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jeremy scahill
Iran Vows to 'Respond Like Never Before' as Trump Ramps Up War Threats
Tehran's admonition came after Trump said that a "massive armada" is heading to Iran—similar language he used before invading Venezuela and kidnapping its president.
Jan 28, 2026
As President Donald Trump escalated his renewed military aggression against Iran, Tehran warned Wednesday that any US attack would trigger unprecedented retaliation.
"Last time the US blundered into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it squandered over $7 trillion and lost more than 7,000 American lives," Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said on X Wednesday. "Iran stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests—BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!"
This, after Trump said on his Truth Social network that "a massive armada is headed to Iran" with "great power, enthusiasm, and purpose."
Trump said nearly the same thing before invading Venezuela and kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife earlier this month.
"It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela," Trump continued. "Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary. Hopefully Iran will quickly 'Come to the Table' and negotiate a fair and equitable deal—NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS—one that is good for all parties."
"Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!" the president added. "As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again."
Allies of both the United States and Iran added to mounting tensions.
Alluding to the recent street protests that were brutally crushed by the Iranian government at the cost of at least hundreds and possibly thousands of lives, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday: "A regime that can only hold onto power through sheer violence and terror against its own population; its days are numbered. It could be a matter of weeks, but this regime has no legitimacy to govern the country.”
Meanwhile, the Iran-aligned militia Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq said it is ready for "total war" if the US attacks. There are still thousands of US troops in Iraq nearly 23 years after the second American invasion of the country; Iranian forces have attacked US military assets in the Middle East following past American strikes on Iran or its officials.
After a joint phone call, the foreign ministers of Iran and its regional rival, Saudi Arabia, said any attack on Iran would have "dangerous consquences."
Their call followed a Tuesday phone conversation between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
"The threats and psychological operations of the Americans are aimed at disrupting the security of the region and will achieve nothing other than instability," Pezeshkian told the crown prince, according to Iranian media.
Bin Salman told Pezeshkian that Saudi Arabia "will not allow the use of its airspace or territory in any military actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any attacks from any side, regardless of its destination," a transcript of the call said.
Last June, Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure, killing hundreds of people. Later that month, Trump ordered US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran retaliated with a massive but limited missile attack on Israel, killing around two dozen people and injuring hundreds more.
Responding to Trump's renewed threats, Lebanese-British journalist Hala Jaber said on X Wednesday that "this is not diplomacy. It is coercion by force, publicly framed as negotiation. The language leaves little room for de-escalation."
Sniping at Trump's claim that Iran's nuclear sites were destroyed by last year's strikes, Palestinian-American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer said, "I thought Trump told us his strikes last summer obliterated Iran's nuclear program? Also, threatening to bomb a country unless it abandons pursuit of a nuclear deterrent is a pretty counter-productive line of argument."
US investigative journalist and Drop Site News co-founder Jeremy Scahill took aim at Trump's claim that US intervention in Iran is about protecting the lives of Iranian protesters—a dubious assertion given his administration's deadly repression in Minneapolis—saying Wednesday that "at the end of the day... this is about US imperial aims. It’s about oil. It’s about gas. It’s about geopolitical war.'
Donald Trump claimed today that “a massive Armada is heading to Iran,” warning that the US is “ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary.”
On the Drop Site News livestream, @jeremyscahill noted that Iran is signalling a shift… pic.twitter.com/FyDcTbGTAN
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) January 28, 2026
"This is what it's been about in terms of US policy toward Iran for decades," Scahill said. "It was what it was about in 1953 when the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh. It was what it was about when the US was supporting the brutal regime of the Shah of Iran, all the way up until the dying days of his regime. This has been what the US sanctions policy against Iran has been about."
"And in June, when the US and Israel launched 12 days of heavy bombing of Iran in the name of degrading and destroying potential Iranian nuclear capacity, those bombings killed more than 1,000 people," he continued. "And remember that Donald Trump used the veneer... of negotiations with Iran... to provide cover to do a surprise 12-day bombing of Iran."
"Nothing the US is doing right now—and I mean absolutely nothing—is about supporting any Iranians," Scahill added, "except those that the US and Israel believe will be pliable."
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Reporters Without Borders Urges UN Action After Israel Massacres Gaza Journalists
"This massacre and Israel's media blackout strategy, designed to conceal the crimes committed by its army for more than 21 months in the besieged and starving Palestinian enclave, must be stopped immediately."
Aug 11, 2025
The international advocacy group Reporters Without Borders on Monday called on the United Nations Security Council to convene an emergency meeting following the massacre of six Palestinian media professionals in an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera reporters Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa, and independent journalist Mohammed al-Khaldi were killed Sunday in a targeted Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike on their tent outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The IDF claimed that al-Sharif—one of the most prominent Palestinian journalists—"was the head of a Hamas terrorist cell," repeating an allegation first made last year. However, independent assessments by United Nations experts, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) concluded that Israel's allegations were unsubstantiated.
Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill warned last year that the IDF's portrayal of al-Sharif and other Palestinian journalists as Hamas members was "an assassination threat and an attempt to preemptively justify their murder" for showing the world the genocidal realities of Israel's U.S.-backed war.
"Tonight Israel murdered the bravest journalistic hero in Gaza, Anas al-Sharif," Scahill said Sunday on social media. "For nearly two straight years, he documented the genocide of his people with courage and principle. Israel put him on a hit list because of his voice. Shame on this world and all who were silent."
Al Jazeera condemned Sunday's massacre as "a desperate attempt to silence the voices exposing the impending seizure and occupation of Gaza."
RSF issued a statement accusing the IDF of killing the six men "without providing solid evidence" of Hamas affiliation, a "disgraceful tactic" that is "repeatedly used against journalists to cover up war crimes."
The Paris-based nonprofit noted that Israeli forces have "already killed more than 200 media professionals"—including at least 19 Al Jazeera workers and freelancers—since the IDF began its annihilation and siege of Gaza in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 attack led by Hamas.
These include Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and photographer Rami al-Rifi, who were killed in a targeted strike on the al-Shati refugee camp in July 2024 following an IDF smear campaign alleging without proof that al-Ghoul took part in the October 7 attack. The IDF claimed that al-Ghoul received Hamas military training at a time when he would have been just 10 years old.
"RSF strongly condemns the killing of six media professionals by the Israeli army, once again carried out under the guise of terrorism charges against a journalist," RSF director general Thibaut Bruttin said in a statement. "One of the most famous journalists in the Gaza Strip, Anas al-Sharif, was among those killed."
"This massacre and Israel's media blackout strategy, designed to conceal the crimes committed by its army for more than 21 months in the besieged and starving Palestinian enclave, must be stopped immediately," Bruttin continued. "The international community can no longer turn a blind eye and must react and put an end to this impunity."
"RSF calls on the U.N. Security Council to meet urgently on the basis of Resolution 2222 of 2015 on the protection of journalists in times of armed conflict in order to stop this carnage," he added.
Israel's latest killing of media professionals sparked international condemnation. On Monday, Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, called for an investigation into the massacre, saying that "journalists and media workers must be respected, they must be protected and they must be allowed to carry out their work freely, free from fear and free from harassment."
Recognizing the possibility that he would become one of the more than 61,500 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023, al-Sharif, like many Palestinian journalists, prepared a statement to be published in the event of his death.
"This is my will and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice," he wrote. "I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland."
"Make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family," al-Sharif added.
Since October 2023, RSF has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court—which last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes—requesting investigations into IDF killings of journalists in Gaza and accusing Israel of a deliberate "eradication of the Palestinian media."
The six journalists' killings came as Israeli forces prepared to ramp up the Gaza invasion with the stated goal of occupying the entire coastal enclave and ethnically cleansing much of its Palestinian population.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Monday afternoon that at least 69 Palestinians, including at least 10 children and 29 aid-seekers, were killed in the past 24 hours. An IDF strike on Gaza City reportedly killed nine people, including six children. Five more Palestinians also reportedly died of starvation in a burgeoning famine that officials say has claimed at least 222 lives, including 101 children.
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Israel Bombs Gaza Hospitals, Killing and Wounding Dozens of Palestinians
"Attacks on hospitals must stop," said the head of the World Health Organization. "The aid blockade must end to allow immediate entry of food, medicines, and equipment."
May 13, 2025
U.S.-backed Israeli forces bombed two hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing and wounding at least dozens of Palestinians including patients, forcibly displaced people, medical staff, rescue workers, and a well-known journalist.
Early Tuesday, Israel bombed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, killing at least two people including photojournalist Hasan Eslaih, who was receiving treatment after surviving a previous Israeli attempt to assassinate him last month.
Gaza officials said Eslaih, who was the director of the Alam24 News Agency, is at least the 215th media worker killed by Israel since October 2023. Eslaih lost a finger and was badly injured in an April 7 Israeli strike on a tent outside the same hospital in which numerous people were burned alive. More than a dozen patients were reportedly injured in Tuesday's attack.
"The burn unit was struck, 18 hospital beds in the surgical department, eight beds in the intensive care unit, and 10 inpatient beds were destroyed," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after the attack. "This is huge blow to the already overwhelmed health system."
"We repeat our call: Attacks on hospitals must stop," Tedros added. "The aid blockade must end to allow immediate entry of food, medicines, and equipment to support patients and the rehabilitation of hospitals. The best medicine is peace."
Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill said following the attack that "the U.S. is facilitating these war crimes and most Western journalists remain totally silent."
Later on Tuesday, Israel bombed a courtyard and surrounding areas of the European Hospital, also in Khan Younis, killing at least 28 people and injuring scores more. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged the attack, claiming it targeted "Hamas operatives who were inside a command and control complex built within an infrastructure under the hospital."
British surgeon Tom Potokar was inside European Hospital when it was bombed. He said that "this is where kids with cancer are waiting to be evacuated and supposed to be 'deconflicted."
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, 38 hospitals, 81 health centers, and 164 medical facilities have been destroyed, damaged, or rendered inoperable since Israel launched its assault on the coastal enclave after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs condemned the strikes,
saying on social media that "these attacks are unacceptable and must end. Healthcare is not a target."
Attacks on medical facilities are war crimes under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
The Gaza Health Ministry decried "the repeated targeting of hospitals and the pursuit and killing of wounded patients inside treatment rooms," adding that such attacks confirm "Israel's deliberate intent to inflict greater damage to the healthcare system."
In the United States, the advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement that fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "bombs hospitals, slaughters Palestinian civilians, destroys homes, and seeks to starve and ethnically cleanse the population of Gaza, all in a brutal campaign to continue Israel's genocide and stay in office indefinitely."
CAIR added that U.S. President Donald Trump "must act to stop these crimes against humanity, which our nation has unfortunately enabled for decades, and finally allow the Palestinian people to live in peace and freedom."
IDF strikes have obliterated Gaza's medical infrastructure along with the rest of the densely populated strip. Last year, an independent United Nations commission found that "Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities."
The commission's report detailed hundreds of IDF attacks on Gaza healthcare facilities and the killing or wounding of around 1,700 medical workers, calling such killings "widespread and systematic."
Israel's 585-day onslaught and siege—which officials say has left more than 186,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened—is the subject of an ongoing genocide case brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague by South Africa.
Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court, also in The Hague, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including extermination and starvation as a weapon of war.
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