Egyptian officials said that jihadists  have attacked construction workers in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, killing at least four civilian workers.

The officials said the attack took place in the Mediterranean city of el-Arish as workers were building a fence around the city’s airport. They said the attackers wounded five other workers and burned two vehicles.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore hallmarks of an affiliate of the Islamic State group.

Egypt has been battling Islamic terrorists for years, but the insurgency gathered steam and grew deadlier after the 2013 ouster of an Islamist president by President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, then defense minister.

The country’s security forces launched an all-out offensive against militants in February last year.

Earlier this month, the Egyptian Interior Ministry reported that security forces killed four suspected jihadists in the restive northern Sinai allegedly involved in a deadly attack week on a police checkpoint.

The ministry said the suspected attackers were killed in a shootout as security forces raided a building used as a hideout in el-Arish, and three assault rifles and an explosive vest were seized.

The ministry said the four were implicated in an Islamic State-claimed attack on a police checkpoint in northern Sinai days earlier that authorities said left eight policemen dead.

Since the attack, operations by security forces have killed a total of 26 “terrorists” linked to the attack, according to the ministry.

t has now been over two months since General Khalifa Haftar and his forces, the Libyan National Army (LNA), launched a military campaign to take Tripoli from the UN backed Government of National Accord (GNA), like reported by opendemocracy.net.

On the 3rd of April, the LNA deployed thousands of men and heavy artillery from their rear base in eastern Libya into the west of the country with the stated aim of capturing the capital. Now, with over 7300 people killed and around 39 80 000 people displaced, it appears that international efforts to bring the country closer to peace have been dealt a major and devasting blow.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at the end of last month that Libya was getting closer to forming a united caretaker government. In fact, the UN was due, on the 14th and 15th of April, to hold a conference to establish Libya’s “path to reconciliation and elections”. This represented the latest attempt by international actors to bring warring parties together for peace talks. For instance, soon after becoming President of France, Emanuel Macron attempted to broker an agreement between Haftar and leader of the GNA, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj. However, in all of these attempts, progress has been slow.

In a large part, this is due to Haftar, who has continued to reject the legitimacy of the GNA and has long sought to “seize, rather than share, power.” This, then, raises important questions about why so many countries have continued to support Haftar. This includes the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Russia and – perhaps most surprisingly – France, who has been at the forefront of recent peace talks and has publicly and diplomatically supported the UN backed GNA.

Following the rise of so-called Islamic State (IS) in Libya, France and some of its allies – including the US and the UK – provided support to local forces. Some of these groups were those from the Libyan city of Misrata, who were aligned (albeit belatedly and conditionally) with the GNA, but some support – particularly from the French – also went to the LNA who have maintained a strong stance against the GNA, the internationally recognised government in Libya.

By working with these local groups rather than going through the GNA, these countries weakened the legitimacy of the GNA and emboldened rival groups. According to Hayder al-Khoei, Ellie Geranmayeh and Mattia Toaldo of ECFR, they showed “how little [the GNA] was actually able to deliver to the forces on the ground in terms of weapons, money or political support.” As a result, they note, the GNA has continued to lack any “real coalition of political and armed groups backing it” and while some militias have mobilised against Haftar in recent weeks, it remains unclear how many will stay allied with the GNA once the immediate fighting has stopped.

In contrast, they argue, this support strengthened Haftar’s “hand with both his ‘domestic’ opponents and rivals in eastern Libya and vis-à-vis the government in Tripoli.” And as Alison Pargeter noted in a 2017 report for the Remote Warfare Programme, by backing militias rather than the GNA, Western forces “set off more internal power struggles in place of dialogue and cooperation between groups.”

Even amidst the recent violence, contradictory national policies have hindered concerted international efforts to stem the violence. France stopped an EU statement, calling for a ceasefire, from mentioning Haftar and the US (as well as Russia) said it could not agree to a UN Security Council resolution condemning Haftar. In fact, according to the White House account of the conversation, President Trump also went as far as to publicly praise the general’s “significant role in fighting terrorism.” In doing so, both countries are providing tacit approval for the general’s policies and actively applying diplomatic pressure to prevent international condemnation of his actions.

Yet, no plan for Libya can be built on further empowering Haftar. Ghassan Salamé, UN envoy for Libya, warned against states trying to do just this, asking how Haftar will deliver on his promise “to unify the country” when “he doesn’t govern softly, but with an iron fist.” So far his military operations have “displac[ed] thousands and unleash[ed] exclusionary forces such as tribalism and ultraconservative Salafism.” Moreover, his political support base scarcely extends beyond the distinctive eastern region, and even there he remains a problematic figure, especially given his past links to the Gaddafi regime. Even in this latest battle, Haftar’s hopes of an easy victory are looking less likely, with forces aligned to the GNA now successfully pushing back the LNA in some parts of the city. As, Paul Taylor noted in Politico “he’s not doing too strongly as a strongman.”

As the international community seeks to stem the ongoing violence, it must take stock of the devastating impact of French (and to some extent US and UK) policy towards Libya. Not only have these policies stymied progress but they have also exacerbated tensions and instability within an already fragile political situation. Strongmen cannot provide stability in the long-term, the sooner we learn this the sooner we stop perpetuating instability and violence in the places we intervene. The international community must urgently reassess the operations of countries like France in Libya, which have emboldened General Haftar – potentially to the detriment of regional security.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement is calling for violence against Israel during next week’s Bahrain conference. Earlier this week, Fatah posted an image of a masked Palestinian throwing a rock on its official Facebook page and urged Palestinians to “escalate confrontations”, like reported by jns.org.

Since the announcement of the U.S.-led “Peace to Prosperity” conference, which is to focus on economic investment in the P.A. as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, the P.A. has refused to participate and called on Arab states to boycott the conference.

Calls to boycott the economic workshop have come from P.A. politicians across the Fatah ruling party.

According to a report in the official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on Monday, P.A. Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh accused the U.S. president and administration of “waging an economic and political war against the PLO” and questioned how the United States can “organize the Manama conference and claim that it is meant to improve the economic situation of the Palestinians?”

Last Thursday, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published an article by Fatah Revolutionary Council Secretary Majed al-Fatiani, who said that the council “is committed to leading the struggle to stop the great plot that is being woven against our people.”

He implicitly threatened violence, using the Palestinian euphemism for violence and terrorism, stating the Palestinians will use “all means available.” Al-Fatiani called on “the Fatah members and the vital forces on the Palestinian lands to [dedicate] the 24th, 25th and 26th [of June; the Bahrain conference runs from June 25-26] to Palestine and Jerusalem, in order to express their rejection of the Bahrain conference.”

A day earlier, Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki and PLO Central Council member Omar Shehadeh participated in a meeting entitled “The Holocaust of the Century in Bahrain … Its Signs, Consequences, and Ways to Deal With It.”

Palestinian leaders present emphasized that the Bahrain conference is “a holocaust for basic Arab principles and Palestinian rights,” while the director of the meeting dubbed Trump’s “deal of the century” “the Zionist-American ‘holocaust of the century’” and alleged that the conference only pretends to seek economic prosperity for Palestinians but in reality is a cover for creating “normalization” with the Arab states.

The PLO, too, has called on all the states and political and financial bodies that have been invited to the conference to “respect the position of the Palestinian consensus” and not participate in it.

Regarding the Fatah call to violence, Nan Jacques Zilberdik, a senior analyst with the Israel-based NGO Palestinian Media Watch, said: “Fatah’s call for violence is a sad reminder that even a quarter of a century after the Oslo Accords, Fatah still believes in violence and encourages Palestinians to “escalate confrontations” with Israel to achieve its political goals.”

The Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah has served its Iranian masters well. It has murdered Americans and Israelis. More recently Syrian Sunni-Muslims, and Christians have been its victims, like reported by frontpagemag.com.

Hezbollah has done the killings on behalf of the Ayatollahs in Tehran, and the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In recent months however, it has taken several blows from Israel.

Israeli strikes thwarted missile deliveries from Syria to its Lebanese bases. There is also growing global condemnation of its activities and an increasing designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. i24TV reported on February 27, 2019 that the, “United Kingdom has officially labeled Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in its entirety, as opposed to just its military wing, as some European powers have.”

In the period spanning December, 2018 to January, 2019, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Northern Shield. In this operation, the IDF exposed and neutralized Hezbollah’s extended cross-border tunnel network. Six tunnels were destroyed and shut down, with all of them violating international law, specifically, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. In late May, 2019, the IDF uncovered the longest and most significant of Hezbollah’s attack tunnels. This latest tunnel was nearly a mile long, 22 stories deep, and stretched more than 250 feet into Israeli territory.

These events deflated Hezbollah’s claims to be the guardian of Lebanese security. Although it dominates the Lebanese government, its excesses have now opened a stream of criticism against its machinations over the border and existing complaints about its role in Syria. In a few weeks from now, American sponsored talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials will commence in Naqoura, on the Lebanese side of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The talks will focus on the maritime boundaries between the two countries, and the future of the gas deposits in the area. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David M. Satterfield, have been shuttling between Israel and Lebanon to settle the dispute between the two parties, with the hope of strengthening the Beirut government, and weakening Hezbollah’s grip on power in Lebanon.

The mere fact that Lebanese officials will be meeting their Israeli counterparts face to face is a significant American accomplishment. It is also indicative of the U.S. increasing influence in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Daily Star reported on June 4th, 2019 that, “Among the bridging ideas put forward by both sides was for international energy groups, operating in both Israeli and Lebanese waters, to carry out first a seismological survey of the disputed area.” Israel and Lebanon have been at least formally at war since the re-establishment of the Jewish state in 1948.

The two countries have long disagreed on the border demarcations in the eastern Mediterranean, an issue that has become more acute in the last decade when large deposits of natural gas were found there. The Daily Star also reported that “Lebanese lawmakers close to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri (leader of the Shiite Amal party) quoted him as saying there was ‘clear progress’ on the efforts to resolve the border dispute.”

Both Lebanon’s Christian President Michel Aoun, and Speaker Nabih Berri, who is also in a close relationship with Hezbollah, are cognizant of the economic benefits Lebanon would derive from resolving the dispute with Israel and producing gas. Lebanon’s Sunni-Muslim Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, has likewise endorsed the talks with Israel under U.S. mediation. Hariri is committed to removing Lebanon from regional conflicts, and as such, he has been critical of Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria, and its stirring of troubles with Israel.

Clearly, Lebanon’s weak economy is in dire need of a boost, and income from the gas fields, which might alleviate its chronic economic crisis. The fact that Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has shown little resistance to the American mediation and open talks with Israel, indicates that despite its electoral gains in the last elections, its influence in Lebanon is declining.

The U.S. is currently arming and training the Lebanese armed forces, and it is therefore in a much better position to pressure the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, and thus drastically weakening the terror group. The Lebanese government will have to decide whether it is an independent state or a subsidiary of Hezbollah, and controlled by Iran. If the Lebanese government declines to do so, then the U.S. can exercise the option of boycotting Lebanon, and those doing business with it.

Although the Shiites are the largest sect in Lebanon, they are not the majority. When Christians, Sunnis, and Druse combine forces, they can overwhelm the Shiites and form a majority. Even among Shiites, there are those who oppose Hezbollah, and who fear like the rest of the Lebanese, that the terrorist group might drag Lebanon into a war with Israel, resulting in destruction for the Land of the Cedars. The 2006 war with Israel is a somber reminder of what can happen to Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s war in Syria has cost it thousands of casualties. The organization paying pensions to its retirees and the families of those killed in Syria, has put the organization under a major financial strain. Moreover, U.S. sanctions on Iran has forced the Islamic Republic to cut its financial outlays to Hezbollah. Hezbollah officials were targeted by the U.S. in February, 2018.

The Voice of America News reported that the U.S. “imposed sanctions” on seven businesses and six people associated with Hezbollah, aiming to disrupt the terror organization. Unlike the situation with Iran, where the U.S. and its European allies disagree on the nuclear deal, the same European nations are more than likely to back the U.S. on the demand to disarm Hezbollah. Also, unlike in Syria, where Russia has a strategic interest in backing Iran, it does not exist when it comes to Lebanon.

Al-Jazeera reported (May 23, 2019) that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a meeting with Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, warned that “Lebanon faces a choice: bravely move forward as an independent and proud nation or allow the dark ambitions of Iran and Hezbollah to dictate your future.” He also pointed out that last year, while the U.S. provided the Lebanese people with $800 million in aid, Iran has only given to the Hezbollah (not to the Lebanese people) $700 million.

According to Lebanese-native, Joseph Hakim, President of the International Christian Union, “the first thing that the U.S. should demand of the Lebanese government is to implement fairly the Taif Agreement, which called on all armed militias to disband, including Hezbollah. While all other militias disarmed, Hezbollah, under the pretext of defending Lebanon, did not. This must change. Hakim added “Hezbollah is bound to hijack the revenue flowing from the gas fields.”

The recent Israeli operation to destroy the tunnels into Israel that Hezbollah built over years with large investments in cash and manpower, weakened the terror organization. The U.S. must now press the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, and allow the Lebanese army, which the U.S. equips and trains, to be the sole defense force for Lebanon. The Lebanese people, in the words of Mike Pompeo, have a choice to make.

The Israeli Air Force is holding a week-long large scale drill simulating a multi-front war with all the platforms and squadrons, including for the first time the F-35i Adir stealth fighter jet, like reported by jpost.com.

The drill, which began on Sunday June 16th, includes all aircraft from combat squadrons, helicopters and transport planes as well as troops from the Aerial Defense Division and the IAF control units.

“All of the air force is in the air,” a senior Israel Air Force officer told reporters on Tuesday, adding that troops “have to make hard decisions in real-time like during war.”

The F-35, which took part in the drill for the first time, has “increased the capabilities and lethality of the Air Force” the senior officer said, adding that the jet not only allows the IAF to strike the enemy quickly but gets them into areas where the IAF “hasn’t been able to get to before.”

Built by Lockheed Martin, the jets have an extremely low radar signature allowing the jet to operate undetected deep inside enemy territory as well as evade advanced missile defense systems like the S-300 and S-400 missile defense systems which have been deployed in countries such as Syria.

With close air-support capabilities and a massive array of sensors, pilots of the stealth jet have unparalleled access to information while in the air.

The drill is aimed at improving the readiness and efficiency of the IAF to cope with a multi-front wartime scenario including numerous attacks over a short period of time as well as assistance to ground forces.

While it is simulating a multi-front combat scenario, the focus is on Israel’s northern front “where the enemy is the most challenging” the senior officer said.

Since the last war with Hezbollah in 2006, the Shiite Lebanese group has significantly increased their rocket arsenal and Israel’s homefront is expected to be bombarded by thousands of rockets and missiles. The group has also significantly increased their battlefield knowledge from their time in Syria and is believed to have advanced weapons systems.

Hezbollah, called a “terror army” by senior IDF officers, is believed to have technology and capabilities stronger than some other armies in the region. Despite losing thousands of fighters in Syria, Hezbollah has grown in strength and military know-how. 

As part of the drill, IAF troops are training on hitting the enemy before they are able to launch all their rockets towards the Israeli homefront, and “if they start with thousands of rockets per day we are hoping to be able to make it so there are only a few being launched and to intercept those that are launched,” the senior officer said.

The IAF is also drilling on the real possibility that Hezbollah will target air force bases and aircraft in the sky, he said, explaining that jets will spend less than an hour on the ground following a strike before they are in the air heading towards the next targets.

The senior officer said that the air force is also drilling on its ability to strike the enemy in a fast and lethal manner to make sure that they will not be able to attack the ground troops.

Also on Tuesday Israel President Reuven Rivlin warned Lebanon and Hezbollah against attacking Israel.

“Then, as now, we have and have never had anything against the Lebanese people. Then, as now, it was the terrorist organizations that exploited the weakness of Lebanon, the Lebanese state, to attack the State of Israel and its citizens,” he said during a memorial ceremony for the fallen of the First Lebanon War.

“We warn Hizbullah not to impose Iran’s agenda on Lebanon, and we warn Lebanon not to be a base for attacks on Israel,” he said. “We are not eager to fight. But the IDF is alert and ready to respond to any threat and to any scenario. The State of Israel will not stand idly by and will ensure that citizens of Israel continue to sleep peacefully!”

The Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch has managed to arrest two Daesh members who were planning to attack religious sites in the south.

In a communiqué on Monday, the ISF indicated that Z.M., a Syrian living in the southern town of Yater, had been actively promoting terrorist beliefs through social media and managed to recruit another Syrian, identified as S.B. Both were planning to stage attacks on religious sites in the south.

Hifter’s forces pursued Islamic State militants in the country’s south, killing more than a dozen militants over the past three days, officials said on Sunday.

The officials said that LNA forces began its attack on a militant hideout in the mountainous area of Haruj earlier this week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The Islamic State group acknowledged the ongoing LNA attack and claimed to have killed and wounded dozens of LNA troops.

The group was driven from Sirte in 2016 and from Derna, another stronghold, earlier this year. However, the extremists have found refuge in the vast deserts of central and southern Libya, where they continue to stage attacks.

The Libyan National Army announced that it downed a fighter jet flown by pro-Government of National Accord (GNA) forces in the western city of Misrata, like reported by aawsat.com.

The aircraft was flown by militias that are loyal to the GNA, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, and its pilot and crew of mercenaries were killed, said the LNA media office.

The plane carried out strikes against LNA positions, the office revealed, saying that it had failed, however, to achieve its targets after being fired at by anti-aircraft defenses.

LNA jets then pursued the aircraft and shot it down over the al-Dafniya region.

This is the second jet to be shot down by the LNA since it launched its operation to cleanse Tripoli of terrorist and criminal militias on April 4.

Pro-GNA forces did not comment on Thursday’s development.

In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi underlined his country’s support for the LNA in its operation to defeat terrorist organizations.

He made his remarks during a meeting with Aguila Saleh, the speaker of the Libyan parliament.

The will of the Libyan people must be respected and have the final say, added Sisi according to a presidential spokesman.

He stressed that he supports the “actual legitimate forces in Libya, represented by the parliament that has been elected by the people.”

On the ground, the fighting raged on between the LNA and pro-GNA forces on the Tripoli International Airport, Ain Zara and Salaheddine fronts south of Tripoli.

LNA media said that its forces destroyed two GNA tanks and three vehicles, while making advances on the airport and the al-Yarmouk region. The troops also arrested seven pro-GNA fighters.

In Tripoli, Sarraj held talks with Italian Ambassador to Libya Giuseppe Buccino, who renewed Rome’s rejection of the LNA offensive. He said there can be no military solution to Libya crisis, revealing that discussions also addressed the possibility of treating people wounded in the fighting in Italy.

Tunisia sentenced terrorist suspects to jail for plotting terrorist attacks in the country, like reported by aawsat.com.

Three detainees were sentenced to four to six years and six were sentenced in absentia to six months to a year in jail. Fugitive suspects were given 48 years in prison and some could face the death penalty.

The case involves a number of suspects that had joined terrorist groups in neighboring Libya. They plotted with terrorists in Tunisia to smuggle weapons through the Tataouine border region to carry out attacks against security forces and the military.

One of the suspects was tasked with recruiting radicalized youths and sending them to Libya to receive weapons training before returning to Tunisia to carry out terrorist operations.

The majority of terrorists that had carried out attacks in Tunisia had received training in Libya. Among them was Tunisian Seifeddine Rezgui, the gunman behind the 2015 Sousse attacks that left 38 people dead.

Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, the perpetrators behind the 2015 Bardo National Museum attack, also received training in Libya.

The Volcano of Rage Operation of the Government of National Accord (GNA) has reported advancing on frontlines and positions held by Khalifa Haftar’s forces in southern Tripoli, causing them heavy damages of fighters, military vehicles and tanks, like reported by libyanexpress.com.

The forces under GNA’s command also advanced on different frontlines in Ain Zara, Wadi Rabea, and Qasir Benghashir as well as Tripoli International Airport.

Local media reported that amid the ground advance of GNA forces, there had been some airstrikes carried out against positions of Haftar’s forces in southern Tripoli.

Meanwhile, sources close to Haftar’s forces said their Air Force jets carried out airstrikes hitting Tajoura district in which they said they destroyed a number of GNA forces’ positions.