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Lebanon’s civil aviation authorities have banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all airplanes departing from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport. The measure announced Thursday comes after such devices, mainly used by members of the militant Hezbollah group, exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing dozens and wounding 3,000 people over the past two days. The authorities called on all airline companies to inform passengers using the airport that carrying pagers and walkie-talkies onto jets is banned “until further notice.” It added that authorities will confiscate such devices found with passengers. (AP)

Japanese wireless communication equipment-maker Icom says it cannot confirm whether a walkie-talkie used in the explosive attacks against Hezbollah was related to the company, noting that the production and sales of that device and its battery were discontinued about a decade ago. The Osaka-based Icom was responding Thursday to a report that said one of the walkie-talkies used in the attacks a day earlier had a sticker with the company’s logo. Icom also noted that the device in question did not have an anti-counterfeit hologram sticker, which all authentic Icom products should be carrying. Company executive Yoshiki Enomoto told Japanese television NTV he was “surprised” by the news. He said the company could not confirm if the unit in question was Icom-made. “This specific device had a lot of fake copies out in the market,” he said, adding that company officials could only determine its authenticity if they see its circuits. Icom said the wireless radio unit IC-V82 was once manufactured for export including to the Middle East from 2004 to October 2014. But the production and shipment of its main unit ended about 10 years ago and batteries for the main units have also been discontinued. The company said its export models are only distributed through official sales representatives under rigid export control rules set by the Japanese Trade Ministry. All Icom radio equipment is manufactured by its subsidiary, Wakayama Icom Inc., under strict security controls that only allow use of authorized parts. The products are only manufactured at the Wakayama plant in Japan, Icom said. (AP & YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Iranian hackers reached out to President Joe Biden’s campaign, offering stolen information from former President Donald Trump’s campaign, according to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The FBI and other federal agencies reported that the emails were sent unsolicited in an apparent attempt to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election.

Officials stated that none of the targeted individuals responded, so the hacked material never surfaced during the final stretch of the highly competitive election.

The emails, which were distributed between late June and early July, were sent to individuals formerly connected with Biden’s campaign. The U.S. government revealed in a statement that the emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails.”

This incident is the latest in a series of alerts from officials warning about Iran’s ongoing attempts to disrupt the 2024 election. Earlier, Iran had been linked to a hack-and-leak operation, with the FBI and other agencies tracing it back to Tehran. Just last week, the Justice Department indicated that charges are being prepared regarding that breach, according to AP.

In a unified statement, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency highlighted that both the hacking of Trump’s campaign and the unsuccessful attempt to target Biden’s campaign were part of a larger effort to undermine voter confidence and create discord.

On August 10, the Trump campaign disclosed that it had been hacked, attributing the breach to Iranian agents who had accessed and distributed sensitive internal documents.

Numerous media organizations — Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post — received these confidential materials. However, to date, none of the outlets have reported on the specific content of the leaked documents.

Investigators suspect that in June, Iranian hackers compromised the personal email of Roger Stone, a longtime associate of Trump, and subsequently tried to gain access to the account of a senior member of Trump’s campaign through Stone’s email.

On July 22, Politico reported that it had begun receiving emails from an unidentified source using an AOL account under the pseudonym “Robert.” The emails contained what seemed to be a research file on Ohio Senator JD Vance, who would later be chosen as Trump’s vice-presidential nominee. The dossier, dated February 23, was created months before Vance was selected as the running mate.

Following the announcement on Wednesday, the Trump campaign responded, saying, “This is further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror. Kamala and Biden must come clean on whether they used the hacked material given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump. What did they know and when did they know it?”

Morgan Finkelstein, a spokesperson for Kamala Harris’s campaign, mentioned that the campaign has worked with law enforcement since learning that some individuals connected to Biden’s team had received the emails.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein clarified.

{Matzav.com}

Swedish authorities on Thursday charged a 52-year-old woman associated with the Islamic State group with genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes against Yazidi women and children in Syria — the first such case on trial in the Scandinavian country. Lina Laina Ishaq, who’s a Swedish citizen, allegedly committed the crimes from August 2014 to December 2016, in the city of Raqqa, the former de facto capital of the militant group’s self-proclaimed caliphate and home to about 300,000 people. The crimes “took place under IS rule in Raqqa, and this is the first time that IS attacks against the Yazidi minority have been tried in Sweden,” senior prosecutor Reena Devgun said in a statement. The Yazidis are one of Iraq’s oldest religious minorities. “Women, children and men were regarded as property and subjected to being traded as slaves, sexual slavery, forced labor, deprivation of liberty and extrajudicial executions,” Devgun said. “IS tried to annihilate the Yazidi ethnic group on an industrial scale.” In announcing the charges, Devgun told a news conference that the prosecutors were able to identify Ishaq through information from the U.N. team investigating atrocities in Iraq, known as UNITAD. In a separate statement, the Stockholm District Court said the prosecution claims she detained a number of women and children of the Yazidi ethnic group in her residence in Raqqa, and “allegedly exposed them to, among other things, severe suffering, torture or other inhumane treatment” and also deprived “them of fundamental rights for cultural, religious and gender reasons contrary to general international law.” According to the charge sheet, obtained by The Associated Press, Ishaq is suspected of holding nine people, including children, in her Raqqa home for up to seven months and treating them as slaves. She also abused several of those she held captive. The charge sheet said that Ishaq, who denies wrongdoing, is accused of having molested a baby, said to have been 1 month old at the time, by holding a hand over the child’s mouth when he screamed to silence him. She is also suspected of having sold people to IS knowing they risked being killed or subjected to serious sexual abuse. “In short, her explanation is that she has never bought another person, that she has never owned or exercised any control over another person, and that she has never sold another person,” Ishaq’s lawyer Mikael Westerlund told Swedish news agency TT. In 2014, IS militants stormed Yazidi towns and villages in Iraq’s Sinjar region and abducted women and children. Women were forced into sexual slavery, and boys were taken to be indoctrinated in jihadi ideology. The court said Ishaq’s trial was to start Oct. 7 and last approximately two months. Large parts of the trial are to be held behind closed doors. Ishaq was earlier convicted in Sweden and sentenced to three years in prison for taking her 2-year-old son to Syria in 2014, to an area then controlled by IS. She had claimed that at the time, she had told the child’s father that she and the boy were only going on a holiday to Turkey. However, once in Turkey, the two crossed into Syria and into IS-run territory. In 2017, when the Islamic State’s reign began to collapse, Ishaq fled from Raqqa and was captured by Syrian Kurdish troops. […]

Israeli security forces on Wednesday neutralized an explosive charge at a lookout point near Ateret in Samaria’s Binyamin region, two weeks after a car bombing was thwarted in the same area.

The bomb was discovered by the driver of an excavator mechanical shovel at Giv’at HaSela’im, an observation point located within the municipal boundaries of Ateret that is still being developed.

The device, a gas canister with a long wire that disappeared into nearby bushes, was placed in the middle of the road. The driver reported the device to security forces, who worked to neutralize the threat.

According to Arutz 7, the incident came amid ongoing riots emanating from the nearby Palestinian village of Umm Safa, with residents carrying out attacks near-daily in protest of the development of Giv’at HaSela’im.

The riots, which are being led by dozens of Arab terrorists and have included assaults on construction workers and security personnel, have seen attacks with fireworks and rocks, the Israeli outlet reported.

On Sept. 2, Israeli forces neutralized a powerful car bomb near the main entrance to Ateret. The 100-pound charge was intended to detonate while a school bus was passing by, security officials believe.

Israel’s Channel 12 News said the vigilance of a local resident prevented a “major disaster,” with security forces neutralizing the heavy bomb before school buses entered the town early in the morning.

Israel Ganz, the head of the Binyamin Regional Council, which has jurisdiction over the area of Ateret, said at the time, “The terrorism in Judea and Samaria requires military action just like in Gaza and Rafah.”

In the first half of 2024, Judea and Samaria saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to figures published on Aug. 1 by Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria).

During that time period, first responders recorded 3,272 terrorist acts in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges and 109 shootings.

Terrorists murdered 14 people and wounded more than 155 others in Judea and Samaria between January and June, the rescue group said. JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

The IDF announced a series of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah launchers and terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Acting on intelligence from the IDF, fighter jets struck around 30 Hezbollah launch sites containing approximately 150 launcher barrels that were prepared to fire projectiles at Israeli territory. In addition to the launchers, the strikes hit Hezbollah infrastructure and a weapons storage facility in several areas. IDF artillery also targeted the Naqoura region. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Rav Gershon Ribner, rosh kollel of Kollel Nesivos Hatorah and son-in-law of Rav Shneur Kotler, has succeeded in applying classical Talmudical analysis and methodology to understanding all areas of Yiddishkeit, bringing out its profundity and sense.

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Iranian hackers sought to interest President Joe Biden’s campaign in information stolen from rival Donald Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to people associated with the then-Democratic candidate in an effort to interfere in the 2024 election, the FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday. There’s no indication that any of the recipients responded, officials said, and several media organizations approached over the summer with leaked stolen information have also said they did not respond. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called the emails from Iran “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity” that were received by only a few people who regarded them as spam or phishing attempts. The emails were received before the hack of the Trump campaign was publicly acknowledged, and there’s no evidence the recipients of the emails knew their origin. The announcement is the latest U.S. government effort to call out what officials say is Iran’s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran. U.S. officials in recent months have used criminal charges, sanctions and public advisories to detail actions taken by foreign adversaries to influence the election, including an indictment targeting a covert Russian effort to spread pro-Russia content to U.S. audiences. It’s a stark turnabout from the government’s response in 2016, when Obama administration officials were criticized for not being forthcoming about the Russian interference they were seeing on Trump’s behalf as he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton. In this case, the hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden’s campaign before he dropped out. The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a statement released by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The agencies have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters’ faith in the election and to stoke discord. The FBI informed Trump aides within the last 48 hours that information hacked by Iran had been sent to the Biden campaign, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to speak because of the sensitive nature of the investigation. The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — were leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received. Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate. In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails. “We’re not aware of […]

“Telling your wife your needs and wants” is a complete waste of time for married men who want happiness and I’ll tell you why. So many marriage experts claim they have the secret to a happy marriage and that it all comes down to communication, boundaries and bringing in more money. They tell you to help out more at home, talk about the past, go together to a marriage professional but never stop to take inventory of whether ANY of these methods are actually WORKING in creating happiness and joy! I am not saying those strategies don’t work at all, but they are the long… slow… painful way of having a happy home. And for the few that make it with these strategies, they’ve done it while he doesn’t get what he needs, and she doesn’t get what she needs.  Meanwhile, we’re helping our clients connect with their wives on the highest level, living lives full of happiness and excitement and it gets more and more joyful by the day where both husband and wife feel happiness and excitement… … all without needing their wife to meet them halfway! To check out how they do this, click below to watch my free presentation where I share all the details … you’re going to thank me for it! 5 Steps Married Men Use to Get Rid of Friction and Create Happiness and Excitement… Without Needing Their Wife to Meet Them Halfway!

Israel has submitted a new proposal to the United States to end the war in Gaza by freeing all of the remaining hostages held by Hamas and allowing the terror group’s leader Yahya Sinwar to exit the enclave, Kan News reported on Thursday.

The framework for the deal, which would be achieved all in one phase, also includes safe passage out of Gaza for other senior Hamas terrorists, the release of Palestinian security prisoners, demilitarization of the Strip and a new system of governance in Gaza.

Israel’s Coordinator for Hostages and Missing Persons, Gal Hirsch, met with families of the hostages and updated them on the proposal, according to the report. Some of the relatives told Kan that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should present the proposal to the United Nations.

Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 27.

In the meeting with the families, Hirsch reportedly said that the proposal was presented during his meetings last week with American officials at the White House and State Department.

The proposal has been dubbed the “Safe Passage Deal,” according to sources who met with Hirsch.

“In light of the difficulties in the negotiations and the ticking clock of the hostages’ lives, we seek to propose a ‘secondary plan’ that will shorten the stages and allow for a quicker deal. This will happen if Sinwar leaves and brings an end to the war. It will also allow us to meet the objectives of the war while enabling Hamas leadership in Gaza to exit safely to a secure location,” an Israeli official told Kan.

More than 30 families of hostages are expected to attend next week’s U.N. General Assembly to meet with international officials and promote the release of their loved ones.

“We welcome the new Netanyahu proposal, which strengthens security in Israel and allows for a comprehensive regional arrangement. The prime minister must lead this proposal with courage, determination and speed,” said Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum. JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

A long-range rocket cache in an enemy warehouse was located and destroyed by the IDF, along with weapons storage facilities containing sniper rifles, ammunition, anti-tank missiles, and grenades.

Over the past month, the IDF’s 401st Brigade troops, under the 162nd Division, operated in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah, eliminating over 300 terrorists and most of the Tel al-Sultan Battalion’s leadership.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the importance of avoiding any actions that could heighten tensions in the Middle East. “France and the United States are united in calling for restraint and urging de-escalation when it comes to the Middle East in general and when it comes to Lebanon in particular,” Blinken said after talks in Paris with French counterpart Stephane Sejourne. “We don’t want to see any escalatory actions by any party” that would endanger the goal of a ceasefire to the Gaza conflict, he added.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that Israel is entering a new phase in the war, presenting both “significant opportunities” and “heavy risks.” During a meeting with senior military and defense officials, Gallant emphasized that Hezbollah is under pressure and military operations will persist. He stressed the importance of ensuring the safe return of northern residents to their homes, warning that Hezbollah will face increasing consequences over time. Gallant also reaffirmed Israel’s commitment to securing the release of hostages and dismantling Hamas.

In a much-anticipated speech, arch terrorist Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel of being behind the deadly blasts targeting Hezbollah communications equipment, including pagers and radios, on Tuesday and Wednesday. He claimed that civilians were among the victims of these attacks. Nasrallah described the incidents as a “massacre,” stating that they crossed all red lines and could be considered an act of war or even a declaration of war. “On Tuesday, Israel intended to kill 4,000 people in one minute by detonating the pagers. Many of them were civilians,” the terror leader claims, even though the devices appear to have been distributed only to Hezbollah terrorists. “The following day, 1,000 more in one minute. In two minutes, Israel intended to kill 5,000.” Despite acknowledging the severity of the explosions, calling them a “severe” and “unprecedented” blow, Nasrallah reassured his followers that the group’s infrastructure remained intact. He added that Hezbollah was investigating the methods behind the attacks but issued a stern warning to Israel, promising “just punishment where it expects it and where it does not.” Nasrallah also vowed that Hezbollah would continue its fight against Israel until the ongoing conflict in Gaza, now nearing 12 months, comes to an end. “The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops, despite all this blood spilled,” he declared. In his speech, the arch terrorist also responded to Israeli officials’ promises to return displaced Israelis to their homes after the recent cross-border fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. “You will not be able to return the people of the north to the north,” Nasrallah warned, adding that “no military escalation, no killings, no assassinations and no all-out war can return residents to the border.” Concluding his address, Nasrallah expressed hope that Israeli soldiers would enter southern Lebanon, stating that such a move would present a “historic opportunity” for Hezbollah. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed on Thursday in Hezbollah attacks in the north, the military announced.

The slain troops were named as: Maj. (res.) Nael Fwarsy, 43, of the 300th “Baram” Regional Brigade’s 299th Battalion, from Maghar; and Sgt. Tomer Keren, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, from Haifa.

Fwarsy was killed when an explosive-laden drone launched from Lebanon struck near Moshav Ya’ara in the Western Galilee.

Keren was killed when two anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah struck the Ramim Ridge area in the Eastern Galilee.

Four IDF soldiers were killed on Tuesday battling Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah.

They were named as:

Capt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, 23, a deputy company commander in the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Moreshet; Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, 20, a paramedic with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion, from Mishmarot; Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, 21, of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Yoshivia; and Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, 21, of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Elazar.

Naim was the first female soldier killed during the IDF’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The death toll among Israeli troops since the start of the Gaza ground incursion on Oct. 27 now stands at 346, and at 715 on all fronts since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, according to official military data.

Additionally, Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, a member of the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage-rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzchak was mortally wounded in the Strip in May. JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

Israeli authorities arrested a Jewish Israeli businessman on suspicion of having met with Iranian intelligence operatives and assisting them in planning high-profile assassinations, including of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Thursday.

He was named as Moti Maman, 73, from the southern coastal city of Ashkelon.

He visited Iran twice in recent months, where he demanded $1 million as a down payment for a series of missions, according to the Shin Bet.

These included recruiting and paying other agents and gathering intelligence for the assassination of Israeli senior politicians, including Netanyahu, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, the report said.

It did not indicate whether the suspect had confessed to any of the allegations.

The man had lived in Turkey for an extended period and traveled there for some of his meetings with Iranian intelligence operatives, according to the report. It named two Turkish men, Andrey Faruk Aslan and Junayed Aslan, as Iranian intelligence assets who arranged the meetings.

Originally, the suspect had traveled to Iran to meet with a man named Eddie for a business proposition that turned into a recruitment attempt, according to the Shin Bet. The suspect was paid at least €5,000 ($5,568) for agreeing to travel to Iran, which is illegal for Israeli citizens.

On Tuesday, the agency revealed it had thwarted a second attempt by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior security official. According to the agency, the attack involved an explosive device and was intended to be carried out in the coming days.

Arab media reported on Wednesday that the intended target of the bombing was Lt. Gen. (res.) Aviv Kochavi, who was the IDF chief of staff between 2019 and 2023. Hezbollah operatives surveilled the retired military leader at a “sports facility” he used to frequent in Tel Aviv, according to the reports.

Also on Wednesday, the Israel Police revealed that in September 2023, Hezbollah had tried to assassinate former Israeli defense minister and IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon via a remotely-detonated bomb in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.

The report about the suspected Iranian spy did not tie him to that incident. JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

Major General Hossein Salami, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), informed Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah that the “Axis of Resistance” will deliver a decisive response to Israel for its recent attacks. **IRGC Commander Salami Tells Hezbollah’s Nasrallah: ‘Axis of Resistance’ Will Deliver Decisive Response to Israel**

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in August to the slowest annual pace in nearly a year even as mortgage rates eased and the supply of properties on the market continued to rise. Existing home sales fell 2.5% last month, from July, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.86 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. Sales fell 4.2% compared with August last year. The latest home sales were short of the 3.9 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Home prices increased on an annual basis for the 14th consecutive month. The national median sales price rose 3.1% from a year earlier to $416,700. That’s the highest median price for the month of August on records going back to 1999. “Home sales were disappointing again in August, but the recent development of lower mortgage rates coupled with increasing inventory is a powerful combination that will provide the environment for sales to move higher in future months,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist. The Federal Reserve cut its main interest rate for the first time in more than four years Wednesday. Fed officials also signaled they expect further cuts this year and in 2025 and 2026. The rate cuts should, over time, lead to lower borrowing costs on mortgages. Mortgage rates have been mostly easing since July as signs of waning inflation and a cooling job market raised expectations of a Fed cut. The average rate on a 30-year home loan fell last week to 6.2%, the lowest level since February 2023, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. Despite more attractive mortgage rates, home sales likely declined last month in part because many prospective homebuyers were holding out for the Fed to cut rates. “So far, those buyers who waited, may be glad that they did,” said Daniele Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “Not only have mortgage rates continued to fall into early September, but we’re also nearing a seasonal sweet spot for homebuyers, when competition usually wanes, home prices ease, and time on market tends to grow.” Economists are generally projecting that the average rate on a 30-year mortgage will remain above 6% this year. Existing home sales have been in a deep sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. They sank to a nearly 30-year low last year as the average rate on a 30-year mortgage surged to a 23-year high of 7.79%. Elevated mortgage rates, home prices near all-time highs and a chronic shortage of homes on the market have put off many would-be homebuyers. In addition to the prospect for lower mortgage rates, more homes are hitting the market, giving home shoppers a wider selection to chose from. All told, there were about 1.35 million unsold homes at the end of August, up 0.7% from July and 22.7% from August last year, NAR said. That’s the most homes on the market since October 2020, when there were 1.4 million homes for sale, but it’s still down from 1.83 million homes on the market in 2019, Yun noted. The inventory of available homes translates to a 4.2-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 3.3-month pace at the end of August last year. Traditionally, a 5- to 6-month supply is considered a […]

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a press briefing on Wednesday that Washington was not involved in this week’s communication device explosions in Lebanon.

“We were not involved in [Tuesday’s] incidents or [Wednesday’s] in any way. And I don’t have anything more to share,” he told reporters.

By signing up, you agree to receive emails from JNS and allied pro-Israel organizations.

“We want to see the war end. And everything we’ve been doing since the beginning has been designed to prevent the conflict from escalating,” Kirby said. “We still believe that there is a diplomatic path forward, particularly up near Lebanon.”

According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, at least 25 Hezbollah operatives were killed on Wednesday in the latest series of device explosions. In addition, some 450 terrorists were said to have sustained wounds.

On Tuesday, more than 2,700 Hezbollah operatives were wounded and at least 12 were killed across Lebanon when their pagers exploded, with the terrorist organization saying it held Israel “fully responsible” and vowing revenge.

Israel has not taken responsibility for either of the attacks.

 

Biden administration envoy Amos Hochstein met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday in Israel to push for a diplomatic resolution.

His visit came before Israel’s Security Cabinet added the safe return to their homes of 60,000-plus displaced residents of the country’s north to Israel’s official war goals.

Meanwhile, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is scheduled to meet on Thursday with the relatives of Americans held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. He is to update them on the status of the negotiations, with a revised bridging proposal expected at some point from American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

Japanese firm says it discontinued making radios used in attack

Japanese walkie-talkie maker Icom said on Thursday that it has been a decade since the company produced the hand-held radio devices that exploded on Wednesday in the second wave of attacks on Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.

“The IC-V82 is a handheld radio that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014. It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company,” according to the Osaka-based firm.

The statement came after reports that radios manufactured by Icom were among the communication devices that exploded across Lebanon on Wednesday.

Israelis receive threatening phone messages

Many Israelis received several intimidating phone messages from an anonymous source overnight Wednesday, hours after the second wave of attacks on Hezbollah communication devices.

The messages impersonated the IDF’s Home Front Command and the Israeli Cyber Command, and told recipients to “immediately enter a protected area,” in misspelled Hebrew.

Another message claiming to be signed by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who is slated to give a speech on Thursday evening, said to “say goodbye to your loved ones; but don’t worry. You will hug them in hell in a few hours.”

Other messages included malicious links pretending to direct users to official Israeli military sites.

“In the last hour, a false message has been circulated calling on citizens to enter protected areas. The message did not originate from the Home Front Command or any other official entity. To avoid doubt—no instruction has been issued in the last hour to enter protected areas,” the National Cyber Directorate said in a statement.

The Directorate further said that to verify the credibility of a message, check if it is also published on one of the official Home Front Command channels—Telegram, WhatsApp or other social media networks. JNS

{Matzav.com}