The Israeli navy stated Monday an Israeli American soldier who was believed to have been captured alive by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack was killed that day and his physique taken into the Gaza Strip.
Hamas continues to be holding round 100 hostages inside Gaza, a minimum of a 3rd of whom are believed to be useless. The Biden administration says it’s making one other push for a ceasefire and the discharge of the remaining hostages, after almost a 12 months of oblique negotiations between Israel and Hamas repeatedly stalled.
Diplomats see a possible opening after final week’s ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, an ally of Hamas that started launching rocket assaults and buying and selling fireplace with Israel the day after the October 2023 assault.
The delicate ceasefire has held despite repeated Israeli strikes which have angered Lebanese officers however not but triggered a response from Hezbollah. Israel says it has acted to thwart potential assaults.
The battle in Gaza started when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 folks, largely civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage. Greater than 100 hostages have been launched throughout a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023.
Israel’s ongoing retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,429 Palestinians, greater than half of them girls and youngsters, in accordance with Gaza’s Well being Ministry, which doesn’t say how most of the useless have been combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, with out offering proof.
The battle has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the inhabitants of two.3 million, often multiple times.
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Israeli American soldier thought to have been taken hostage is now presumed useless
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli navy stated Monday an Israeli American soldier who was believed to have been taken hostage alive on Oct. 7, 2023, is now presumed to have been killed throughout Hamas’ assault and his physique taken into Gaza.
Neutra, 21, was a New York native who enlisted within the Israeli navy and was captured when Hamas attacked southern Israel. Neutra’s mother and father, Ronen and Orna, led a public marketing campaign whereas he was considered alive for his or her son’s freedom. They spoke at protests within the U.S. and Israel, addressed the Republican Nationwide Conference this 12 months and stored up ties with the Biden administration of their campaign to safe their son’s launch.
In an announcement saying the demise, the navy didn’t say the way it got here to the conclusion over Neutra’s destiny. He was certainly one of seven American Israelis nonetheless held in Gaza, 4 of whom at the moment are stated to be useless. Hamas launched a video of 1, Edan Alexander, over the weekend, indicating he was nonetheless alive.
In late summer time, Hamas killed Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one other outstanding Israeli American hostage, together with 5 different captives, whose our bodies the Israeli navy recovered.
The battle in Gaza started when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 folks, largely civilians, and taking round 250 hostage. Some 100 captives are still held inside Gaza, round two-thirds believed to be alive.
Iranian-supported Iraqi militias again Syrian authorities’s counteroffensive in opposition to insurgents
Iraqi militias supported by Iran deployed in Syria on Monday to again the federal government’s counteroffensive in opposition to a shock advance by insurgents who seized the most important metropolis of Aleppo, a militia official and a battle monitor stated.
Insurgents led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a two-pronged attack on Aleppo final week and the countryside round Idlib earlier than shifting towards neighboring Hama province. Authorities troops constructed a fortified defensive position in northern Hama in an try and stall the insurgents’ momentum whereas jets on Sunday pounded rebel-held strains.
Iranian International Minister Abbas Araghchi met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus Sunday and introduced Tehran’s full assist for his authorities. He later arrived for talks in Ankara, Turkey, one of many rebels’ major backers.
Iran has been of Assad’s principal political and navy supporters and deployed navy advisers and forces after 2011 protests in opposition to Assad’s rule become an all-out battle.
Tehran-backed Iraqi militias already in Syria mobilized and extra forces crossed the border to assist them, stated the Iraqi militia official, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not approved to talk to the media.
In accordance with Britain-based opposition battle monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some 200 Iraqi militiamen on pickups crossed into Syria in a single day via the strategic Bou Kamal. They have been anticipated to deploy in Aleppo to assist the Syrian military’s pushback in opposition to the insurgents, the monitor stated.
US Navy destroys Houthi missiles and drones focusing on American ships in Gulf of Aden
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Navy destroyers shot down seven missiles and drones fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on the warships and three American service provider vessels they have been escorting via the Gulf of Aden. No harm or accidents have been reported.
U.S. Central Command stated late Sunday that the destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O’Kane shot down and destroyed three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three drones and one anti-ship cruise missile. The service provider ships weren’t recognized.
The Houthis claimed accountability for the assault in an announcement and stated that they had focused the U.S. destroyers and “three provide ships belonging to the American military within the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
Houthi assaults for months have focused delivery via a waterway the place $1 trillion in items move yearly over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Israel’s floor offensive in Lebanon. A ceasefire was introduced in Lebanon final week.
The usStockdale was concerned in an analogous assault on Nov. 12.
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