Ebrahim Raisi, 63, was elected president in 2021, having had a decades-long career in the country’s judicial system under his belt

Iranian state media have confirmed that President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in the country’s northwestern province of East Azerbaijan. His entire entourage, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Governor of East Azerbaijan Malek Rahmati have also perished, Press TV said.

The head of state had traveled to the border region after joining Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Saturday to inaugurate a dam. Raisi had pledged to visit each of Iran’s 30 provinces at least once a year, and was thus regularly moving around the country.

Reports of a “crash landing” began circulating earlier on Sunday, with Iranian state media citing Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi. According to media outlet IRNA, the weather was foggy in the area where the presidential helicopter is believed to have gone down.

According to the media, Raisi was traveling in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter. Low visibility and the impassibility of the area made search operations difficult, IRNA also wrote. Though rescue teams reportedly launched a search operation within an hour of the incident, adverse weather conditions hampered the process.

According to the media, Raisi was traveling in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter. The rescuers finally managed to locate the crash site on Monday morning with the help of Turkish surveillance drones. The wreckage was discovered in the woodland area of a mountain slope. The aircraft was heavily damaged and charred. There were no signs of survivors, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said.

With Raisi’s passing, First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is expected to take office as interim leader.

A representative of the republic’s conservative wing, Raisi, was elected back in 2021. Before assuming Iran’s top job, he had worked his way up from Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor in Tehran in the 1980s and 1990s all the way to Attorney General and, later, Chief Justice.

Source(s):RT News

The Israeli army on Saturday continued its attack on Jabalia in northern Gaza, urging residents in the area to evacuate their homes and head to shelters in western Gaza.

Army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on social media platform X that the army eliminated “a sabotage cell in Jabalia after clashes with its members inside buildings, where the saboteurs fled to the roof and opened fire on the army forces.”

Adraee said the troops surrounded the buildings and eliminated the group after an exchange of fire, noting that the army did not suffer any losses during the clashes.

The spokesperson did not provide further details about the identity of the “saboteurs.”

Earlier in the day, Palestinian medical sources said at least 28 people, including women and children, were killed in continuous Israeli raids on the Jabalia refugee camp.

Israeli warplanes targeted several residential houses and a shelter center for displaced people in the camp with missiles, according to Xinhua, citing Palestinian security sources.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 35,386, health authorities in the Palestinian enclave said in a press statement on Saturday.

The raids caused large explosions in the camp, which had been witnessing a military operation for several days.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed more than 130 militants in targeted operations in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to a statement issued on Saturday.

As part of the operations, the Givati infantry brigade killed more than 80 militants in the area and located dozens of rifles, grenades, and ammunition, according to the IDF statement.

Givati’s reconnaissance unit also uncovered significant underground tunnel infrastructure in the area, it said.

Simultaneously, the 401st armored brigade killed about 50 militants in raids on Hamas infrastructure and buildings from which gunfire was shot at IDF troops and located dozens of tunnel shafts and many anti-aircraft guns.

“So far, hundreds of terrorist infrastructure sites have been destroyed by the 401st brigade, including weapons production facilities and ready-to-use launch sites,” the IDF said.

New divisions emerge

New divisions have emerged among Israel’s leaders over post-war Gaza’s governance, with an unexpected Hamas fightback in parts of the Palestinian territory, piling pressure onto Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, AFP reports.

Netanyahu came under personal attack on Saturday from war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, who threatened to resign from the body unless the premier approved a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip.

Earlier in the week, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant slammed Netanyahu for failing to rule out an Israeli government in Gaza after the war.

The prime minister’s outright rejection of post-war Palestinian leadership in Gaza has broken wide open a rift among top politicians and also frustrated relations with top ally the United States, the AFP report said.

Experts say the lack of clarity only serves to benefit Hamas, whose leader has insisted no new authority can be established in the territory without its involvement.

Gantz said Saturday that the war cabinet needed to draft and approve a broad range of plans within three weeks, including the formation of an “American, European, Arab and Palestinian administration that will manage civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip,” according to the AFP report.

Washington had previously called for a “revitalized” form of the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war. But Netanyahu has rejected any role for the Palestinian Authority in post-war Gaza, saying on Thursday that it “supports terror, educates terror, finances terror.”

Instead, Netanyahu has clung to his steadfast aim of “eliminating” Hamas, asserting that “there’s no alternative to military victory.”

Source(s): CGTN

Israel’s tanks pushed into the heart of Jabalia in northern Gaza on Thursday, facing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs from militants concentrated there, while in the south, its forces pounded Rafah without advancing, Palestinian residents and militants said.

The slow progress of Israel’s offensive, more than seven months after Hamas’ deadly cross-border raid prompted it, highlighted the difficulty of achieving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aim of eradicating the militant group.

Armed wings of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have been able to fight up and down the Gaza Strip, using heavily fortified tunnels to stage attacks in both the north—the focus of Israel’s initial invasion—and new battlegrounds like Rafah.

“We are wearing Hamas down,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, announcing that more troops would be deployed in Rafah, where he said several tunnels had been destroyed.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri responded that the group would defend its people “by all means.”

Israel says four Hamas battalions are now in Rafah along with hostages abducted during the October 7 assault, but it faces international pressure not to invade the city, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians are sheltering.

South Africa asked the top UN court to order a halt to Israel’s Rafah offensive, saying it was “part of the endgame in which Gaza is utterly destroyed.” Israel has denied South African allegations of genocide in Gaza and said it had complied with an earlier court order to step up aid.

The Gaza death toll has risen to 35,272, health officials in the Hamas-run coastal enclave said, and malnutrition is widespread with international aid efforts blocked by the violence and Israel’s de-facto shutdowns of its Kerem Shalom crossing and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Israel says it needs to eliminate the organization after the deaths of 1,200 people on October 7 and to free the 128 hostages still held out of the 253 abducted by the militants, according to its tallies.

Source(s): CGTN