Endless scene | Gaza. pic.twitter.com/KdqGa7TVLs

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) January 9, 2025

He said several West Bank cities should look like Gaza's Jabalia, which has almost been completely destroyed by the IDF | On Monday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for massive destruction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, saying several cities should look like Gaza’s Jabalia. “Funduq, Nablus, and Jenin must look like Jabalia,” Smotrich wrote on X. The Israeli military has almost completely destroyed the Jabalia refugee camp as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza. ● Smotrich’s call for escalation in the West Bank came after a shooting attack killed three Israeli settlers, including two women, near an illegal settlement. “The terrorism in Judea and Samaria and the terrorism from Gaza and Iran is the same terrorism – and it must be defeated,” Smotrich, a settler himself, wrote on X.

■ Israel Killed 74 Children in Gaza in First Week of 2025 (Antiwar)

Yoon Suk Yeol’s compound is barricaded with vehicles and barbed wire as hundreds of supporters rally to his cause | The home of the impeached South Korean president was turned into a “fortress” on Wednesday as authorities prepared to mount a second arrest attempt. ● Layers of barbed wire and vehicle blockades were set up outside Yoon Suk Yeol’s compound as hundreds of his supporters rallied to his cause. ● Mr Yoon avoided an arrest attempt last week after his bungled Dec 3 martial law decree plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades. The debacle has since led to his suspension and impeachment. ● Youn Kun-young, an opposition lawmaker, has now said Mr Yoon’s home is “turning into a fortress”, as guards installed barbed wire and used buses as blockades in anticipation of a second arrest attempt. ● The 64-year-old former prosecutor was at home when investigators attempted to enter last week, but around 200 presidential security service members linked arms to prevent them from reaching him, forcing the authorities to stand down.

The Chinese Communist Party is “intent on rooting out every pocket of independent religious thought” and persecutes Christians by shutting down house churches, stripping children from Christian families, and monitoring every detail of Christian citizens’ lives, International Christian Concern (ICC) announced on Thursday. | ICC, a global Christian advocacy organization helping the persecuted church, published its annual Global Persecution Index on Thursday, highlighting the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. China plays an expansive role in the study, both for being one of the most repressive countries in the world and for helping allied governments repress Christianity across the planet, from North Korea to Nicaragua. ● China is the largest communist country in the study identified as a repressor. ICC noted that Marxism is one of several ideologies fueling the violent repression of Christianity, alongside Hindu nationalism and political Islam, among others. The organization noted that advances in surveillance technology and construction of repressive infrastructure have caused the deterioration in religious freedom around the world.

SIR Keir Starmer will today order his Labour MPs to vote against calls for a new national inquiry into the Asian rape grooming gangs scandal — insisting the time has passed to ask any more questions. | But the Prime Minister was accused of moral cowardice by the Conservatives after ministers rejected a request from Labour-run Oldham council for a fresh investigation. ● Meanwhile, the Government’s approval rating plunged to a record low, showing Labour is more unpopular than when Tory PM Boris Johnson was forced to resign in 2022 following a series of scandals. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch today plans to table an amendment in the Commons to the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. It will call for a specific investigation into failings and cover-ups in about 60 northern towns over Pakistani-heritage rape gangs. ● Sir Keir also faces pressure from Reform UK, as leader Nigel Farage yesterday threatened to crowdfund his own private inquiry.

■ Elon Musk brands British PM ‘evil’ (01/08/25)