Israel conducts ‘precise strike’ on Hamas leadership in Qatar: Officials
ABC News
(DOHA, Qatar) — Israel has conducted a precise strike in Doha targeting senior Hamas leadership on Tuesday, according to separate statements from the Israel Defense Forces and Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“For years, these members of the Hamas leadership have led the terrorist organization’s operations, are directly responsible for the brutal October 7th massacre, and have been orchestrating and managing the war against the State of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the action against top Hamas leadership was a “wholly independent Israeli operation.”
“Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility,” Netanyahu’s office said.
“The State of Qatar condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly Israeli attack targeting the residential headquarters of several members of the Hamas Political Bureau in the Qatari capital, Doha. This criminal attack constitutes a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents of Qatar,” a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on X.
Qatar said its agencies immediately responded to the incident.
“While the State of Qatar strongly condemns this attack, it affirms that it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior, its continued tampering with regional security, or any action targeting its security and sovereignty. Investigations are underway at the highest level, and further details will be announced as soon as they become available,” the spokesperson said.
The U.S. Embassy in Doha has issued a shelter-in-place order for their facilities due to the missile strikes.
“U.S. citizens are advised to shelter-in-place and monitor USEmbassyDoha social media for updates,” the embassy said in a statement on X.
A U.S. defense official said “we’re aware of these reports but do not have any additional information to provide.”
Qatar is home to the largest U.S. military base in the region. Al-Udeid air base was attacked by Iran in June, with Qatari forces helping the U.S. to intercept the missiles.
Hamas leadership and its primary negotiators have been based in Doha for years while trying to get a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The IDF did not provide a location for where the attack was conducted. It’s also unclear whether any target was killed in the strike.
“Prior to the strike, measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A photograph of the painting “Portrait of a Lady,” by Italian artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi. Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands
(LONDON) — An 18th-century portrait stolen by the Nazis during WWII is believed to have resurfaced in the most unexpected place: hanging above a sofa in a coastal Argentinian home and discovered not by law enforcement or a museum, but spotted in a photo on a real estate website.
The painting, “Portrait of a Lady” by Italian baroque artist Giuseppe Vittore Ghislandi, belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Dutch-Jewish art dealer whose collection of more than 1,100 works was seized after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. Senior Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring, acquired hundreds of pieces, according to the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE).
The potential discovery is the result of years of work by Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) investigative journalists Cyril Rosman, Paul Post and Peter Schouten, who have been pursuing the case for nearly a decade.
Rosman said the team began tracing Friedrich Kadgien, Göring’s financial adviser and close confidant, several years ago.
“Kadgien escaped to South America at the end of the war,” Rosman told ABC News. “We knew from archival documents that he brought diamonds, jewelry, and two stolen paintings with him. We’ve spent years trying to piece together his life here and where those paintings ended up.”
Kadgien died in Buenos Aires in 1978. His two daughters inherited properties in Mar del Plata, where the investigation eventually led the AD journalists.
After years of dead ends, the AD team resolved to make one final attempt. They sent Peter Schouten, AD’s correspondent in Argentina, to visit the property.
“I rang the bell. Nobody answered but we saw movement inside,” Schouten recalled. “Then we noticed a ‘For Sale’ sign in the garden.”
Back at his hotel, Schouten looked up the property listing together with his husband, a producer for international media who often assists in his investigations.
“We were scrolling through the photos when my husband suddenly said, ‘Look, isn’t that the painting?’” Schouten said. “I told him, ‘No, that can’t be true. The Dutch government has been looking for this painting for 80 years … it can’t just be hanging above a sofa in Mar del Plata.’ But there it was.”
Rosman, reviewing the same images from the Netherlands, had the same reaction.
“I was scrolling through the listing, looking for photos of the father or maybe some old documents,” Rosman said. “I didn’t expect to find one of the paintings we’d been searching for just sitting there in the living room. It was surreal.”
AD immediately sent the images to the RCE, which maintains official records of Nazi-looted art. Annalies Kool, a provenance researcher at RCE, told ABC News that the agency is “almost certain” the painting is the missing “Portrait of a Lady” but cannot 100% confirm it without examining the work in person.
“According to post-war declaration forms, we know that Kadgien possessed this painting,” Kool said. “Given that he fled to Argentina after the war and we now see it hanging in the living room of his daughters, we assume it has remained within the family for the past 80 years.”
Kool explained that the RCE cross-referenced the photo with the original wartime records. “The measurements match, the composition matches, and visually it aligns with the archival images,” she said. “But we would need to examine the back of the painting to confirm. There could be labels or marks proving it came from the Goudstikker collection.”
However, AD didn’t rely solely on the real estate listing photos to identify the painting. “We obtained additional images from inside the house from a separate source,” Schouten confirmed. “That gave us the second verification we needed before publishing.”
AD said they repeatedly attempted to speak with Kadgien’s daughters via email, Instagram, and WhatsApp. “After weeks, one of them finally responded,” Schouten said. “She asked what we wanted, said she was busy, and then blocked us.”
Shortly afterward, the listing real estate agency, Robles Casas y Campos, removed the photos showing the painting, as well as the entire listing itself.
Goudstikker’s heirs are represented by U.S. attorneys Yael Friedman and Amelia Cuneo of Friedman, Norman & Friedland, LLP. Friedman confirmed to ABC News that their client, Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s 81-year-old daughter-in-law and sole heir, intends to pursue a formal restitution claim for “Portrait of a Lady.”
“Our client does intend to make a claim,” Friedman said. “She is the sole heir of Jacques Goudstikker’s estate and her goal is to recover the artworks that were looted by the Nazis from her father-in-law.”
Kool also said that a second missing painting – a 17th-century floral still life by Dutch artist Abraham Mignon – was listed in Kadgien’s possession in post-war declarations. Investigators believe it appears in a 2012 Facebook photo posted by one of Kadgien’s daughters, though its ownership and provenance remain unclear.
Friedman clarified that their claim will only target the Ghislandi portrait, not the second Mignon painting, because that work was not part of the Goudstikker collection.
“I have been on this quest since the late 1990s. My family’s goal is to locate and recover each and every artwork looted from Jacques Goudstikker’s collection and restore his legacy, von Saher told ABC News in a statement provided through her lawyers.
“This is the kind of case you dream of,” said Arthur Brand, the Dutch art detective often called “the Indiana Jones of the art world.” “A painting stolen in WWII, thought lost for decades, suddenly pops up on a real estate website in Argentina, hanging above a sofa,” Brand said. “You can’t write a better script.”
Brand added that the discovery highlights the unpredictable nature of recovering looted art: “You can find them anywhere – auction catalogues, archives, attics, even real estate listings.”
Rosman believes this case is only the beginning. “Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Nazi fugitives fled to Argentina after the war,” he said. “Who knows how many more looted artworks ended up here, quietly passed down through families?”
Brand agreed: “This case shows something important,” he said. “Thousands of Nazi-looted works are still out there, hanging in living rooms, passed down quietly through families. Argentina was a haven for many who fled Europe after the war – who knows how many masterpieces are still hidden here?”
(TOKYO) – -A U.S. CV-22 Osprey made what Japanese officials called an emergency landing Thursday at Hanamaki Airport in northeastern Japan, about 300 miles north of Tokyo.
Airport officials say the tilt-rotor aircraft touched down safely after reporting a mechanical issue mid-flight. The U.S. Air Force said the craft made a “precautionary landing” during a flight from Misawa Air Base to its home base, Yokota Air Base.
No injuries were reported. Operations for commercial flights continued as normal. Video from Japanese broadcaster NHK shows the aircraft taxiing to the apron where uniformed personnel could be seen on top of the aircraft, near the center, inspecting the aircraft.
Japan’s Defense Ministry says it has dispatched staff to the site and is in contact with U.S. forces.
The landing came six days after another U.S. Osprey set down in Akita Prefecture for a safety inspection, according to Japanese officials. That aircraft remained on the ground for over seven hours.
A U.S. military public affairs officer described the Thursday incident as a “precautionary landing.” The V-22 Osprey has been involved in several incidents in recent years, including a crash off Yakushima, in southern Japan, in 2023 that killed eight and grounded the fleet for months.
Cullen Drenkhahn, a 1st lieutenant serving as a public affairs advisor for the 353d Special Operations Wing Kadena AB, told ABC News, “I can confirm a U.S. CV-22 Osprey conducted a precautionary landing today at Iwate Hanamaki Airport at 9:45 a.m.”
“The landing was executed safely and in accordance with policies. An assessment is ongoing to gather additional information. No injuries or damages occurred. There were no interruptions to airport operations,” Drenkhahn said. “The aircraft is assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Wing and was flying from Misawa Air Base to its home base, Yokota Air Base.
He added, “No further information at this time. the safety of our pilots and aircrew, as well as the men and women of Japan is our foremost priority.”
(ISLAMABAD, Pakistan) — The death toll from the earthquake in eastern Afghanistan that all but destroyed several villages rose on Tuesday to at least 1,411 people, a government spokesperson said.
Another 3,124 were injured in the 6.0 magnitude quake, which struck just before midnight on Sunday, Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson, said on social media.
“Rescue operations are still underway in all the affected areas today,” Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson, said on Tuesday. “Dozens of commandos have been airlifted to areas where planes could not land to pull out the injured from the rubble and transport them to a suitable location.”
Shah Mahmood, a Taliban official in Nangarhar Province, said destroyed some 8,000 houses. Emergency responders have yet to reach some villages, where they fear there may be more dead and injured under the rubble, he said.
The powerful earthquake’s epicenter was about 17 miles east of Jalalabad, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Almost all of the deaths were in Kunar Province, officials said in a statement shared Monday by Zabihullah Mujahid, a government spokesperson. Others were killed in Nangarhar Province, said Mufti Abdul Matin Qani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior.
Deadly earthquakes have struck Afghanistan several times in recent years, including a 5.9 magnitude quake in June 2022 and a 6.3 magnitude one in October 2023. The death toll for each of those quakes rose to over 1,000 people, local officials said in their aftermaths.
Earthquakes are common in both eastern and western Afghanistan, where the India plate and the Eurasia plate intersect underneath the Hindu Kush mountains range, according to USGS.
“Since 1950, 71 other magnitude 6 or larger earthquakes occurred within 250 km of the August 31 earthquake, including six magnitude 7 and larger earthquakes,” USGS said in a summary of the activity it recorded during Sunday’s quake and the aftershocks.
The first strong quake struck at about 11:47 p.m. local time on Sunday and was followed by four weaker-but-still-powerful aftershocks into Monday, the USGS said. Those aftershocks measured 5.2, 5.2, 4.7 and 4.6, the organization said.
An estimated 12,000 people have been directly affected by Sunday’s, according to the World Health Organization in Afghanistan.
The hardest hit districts and villages in Kunar were Chawkay, Nurgal, Chapa Dara, Dara-e-Pech and Watapur, the WHO said in a report dated Monday. Structures in other villages in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces were also damaged, the report said.
“As the scale of devastation from the Afghanistan earthquake becomes clearer, my deepest condolences go to the victims and their families,” Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur for the country, said on social media on Tuesday.
Many of the health facilities in the affected regions appeared to be “functional” after the quake, the WHO said, adding that its local staff were working on-site at several locations in the region, including Nangarhar Regional Hospital.
At that hospital in Nangarhar, several injured children were being treated without their parents or relatives, according to a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health.
“These are painful and unbearable moments,” Dr. Sharafat zaman Amar, the spokesperson, said in a social media post that included pictures of several children with visible injuries and bandages.
