Israel launches new spy satellite in ‘message’ to enemies

Israel launches new spy satellite in ‘message’ to enemies
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz (AFP)
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Updated 03 September 2025

Israel launches new spy satellite in ‘message’ to enemies

Israel launches new spy satellite in ‘message’ to enemies
  • The satellite’s launch on Tuesday night came two months after a 12-day war between Israel and Iran

Israel has launched a new spy satellite into orbit in what Defense Minister Israel Katz described on Wednesday as a “message” to its enemies that they are under continuous surveillance.
“The launch of the Ofek 19 satellite yesterday is an achievement of the highest global level. Few countries possess these capabilities,” Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X.
“This is also a message to all our enemies, wherever they may be — we are keeping an eye on you at all times and in every situation,” he added.
The satellite’s launch on Tuesday night came two months after a 12-day war between Israel and Iran which saw Israel strike Iranian nuclear and military sites, as well as residential areas, more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away.
Over 12,000 satellite images of Iranian territory were collected to direct the strikes, according to Daniel Gold, head of the defense ministry’s research and development directorate.
The operation “underscored that having advanced observation capabilities in our region is critical for achieving aerial and ground superiority,” said Boaz Levy, CEO of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, which worked on the project alongside the ministry of defense.
Israel joined the club of space powers in 1988 with the deployment of its first Ofek satellite.


Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza

Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza
Updated 30 sec ago

Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza

Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza
"Displacement is not an option and it is a red line for Egypt, and we will not allow it to happen," Abdelatty said
"Displacement means liquidation and the end of the Palestinian cause”

NICOSIA: Egypt said on Friday it would not tolerate mass displacement of Palestinians and what it described as genocide, continuing to ratchet up its criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive as thousands of residents of Gaza City defied Israeli orders to leave.
"Displacement is not an option and it is a red line for Egypt, and we will not allow it to happen," Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters in Nicosia.
"Displacement means liquidation and the end of the Palestinian cause and there is no legal or moral or ethical ground to evict people from their homeland," he said.
His comments are in line with a hardening of Egyptian language this year about Israel's conduct in the enclave, which borders Egypt, even as it has worked with Qatar and the U.S. to try to mediate a ceasefire in the almost two-year-old war.
Repeating accusations of genocide levelled by the Egyptian leadership against Israel in recent months, he added: "What is happening on the ground is far beyond the imagination. There is a genocide in motion there, mass killing of civilians, artificial starvation created by the Israelis," Abdelatty said.
Israeli authorities did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self defence. It is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide and which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned as "outrageous".
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after fighters from Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in control of the territory, attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages back into Gaza.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have since been killed, Gaza health authorities say, with much of the densely populated enclave laid to ruin and its residents facing a humanitarian crisis.
Israel began an offensive in Gaza City on August 10, in what Netanyahu says is a plan to defeat Hamas militants in the part of Gaza where Israeli troops fought most heavily in the war's initial phase. It now controls about 40 percent of Gaza City, a military spokesperson said on Thursday.
Much of Gaza City was laid to waste in the war's initial weeks in October-November 2023. About a million people lived there before the war, and hundreds of thousands are believed to have returned to live among the ruins, especially since Israel ordered people out of other areas and launched offensives elsewhere.

Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza

Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza
Updated 57 sec ago

Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza

Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza
  • Egypt says eviction of Gazans is a red line
  • Foreign minister says a genocide is ‘in motion’ in Gaza
NICOSIA: Egypt said on Friday it would not tolerate mass displacement of Palestinians and what it described as genocide, continuing to ratchet up its criticism of Israel’s Gaza offensive as thousands of residents of Gaza City defied Israeli orders to leave.
“Displacement is not an option and it is a red line for Egypt and we will not allow it to happen,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters in Nicosia.
“Displacement means liquidation and the end of the Palestinian cause and there is no legal or moral or ethical ground to evict people from their homeland,” he said.
His comments are in line with a hardening of Egyptian language this year about Israel’s conduct in the enclave, which borders Egypt, even as it has worked with Qatar and the US to try to mediate a ceasefire in the almost two-year-old war.
Repeating accusations of genocide levelled by the Egyptian leadership against Israel in recent months, he added: “What is happening on the ground is far beyond the imagination. There is a genocide in motion there, mass killing of civilians, artificial starvation created by the Israelis,” Abdelatty said.
Israeli authorities did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self defense. It is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide and which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned as “outrageous.”
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after fighters from Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in control of the territory, attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages back into Gaza.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have since been killed, Gaza health authorities say, with much of the densely populated enclave laid to ruin and its residents facing a humanitarian crisis.
Israel began an offensive in Gaza City on August 10, in what Netanyahu says is a plan to defeat Hamas militants in the part of Gaza where Israeli troops fought most heavily in the war’s initial phase. It now controls about 40 percent of Gaza City, a military spokesperson said on Thursday.
Much of Gaza City was laid to waste in the war’s initial weeks in October-November 2023. About a million people lived there before the war, and hundreds of thousands are believed to have returned to live among the ruins, especially since Israel ordered people out of other areas and launched offensives elsewhere.

RSF commits ‘myriad crimes against humanity’ in Sudan: UN probe

RSF commits ‘myriad crimes against humanity’ in Sudan: UN probe
Updated 11 min 25 sec ago

RSF commits ‘myriad crimes against humanity’ in Sudan: UN probe

RSF commits ‘myriad crimes against humanity’ in Sudan: UN probe
  • RSF had “committed crimes against humanity, notably murder, torture, forced displacement, persecution on ethnic grounds, and other inhumane acts“
  • “Civilians are paying the highest price in this war,” Othman said

GENEVA: The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have committed numerous crimes against humanity in Sudan’s civil war, in particular in their siege of El-Fasher in western Darfur, UN investigators said Friday.
The United Nations’ fact-finding mission for Sudan determined in a new report that the RSF had “committed crimes against humanity, notably murder, torture, forced displacement, persecution on ethnic grounds, and other inhumane acts.”
It also found evidence of war crimes by both sides in the conflict between the regular army and the RSF, which has killed tens of thousands of people since it broke out in April 2023.
“Our findings leave no room for doubt: civilians are paying the highest price in this war,” mission chief Mohamed Chande Othman said in a statement.
“Both sides have deliberately targeted civilians through attacks, summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, and inhuman treatment in detention facilities, including denial of food, sanitation, and medical care,” he said.
“These are not accidental tragedies but deliberate strategies amounting to war crimes.”
While faulting both sides in the brutal conflict, the investigators highlighted in particular the paramilitary force’s brutality in El-Fasher, which it has besieged since May 2024.
“RSF, during the siege of El-Fasher and surrounding areas, committed myriad crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, sexual violence,” the statement said, also pointing to “forced displacement and persecution on ethnic, gender and political grounds.”
“The RSF and its allies used starvation as a method of warfare and deprived civilians of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, medicine and relief supplies — which may amount to the crime against humanity of extermination,” it added.
The fact-finding mission demanded international action to bring perpetrators of such crimes to justice.
“Accountability is not optional — it is a legal and moral imperative to protect civilians and prevent further atrocities,” mission member Mona Rishmawi said in the statement.


Israel army says will target Gaza City high rises ‘in coming days’

Israel army says will target Gaza City high rises ‘in coming days’
Updated 50 min 27 sec ago

Israel army says will target Gaza City high rises ‘in coming days’

Israel army says will target Gaza City high rises ‘in coming days’
  • Israel has been expanding its forces, intensifying its bombardments and operating on the outskirts of Gaza City ever since announcing its plans to capture the Palestinian territory’s largest urban center after nearly two years of devastating war

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it struck a high-rise in Gaza City on Friday, shortly after announcing it would target a range of structures identified as being used by Hamas, particularly tall buildings.
Israel has been expanding its forces, intensifying its bombardments and operating on the outskirts of Gaza City ever since announcing its plans to capture the Palestinian territory’s largest urban center after nearly two years of devastating war.
In a statement Friday, the military said it had “identified significant Hamas terrorist activity within a wide variety of infrastructure sites in Gaza City, and particularly in high-rise buildings.”
“In the coming days, the (Israeli military) will strike structures that have been converted into terrorist infrastructure in Gaza City: cameras, observation command centers, sniper and anti-tank firing positions, command-and-control compounds,” the statement said.
Less than an hour later, the army issued another statement announcing it had struck one such high-rise, adding Hamas had used it “to advance and execute attacks against (Israeli) troops in the area.”
An animated infographic accompanying the first statement showed a video camera on top of a tower block with a Hamas “observation command center” in the building and an “underground tunnel route” below.
The army said that before Friday’s strike, “precautionary measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians,” including prior warnings.
“The news about Israel beginning to bomb towers and apartment buildings is terrifying. Everyone is scared and doesn’t know where to go,” said Ahmed Abu Wutfa, 45, who lives in his relatives’ partially destroyed fifth-floor apartment in western Gaza City.
“My children are terrified, and so am I. There is no safe place — we only hope that death comes quickly,” he told AFP by telephone.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed 19 people on Friday in and around Gaza City, an area which the United Nations estimates is home to nearly one million people.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Friday that: “the bolt has now been removed from the gates of hell in Gaza.”


Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes
Updated 43 min 12 sec ago

Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes
  • Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,231 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said 19 people were killed on Friday in a series of Israeli strikes in and around Gaza City, which the Israeli military is planning to conquer.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the attacks hit buildings and tents housing displaced Gazans in several neighborhoods and on the outskirts of the city, where the United Nations says more than a million people are facing famine.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military requested timeframes and coordinates to comment on specific incidents.
Israel has stepped up its bombardment of Gaza City since saying it would launch a full-scale offensive to capture it. Army spokesman Nadav Shoshani said Thursday the start of the campaign would not be announced in order to “maintain the element of surprise.”
Another army spokesman, Effie Defrin, said Thursday that Israeli troops already controlled 40 percent of the city.
Israel expects its new offensive will displace around a million people toward the south.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,231 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.