On this Monday’s edition of the Target Stream MintPress News’ Robert Inlakesh looks at how Hezbollah has hunted down the Israelis connected to the infamous killing of Hind Rajab in the Gaza Strip – investigating how the Lebanese resistance has managed to target senior officers, while also repelling recent attempts to advance.

On January 29, 2024, six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded for help over the phone for three hours, trapped in a car surrounded by the bodies of her family.  An Israeli invading tank opened fire from just 13 meters away in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, leaving the little girl in a state of shock. For hours she pleaded over the phone for the Red Crescent rescue workers to save her, but the request to send in a rescue team was denied by the Israeli military.

In a bid to put pressure on the Israelis to greenlight an emergency vehicle deploying to the area, Red Crescent workers based in the West Bank city of Ramallah published the audio from phone calls with Hind on social media. Quickly the situation became a major international story and eventually the greenlight was granted to permit an emergency crew to reach her. However, once the emergency vehicle reached the vicinity of the 6-year-old girl’s location, the Israelis organised a tank ambush that killed every living person on the scene.

Israel initially denied its troops were even in the area. Yet, then came the satellite imagery and a forensic investigation proving they what the world already knew: they lied — 335 bullet holes in Hind Rajab’s family car, a coordinated tank ambush, and two Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmad al-Madhoun, had been deliberately killed after receiving Israeli-approved clearance to rescue her.

Now the 401st Armoured Brigade — the unit identified as being behind Hind’s killing — is being hunted down in Lebanon by Hezbollah. The Hind Rajab Foundation, a non-for-profit seeking justice for Palestinians killed in Israel’s genocide, filed a 120-page complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) that named 24 Israeli soldiers and commanders responsible. Among those names was that of Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Ella, a commander of the 52nd Armoured Battalion, who was targeted and seriously injured back in 2024 by Hezbollah and whose replacement commander was also critically wounded.

Accountability in The Hague moves notoriously slowly. But accountability on the battlefield is much swifter as Hezbollah has continued to pursue the leadership structure implicated in Hind Rajab’s brutal killing. In May of 2026, Hezbollah seriously wounded Colonel Meir Biderman of the 401st Brigade. Then, on June 19, another commander of the 52nd Battalion was killed when his tank was destroyed in southern Lebanon by an FPV drone strike, eliminating him along with three other soldiers attempting to advance upon the Ali al-Taher Hills area.

The brigade that terrorized Gaza is being systematically dismantled. This episode examines this arc, from the killing of Hind Rajab, to Hezbollah’s targeted takedown of Israeli commanders in the hills of southern Lebanon. All this, as the Islamic Republic of Iran threatens to strike Israel if it continues to violate the ceasefire with Lebanon and pushes to force the US to hand over the concessions that it has agreed to on paper.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post Hezbollah Hunts Down Hind Rajab’s Killers & Crushes Israeli Offensive appeared first on MintPress News.

In August 2024, the United States military ran ads on Tinder in Lebanon to  discourage users from joining the resistance against the continued Israeli genocidal assault on the country – demonstrating the full spectrum of the Zionist military strategy.

Backed financially, politically and militarily by the United States – Israel has long aimed to engulf Lebanon with desires to reoccupy the South along with regular bombardments on civilian areas.

And despite there being a “ceasefire” between Lebanon and Israel since April 17th, Israel has bombed Lebanon over 3,500 times all the while pushing for normalization.

US CENTCOM ads on Tinder represent another front in the Zionist military strategy: psychological operations with militarized “dating” platforms.

Tinder, the most popular “dating” app in the world, boasts over 75 million active users in more than 190 countries. It is owned by Match Group – a multi billion dollar conglomerate that owns the largest market share of dating platforms – Hinge, Match.com, OkCupid. Plenty of Fish, Salams, and others.

Largest market share also means one of the largest data gold mines – personal and intimate user data, messages, video calls, facial recognition and location data on potentially hundreds of millions of users across Match Group’s dozens of dating applications. Tinder’s user data was found in a breach at Gravy Analytics – a data broker company who sells data to governmental agencies to be used for police and military location tracking.

But Match Group’s strategy and their technologies became fully militarized after Zionist billionaire investor and trump donor Paul Singer and his Elliot Management group built a $1 billion stake in the company in January 2024.

Paul Singer has long worked to integrate Israeli military tech into global markets – co-founding Start-Up Nation Central (SUNC), a Tel Aviv based nonprofit started to combat the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. SUNC works to promote Israeli tech and get Unit 8200 officers – Israel’s elite military intelligence unit – hired at all major US tech firms like Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Palantir.

In February 2024, Match Group announced their new partnership with OpenAI – in a press release written by ChatGPT. OpenAI’s technology has been instrumental in powering the AI genocide in Gaza. In February 2026, the company struck a deal with the United States Department of Defense – CEO Sam Altman sharing that the deal was made due to the Department of Defense’s “deep respect for safety.”

In March 2024, Zillow co-founder and Palantir board member Spencer Rascoff joined Match Group’s board. Palantir’s technology is used by the Israeli military to surveil, target and genocide in Gaza. Rascoff was then named CEO, replacing Bernard Kim in February 2025.

“Do not take up arms against the United States of its partners,” the Tinder ad read in Arabic, along with pictures of warplanes and the CENTCOM logo in August 2024.

Match Group was sued in February 2024 over allegations that the platforms are designed to turn users into compulsive addicts who never find love but are turned into “gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards.”

Yet despite partnering with Paul Singer and OpenAI, installing a former Palantir board member as CEO and running US military ads in Lebanon – Match Group says that they are just on a mission “to spark meaningful connections for every single person worldwide.”

Jennifer Kings is a MintPress contributor, psychiatric nurse practitioner, sexual assault forensic examiner and former emergency medicine registered nurse with a graduate degree in global public health. She produces short and long-form content for her social media platforms and written work on substack. She is also a contributor at Vocal Politics.

The post Tinder’s Secret War: How Israel used the Dating App in the Propaganda Battle for South Lebanon appeared first on MintPress News.

Britain’s Hidden Information Warfare Machine

This investigation, based on secret leaked documents, including internal Intranet pages, reveals a clandestine new propaganda unit inside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Directed by MI6 and hidden behind civilian cover, the unit exists to professionalize and expand the British state’s long-running practice of promoting disinformation under the guise of “countering disinformation”.

The operation against Russia began in 2014 through the Russian Language Program and its apparent successor, the Counter Disinformation and Media Development (CDMD) program. It was expanded to Ukraine after the launch of Russia’s Special Military Operation in 2022. Iran and China were added as formal targets in 2023, with Gaza incorporated on a semi-detached basis. The leaked materials allow us to re-read what is publicly known about British government propaganda and actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The pattern is unmistakable: whenever one iteration is exposed, the secret state simply rebadges and relaunches the same operation while quietly broadening its targets.

The Integrity Initiative Scandal and the Evolution of UK Counter-Disinformation Efforts

The UK government’s counter-disinformation work began with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Russian Language Program under the HMG (His Majesty’s Government) Russia Unit. Officially aimed at Russian-speaking audiences abroad, it is this program from which the Institute for Statecraft applied for funding for its flagship project, the Integrity Initiative.

In practice, the Integrity Initiative largely operated in English (not in Russian) and extended well beyond its supposed foreign focus. Leaked documents in 2018 revealed that it built international “clusters” of journalists, academics and policymakers, and amplified material that targeted UK domestic politics — including sustained attacks on Jeremy Corbyn the then-leader of the Labour Party.

The Integrity Initiative funded by the secret state to undermine the Leader of the Opposition

The scandal broke in late 2018 following a major data breach. It soon became apparent that the think tank running the project, the Institute for Statecraft, listed an abandoned mill in Fife, Scotland, as its registered address. Investigations of the leaked documents also showed multiple intelligence links to the project, including most notably the director of the project Chris Donnelly who was revealed to be an Honorary Colonel in a hitherto secret military organization called the Specialist Group Military Intelligence. Foreign Office official Andy Pryce was also named in the files, and it became apparent that he was effectively in charge of the program that funded the project. Even the mainstream media began to show an interest.

Gateside Mills in Fife.  Derelict and abandoned.  

In December 2018 the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) opened an inquiry into the Institute for Statecraft. Its October 2019 report was highly critical. The Executive Summary stated that the organization “was not meeting the charity test required for continuing registration as a charity in Scotland” for three main reasons:

• its purposes were not entirely charitable;
• the Integrity Initiative “did not provide public benefit in furtherance of the charity’s purposes;”
• private benefit to charity trustees “was not incidental.”

OSCR also found that trustees had breached their duties, including through “a lack of collective decision-making” and “failure to provide effective oversight” of the Integrity Initiative’s Twitter account, which resulted in “severe reputational damage”.

In response, the Institute for Statecraft terminated its involvement in the Integrity Initiative, moved the project to a non-charitable entity, ceased paying trustees, and implemented governance reforms. OSCR ultimately took no formal action against it.

The Institute’s website was taken offline in early 2019 and never reinstated. The company itself was dissolved in 2023.

The Institute for Statecraft website, 5 February 2019.

By this point, the original Russian Language Program had already been restructured. But it has never been exactly clear what happened or when. According to some sources, the Counter Disinformation and Media Development (CDMD) Program was created in April 2016. In 2018 in a written answer, the Minister of State, Alan Duncan claimed: 

“The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Russian Language Program was launched in 2014 following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. In April 2016 we launched a new four-year strategic communications and media development program authorized by the National Security Council, called the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Program. The former Russian Language Program was amalgamated into this. The funding provided to the Institute for Statecraft was funded from the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Program.”

But if we look closer at the precise sequence of events, contradictions in the story emerge. The RLP was created in 2014 and according to the government response to the Foreign Affairs Committee report on Russia, it had a budget of £70 million (U.S.$93 million) for its first four years. It is worth quoting the official view at length.

“The FCO-led Russian Language Program brings together expertise from the FCO, MOD, and DFID as well as external experts… These projects seek to enhance independent media; to engage with Russian speakers; and to expose Russian Government disinformation.”

“Through this program, the Government is working with a range of partners to enhance the quality of public and independent Russian language media so that it is able to provide Russian-speakers with reliable access to accurate information. The type of support given includes mentoring with UK media organizations; consultancy on programming; funded co-productions and support for regional Russian language media initiatives.”

As can be seen, the program was explicitly related to activities in the Russian language. And yet, the Integrity Initiative was not. What could explain this seeming mismatch?

The government summary just cited was one of the first mentions of the RLP, and it came on 20 July 2017. But this was not the first public mention of the program.  In fact there was one other earlier statement published the day before.  This was a program summary which gave further details.  It is interesting to note that the Russian Language Program had been operational over three years before the FCO announced it to Parliament and the public. This in itself is an indication that it was a covert operation. This perception is only enhanced by the program document itself.  There is an asterisk beside the column headed “implementing organizations” and below, the explanation given for omitting the organizations involved is “Information has been withheld from publication on security grounds”.  This is a clue that the intelligence services – specifically MI6 – were involved.

The conclusion to which we are led is that the RLP was a covert operation which the FCO made public in 2017 and then, once it was apparent that the Integrity Initiative did not fit the remit, a new supposed program was necessitated, even though dating it to 2016 flatly contradicted previous official statements.

“Information has been withheld from publication on security grounds”

The Money Trail: CSSF Funding and Andy Pryce’s Central Role

The Russian Language Program and the Counter Disinformation and Media Development (CDMD) Program, received funding from the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF).

The CSSF is an intelligence-directed fund controlled from the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, which is an intelligence unit. The money was given by the FCO (later FCDO), though strategic oversight sat at the heart of the UK’s intelligence apparatus.

Official records show the CDMD program alone spent over £80 million (U.S.$106 million) in the three years to 2021, with substantial additional funding reportedly continuing in later years including more than £33 million (U.S.$44 million) in the year 2022-23. Taken together with the first four years of the RLP (£70m), the program disbursed over £150 million – or $199 million – in the nine years to 2023. 

Andy Pryce appears to have overseen both the RLP and CDMD.  He claims on his LinkedIn profile to have run the CDMD since July 2015. But even the FCO statement only claims it started in April 2016. In that role, he directly authorized funding to the Integrity Initiative. Pryce also shaped the British government’s communications response to the 2018 Salisbury incident – the alleged poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. This is reported to have been a turning point in British propaganda tactics.

According to the Daily Express: 

“In the five weeks since the attempted assassination of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, Moscow has been pushing out conspiracy theories. Whitehall sources say two in every three stories shared on social media are from media outlets backed by the Kremlin… The fact that British ministers have to remain tight-lipped while the painstaking probe by police, intelligence services and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons laboratories takes place, has left a vacuum, which is being filled by Russia…”

“Until a fortnight ago, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office seemed content simply to post statements rebutting the most outrageous claims. But the last fortnight has seen a series of mini-videos, which, sources say, “mark a departure” from the norm. They are said to be the brainchild of Andy Pryce the FO’s head of counter-disinformation and media development.”

The report goes on: “One video, poses six questions that Vladimir Putin’s Russia has so far failed to answer.” Among these is “Why does Russia persistently cover up the use of chemical weapons in Assad’s brutal regime in Syria?” Not only is this completely false – neither Russia nor the government of Bashar al-Assad used, or covered up the use of, chemical weapons –  but it is ironic, given the direct role played by MI6 in fabricating chemical attacks in Syria.

Alex Aiken, who was instrumental in the creation of yet another controversial propaganda unit in government, the Rapid Response Unit, remarked:

“It took 13 days to pull together the authoritative, government response to the Salisbury poisonings, which involved the communication staff and all other elements of the national security establishment working together to declassify the intelligence where appropriate, and put together the case that would be understood.” 

Post Salisbury, the National Security Communications Team (NSCT), yet another of the covert units set up by British intelligence in response to the Salisbury “poisoning” operation in April 2018 (and also funded by the CSSF) was reported in regard to “harnessing ‘the incredible power of declassified intelligence’ as a core role and that they, as a team, must “provide a stronger bridging function.” They also stated that the use of intelligence is “much more part of the discourse and discussion” and that ‘intelligence is there to be used’.”

Leaked emails later exposed Pryce’s close operational coordination with journalist Paul Mason, with multiple accounts describing him as Mason’s handler. Together they were involved in targeting critics of British intelligence operations in Syria, including the present author.

Though Pryce “denies ever having worked for MI6, or having ever operated as an intelligence agent or covert operative,” his leadership of an intelligence-funded program makes clear he operated under intelligence direction.

Pryce is a key operative who will appear repeatedly in this story.

Andy Pryce, disinformation professional, 2025

The Government Information Cell: New Front in 2022

In February 2022, the UK government created the Government Information Cell to support its response to alleged Russian disinformation in relation to the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine. It pooled cross-government expertise in analysis, intelligence assessment and strategic communications.

Catherine Hunt, later a key figure in the FCDO’s subsequent covert propaganda unit served as Head of Analysis in the new cell.

The GIC was created out of a previous covert MI6 propaganda unit called the Counter-Daesh Coalition Communications Cell, which oversaw UK disinformation activities in both Iraq and Syria. Overall, it is reported that the UK spent some £350 million (U.S. $465 million) on regime change in Syria. One of the key elements of the propaganda war were the multimillion-dollar contracts for MI6 contractors like Ark, Albany Associates, Incostrat and Mayday Rescue, better known as the White Helmets. Amongst the crimes to which they were accessory was the creation of fake chemical weapons attacks in Syria. These were directed by MI6 and involved the White Helmets in constructing a narrative that the so-called Red Line had been crossed by the government of Bashar al-Assad. We can note that in more than one of these faked events civilians were killed for the purpose of artful arrangement before the world’s media, such as in Douma in 2018. 

We can note that the CCCC was overseen in the early years by Alicia Kearns, who went on to be an MI6 contractor herself in Lebanon. Later she became a member of parliament, and, between 2022 and 2024, was the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament. Funding for the CCCC and for its successor came from the intelligence slush fund, the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund.

HMG Russia Unit: The Covert Liaison Point Inside the FCDO

The Counter Disinformation and Media Development (CDMD) Program formed a core part of the HMG Russia Unit, located inside the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Directorate (EECAD) of the FCDO.

HMG Russia Unit: “Liaison point for covert aspects of EECAD work”

Internal FCDO intranet files state that the HMG Russia Unit is the “liaison point for covert aspects of EECAD work”. Andy Pryce was based in this unit while overseeing CDMD and the Integrity Initiative. His role in CDMD does little to undermine perceptions that he is very closely involved with the intelligence services. However, his cover was blown repeatedly. First in 2018, after which he was dispatched to Brussels, and again in 2022 over his coordination with journalist Paul Mason. We will now discuss this period.

Pryce’s LinkedIn profile states he was in Brussels from November 2019 to December 2021. It would appear that he remained attached to the HMG Russia Unit for the duration. The OSCR report on the Integrity Initiative was finalized just days before he took up the new post. His apparent “return” to London was in January 2022. Only months later, leaked emails between Pryce and Mason appeared to show that Pryce was briefing Mason (and others), and was, in effect, potentially Mason’s “handler.” Mason did not take kindly to being described as an MI6 “agent” and threatened this author and others with legal action, as can be seen below.  

However, in a hilarious turn of events, this year, more of Mason’s emails were leaked.  Among them were communications with his lawyer asking for advice on whether he could sue the present author for libel, who replied that it would be difficult to say that he had no contact with the U.K. intelligence services. 

But there was one detail in the emails which casts doubt on the claim that Pryce was simply in a civilian role in Brussels. This was when Mason claims in an email to his lawyer that he thought Pryce was not in intelligence, since Pryce had told him he was attached to the Counter Disinformation Unit.  

Paul Mason is not an MI6 Agent. Direct Message to the present author from Mason, 16 June 2022.

David Miller (who else) – Mason asks for legal advice on whether it’s a libel to call him an “MI6 Agent”.

Mason’s lawyer advises that Mason should not say he doesn’t have any contact with “Britain’s secret state”.

Mason claims here that he thought Pryce was not in intelligence since Pryce had told him he was in the Counter Disinformation Unit.

This would appear to suggest that his role there was covert. It certainly has not appeared on his Linkedin page or in any other public source. The Counter Disinformation Unit (originally called the Counter Disinformation Cell) was created in response to the Salisbury/Skripal incident. Given Pryce’s claimed leading role in the Skripal operation, it would not be too surprising to find he played a role in the unit. If so, this adds more weight to the idea that his job in Brussels was a cover role.

Rebranding Under Pressure: The Birth of the Information Threats and Influence Directorate

Pryce was only back in London for a few months before the CDU became controversial. By late 2022 the Government Information Cell (GIC) and the Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) faced intense criticism and exposure from both left and right. The government was forced to admit to the COVID-19 Inquiry that the CDU had “worked closely” with the U.K. intelligence community. 

Susannah Story, Director General at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, also noted that “At its peak, the Counter Disinformation Cell [the former name of the CDU] was formed of a team of up to 50, however, this figure is indicative. The CDC was virtual and flexible in nature, with DCMS and other departments pulling on their wider resources (which may not have been entirely focused on disinformation) as needed.” So, yet again the apparently covert connection of Pryce to the CDU was also intelligence related.

The pushback the covert units received also forced them into rebranding. Thus, the CDU was renamed as the National Security Online Information Team in October 2023. 

In March 2023 the FCDO created the Information Threats and Influence Directorate (ITID). It folded in the Counter Disinformation and Media Development (CDMD) Program, the GIC and related functions. At the same time the strategic need to broaden targets beyond Russia/Ukraine to Iran, China, and Gaza (on a semi-detached basis), helped trigger another reorganization.

The Integrated Review Refresh 2023 confirmed the new directorate’s role in countering “hostile manipulation of information” by Russia, China, and Iran. Pryce and veteran teams were quietly integrated into the fresh civilian cover structure.

The internal structure of the Information Threats and Influence Directorate, 2023.

Inside ITID: The FCDO’s Rebadged Propaganda Hub

The Information Threats and Influence Directorate (ITID), created March 2023 under Director Jonny Hall, is the FCDO’s central unit for countering “hostile information manipulation”.

Leaked FCDO intranet charts show two deputy directors: Rachael Goodwill (Counter Information Manipulation) and Owen Bassett (Government Information Cell – Campaigns). Bassett previously ran the Counter-Daesh Coalition Communication Cell. Goodwill, meanwhile had previously been Head of the Syria External Team in charge of covert ops pushing for regime change in Syria.

A semi-detached Israel/Gaza Team (labelled xITID) delivers early C-FIMI (Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference) support, with Gaza concerns explicitly including Iranian angles. It reports to the director.

Abigail Cullen was named as lead of both the Gaza team and the China and Iran desk, which develops “proactive campaign approach with China Dept/MENAD and Comms Dir”. Cullen’s public LinkedIn profile omits ITID, naming only the larger directorate general, which is called Defense and Intelligence. Andy Pryce is listed as heading Threat Mitigation; Catherine Hunt co-leads Analysis and Insight.

Abigail Cullen is rather modest about her involvement in a secret info war operation.

ITID Exposed: FSB Expels British Diplomats and Forces Rebrand

However, in 2024, the Information Threats and Influence Directorate’s cover was blown. On September 13 of that year, the Russian intelligence service, the FSB, declared six British diplomats persona non grata, accusing them of espionage and subversive activities aimed at inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia. The FSB stated their actions showed “signs of intelligence and subversive work” and linked them to the FCDO’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Directorate (EECAD) and to the HMG Russia Unit. 

The screengrabs of the FCDO Intranet appeared online in Russian news media sourced to the FSB. The FSB also published a variety of other materials including covert surveillance footage of the ostensibly innocent British diplomats meeting Russian opposition figures, in what appear to be handler/agent relationships. In addition, there is further material on HMG Russia Unit, including a document that appears to have been produced by the FSB which included the names, email addresses and sometimes phone numbers and even home addresses of scores of alleged HMG Russia Unit officials. The document claims that all of these officials are from intelligence agencies including MI6, MI5, GCHQ, Defense Intelligence (in the Ministry of Defense) and the Joint Intelligence Organization (in the Cabinet Office), in other words, almost all British intelligence agencies. The document also claims that MI5 operatives in the unit use cover email addresses from the Ministry of Defense to disguise themselves. 

Could any of this be true? Is it possible, as the FSB claims, that five separate British intelligence agencies are involved in the unit? The answer is, technically, no. In fact, there are more; at least seven British intelligence agencies are involved in the unit, according to official British sources. Hidden in plain sight in a throwaway line in a report from July 2020 by the Intelligence and Security Committee is a discussion of HMG Russia Unit. It states that responsibility for the government’s Russia strategy falls:

 “To the National Security Strategy Implementation Group for Russia, which …is co-ordinated by the HMG Russia Unit… All seven organisations that we oversee are represented in the Implementation Group.”

The seven groups referred to are MI5, MI6, GCHQ, the Joint Intelligence Organization (JIO), and the National Security Secretariat (NSS) both in the Cabinet Office; Defense Intelligence (DI) in the Ministry of Defense; and the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT) in the Home Office. So, as we can see, the FSB had somewhat underestimated the extent of British intelligence agencies involvement in HMG Russia Unit.

In response to the cover of ITID being blown, the FCDO restructured again. In late 2024/early 2025 ITID became the Cyber, Information and Tech Threats Directorate (CITTD). By early 2026 it was rebranded yet again to the Hybrid Threats Directorate. At the end of March this year the foreign Affairs Committee showed that it had been misled by the FCDO when it recommended that  the government “increase funding and staffing within the Hybrid Threats Directorate”.  The Foreign Office had, naturally, neglected to mention that this was a covert intelligence operation in its formal evidence to the inquiry. There is also a certain irony in the fact that the Chair of the committee at present is Emily Thornberry MP – the very same person who in January 2017 called for an inquiry into the Israel lobby and one year later did the same for the Integrity Initiative. 

Escalating the War on the Islamic Republic: ITID’s Successors in the Propaganda Frontline

As the U.K. has stepped up its information offensive against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the role of the FCDO’s rebranded propaganda unit has come under fresh scrutiny. In March 2026 Lord Walney released his report, “Undue Influence,” accusing the Iranian regime of building a network of over thirty U.K. charities and Shia Muslim groups as “soft power” vehicles linked to the IRGC. The document has been weaponized to intensify calls for proscription of the IRGC.

MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum has repeatedly stated that British security agencies have disrupted more than twenty potentially lethal Iran-backed plots on U.K. soil. Mossad has frequently claimed it has tipped of Western intelligence agencies about such alleged “plots.”

Even the 23 March 2026 arson attack on four Hatzolah ambulances in Golders Green — widely reported as an antisemitic incident — triggered immediate claims of a Zionist false flag. While three individuals were later charged, the speed and coordination of the subsequent information campaign cannot rule out involvement by the FCDO’s specialist disinformation experts. Even more recently a recently discharged psychiatric patient, with a history of violence stretching back almost twenty years, who allegedly stabbed two Jews in Golders Green, has now been recruited via credulous and ideological Zionist and state responses to the global “antisemitism” panic. Almost all commentators ignored the Muslim he had allegedly stabbed earlier in the day. Facts don’t matter: Jewish supremacist demands must be enforced.

With the semi-detached Israel/Gaza Team (xITID) and Abigail Cullen leading both the Gaza and Iran desks (at least in 2023), the unit is structured to shape narratives across multiple theaters at once.

The Information Threats and Influence Directorate (ITID) — and its successors — sit at the center of these operations. Leaked FCDO charts show the unit running “counter foreign information manipulation and interference” (C-FIMI) campaigns explicitly targeting Iran.

The pattern is unmistakable: every time this MI6-directed propaganda operation is exposed, it is simply rebadged and relaunched, always with expanded targets. The Islamic Republic is now firmly in its sights. And more and more repressive attacks on Shia Muslims, Palestinians and all who support them are in the works.

The post Leaked Documents Reveal UK Intelligence Operation Targeting Russia, Iran, Gaza and Beyond appeared first on MintPress News.

Amid a massive drop in support from the Christian community, Israel is spending millions of dollars to target individuals entering churches or Christian colleges with ads, and paying pastors across the country to promote propaganda and false “anti-Palestinian” narratives every Sunday, documents filed with the United States’ Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) show. 

The 86-page disclosure reveals that Israel is recruiting Hollywood celebrities and sports stars to promote the country, while also manipulating Christians’ social media feeds. And they are doing it by spying on you through your phone. 

MintPress explores this explosive story, largely ignored in corporate media. 

Propaganda Storm

In September, Show Faith by Works LLC, a San Diego-based company led by conservative activist Chad Schnitger, filed a sworn document with the U.S. Department of Justice. The declaration revealed that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs was paying Show Faith by Works $4.1 million to carry out a massive, covert, digital surveillance operation targeting Christian communities across multiple states, including California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. 

The document noted that all students at every Christian college and every congregant at “every major church” in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado has been spied on through their phone’s location data, and targeted with propaganda extolling Israel’s “moral superiority” and “linking the Palestinian population with extremist factions.” The campaign estimates that it has reached well over eight million Americans.

Show Faith by Works itself divides its messaging into two themes: “pro-Israel” and “anti-Palestinian”. Its primary goals, in its own words, are to “combat low American Evangelical Christian approval of the Nation of Israel,” by “using biblical arguments to highlight the importance of Israel and the Jewish People to Christians.” It also wishes to “educate Christians on the historical importance of Israel and its significance in the region,” and to “counter new and evolving pro-Palestinian messaging as the global narrative shifts.”

Many of their anti-Palestinian talking points are highly controversial, dubious, or even blatant falsehoods. Their principal messaging on Palestine is that there never was (or should be) a Palestinian state in history, that “Palestinians shelter terrorists” and “hide weapons in their schools and hospitals,” and that they are not a trustworthy actor, as the Palestinians’ goals are “genocidal.”

They also share ads and messages with American Christians claiming that Gazans kill U.S. Christian aid workers distributing food to them, and that “Israel is the birthplace of Jesus.” (In fact, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, in the Palestinian West Bank.)

The overall message, then, is one extolling Israel’s supposed virtues, encouraging Americans to visit, while dehumanizing Palestinians (including the 12.5% of historic Palestine who were Christians themselves) as genocidal terrorist intent on destroying the world. 

Show Faith by Works projects that this content will receive 47 million impressions across the United States in its first twelve months in operation. 

Hi-Tech Targeting

Show Faith by Works and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs are able to carry out this sophisticated operation by taking advantage of a technology called “geofencing.” Geofencing creates invisible digital boundaries around real world locations (in this case, hundreds of churches and universities). Any phone or smart device entering a church on Sunday or a college during term time is logged and recorded. The operation then begins sending targeted advertisements and messaging to each device through ad networks, promoting Israel and demonizing Palestine. These messages appear in Google searches, on social media, and on any number of apps and platforms. 

Your behavioral data – how you respond to the ads, what you click, or how long you watch for, is fed back into the operation in order to tailor messaging to each individual, making future targeting more effective. Over time, the system builds up an enormous amount of data on each individual – their locations, beliefs, preferences, and actions, in order to better manipulate them. 

Once you enter a church or college targeted by Israel, there is almost nothing you can do about it. They are paying to manipulate your search results, news feeds, and algorithms. What you see online will be decided by Israel, not by you. And virtually none of the millions of people affected are aware this is happening. 

Is Your Pastor a Secret Israeli Agent?

The operation admits that it has “digitally target[ing]” every large church in four western states. This includes 219 in California, 39 in Arizona, 32 in Colorado, and 14 in Nevada. Some of these megachurches boast congregations of up to 45,000 people, helping reach an estimated 3.9 million individuals. It has also geofenced hundreds of smaller churches across the country, reaching a further 3.8 million Christians, primarily in urban locations. 

A wide range of Christian denominations has been targeted, including some traditionally associated with the conservative right-wing, such as the Southern Baptists and Pentecostals, generally associated. But the operation also focuses on others, such as the United Methodist Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Churches of Christ, and the American Baptist Churches USA. 

A full list of confirmed churches and Christian colleges likely targeted can be found at the end of this investigation. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the battle for American public opinion to be the “eighth front” of the war, comparing it to the seven-front campaign he is already waging. In order to win this crucial struggle, Israel is employing Show Faith by Works to insert its messaging directly into the sacred sanctuaries of American churches. 

The company was involved in the 1000 Pastors Project, an endeavor that saw some 1070 American clergymen accept an expense-paid trip to Israel in December in order to equip them with the ability to serve as unofficial ambassadors for the country. Thousands more pastors are expected to be invited on a similar trip this year. 

Show Faith by Works has designed, published and distributed “pastoral resource packages” to hundreds of churches, packages that include “pro-Israel educational materials,” like the ones discussed previously, information “debunking pro-Palestinian popular arguments,” and helps to  organize group travel trips to Israel. They also recruit pastors to write newspaper op-eds, and produce 3-5 minute pro-Israel video lectures designed to be played in churches across the nation. 

There is also a special effort to reach minority communities, with content specifically aimed at young women, Catholics, and Hispanic Christians being produced, while their pro-Israel material is also translated into Spanish, Vietnamese, and Russian. 

American Colleges Get “the October 7 Experience”

Young American Christians are moving away from their traditional positions on the Middle East. A 2021 poll found that support for Israel among evangelicals aged 18-29 had dropped from 75% to just 34% over the past three years. 

To that end, dozens of Christian colleges, with a total student body of well over 100,000 students have been geofenced. The Israel/Show Faith by Works project goal is to establish a major presence at Christian universities and seminaries, including making connections with professors, and hiring student representatives to spread the word and hand out specially designed merchandise. 

The campaign includes creating an interactive travelling virtual reality exhibit called the “October 7 Experience” that will tour campuses, showing “atrocities from 10/7” and explaining the difficulties that the Israeli Defense Forces face while “fighting bad guys in hostile territory.”

Celebrity Agents of Israel 

According to the documents, the October 7 Experience would be constructed by the company’s (unnamed) Hollywood coordinator, who would use their Tinsel Town connections to build a five-star exhibit. The coordinator’s job also included making connections with “top-tier Hollywood talent to book Christian celebrities and Christian athletes to deliver pro-Israel messaging.” 

Among the names floated as possible hires include actors Jon Voight and Chris Pratt. From the world of sports, they aim to recruit former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, three-time World Series winning pitcher Clayton Kershaw, and NBA star, Stephen Curry. Curry has expressed a deep interest in Israeli culture, has told the press that he is learning Hebrew, has two Hebrew tattoos on his wrists, and has invested heavily in Israeli defense corporations founded and staffed by IDF officers. For more on the NBA’s connections to Apartheid, see the MintPress investigation, “From Dunks to Drones: The NBA Has an Israel Problem.”

Another key category of influencers the project was looking to recruit was celebrity megachurch pastors. These included Mark Driscoll, Rick Warren, and Greg Laurie. Together, it was hoped that this stable of prominent Christians could use their power to influence the opinions of millions of followers nationwide, shoring up Israel’s sliding approval ratings in the United States. 

Manipulating the Media

The Israeli government considers the online war as important as its military attacks against Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and beyond. The documents show that Show Faith by Works planned to flood the internet with digital content – websites, social media posts, podcasts, and videos – in order to overwhelm both search engines and ordinary users with pro-Israel content. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) – the practice of enhancing media’s visibility in search results – is a key part of this. As the document explains, the group will “optimize SEO traffic so that favorable coverage is increased and unfavorable information is decreased,” by “redirect[ing] nearly all web traffic to friendly sites based on key [search] terms,” “ensur[ing] that [our] website is the top of all search results,” and “prioritiz[ing] our information to key demographics.” 

A less well-known tactic the group is using is generative engine optimization, or GEO, a new technique aimed at influencing how A.I. chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude “learn” in order to make them espouse pro-Israeli views. Show Faith by Works planned to deluge the internet with fake questions and answers written by them, in order that A.I. will parrot their talking points to users across the world. 

Other media projects listed included starting Christian podcasts designed to sneak pro-Israel messaging to listeners, paying for pro-Israel ads and messages to be read out on other faith–based shows, and hiring a pastor to “keep up with Isreal [sic] news and to highlight pro-Israel, anti-Hamas news.”

They also plan to pay Christian influencers on social media to post about the virtues of Israel and “counter pro-Palestinian propaganda with response videos.” This strategy is similar to that of a similar Israeli campaign called the Esther Project, which paid influencers a reported $7,000 per post that supported Israel. None of the individuals receiving the money, however, has followed the law by filing as a foreign agent under FARA, leading to rampant speculation online about who has become rich accepting cash from Tel Aviv. 

In short, then, the project’s goal is to create an enormous astroturfed wave of support for Israel in the Christian community by paying pastors, celebrities, and influencers to espouse their support and admiration for the country, its society, and its geopolitical goals. 

Unbeknownst to the tens of millions of Christians seeing these messages in their ads, search engine results, chatbot answers, or in their churches and universities, none of this is natural. Rather, it is the result of a deliberate and designed strategy to manipulate their thoughts and opinions into supporting a state carrying out a genocide – including against Christians. 

Israel’s War on Christians in West Asia

Palestine was once a land where large numbers of Christians and Muslims lived side by side in relative harmony. Today, that is not the case. During the Nakba – the 1948 establishment of Israel, Israeli ethnically cleansed 90,000 Palestinian Christians, and shut down dozens of churches.

Since 2023, the attacks on Christians have greatly increased. Every church in Gaza has been damaged or destroyed. This includes the historic Church of Saint Porphyrius, the third-oldest Christian place of worship in the world. The site has been targeted multiple times by Israeli forces, leading to the partial collapse of the religious building, which can trace its history back to 425 A.D.

Also targeted was the Al Ahli Church and Baptist Hospital, where repeated Israeli strikes pulverized the complex, killing hundreds. 

Inside Israel, attacks on priests, pastors, and other clergy are a regular occurrence. Last month, footage of a 48-year-old French nun in East Jerusalem being pushed to the ground and kicked by a settler went viral, as did images of Israeli soldiers gleefully desecrating a church and taking a sledgehammer to a statue of Jesus in Southern Lebanon. 

For decades, Christians have had to endure the common practice of Jews spitting on them. This sort of overt daily hostility towards Christians has proved to be a problem for pro-Israel conservative American church groups traveling to the region. Last year, conservative commentator and podcaster Brandon Tatum drew international ridicule, when, in an interview with Netanyahu, he thanked the Israeli prime minister and revealed that his Christian group was “only spit on once” during their trip to his country. 

One of Show Faith by Works’ key talking points that it promotes, however, is that “Israel protects Christians like no other nation in the Middle East.”

American Christians Losing Faith in Israel

Support for Israel among Christians is crashing. This is reflective of a broader trend across the country; an April poll conducted by Pew Research found only 37% of Americans see Israel in a favorable light, as opposed to 60% unfavorably. 

For decades, Israel has enjoyed widespread support from American Christians, particularly Evangelical Protestants, as many believe its existence is a prerequisite for the end of days, when Jesus Christ will return to Earth to establish his heavenly kingdom. 

Nevertheless, its popularity, especially among younger Christians, is cratering, falling to just 34%. This age discrepancy is partially down to different patterns of media consumption. Elderly Americans continue to get their news from TV networks owned and controlled by billionaires such as Larry Ellison and Rupert Murdoch, both of whom are extremely close personal friends and passionate supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s expansionist policies. Younger Americans, by contrast, rely primarily on social media as their number one source of news. 

Explaining this phenomenon, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of pro-Israel pressure group, the Anti-Defamation League, stated that “we have a TikTok problem…a Gen-Z problem.” 

To that end, Israel has poured vast amounts of resources into targeting Americans. The government’s yearly public relations budget has ballooned to $730 million – a roughly 100-fold increase on pre-October 7 levels. And it is Americans that are the prime targets of Israel’s focus. Indeed, the word “target” appears 44 times in the 86-page document, indicating that Show Faith by Works sees them as threats to be neutralized. 

Christians report that being singled out like this in their sacred place of worship feels like a violation. Millions of American Christians are being secretly spied upon, and bombarded with propaganda. Christians in Palestine, Lebanon and the broader region, meanwhile, are surveiled, harassed, and bombarded with drones and missiles. In both cases, Israel is carrying out a coordinated, sophisticated and sustained attack on the Christian community. In Palestine, however, they are paying for it with their lives. 

There now follows a list of all places of worship listed as targeted in the disclosure. 

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod.

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Following a two-month long deadlock at the negotiating table, due to US intransigence, a sudden breakthrough was announced by President Donald Trump. In the days prior to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the US and Iran were trading heavy blows initiated by American aggression on southern Iran.

Backing down from his threats, last Friday, to launch enormous strikes on civilian targets, Trump instead unilaterally declared the war was over for yet another time. By Sunday, which was set by Washington as the intended MoU signing date, the Israelis decided to yet again violate Tehran’s red line and bombard Beirut, Lebanon. Before Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) could implement their pledge to retaliate, the Trump administration reportedly offered last minute concessions that ended up resulting in an agreement.

According to reports a 60-day period will be entered following the formal signing ceremony planned for this Friday in Geneva, during which the US and Iran will have to meet a number of demands. The sudden nature of the agreement, especially considering that the region was on the brink of war just last week, has created great skepticism.

Is the US President finally breaking from Israel and deciding to pursue his own interests, or is this simply another diplomatic trick to stabilize global oil markets, ease the economic and political fallout from the Iran war, while plotting yet another scheme to topple the government in Tehran?

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has continued its operations in southern Lebanon and flatly refused to withdraw its occupation forces from its imposed “Yellow Line”, arguing the need for a “buffer zone”. Thus, Israeli invading military convoys have pushed even deeper into Lebanese territory, falling into Hezbollah ambushes and engaging in fierce clashes.

In this episode we cover the latest video evidence of Israel’s unraveling in southern Lebanon, as it faces swarms of FPV drones that continue to pick off their soldiers and military vehicles. Hezbollah also released footage of its successful air defence operation, that resulted in the downing of a sophisticated Israeli Heron-1 Drone. The downing of the drone, which costs around $10 million per unit, using MANPADS, represents a major blow to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)’s ongoing attempts to sell the UAV to foreign nations.

If the shaky MoU manages to succeed, it could represent a historic victory for the Islamic Republic of Iran, granting it increased economic opportunities, stronger regional influence, and de facto control over the Strait of Hormuz– one of the world’s most important economic chokepoints. On the other hand, the Israelis would face the end of their long desired ‘Greater Israel Project’, forcing them to give up their ambitions for territorial expansion outside of occupied Palestine.

Whether Donald Trump can force such a deal upon the Israelis and weather the inevitable storm of the Israel Lobby at home, could perhaps determine who truly calls the shots between Washington and Tel Aviv.

A major shift in West Asia power dynamics could be about to take place, which has also led to intrigue as to how this may impact the besieged population of the Gaza Strip and whether they will also be included in the upcoming Iran-US deal.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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More than 1,000 pages of leaked documents reviewed by WIRED Magazine show that government agencies are anticipating a huge wave of domestic unrest in the coming years, as artificial intelligence upends American society. Automation-related job losses could shatter entire industries, while the building of gigantic data centers will remove water and electricity from public use, ramping up the price of what little remains. 

As one report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau notes: 

“The chaotic atmosphere that may result from emergent A.I. technology in the next five years may fuel large-scale protests that devolve into civil unrest and anti-tech violent extremist activity, especially in large urban areas such as New York City.”

An Environmental and Health Catastrophe 

Last year, the tech industry collectively spent around half a trillion dollars on the construction of new data centers. These buildings consume near insatiable amounts of energy and water. By 2030, they are expected to represent around 12% of total U.S. electricity consumption. One large data center consumes up to five million gallons of water per day – as much as a small city. It has been calculated that a single 100-word A.I. prompt to a chatbot like Claude or ChatGPT uses over half a liter of water, equivalent to one bottle.  

When a data center moves into town, utility prices skyrocket. In this situation, wholesale electricity, for example, jumps by up to 267%. Ordinary Americans cannot compete with the likes of Amazon or Microsoft, and can be priced out of even the most basic necessities of life, causing widespread resentment. 

Living near a data center can also be hazardous to human health. Thanks to the low-frequency noises they produce, residents often report chronic symptoms such as insomnia, vertigo, and nausea. Worse still, to meet their enormous energy demands, data centers often rely on gas or diesel generators, which emit high levels of nitrogen oxides, fine particular matter, and so-called “forever chemicals” into the air, further complicating the situation.

A.I. will also have a profound effect on employment. Goldman Sachs predicts that, over the next decade, 300 million jobs could be lost to A.I.-based automation. Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, has suggested that whole industries may be replaced by his product. “Entire classes of jobs will go away and not come back,” he confidently stated in 2019. Facing growing public anger, last month, he walked those statements back, assuring the public that there would be no “jobs apocalypse.”

But if these predictions are anything close to correct, it will cause massive economic disruption across America, and send towns and entire cities dependent on certain types of work into potentially permanent depressions. The latest news that Washington is preparing to treat this unrest as akin to terrorism should be of great concern to all Americans. 

The Dark Side of A.I.

The public, as a whole, is highly skeptical of artificial intelligence. A recent poll found that only 5% trust A.I. a great deal, while 77% think it could pose a fundamental threat to humanity. 

The U.S. national security state, however, has fully committed to A.I., and is using it to mass surveil the public and to identify those not sufficiently supportive of the new technology. In March, FBI director Kash Patel confirmed that the bureau is buying Americans’ personal online user data from brokers in order to track the public. The Department of Homeland Security has spent millions purchasing A.I. software that detects the sentiment and emotions of Americans’ online posts, and is using it to identify activists and other potential “threats.” It has also sent subpoenas to Google, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, and other large social media apps demanding they share the personal information and identities of anonymous users who have criticized the actions of the Trump administration. Government officials confirmed to The New York Times that platforms have often complied with their requests.  

A.I. giant Anthropic publicly pulled out of a deal with the U.S. Department of War to develop A.I. systems in “classified environments,” stating that they feared the technology would immediately be used to carry out mass domestic surveillance in the United States. “We cannot in good conscience accede to their request,” they said, explaining their decision. The company was immediately labeled a national security “supply chain risk” by the Trump administration, and the contract was fulfilled by OpenAI.

OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman is one of Trump’s most generous donors, having channeled $25 million to the president’s super PAC, MAGA Inc. He has also poured $50 million into Leading the Future, a bipartisan super PAC aimed at promoting pro-A.I. legislation in Washington, D.C., and defeating and silencing lawmakers who wish to curb the influence and power of the new industry.  

It remains to be seen to what extent A.I. will actually become a revolutionary technology, but what is clear is that the U.S. government is preparing for major economic and social disruption in its wake. Instead of creating economic bailout plans and social welfare programs to help those negatively affected, however, it is preparing an authoritarian response, looking to crush dissent. What makes this future even more ironically dystopian is that, to do so, it is using the very A.I. that is triggering the problem in the first place.

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. He completed his PhD in 2017 and has since authored two acclaimed books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. Follow Alan on Twitter for more of his work and commentary: @AlanRMacLeod.

The post DHS Docs: Govt Bracing for Nationwide Anti-AI Riots, Preparing to Crack Down on Dissent appeared first on MintPress News.

After warning that any Israeli strike on Beirut would trigger an immediate response, Iran implemented its threats and targeted a series of Israeli military bases. Yemen’s Ansarallah later joined the defense of Lebanon, linking broader regional fronts and tightening the economic stranglehold over the US-Israeli alliance by locking down the Bab al-Manbad Strait.

Last Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to target the southern suburbs of the Lebanese Capital, but temporarily held back from doing so after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened retaliatory strikes in response. On Sunday, the situation came to a head, following a limited Israeli attack on Beirut, triggering a 15-hour battle between Tehran and Tel Aviv.

How big was this moment for the region and will it set a new deterrence equation? Can Iran reinstate the concept of the Unity of Squares – linking all the fronts – that former Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah had fought to achieve?

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s asymmetric warfare tactics on the ground in southern Lebanon are continuing to burden Israel’s occupation forces and inflict growing casualty numbers. Especially is this the case with the widespread use of First Person View (FPV) drones, which are impossible to jam using electronic warfare equipment and just as hard to detect before it is too late. In the latest edition of the target Stream, we review the latest footage emerging from the battlefield.

As the war wages on in the south, the US-backed Lebanese government continues to lash out and blame the Iranians for Israel’s airstrikes and invasion of their nation. Despite the recent assassination of a general in the Lebanese Army, President Joseph Aoun refuses to order his armed forces to resist and instead pursues direct talks with Israeli officials in Washington.

Reshaping regional dynamics the Yemeni Armed Forces have carried out missile attacks against Tel Aviv; overtly in support of the Lebanon front. In an even more devastating development, Yemen’s Ansarallah has re-instated its blockade in the Red Sea and closed down the Bab al-Mandab Strait to all Israeli shipping, a measure it had previously taken in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

With the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, the potential that Yemen may fully blockade the Bab al-Mandab Strait, has many bracing for the enormous economic repercussions. All of this as tensions rise dramatically across the region, reaching boiling point and laying the groundwork for a renewal of full-scale hostilities. 

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post The Resistance Responds: Iran, Yemen and Hezbollah Reshape Battlefield in Lebanon Against Israeli attacks appeared first on MintPress News.

The Commander-in-Chief of Iran’s Law Enforcement Command (FARAJA), Ahmadreza Radan, announced earlier this week that the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus had arrested upwards of 6,500 agents since the beginning of the latest US-Israeli attacks; that the official described as “The Third War”.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry went on to release a statement that claimed the capture of 19 individuals, who were part of four separate “Takfiri terrorist cells” in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province. The term Takfiri is used to describe Salafist Sunni Muslims, usually linked to ISIS or Al-Qaeda, who believe in a fringe version of the Islamic faith that justifies killing fellow Muslims and others over religious disagreements.

The Iranian government statement, regarding the thwarting of alleged terrorist plots, went on to state that most of those arrested were foreign nationals, and published a video showing a cache of weapons stored at one of the uncovered hideouts. Although the militants were accused of being part of unspecified Takfiri organisations, the Ministry accused them of “operating under the direct guidance of the American-Zionist enemy”.

This comes amidst the US Congress uncovering that 42 US aircraft were lost during its 40 days of operations against the Islamic Republic, a staggering statistic that has triggered backlash in the house over the costly nature of the conflict and its implications on American power projection.

Iran’s judiciary has executed a number of individuals accused of working on behalf of the Israeli Mossad, since the war began on February 28, which has drawn criticism from the United States. For example, Mohammad Masoum Shahi and Hamed Validi were both sentenced to death on charges of operating as part of a Mossad-linked network, planning terrorist attacks and receiving training in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Despite attempts by Iranian opposition groups to deny all of the charges against those who have been handed death sentences and claim that Tehran is killing its own people to silence dissent, as was claimed regarding the Iran riots at the beginning of 2026, some US officials have been transparent about their involvement.

US President Donald Trump not only supported a plan that would involve Kurdish militant groups invading Iran from northern Iraq, but had even voiced dissatisfaction with Kurdish forces keeping weapons that were intended to reach Iranian rioters.

While the death penalty charge, against accused agents of foreign intelligence, has drawn the ire of the mainstream human rights organisations, the statistics are often skewed in the Western corporate media to present an unrealistic picture of events.

For example, in June of 2025 alone the Iranian authorities arrested 700 people on suspicion of working for the Israeli Mossad. That same year, the death penalty statistic hit 1,639 inside of Iran, which was widely cited without the context that only 57 of those executions were carried out on security related charges. While independent verification does not exist to substantiate the claims in each case, the majority of death sentences in Iran are for crimes such as murder, rape and drug related offences.

Earlier this January, during the Iran riots, former CIA director and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, openly stated on social media “Happy New Year to Iranians and Mossad agents beside them,” which was widely interpreted as an admission of foreign involvement in the unrest.

According to an Israeli Channel 13 report, during the 12-Day War, the Mossad had carried out “its largest ever mission” inside of Iran. Using more than 100 “foreign agents”, the Israelis managed to target Iran’s air defences and missile launchers at the beginning of the war.

This enabled Tel Aviv to strike Tehran relentlessly for around 15 hours, prior to there being a response.

Despite an abundance of admissions from former US officials, the American President, and detailed reports by the Israeli media, regarding the pivotal role that agents have played in supporting military operations targeting the Islamic Republic, there remains a refusal from the Western media to admit the consequential role of the Mossad and CIA on the ground.

Meanwhile, Iran’s authorities continue to announce that they have successfully located thousands of agents and militants, in addition to continuing strikes against Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups based in Erbil and elsewhere in northern Iraq. All as the true US military losses during the war thus far, continue to present themselves.

Robert Inlakesh

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post Iran Arrests 6,500 Israeli and U.S.-Linked Agents Amid Expanding Spy Crackdown appeared first on MintPress News.

The start of June has been marked by an increase in US aggression in the Persian Gulf. At least 6 US personnel and contractors were injured late last month in Iranian retaliatory strikes, with 3 US bases now having been struck within the past days alone. What had been otherwise sporadic low-intensity warfare, between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the US navy, that has taken place since the imposition of the temporary ceasefire on April 8, recently evolved into a scenario that could initiate a return to full-scale war.

Following the Iranian downing of a hostile US MQ-1 attack drone over the Persian Gulf, American forces decided to launch a series of strikes on military sites located in Iran’s Goruk and Qeshm Island. Despite US Central Command’s claims that they “responded” to an IRGC provocation, the action in question was the Iranian air defence shooting down their attack drone. On June 1, Tehran announced that it had carried out retaliatory strikes on US forces stationed at a base in Kuwait, from which they say the ceasefire violations against its territory were carried out.

At least two ballistic missiles were fired towards US forces, located at a distance of around 40 kilometers from the Iranian mainland. While CENTCOM announced that “no American personnel were injured” in the attacks, leaked reports had emerged revealing a number of casualties had been inflicted amongst US servicemembers and contractors stationed at Ali al-Salem Base at the end of May.

On June 2, the IRGC also responded to US strikes on southern Iran, launching its largest wave of missiles and drones at two US bases in Kuwait and America’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. Initially, US Central Command denied any damage from the attack. Satellite imagery later revealed impacts on hangars/shelters at both Ali Al-Salem airbase and Camp Buehring base in Kuwait, in addition to what appeared to be smoke rising from Sakhir Airbase in Bahrain. CCTV footage of a drone striking a terminal of the Kuwait International Airport, also emerged the following day, which Washington is yet to address.

On May 27, Kuwait announced that it had shot down a single Iranian ballistic missile fired towards US forces stationed inside the Gulf nation, stating that there was no damage nor injuries from the strike. However, US sources speaking to ABC News days later revealed that there were in fact an unspecified number of injuries caused to American personnel, along with contractors, attributing the casualties to falling debris from the allegedly intercepted missile.

The ballistic missile attack was the most significant strike carried out by the IRGC since the beginning of the ceasefire and came after US strikes against Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. On May 25, the American navy had opened fire on two IRGC speedboats near the Strait of Hormuz, killing 4 Iranian personnel and triggering retaliatory fire towards their warships.

Since the ceasefire was implemented, following intensive Pakistani mediation, Tehran has expressed its frustration at the US violating the terms of the truce. A major condition of the temporary ceasefire agreement has been the inclusion of Lebanon in the deal, which the Israelis have since failed to comply with, which has meant that Tehran has ordered the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a result.

Back in April, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was quick to return to the escalatory rhetoric of his President, threatening that his forces are “locked and loaded” – ready to destroy Iran’s energy infrastructure.

He echoed Donald Trump’s threat that “a whole civilisation will die tonight”, referring to his threat to wipe out Iranian power plants and brides; a blatant violation of international law and speculated to have been hinting at the use of nuclear weapons.

On June 1, in addition to Iran’s ballistic missile strikes on US forces in Kuwait, it also adopted the launch of a cruise missile striking the MSC Sariska V ship that the IRGC says is affiliated with “American-Zionist interests”.

Meanwhile, the Iranian military and political leadership had announced not only the cessation of contacts with US negotiators over repeated ceasefire violations, but took matters a step further. Iran also directly threatened to strike Israeli targets in northern occupied Palestine, if Tel Aviv is to go through with its threats to return to bombing the Lebanese Capital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz had announced their intention to strike southern Beirut, on Monday morning, but halted the implementation of the strikes following Iran’s threats.

The commander of IRGC’s Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, also issued another threat, stating that continued Israeli ceasefire violations in both Lebanon and Gaza “will mark the determination of the resistance axis to expand support from both fronts, take steps to activate other fronts, and equate the traffic situation of the Bab El Mandeb Strait with the Strait of Hormuz”.

A first direct exchange of fire between Iran and the US, during the ceasefire, occurred on May 7. However, the hardline stances of the US Trump administration, accusations that the American President is unserious in his efforts to reach a ceasefire and is instead engaging in market manipulation through his rhetoric, in addition to the continued low-intensity battles and economic warfare waged by both sides, indicates that the fragile truce may be waning.

Robert Inlakesh

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

The post Iran Inflicts U.S. Casualties, Halts Talks and Challenges Trump’s Authority in the Gulf appeared first on MintPress News.

This means Israel rakes in record earnings for the fifth consecutive year while it profits from battle-testing weapons on civilian populations in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. While openly adopting a quasi-critical approach to Israel’s military actions, It’s the same European and Muslim-majority countries that are fueling Israeli weapons exports.

Calls for boycotts, direct action against arms manufacturers and campaigns to bar Israeli weapons companies from arms fairs has proven unsuccessful in the face of governments’ willingness to purchase Israel’s weaponry.

That represents a more than 30% increase in profits from the year 2024, in the export of Israeli weapons, in addition to it being the fifth consecutive record-setting year. The uptick in sales have coincided with two major developments, the first being the defence cooperation with Arab and Muslim-majority nations following the signing of the “Abraham Accords” normalisation agreements, the second is the marketing of its technology following the initiation of the Gaza genocide[a][b][c][d][e].

While the United States is considered Israel’s closest international partner, Israel sold more weapons to its Arab allies in 2025 than it had to the Americans, representing a major shift. North America accounted for 13% of Israel’s arms exports, while the Middle East and North Africa accounted for 15%; a percentage that is anticipated to rise this year.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has, for example, this year established a fund with Israel to jointly acquire and develop new weapons systems. Abu Dhabi also notably carried out coordinated military operations with Tel Aviv against Iran, earlier this year and has integrated its air defence systems with its Israeli partners. Immediately following the signing of the 2020 “Abraham Accords”, Israeli arms export profits ballooned to record highs of $11.3 billion in 2021 and $12.5 billion in 2022, a significant portion of which was attributed to sales made to its new Arab allies.

Israel has recently become Morocco’s second largest weapons supplier, after Rabat decided to choose Elbit Systems as its major weapons supplier over France’s KNDS in early 2025. But it isn’t only the UAE and Morocco who are purchasing Israeli weapons, Muslim-majority nation Azerbaijan has bought around 70% of its weapons from Israel over the past years.

Turkmenistan, which – like Azerbaijan – borders the Islamic Republic of Iran, is also a purchaser of Israeli military technology, recently acquiring Skystriker kamikaze drones produced by Elbit Systems.

Despite many European Union nations making moves last year that were lamented in Tel Aviv, such as recognising the State of Palestine and taking symbolic action against Israel since October 7, 2023 – Europe was the single largest purchaser of Israeli weapons in 2025, amounting to $6.9 billion in sales or around 36% of total Israeli exports. The single nation that purchased the most Israeli arms was India, however, a relationship that both New Delhi and Tel Aviv have bragged is completely unaffected by the assault on the Gaza Strip.

Considering that Israel attacked eight countries last year, inflicted a man-made famine in the Gaza Strip by blocking all aid from entering the besieged territory for three whole months, while carrying out countless acts of aggression against Muslim and Christian Holy Sites, has raised questions about the viability of international law when nations refuse to implement it.

In November of 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. South Africa’s case against Israel, accusing it of what the court has deemed a plausible genocide, is ongoing in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

All major human rights groups – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s BT’Selem – have accused Israel of both Genocide and Apartheid.

Amid global public uproar over Israel’s military actions, governments appear to have largely ignored the democratic will of their people, and that of international law, aggressively pursuing the purchase of weapons that Israel “battle-tests” in the same arenas it is drawing accusations of war crimes. This is reflected in a whopping 56.1% increase in Israeli arms export profits since the year the assault on Gaza began.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

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