JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
I'M ONE OF THOSE QUOTE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS THAT BELIEVE THE DRONES OVER THESE CITIES ARE LOOKING FOR BURIED OR HIDDIN NUKES.
DAMASCUS DESTROYED
ISAIAH 17:1,3,13-14
17 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
3
The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from
Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the
children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.
13 The nations shall
rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and
they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the
mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the
whirlwind.
14 And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the
morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the
lot of them that rob us.
JEREMIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning
Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil
tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be
quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and
fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman
in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26
Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of
war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE
17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS
KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE
BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND
DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in
that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN
WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4
billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37
And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto
them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered
together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against
Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten
by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE
SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE
CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH
IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)(50% OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe
entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.(ON EARTH)
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.(ON EARTH)
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
SECOND ANGEL: MIDDLE EAST
Then
I saw that the second angel had a sickle in his hand, such as is used
in harvesting.The second angel said: "Harvest time has come in Israel
and the countries all the way to Iran."I saw those countries in a few
split seconds."All of Turkey and those [inaudible] countries that have
refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill
one another."I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the
Middle East countries. I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of
Georgia - Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor - full
of blood. I saw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; Nuclear
weapons used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere.
Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these
words:"Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come." The angel said,
"The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of
God shall prepare the children of God."I saw fires rising to heaven.The
angel said: "This is the final judgment. My church shall be purified,
protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Water
shall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men
will fight for water in those countries."The angel showed me that the
United Nations shall be broken in pieces because of the crisis in the
Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the
sickle shall reap the harvest.
PSALMS 83:1-8 (GODS LAND PROMISED TO ISRAEL)
1 O God, do not remain silent;do not turn a deaf ear,do not stand aloof, O God.
2 See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads.
3 With cunning they (ARAB,MUSLIMS) conspire against your people;they plot against those you cherish.(ISRAELIS)
4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”
5 With one mind they plot together;(TREATIES) they form an alliance against you—
6
the tents of Edom (JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites, (EGYPTIAN ARABS SO
CALLED PALESTIANS) of Moab (JORDAN) and the Hagrites,(EGYPT)
7 Byblos,(HEZBOLLOH) Ammon (JORDAN) and Amalek,(SYRIAN ARABS IN THE SINAI) Philistia,(ARABS) with the people of Tyre (LEBANON).
8 Even Assyria (SYRIA) has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants.
MUSLIM NATIONS (SLAUGHTERED BY NUKES FOR COMING AGAINST ISRAEL)
EZEKIEL 29:1-12-put russia-arab-muslims in place of egypt-their judgements here.
1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
3
Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee,
Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his
rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for
myself.
4 But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the
fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up
out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall
stick unto thy scales.
5 And I will leave thee thrown into the
wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon
the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I
have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of
the heaven.
6 And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am
the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.
7
When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all
their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and
madest all their loins to be at a stand.
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee.
9
And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know
that I am the LORD: because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have
made it.
10 Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy
rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate,
from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.
11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
12
And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the
countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are
laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the
Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the
countries.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:10
10 For we must all (MEANS
EVERYONE EVER BORN ON EARTH FROM ADAM-EVE ON) appear before the judgment
seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.(THIS IS THE
CHRISTIANS IN FRONT OF JESUS)
And here are the bounderies of the
land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the
future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have
every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east
of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The
southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the
Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num
34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE
FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE
FUTURE.
War crimes prosecutor says Syrian mass graves expose
Assad’s ‘machinery of death’‘We really haven’t seen anything quite like
this since the Nazis,’ says top prosecutor after visit to mass grave;
says more than 100,000 people disappeared, tortured to death-By Timour
Azhari and Anthony Deutsch 17 December 2024, 10:17 pm
QUTAYFAH,
Syria (Reuters) – An international war crimes prosecutor said on Tuesday
that evidence emerging from mass grave sites in Syria has exposed a
state-run “machinery of death” under toppled leader Bashar al-Assad, and
he estimated that more than 100,000 people were tortured and murdered
since 2013.Speaking after visiting two mass grave sites in the towns of
Qutayfah and Najha near Damascus, former US war crimes ambassador at
large Stephen Rapp told Reuters: “We certainly have more than 100,000
people that were disappeared into and tortured to death in this
machine.“I don’t have much doubt about those kinds of numbers, given
what we’ve seen in these mass graves.”“When you talk about this kind of
organized killing by the state and its organs, we really haven’t seen
anything quite like this since the Nazis,” said Rapp, who led
prosecutions at the Rwanda and Sierra Leone war crimes tribunals.“From
the secret police who disappeared people from their streets and homes,
to the jailers and interrogators who starved and tortured them to death,
to the truck drivers and bulldozer drivers who hid their bodies,
thousands of people were working in this system of killing,” Rapp
said.Syrian residents living near a former military base, where one of
the sites was located, and a cemetery, used to hide bodies from
detention sites, described seeing a steady stream of refrigeration
trucks delivering bodies, which were dumped into long trenches that had
been dug with bulldozers.In Qutayfah, people declined to speak on camera
or use their names for fear of the retribution, saying they were not
yet sure the area was safe after Assad’s fall.“This is the place of
horrors,” one said on Tuesday.Inside a site enclosed with cement walls,
three children played near a Russian-made military satellite vehicle.
The soil was flat and levelled, with straight long marks where the
bodies were buried.Satellite imagery analyzed by Reuters showed
large-scale digging began at the location between 2012 and 2014 and
continued up until 2022. Multiple satellite images taken by Maxar during
that time showed a digger and large trenches visible at the site, along
with three or four large trucks.Omar Hujeirati, a former anti-Assad
protest leader who lives near the Najha cemetery, said he suspected that
several of his missing family members may be in the grave.He believes
at least some of those taken, including two sons and four brothers, were
detained for protesting against Assad’s government.“That was my sin,
what made them take my family,” he said, a long, exposed trench behind
him where the bodies were apparently buried.He said those responsible
must be held accountable in a clear judicial process or people would
take matters into their own hands.“We want our rights, according to
Syrian law, and not by some behind-the-scenes process. These massacres
and slaughterhouses of death are unacceptable to anyone with humanity,”
he said. “We want reputable organizations to come so this isn’t covered
up.”
‘Antisemitic liar’: Israel blasts Irish president’s claim that it wants to settle Egypt-DEC 17,24
Foreign
Minister Gideon Sa’ar castigates comments made today by Ireland’s
president, who accused Israel of breaching Lebanon’s and Syria’s
sovereignty and charged, without evidence, that Jerusalem is seeking to
establish settlements in Egypt.Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar yesterday
defended his decision to close Israel’s embassy in Ireland, saying that
Dublin “encouraged” antisemitism under a prime minister he accused of
hating Jews.Responding earlier today, Irish President Michael Higgins
said that “it is a very serious business to actually brand a people
because in fact they disagree with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu,
who is in breach of so many bits of international law, and who has
beached the sovereignty of three of his neighbors, in relation to
Lebanon, Syria, and would like in fact actually to have a settlement
into Egypt.”“I think to suggest that because one criticized Prime
Minister Netanyahu that one is antisemitic is such a gross defamation
and slander,” Higgins added during a ceremony where Palestinian
Authority envoy Jilan Abdalmajid presented her letter of
credence.President Michael D Higgins has said that to say the Irish
people are anti-Semitic is a "gross defamation and slander", and it is a
"very serious business" to do so simply because people disagree with
the actions of the Israeli Prime Minister.Read more:
https://t.co/hXpBuN3cHp pic.twitter.com/8axNrZ6YOB— RTÉ News (@rtenews)
December 17, 2024-In a new English-language statement, Sa’ar says: “Once
an antisemitic liar — always an antisemitic liar,” going on to defend
Israel’s actions on all three fronts.“From Lebanese territory, Israel’s
sovereignty was breached for over a year,” he says. “For no reason and
unprovoked, Hezbollah joined Hamas on October 8th [2023] and since then
fired tens of thousands of missiles, rockets and drones at Israeli
citizens and communities. Israel did what any country would — it
defended itself against a brutal aggressor.”On Syria, Sa’ar says: “While
Assad’s regime disintegrated, armed groups entered the buffer zone and
attacked UNDOF forces, in violation of the Disengagement Agreement from
1974. Israel temporarily entered a few limited points to prevent the
threat of radical Islamists against its citizens and communities. Israel
will not wait for another [onslaught resembling what Hamas did on]
October 7th [2023] on any of its borders.”And regarding the Egypt
settlement claim, he says: “Higgins invented the claim that Israel seeks
to form settlements there. In the context of our peace agreement with
Egypt, Israel withdrew from a huge area — all of the Sinai desert, and
uprooted all of its communities there. This peace agreement has been
maintained since 1979.”Concluding his combative statement, Sa’ar brings
up Ireland’s failure to join the Allies in fighting Nazi Germany in
World War II.“Let us not forget that Ireland was at best neutral during
World War II.At that time, the free world was fighting Hitler’s axis
while Ireland sat on the side and did nothing.”
Atop Syrian
Hermon, Netanyahu says Israel to stay until ‘another arrangement’
found-PM stresses strategic importance of the summit following fall of
Assad, is joined by Katz who says presence will also deter Syrian rebels
from setting sights on Israel-By Emanuel Fabian,Lazar Berman,ToI Staff
and Agencies 17 December 2024, 11:16 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday that Israeli troops would remain
stationed inside Syria for the foreseeable future, as he met with senior
security officials for a situation review atop Mount Hermon.The premier
was joined by Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.
Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bat and Northern Command head Maj.
Gen. Uri Gordin, and his visit appeared to mark the first time a sitting
Israeli leader has entered Syrian territory.Israel entered the United
Nations-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights hours after rebel
groups in Syria took Damascus on December 8, stressing that the seizure
of the buffer zone established in 1974 is a temporary defensive move
that will last only until security is guaranteed along the frontier.
Israel says it has no desire to become involved in the conflict in
Syria.Standing atop Mount Hermon, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would
remain on its peak “until another arrangement can be found that
guarantees Israel’s security.”“I was here 53 years ago with my soldiers
on a Sayeret Matkal patrol,” he said, speaking of the nostalgia that the
site brought him.“This place hasn’t changed, it’s the same place, but
its importance to Israel’s security has only been reinforced in recent
years, and especially in recent weeks with the dramatic events taking
place below us here in Syria,” Netanyahu said.He added that going
forward, Israel would “determine the best arrangement that will
guarantee our security.”Echoing the same sentiments as the premier,
Defense Minister Katz described Mount Hermon as “the eyes of the State
of Israel to detect near and far threats.”“The IDF is here to protect
the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of the State of
Israel from any threat, from the most important place to do so,” he said
in remarks provided by his office.“We will remain here for as long as
it is needed,” Katz added. “Our presence here at the peak of the Hermon
strengthens security and adds a dimension of both observation and
deterrence to Hezbollah’s strongholds in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon and
deterrence against the rebels in Damascus, who pretend to present a
moderate image, but belong to the most extreme Islamic sects.”Katz’s
comments appeared to refer to the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
group, whose fighters and allies swept down from northwest Syria and
entered the capital on December 8.The group has its roots in al-Qaeda
and is proscribed as a terrorist organization by many Western
governments, although it has sought to moderate its rhetoric in recent
years.Since the fall of Assad, the group’s leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa,
better known by his nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Julani, has stressed
that the rights of all Syrians, regardless of religion or ethnicity,
will be protected under his leadership.In an interview with the UK’s
Times newspaper on Monday, al-Sharaa said that his group was “committed
to the 1974 agreement” with Israel that established the demilitarized
zone in Syrian territory at the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.“We do
not want any conflict, whether with Israel or anyone else and we will
not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks,” he said.He called for
Israel to “pull back to its previous positions,” and criticized heavy
Israeli strikes in recent days that have taken out most of the Assad
regime’s military assets, reiterating his position that it had a right
to target Iranian-backed forces prior to the government’s fall, but that
it now has no legitimate basis to keep operating in Syria.“There is no
justification for the Israelis to bomb Syrian facilities or advance
inside Syria,” he said, according to The Wall Street
Journal.Highlighting Israel’s wary approach to HTS and its leader,
Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel accused al-Sharaa of being “a
wolf in [sheep’s] clothes” due to his jihadist history.Speaking at a
press conference, Haskel held up a photo collage of al-Sharaa am,
showing him as a member of various jihadist organizations.“It is
important to avoid falling for the attempt to whitewash jihadist
(groups) in Syria. We know who they are and their true nature, even if
they change their names, and we understand how dangerous they are to the
West,” said Haskel, a lawmaker from Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New
Hope party.“These are terrorist organizations and this is a wolf in
[sheep’s] clothes.”Prior to founding HTS, Julani fought for al-Qaeda in
Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion. He later set up its
subsidiary in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front, which for a period was allied
with the Islamic State terror group.He later broke from both jihadist
organizations before rebranding Al-Nusra into the Islamist HTS.
'It
is practically at same level as nuclear-armed states'UN monitor says
reviving Iran deal now irrelevant, since Tehran on cusp of nuke-IAEA’s
Grossi cautions negotiators hoping for another pact will need to
formulate fresh technical guidelines conforming to ‘new reality’ of Iran
becoming a nuclear threshold state-By ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 9:15
pm
The UN’s top atomic regulator said this week that there was
little point in trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran
and world powers, with Iran already practically a nuclear threshold
state.The comments by International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael
Grossi in Italy on Monday underlined growing frustration by the UN
monitor toward Iran, which has blown past stockpile limits set by the
landmark pact and spurned inspections since Washington abandoned the
deal in 2018.Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran was
only permitted to enrich uranium to 3.68 percent purity, a level
consistent with civilian uses of nuclear technology that Iran claims are
its only pursuit, capping its stockpile at 300 kilograms.But according
to an IAEA report handed to member states and leaked to the press
earlier this month, Iran has begun dramatically expanding its production
of uranium enriched to near-weapons grade levels, collecting enough
material for several bombs already.“The philosophy of the original
accord with Iran can be used, but that agreement is no longer useful,”
Grossi told Italian news agency ANSA on the sidelines of a meeting at
the foreign ministry in Rome.He added that Iran had “developed much
stronger capabilities” regarding various aspects of its nuclear
program.“It has uranium at 60% — 90% is military grade — and is thus
practically at the same level as nuclear-armed states,” Grossi
said.Sealed in 2015 following years of tightrope negotiations between
Iran and the US, UK, Germany, France, China and Russia, the JCPOA was
hailed by its boosters as a watershed opportunity to curb Iran’s rogue
nuclear activities, with world powers agreeing to lift sanctions that
had crippled the Islamic Republic’s economy.According to the IAEA at the
time, before the accord, Iran had amassed just over 200 kilograms of
uranium enriched to 20% purity, and around 10,000 kilograms of
low-enriched uranium at levels of 5% purity or lower.Under the deal,
Iran was forced to reduce its stockpile by some 98%, and shut down over
half of its centrifuges, according to officials.But the accord was
pilloried by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who alleged that Tehran
had hoodwinked the world and was continuing to covertly pursue a nuclear
weapon to be used against Israel.With other US allies in the Gulf also
suspicious of dealing with Iran, then-president Donald Trump pulled
Washington out of the accord in 2018, and failed to deliver on a promise
to renegotiate a better deal. Attempts by US President Joe Biden’s
administration to negotiate an American return to the pact fell apart in
mid-2023, and Trump’s impending return to the White House has punctured
hopes for reviving the deal.Iran has steadily ramped up enrichment
activity since the US left the deal and reimposed sanctions, rolling out
advanced new centrifuges and issuing warnings that it could speed up
the process even further.In a report in early December, the Office of
the United States Director of National Intelligence warned that “Iran
now has enough fissile material to make more than a dozen nuclear
weapons,” but said it had not yet decided to break out to a bomb.Iran is
not thought to have begun work needed to build and deploy a nuclear
weapon, a move which, if detected, would likely invite a harsh Western
response. But the sheer size of its stockpile and the fact that 60%
purity is just a short technical step away from the 90% needed for a
bomb, have served to heighten tensions, with Israel rumored to be
mulling military action aimed at destroying key nuclear sites.In its
report earlier this month, the IAEA warned that Tehran likely had enough
material to build four bombs. Grossi said at the time that Iran was set
to begin producing 60%-enriched uranium at eight or more times the
current rate.He told ANSA Monday that given Iran’s “new reality,” the
international community would need to rethink the technical steps of a
denuclearization agreement with Tehran.“We must reformulate the
agreement,” Grossi said. “This is a complex process whereby the European
countries and the US, Russia, and China will have to sit at the table
with [the IAEA] to define a system that serves the new Iranian
reality.”The UK, France, and Germany have already expressed hopes of
convening talks with Iran before October 2025, when some parts of the
deal are set to expire, including its endorsement from the UN Security
Council.Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says both its
space program and nuclear activities are for purely civilian purposes.
However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized
military nuclear program up until 2003, and continued to develop its
nuclear program beyond civilian necessity. Israel contends that the
Islamic Republic never truly abandoned its nuclear weapons program.Iran
is committed to Israel’s destruction. Over the past year, it has twice
fired massive barrages of missiles at Israel, which has vowed to prevent
Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel has struck key Iranian
military facilities in retaliation for both attacks, which came in the
context of a multifront war opened by Iranian terror proxies on the
Jewish state.On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that Israeli
strikes in October had severely curtailed Iran’s ability to produce
ballistic missiles, which Israel fears could be used to carry a nuclear
warhead.Agencies contributed to this report.
Jerusalem man
accused of spying for Iran, planning terror attack-Erdler Israel Amoyal,
23, allegedly carried out surveillance, vandalism tasks; searched
internet for bomb-making instructions, proposed targeting Jerusalem
light rail’s system-By Emanuel Fabian-17 December 2024, 4:30 pm
An
Israeli resident of Jerusalem was arrested for carrying out missions on
behalf of Iran and planning a terror attack, the Shin Bet security
agency and Israel Police said Tuesday, the latest in a series of plots
involving citizens allegedly recruited by Iran that security agencies
say have been foiled in recent months.The suspect, Erdler Israel Amoyal,
23, was detained in November over suspicions he was “committing
security offenses related to contact with intelligence officials of the
Iranian regime and carrying out security missions in Israel under their
direction, for financial gain,” according to the Shin Bet.The
announcement came a little over a week after police said a man in the
north of the country was arrested on suspicion of carrying out acts of
vandalism on behalf of Iran.The latest investigation found that since
October, Amoyal was in contact with Iranian intelligence elements via
social media. The Shin Bet said he was first in contact with a profile
using the handle “Arianna,” who later transferred him to “John,” who
became his handler.According to the investigation, Amoyal was aware that
John was an Iranian operative, but he still agreed to carry out
surveillance and other missions, including photographing various
addresses and spraying graffiti.The Shin Bet said Amoyal took photos of a
paper with the words “Making Peace” in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,
graffitied the word “Sinwar” in Tel Aviv, and took photos of several
houses and streets in Netanya and Jerusalem.Amoyal purchased a GoPro
camera to film his actions, and sent footage to his handler John, the
agency said. He also edited a video of a car burning, the Shin Bet said,
although it was unclear if he carried out the act.In addition, Amoyal
allegedly searched social media to purchase a firearm and silencer,
along with materials to manufacture a bomb. The Shin Bet said he watched
instructional videos on how to build an explosive device, in order to
carry out a terror attack in Israel.Amoyal was also asked to recruit
others to carry out missions for Iran, especially people with criminal
backgrounds, the agency said.According to the Shin Bet, Amoyal offered
his handler to torch a police cruiser and shut down power to the
Jerusalem light rail. He filmed various areas of the rail in an attempt
to locate the power components, and sent the footage to John, the agency
said.Amoyal was rewarded with cryptocurrency for his actions, the Shin
Bet said.An indictment is expected to be filed against Amoyal in the
coming days.The Shin Bet said the case again “shows the efforts made by
Iranian intelligence to draft Israeli citizens for the purpose of
espionage and terror in Israel, and the readiness of Israeli citizens to
carry out the missions under Iranian direction, knowing the identity of
the handlers, all for financial gain.”Police said in the statement that
“spying for an enemy state, at a time of war, and in general, is a
serious and dangerous offense that amounts to treason against the
state.”Israel is currently battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war
started by the Palestinian terror group on October 7, 2023, when it led a
massive cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly
civilians.Iran-backed proxies in Iraq and Yemen have fired drones and
missiles at Israel in support of Gaza. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah
terror group also began attacking Israel the day after the Hamas assault
in a conflict that spiraled into open war during which Israel battered
Hezbollah, forcing a ceasefire last month.Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah are
all avowed to destroy Israel.Since September, Israeli authorities have
announced arrests in seven separate cases involving individuals or cells
suspected of spying or plotting attacks on behalf of Iran. In some,
Tehran tried to trick Israelis online into carrying out missions on its
behalf. In other cases, individuals are alleged to have knowingly
operated on its behalf for monetary gain.Last week, police said that
Artyom Zolotarev, 33, was detained in November over suspicions he was
committing security offenses related to contact with Iranian
intelligence officials. He is suspected of graffitiing anti-government
and pro-Iran slogans in several northern cities and setting fire to cars
in Haifa on separate occasions.In September, seven Jewish Israelis were
arrested on suspicion of spying on security figures and IDF bases for
Iran. They were accused of collecting information for their Iranian
contacts about several Israeli citizens, including a senior security
figure, and may have been part of a plot to ultimately assassinate the
figure. Maman was also arrested that month.On October 14, a Ramat Gan
man and his 18-year-old partner were arrested on charges that they
carried out various acts of sabotage and vandalism on behalf of an
Iranian agent.On October 16, the Israel Police and State Attorney’s
Office announced the arrest of a man from central Israel who allegedly
acquired a weapon to kill an Israeli scientist on instructions from an
Iranian agent, after performing several smaller tasks on the agent’s
behalf.On October 22, seven East Jerusalem men, six of them Israeli
citizens, were arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran and plotting
attacks in Israel.Those cases came after authorities in January
uncovered a scheme involving Israelis who were allegedly recruited to
gather intelligence on high-profile figures.
Iran awaiting
‘necessary conditions’ to reopen vandalized Syria embassy-Foreign
Ministry says safety of staff must be ensured before it can reestablish
its mission, which was ransacked when rebels ousted allied Assad
regime-By AFP and ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 1:30 pm
TEHRAN,
Iran — Iran’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that its embassy in Syria
would reopen once the “necessary conditions” are met, after the
diplomatic mission was vandalized following the ouster of Tehran ally
Bashar al-Assad.“The reopening of the embassy in Damascus requires
preparations, the most important of which is ensuring the security and
safety of the embassy and its staff,” said foreign ministry spokesman
Esmaeil Baqaei.He added that work to that end will be pursued “as soon
as the necessary conditions are provided,” without offering a specific
timeline.The Iranian embassy in Damascus was ransacked after diplomats
abandoned it as rebel forces seized the capital and ousted Assad.Iran
had supported Assad throughout Syria’s civil war, which began in
2011.Since his fall, Iran has sought to distance itself from the deposed
leader, instead emphasizing the history of friendship between the two
countries.Baqaei said on Tuesday that Iran’s “advisory” presence in
Syria was “at the invitation of the government.”“We were never in Syria
to support a specific person, group or party,” he said.“Our presence in
Syria was fundamental and principled, and our withdrawal was
responsible.”Baqaei also said that Israel, which has conducted hundreds
of airstrikes in Syria since Assad’s fall and sent troops into a
UN-patrolled buffer zone, “severely violated Syria’s territorial
integrity.”Israel says the strikes are to prevent strategic weapons from
falling into the hands of hostile elements.On Monday, EU foreign
affairs chief Kaja Kallas said Russia and Iran “should not have a place”
in war-torn Syria now that Assad is gone.Baqaei slammed the remarks as a
“joke,” adding that the era of foreign powers “trying to dictate
(policies) on another region is over.”Last week an Iranian official told
Reuters that Tehran had opened a direct line of communication with
Syria’s new leaders in an attempt to “prevent a hostile trajectory”
between the countries.On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
said that US officials have also been in contact with the rebel
leadership. The rebels are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which is
designated a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union,
as well as some other countries.An AFP photographer reported last week
on the vandalism at the Iranian embassy.The photographer saw ransacked
offices, with shattered glass on the floor and broken furniture in the
building in Damascus’s upscale Mazzeh area, also home to other embassies
and United Nations offices.People loaded looted items onto trucks
outside, the photographer said.Filing cabinets and drawers sat open
while papers, files, and other contents, including Iranian and Syrian
flags, were strewn around the premises.A safe sat in the middle of one
room, whose tiled floor was littered with broken posters including of
the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and current
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the AFP photographer saw.Also on
the ground was a destroyed picture of Lebanon’s former Hezbollah chief
Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern
suburbs in September, and of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander
Qasem Soleimani, who died in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital
Baghdad in January 2020.“Unknown individuals have attacked the Iranian
embassy, as you can see in these images shared by various networks,” an
Iranian state television broadcaster said at the time, showing footage
from Al Arabiya, said to be from the diplomatic compound.Iranian
newspaper Tehran Times reported online that Iranian diplomats had left
the embassy before it was stormed, citing foreign ministry spokesman
Baqaei.The report accused rebel forces of being behind the attack, a
claim that could not be independently verified immediately.Baqaei said
in a statement at the time that Tehran has taken the “necessary
measures” to ensure the “security and safety of the employees of the
embassy.”He added that “the ambassador and employees are in perfect
health.”
Palestinians in Syria flock to cemetery ravaged and made
off-limits under Assad-Relatives strive to locate graves amid piles of
rubble and smashed tombstones left in Yarmouk burial ground outside
Damascus-By Maher Al Mounes 17 December 2024, 1:29 pm
YARMOUK,
Syria (AFP) — In a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, Radwan
Adwan was stacking stones to rebuild his father’s grave, finally able
to return to Yarmouk cemetery after Bashar al-Assad’s fall.“Without the
fall of the regime, it would have been impossible to see my father’s
grave again,” said 45-year-old Adwan.“When we arrived, there was no
trace of the grave.”It was his first visit there since 2018, when access
to the cemetery south of Damascus was officially banned.Assad’s fall on
December 8, after a lightning offensive led by Islamist rebels, put an
end to decades of iron-fisted rule and years of bloody civil war that
began with repression of anti-government protests in 2011.Yarmouk camp
fell to rebels early in the war before becoming a jihadist stronghold.
It was bombed and besieged by Assad’s forces, emptied of most of its
residents and reduced to ruins before its recapture in 2018.Assad’s
ouster has allowed former residents to return for the first time in
years.Back at the cemetery, Adwan’s mother Zeina sat on a small metal
chair in front of her husband’s gravesite.She was “finally” able to weep
for him, she said. “Before, my tears were dry.”“It’s the first time
that I have returned to his grave for years. Everything has changed, but
I still recognize where his grave is,” said the 70-year-old
woman.Yarmouk camp, established in the 1950s to house Palestinians who
fled or were expelled from their land during Israel’s 1948 War of
Independence, had become a key residential and commercial district over
the decades.Some 160,000 Palestinians lived there alongside thousands of
Syrians before the country’s conflict erupted in 2011.Thousands fled in
2012, and few have found their homes still standing in the eerie
wasteland that used to be Yarmouk.Along the road to the cemetery,
barefoot children dressed in threadbare clothes play with what is left
of a swing set in a rubble-strewn area that was once a park.‘Spared no
one’A steady stream of people headed to the cemetery, looking for their
loved ones’ gravesites after years.“Somewhere here is my father’s grave,
my uncle’s, and another uncle’s,” said Mahmud Badwan, 60, gesturing to
massive piles of gray rubble that bear little signs of what may lie
beneath them.Most tombstones are broken.Near them lay breeze blocks from
adjacent homes which stand empty and open to the elements.“The Assad
regime spared neither the living nor the dead. Look at how the ruins
have covered the cemetery. They spared no one,” Badwan said.There is
speculation that the cemetery may also hold the remains of famed Israeli
spy Eli Cohen and an Israeli soldier.Cohen was tried and hanged for
espionage by the Syrians in 1965 after he infiltrated the top levels of
the government.A Palestinian source in Damascus, who spoke on condition
of anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject, told AFP contacts
were underway through mediators to try to find their remains.Camp
resident Amina Mounawar leaned against the wall of her ruined home,
watching the flow of people arriving at the cemetery.Some wandered the
site, comparing locations to photos on their phones taken before the war
in an attempt to locate graves in the transformed site.“I have a lot of
hope for the reconstruction of the camp, for a better future,” said
Mounawar, 48, as she offered water to those arriving at the
cemetery.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Russia’s
top WMD general killed by bomb in Moscow in apparent Ukrainian
operation-Ukrainian source says Igor Kirillov, head of ‘Nuclear,
Biological and Chemical Protection’ forces, killed in special op after
he allegedly deployed chemical weapons on battlefield-By Agencies 17
December 2024, 11:53 am
A top Russian general was killed in a
Moscow blast on Tuesday, in what a source from the Security Service of
Ukraine told news agencies was a “special operation” in retaliation for
the general’s alleged use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian
troops.Lieut. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who was chief of Russia’s Nuclear,
Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, was killed outside an
apartment building on Ryazansky Prospekt along with his assistant,
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said in a
statement.He was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter,
investigators said. The bomb was triggered remotely, Russian state news
agency Tass reported, citing unnamed sources in the emergency services.A
source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told AFP that the
“liquidation” of Kirillov was “a special operation by the SBU.” A
similar statement was reported by Reuters, which noted it could not
independently verify the claim.“Kirillov was a war criminal and an
absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical
weapons against the Ukrainian military,” said the source, who also
confirmed that Kirillov was killed when “a scooter with explosives”
detonated as he entered a building on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow.“Such
an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for
war crimes is inevitable,” the SBU source said.Reuters footage from the
scene showed a police cordon. Investigators said they had opened a
criminal case into the murder of two servicemen. Law enforcement sources
told Russian media it was likely to be upgraded into a terrorism
case.Russia denies Ukrainian allegations it uses chemical weapons on the
battlefield.Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, a key ally of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Kyiv would face imminent revenge
for the killing, according to the Russian state-owned news service
RIA.Kirillov, who was married with two sons, was himself sometimes shown
on state TV accusing Ukraine of violating nuclear safety
protocols.Britain in October imposed sanctions on Kirillov and his
nuclear protection forces for using riot control agents and over
multiple reports of the use of the toxic choking agent chloropicrin on
the battlefield.Ukraine’s Security Services charged Kirillov in December
with the use of banned chemical weapons during Russia’s ongoing war in
that country.The SBU said that it had recorded more than 4,800 uses of
chemical weapons on the battlefield since February 2022, particularly
K-1 combat grenades.In May, the US State Department also said in a
statement that it had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a chemical
weapon first used in World War I, against Ukrainian troops.Russia has
accused Ukraine of carrying out a string of targeted assassinations on
its soil since the start of Moscow’s full-scale war on Ukraine in
February 2022.The most high-profile cases include the 2022 killing of
Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologue Alexander
Dugin, in a car bomb attack, the murder of pro-war blogger Vladlen
Tatarsky in a 2023 cafe bombing, and the shooting last year of a Russian
submarine commander accused of war crimes by Kyiv.Russia’s radioactive,
chemical and biological defense troops, known as RKhBZ, which Kirillov
commanded, are special forces who operate under conditions of
radioactive, chemical and biological contamination and who are tasked
with protecting ground forces operating in extreme conditions.
Report:
Syrian border villagers and rebels collecting weapons and handing them
to IDF-Video from inside Syria shows crateloads of weapons and
ammunition being loaded into trucks; IDF soldier says some contain
‘chemical warfare material’By ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 11:07 am
Syrian
villagers on the border with Israel have been collecting weapons and
ammunition left in the area by the army and handing them over to the
Israel Defense Forces, Channel 12 reported Monday.In a video broadcast
by the channel, hundreds of crates containing ammunition and weapons
could be seen gathered and then loaded onto trucks.According to the
report, rebels who swept out the Assad regime last week are also helping
in the operation.The weapons apparently come from Syrian army bases and
outposts where soldiers abandoned their positions amid the rebel
takeover. Some were also leftovers from the years of civil war in Syria,
the report said.IDF soldiers at the scene explained that some of the
weapons contained “chemical warfare material.”These included hand
grenades they said contained CS gas, commonly used as tear gas.One
soldier said there were crateloads of such grenades. They cause
irritation and must not be touched directly, he said.Israel entered a
United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights hours after
the rebels took Damascus. Israel has said it will not become involved in
the conflict in Syria and that its seizure of the buffer zone
established in 1974 was a temporary defensive move that would last only
until it could guarantee security along the frontier.The Channel 12
report said that that security officials are seeking to establish
cooperation with residents of border villages in the buffer, who in the
past have worked with Israeli security to prevent hostile actors from
entering the area.The threat of such hostile force could be a factor in
the IDF’s activities in creating a line of defense in the buffer zone
for residents on the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights, while
it is still able to, Channel 12 said.Haaretz reported that the IDF says
there has been contact with the Syrian Druze, including meetings during
which a request was made to gather weapons that were looted from
abandoned Syrian army sites.However, according to that report, villagers
on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights have asked the new Syrian
regime and other Arab countries to push Israel out of the area and were
concerned over how long the Israeli military would remain.Meanwhile, the
Ynet outlet cited Russia’s state-owned Sputnik network as saying an IDF
helicopter landed near a Syrian military facility on Monday and dropped
off soldiers who entered the site. The soldiers remained for about 20
minutes before leaving and flying south, the report said.Last week, Ynet
cited Sputnik as saying an IDF helicopter landed in the al-Qalamoun
suburb of Damascus.Sputnik has been denounced by some as a Russian
disinformation outfit.Israel launched a major campaign after the fall of
the Assad regime on December 8 to destroy the Syrian military’s
strategic military capabilities, in a bid to prevent them from falling
into the hands of hostile elements. Targets have included chemical
weapons sites, missiles, air defenses, and air force and navy targets.In
an interview with the Syrian TV news channel on Saturday, the leader of
the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who spearheaded
the overthrow of the Assad regime, said that Israel had “no more
excuses” to carry out airstrikes in Syria.Also known by his nom de
guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, Ahmad al-Sharaa said that the recent IDF
attacks on Syrian soil had crossed red lines and threatened an
unjustified escalation in the region.But he also appeared to indirectly
respond to Israeli concerns and offer reassurance that the new Syrian
government would not threaten the Jewish state or allow Iran to
reestablish itself in Syria. He said that Syria was exhausted by years
of civil war and that at this stage it would not be dragged into
conflicts that may lead to further destruction, but would rather focus
on reconstruction and stability.
'We do not want any conflict...
with Israel or anyone else' Syrian rebel leader: Territory will not be
used to launch attacks against Israel-Chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,
which ousted Assad regime, pledges commitment to 1974 buffer-zone
agreement, says IDF activity in Syria ‘must end’ and Israel ‘has to pull
back’By AFP and ToI Staff 17 December 2024, 10:41 amUpdated at 4:28 pm
Abu
Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of the Islamist group that toppled
Bashar al-Assad in Syria, said Monday that Syria will not be used as a
launchpad for attacks against Israel and that he is committed to the
1974 agreement that established a demilitarized zone in Syrian territory
as a buffer between the two countries.“We are committed to the 1974
agreement and we are prepared to return the UN [monitors],” Julani told
The Times of London, referring to peacekeeping forces that manned the
demilitarized zone alongside Syrian troops.“We do not want any conflict
whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a
launchpad for attacks. The Syrian people need a break, and the strikes
must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions,” he
said.Julani reiterated his position that Israel — which, in the weeks
since the Assad regime fell, has destroyed most of the regime’s military
assets, fearing their use by hostile groups, and taken control of the
buffer zone — had a right to target Iranian-backed forces prior to the
government’s fall earlier this month, but has no legitimate basis to
keep operating in Syria.Speaking to journalists at the prime ministerial
headquarters in Damascus, Julani said rebel factions in Syria would be
disbanded, and their fighters placed under the defense ministry. He
played down the prospect of a Syria run by Islamic law, according to The
Times, and vowed to protect minority rights. He also called for
sanctions to be lifted so refugees can return.The long-ruling Assad, an
ally of Iran, was toppled in a lightning 11-day rebel offensive
spearheaded by the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS),
whose fighters and allies swept down from northwest Syria and entered
the capital on December 8.Julani, who has recently returned to using his
real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said Monday on the group’s Telegram channel
that all the rebel factions “would “be disbanded and the fighters
trained to join the ranks of the defense ministry,” adding, “all will be
subject to the law.”Speaking to foreign journalists, the Islamist
leader said his nascent government intends to overhaul Syria’s
constitution and institutions, but said it will take time, and that the
country is not yet ready for elections due to remaining disorder, some
13 years after civil war broke out amid the 2011 Arab Spring.“People
have big ambitions, but today we must think realistically, because Syria
has many problems, and they won’t be solved with a magic wand,” Julani
said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “It needs patience.”He also
emphasized the need for unity in a country home to different ethnic
minority groups and religions, while speaking to members of the
country’s Druze community, which makes up about 3 percent of Syria’s
prewar population.“Syria must remain united,” he said. “There must be a
social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social
justice.”Several countries and organizations have welcomed Assad’s fall
but said they were waiting to see how the new authorities would treat
minorities in the country.Responding to the possibility of a Syria
governed by Islamic law, Julani told The Times, “It will be the natural
Syria,” and,“I think Syria will not deeply intrude on personal
freedoms,” but noted that “customs” would factor in.HTS is rooted in
Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda, and proscribed as a terrorist organization
by many Western governments, though it has sought to moderate its
rhetoric. Since the toppling of Assad, it has insisted that the rights
of all Syrians will be protected.Speaking to journalists on Monday,
Julani bristled at the designation of HTS as a terror group.“The real
terrorist is the one who killed people in Sednaya and dropped barrel
bombs,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal, referring to an
infamous government prison.Additionally, during a second meeting with a
delegation of British diplomats, the HTS leader spoke “of the importance
of restoring relations” with London. He stressed the need to end “all
sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their
country,” according to remarks reported on his group’s Telegram
channel.In his conversation with journalists on Monday, Julani also
condemned the waves of Israeli airstrikes, following the fall of the
Assad regime, which are estimated to have taken out a large majority of
that government’s military assets amid concerns that they could be used
against Israel in the future.The Israel Defense Forces has also seized a
buffer zone between Israel and Syria that was previously manned in part
by Syrian troops, who abandoned their posts amid the regime’s collapse.
Israel has repeatedly said that control of the buffer zone is a
temporary defense measure amid the chaotic takeover.On Monday, Julani
said that Israel had reason to involve itself in the fighting in Syria
while the Assad regime — allied with Iran, which is committed to
Israel’s destruction, as well as the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror
group, with which Israel entered a shaky ceasefire last month — was
still standing, but that now “the excuse is gone.”“There is no
justification for the Israelis to bomb Syrian facilities or advance
inside Syria,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Inside
storyArab diplomat: Hamas weaker than ever, but has little to
lose-Hamas fears Trump will allow Israel to resume Gaza war after 1st
phase of hostage deal-Sources familiar with talks say Hamas compromising
on terms of IDF withdrawal but still insisting on permanent ceasefire,
fearing deal made under Biden could collapse under Trump-By Jacob
Magid-17 December 2024, 9:25 am
WASHINGTON — Hamas is concerned
that US President-elect Donald Trump will allow Israel to resume
fighting in Gaza at the completion of the first phase of the three-stage
ceasefire that is currently in advanced negotiations, four sources
familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.US National Security
Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that the Biden administration is
working to secure a deal by the end of December, but this would mean
Trump would be responsible for seeing through the first six-week phase
and beyond.Trump said again this week that he wants the war in Gaza to
end, but an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes he’ll have more flexibility under
Trump to resume fighting after the first phase than he would under
Biden.Hamas has made the same assessment and is accordingly seeking
assurances that Israel will not restart the war after the first phase
has been completed, according to two Arab diplomats, an Israeli official
and a US official familiar with the talks.The nature of the ceasefire
deal is the main issue of contention in the talks, with Hamas demanding a
permanent end to the fighting along with the withdrawal of the IDF from
Gaza, while Israel is seeking a temporary pause during which some of
the hostages would be released followed by a resumption of its fighting
in order to finish dismantling Hamas’s military and governing
capabilities.“If we finish the war now, Hamas will return, recover and
rebuild itself and attack us again… we don’t want to return to this
[situation],” Netanyahu said last week.In May, Netanyahu authorized a
three-phased framework that sought to bridge the gaps between Israel and
Hamas, while also providing some ambiguity on the transition from one
phase to another in order to satisfy both sides.US, Qatari and Egyptian
mediators have since worked to get the first phase of the deal in motion
with an initial ceasefire that would see the release of the remaining
living female, elderly and wounded hostages in exchange for hundreds of
Palestinian prisoners.During this first phase, the sides would be
mandated to hold negotiations regarding the terms of the second and
third phases of the ceasefire, when the remaining living hostages and
the bodies of slain captives would be released,
respectively.Negotiations have progressed significantly in recent weeks,
with Hamas agreeing to reengage with mediators after a months-long
impasse, according to the two Arab diplomats, an Israeli official and a
US official familiar with the talks.Critically, the terror group has
shown flexibility regarding the terms of the IDF withdrawal from Gaza,
indicating it is prepared to allow Israeli troops to remain in the key
Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors during the first phase of the deal
after long demanding their immediate pullout from those routes — along
the Gaza-Egypt border and bisecting the enclave, respectively — the Arab
and Israeli officials said.Hamas is at its weakest position yet and “we
told them that the longer they wait, the worse the terms will be,” one
of the Arab diplomats said, explaining the shift in the terror group’s
stance.Hamas has survived an unrelenting Israeli military campaign, but
its military infrastructure has been effectively dismantled, and the
support it had been receiving from the Iranian-led “Axis of Resistance”
has all but dissipated over the past two months amid dizzying
developments in Lebanon and Syria.But that doesn’t mean Hamas will be
prepared to accept a deal on any terms, the Arab diplomat clarified,
adding that the group now has a lot less to lose and is still holding
100 hostages who won’t be released in full unless Israel agrees to a
permanent ceasefire.Contrary to reporting in American and Arabic press,
though, progress in the talks has not extended to Hamas’s transfer of a
long-sought list to the mediators consisting of the names of hostages it
is prepared to release in the ceasefire’s first stage, the two Arab
diplomats said.Israel has sought the release of at least 33 hostages
during this phase, while Hamas has maintained that it doesn’t have that
number of living captives who fall into the “humanitarian” categories of
women, elderly and sick captives, an Israeli official said.With these
hurdles still standing in the way, the second Arab diplomat said Biden
officials’ privately shared desires to secure an agreement this week
were unlikely to be actualized.And even with a list from Hamas, it is
unclear whether either side is prepared to move or compromise on the
nature of the ceasefire, the four sources said.The hostages were among
251 people taken captive during Hamas’s brutal October, 7, 2023, assault
on southern Israel that also killed some 1,200 people.It is believed
that 96 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in
Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the
IDF.Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late
November, 2023, and four hostages were released before that. Eight
hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38
hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by
the military as they tried to escape their captors.Hamas is also holding
two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well
as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Two
charged over Iran-backed drone strike that killed 3 US troops in
Jordan-One defendant is an Iranian-American citizen; pair accused of
conspiring to export sensitive technology to Iran used in fatal attack
on outpost near Iraqi border-By Steve LeBlanc, Eric Tucker and TARA COPP
17 December 2024, 7:56 am
BOSTON (AP) — Two men, including a
dual Iranian American citizen, have been charged with conspiring to
export sensitive technology to Iran that was used in a drone attack in
Jordan that killed three American troops early this year and injured
dozens of other service members, the Justice Department said Monday.The
pair were arrested after FBI specialists who analyzed the drone traced
its navigation system to an Iranian company operated by one of the
defendants, who relied on parts and technology funneled into the country
by his alleged co-conspirator, prosecutors said.“We often cite
hypothetical risk when we talk about the dangers of American technology
getting into dangerous hands,” US Attorney Joshua Levy, the top federal
prosecutor in Massachusetts, said at a news conference announcing the
charges. “Unfortunately, in this situation, we are not speculating.”The
defendants were identified as Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, who prosecutors
say works at a Massachusetts-based semiconductor company, and Mohammad
Abedininajafabadi, who was arrested Monday in Italy as the Justice
Department seeks his extradition to Massachusetts.Prosecutors allege
that Abedininajafabadi, who was also called Adedini in court documents,
has deep connections to the Iranian government. They say his
Tehran-based company manufactures navigation systems for the military
drone program of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and that he
conspired with Sadeghi to circumvent American export control laws,
including through the creation of a front company in Switzerland, and
procure sensitive technology into Iran.Sadeghi, a naturalized US
citizen, was arrested Monday in Massachusetts and was ordered to remain
detained following a court appearance. His lawyer did not immediately
respond to an email seeking comment.Both men are charged with export
control violations, and Abedini separately faces charges of conspiring
to provide material support to Iran.Three Georgia soldiers — Sgt.
William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah
and Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross — were killed in the January 28
drone attack on a US outpost in northeastern Jordan called Tower 22.US
officials have blamed it on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella
group of Iran-backed militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah.In the
attack, the one-way attack drone may have been mistaken for a US drone
that was expected to return back to the logistics base about the same
time and was not shot down. Instead, it crashed into living quarters,
killing the three soldiers and injuring more than 40.“To the people who
were injured by this attack, to the loved ones and family members of the
people who lost their lives, as the son of a combat veteran I humbly
hope that today’s charges bring some measure of justice and
accountability,” Levy said.Tower 22 held about 350 US military personnel
at the time. It is strategically located between Jordan and Syria, only
10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Iraqi border, and in the months just
after Hamas’s massive October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and Israel’s
blistering response in Gaza, Iranian-backed militias intensified their
attacks on US military locations in the region.This combination of
photos provided by Shawn Sanders, left, and the US Army, center and
right, show from left to right, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, Staff Sgt. William
Jerome Rivers and Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett. Following the
attack, the US launched a huge counterstrike against 85 sites in Iraq
and Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militia
and bolstered Tower 22’s defenses.Times of Israel staff contributed to
this report.
US says airstrike hit Houthi command and control
facility in Yemen-CENTCOM says Iran-backed rebels used targeted site to
coordinate attacks on naval and merchant ships in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden;
IDF said readying strike plans after missile launch-By Agencies and ToI
Staff 17 December 2024, 6:34 am
American forces carried out an
airstrike on Monday against a Houthi command and control facility that
was used by the Yemeni rebels to coordinate attacks, the US military
said.The Houthis began striking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in
November 2023, part of the region-wide escalation following the
Hamas-led terror onslaught in southern Israel the previous month that
sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, which armed groups in multiple
countries have claimed as justification for attacks.“The targeted
facility was a hub for coordinating Houthi operations, such as attacks
against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea
and Gulf of Aden,” the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a
statement.“The strike reflects CENTCOM’s ongoing commitment to protect
US and coalition personnel, regional partners, and international
shipping,” it added.The Yemeni rebels say their attacks — a significant
international security challenge that threatens a major shipping lane —
are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Iran-backed groups in
Lebanon, Iraq and Syria have also attacked Israel for the same stated
reason.The United States and other countries have deployed military
vessels to help shield shipping from the Houthi strikes, and the rebels
have periodically launched attacks targeting American military
ships.Washington’s forces have also carried out frequent airstrikes on
the Houthis in a bid to degrade their ability to target shipping and
have sought to seize weapons before they reach the rebels, but their
attacks have persisted.Israel has twice struck the Houthis in
retaliation for the group’s attacks, and according to Channel 12 news
the military was preparing to potentially strike again following
Monday’s ballistic missile launch from Yemen that triggered sirens
across most of central Israel.The IDF said that the missile was
successfully shot down by air defenses before crossing the country’s
borders, adding that sirens sounded across central Israel over fears of
falling shrapnel following the interception.The Magen David Adom
ambulance service said its medics treated five people who were lightly
injured while running for cover during the sirens in Tel Aviv, Petah
Tikvah, Kfar Saba, Holon and at the Em Hamoshavot junction. The injured
were taken to hospital for treatment, MDA said in a statement.Earlier
Monday morning, a drone launched from Yemen was shot down by an Israeli
Navy missile boat over the Mediterranean Sea, without setting off any
sirens.Since November, the Iran-backed Houthis have launched six
ballistic missiles and at least five drones at Israel.
Russia
still has a military presence in post-Assad Syria — for now-After years
of backing now-toppled regime, Moscow is pulling back from some areas of
Syria, but still has troops at primary base in Latakia, saying it is in
talks with new leaders-By ABBY SEWELL 16 December 2024, 11:52 pm
HMEIMIM,
Syria (AP) — A convoy of Russian military vehicles rolled down the
highway towards the Syrian city of Tartus on Monday, as soldiers stood
guard.Planes periodically descended and rose from Russia’s Hmeimim air
base in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia, while smoke rose from
the base. It was unclear what was burning.In the streets of Hmeimim, a
town dotted with orange groves, many of the shops bear signs in Russian,
a nod to the significance of the Russian military presence.But whether
and how long that presence will last after the fall of former Syrian
leader Bashar al-Assad is now an open question.Russia’s scorched-earth
intervention on behalf of its ally, Assad, once turned the tide of the
Syrian civil war. In 2017, Assad’s government signed a deal with Russia
that offered it a free lease of the Hmeimim air base and the Tartus
naval base for 49 years.But opposition forces in the country’s northwest
launched a shock offensive last month that again threatened Assad’s
rule. This time, Moscow largely stood aside — although it granted asylum
to the former president and his family.On Monday, in his first public
statement since his ouster, Assad said he had left Damascus for the
Hmeimim air base on December 8, after insurgents stormed the capital,
but he had not planned to flee the country. He said that after the base
came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to evacuate him to
Russia.Since Assad’s departure, there have been no clashes between
Russian troops and the former insurgents who have suddenly become the de
facto security forces for all of Syria. That’s despite the fact that
many of the fighters are from areas of northern Syria that came under
frequent Russian bombardment and have little love for Moscow.A fighter
guarding the shuttered civilian airport next to the Hmeimim base said
Monday, “The Russians are preparing to withdraw from Syria, God
willing.”He gave only his nickname, Abu Saif, because he was not
authorized to comment publicly.Russian forces have pulled out of some
areas of Syria. Russian forces and military vehicles were seen
withdrawing from southern Syria on Friday toward their primary base in
the city of Latakia.On Thursday, the British-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights reported that Russian forces were leaving bases in Ain
Issa and Tel Al-Samn in the Al-Raqqah countryside.Satellite images
released by Maxar Technologies on Friday show what appear to be cargo
planes at a Russian military airfield in Syria with their nose cones
opened to receive heavy equipment, along with helicopters being
dismantled and prepared for transport.Moscow has reached out to the new
Syrian authorities to try to ensure the security of its bases and extend
its forces’ stay. The three-starred flag of the Syrian revolution was
quickly hoisted at the Syrian embassy in Moscow in place of the old
government’s two-starred flag.In an interview with The Associated Press
on Monday, Obeida Arnaout, spokesman for the political department of the
new transitional government, called on Russia to “reconsider its
presence” in Syria, as well as its interests.But he did not rule out the
possibility that Russian forces could remain.“Their interests were
linked to the criminal Assad regime. They can reconsider and take the
initiatives to reach out to the new administration to show that they
have no animosity toward the Syrian people, and that the era of Assad
regime is finally over,” Arnaout said.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said in a call with reporters Monday that Moscow was discussing the
issue with the new authorities.“We are in contact with representatives
of the forces that are currently in control of the situation in the
country, and all of this will be determined in the course of dialogue,”
Peskov said.
A FALSE PROPHET COMES FROM THE VATICAN ALSO AT THIS TIME.
ISAIAH 23:15-17
15
And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten
seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of
seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
16 Take an harp, go
about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody,
sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
17 And it shall
come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit
Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with
all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.(COULD THIS BE
70 YEARS AFTER ISRAEL BECAME A NATION IN 1948)(IF SO THIS SATANIC ONE
WORLD WHORE CHURCH WILL MINGLE TOGETHER BY 2018)(AND NOW ISLAM AND
CHRISTIANITY AND ALL RELIGIONS ARE MINGLING AS ONE PEACE-LOVE-JOY-GET
ALONG RELIGION LEAD BY THE VATICAN RIGHT NOW 4 YEARS FROM THE 70 YEAR
TIME WHEN ISRAEL BECAME A NATION).AND IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM.
REVELATION 13:11-18
11
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;(FALSE VATICAN
POPE) and he had two horns like a lamb,(JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD) and he
spake as a dragon.(HES SATANICALLY INSPIRED,HES A CHRISTIAN DEFECTOR
FROM THE FAITH)
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast
before him,(WORLD DICTATOR) and causeth the earth and them which dwell
therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.(THE
WORLD DICTATOR CREATES A FALSE RESURRECTION AND IS CROWNED LEADER OF THE
NEW WORLD ORDER).
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those
miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to
them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the
beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had
power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth
all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a
mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the
beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred
threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
REVELATION 17:1-18
1
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and
talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the
judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With
whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(VATICAN IN
POLITICS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the
wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into
the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast,
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And
the woman (FALSE CHURCH) was arrayed in purple and scarlet
colour,(VATICAN COLOURS)(ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW THE FALSE POPE COMES
FROM THE VATICAN) and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls,
having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of
her fornication:(THE VATICAN GOES AGAINST A PRIEST MARRING A WOMAN-LIKE
THE BIBLE SAYS-AND WHATS AN ABOMINATION AGAINST GOD-HOMOSEXUALITY AND
PEDOPHILIA JUST LIKE THIS SCRIPTURE SAYS-FORNICATION IS THE SINGLE
HOMOSEXUAL PRIESTS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAVING UNMARRIED FORNICATION
OR SEX WITH SINGLES-IN THIS CASE ITS SEX WITH CHILDREN OR PEDOPHILIA)
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
6
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great
admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou
marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that
carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast
that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless
pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall
wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the
foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is
not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven
heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS
BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
10 And there are seven kings: five are
fallen,(1-ASSYRIA,2-EGYPT,3-BABYLON,4-MEDO-PERSIA,5-GREECE) and one
is,(IN POWER IN JOHNS AND JESUS DAY-6-ROME) and the other is not yet
come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.(7TH-REVIVED
ROMAN EMPIRE OR THE EUROPEAN UNION TODAY AND THE SHORT SPACE IS-THE
EUROPEAN UNION WILL HAVE WORLD CONTROL FOR THE LAST 3 1/2 YEARS.BUT WILL
HAVE ITS MIGHTY WORLD POWER FOR THE FULL 7 YEARS OF THE 7 YEAR
TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND THE WORLD DICTATOR WILL BE THE BEAST FROM THE
EU.AND THE VATICAN POPE WILL BE THE WHORE THAT RIDES THE EUROPEAN UNION
TO POWER.AND THE 2 EUROPEAN UNION POWER FREAKS WILL CONTROL AND DECIEVE
THE WHOLE EARTH INTO THEIR DESTRUCTION.IF YOU ARE NOT SAVED BY THE BLOOD
OF JESUS.YOU WILL BE DECIEVED BY THESE TWO.THE WORLD POLITICIAN-THE
EUROPEAN UNION DICTATOR.AND THE FALSE PROPHET THAT DEFECTS
CHRISTIANITY-THE FALSE VATICAN POPE.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
12
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received
no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them:
for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him
are called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 And he saith unto me, The
waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and
multitudes, and nations, and tongues.(VATICAN-CATHOLICS ALL AROUND THE
WORLD OVER 1 BILLION)
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the
beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) these shall hate the whore, and shall make her
desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.(GOD
HIMSELF GIVES THE OK TO NUKE THE VATICAN)
17 For God hath put in
their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom
unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.(VATICAN)
EVEN THE FALSE RELIGIOUS LEADER OF THE WORLD HAS ASSINS AFTER HIM.
Pope
Francis was target of attempted suicide attack on 2021 trip to Iraq, he
says-‘A woman packed with explosives…was heading to Mosul to blow
herself up,’ pontiff recalls in upcoming autobiography; would-be bombers
apparently killed by police, Francis says-By Reuters and ToI Staff 17
December 2024, 5:02 pm
Pope Francis has revealed he was the
target of an attempted suicide bombing during his visit to Iraq three
years ago, the first by a Catholic pontiff to the country and probably
the riskiest foreign trip of his 11-year papacy.In an excerpt published
on Tuesday from a forthcoming autobiography, Francis said he was
informed by police after landing in Baghdad in March 2021 that at least
two known suicide bombers were targeting one of his planned events.“A
woman packed with explosives, a young kamikaze, was heading to Mosul to
blow herself up during the papal visit,” wrote the pontiff, according to
an excerpt from the book in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. “And
a van had also set off at full speed with the same intent.”Francis’s
visit to Mosul was a key moment during his Iraq trip. Iraq’s
second-largest city had been under the control of Islamic State from
2014 to 2017. The pope visited the ruins of four destroyed churches
there and launched an appeal for peace.During the trip, the Vatican
provided few details about the security preparations for the pope. Many
of the events during his visit, which took place as the COVID-19
pandemic was first easing, were open only to a limited number of
people.Iraq is known to have deployed thousands of additional security
personnel to protect Francis.The Vatican did not immediately respond to a
request for further details about the pope’s new comments.Francis’s new
autobiography, entitled “Hope,” is due to be published on January 14,
2025.In the excerpt published on Tuesday, Francis said the Vatican had
been informed about the assassination attempt by British
intelligence.The pope said he asked a security official the next day
what had happened to the would-be bombers.“The commander replied
laconically: ‘They are no more’,” wrote Francis. “The Iraqi police had
intercepted them and blown them up.”The pope drew headlines earlier this
month when, in an excerpt from a different book — titled “Hope Never
Disappoints,” based on a series of interviews with the pontiff — Francis
said Israel’s campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza should be
investigated as a possible genocide.He has also faced criticism for
other comments about the ongoing war. Last week, the Vatican removed a
Palestinian-sponsored nativity scene, whose dedication the pope had
attended, showing the baby Jesus lying on a keffiyeh after backlash.He
is set to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on
Thursday.
LUKE 19:35-40 (STONES CRY OUT ARCHAEOLOGY)
35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
36 And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.
37
And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of
Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise
God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40
And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should
hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.(ARCHAEOLOGY)
Archaeology-Amulet
found in Germany said to be ‘oldest Christian testimony north of the
Alps’Silver scroll, found to contain verses of protection in Latin,
dates from the mid-3rd century CE. Israeli researcher says too early to
draw conclusions-By Gavriel Fiske-17 December 2024, 10:57 pm
Researchers
have deciphered a tiny third-century Christian silver scroll that was
found rolled up inside an amulet, at a Roman burial site in Frankfurt,
Germany. The find was hailed by the Frankfurt municipality as “the
oldest Christian testimony found north of the Alps,” in a recent
announcement.The scroll was discovered in 2018 during excavations in the
“Heilmannstraße” cemetery in the city, a site with hundreds of
Roman-era graves. The area was once part of Nida, a Roman border town
that eventually was abandoned. The particular grave that held the scroll
was dated to 230-270 CE, predating other Christian texts in the region
by at least 50 years, the press release said.The scroll, made of a thin
silver foil, was found rolled up and inserted into a 3.5-cm-long silver
amulet, which was likely designed to be worn around the neck. The grave
also held various goods, including an incense burner and a clay
jug.Because the scroll was too delicate to unroll, and because X-ray
analysis was unable to reveal the contents except to confirm that there
were indeed words written on the scroll, the artifact “was examined
using a state-of-the-art computer tomograph” at the Leibniz Center for
Archaeology in Mainz, Germany, where researchers were able to conduct
multiple high-resolution scans of the scroll and create an accurate
model, a kind of “digital unrolling,” the release said.Prof. Markus
Scholz of Frankfurt’s Goethe University then examined and translated,
with the help of other experts, the 18 lines of Latin that were found to
be on the scroll.Finding such a scroll written entirely in Latin is
“unusual for the time,” Scholz said. “Normally, such inscriptions on
amulets were written in Greek or Hebrew.”It is also very unusual that
“the amulet is purely Christian,” he added.“Up until the fifth century, a
mixture of different faiths can always be expected in precious metal
amulets of this type. Often elements from Judaism or pagan influences
can still be found,” but in this case, there were none, he said.The
researchers provided a translation of the protective prayer discovered
in the scroll and noted that some sections were still indecipherable or
the interpretation was uncertain, indicated by question marks:
(In
the name?) of St. Titus.Holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ,
Son of God! The lord of the world resists to the best of his [ability?]
all seizures(?)/setbacks(?).The god(?) grants well-being Admission.This
rescue device(?) protects the person who surrenders to the will of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,since before Jesus Christ bend all
knees: the heavenly ones,the earthly and the subterranean, and every
tongue confess (to Jesus Christ).An initial analysis of the text
revealed some significant aspects, including the formulation of “holy,
holy, holy,” a phrase drawn from Jewish liturgy but “not actually known
in the Christian liturgy until the 4th century CE,” the researchers
said.The reference to St. Titus, an early missionary and disciple of the
Apostle Paul, is also unusual, and the connection to Paul is reinforced
by the last lines of the scroll, which are “an almost literal quotation
from Paul’s so-called Christ hymn from his letter to the Philippians,”
the researchers said.
The bearer of the silver amulet “was
clearly a devout Christian,” which for the time and place “is absolutely
extraordinary,” the notice said. The Frankfurt area, north of the Alps
in central Europe, is quite far from the eastern Mediterranean and
Levantine centers of early Christianity, and the presence of the amulet
there is a sign of the “cultural and religious diversity” of the area,
the researchers said.The 3rd century CE Roman-era grave Frankfurt,
Germany, where a Christian silver amulet was discovered. (image
capture/Monument Office of the city of Frankfurt am Main/used in
accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)-Still some doubting
Thomases-Yet, the presence of such an amulet “does not necessarily mean
that there was a big Christian community there, since such amulets are
easily transportable,” said Prof. Gideon Bohak, of the Department of
Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University, in a message to The
Times of Israel.“Assuming that the reading and the dating are correct,
we would have here an early Christian amulet, written in Latin, and
found in a remote town on the northern edges of the Roman Empire,” he
said, noting that it was necessary to “wait for the full academic
publication” in order to “check their interpretation of the find.”A
similar artifact was found several years ago in Austria on a sheet
encased in a child’s gold amulet, “on which was written Shema Israel
(the entire verse) in Hebrew, but in Greek letters… This is a Jewish
amulet, also found in a remote corner of the Roman Empire, and also
dating to the third century, so I think this is quite an analogous
find,” Bohak said.At the time the Frankfurt amulet was dated, the
mid-third century CE, Christianity was outlawed in the Roman Empire and
practitioners were persecuted, a situation that was altered by Emperor
Constantine in 313 CE, with his Edict of Milan, which recognized
Christianity as an official religion.In 325 CE, the Council of Nicea
distilled the diverse strains of early Christianity into a single set of
beliefs, and in 380 CE, with the Edict of Thessaloniki, that form of
Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman
Empire.Artifacts of a similar type, either prayers for protection
inscribed on gold or silver or curses written on lead and then inserted
into a protective amulet or case, were common in the ancient world. A
similar silver amulet was recently discovered in Bulgaria, and several
years ago, a scroll from the fifth century found in Turkey was
discovered to contain a curse against a chariot racer, written in
Aramaic with Hebrew letters.
Jeremiah 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Isaiah 57:21
21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
1 Thessalonians 5:3
3
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction
cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not
escape.
Ephesians 2:2
2 Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air,(PROPAGANDA AGAIN ISRAEL, CHRISTIANS-SATAN IS THE POWER
OF THE AIR WAVES (GODLESS MEDIA) the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience:
Netanyahu denies jetting to Cairo as
reports of Gaza deal progress boost hope-Egypt reported to invite
Palestinians for high-level talks as sources indicate that an agreement
freeing hostages and ending over 14 months of fighting could be sealed
within days-By Lazar Berman,ToI Staff and Reuters 17 December 2024,
10:26 pm
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
denied a report that the Israeli leader was flying to Cairo on Tuesday
for talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, after the claim briefly
sparked excitement at the idea that an end to the 438-day-old hostage
crisis and war could be nigh.Reports in the media have swirled in recent
days, as increasingly optimistic-sounding sources in Israel and the
Arab world have signaled that Jerusalem and the Hamas terror group are
on the brink of inking a deal to halt fighting and begin freeing the 100
people taken from Israel who have been held captive in the Strip since
October 7, 2023, or longer.Citing sources with knowledge of intensive
talks said to be taking place in Egypt, Reuters reported on Tuesday that
Netanyahu was on his way to Cairo, with observers seeing the high-level
addition to the talks as a sign that they could be nearing
finalization.However, Netanyahu’s spokesman Omer Dostri told The Times
of Israel that Netanyahu was neither in Cairo nor on his way there.Two
Egyptian security sources also said that Netanyahu was not in Cairo “at
this moment,” but that a meeting was underway to work through remaining
points, chief among them a Hamas demand for guarantees that any
short-term deal lead to a comprehensive agreement later.They said
progress was being made and felt that Tuesday night could be decisive in
setting the next steps.Also boosting optimism were reports in the
Hebrew press indicating that Egypt had sent an official summons for
Hamas’s leadership to travel to Cairo.Qatar’s al-Araby al-Jadeed
reported Tuesday that a Hamas delegation was expected in Cairo by
Thursday to provide information about “the fate of a number of hostages”
and evidence that they are still alive.According to other Arab reports,
the delegation will be led by senior Hamas official Khalil
al-Hayya.Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah Al Mayadeen news station reported that
Egypt also invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “for an
urgent visit.”The US administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and
Qatar, have made intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks
before President Joe Biden leaves office next month.Sources briefed on
the talks taking place in Cairo said Tuesday that the negotiations were
advancing and a deal could be inked within days. A Palestinian official
close to the mediation efforts said negotiations were serious, with
discussions under way about every word.But officials in Israel and the
US also tempered those expectations, cautioning that the sides had come
close before and work remained to be done.“We believe — and the Israelis
have said this — that we’re getting closer, and no doubt about it, we
believe that, but we also are cautious in our optimism,” White House
spokesperson John Kirby said in an interview with Fox News.“We’ve been
in this position before where we weren’t able to get it over the finish
line,” he said.An unnamed Israeli official said the sides were working
intensively, but serious issues remained.“Hamas has the will to get to a
deal.There’s a change for the better, but there’s no final agreement.
There are still substantial gaps,” the source was quoted as saying. “It
will take time.”Some in Israel had speculated there could be major moves
Tuesday after Netanyahu was granted the day off from testifying in his
criminal trial. The decision to delay the testimony was attributed by
the court to “special circumstances,” following a closed-door meeting
between Netanyahu’s defense team and the judges in the case.Following
the report that Netanyahu was en route to Cairo, his office put out a
statement announcing that the premier had actually spent time on Tuesday
on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, where he toured the peak of
Mount Hermon, which had been taken by soldiers days earlier, following
the fall of the Bashar Assad regime.Hamas asserted on Tuesday that a
ceasefire deal in Gaza is possible if Israel “stops setting new
conditions,” according to a statement.Despite months of negotiations and
heavy international pressure, Israel and the terror group have failed
to come to terms since a week-long truce in November 2023 saw 105
civilian hostages freed.Israel believes nearly 100 hostages kidnapped on
October 7 remain in Gaza, many of them no longer alive.Hamas is
demanding a permanent end to the war along with the withdrawal of the
IDF from Gaza, while Israel is seeking a temporary pause, during which
some of the hostages would be released, followed by a resumption of its
fighting in order to finish dismantling Hamas’s military and governing
capabilities.Israel has sought the release of at least 33 hostages
during this phase, while Hamas has maintained that it does not have that
number of living captives who fall into the “humanitarian” categories
of women, elderly, and sick captives, an Israeli official said.In Tel
Aviv, relatives of hostages and others spoke out against the prospect of
a phased deal, which could fall apart before all hostages are let go.“A
partial deal isn’t a partial victory — it is a complete moral and
ethical defeat that will leave Israeli society with a bleeding wound
that will consume it from within,” said former hostage Meirav Tal. The
body of her partner, Yair Yaakov, is still being held in Gaza.According
to London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, the deal coming together could take
place in three stages, with the weakest and most infirm hostages
released first in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. A
second phase would see the remaining Israelis, most of them soldiers,
released for between 100-150 hardened terrorists serving long sentences
in Israeli prisons, and a full IDF withdrawal from the Strip. The war
would officially end with the third stage.On Monday, Defense Minister
Israel Katz reportedly told Knesset lawmakers in a closed-door meeting
that Israel was “closer than ever to another hostage deal.”US
President-elect Donald Trump has insisted that a deal be implemented by
the time he takes office.At a press conference in Florida Monday, Trump
reiterated his threat that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas
does not release its hostages by his January 20 inauguration. Later,
Trump said that if no ceasefire deal is reached by the time he takes
office, “It’s not going to be pleasant.” He did not elaborate.The
hostages, originally 251 people, were taken captive during Hamas’s
brutal October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel, during which some
1,200 people were killed.It is believed that 96 people abducted that day
remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by
the IDF.Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late
November, 2023, and four hostages were released before that. Eight
hostages were rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages
were also recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military
as they tried to escape their captors.Hamas is also holding two Israeli
civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies
of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.Jacob Magid and Gianluca
Pacchiani contributed to this report.
White House says
administration 'cautious in our optimism' CIA head to visit Qatar as
Israeli reports downplay claims that hostage deal imminent-Bill Burns’s
to meet with Qatari PM after delegations from Hamas, Israel held talks
in Doha the previous two days; Trump envoy also expected there following
his trip to Cairo-By Agencies and ToI Staff Today, 2:52 am-DEC 17,24
CIA
Director Bill Burns is set to meet Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha on Wednesday, in an effort to
bridge the remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, sources with
knowledge of the talks told Reuters on Tuesday.The two will discuss
progress toward a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and hostage release deal,
one the sources said.The CIA declined to comment on the reported
meeting, which followed talks in Qatar on Tuesday that Hamas said were
“serious and positive.” On Monday, an Israeli delegation flew to Doha to
meet with mediators.“Hamas affirms that, in light of the serious and
positive discussions taking place today in Doha under the auspices of
our Qatari and Egyptian brothers, reaching an agreement for a ceasefire
and a prisoner exchange is possible if the occupation ceases to impose
new conditions,” the Palestinian terror group said in a statement.Along
with the talks in Doha, negotiations are being held in Cairo, where
sourced briefed on the meeting told Reuters that an agreement could be
signed in the coming days.Mohamed al-Hind, the deputy head of Hamas ally
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said his Iran-backed organization, which is
believed to hold some of the hostages taken during the October 2023
terror onslaught in southern Israel that started the war, had met with
Egyptian officials to discuss the proposed deal.US President-elect
Trump’s recently-appointed hostage envoy, Adam Boehler, was also in
Cairo Tuesday to meet with Egyptian officials on the efforts to secure
an agreement, a source familiar with the matter said, confirming
reporting in the Kan public broadcaster.Boehler met with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu Monday and is slated to also travel to Doha for
similar talks, the source said.‘Been in this position before’The US
administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has made
intensive efforts in recent days to advance the talks, with The Times of
Israel reporting Monday that President Joe Biden has been working with
Trump’s team to try to seal the deal before the inauguration on January
20.The initiative has made progress, though major obstacles remain,
three US, Israeli, and Arab officials have told The Times of Israel,
despite various reports — mainly in Arabic media outlets and citing
Palestinian sources — touting breakthroughs in the negotiations.“We
believe – and the Israelis have said this – that we’re getting closer,
and no doubt about it, we believe that, but we also are cautious in our
optimism,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said in an interview with
Fox News.“We’ve been in this position before where we weren’t able to
get it over the finish line.”Israeli sources cited by Hebrew media on
Tuesday also sounded more skeptical, saying a deal is weeks away and
still faces major hurdles.The Walla news site, citing three unnamed
senior Israeli sources familiar with the talks, said that while progress
has been made in recent weeks, there were still big gaps between the
sides, chiefly regarding Hamas’s insistence that any hostage deal lead
to the end of the war.“A deal isn’t around the corner,” one source was
quoted as saying.Another source criticized optimistic remarks made by
senior officials such as Defense Minister Israel Katz, who reportedly
told Knesset members on Monday that a deal was “closer than ever.”“It
doesn’t help the negotiations and also misleads the public and gives
false hope,” the source said.Similarly, Channel 12 news quoted unnamed
senior Israeli sources as saying that, while Hamas has shown willingness
to reach a deal, there are still considerable disagreements on core
issues that will take time to overcome.Additionally, a Palestinian
source cited by the Kan public broadcaster said the reports of an
imminent deal were “exaggerated and overly optimistic.”Several waves of
negotiations have stalled and failed to reach a sequel to an agreement
reached in late November 2023, in which 105 hostages were released in a
weeklong truce. Four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages
have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have
been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli
military as they tried to escape their captors.Israel believes that 96
of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023,
remain in the Strip, a figure that includes the bodies of at least 34
captives confirmed dead by the IDF.Hamas is also holding two Israeli
civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies
of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.Jacob Magid contributed to
this report.
Syria’s new rulers step up engagement with world as
nations urge humanitarian future-France and Germany send delegations to
Damascus, UN humanitarian chief is also in the Syrian capital; EU says
it will reopen its embassy-By AFP 17 December 2024, 3:10 pm
DAMASCUS,
Syria — Syria’s new rulers stepped up engagement on Tuesday with
countries that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah, with
the French flag raised at the embassy for the first time in over a
decade.Assad fled Syria just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned
tanks and other equipment in the face of a lightning offensive
spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).The collapse of
Assad’s rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations
around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy protests in
2011 led to one of the deadliest wars of the century.Rooted in Syria’s
branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western governments as a
terrorist organization, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric
and pledged to protect the country’s religious minorities.Turkey and
Qatar, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, have reopened embassies
in Damascus, while US and British officials have launched communications
with Syria’s new leaders.France, a key early backer of the uprising,
sent a delegation to Damascus on Tuesday, with special envoy
Jean-Francois Guillaume saying his country was preparing to stand with
Syrians during the transitional period.An AFP journalist saw the French
flag raised in the embassy’s entrance hall for the first time since the
mission was shuttered in 2012.After meeting Syria’s new leaders, the
United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday he was
“encouraged,” and that there was a “basis for ambitious scaling-up of
vital humanitarian support.”German diplomats were also in Damascus on
Tuesday, where they will hold talks that will focus on “an inclusive
transition process in Syria and the protection of minorities” as well as
“the possibilities for a diplomatic presence.”Italian Prime Minister
Giorgia Meloni said her country was ready to engage with Syria’s new
leadership but urged “maximum caution,” particularly over their
treatment of Christians.She said the Islamist-led rebels would be judged
on their attitude toward minorities.“Italy… is ready to engage with the
new Syrian leadership, obviously in the context of assessments and
actions shared with European and international partners,” Meloni told
parliament.“The first signs seem encouraging but maximum caution is
needed,” she said. “The decisive element will be the attitude towards
ethnic and religious minorities.Italy earlier this summer reopened its
embassy in Damascus, becoming the first Group of Seven (G7) nation to do
so.Rome holds the rotating presidency of the G7 this year.Meanwhile,
the European Union is to reopen its mission in Damascus following
“constructive” talks with Syria’s new leadership the bloc’s foreign
policy chief said Tuesday.“This is a very important step, that we will
reopen the delegation in Syria,” the EU’s Kaja Kallas told the European
Parliament.The EU’s top diplomat for Syria visited Damascus on Monday
for what Kallas called “constructive first contacts with the new
leadership and various other groups, also the civil society”.European
nations — along with other international players — are jostling for
influence in Syria after the end of the Assad family’s five-decade
domination.But they are wary of the new authorities.“We can’t leave a
vacuum in Syria. The EU must be present,” Kallas said.The EU has said it
stands ready to ramp up support for Syria — but has laid out a raft of
conditions that new leaders must respect.Those include protecting
minorities, overseeing an inclusive transition and shunning
extremism.Kallas on Monday said the EU would also push those in charge
over the presence of Russian military bases in the country, saying
Moscow had no place in Syria’s future.Syria came under international
sanctions over Assad’s crackdown on protests, which sparked a war that
killed more than 500,000 people and forced half of the population to
flee their homes.Assad left behind a country scarred by decades of
torture, disappearances and summary executions, as well as economic
mismanagement that has left 70 percent of the population in need of
aid.Abu Mohammed al-Julani, who heads HTS and now uses his real name
Ahmed al-Sharaa, stressed the need in a meeting with a delegation of
British diplomats to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian
refugees can return to their country.”He also said Syria’s rebel
factions will be “disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks
of the defense ministry.”“All will be subject to the law,” he added,
according to posts on the group’s Telegram channel.“Syria must remain
united,” he said. “There must be a social contract between the state and
all religions to guarantee social justice.”Kallas said the lifting of
sanctions and removing HTS from its blacklist would depend on “when we
see positive steps, not the words, but actual steps and deeds from the
new leadership.”‘Color of peace’In Damascus’s old souk, many shops had
reopened more than a week since Assad’s ouster, according to an AFP
journalist.Some shopkeepers were painting their store facades white,
erasing the colors of the old Syrian flag that under Assad’s rule had
become ubiquitous.“We have been working non-stop for a week to paint
everything white,” Omar Bashur, a 61-year-old artisan said.“White is the
color of peace,” he added.Abu Imad, another vendor, was selling
vegetables from his car at a square in central Damascus.“Everything
happened at once: the regime fell, prices dropped, life got better. We
hope it isn’t temporary,” he said.With Assad gone, the Syrian pound
started to recover against the dollar, moneychangers and traders said,
as foreign currencies again became available on the local market.Iran,
meanwhile, which backed Assad throughout the civil war, said its embassy
in Syria — abandoned and vandalized in the wake of Assad’s fall — would
reopen once the “necessary conditions” are met.Russia was the other
main backer of Assad’s rule.On Monday, the ousted president broke his
silence with a statement issued on Telegram saying that he only left to
Russia once Damascus had fallen, and denounced the country’s new leaders
as “terrorists.”Long before the emergence of HTS and jihadist groups in
the Syrian war, Assad consistently branded all his opponents, including
non-violent protesters, as “terrorists.”“My departure from Syria was
neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles,”
said the statement.Several former officials had told AFP that Assad was
already out of the country hours before the rebels seized
Damascus.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
PESTILENCES (CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS)
LUKE 21:11
11
And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and
pestilences;(CHEMICAL,BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS) and fearful sights and great
signs shall there be from heaven.
I
BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE THAT SAY THESE DRONES THAT ARE OVER THESE CITIES
ARE LOOKING FOR MISSING NUKE MATERIAL.OR HIDDIN BURIED NUKES BY
TERRORISTS.THAT WOULD BE A GREAT REASON THE GOVERNMENT IS HUSH HUSH OVER
THESE DRONES. IF THEY START GOING HEAVY OVER NEW YORK CITY. THIS WILL
BE A GREAT CLUE THEY ARE LOOKING FOR HIDDEN NUKES BY IRAN OR RUSSIA OR
CHINA YOU CAN BET. I'D SAY RUSSIA.
As mystery
surrounding drone sightings deepens, conspiracy theories take flight-A
lack of clarity about an apparent rash of nighttime drone activity in
New Jersey and other states in recent weeks is driving speculation.
Federal officials are being cautious.Dec. 16, 2024, 3:40 PM EST /
Updated Dec. 16, 2024, 7:25 PM EST-By Erik Ortiz
The burst of
drone activity lighting up the night skies above New Jersey and other
states is propelling online posts and conspiracies offering up bizarre
claims to explain the drone "hysteria," some involving missing nuclear
material and an impending alien invasion.Federal government officials
have downplayed the reports in recent days and insisted the objects
don't pose a public safety or national security threat, and in some
cases, may simply be normal commercial air traffic mistaken for
drones.More than 5,000 drone-related tips have been reported across the
Northeast to the FBI since mid-November, although the agency cautions
some are duplicates and most are not worthy of further
investigation.Still, the lack of clarity has only fueled social media
intrigue and speculation purporting to know who or what is driving the
activity.A TikTok video by the chief executive of a remote aircraft
system company in Kansas was shared Sunday by Joe Rogan on X, prompting
the popular podcaster to write: "This is the first video about these
drones that has got me genuinely concerned."The executive, John
Ferguson, explained that while he hasn't seen anything to indicate
nefarious intent, "the only reason why they would be flying, and flying
that low, is because they're trying to smell something on the ground,"
referring to a gas leak or radioactive materials.Ferguson, whose video
has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, did not immediately respond
to a request for comment Monday. Other TikTok users have shared similar
beliefs that the drones may be searching for nuclear weapons or dirty
bombs.The mystery behind the drones is also furthering decades-old
conspiracy theories. One refers to Project Blue Beam, which involves a
supposed government plot to fake an alien invasion and spark
panic.During a wide-ranging news conference Monday, President-elect
Donald Trump continued to cast doubt on government officials' inability
to fully explain an apparent surge in sightings and said the military
can establish where drones take off from."Something strange is going on.
For some reason they don't want to tell the people and they should
because the people are really — they happen to be over Bedminster,"
Trump said of drone activity near his golf club in New Jersey. He
declined to comment if he has received intelligence briefings on the
matter.A senior official briefed on the drone sightings told NBC News
last week that they believe drones were indeed seen over the Trump
National Golf Club as well as the U.S. Army's Picatinny Arsenal research
facility, also in northern New Jersey.Trump, however, said he doesn't
believe an enemy is behind the activity and that the U.S. would have
"blasted" down foreign unmanned aircraft. (The Federal Aviation
Administration has cautioned private citizens against shooting drones,
saying it would be a federal offense and could pose a safety hazard.)
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters last week that the
drones are neither U.S. military-related nor appear to be dispatched by
another country, such as Iran.But Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told
reporters Saturday that foreign actors shouldn't be ruled out."The
elusive maneuvering of these drones suggests a major military power
sophistication that begs the question whether they have been deployed to
test our defense capabilities — or worse — by violent dictatorships,
perhaps maybe Russia, or China, or Iran, or North Korea," Smith
said.Other lawmakers continue to echo similar concerns."Why can't the
federal government tell us where these drones are from?!" Sen. Rick
Scott, R-Fla., wrote Monday on X. "The lack of transparency is exactly
why Americans don't trust our federal government. Not to mention, if
these are the same Chinese drones I fought to ban from our military,
they're a national security threat."Last week, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.,
also called for increased government transparency and said he was
worried it's allowing potential "misinformation to spread, or at least
fear. We should know what's going on over our skies."One New Jersey
mayor, Ryan Herd of Pequannock Township, told NBC New York that answers
are necessary to quell community concerns."Now we're getting to the
point where this is just hysteria," Herd said.New Jersey Gov. Phil
Murphy told reporters Monday that there is "zero evidence" that the
federal government or military leaders are hiding anything further, as
Trump had alluded to, adding he "would just like to debunk there's a lot
of conspiracy theories out there right now."Former Republican Rep. Adam
Kinzinger, a vocal Trump critic, urged his social media followers not
to be swayed by the conspiracies just because politicians don't have all
the answers."Drones exist," Kinzinger wrote Monday on X. "This doesn't
mean they're Iran, alien, or sniffing out nukes."
Amid Mystery Drone Sightings, Radioactive Shipment Goes Missing In New Jersey-The medical device that went missing contained a small amount of Germanium-68 (Ge-68), as per the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.Edited by: Abhinav Singh-World News-Dec 17, 2024 15:06 pm IST
Mystery drone sightings have kept the citizens worried in several US states.In what comes as an alarming development, a radioactive shipment in the US state of New Jersey shipped from the Nazha Cancer Center in Newfield has gone missing. Medical equipment used for cancer scans was in the consignment that arrived at its destination, 'damaged and empty'. The development comes at a time when the mystery involving swarms of drones flying in the night sky has gripped the entire nation. The timing and nature of the missing radioactive material has led to theories suggesting the drones might be involved in searching for or monitoring the lost shipment.As per a notification by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), the device contained a small amount of Germanium-68 (Ge-68), used to calibrate the scanner's accuracy. It has been termed a "Less Than Category 3" level of radioactive material by the agency."The shipping container arrived at its destination damaged and empty. The licensee has filed a claim with the shipper. If the source is not located within 30 days, the licensee will follow-up with a full written report to include root cause(s) and corrective actions," read the notification. "Sources that are "Less than IAEA Category 3 sources," are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury," it added.Reacting to the news, some social media users speculated that the drones could be hunting for radioactive leaks or other hazards. However, official statements have been cautious, with no confirmation of such activities.Trump reacts to sightings-The sightings first began in November near Morris County, New Jersey but have since spread to Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York among other states.President-elect Donald Trump recently chimed in on the issue by suggesting that the mysterious drones should be shot down promptly."Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government's knowledge? I don't think so," Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social, a social media platform owned by him."Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!! DJT," he added.Meanwhile, the US government said the mysterious objects were "manned aircraft" being operated lawfully. "Upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully," said White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby.
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