Global Conflict Reporting

Tag: airstrikes

  • Images show the before and after of the Israeli attack on Hamas in Qatar.

    By.Scott Jackson

    09/11/2025

    Images sent to me from planet labs show the before and after shot of the bombing of the Hamas negotiation team that took place in Doha, Qatar on September 9th, 2025.

    Before
    After.

    Yesterday, as the Hamas negotiations team was debating a recent proposal from the U.S. delegation when an explosion ripped through the building killing several members of the Hamas negotiations team, made up of senior members of the Palestinian extremist group and a Qatari Security official. Qatari leadership condemned the attack, which took place on their soil. Qatar has long been a financial supporter of Hamas transferring billions of dollars to the group since 2018 with Hamas saying the payments were expressly used for employee payroll and medical care for Palestinians.Those payments are a form of some contention in Israel as Benjamin Netanyahu approved the payments back when he was the primer of the Israeli security cabinet and some in Israel disagreed with the decision. He defended his actions to detractors saying “in coordination with security experts to return calm to (Israeli) villages of the south, but also to prevent a humanitarian disaster (in Gaza). 

    Video shows the airstrike which targeted the Hamas leadership.

    It’s now been over 48 hours since the attack and Qatar has threatened to hold Benjamin Netanyau responsible for the attack. The UN Security Council had postponed a meeting about Israel’s strike on Qatar until tomorrow “at Qatar’s request”, the council’s current president says. UNSC South Korea, the current UN Security Council president added,  “so that the Prime Minister of Qatar can take part in the meeting”.

    At the U.N. many stood with Qatar, however some questions were raised as to why Qatar has Hamas in their cities in the first place.

    The US seemed sidelined by the attack, an attack carried out on the soil of a US allied partner in the region. Just days ago US President Donald Trump said that they were close to reaching an agreement in negotiations with Hamas. It seems like the US was only made aware of the planned attack when Israel’s forces were already on route to attack.

    “I immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack,” Trump said in a statement.

    Steve Cook, a senior fellow at the council for foreign relations wrote in his article ‘ It is unclear how many of Hamas’s leaders were killed in the operation. Hamas maintains that while five of its people plus a Qatari police officer were killed, its senior leadership survived. Those claims have yet to be verified. At the very least, the Israelis have demonstrated a willingness to go anywhere to eliminate Hamas. It is likely that the organization’s surviving leaders will be targeted again in time.’

    The attack against Hamas has spread outrage among the Qatari leadership who see themselves as mediators in this conflict and as such it’s highly likely they will cease any of their part in future negotiation. Qatar sees this as a slap on the face after they worked to get a good number of the Israeli hostages that were taken on October 7th 2023, freed.  

    Cook,in his article put forward Egypt as a possible candidate for future negotiations but called the negotiations a “thankless task ” when “neither the Israeli government nor the Hamas leadership seem interested in a deal”

  • Israel launches strike on Syrian Ministry of Defense HQ in Demarcus as atrocities occur in the south.

    By. Scott Jackson

    07/19/2025

    Three days ago the capital of Syria, Damascus, was rocked as Israeli fighter-bombers conducted strikes against the Syrian Ministry of Defense. Israel says these strikes were in defense of the Druze people, a religious minority who reside in areas of Syria like Sweida as well as in parts of Israel. The Druze have been fighting with the Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes and militias connected to them. There are also rumors of government is backing those with involvement in the fighting against the Druze.

    Last Friday, renewed clashes ignited between the Druze and the Bedouins. Kidnappings and gun battles occurred throughout areas around the Sweida region in southern Syria. 
    Over the weekend Syrian government forces were dispatched to the area in response to the clashes but however, the Druze pushed back against the military forces and attempted to block them acess from the area. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian military targets on Tuesday. There are local reports of a Syrian military convoy being bombed by Israeli warplanes but so far they remain unconfirmed.

    “Israel is committed to preventing harm being inflicted on the Druze in Syria, owing to the deep covenant of blood with our Druze citizens in Israel and their historical and familial link to the Druze in Syria,”
    Statement from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    “We are acting to prevent the Syrian regime from harming them, and to ensure the demilitarization of the region adjacent to our border with Syria.”

    Israel Katz, Israeli Minister of Defense.

    The Syrian government feels differently about the situation and claimed that Israel was purposely acting to destabilize the situation and the region further. President Ahmed al-Sharaa claimed that Israel had a “deliberate policy” to “Inflame tensions” and “spread chaos”.

    While Israel purposely destabilizing the region is up for debate one thing they have said publicly is that they would not allow a large Syrian military force to occupy territory in southern Syria for fears of them being used to push into the occupied Golan Heights.

    The main area of focus is the green territory in the south. Israel currently occupies most of the Quneitra region.

    On Wednesday July 16, the IDF carried out a strike on the Syrian Ministry of Defense building in Damascus. Multiple angles of footage are available of the strike.

    Since then several ceasefires have been agreed upon by the Druze and the Bedouin, two of which were almost immediately broken. Right now there is an anxious pause in the fighting and a ceasefire sponsored by the U.S. in place. Israel agreed to allow Syrian troops into the south and the fighting has started to die down.

    The President of Syria made this statement about the fighting and the ceasefire.

    “We have received international invitations to intervene in what is happening in Sweida and restore security to the country. “

    He continues,

    “The Syrian state alone is capable of preserving its prestige and sovereignty across all Syrian territories.”

    “We appreciate the role of the United States of America in reaffirming its stand with Syria and its unity,”

    “We thank the tribes for their heroic stances and call on them for a complete ceasefire.”

    And speaking on some

    “The honorable Druze community as a whole should not be judged for the actions of a very small minority.”

    He also added that,

    “Events have proven that the people of Sweida stand with the state, with the exception of a small segment.”

     “We disown all massacres and transgressions that occurred in Sweida province.”

    He finished strong with this statement

    “This sensitive circumstance requires the tribes and the Druze people to stand united.” Reaffirming Syria’s territorial integrity, he declared, “Syria is not a battlefield for secessionist projects.”

    Author’s note. 

    I usually prefer to have more visual information with my reports however the violence being carried out between the Druze and the Bedouins is some of the most horrific stuff I’ve ever gone through. People being stabbed to death and shot are the tame videos I’ve seen a videos of a Bedouin militia forcing Druze people to jump off a rooftop. As they prepare for what they are about to do ao and start climbing the railing they are shot anyway with rifles. 
    The Druze as well have been forcing Arabs out of the area and killing those who don’t comply. In the whole affair around 350 people have been killed. In the grand scheme of things that seems low but it could have been much worse and still has the potential to reignite.

    Sorry for the delay in writing this, I’ve been following the fighting but it took me a while to re-familiarize myself with some of the players here. 

    Thank you for the support. Without you, GCR does not exist. 

    -Scott