TV News LIES

In a major test to the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Israeli officials on Sunday said it launched a wave of attacks in Gaza after Hamas militants allegedly fired on Israeli soldiers.

Israel's military said in a statement Oct. 19 that it launched "a series of strikes" against Hamas in southern Gaza, several hours after it announced it had targeted militants in the Rafah area in response to an attack on Israeli soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces have said the latest strikes targeted Hamas militants, as well as tunnels and military buildings.

The moves in Gaza comes shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of major "action" against Hamas, accusing the militant group of violating the ceasefire agreement that has been in effect for less than two weeks.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said Oct. 19 that Israeli attacks had killed at least eight people in the last 24 hours, Reuters reported.

Hamas has reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire agreement following the strikes, according to Reuters, and said it was unaware of any incidents or clashes in Rafah and has not been in contact with groups there since March.

TVNL Comment:  We predicted that Israel would resume its attacks on Gaza as soon as the hostaages were returned. We knew that Israel would blame Hamas for breaking the cease fire.  And so it is.

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The Israeli army acknowledged on Friday that it killed an 11-year-old Palestinian boy in southern occupied West Bank on Thursday, claiming the incident occurred “outside open-fire regulations,” Israel's public broadcaster KAN reported.

The boy, Mohammad Bahjat al-Hallak, was shot in the pelvic area in the town of ar-Rihiya, south of Hebron, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which confirmed his death from an Israeli bullet.

The Israeli broadcaster said the commander of a battalion stationed in the southern West Bank “conducted a preliminary investigation,” and the killing occurred during what the military described as “disturbances and stone-throwing toward Israeli forces.”

The investigation found “deviation from open-fire regulations, with improper use of weapons,” and indicated that “this is the second incident of shooting outside the rules by the same unit,” without providing details about the first incident.

Palestinian sources told Anadolu that al-Hallak was playing soccer in the village field when Israeli forces entered, firing bullets and tear gas indiscriminately at civilians.

Local authorities say more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, around 10,000 wounded, and over 20,000 arrested, including 1,600 children, since the Gaza war in October 2023. The war was halted after a ceasefire reached earlier this month, based on US President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky failed to convince President Donald Trump of his nation's need for long-range Tomahawk missiles during a Friday afternoon meeting.

Zelensky met with Trump at the White House for the third time this year amid speculation that Ukraine might receive some of the missiles that would enable it to strike Moscow and Russian energy infrastructure.

Trump declined to provide Ukraine with the long-range missiles to prevent an escalation of the war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Zelensky told media after the meeting ended.

The 2.5-hour meeting "was tough" and involved Trump making "several strong statements" and briefing Zelensky about a 2.5-hour phone conversation between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, Axios reported.

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The Trump administration is moving to send the two survivors of Thursday’s strike in the Caribbean overseas rather than seek long-term military detention for them, four US officials and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

The source, who like the US officials spoke on condition of anonymity, said the survivors were being sent to Colombia and Ecuador.

The US military staged a helicopter rescue for the survivors on Thursday after the strike on their semi-submersible vessel, suspected of trafficking illegal narcotics. The strike killed the other two crew members on board, sources told Reuters on Friday.

The US military flew the survivors to an American navy warship in the Caribbean, where they were detained until at least Friday evening. It was not clear if they had already been flown off the ship as of Saturday morning.

The US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expected the survivors to eventually be sent to their home countries.

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Hamas intends to maintain security control in Gaza during an interim period, a senior Hamas official told Reuters, adding he could not commit to the group disarming - positions that reflect the difficulties facing US plans to secure an end to the war.

Hamas politburo member Mohammed Nazzal also said the group was ready for a ceasefire of up to five years to rebuild devastated Gaza, with guarantees for what happens afterwards depending on Palestinians being given "horizons and hope" for statehood.    

Speaking to Reuters in an interview from Doha, where Hamas politicians have long resided, Nazzal defended the group's crackdown in Gaza, where it carried out public executions on Monday. There were always "exceptional measures" during war and those executed were criminals guilty of killing, he said.
Pressure To Disarm

While Hamas has broadly expressed these views before, the timing of Nazzal's comments demonstrates the major obstacles obstructing efforts to cement a full end to the war in Gaza, days after the first phase of the ceasefire was agreed.

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The Israel Defense Forces are investigating reports Israeli troops who were occupying a key sewage treatment plant in Gaza set it ablaze amid a drawdown of their forces from much of the enclave's territory last week as a part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

The Sheikh Aljin sewage treatment plant, located to the southeast of Gaza City, was badly damaged in the reported fire, according to Gaza's Coastal Municipalities Water Utility.

The CMWU told ABC News that an in-person investigation of the site on Tuesday, Oct. 14, confirmed that four of the plant's six biological treatment towers had suffered massive fire damage.

According to the CMWU, the plastic cells and hydraulic systems inside the treatment towers had been destroyed and their concrete walls cracked by the fire.

Photos taken by the CMWU's staff after the fire and provided to ABC News reveal the damage to the plant. The photos show multiple treatment towers with charred walls, their interiors burnt out and strewn with garbage. The treatment towers are scattered with Hebrew-language graffiti, including one reading, "I'll be back soon."

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