Six rockets fired from Gaza toward southern Israel in apparent reprisal

Author: Published: February 23, 2023

Iron Dome downs most missiles; video appears to show several projectiles being shot out of Palestinian enclave, in possible response to IDF raid in Nablus that left 11 dead

By EMANUEL FABIAN and TOI STAFFToday, 4:27 am  

File: Rockets being fired by Islamic Jihad toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2022. (Attia Muhammed/Flash90)

File: Rockets being fired by Islamic Jihad toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, on August 5, 2022. (Attia Muhammed/Flash90)

Sirens sounded in southern Israel as half a dozen rockets screamed out of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said early Thursday morning, a day after a raid in Nablus killed 11 Palestinians and sparked calls for revenge.

Five of the missiles were downed by the Iron Dome anti-missile system and the last projectile landed in an open area, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement just before 4:30 a.m.

There were no reports of damage or casualties. No Palestinian group claimed responsibility.

Earlier, alarms blared in Ashkelon, Sderot and other areas near the Gaza Strip border, the army said.

Video posted on social media appeared to show the volley being fired out of Gaza, and interceptions over Israeli cities, including Ashkelon.

There were also unconfirmed reports of explosions being heard in the area.

The apparent attack came on the heels of a gunbattle in the West Bank city of Nablus Wednesday in which 11 Palestinians were killed and over 100 injured by Israeli forces.

Palestinian terror groups said at least six of those killed were their operatives. It was not immediately clear whether the remaining five were involved in the clashes or not.

Police earlier raised their alert level amid fears of a reprisal attack, and a spokesman of the Gaza Strip-ruling Hamas’s military wing issued a veiled threat, saying the terror group was “observing the enemy’s escalating crimes against our people in the occupied West Bank, and its patience is running out.”

Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad Al-Nakhala called the Israeli raid a “huge crime.”

“It is our duty as resistance forces to respond to this crime without hesitation,” he said.

Over the past year, Gaza-based groups — notably Islamic Jihad — have launched rockets at Israel in response to members being killed or arrested in the West Bank. A potential response from the West Bank or East Jerusalem was also being anticipated.

The IDF said troops had entered Nablus on Wednesday morning to arrest Hussam Isleem, a senior member of the Lion’s Den terror group, who was allegedly the third member of a cell that killed Staff Sgt. Ido Baruch during a shooting attack in October. The other two were detained last week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

Iran’s Highest-Ever Uranium Enrichment Level is ‘No Mistake,’ Warns Israeli Researcher

Author: Published: February 23, 2023

A number of new generation Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during Iran’s National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran, Iran April 10, 2021. Iranian Presidency Office/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS.

JNS.org – Observers in Israel are closely watching developments regarding Iran’s nuclear program following Sunday’s report that U.N. monitors discovered uranium enriched to just below weapons grade.

According to the Bloomberg report, the IAEA is seeking to determine how Iran obtained uranium enriched to 84% purity—the highest level discovered by inspectors in the country to date. The concentration is only 6 percentage points below military-grade uranium, a prerequisite for building nuclear bombs.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, former head of IDF Military Intelligence and director of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, tweeted on Monday that the unusual enrichment level is “a wakeup call,” adding that there are two possible explanations.

The first could be “a mistake that stems from the games the Iranians have recently been playing in connecting the cascades. The whole attempt to deal with valves and gas could lead to an error,” said Hayman.

 

“The second possibility is that a decision was taken to enrich to the threshold of military enrichment in order to test the response of the West,” he continued. “Another step in the Iranian goal of getting us used to a severe situation, as we got used to the 60% situation.”

Roy Cahanovitz, an Iran researcher at Ariel University’s Middle East and Central Asia Research Center and a research associate at the Alma Center, told JNS, “The regime in Iran does not make ‘mistakes’ in all that is tied to its nuclear program. This is a state led by a regime that knows very well the history and the attack capability of Israel.”

“There is a reason why Iran’s nuclear facilities have been spread out and planted deep underground,” said Cahanovitz. “The State of Israel and the Western world are struggling to find an effective strategy since Iran is a highly sophisticated state, which says X but does Y, in line with the tradition of the Grand Bazaar in Tehran.”

According to Hayman, ignoring the new discovery will raise the confidence of the Iranians and push them to enrich to 90% purity.

“If we decide not to ignore it, the question arises, how will we respond?… We lack an effective strategy against the Iranian nuclear program. The situation is growing more severe, and we are like, in the allegory, the frog that is getting used to the growing heat until it is too late,” the former intelligence chief warned. “This report is an opportunity for a wakeup call—a continuation of the current trend will lead us to a reality of a nuclear agreement.”

Last week, Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, an ex-Military Intelligence Research Division head and former director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told JNS that the “trip wire” for action appears to have been moved by both Israel and the United States, each in its own way, and they appear to have settled on the idea of needing to act “one minute before Iran starts enriching uranium to the military-grade, 90%.”

Responding to the Bloomberg report, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that he is in close contact with the IAEA and European governments over the development, adding that he’d say more on the matter after receiving further information.

On Jan. 26, a historic five-day joint Israeli-American military exercise called Juniper Oak came to an end. The exercise saw unprecedented levels of cooperation between the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for the Middle East, and the IDF.

Juniper Oak tested Israeli and American readiness and boosted the operational connection between the two militaries so as to enable them to deal with “regional threats,” according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, but the intended target audience for this message seems to have been Iran.

Some 6,500 US commanders and soldiers took part, as did missile ships and fighter jets from both militaries, which fired on simulated naval threats. The two air forces also practiced a range of scenarios, including the use of transport and mid-air refueling aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, search and rescue helicopters and B-52 bombers, which dropped munitions on targets in southern Israel. Fighter jets and bombers were refueled by Israeli and American refuelers, including the American Boeing KC-46 Pegasus, which will be in the IAF’s inventory in the coming years.

Out at sea, meanwhile, the Israel Navy’s Sa’ar 5 missile ships were refueled by an American tanker.

An initial review of the exercise was held by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael E. Kurilla aboard the George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea. Members of the IDF General Staff and the US Sixth Fleet also participated.

Juniper Oak was, according to Kuperwasser, “designed to send a message to Iran: You are the target. The entire concept is about discouraging them from reaching 90% enrichment. The Iranians need to take it seriously. They could tell themselves that those who want to deter don’t do it as loudly. On the other hand, they cannot ignore this message.”

US ‘deeply concerned’ by large number of civilian injuries, deaths in Nablus raid

Author: Published: February 23, 2023

State Dept. says it recognizes Israel’s security concerns but still alarmed by high casualty count after 10 killed, over 100 hurt; Arab, Muslim nations issue far harsher criticisms

By JACOB MAGID 23 February 2023, 12:15 am  

Palestinians carry away a wounded man during an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, on February 22, 2023. (Photo by Zain Jaafar / AFP)

Palestinians carry away a wounded man during an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, on February 22, 2023. (Photo by Zain Jaafar / AFP)

The Biden administration expressed its “deep concern” Wednesday over the number of Palestinians injured and killed during an Israeli military raid in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, joining the growing number of governments abroad speaking out against what the IDF has characterized as a necessary counter-terrorism operation.

Eleven Palestinians were killed in the Nablus raid, including three members of the northern West Bank-based Lions Den armed group who were the target of the operation.

A handful of other Palestinian gunmen were also killed during an intense firefight that broke out but the death count also included three civilians aged 61, 66 and 72, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Over 100 Palestinians were also injured in the gun battle. Two Israeli soldiers were lightly hurt by shrapnel.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price addressed the raid in the opening of his press briefing, noting that the administration “is extremely concerned by the levels of violence in Israel and the West Bank” and noted that both “militants and civilian bystanders” were among the dead and injured. “We wish a speedy recovery to those injured and our hearts go out to the families of the innocent bystanders who were killed today.”

Price said the US “recognize[s] the very real security concerns facing Israel” but is also “deeply concerned with the large number of injuries and the loss of civilian lives.”

He noted that the Biden administration had “productive conversations” with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in recent days during which each agreed to take steps to de-escalate tensions.

“We are deeply concerned that the impact of today’s raid could set back efforts aimed at restoring calm for both Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.

Price was referring to the Sunday decision by the Palestinian Authority to withdraw its support for a UN resolution calling for an immediate halt to settlement activity. Meanwhile, Israel agreed to hold off on advancing further legalization of outposts and the construction of new settlement homes in the West Bank for several months — though it is still this week going through with the legalization of at least nine outposts and the advancement of plans for some 10,000 settlement homes that it had announced earlier this month.

Israel also agreed to limit IDF operations in PA-controlled Area A of the West Bank, such as Wednesday’s raid, along with demolitions of Palestinian homes and evictions of Palestinian families, a Palestinian official told The Times of Israel.

A Palestinian faces an Israeli military vehicle during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, on February 22, 2023. (Zain Jaafar / AFP)

“Today’s events further underscore the urgent need for both sides to work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank,” Price added, calling on the PA to refrain from incitement to violence and Israel to cease evictions, demolitions, settlement advancements and outpost legalizations.

The US statement followed much harsher condemnations by Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey.

Jordan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it has “consistently condemned Israeli incursions into occupied Palestinian cities, including today’s raid in Nablus.”

Amman reiterated its call on Israel to cease such actions in order “to avoid further deterioration” that damages prospects for a two-state solution.

Egypt’s foreign ministry slammed the IDF raid and expressed its “deep concern” that the operation would further escalate tensions, harming Cairo’s efforts to instill calm.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry called the “Israeli occupation forces’ storming of the Palestinian city of Nablus… a serious violation of international law” and urged the international community to stop such escalations.

Palestinians run from teargas fired by Israeli forces amid a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, on February 22, 2023. (Zain Jaafar / AFP)

The United Arab Emirates foreign ministry — which was criticized by the US for not speaking out against Israeli expansionist moves in the West Bank last week — issued a statement late Wednesday condemning the IDF raid, calling on Israel “to reduce escalation and avoid steps that exacerbate tension and instability in the region.”

Qatar’s foreign ministry called the raid an “extension of [Israel’s] continuous and systematic crimes against the Palestinian people.”

Doha “warned of an explosion of tensions in the Palestinian territories as a result of the Israeli escalation” and calls on the international community to act to stop such “Israeli attacks” and to “provide protection” to the Palestinian people.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said “it is imperative that the Israeli authorities immediately put an end to these provocations and aggression to prevent a spiral of violence in the region.”

The UN’s Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland said in his own statement that he was “deeply disturbed by the continuing cycle of violence and appalled by the loss of civilian lives.”

“I am continuing my engagement with all concerned parties to de-escalate the situation. I urge all sides to refrain from steps that could further enflame an already volatile situation,” he added.

Earlier Wednesday, PA Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh said Ramallah had decided to again turn to the United Nations Security Council to intervene after the raid. The formal request was sent to the president of the Security Council later in the day.

Wednesday’s raid came nearly a month after a similar day-time operation in the nearby city of Jenin in which 10 Palestinians were killed, including an elderly woman in an intense firefight that broke out as the IDF sought to arrest a number of terror suspects.

Mourners carry bodies of Palestinians killed during a raid by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, during their funeral procession on February 22, 2023. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP)

That raid was met with a flood of international condemnation and Palestinian calls for outside intervention. The Security Council also convened an emergency session on the matter. A day after the raid though, seven people were shot dead outside of a synagogue in East Jerusalem in the deadliest Palestinian terror attack since 2008.

For the past year, the IDF has been conducting near-nightly raids in the West Bank amid a series of Palestinian terror attacks that killed 32 people in 2022, and another 11 since the beginning of the year.

The IDF’s year-long operation has netted more than 2,500 arrests in near-nightly raids. 171 Palestinians were killed in 2022, and another 60 have been killed since the beginning of the year, most of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under circumstances that are being investigated.

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