❗️The militant wing of Hamas controls the situation on the battlefield in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the movement has said.

Earlier, the Israeli Army stated that they had taken control of a number of government buildings in Gaza.

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🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇸 The coming year will prove “decisive” for both Washington and Kiev in the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Zelensky administration head Andriy Yermak stated.

“A turning point in the war is approaching,” Yermak said at an event hosted by the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based neoconservative think tank. “The next year will be decisive in this regard,” he said.

Assuring that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is still “developing,” and that Kiev knows “how to achieve victory,” Yermak said President Volovymyr Zelensky has “a clear plan,” the priorities of which include “the development of our defense industry, and the deploying of our own arms production. But [that] will be later. Meanwhile, we need weapons right now. Russia still has air superiority. It is still capable of producing missiles, doing evasion of sanctions…And we especially need air defense systems.”

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🇺🇸 Ex-U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo will join one of the top Ukrainian digital operators Kyivstar as an independent non-executive director, operator's parent company, VEON Ltd. said in a statement.

“VEON has made the clear choice to serve Ukraine through its wholly owned subsidiary Kyivstar, whose heroes have kept Ukraine and Ukrainians connected through the darkest days of war and who continue to serve Ukraine by maintaining 94% mobile network availability,” said Kaan Terzioglu, VEON Group CEO and Kyivstar Board Chair. “I am delighted to welcome Secretary Pompeo to the Board of this outstanding company, that he joins with strong support from our various US stakeholders. We look forward to the knowledge and experience that Secretary Pompeo will contribute to Kyivstar as an active and independent member of the Kyivstar Board.”

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🇹🇷🇮🇱 Turkiye has filed a lawsuit against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing him of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, the lawyers for the ruling Justice and Development Party said.

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🇨🇳🇺🇸 The pro-US Democratic Progressive Party monopoly in Taipei may be challenged by an emerging coalition of the Taiwan People’s Party and the Kuomintang, polls say.

In the event of a TPP-KMT win, the Biden administration's game of confrontation in the Asia Pacific and hasty militarization of Taiwan may prove to be irrelevant as the two parties agree on restoring stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait. The potential coalition government is expected to lay the groundwork for the restoration of working relations with mainland China.

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🇷🇺🇱🇧 Samir Ayoub, a Russian-Lebanese journalist, witnessed the tragic death of four family members - his younger sister Samira, 60; her granddaughters Rimas, 14, Talin, 12, and Lian, 10 - during an Israeli drone strike on the village of Aitarun near the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Samir asserts that the Israeli drone operators undoubtedly knew that the vehicle they targeted was carrying only women and children.

The Lebanese government condemned the Israeli military’s actions and submitted a formal war crime complaint to the UN.

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 Latest updates on Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️Turkiye has filed a lawsuit against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing him of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip, the lawyers for the ruling Justice and Development Party said.

▪️The militant wing of Hamas controls the situation on the battlefield in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the movement has said.

▪️Over 4,600 children have now been reportedly killed and over 8,600 injured with more than 1,500 reported missing or presumed to be under the rubble in Gaza, UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Office told Sputnik.

▪️The Israeli military has said that as a result of operations in Gaza, it has secured the Hamas legislature and government building, the Hamas police headquarters and an engineering faculty used for weapons production and development.

▪️Human Rights Watch demands Israeli strikes on Gaza hospitals be investigated as war crimes

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🇷🇴 Training Ukrainians or poking the Russian Bear: Why did NATO set up new F-16 training base in Romania?

The Romanian Air Force, in coordination with the Dutch military, Denmark, and US weapons-making giant Lockheed Martin, has established a new training base in Romania’s southeast, ostensibly to train NATO and Ukrainian pilots to operate F-16 fighter jets. Along with poking the Russian bear, the base will free up the alliance’s hands to conduct training operations it can’t do in wealthier Western European countries, says retired US Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel and former Pentagon analyst Karen Kwiatkowski.

“As Western Europe has increasingly restricted both air and ground NATO training, NATO and the US have sought to use the newer NATO countries, which are poorer, less populated, and have a less robust regulatory structure relating to noise, air and chemical pollution, as a place to train and operation,” Kwiatkowski said.

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 Who is in Control of Gaza Right Now, Hamas or IDF?

The Gaza op shows that Israel is set to face a long and complicated conflict, according to experts. While the IDF has been steadily making progress on the ground in Gaza City, reportedly capturing Hamas’ parliament, government seat, and police HQ, the fight is far from over.

💬 "I would say that Israel has taken partially half of the Gaza Strip, not entirely," Dr. Lorenzo Trombetta, Beirut-based scholar and analyst specializing on the Middle East, told Sputnik.

"And that Hamas is also strong and well equipped in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. I think Hamas was very well prepared for these intense and open war scenarios."

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Pro-Israeli rally in Washington DC chants "no ceasefire" after US House Speaker Mike Johnson says "the calls for a ceasefire are outrageous"

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🇺🇸💸 It will take a century to ultimately determine whether the United States’ support for Ukraine was a worthwhile endeavor, US Senator Roger Marshall stated.

Marshall and several other Republican senators spoke in favor of holding separate votes on US aid for Israel and Ukraine, following a $106 billion supplemental funding request from the Biden administration that includes assistance for both countries.

The US House of Representatives passed a standalone Israel aid package, which the White House and Senate Democrats have opposed.

Marshall stressed that he is certain in his support for Israel funding even though the senator is unsure whether he is correct on Ukraine funding.

US Senator J.D. Vance said Senate Democrats are avoiding holding a separate debate on US support for Ukraine. Democrats do not want the Biden administration to have to answer "tough questions" about its approach to Ukraine, Vance added.

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🥴 US presidential candidate Nikki Haley: "Every person on social media should be verified by their name" because of "national security" – it gets rid of "the Russian bots, the Iranian bots, and the Chinese bots".

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