
zarezadeh
Scores of Gazans killed in Israeli strikes amid US-backed aid 'mockery'
Buildings lie in ruin in Beit Hanoon in the north of the Gaza Strip, on January 7, 2025. (Reuters photo)
More than five dozen Palestinians have been killed in the latest Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip as the regime presses ahead with its brutal military campaign across the besieged Palestinian region.
Palestinian Ministry of Health said Thursday that 67 bodies and 184 injured people had arrived at Gaza hospitals in the past 24 hours.
Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency said new Israeli strikes and artillery attacks had killed at least 44 people since early hours of the morning.
“Forty-four people have been killed in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip,” civil defense official Mohammad al-Mughayyir was quoting as saying .
He said that the death toll includes 23 people in a strike on a home in the center of the besieged Palestinian territory.
“Twenty-three people were killed, others injured and several (are) missing following an Israeli strike on the Qreinawi family’s home east of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.”
A footage from al-Bureij showed Palestinians searching through the rubble of a destroyed building.
Mughayyir also reported “two people killed and several injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire this morning near the American aid center in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip.”
Meanwhile, the Gaza Journalists Syndicate said that Palestinian journalist Moataz Raja was “assassinated” by the Israeli army while covering its war on Gaza.
The syndicate said that an Israeli strike targeted Raja's vehicle on al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City, killing him instantly.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 221 journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said two Palestinians died while storming a warehouse for food in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israeli forces have killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded 62 others in two days, after they rushed to get aid from a distribution center under a US and Israeli mechanism.
Analysts, activists, and aid agencies have described the US-Israeli plan for aid relief in Gaza as a "mockery" of humanitarian law.
International aid agencies have already warned that Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, including the US-backed proposal, will only add to the suffering in the devastated Palestinian territory.
22 new settlements: Israel announces biggest expansion in West Bank
Far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.
“We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said on X, using the Israeli terms for the occupied West Bank.
Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz said the expansion plan “changes the face of the region and shapes the future of settlement for years to come.”
In a statement on Telegram, the right-wing Likud party of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the move a “once-in-a-generation decision”, saying the initiative had been led by Smotrich and Katz.
The party published a map showing the 22 sites spread across the territory.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement expansion in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.
Hamas condemnation
Hamas condemned the move as “further confirmation that the criminal Zionist occupation continues to impose facts on the ground by accelerating steps to Judaize Palestinian land within a clear annexation project".
“This is a blatant defiance of the international will and a grave violation of international law and United Nations resolutions,” the Palestinian group said in a statement.
“We call on the international community to take practical measures to confront the policies of annexation and settlement expansion, which constitute a war crime,” the Gaza-based movement noted.
For its part, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement denounced it as part of a colonial scheme to completely annex the West Bank, displace the Palestinian residents, and fulfill Talmudic dreams by imposing an apartheid regime and committing ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.
The movement also pointed to the international community's inability to stop the carnage in Gaza and even deliver humanitarian aid.
“These actions represent a sharp slap in the face to anyone who is still committed to the reconciliation process or international pressure," it said.
"The only effective option to confront these plans is resistance, especially armed resistance, because defending the land, rights, and sanctities is a legitimate and necessary right for the Palestinian people."
Press TV’s website
Yemeni forces fire hypersonic missile at Ben Gurion Airport
The Yemeni armed forces carried out another anti-Israel operation, targeting the regime’s Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic missile on Thursday.
The Yemeni armed forces have carried out another anti-Israel operation, targeting the regime’s Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic missile in response to the ongoing aggression against Palestinians in Gaza.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesperson for Yemen’s military, on Thursday reaffirmed that Yemen will continue to fulfill its religious, moral, and humanitarian duty toward the people of Palestine until the Israeli aggression ends and the siege of Gaza is lifted.
He also pledged that Yemen’s Armed Forces will respond to any Israeli attacks on the country with retaliatory operations, including the continued ban on the regime's air traffic to and from Ben Gurion Airport.
Yemen has imposed a strategic blockade on Israel’s vital air and sea routes to obstruct the delivery of military supplies to the regime over its genocidal war on Gaza.
Saree added that the Yemeni Armed Forces will continue to conduct their retaliatory operations against the Zionist entity deep inside the occupied Palestinian territories at an escalating pace.
He emphasized that Yemeni forces will not abandon their retaliatory operations in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip until the ongoing aggression ends and the tight blockade is completely lifted.
As the genocidal war on Gaza escalated, the Yemenis enforced a strategic blockade on essential maritime routes, intending to obstruct the delivery of military supplies to Israel and urge the international community to take action regarding the ongoing humanitarian emergency in Gaza.
The Yemeni Armed Forces have declared they will not stop their assaults unless Israel ceases its ground and aerial offensives in Gaza.
Press TV’s website
The Philosophy of Hajj from the Perspective of Imam Ali (a.s.)
The Philosophy of Hajj from the Perspective of Imam Ali (a.s.)
Imam Ali (a.s.) says: See that Allah, the Exalted, tested people from the time of Adam (a.s.) until the end of the world with stones that neither benefit nor harm, nor see nor hear, and made those stones a house with His sanctity and made it a place for people to gather. Then He placed it in the most rocky places and the most barren parts of the earth and the narrowest valleys, among rough mountains and hot sands and shallow springs and distant settlements, where no camel, horse, cow or sheep would fatten. Then Allah commanded Adam and his children to turn towards it. So, the Sacred House became their destination and their landing place. People turn to it with all their might from distant plateaus and plains, from deep valleys and steep ravines, and from the scattered islands of the seas, to shake their shoulders from their humiliation and filth, and to walk around it with disheveled hair and dusty bodies, saying, "There is no god but Allah." They cast aside their personal garments and put on the clothes of Ihram instead, changing their beautiful appearance by not straightening their hair. This is a great test, a severe trial, a clear trial, and an effective purification and cleansing that God Almighty has made a cause of His mercy and reaching His Paradise.
If God, the Exalted, had willed, He would have placed His Sacred House and His Noble Shrines amidst gardens and streams and flat lands, full of trees and fruits, whose houses are connected to each other and whose settlements are close to each other, amidst wheat fields and orchards and fields full of plants and plains full of water, amidst orchards and orchards full of pleasure and well-developed roads, and then, in proportion as the test and trial were easier, the reward and punishment would have been less. If the foundation of the Kaaba and the stones used in its construction had been of green emeralds and red rubies and with light and brightness, it would have reduced the penetration of doubt and hesitation in the breasts [of those who see the outward] and would have removed the efforts of Satan from the hearts and removed the turbulence of doubt and temptation from the people. But God tests His servants with various hardships, enslaves them with various struggles, and tests them with various afflictions, in order to remove arrogance and self-importance from their hearts, instill humility and modesty in their souls, open the doors of His grace and mercy to them, and make the means of His forgiveness easily available to them.
Congratulations on the arrival of the month of Dhul-Hijjah and the anniversary of the heavenly union of Hazrat Ali (AS) and Hazrat Fatima (SA).
The wedding anniversary of these two lights of the world is a great event that, in the words of Imam Khomeini (may Allah have mercy on him), has illuminated the world by spreading the light of this family.
‘Israeli drones knew they were children’, says brother of Gaza doctor who lost 9 kids
The brother of a Gaza doctor who lost nine of his children in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Khan Yunis says Israeli drones had a clear view of the household and “knew they were children” before the attack happened.
“Hamdi Al-Najjar had dropped his wife off at the hospital and returned home, where his children were playing in the yard. The Israeli drones could clearly see them and knew they were children,” Ali Al-Najjar told Press TV’s correspondent in Gaza.
Recalling the moments before the tragedy, Ali said his brother was preparing a simple meal for the children, who had gathered on the ground floor of their home.
“Just before they could eat, we heard an explosion in their area. I immediately called my brother, but couldn’t reach him. When we arrived at the scene, warplanes had struck them with two missiles,” he said.
Ali described how his sister-in-law, Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, was on duty at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis on Friday, treating children wounded in Israeli airstrikes, when the bodies of her own children began arriving—seven of them, one after another.
The family lost nine of their ten children that day, as the Israeli airstrike leveled their home. The bodies of two of the children have yet to be recovered.
“This is the unimaginable reality faced by Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar,” Ali said. “The first strike didn’t explode. As their father rushed to get the children out, the second missile struck, flattening the building and burning the children and their father.”
“When we arrived at the scene,” he said, “we found seven charred, tiny bodies, barely intact.”
Hamdi, himself a physician, was critically wounded and remains in intensive care.
“The oldest child, Gerya, was just 12. The youngest, Sidor, born during this genocide, hadn’t yet reached six months,” Ali said.
“The Israeli occupation assassinated my brother’s children, burning them” before the world's eyes, he said.
He also urged the international community to help evacuate his brother and his surviving 11-year-old son for lifesaving treatment abroad.
Press TV’s website
Martyrdom Anniversary of Imam Al-Jawad (A)
Imam Muhammad Taqi al-Jawad (AS) the Ninth Immaculate Holy Imam
Name: Muhammad bin Ali.
Titles: At-Taqi, Al-Jawad.
Cognomen: Abu Ja'fer.
Father: Imam Ali Reza(AS).
Mother: Sabika (also known as Khaizarun).
Birth: 10th Rajab 195 A.H. Madina.
Martyrdom: 29th Dhulqa'da 220 A.H. Baghdad. Buried in Kadhmain.
Imam al-Jawad (AS) was born on 10th day of the month of Rajab, in the year 195 A.H. in Madina - the city of his grandfather, the Messenger of Allah (S.A.W.), under the care of his father, Imam Ali bin Musa al-Reza (AS) who was qualified with the leadership (Imamate) and its qualifications, a lofty status, the position of leadership in the ummah and in the sciences of Islamic Shari'a and its laws.
The Imam (AS) was born in a period full of events and political situations, conflicts, and the tension of events of the Abbasid caliphate between Amin and Ma'moon, the two sons of Harun Rashid.
Those political events and the situations of the conflict which was going on between the two brothers, the Abbasid caliphs, never ended without reflecting their effects on the life of Imam al-Reza (AS) attracted the attention of the Muslims -in the city of his grandfather, the Messenger of Allah (S.A.W.) - including religious scholars, jurisprudents, governors, and common people. Thus, the political view of the caliph, Ma'mun, was directed towards him and, therefore, summoned him to the capital of his rulership (Merv) in the year 200 A.H. and appointed him as heir so that the caliphate would be transferred to him after Ma'mun's death.
The Imam Reza (AS.) was forced to leave Madina and move towards the city of 'Merv' (in Khurasan - Iran) to accept Ma'mun's invitation after many refusals and abstentions. Before moving to merv, he took with him, his son, Imam Muhammad al-Jawad (AS), then, he (AS) started out from Madina towards Mecca in order to pay a visit to the Sacred House (Ka'ba) and, also, to say farewell to it.
Imam al-Reza (AS) performed the hajj (pilgrimage) with his son, al-Jawad, who was only four years at that time.
Indeed, the young Imam expressed his adherence and love for his father by his insistence to stay under the care of the holy embrace. It was difficult for him to return home (Madinah), alone, and depart from his father, who wrote, in his farewell letter to the Sacred House, that he would not return.
The moments of farewell ended and the hour of departure approached; the young Imam al-Jawad(AS) returned home (to Madinah), bearing the yearnings of love, the adherence of a son for his father; his father moved towards the city of Merv while his heart departed to Madina, following the procession of the beloved al-Jawad.
The Value of Prayer in the Masjid Al Haram(Grand Mosque)
The Grand Mosque is a very sacred place and prayer in this place has great value.
Imam Sadiq (a.s.) quoted his venerable fathers as saying:
Prayer in the Grand Mosque is equal to one hundred thousand prayers
Prayer in the Grand Mosque is equal to one hundred thousand prayers (in other places).
Furu’ al-Kafi, vol. 4, p. 527
Hamas censures expanded Israeli military aggression in Jenin, attack on foreign diplomats
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has strongly denounced an expanded bulldozing and destruction campaign by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, which has now entered its 123rd consecutive day.
In a statement released on Friday, Hamas said the occupying forces were "intensifying systematic bulldozing and destruction aimed at erasing Palestinian landmarks.”
The Palestinian resistance group accused Israeli forces of “tightening the siege and preventing Jenin’s residents from reaching their homes."
Initial assessments show the aggression has led to the complete demolition of 600 homes in the camp, with the remaining houses partially damaged and rendered uninhabitable, Hamas said.
"Estimates indicate the occupation has carved out roughly 15 roads inside Jenin Camp—which covers less than half a square kilometer.”
The resistance movement says the city itself has suffered extensive destruction to buildings, facilities, and infrastructure.
“While completely destroying its infrastructure and heavily damaging much of the city’s Basic services have ground to a halt as a result of the aggression."
Hamas also said Israeli occupying forces continue "carrying out raids in Jenin and its surroundings, subjecting citizens to abuse and mass arrests."
Elsewhere in the statement, Hamas said, the regime’s soldiers in a flagrant escalation directly targeted dozens Arab and European ambassadors and diplomats during their visit to Jenin Camp
“The act epitomizes the occupation’s arrogance and its wholesale violation of all international norms and conventions.”
On May 21, Israeli forces stationed at Jenin refugee camp fired live ammunition at a diplomatic delegation as it was entering the camp to view the living conditions of the refugees.
The diplomats that visited the camp were from Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, India, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Mexico Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sri Lanka, Spain, Turkey, the EU, and the UK, along with representatives from several other countries and journalists accompanying them.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates had organized the visit for the international community to witness the Israeli regime’s ongoing aggression against the Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank.
Israel launched an intensified offensive against the occupied West Bank on January 21, claiming that it was targeting resistance fighters of the Jenin Battalion.
The regime has ramped up its West Bank violence since October 7, 2023, when it launched its genocide in Gaza. Since then, Israeli forces and settlers have killed about 1,000 Palestinians in the occupied territory.
The number of attacks by settlers and occupation forces on the Palestinians of the Occupied West Bank has increased dramatically since then.
The Israeli regime has also killed at least 1,000 Palestinians and abducted 7,000 in the occupied West Bank.
Thousands of residents have also been forcibly displaced after being driven from their homes by occupation forces over the past few months.
Press TV’s website
Israeli war on health workers: Gaza official says 12 skilled ICU nurses killed in one week
Muneer Alboursh, director general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, says Israel has killed 12 health workers in the past week, many of them in targeted attacks on their homes.
“Within a week, the Israeli occupation has assassinated 12 of the most skilled nurses and medics in the Ministry of Health, particularly those working in intensive care units,” Alboursh said, adding that some were killed along with their entire families.
He said Israel is “systematically” targeting medical staff and facilities, especially in the northern areas of Gaza to destroy the health care system there and push people further south.
His remarks come days after Israel’s finance minister declared that the regime is now “finally” targeting what he called the “civilian structure of Hamas.”
Israel launched the campaign of genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023. It has killed at least 53,762 Palestinians there so far, according to the health ministry of Gaza.
In January, the Israeli regime was forced to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas given the regime’s failure to achieve any of its objectives, including the “elimination” of the Palestinian resistance movement or the release of captives.
The 42-day stage of the truce, which was marred by repeated Israeli violations, expired on March 1, but Israel is refraining from stepping into talks for the second stage of the agreement.
On March 18, the regime resumed the strikes on Gaza, breaking the nearly two-month-long ceasefire.
Press TV’s website