LIVE Middle East Crisis. Iran attacks ‘terrorist targets’ in Iraq and Syria | Israel-Palestine conflict

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has Monday evening rocket attacks carried out on “terrorist targets” in the northern Iraqi city Erbil and in Syria.

Iranian state media shared a statement saying the Guard “spy centers” and “meetings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups” near Erbil with ballistic missiles. Rocket attacks were also carried out against the “perpetrators of terrorist operations in the Islamic Republic, in particular the Islamic State in Syria”.

Security sources report to the Reuters news agency that explosions were heard in an area such 40 kilometers northeast of Erbilin the autonomous region Kurdistan. Including it American consulate is located in the area where the explosions were heard, as are several residential properties. Two US officials told Reuters that the US facilities no damage to have. There would also be no American casualties are.

Air traffic at Erbil airport was disrupted after the attacks shut down, the security sources report. According to two medical sources there are at least two dead. Five injured civilians were taken to a nearby hospital.

Iran has in the past carried out attacks in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan. Iran claims the area is being used as… gathering place for Iranian separatist groups and agents of arch-rival Israel.

According to the Revolutionary Guards statement, the attacks in Syria were a “response to the recent terrorist atrocities in Iran”. Earlier this month, terrorist group demanded Islamic State took responsibility for two explosions in Iran’s southeastern city of Kerman. The attack killed 89 people, according to Iranian authorities. The attack was committed during a commemoration of General Qassem Soleimaniwho was killed by a US drone strike four years ago.

The intensive phase of the war “will soon end” in the south of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army is currently carrying out the heaviest attacks. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced this on Monday.

“We have clearly said that the intensive phase of operations will last about three months in the south. We are going to get there and it will be over soon,” the minister said. “The moment is coming when we will enter a new phase” in the war in the Gaza Strip.

In a press release, the army also indicated that four army units left the Gaza Strip in the evening. The special units are also active in the coastal strip.

Gallant also reiterated on Monday that the Palestinians will rule the Gaza Strip after the war, when the Palestinian Islamists no longer threaten Israel. “The Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, so they will rule them in the future. The future government of Gaza must emerge from the Gaza Strip and must be based on forces that do not threaten the State of Israel.”

At the beginning of January, Gallant revealed his plans for the post-war Gaza, in which there is no place for Hamas but also no place for settlers. He then specified that the Israeli army must retain the freedom to curb any possible threat.

Hamas has distributed a video purporting to show the bodies of two dead Israeli hostages. The statements in the video cannot be verified. Hamas claims the hostages died in an Israeli attack.

It concerns 35-year-old Itai Svirsky and 53-year-old Yossi Sharabi. They were taken hostage in Hamas’ major terrorist attack on October 7.

A third hostage speaks in the video: 26-year-old Noa Argamani. “They died from our own airstrikes. Stop this madness and take us home to our families,” she said, according to The Jerusalem Post newspaper. She was also reportedly injured.

According to the Israeli Defense Forces, it is not true that Svirsky was killed by Israeli soldiers: “That is a lie by Hamas.” No information was released about the other person. The army spokesman further condemned the release of the video, calling it a “brutal exploitation of innocent hostages.”

Hamas had already released a video on Sunday showing the three hostages alive. Israel was called on to stop the offensive in the Gaza Strip. Hamas had also made it clear that more information would be available on Monday about the fate of the three hostages.

The Yemeni Houthis say American ships are now also targets. The rebels have been attacking ships linked to Israel since October, as a sign of support for Hamas and the people of Gaza.

The new statements come after an attack by the Houthis on a cargo ship off the coast of Yemen. That ship sails under the flag of the Marshall Islands, but has an American owner. According to the British maritime security company Ambrey, there are no victims. Ambrey also reports that the ship has no link to Israel.

“A ship does not necessarily have to go to Israel to be a target for us. It is enough to be American,” a spokesman for the Houthis told news channel Al Jazeera. “The United States is about to lose its maritime security.”

The spokesman said last week that American and British ships were “legitimate targets” after the United States and the United Kingdom bombarded Houthis targets in Yemen, with support from the Netherlands and others. According to a US official, the US-British action weakened the Houthis’ ability to attack ships.

A man and a woman were killed Monday during an intervention by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank. This was reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Ten others were injured in the clashes in the town of Dura, near the city of Hebron.

The Israeli army announced that a violent uprising had occurred in Dura, with about a hundred Palestinians throwing burning objects and stones at Israeli soldiers. The army said a Palestinian was killed after throwing a Molotov cocktail.

The soldiers use both non-lethal weapons and shooting weapons. Several people in the crowd were hit. In this context, we have also learned of the death of a woman, the statement said. An investigation into the facts is underway.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October, tensions have also risen in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Violent confrontations regularly occur between Israeli soldiers and militant Palestinians.

“We will continue to ask for humanitarian access to Gaza. It must be fast, secure, without obstacles, extensive and continuous,” Antonio Guterres told the press. The war between Israel and Hamas has been going on for more than a hundred days.