NBC News: U.S. Urges Israel To End Large-Scale Ground War

“Jake Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, met with Israeli officials Thursday as U.S.-Israeli tensions hit new highs. The Biden administration has told the Israeli government that it wants Israel to end its large-scale ground campaign in Gaza and transition to a more targeted phase of its war against Hamas, two U.S. officials familiar with the discussions told NBC News. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back on criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza, pledging to continue. “Nothing will stop us. We are going on to the end, until victory, nothing less,” he said. His comments on Wednesday came amid international condemnation of his government, including from the leader of his country’s closest ally, Biden. Another significant divide is emerging between the U.S. and Israel, with a senior Israeli diplomat saying the country “absolutely” would not accept a two-state solution following the war. This runs counter to long-standing U.S. policy objectives in the region, as well as recent Biden comments. Yesterday, a State Department spokesperson said “there can be no lasting peace and security” without a Palestinian state. More than

18,700 Palestinians have been killed, with 70% of them women and children, according to the territory’s health officials. The vast majority of its 2.2 million people are displaced, and an estimated half face starvation amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis.”

CNN: Was Hamas Leader In Turkey During October 7 Attack? ‘He Might Have Been,’ Says Erdogan’s Chief Security Adviser

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief foreign policy and security adviser has defended his country’s decision to host senior Hamas figures, saying Turkey is engaging with Hamas “to bring about peace.” Hamas members can freely come and go from Turkey and have a permanent presence in the country. Its senior figures have met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan periodically throughout the years. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh met Erdogan in July and there are unconfirmed reports Haniyeh was in Turkey – and not his regular domicile of Qatar – during the October 7 attacks.”

CEP Mentions

North Africa Post: Sahel’s Al Qaeda Branch Leader Vows To Start New Jihad Phase Against Juntas, Russian Mercenaries

“A new phase of Jihad against the military juntas and Russian mercenaries in the Sahel has started for Al Qaeda in the region, the leader of the terrorist group, Iyad Ag Ghaly, has said in a new video message published online. Speaking publicly for the first time since 2017, the leader of the militant organization said the new phase of Jihad will focus on fighting local armies in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group whom he blamed for committing massacres against local civilian population. Malian jihadist leader, Iyad Ag Ghali, is widely regarded as the junta’s ‘public enemy number one’. Ghali is the US- and UN-designated Malian leader of Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM). According to Counter Extremism Project, given the Sahel’s importance in expanding al-Qaeda’s current operations, it is suspected by regional scholars that Ghali may now be within al-Qaeda’s “senior leadership.”

United States

ABC: Biden Supporters Push Back On Potential 2024 Fallout From His Handling Of The Israel-Hamas War

“As war continues between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack, President Joe Biden has drawn both praise and criticism for his support for Israel's military response while pushing them to better protect Palestinian civilians. The ongoing response in the U.S. to Biden's handling of the war is already influencing public opinion in the early days of the 2024 presidential race, when Biden is seeking a second term. But despite some outcry from progressive Democrats and Arab American groups -- including calls to try to sink his reelection bid -- a range of Biden-aligned political experts are pushing back. Biden "did what he thought was right and consistent with American values," said David Eichenbaum, a Democratic media consultant who worked for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's successful reelection campaign. "I think that when you do that, the politics will take care of itself," Eichenbaum told ABC News. He and other supportive strategists and advocates said that they are still optimistic about how Biden's handling of Israel and Hamas could help -- or at least not seriously harm -- his presidential bid with voting still a year away. Looking ahead to 2024, the current war is unlikely to be central to Biden's pitch, said Jim Gerstein, a researcher and pollster with the Democratic-aligned GBAO Strategies.”

Arab Weekly: Yazidis, Led By Nobel Laureate, Sue French Cement Maker Lafarge Over ISIS Support

“Hundreds of Yazidi-Americans, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, filed a lawsuit against French cement maker Lafarge on Thursday, accusing it of conspiring to provide material support to a campaign of violence by the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group in Iraq and Syria. Represented by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and former veteran US diplomat Lee Wolosky, the Yazidis – who are all US citizens – and their families are survivors of ISIS violence that started when the Islamist militants targeted the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar in northern Iraq in 2014. According to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, Lafarge “aided and abetted ISIS’s acts of international terrorism and conspired with ISIS and its intermediaries, they must pay compensation to the survivors.”

CBS News: U.S. Terrorist Watchlist Grows To 2 Million People — Nearly Doubling In 6 Years

“The U.S. government's terrorist watchlist has nearly doubled in size in just six years, a CBS Reports investigation has found. An extensive review of court records, government documents and interviews with more than a dozen current and former intelligence community leaders revealed that the consolidated database of individuals has not only been quietly expanding in number but also in who it targets. The numbers speak for themselves. When it first launched on Dec. 1, 2003, the consolidated watchlist — now known as the Terrorist Screening Dataset — included approximately 120,000 people. By 2017, the last publicly confirmed numbers, it included nearly 10 times as many: 1,160,000 individuals. Now, at the end of 2023, the Terrorist Screening Dataset contains the names of approximately 2 million people the government considers known or suspected terrorists, including thousands of Americans, according to a CBS Reports investigation.”

Al Arabiya: US Forces Attacked 97 Times In Syria, Iraq Since October: Defense Official

“US troops have been targeted at least 97 times in Iraq and Syria since October 17, a US defense official said Thursday, including five attacks this week alone. From October 17 to December 13, there were 45 attacks in Iraq and an additional 52 in Syria, involving a combination of one-way attack drones, rockets, and close-range ballistic missiles, according to the official. The majority of the attacks were “successfully disrupted by our military,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Arabiya English. “Most failed to reach their targets, thanks to our robust defenses.”

Iran

Reuters: Iran Warns Against Proposed U.S.-Backed Red Sea Force - Isna

“Iran's Defence Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani warned that a proposed U.S.-backed multinational task force to protect shipping in the Red Sea would face "extraordinary problems", official Iranian media reported on Thursday. Ashtiani's comments came after the United States said last week it was in talks with other countries to set up a task force following a spate of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on ships in the Red Sea. "If they make such an irrational move, they will be faced with extraordinary problems," Ashtiani told the official Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) in comments it published on Thursday. "Nobody can make a move in a region where we have predominance," he said, referring to the Red Sea. Ashtiani did not specify what measures Iran was prepared to take in response to the setting up of a U.S.-backed Red Sea task force. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters last week that Washington was in talks with "other countries" over forming a "maritime task force ... to ensure safe passage of ships in the Red Sea," but did not give further details. Yemen's Houthis, which are aligned with Iran, have waded into the Israel-Hamas conflict by attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel more than 1,000 miles from their seat of power in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.”

Iraq

Reuters: Iraq Links Some US Embassy Attackers To Security Services

“Iraq has identified links between several of the perpetrators of a Dec. 7 multiple rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and some of the country's security services, a spokesperson for Iraq's prime minister said in a statement. The statement did not elaborate on which security services the alleged perpetrators were linked to but said several of them had been arrested and work was ongoing to arrest others. Iraqi security forces had also arrested individuals who assisted the perpetrators with logistical support for the attack and facilitated their movements near the highly fortified Green Zone where the attacks took place, the statement said. The attack, the first on the embassy in well over a year, was seen as an escalation in weeks of attacks on U.S. forces in the region that were claimed by Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim armed groups with close links to Iran. No group has claimed responsibility specifically for the embassy attack. It was condemned by top U.S. officials, who called on Iraq to hold the perpetrators to account and reiterated that the United States maintained the right to respond, as it has several times with air strikes on militants. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski on Thursday commended Iraqi authorities "on successfully apprehending a number of those responsible for the terrorist attacks against our Embassy," she said in a social media post.”

Afghanistan

CBS News: Taliban Imprisoning Women For Their Own "Protection From Gender-Based-Violence," U.N. Report Says

“Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime has sent some women to prison to protect them from the threat of gender-based violence, a United Nations report released Thursday said. Taliban authorities told the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan that women who don't have a male relative to stay with, or whose male relatives are deemed a threat to their safety, have been sent to prison. It was unclear if the orders were based on court referrals. "Some [Taliban] de facto officials stated that in instances where they had safety concerns for a survivor, she would be sent to the women's prison, for her protection, akin to how prisons have been used to accommodate drug addicts and homeless people in Kabul," the report states. "The confinement of women in prison facilities, outside the enforcement of criminal law, and for the purpose of ensuring their protection from gender-based-violence, would amount to an arbitrary deprivation of liberty," the U.N. mission said, adding that "confining women who are already in a situation of vulnerability in a punitive environment would also likely have a negative impact on their mental and physical health, revictimization and put them at risk of discrimination and stigmatization upon release." The report is a snapshot of legal and judicial responses by the Taliban to complaints of gender-based violence against women and girls from August 2021 until March 2023, including murders, honor killings and rapes.”

Pakistan

ABC News: 22 Killed As Suicide Bomber Attacks Pakistan Police And Military Station

“At least 22 people were killed and more than 30 were injured when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a security forces compound in Pakistan on Tuesday, local officials said. A newly formed militant group Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it targeted the officers who were at the compound. Both police and army officers are stationed at the compound, which is in a city close to the border with Afghanistan.”

Yemen

Reuters: Maersk Denies Houthi Claim Container Ship Hit By Yemeni Militia

“Danish shipping company Maersk on Friday denied a claim by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement that the militia carried out a drone strike on a Maersk vessel sailing towards Israel. The Houthis earlier claimed it carried out a military operation against a Maersk container vessel, directly hitting it with a drone. The Houthis, who made the claim in a statement, did not release any evidence. Maersk on Thursday said ship Maersk Gibraltar was targeted by a missile while travelling from Salalah, Oman, to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and that the crew and vessel were reported safe. "The vessel was not hit," a Maersk spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement following the Houthi claim. The incident took place near the Bad al-Mandab Strait linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, where Yemen's Houthis on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a missile attack on a Norwegian chemical tanker. "The recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Bad al-Mandab Strait are extremely concerning. The current situation puts seafarer lives at risk and is unsustainable for global trade," Maersk said earlier. Houthi military spokesperson Yehia Sareea late on Thursday said the militia had hit the Maersk container vessel with a drone after it refused to respond the Yemeni group's warnings.”

Lebanon

The National: Israel Drops Leaflets Warning South Lebanon Of Danger From Hezbollah Attacks

“Israel military aircraft dropped leaflets on a southern Lebanese town to warn residents of the dangers of Hezbollah using the area to launch cross-border attacks. Images of the leaflets were shared online, and verified by the mayor of Kfar Chouba and a local resident. Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have engaged in daily cross-border clashes since October 8, leading to deaths on each side – including more than 100 Hezbollah fighters. The message, addressed to the residents of south Lebanon, says Hezbollah "is taking advantage of the opportunity to infiltrate your lands, and the areas around your work and livelihood". It tells the residents that "you must stop this terrorism for your safety by being careful" in the region. "The concealment of Hezbollah members in civilian areas is the real danger, and this is what harms you.”

Middle East

Associated Press: Hungry, Thirsty And Humiliated: Israel’s Mass Arrest Campaign Sows Fear In Northern Gaza

“The Israeli military has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians across the northern Gaza Strip, separating families and forcing men to strip to their underwear before trucking some to a detention camp on the beach, where they spent hours, in some cases days, subjected to hunger and cold, according to human rights activists, distraught relatives and released detainees themselves. Palestinians detained in the shattered town of Beit Lahiya, the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya and neighborhoods of Gaza City said they were bound, blindfolded and bundled into the backs of trucks. Some said they were taken to the camp at an undisclosed location, nearly naked and with little water. “We were treated like cattle, they even wrote numbers on our hands,” said Ibrahim Lubbad, a 30-year-old computer engineer arrested in Beit Lahiya on Dec. 7 with a dozen other family members and held overnight. “We could feel their hatred.” The roundups have laid bare an emerging tactic in Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza, experts say, as the military seeks to solidify control in evacuated areas in the north and collect intelligence about Hamas operations nearly 10 weeks after the group’s deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. Militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted over 240 that day.”

North Korea

Bloomberg: North Korea May Test ICBM This Month To Ramp Up Threat To US

“North Korea may test launch this month a ballistic missile designed to deliver a warhead to the US mainland, a top South Korean security official said, in a show of force by Kim Jong Un as he is set to hold a major policy-setting meeting. “There is a possibility of North Korea launching an intercontinental ballistic missile in December,” Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo told reporters Thursday when he arrived in the US for a meeting of a bilateral nuclear strategy group. Kim Tae-hyo did not offer details on any intelligence assessment. But North Korea has launched most of its ICBMs in recent years from a site near Pyongyang’s main international airport that is under close watch by US spy satellites.”

Europe

Reuters: Seven Arrested In Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands Over Suspected Terrorism Plots

“Seven people, including four suspected Hamas members, were arrested in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands on suspicion of planning attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe, authorities in the three countries said on Thursday. The arrests were made as Israel pressed on with its operation to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a war that was touched off by a cross-border Oct. 7 assault on Israeli towns by militants of the Palestinian Islamist movement. Three of the suspects were detained in Berlin and another was detained in the Netherlands, all four longstanding members of Hamas with close links to the leadership of Hamas' military branch, German prosecutors said in a statement. A Hamas official denied those held were connected to the group. Three people arrested in Denmark would be charged under the terrorism clause of the criminal code and put in front of a judge for preliminary questioning, police said. It was not clear if there was a link between the arrests in Denmark and those in Germany and the Netherlands. Dutch national Nazih R was arrested by police in Rotterdam, while Lebanon-born Abdelhamid Al A and Ibrahim El-R, as well as Egyptian national Mohamed B, were arrested in the German capital, German prosecutors said.”

The Guardian: Four Arrested In Europe Over Alleged Cross-Border Hamas Terrorism Plot

“Four people have been arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on suspicion of being part of a cross-border Hamas terror plot that German prosecutors said aimed to obtain weapons to target Jewish institutions in Europe. Three others were arrested in Denmark on separate terrorism offences, and the country’s politicians indicated they were also Hamas related, while the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the threat was “as serious as it gets”. The office of Germany’s federal prosecutor said three men had been detained in Berlin and the fourth in Rotterdam on Thursday and they were described as “longstanding members of Hamas” who had links to its military wing and “have participated in Hamas operations abroad”. One of the group, named only as Abdelhamid Al A, was accused by the prosecutor of having “started searching for an underground weapons cache in Europe no later than spring 2023” on the orders of Hamas leaders based in Lebanon. The cache had been “created in the past in a conspiratorial manner” by Hamas, the prosecutor’s office added. “The weapons were due to be taken to Berlin and kept in a state of readiness in view of potential terrorist attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe.”  During October, the month of Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel, three of the four men “travelled repeatedly from Berlin to look for the weapons”, the prosecutor continued, with the fourth man accused of providing assistance.”