The Israeli army and the Shin Bet General Security Service announced the killing of a gunman who participated in the attacks on October 7, 2023.
Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that the gunman, who was killed on Saturday in an air strike, appeared in a video clip kidnapping two hostages from the Nova music festival and transporting them to the Gaza Strip.
According to the Israeli army, other activities he was carrying out included “providing Hamas with weapons during the war.”
According to what was reported by Bloomberg, the “dead gunman” recently carried out attacks targeting Israeli forces and civilians, in cooperation with members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, and that he belonged to international jihadist organizations active in the Gaza Strip.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army, Major General Amir Hatami, said that the war “is not over,” stressing that his country is going through a “sensitive and fateful” phase, threatening Iran’s enemies with “severe strikes.” The Iranian General Staff said that the management of the Strait of Hormuz “is in the hands of Iran,” warning Washington against interfering in it.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced the rejection of an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the fighting within seven days, with Tehran adhering to conditions close to the memorandum of understanding reached by the two parties in Islamabad, which collapsed after Iran resumed its attacks on ships in the strait.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Hatami as saying during a conference in Tehran today that among the “miscalculations” of Iran’s opponents is the belief that killing the Iranian leader and a number of senior leaders will lead to the collapse of the country.
He added: “Not a single leader backed down. Everyone stood strong; The possibility of assassination was present at every moment, but they stood firm and defended the country.”
Hatami accused the United States of seeking to cause unrest inside Iran, and said that US President Donald Trump wants to put pressure on the Iranians to push them into rebellion and lead to civil war.
He referred to Trump's statements regarding Venezuela, saying that the United States wanted to implement the same scenario in Iran, and said that the Iranians would not allow that.
He said, “The imposed war is going through sensitive and fateful stages,” adding: “The war is not over.” “We won, but we have to maintain this victory.”
He added, "The aggressor enemy received severe blows, but he must still prepare to receive harsh blows from Iranian soldiers."
Hatami said that Tehran will not accept being deprived of trade while foreign parties use the strategic waterways in the region.
He added: “If Iran cannot trade, and if Iran cannot live, no one will be able to trade or live,” adding that “the country’s enemies will not be allowed to use this great logistical corridor while the Iranian people are deprived of it.”
The army does not rule out an American attack
In parallel, Iranian army spokesman Amir Akrami Nia said that the armed forces are “fully prepared” for any new American attacks, warning that the United States will be exposed to “greater damage” if it launches another attack on Iran.
Reuters quoted Iranian official media as saying that the United States may launch a new attack due to what he described as the tense regional situation, and that Iran is ready for confrontation and to cause greater damage to Washington.
Akrami Nia said that Washington made a mistake in its calculations when it thought that the strikes on Hamas and Hezbollah, and the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in addition to developments inside Iran, made the conditions ripe for attacking the country.
He added that Iran responded to the attacks on February 28, and that on March 2, the Iranian Air Force carried out operations in Kuwait, Qatar, and the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
He said: “Our missiles and drones directed an overwhelming response to the enemy.”
Akrami Nia accused Trump of seeking to divide Iran, saying that he "also tried in the third war, like Saddam, to divide the country, but neither of them succeeded."
“Hormuz Administration”
The spokesman for the Iranian General Staff, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarji, said on Saturday evening that “management of the Strait of Hormuz is in the hands of Iran.”
Shekarji said, in an interview with state television, that “any ship that wants to cross outside the Iranian route will not be safe.”
He warned the United States against interfering in the Strait, saying, “The Americans have no way to escape except by leaving the West Asian region, and the sooner they leave, the less their losses will be.”
He added: “Let the Americans dream of intervening in the Strait of Hormuz, and if they interfere in the Strait of Hormuz, they will receive a slap.”
Shekarji said that Iran, which he described as a “global power,” would not allow the United States to return to its “previous position in the new world order.”
The Israeli Attorney General ruled, on Sunday, to postpone the deadline for submitting construction bids for the controversial “E1” project, which would separate the northern occupied West Bank from its southern, until after the elections.
A spokeswoman for Public Prosecutor Ghali Behraf-Mayara said: “The Public Prosecutor has instructed the concerned authorities to postpone the deadline for submitting bids for a month until after the elections, in order to reduce fears of using the tender for electoral propaganda, which is prohibited,” referring to the upcoming legislative elections scheduled to be held on October 27, according to what Agence France-Presse reported.
Last month, the Israeli Ministry of Housing agreed to launch a tender to build more than 1,200 settlement housing units within the framework of the project, which prompted non-governmental organizations to resort to the judiciary, challenge the tender and try to cancel it, while European countries called on Israel to abandon the project.
The plan mainly aims to build about 3,400 housing units in this highly sensitive area, located between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim. These housing units, which were put up in the announced tender, represent a third of the planned project, according to what the Israeli “Peace Now” organization reported last month.
The project would further separate East Jerusalem, which is occupied and annexed by Israel and the majority of its population are Palestinians, from the West Bank.
Last year, Britain, France, and about 20 other countries condemned Israel's approval of the "E1" project, considered the move a violation of international law, and called on Israel to retract the decision.
Last month, an Israeli court rejected a petition to stop the project submitted by human rights organizations, which said that “E1” would lead to the displacement of hundreds of Palestinians from their homes.
The judge then held that “there are no material, irreversible changes imminent, and adequate legal safeguards are in place” in relation to the project. The Maale Adumim municipality said it would appeal the decision to postpone the tender deadline.
Excluding East Jerusalem, about 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, and nearly 500,000 Israeli settlers.
Several countries in the Middle East are anticipating the legislative elections in Israel, given their repercussions even outside the borders of the Hebrew state, in light of ongoing conflicts that impose profound changes throughout the region.
During his election campaign, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly said that he had been able to “change the face of the Middle East” since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip in 2023. He pledged to continue doing so, and ministers in the most right-wing government in the history of the Jewish state are talking about removing the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza.
Observers believe that Netanyahu's government is working on a gradual and undeclared annexation of the occupied West Bank, while agreeing to establish an unprecedented number of settlements. As in Gaza, Israeli officials called for the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank.
