Hamas may attempt another attack on Israel ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of October. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated this during a cabinet meeting on the eve of the anniversary of the October 7 attacks. Israeli Defense Minister Katz was also alarmed and declared that he had put the armed forces on maximum alert: "If our forces suffer damage, Hamas and the population of Gaza will pay a very high price, to a disproportionate extent."
During Sunday evening's Israeli military-political cabinet, Shin Bet chief David Zini presented ministers with a specific and worrying intelligence alert: Hamas is intensifying efforts to mount a complex attack or targeted kidnapping operation. According to assessments, Hamas aims to launch the operation close to the October 27 elections or immediately thereafter.
"Is Tehran behind the hijacking of the Flydubai flight. Yes, I personally think so." This is how American President Donald Trump responded to those who asked him if he held Iran responsible for the attack conducted by the co-pilot of Flydubai, who tried to crash a flight bound for Tel Aviv. According to local sources, Israel was ready to shoot down FlyDubai1073 flight with all passengers on board after the Omani co-pilot attacked the captain. The fighters had taken off and were recalled as the plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile the co-pilot confesses: "I wanted to avenge Gaza".
Insights:
Strait of Hormuz, from transit to mine clearance: what the Iran-Oman agreement provides
The devastation of the Gaza Strip, new before and after images
What does the new Israel-Lebanon agreement that Hezbollah rejects provide?
Iran, how mines work in the Strait of Hormuz and why it is difficult to remove them
War in Iran, how much have the US and Israel spent so far?
War in Iran and inflation, who risks being most affected by the increase in prices
Pasdaran, who are the Guardians of the Iranian Revolution
War in Iran, the history of crises and conflicts in the Gulf from 1979 to today
To receive Sky TG24 news:
The Sky TG24 Whatsapp channel (click here)
Audio news with news headlines (click here)
''Warn the population to reduce collateral damage in times of war. This was my mission''. That is, ''reduce as much as possible'' the casualties among Palestinian civilians of an Israeli attack. Because the term 'Naza' ''means involuntary damage. The opposite concept of what the film, awarded at the Venice Film Festival, supports and which "creates confusion". Reservist Colonel Sarit Zehavi explains this in an interview with Adnkronos, who for 15 years served as an IDF military intelligence officer, first in research and analysis, then in the Northern Command. ''I've seen the film, it's propaganda to compare Israel to the Nazis'', she cut short, explaining that, after having offered to explain to the directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor what the IDF means by 'Naza', ''putting my face on it, I'm not afraid to speak'', she has now changed her mind. The two directors, he claims, ''don't want to do journalism or seek the truth. The film focuses on an idea of Israel that boils down to Tel Aviv. I live in the north. For three years I was under fire from Hezbollah. I regret that the realities of the north and south of Israel, which have been under attack, are not represented in the video''. What is represented instead is the term 'Naza', a military acronym for ''nezek agavi'' which in Hebrew means ''collateral damage''. ''It is a legal term taken from the laws of war,'' explains Zehavi, and ''it refers to inadvertent damage to civilian infrastructure or the civilian population.'' Thus, ''the concept of unintentional harm is pretty much the opposite of what the film claims, as the film states that the harm inflicted on Gazans was intentional.'' According to the analyst, who founded and chairs the Alma Research and Education Center, the Israeli directors who already won the 2025 Oscar for 'No Other Land' conducted a ''deliberate manipulation''. Zehavi has ''seen the film'' and believes that ''they tried to create a symmetry between Tel Aviv and Gaza, but they ignored what happened in southern Israel, where people were massacred about three years ago'', during the October 7, 2023 massacre. Secondly, ''if Israel didn't care about collateral damage, about the deaths of civilians on the other side, why would we bother making assessments, trying to understand how many people could they be killed?'' he wonders. The former IDF officer explains that ''to reduce the number of potential victims, we warn the population in advance. We monitor the evacuation, trying to understand how many people have actually left. We provide humanitarian aid''. Zehavi also states that ''it is imprecise to speak of a Naza 'system' or 'unit'. What is described in the film are systems that contribute to generating intelligence analyzes on various aspects, not necessarily linked to Naza, nor necessarily to collateral damage''. So, he specifies, ''I didn't create a system. I have developed procedures to alert the population to reduce collateral damage in wartime, to monitor evacuation and to convey to forces on the ground an accurate picture of the number of people evacuated. This was my mission. I participated in the creation of these procedures and I firmly believe - indeed, I know for sure - that they are still in force in the current conflict''. Ultimately, he says, ''the film is confusing. This is an intentional confusion between the intelligence phase - whose mission is to collect as much information as possible on the military and civilian use of a target, precisely to act with caution - and the planning phase. The film ignores the planning phase and the fact that each objective, based on intelligence, is subjected to verification by legal consultants''. The documentary, released in around 500 cinemas in Italy last September 28, according to Zehavi ''ignores that we notify the population and try to understand what happened, whether they evacuated or not, and that nothing in this process happens automatically''. The goal, he says, is to limit Palestinian civilian casualties. ''Reduce them. Reduce them as much as possible. Yes. The mission of many members of the IDF, and I was among them, but there are many others, is precisely to reduce collateral damage, to limit the number of people who could be killed in the fight against terrorism''. Because, he continues, ''there is no interest in killing them''. The former 007 had offered to explain the system to the two Israeli registers, from the inside, showing her face, from her home in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. But ''after seeing the film I changed my mind. I am convinced that they do not want to do journalism or seek the truth'', but I believe that ''they are only doing propaganda to compare Israel to the Nazis''. Furthermore, he adds, ''the film focuses on an idea of Israel that boils down to Tel Aviv. I live in the north. For three years I was under fire from Hezbollah. I regret that the realities of northern and southern Israel, which were under attack, are not represented in the film." Why, he asks, ''did they spend so much time showing Tel Aviv and not what happened in southern Israel. If you want to create symmetry, then you go to southern Israel and see the empty houses, the people who are still afraid to go back today and still hear the explosions. Talk to people whose families were killed and never returned. You cannot create a symmetry between Tel Aviv and Gaza''. Zehavi suggests seeing other films on the topic. ''Last week another film was released, made by Israelis, which collected the testimonies of soldiers and commanders returning from the front. The film is titled 'Naza. The True Story' and shows diametrically opposed testimonies''. In the first weekend of screening in Italy, 'Naza' dominated the box office of the most viewed films. ''It's okay to see the film. No problem. I watched it too. But you should also watch the movie that came out last week. It's called 'Naza: The True Story'. You can search for it on Google and you will find it in no time. More than fourteen million people have already seen it." Furthermore, he adds, ''you should watch the documentary 'Screams Before Silence' made after October 7 on Hamas sexual crimes, created by Sheryl Sandberg''. Furthermore, ''you should watch the film made from the messages, conversations and testimonies sent by the people present at the Nova Festival. Some were killed, others survived. The title is 'We Will Dance Again'. Unfortunately none of these films received attention in Europe. None have screened at festivals or gained recognition. They are considered less important, less 'documentary'. They are all available on YouTube. I watched them all''.
