For today, links to five reports from Reuters, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, and the Anadolu Agency, and to commentary from AP, Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (UKRAINE entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM
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NEWER Only Gaza ceasefire will delay retaliation, say Iranian officials, by Parisa Hafezi and Laila Bassam | Reuters DUBAI / BEIRUT — Only a ceasefire deal in Gaza stemming from hoped-for talks this week would hold Iran back from direct retaliation against Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil, three senior Iranian officials said. READ MORE . . .
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Gaza ceasefire: Hamas says again it wants implementation, not more talks, by Nidal Al-Mughrabi | Reuters CAIRO — Hamas is sticking to its demand that Gaza truce talks focus on a deal already discussed with Israel and mediators rather than starting anew, an official said today, after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 19 Palestinians in the enclave. READ MORE . . .
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FROM AUG. 12 Hamas leader tells NPR about Oct. 7 attack and the war with Israel. Reported by Aya Batrawy | NPR A Hamas leader says the group has no regrets about the deadly Oct. 7th operation against Israel, but that mistakes happened that day. Click HERE for transcript.
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Israeli strikes on Gaza leave children without parents and parents without children, by Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy | AP DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Reem Abu Hayyah, just three months old, was the only member of her family to survive an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip late Monday. A few miles (kilometers) to the north, Mohamed Abuel-Qomasan lost his wife and their twin babies — just four days old — in another strike. READ MORE . . .
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5 Israeli soldiers accused of sexually abusing Gazan detainee released into house arrest, by Ahmed Asmar | Anadolu Agency JERUSALEM — An Israeli military court today ordered the release of five Israeli soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee into house arrest pending investigation, according to local media. They will stay . . . READ MORE . . .
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High-wire diplomacy on possible Iran retaliation in the Israel-Hamas war draws in world, by Jon Gambrell | AP DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s threatened retaliatory strike on Israel over the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh drew major world powers today into a high-wire act of diplomacy. Halting or limiting . . . READ MORE . . .
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Restoring fear, that’s why Israeli soldiers use rape as a weapon of war, by Ramzy Baroud | Middle East Monitor Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin told Arutz Sheva-Israel National News on 25 October that, “Muslims are not afraid of us any more.” It might sound odd that Feiglin saw the element of fear . . . READ MORE . . .
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Why raping Palestinians is legitimate Israeli military practice, by Joseph Massad | Middle East Eye Sadism has been characteristic of the Zionist colonists’ treatment of Palestinians since the 1880s, as even Zionist leaders complained at the time. This sadism and the sexual torture that often accompanies it . . . READ MORE . . .