In the EU there are plans for sanctions against parts of the Israeli government. Conflicts are breaking out in the West Bank. All developments in the news blog.
12.16 pm: According to the opposition leader, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was aware of the danger posed by Hamas before the massacre on October 7 last year. “The government was aware of Hamas’ intentions,” Jair Lapid told journalists. “It was clear what they wanted.”
The centrist leader of the Future Party said he rejected repeated government claims “that the political leadership was somehow unaware that Hamas was no longer as deterred as it used to be.” He himself had seen relevant intelligence material during his time as head of government, and “of course” his successor Netanyahu and his ministers had also seen it, Lapid said.
At a security meeting on August 21 last year, a military adviser reported warnings on all fronts of the Iranian “Axis of Resistance” – including the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. His personal impression was that Netanyahu seemed “bored and indifferent,” says Lapid, who was also present at the time. In the months that followed, there were repeated warnings that Israel was in increased danger. Netanyahu’s right-wing conservative Likud party then announced: “Yair Lapid is lying again.” Netanyahu had not received any warning before October 7.
11.53 am: According to the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, a local commander of the organization was killed in the latest military operation by the Israeli army in the West Bank. Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, commander of the Al-Quds Brigades in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, “died along with several brothers from his brigade” after fighting against Israeli soldiers, the group said. The Al-Quds Brigades are the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, which is allied with the radical Islamic Hamas.
The Islamist organization further explains that Abu Shujaa has evaded “assassination attempts and arrests” by the Israeli army in the past. The Israeli army accuses Abu Shujaa, among other things, of having been “involved in several terrorist attacks” and of having “ordered a shooting attack in June in which an Israeli civilian was killed.”
11.45 am: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has not ruled out Germany’s approval of EU sanctions against two right-wing extremist Israeli government members. The Green Party politician made it clear at an EU meeting that, in her view, only the legal requirements and the allegations against the politicians should be decisive. It must be examined on a case-by-case basis whether these are sufficient for sanctions, she said.
11.32 am: According to state media, two officers of the powerful Revolutionary Guards have died in a gas leak in Iran. The incident occurred on Wednesday in the central province of Isfahan, state media reported. Around ten other men are said to have been injured in a production facility of the elite armed forces. It is not yet clear whether this was sabotage or an accident. The dead are a lieutenant colonel and a captain of the Revolutionary Guards, according to a statement published in state media.
11.29 am: In response to Israel’s large-scale military operation in the West Bank and the ongoing attacks in the Gaza Strip, Hamas has called for a resumption of suicide attacks, according to Arab media. According to the Arab broadcaster Sky News Arabia, former Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal called for a “return of suicide operations” at a conference in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Wednesday evening. The current situation requires an “open conflict,” said Mashaal. He called on Hamas supporters to “participate in the real resistance against the Zionist entity (Israel) on several fronts.”
