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World Monthly Headline News October 2023
Story by Vivian Salama, Nancy A. Youssef, Michael R. Gordon, Margherita Stancati, Stephen Kalin

The U.S. has collected “high confidence” signals intelligence showing that the explosion at a Gaza hospital compound on Tuesday was caused by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, U.S. officials said, buttressing Israel’s contention that it wasn’t responsible for the blast. The U.S. assessment drew, in part, on communications intercepts and other intelligence gathered by the U.S., defense officials said.

“Our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said, adding that the U.S. continues to collect information on the incident.

“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion of the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team—not you,” President Biden said Wednesday while alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
By SAMY MAGDY and JOSEPH KRAUSS

CAIRO (AP) — Within hours after a blast was said to have killed hundreds at a Gaza hospital, protesters hurled stones at Palestinian security forces in the occupied West Bank and at riot police in neighboring Jordan, venting fury at their leaders for failing to stop the carnage.

A summit planned in Jordan on Wednesday between U.S. President Joe Biden, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was canceled after Abbas withdrew in protest.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had spent much of the past week meeting with Arab leaders to try to ease tensions, but those efforts are now in doubt following the hospital blast. The raw nerve of decades of Palestinian suffering, left exposed by U.S.-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states, is throbbing once again, threatening broader unrest.
by Lauren Sforza

The Israeli military said Monday that 199 people are being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian militants, an increase from previous estimates. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, told reporters that the families of those being held hostage have been notified, The Associated Press reported. He did not say whether the latest number includes foreigners or who was responsible, but most are believed to be held by Hamas — the militant group that infiltrated southern Israel more than a week ago.
Damascus and Aleppo airports knocked out of service in Israeli attacks, state news agency SANA says.
Aljazeera

Israel has launched missile strikes on Syria’s two main airports in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, knocking both out of service, Syrian state media has said. The “simultaneous” attacks damaged landing strips in the two airports, “putting them out of service,” state news agency SANA said on Thursday, citing a military source.

No one was injured in the attacks, SANA said, quoting the unnamed military source. Syrian air defences were activated in response to the attacks on both airports, television channel Sham FM said. The Israeli military, which does not typically comment on its operations, did not release any immediate statement on the attacks. The attacks would Israel’s first strikes on Syria since Hamas carried out its largest attack on Israel in decades on Saturday.
By Zachary Cohen, Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand and Jeremy Herb, CNN

CNN — The United States has collected specific intelligence that suggests senior Iranian government officials were caught by surprise by Saturday’s bloody attack on Israel by Hamas, according to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence. The existence of the intelligence has cast doubt on the idea that Iran was directly involved in the planning, resourcing or approving of the operation, sources said.

The sources stressed that the US intelligence community is not ready to reach a full conclusion about whether Tehran was directly involved in the run-up to the attack. They continue to look for evidence of Iranian involvement, which caught both Israel and the United States by surprise.

And since the attack, government officials have noted that Iran has provided longstanding and significant support for Hamas, including weapons and financing, that unquestionably contributed to Hamas’s ability to pull off such a massive operation. But the sources said that this intelligence – which has been briefed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill – has led US analysts to lean toward an initial assessment that the government of Iran did not play a direct role in the attack.
Reuters

DUBAI, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Tehran was not involved in the militant Hamas group's weekend attack on Israel, Iran's top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday, but hailed what he called Israel's "irreparable" military and intelligence defeat. "We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime," said Khamenei, who was wearing a Palestinian scarf, in his first televised speech since the attack.

"This destructive earthquake (Hamas' attack) has destroyed some critical structures (in Israel) which will not be repaired easily ... The Zionist regime's own actions are to blame for this disaster," said Khamenei. Israel has long accused Iran's clerical rulers of stoking violence by supplying arms to Hamas. Tehran, which does not recognize Israel, says it gives moral and financial support to the group, which controls the Gaza Strip. Backing the Palestinian cause has been a pillar of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution and a way the Shi'ite-dominated country has fashioned itself as a leader of the Muslim world.

Israel’s defense minister said the authorities would block deliveries of food, water and fuel into the already blockaded enclave. A spokesman for Hamas’s military wing threatened to execute a hostage each time an Israeli airstrike hits Gazans in their homes.
By Andrew Mills and Nidal Al-Mughrabi

DOHA/GAZA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Qatari mediators have held urgent calls to try to negotiate freedom for Israeli women and children seized by the militant group and held in Gaza in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israel's prisons, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters. Qatar's foreign ministry confirmed to Reuters its involvement in mediation talks with Hamas and Israeli officials, including over a possible prisoner swap.

The ongoing negotiations, which Qatar has been conducting in coordination with the United States since Saturday night, are "moving positively" said the source, who has been briefed on them. "We are in constant contact with all sides at the moment. Our priorities are to end the bloodshed, release the prisoners and make sure the conflict is contained with no regional spillover," foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told Reuters, without elaborating. When asked to respond to the Reuters report, an Israeli official told Reuters only: "There are no negotiations under way." But there are no signs of breakthroughs as both sides dig in.
Story by By TIA GOLDENBERG and WAFAA SHURAFA, Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli soldiers battled Hamas fighters in the streets of southern Israel on Sunday and launched retaliation strikes that leveled buildings in Gaza, while in northern Israel a brief exchange of strikes with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group raised fears of a broader conflict.

There was still some fighting underway more than 24 hours after an unprecedented surprise attack from Gaza, in which Hamas militants, backed by a volley of thousands of rockets, broke through Israel's security barrier and rampaged through nearby communities. At least 600 people have reportedly been killed in Israel — a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades — and more than 300 have been killed in Gaza.

The militants also took captives back into the coastal Gaza enclave, including women, children and the elderly, whom they will likely try to trade for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN's "State of the Union" that the U.S. is working to verify reports that “several” Americans were killed or are missing.
6abc Philadelphia
BBC News

Russia has been warned not to count on "weariness" in Europe over support for Ukraine, as European Union (EU) foreign ministers meet in Kyiv. It is the first time the assembly has been held outside the bloc. Ukraine is not an EU member but wants to join. The meeting comes a day after further military funding for Ukraine was left out of a last-minute US budget deal.

EU policy chief Josep Borrell has described the ongoing war in Ukraine as an "existential crisis". "Maybe it's not being seen like this for everybody around the world, but for us, Europeans, allow me to repeat it: it's an existential threat," Mr Borrell told the gathering on Monday. "And that's why we have to continue supporting you and discussing with our American allies and friends for them to continue supporting you."

The EU has already announced more than €70bn (£60bn) of military and civilian assistance for Ukraine, which is set to arrive over the next few years.
Former prime minister set to try to form coalition that could undermine EU support for Kyiv
Raphael Minder | FT.com

Anti-Ukraine former prime minister Robert Fico won the largest share of votes in Slovakia’s elections, putting himself on track to try to form a coalition government that could undermine western unity in helping Kyiv in its war against Russia. Fico and his Smer party were on almost 23 per cent, ahead of Michal Šimečka and his liberal Progressive Slovakia party on almost 18 per cent, according to preliminary results on Sunday, with 99 per cent of the votes counted. Šimečka’s party had topped exit polls on late Saturday.

Fico said on Sunday that he would open talks with other parties on forming a coalition. “We’re here, we’re ready, we’ve learned something, we’re more experienced,” he said. “People in Slovakia have bigger problems than Ukraine,” he added. While Fico may struggle to form a stable coalition, his victory will raise alarm bells in Washington and Brussels because it could bring another anti-Ukraine voice into the EU alongside Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán.
One of these aircrafts was so waylaid that it had to ask the Baghdad ATC, 'What time is it, and where are we?'
Gaurav Thakur

Around 20 aircraft were misguided to enter the Iranian airspace by fake GPS signals while flying over the Iraq-Iran border, prompting the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration to issue a memo saying that the route poses “safety risk”. The ne...

Boeing 777, 737 and 747 were among the planes that were tricked into venturing off course due to these rogue signals coming from the ground. As per the report, these signals got the better of the aircraft’s inbuilt navigation system, which quickly led to complete loss of the plane's navigational capability.

One of these aircraft was so waylaid that it had to ask the Baghdad ATC, “What time is it, and where are we?“ The location of the majority of these incidents was Airway UM688 in Iraq, which lies close to the Iranian border.
MOHAMED SHARUHAN

MALE, Maldives (AP) — Jailed former Maldives President Abdulla Yameen was transferred from prison to house arrest on Sunday, fulfilling the campaign promise of his party candidate who won the presidential election runoff.

Yameen is serving a prison term for bribery and money laundering during his presidency from 2013 to 2018. His transfer has been ordered by outgoing President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih at the request of President-Elect Mohamed Muiz.

Muiz will be taking oath on Nov. 17.

The elections commission on Sunday released the formal results of Saturday's runoff, which showed 54.04% of the vote for Muiz with Solih receiving 45.96%. The first round took place earlier in September with none of the eight candidates securing more than 50%.

The election was perceived a virtual referendum on which regional power — China or India — would have the biggest influence on the Indian Ocean archipelago state located strategically along a key East-West shipping route.
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