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The Cradle is an online news magazine covering West Asian geopolitics from within.
Another fictional 'Iranian plot’ in London?
Claims of an Iranian plot to attack Tel Aviv’s embassy in London have emerged at an all-too-convenient moment for the pro-Israel lobby’s push to proscribe Iran’s IRGC as a terrorist entity in Britain.
By Robert Inlakesh
BREAKING | Israeli forces are attacking the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, trapping staff and patients inside.
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While besieged by Israeli occupation forces, the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza has come under attack.
Its gate and yard were destroyed, bulldozers demolished parts of the facility, and power was cut off. Contact was lost with 55 staff and immobile patients trapped inside.
No warnings were given before the strike. All hospitals in northern Gaza are now out of service.
Director-General of Gaza's Health Ministry to Al Jazeera:
– Israeli forces are targeting the health system by bombing hospitals and patients.
– They opened fire on the ICU at the Indonesian Hospital.
– A patient inside the hospital was bombed by Israeli warplanes.
❗️Reports of violent clashes taking place in the city of Deraa, southern Syria.
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BREAKING | Israel announces it will launch heavy attacks on areas in eastern Khan Yunis and central Gaza, including al-Qarara, al-Salqah, southern Deir al-Balah, and neighborhoods such as al-Ja'frawi, al-Sawar, Abu Hadhab, and al-Satr.
The warning calls on Palestinians to head to the 'Mawasi safe zone', which is in no way a safe zone. Israel continues to carry out massacres in the 'safe zone.'
⭕️ "The report of alleged plans to relocate Gazans to Libya is untrue," the US Embassy in Libya said on X early on 18 May.
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❗️Nasr al-Din Amer, Deputy Head of the Yemeni Ansarallah's Media Authority, issues warnings to airlines and foreigners in Tel Aviv:
– "In the coming hours, the Yemeni Armed Forces, relying on God, will carry out military operations targeting [Ben Gurion Airport] and other Zionist airports ..."
– "Disclaimer: Remaining airlines at the airport must depart immediately, and all those present, especially foreigners, must leave for their own safety."
❗️Missile sirens sound in the settlement of Kissufim near south Gaza.
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Leaders from 53 countries attend Tehran Dialogue Forum to tackle regional, global challenges
The forum includes 40 panels featuring ministers, policy experts, and heads of think tanks as speakers
Leaked proposal reveals Israeli plan to trap civilians, divide Gaza into three isolated zones: Report
The plan would confine Palestinians to isolated zones, tightly controlled by military checkpoints and surveillance
❗️The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) mourns its young fighter, 16 year old Nidal Wael Shaghnoobi, who was killed by Israeli occupation forces while confronting them in Burqa, near Nablus. in the West Bank.
The Front described him as a fearless symbol of a generation that chooses action over fear.
❗️Lebanese Presidency responds to a circulating photo of President Joseph Aoun shaking hands with Israel's top Druze cleric, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif:
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In a statement, it claimed that Aoun does not know Tarif and had never met him before. The handshake occurred spontaneously at Pope Leo XIV's inauguration at the Vatican, when an unknown Druze cleric approached the president.
The presidency accused Israeli media of deliberately distributing the photo with misleading intent, stressing that such actions do not reflect Lebanon’s official stance.
Earlier today, Israeli media circulated the image, with Israel’s public broadcaster captioning it: “A photo we don’t see every day.”
❗️Israel's Channel 13 citing a senior official:
“We are discussing the issue of ending the war, but only on our terms, which include displacement and the disarmament of Gaza. The delegation will remain in Doha as long as it sees value in being there, and if it feels there is no longer any point, it will recommend to the Prime Minister to return.”
Israel kills five journalists, over 100 civilians in one night as ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ begins in Gaza
The Israeli army has intensified attacks on hospitals as part of the new operation, which aims to displace the entire population of Gaza
⭕️ Marco Rubio confirms US supports expansion of Israel's war on Gaza
When asked during an interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS whether the US supports the expansion of Israel's war on Gaza, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio replied, "We expand the destruction of Hamas, the ending of Hamas."
Responding to Margaret Brennan's comment that President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin did not want to end the war, Rubio clarified, "Yeah- no- what the president's- no, no. I think what the president is saying is he doesn't want to end the war until Hamas is defeated."
"This war could end immediately. And Israel's made that clear, it can end immediately if Hamas surrenders and gives up their weapons and demilitarizes and releases all the hostages, including the deceased ones."
❗️Since Sunday morning, Al-Manar correspondent in south Lebanon Ali Shoeib has reported a series of Israeli aerial attacks across multiple southern towns. These include drone strikes on civilian vehicles, homes, and fishing areas, as well as the use of phosphorus shells and sound bombs in Naqoura, Aita al-Shaab, Kfar Kila, Markaba, and others.
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❗️Israeli cabinet approves the entry of humanitarian aid into all areas of the Gaza Strip
After nearly three months of a brutal blockade, Israel has decided to temporarily allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, with PM Netanyahu's office citing concerns that the deepening hunger crisis could "jeopardize" the objectives of Operation Gideon’s Chariots.
A senior Israeli official told Axios that this “bridging period” is necessary while the newly announced US-Israeli aid mechanism – widely condemned by humanitarian groups for its restrictive controls – remains under development and is not expected to take effect until later this month.
The aid will include basic food supplies and is expected to enter through Kerem Shalom crossing and other designated corridors. It will be delivered via the UN World Food Programme, World Central Kitchen, and other international relief organizations, and will be monitored by these organizations.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir demanded a vote on the decision, but Prime Minister Netanyahu refused.
❗️Israel's Channel 12:
Israeli cabinet approved the entry of humanitarian aid into all areas of the Gaza Strip.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir demanded a vote, but Netanyahu refused.
❗️Israel has officially announced 'Gideon's Chariots,' with its spokesman Ephraim Defrin saying five divisions are now operating in Gaza in a new offensive aimed at "defeating Hamas," and calling it a "new stage in fighting."
"Unlike previously, we are now concentrating on offensive effort in the Gaza Strip, and carrying out an offensive until the defeat [of Hamas] in the areas we will operate."
Israel claims it will move civilians for its safety, but has slaughtered 140 people since dawn, and over 500 people in just 3 days.
UPDATE | According to sources in Gaza, Dr. Zakaria Sinwar was revived after doctors declared him dead. He showed signs of life after being transferred to the morgue, and is now in critical condition.
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❗️According to Israel's Channel 12, security personnel from the US company that will oversee the distribution of aid in the Gaza Strip have arrived at Ben Gurion Airport.
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❗️Two rockets were launched from Gaza. Israel says one was intercepted, while the other fell in an 'open area.'
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⭕️ The Israeli Mossad has retrieved, from Syria, a trove of over 2,500 classified Syrian documents and personal items belonging to Eli Cohen (Eliyahu Ben-Shaul Cohen), the Egyptian-born Israeli spy who infiltrated the highest levels of Syria’s military and government in the 1960's by posing as a Syrian businessman.
The secret operation was reportedly carried out just ahead of the 60th anniversary of his execution in Damascus.
Netanyahu's office announced on behalf of the Mossad that the Syrian intelligence archive on Cohen was transferred from Syria with the help of a 'strategic intelligence partner.'
The archive includes materials such as Cohen’s original will, spy gear, letters to his family, surveillance reports, forged passports, personal belongings like keys to his Damascus apartment, the original court order sentencing him to death, and photographs with top Syrian officials.
Israeli officials described it as a significant step in the ongoing effort to recover Cohen’s remains from Syria.
❗️Earlier today, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem addressed the 'Diplomacy of Resistance' conference in Tehran via videoconference, commemorating the first anniversary of the deaths of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who died in a helicopter crash on 19 May, 2024 in East Azerbaijan province alongside other senior officials.
Qassem lauded Raisi as one of the biggest supporters of the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine, describing him as "a great man and a valuable figure for the Islamic Republic" who "carried Palestine in his heart."
❗️Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi holds a trilateral meeting with his counterparts from Oman and Qatar during the Tehran Dialogue Forum (18–19 May).
(IRNA)
Israel has killed 500 Palestinians in just three days.
(Gaza Ministry of Health)
Syria issues deadline for remaining armed groups to join defense ministry
Many violent extremist factions, including Jaish al-Islam and others, have already been incorporated into the new Syrian army
❗️Urgent Press Statement by the Ministry of Health in Gaza:
"The intensified siege by the occupation, including heavy fire around the Indonesian Hospital and its surroundings, and the prevention of patients, medical staff, and supplies from reaching it, has rendered the Indonesian Hospital out of service.
With the destruction of Beit Hanoun Hospital and Kamal Adwan Hospital, and now the shutdown of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate are now out of service."
❗️Morocco announced it will reopen its embassy in Damascus, marking the restoration of ties with Syria after more than a decade.
The move came during the Arab League summit in Baghdad.
Rabat had severed diplomatic relations with Syria in 2012.
Extensive destruction caused by the Israeli bombing of the tents of displaced people in Mawasi Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, yesterday, in which over 40 Palestinians were killed, many of them children.
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❗️The Yemeni Armed Forces announced this morning that it targeted Israel's Ben Gurion Airport with two ballistic missiles, a hypersonic "Palestine-2" and a "Zulfiqar," successfully halting air traffic for nearly an hour.
A day earlier, its forces also struck the same airport with a 'Yaffa' drone as part of ongoing support for Gaza.