President Donald Trump reiterated a promise Monday to punish Hamas and its sponsors severely if it does not release the 101 Israeli hostages, including several Americans, by the time he is inaugurated on January 20, 2025. Trump posted on Truth Social in the wake of news that one of the American hostages held by Hamas was in fact dead, and a day after Hamas released a video of another, living American-Israeli hostage in an effort to pressure Trump to lean on the Israeli government to make concessions. Trump, on Truth Social, wasn’t having it: The ceasefire in Lebanon, barely five days old, is near collapse as of Monday after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, following the Biden-Harris administration’s erroneous claim that Israeli surveillance drones violated the agreement. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported Monday that two Hezbollah rockets had been fired at Har (Mount) Dov, a strategic mountain that Breitbart News visited last Thursday and which Hezbollah claims, wrongly, is Lebanese. Hezbollah’s rocket fire followed the Biden-Harris administration’s claim that Israel had violated the ceasefire by flying surveillance drones over Beirut. As Breitbart News noted earlier Monday, nothing in the text of the ceasefire agreement prevents that, and the deal explicitly states that each side may engage in legitimate self-defense activity. Instead of protecting Israel, the Biden-Harris administration sided with France, which has an anti-Israel posture and regards Lebanon, a former French colony, as its own turf. That sent a signal of weakness to Hezbollah and to Iran. With the Biden-Harris administration’s claim in hand, Hezbollah fired at Har Dov, testing Israel’s resolve. Israel responded immediately, with attacks reported on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including artillery fire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement (translated from Hebrew by the Government Press Office): “Hezbollah fire at Mt. Dov constitutes a severe violation of the ceasefire, and Israel will respond forcefully. We are determined to continue enforcing the ceasefire and will respond to every Hezbollah violation — minor and major.” President Bashar Assad's Palace in Aleppo was invaded by Syrian rebels on Sunday evening, according to Arab media reports. The take overcomes after Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels swept into the city of Aleppo on Saturday, nearly encircling the remaining SAA pro-Regime forces, leading to a reinforcement by SDF-Kurdish forces. The Palace was captured along with the nearby Aleppo Military Academy, during which they claimed to capture Russian air defense systems. Almost the entirety of Aleppo is currently in rebel hands, except for a few Kurdish neighborhoods in the north of the city that still remain in SDF hands. Otherwise, the city has been encircled. Some reports indicated that HTS and the SDF were negotiating a withdrawal of SDF troops. However, the SDF denied this. This is the first time since the beginning of the Battle of Aleppo (2012-16) that the Assad regime has lost control of Syria's second city, signaling a serious deterioration in control for the regime. Reports indicate that all Assad troops have evacuated the city and that the only remaining non-rebel-held parts of the city are the northern Kurdish neighborhoods, which were reinforced and held by the SDF as regime troops pulled out. Egypt is attempting to advance a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, similar to the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Egypt has proposed creating a committee of brokers and regional guarantors, whose job it would be to supervise the implementation of the understandings reached during the proposed sixty-day transition stage. According to the agreement, Israel will be able to supervise the Rafah Crossing by means of security cameras, which will film the operations there during all stages of the deal, in exchange for Israel agreeing to allow large quantities of merchandise through the Crossing. It was also reported that Israel and Egypt are in disagreement over the security arrangements near the border area, due to the Egyptian military's opposition to the unilateral steps taken by Israel along the Philadelphi Corridor, and especially the placement of supervision and cameras which capture Egyptian as well as Gaza territory. Hamas has expressed willingness to show greater flexibility than in the past negotiations for a deal, and now agrees not to rule Gaza, have a presence near Rafah or influence its operations, during the transition period outlined in the proposal. In addition, Hamas no longer conditions the IDF withdrawal from all of Gaza or from the Philadelphi Corridor in the first stage of the deal. During the first stage, Hamas will be required to pass Israel a full list of the living hostages it and the other terror groups hold, and there will be a prisoner swap in which Israel will release convicted terrorists in exchange for its civilians and soldiers. In addition, 250 truckloads of humanitarian aid - over half of which is taken directly by Hamas - will enter Gaza each day through the Rafah Crossing. One of Obama’s little pseudointellectual gimmicks was very visibly holding topical books to send a signal ahead of a policy intifada. One of those infamous moments came when he was showing off Fareed Zakaria’s “The Post-American World”. That’s not something Biden does. Biden’s not much of a reader and he hasn’t bothered with that kind of posturing before, but then shortly after forcing a ceasefire on Israel using an arms embargo, he was photographed while ‘pulling an Obama’. President Biden was photographed exiting the Nantucket Bookworks bookstore in Massachusetts with a copy of an anti-Israel screed by Obama’s old pal Rashid Khalidi who had been a terrorist spokesman. Was Biden really planning to read through ‘The Hundred-Year War on Palestine: A History of Colonialism and Resistance’ which slurs Israel as an ‘apartheid state’ and describes Islamic terrorism against Jews as ‘resistance’? Obama’s exit strategy involved going after Israel in 2016 in order to force another realignment. Carrying around an anti-Israel book is a topical signal that another realignment on Israel is about to be forced. It’s not how Biden’s people would normally signal this. It’s how Obama’s people would. We know their objective. It’s the diplomatic recognition of an Islamic terrorist state inside Israel. https://worldisraelnews.com/obama-signals-he-controls-biden-and-hes-coming-for-israel/ The IDF zones that the army’s engineers have created within the Gaza Strip over the last year show that it’s serious about maintaining security control of the enemy territory for at least the medium-term, the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) reported Friday. By examining satellite imagery, the daily drew a clear picture of the new roads and infrastructure Israel has built in order to help the army’s efforts against the Hamas terrorists, as well as ensure security for Israeli citizens after the war is over. Only a few weeks into the ground incursion into Gaza, which began in late October, 2023, troops started blowing up the buildings within a kilometer of the border to create a buffer zone for the kibbutzim and moshavim whose fields and home came within meters sometimes of the original fence. By now, reported NZZ, approximately 90% of a north-south, kilometer-wide strip has been razed to the ground. The Philadelphi Corridor on the Egyptian-Gazan border that had been the main smuggling route for Hamas weaponry, both over and under the ground, has been turned into a constantly patrolled, two-lane, paved road, enabling the IDF to shut down this “oxygen pipeline,” as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dubbed it. The biggest project has been the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts completely through the Strip about a third of the way down from its northern tip, through the outer parts of Gaza City. The seven-kilometer-long road is wide, well-paved, and protected by earthen embankments in certain sections on either side. There are also watchtowers and at least two army bases dotting its flanks. Buildings have been steadily demolished all around the road to a form a secure zone five to six kilometers wide. The corridor started as the answer to a tactical need but is now “a strategic element,” Mitvim think-tank president Nimrod Goren told the paper. “It also serves to divide the territory, to control the movement of the Palestinian population, to enable ongoing action against Hamas infrastructure and to show that Israel will not be leaving any time soon.” Some 53% of Jewish Israelis support the reestablishment of Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip, according to the “Peace Index” survey released by Tel Aviv University in January. https://worldisraelnews.com/idf-laying-groundwork-for-long-term-control-of-gaza-strip-report/ [One minute] In this update: Syrian and Russian forces launch joint raids on residential neighborhoods in Idlib, Syria. Two U.S. Navy destroyers fought back this weekend against missile attacks aimed at American ships in the Red Sea. “U.S. Navy destroyers USS Stockdale (DDG 106) and the USS O’Kane (DDG 77) successfully defeated a range of Houthi-launched weapons while transiting the Gulf of Aden, Nov. 30 — Dec. 1,” U.S. Central Command reported in a news release on its website. “The destroyers were escorting three U.S. owned, operated, flagged merchant vessels, and the reckless attacks resulted in no injuries and no damage to any vessels, civilian or U.S. Naval,” the release said. The earliest known Chinese inscription in Israel from about 500 years ago has been uncovered in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. The rare 16th century CE Chinese inscription, unearthed in a dig on Mount Zion and discovered on a porcelain bowl fragment, reads: “Forever we will guard the eternal spring,” the state-archaeological body said. Ancient Chinese porcelain vessels were previously found in Israel, but this is the first to bear an inscription. The bowl was subsequently dated to 1520-1570, and originated in the Ming Dynasty, the IAA said. The 16th century saw close trade relations between the Chinese Empire and the Ottoman Empire which ruled the Holy Land at the time explaining how a dish from China ended up in Jerusalem. During that period, there were colonies of Chinese merchants in Beirut and Tripoli who likely had trade interests in Jerusalem, Cairo and Aleppo. Israel Antiquities Authority Director Eli Escusido said, “But it is fascinating to meet evidence of these relations also in the form of an actual inscription, written in the Chinese language, and in an unexpected place – on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.” https://www.jns.org/earliest-known-chinese-inscription-discovered-in-jerusalem/ [One minute] In this update: South Korea's Political Turmoil: The Democratic Party of South Korea calls for President Yoon Suk Yeol to step down after his martial law declaration and a failed military coup against parliament. Syrian Conflict: Syria's UN representative, Qusay Dahhak, blames regional and international actors, including Turkey, for backing terrorist attacks in northern Syria to destabilize the Syrian state. Lebanese Army Deployment: The Lebanese army moves into areas previously vacated by the IDF, marking a significant shift in the region. Assad's Abandoned Military Equipment: The Assad regime soldiers left behind an insane amount of armored vehicles and tanks while fleeing from Syrian rebels. Hostage Murders: An IDF investigation reveals that six hostages, whose bodies were recovered in a special operation from Khan Yunis, were murdered by their captors, not by IDF air strikes as claimed by Gaza terrorists. Hezbollah Threats: The IDF continues to act against Hezbollah's actions that violate understandings between Israel and Lebanon. Donald Trump's Appointment: President-elect Trump announces Adam Seth Boehler as Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. Assad's Secret Tunnels: Rebels expose the Assad regime's underground tunnels in Tall Rifaat, featuring meeting rooms, operations centers, hospitals, and more. Shin Bet Operation: The IDF and Shin Bet successfully recovered the body of abductee Itay Svirsky from the Gaza Strip for burial in Israel after his kidnapping by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Trump: ‘ALL HELL TO PAY’ If Hostages Not Released by Jan. 20:
"Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!"Lebanon Ceasefire Near Collapse After Biden’s Intervention; Hezbollah Fires, IDF Vows Response:
President Bashar Assad's Aleppo Palace invaded by Syrian rebels:
Egypt, Israel, in disagreement over Rafah Crossing:
Obama signals he controls Biden and he’s coming for Israel – opinion:
IDF laying groundwork for long-term control of Gaza Strip – report:
Telegram Daily Highlights: December 2, 2024:
Two US Navy Destroyers Come Under Attack While Escorting American Ships:
Earliest known Chinese inscription discovered in Jerusalem:
Telegram Daily Highlights: December 4, 2024:
