Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, February 23, that Palestinian prisoners by Israel on Sunday, February 23, in accordance with the Truce Agreement in Gaza, are postponed as long as Hamas do not end the “humiliating ceremonies” for released hostages. “In light of the repeated violations of Hamas, in particular the humiliating ceremonies which dishonor our hostages, and the cynical use of hostages for propaganda purposes, it was decided to delay the liberation of terrorists (Palestinian prisoners, editor’s note) which was planned (Saturday), until the release of the next hostages is insured without humiliating ceremonies” Netanyahu in a press release from his office.
Info to remember
⇒ Israel delays the release of Palestinians due to the “humiliating ceremonies” imposed on hostages
⇒ Israel notes its “operational alert level” around Gaza
⇒ Israel: the bibas autopsy revealed “no injury caused by a bombardment”
Israel raises its “operational alert level” around Gaza
The Israeli army announced this Sunday evening that it noted its “operational alert level” around the Gaza Strip, after the Prime Minister’s statements, Benyamin Netanyahu, indicating that the country was ready to take up the fights “at any time”. “After an evaluation of the situation, it was decided to note the level of operational alert in the area surrounding the Gaza strip. There is currently no change in the instructions of the command of the inner front” (passive defense), said a military press release. A truce between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel came into force on January 19 in Gaza, after more than 15 months of war.
Israel requires “total demilitarization of southern Syria”
“We will not allow that the forces of the organization HTS [le groupe radical islamiste Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, dont les forces ont renversé le président Bachar al-Assad en décembre, NDLR] Or that the new Syrian army enter the area south of Damascus, “Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanhayou said this Sunday in a new promotion of officers in Holon, in the center of Israel.” We demand the total demilitarization of southern Syria, “he added.
Israel is ready to take up the fights “at any time”
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said this Sunday that the army was ready to take up the “at any time” fights in the Gaza Strip, where a fragile cease-fire has been in force since January 19. “We are ready to regain intense fights at any time, our operational plans are ready,” he said in front of a new promotion of officers, in Holon (center), broadcast live. “We will complete the objectives of war entirely, whether by negotiation or by other means,” he added.
Hezbollah says he continues the resistance and refuses that the United States “controls” Lebanon
“The resistance against Israel is not over, it continues,” said Hezbollah Pro-Iranian Hezbollah, Naïm Qassem, during the Beirut funeral of his predecessor killed by Israel. “We will not accept in Lebanon that the American tyrant controls our country,” he added, while the country has acquired a new president and a new government supported by Washington.
Several hundred people in Lyon in tribute to the deceased Israeli hostages
Several hundred people gathered this Sunday in Lyon on Sunday in order to denounce “the unjustifiable” death of Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas, an AFP journalist noted. The demonstrators – a thousand according to the organizers, around 800 according to the prefecture – were gathered in front of the Shoah Memorial, Place Carnot, in the city center of Lyon. Often carrying “unjustifiable” signs, they wanted to denounce in particular the “assassinations of children” by Hamas.
The Iranian supreme guide promises to continue “resistance” to Israel
“The enemy should know that resistance to usurpation, oppression and arrogance will never stop and continue until its ultimate goal,” said the Iranian supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khameneiin reference to Israel, a sworn enemy of Iranian power which does not recognize the existence of the Israeli State. His message was published at the time of the Hassan Nasrallah Beirut funeral, which led Hezbollah for three decades, a movement armed in Lebanon militarily supported and financially by Iran.
West Bank: Israel, empty of refugee camps and prohibits their return
The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced this Sunday that the Israeli army had emptied three Palestinian refugee camps in northern West Bank and that it had their return. “Forty thousand Palestinians have already been evacuated from Jénine, Tulkarem and Nour Chams refugee camps, and these camps are now empty of their inhabitants,” he said in a statement. “I gave the instruction (to the soldiers) to prepare for an extended stay in the camps that have been evacuated, for the coming year, and not to allow the return of their inhabitants or the resurgence of terrorism,” he adds.
Israel delays the release of Palestinians due to the “humiliating ceremonies” imposed on the hostages
Israel has announced to postpone the releases of Palestinian prisoners, provided for as part of the fragile ceasefire in force in Gaza, while waiting for Hamas to guarantee that it will end the “humiliating ceremonies” for released hostages. One week before the end of the first phase of the truce agreement in force in the Palestinian territory ravaged by 15 months of war, the Israeli government and the Islamist movement accused each other of raping it, on the occasion of what was to be the seventh planned Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Each time, with the exception of the first release of hostages, Hamas organized staging in Gaza, in particular by exhibiting hostages escorted by armed and hooded men on a scene and forcing them to speak in a microphone in front of a crowd to say that they were well treated with their kidnappers.
Hamas accuses Israel of “blatant violation” of the agreement
Hamas accused Israel of “flagrant violation” of the truce agreement after the Israeli decision of delaying the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners to be released on Saturday in exchange for the return of six Israeli hostages, released earlier from Gaza.
“The non-compliance by the Occupation (Israel, Editor’s note) of the release of the seventh group of prisoners at the agreed time under the terms of the agreement is a blatant violation of it,” warned in an Abdelative Al-Qanou statement, spokesperson for Hamas, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, “deliberate procrastination and tactics”.
Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, before Nasrallah funeral
Two Israeli strikes targeted southern Lebanon, said the National Information Agency (Ani, official), shortly before the start of imposing funeral in Beirut of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. The strikes targeted the Tyr region, about ten kilometers from the Israeli-Lebanese border, the Ani said. On Saturday evening, the Israeli army had already bombed the Lebano-Syrienne (EST) border region, saying that he wanted to prevent Hezbollah pro-Iranian from introducing weapons in Lebanon.
Almost five months after the death of Hassan Nasrallah in a devastating Israeli strike on Beirut, the Hezbollah pro-Iranian organizes this Sunday the funeral of its former chief in the presence of tens of thousands of people expected. These funerals are the first popular event organized by Hezbollah since the entry into force of the ceasefire at the end of November, after more than a year of conflict with Israel, whose movement was very weak. Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to carry out sporadic strikes in Lebanon. For its part, Hezbollah says he refuses that the United States “controls” Lebanon.
Israel: the bibas autopsy revealed “no injury caused by a bombardment”
The autopsy of Shiri Bibas and his two children, hostages who died in captivity whose bodies were returned to Israel, revealed any index “injury caused by a bombing,” said Chen Kugel, head of the National Institute of Legal Medicine. The Palestinian Islamist movement claims that the young woman and her two children were killed in November 2023 by an Israeli bombardment on the place where they were retained in the Gaza Strip.
After autopsy, the Israeli army said on Friday that the two children had “been brutally killed in captivity in November 2023 by Palestinian terrorists”. According to her, the murderers have acted “with bare hands”. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has denounced “horrible murders” committed by “monsters”.
Marco Rubio says that Hamas will be “destroyed” if it does not release all Israeli hostages
The head of American diplomacy, Marco Rubio, warned on Saturday that Hamas would be “destroyed” if he did not free “immediately” all the hostages detained in the Gaza Strip, also denouncing the death of an Israeli family in the hands of the Islamist movement. “The treatment of hostages by Hamas, including its brutal murders of the Bibas family, shows more their savagery and constitutes a new reason why we say that these terrorists must release all the hostages immediately or be destroyed,” hammered the Secretary of State on X.