The United States has hit elite Iranian units and militias allied with Tehran in raids carried out in Syria and Iraq: the Pentagon has confirmed it.
At least 13 pro-Iranian militiamen were killed in American raids in Syria alone: this was stated by the NGO Observatory for Human Rights in Syria.
"Our response will continue in the times and ways we decide": US President Joe Biden said this when speaking about the American raids in Iraq and Syria.
“Today I gave the order to strike targets of Iranian-affiliated groups in Iraq and Syria in response to the killing of the three American soldiers in Jordan,” the president said.
“US Central Command (Centcom) forces conducted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups. US military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft including long-range bombers flown by the United States."
Centcom writes on of supplying ammunition to militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against US and coalition forces,” US forces added.
Hamas wants Barghouti free, US raids in Syria and Iraq
- Pro-Iranian groups in Syria and Iraq are in the sights of the US: the raids promised by Joe Biden after the killing of three US soldiers on the border between Jordan and Syria began in the evening.
According to Fox News, which cites senior Pentagon sources, a total of eight targets were hit.
There would be six victims, news reported both by American television and by the NGO Observatory on Human Rights in Syria, specifying that some of them were not Syrians.
This on the day in which Hamas brought the release of Marwan Barghouti onto the negotiating table with Israel.
The request - together with those for a permanent ceasefire and the total withdrawal of the army from the Strip in exchange for the release of the hostages - was made in an interview with a Lebanese TV by the Hamas representative in Beirut Osama Hamdan, who the name of Ahmad Saadat was also mentioned.
Barghouti - who has long been a possible leading candidate for the presidency of the Palestinian National Authority after Abu Mazen - has been in prison since 2002 as the leader of the Second Intifada.
He was sentenced to 5 life sentences on charges of planning three attacks that caused the death of 5 Israelis.
While Saadat is the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, sentenced to 30 years for his role in the 2001 killing of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
The names of Barghouti and Saadat are part of those "thousands" of Palestinian prisoners, including those with life sentences, who according to Hamdan Israel should release based on the proposal mediated in Paris by the USA, Qatar and Egypt.
The head of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh - in agreement with the leader of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza Ziad Nakhaleh and the deputy secretary of the PFLP Jamil Mezher - confirmed that any agreement with Israel must lead to a permanent stop in the fighting and the exit from the Palestinian enclave of the IDF, in addition to the end of the blockade of Gaza, the reconstruction of the Strip and the exchange of prisoners.
An Israeli source told the US broadcaster NBC that, given the current rumors about Hamas' positions, the probability of an agreement "is no greater than 50%".
Also marked by skepticism are the comments leaked to Canale 12 TV by some ministers who took part in the war cabinet meeting last night, according to which optimism certainly does not prevail.
It is no coincidence that on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv the families of the over 130 hostages still in Gaza called a huge protest in front of the Ministry of Defense.
The slogan chosen says it all: '120 days underground without air, the hostages are in mortal danger'.
Hopes therefore seem to be entrusted to the further mediation of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who will arrive in Israel over the weekend for his sixth visit since the conflict began.
On the 119th day of the war, the army is continuing operations in the Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip, where close fighting took place with the militiamen.
The deaths in the Strip according to Hamas data - which does not distinguish between killed civilians and militiamen - have reached 27,131.
And tension also remains high in the region: another advisor to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was killed in a raid in Damascus, attributed to Israel.
While the IDF intercepted a surface-to-surface missile launched towards Israel from the Red Sea.
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