Abu Obaida announced that as part of the prisoner exchange the Qassam Brigades will release the following "Israeli" captives on Sunday: Romi Gonen, 24; Emily Damari, 28; and Doron Steinbrecher, 31.

"Israel" has reported financial losses amounting to $67 billion as a result of its ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) news website mentioned on Saturday.

It highlighted that this figure includes $34 billion in direct military expenses and $40 billion in general budget losses, marking the largest economic setback in the Israeli occupation's history.

Over the past year, approximately 60,000 Israeli businesses have shut down, representing a 50% increase compared to 2023, the news website said. It added that the Israeli tourism sector has also suffered significantly, with a 70% decline in visitors leading to losses exceeding $5 billion.

Meanwhile, the construction industry reported losses of $4 billion, with more than 70 companies ceasing operations, according to MEMO. Additionally, data revealed that one-third of the population under Israeli occupation now lives below the poverty line, with a quarter experiencing food insecurity.

The Israeli government has formally approved a mediated ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian Resistance, following the green light from the smaller security cabinet.

According to Axios, 24 Israeli ministers voted in favor of the deal, while 8 others opposed it.

The Israeli army claimed on Saturday that it successfully intercepted a missile launched from Yemen with air raid sirens going off in the greater Tel Aviv area and Jerusalem following the attack, Anadolu reports.

The Israeli ambulance services reported dealing with several cases of panic and injuries as residents rushed to shelters following the activation of the sirens.

In addition, flight operations at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv were temporarily suspended following the missile launch, according to Israeli Channel 12.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor has defended the organisation’s issuing of arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defence chief, adding that the country failed to probe war crimes allegations itself.

Karim Khan, speaking in an interview on Thursday with the Reuters news agency, said the ICC had not seen “any real effort” by Israel to take “action that would meet the established jurisprudence”, adding that he hoped the situation would change.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/17397478

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It’s little over five months since the Labour Party won the election. Yet a majority of the UK public are now opting for Keir Starmer to resign as prime minister, according to YouGov. 40% of respondents think he should resign, while 36% think he should remain and 24% don’t know.

Ten soldiers were moderately and lightly injured in a training accident during instruction at the military engineering school in the south, it was learned this morning (Thursday). In addition, significant damage was caused to the building. Military police opened an investigation into the circumstances.

The incident occurred during advanced training on recognizing enemy ammunition, as an RPG taken from Hezbollah, part of a display inside the classroom, exploded and hit the soldiers. The display included explosives as part of the bomb threat workshop given to all engineering corps soldiers. The injured were evacuated to hospitals by helicopters and military ambulances, with the damage caused to the building estimated to be hundreds of thousands of shekels.

The hashtag “Your turn, dictator” has been widely shared on Egyptian social media in the past two weeks. Modeled after the 2011 rallying cry “your turn, doctor” used against then-Syrian President Bashar al Assad, the latest hashtag was coined by Ahmad al Mansour, an Egyptian national who recently served in the ranks of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) in Syria. Since HTS took control of Syria in December, Mansour has posted videos threatening Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi. “Listen, stupid,” Mansour routinely begins his videos.

On Tuesday, January 14, the X account for the “The 25 January Revolutionaries Movement” announced that Mansour and several of his associates were arrested and went missing after he was invited to meet with HTS officials, including Syrian Minster of Defense Murhaf Abu Qasra.

Chinese social media app RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, gained nearly 3 million U.S. users in one day earlier this week as a flood of self-proclaimed "TikTok Refugees" joined, according to new data from analytics firm Similarweb.

The Chinese-language app had about 3.4 million daily active users across both iOS and Android devices in the United States as of Monday, up from fewer than 700,000 the day prior, and around 300,000 the week prior, according to the Similarweb estimate.

The influx of users has been driven by a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns.

The data suggests an even larger shift to RedNote by U.S. users this week than was previously known, explaining its dramatic rise to the top of U.S. app store download rankings. Reuters reported on Tuesday that more than 700,000 new users had joined the app in only two days.

Meanwhile, U.S. usage of TikTok declined ahead of the ban, down 2.1% week over week to about 82.2 million daily active users, Similarweb said.

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