrian government, which Israel has long accused of helping funnel arms to Hezbollah through its shared border with Lebanon….

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Iran Preparing for War With Israel, but Hoping to Avert It

As it braces for an expected retaliatory strike from Israel, Iran has ordered the armed forces to be prepared for war but also to try to avoid it, having witnessed the decimation of its allies in Lebanon and Gaza.

Four Iranian officials said in telephone interviews this week that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered the military to devise multiple military plans for responding to an Israeli attack. The scope of any Iranian retaliation, they said, will largely depend on the severity of Israel’s attacks. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military preparations.

If Israeli strikes — a response to a barrage of missiles from Iran earlier this month — inflict widespread damage and high casualties, they said, Iran will retaliate. But if Israel limits its attack to a few military bases and warehouses storing missiles and drones, Iran might well do nothing.

The officials said Mr. Khamenei had directed that a response would be certain if Israel strikes oil and energy infrastructure or nuclear facilities, or if it assassinates senior officials….

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Iran Update, October 24, 2024

Oct 24, 2024 – ISW Press

Hamas is seeking Russian support in pressuring the Palestinian Authority (PA) to negotiate over a national unity government with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas Political Bureau member Mousa Abu Marzouk met with Deputy Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow on October 23 to request that Russia pressure PA President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate with Hamas over a national unity government.