The Middle East IS just being the Middle East….
Israel says it will increase attacks against the Houthi’s, which the US and UK have also been bombing….
Hamas contiunes to hide under hospital’s that Israel bombs …
The Lebanon cease-fire kinda holds….
The IDF keeps hunting Hezbollah as it does Hamas….
Israel’s economy IS having issues….
Syria IS having issues of Assad people being hunted down and consolidation of power while Israel holds some border territory and the Kurds and Turkey sponsered groups get back into it…….
The US and others are trying to get the new people in power to NOT do a Afghanistan clampdown….
Houthi’s…
Israel is preparing to fight along a new front against Houthi militants in Yemen, striking back at the group for its drone and missile attacks and signaling a potential lengthy campaign that would take the battle far from Israel’s borders.
Since then, the Houthis have fired on or intercepted commercial and naval vessels transiting the Red Sea. In recent weeks, they have also stepped up their attacks on Israel, sending missiles flying toward Israeli cities, most of which were intercepted but forced millions of people to rush to bomb shelters on a near-nightly basis….
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He said that with support from Iran, the Houthis have been able to take “practical steps” in pursuing their ideology, which calls for the destruction of the United States and of Israel.
Their drones, missiles and projectiles, experts say, are managing to circumvent Israel’s once-vaunted air defense systems and are resurfacing Israel’s perennial military dilemma: how to defeat an enemy armed with a relatively cheaper and comparatively ample stockpile of weapons.
“The Houthis want a war of attrition on Israel, to continue firing so that they can say, ‘We are the real resistance,’”…
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But the cost calculus is complicated for Israel. Houthi drones and missiles cost around several thousand dollars each — while each interception costs Israel tens of thousands of dollars, at least.
“Because it’s so cheap for them to try to get a drone or a missile every few days or weeks into Israel, they can win this,” Guzansky said. “The question is now, how does Israel avoid falling into their trap?”
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is leading Israel in war on seven fronts — a reference to Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran.
Unlike the enemies on Israel’s borders, however, the Houthis are more than 1,000 miles away, embedded in a mountainous, deeply impoverished country without any infrastructural “center of gravity — without places or assets that are so central to their operations that striking them would incapacitate them,”….
Lebanon…
A fragile cease-fire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has largely held for a month now, halting the deadliest war in years between the two sides and injecting a measure of calm into a region in turmoil.
The 60-day truce went into effect on Nov. 27 and has remained in place even as Hezbollah and Israel have traded attacks and exchanged accusations of violations. But a month on, there are concerns that the deal is not being implemented by either side in a timely manner.
As hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese return home, many are hoping the cease-fire will last, especially as their country grapples with a deep and prolonged economic crisis that was exacerbated by the war and years of political stagnation.
“We feel like we are coming back to life,” said Huda Hamzeh, whose fruit-and-vegetable stall in the capital, Beirut, has suffered from a lack of supply and fewer clients during the war.
“We just want forever peace.”
Iran-backed Hezbollah was considerably weakened by the war. Securing the cease-fire required the group to make serious concessions, such as pulling its fighters and weapons back from a zone in southern Lebanon that borders Israel…
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Since the truce went into effect, the Israeli army has been conducting extensive operations in dozens of villages across southern Lebanon, saying it was dismantling tunnels, confiscating weapons and surveillance systems and demolishing a Hezbollah command center.
Lebanon’s foreign ministry filed an official complaint with the U.N. Security Council this week…
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To end the cross-border fighting, the United States brokered a deal that requires Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters and weapons from southern Lebanon and Israeli troops to gradually return to their side of the border, both within 60 days…
Gaza…
The Israeli military forced patients and staff members to leave one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza on Friday, leaving health officials in the territory concerned for the people who had been getting treatment there amid continued fighting.
The hospital, Kamal Adwan, has been caught in the middle of Israel’s offensive against Hamas militants in the northern part of Gaza, and fighting has raged around the facility for nearly three months.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that the hospital was a stronghold for Hamas and that it was carrying out “targeted operations” in the area. It added that soldiers had evacuated medical staff and patients from the facility “in order to mitigate harm to the civilian population in the area.”
The Gaza health ministry said the Israeli military was forcing sick and wounded people to move to another nearby hospital, which it said lacked medical supplies, water and electricity….
Syria….
As U.S. officials engage with the rebel group now in control of Syria, they are mindful of a painful episode in recent U.S. foreign policy whose consequences continue to unfold: the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
Three U.S. diplomats met last week in Damascus, Syria’s capital, with leaders of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel militia that recently toppled the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. Their goal was to persuade the militant group — the successor to an affiliate of Al Qaeda — to govern the country with an inclusive and moderate hand.
That is the best hope, U.S. officials believe, for preventing Syria from descending into fresh violence and chaos that could further destabilize the Middle East and empower anti-American terrorist groups.
So far, U.S. officials think that the rebels are saying the right things.
Even so, U.S. officials remain wary of Mr. al-Shara. They fear he might be sweet-talking to win international backing as he plots to consolidate power and perhaps impose strict Islamic rule, much as Taliban leaders did in 2021 in Afghanistan….
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Some U.S. officials believed that the group had become less doctrinaire since its overthrow by American forces in 2001. Taliban leaders, they thought, might be willing to make concessions — like allowing girls to attend school — to win international recognition and help rebuild their shattered nation.
That effort failed completely.
After the last American troops departed and Afghanistan’s president fled, the Taliban overran Kabul and seized power….
Dec 27, 2024 – ISW Press
An explosion from a former SAA position in Homs City suggests that HTS does not yet have full control on the ground and that local groups and individuals can access and repurpose unexploded ordinance.
Dec 26, 2024 – ISW Press
Several trends have placed Syria on a trajectory that is increasingly likely to lead to ethno-sectarian conflict. Social media reports have alleged that individuals affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) have killed and kidnapped Alawites and other Syrians accused of being Assad regime officials.
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