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At least 50 people killed in Israeli strikes on homes, camps in Gaza

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At least 50 people killed in Israeli strikes on homes, camps in Gaza

At least 50 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes across Gaza, Palestinian medics say, as Israeli tanks push into northern parts of the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza.

Medics said at least 20 people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli attack on Wednesday on a tent encampment in al-Mawasi near Khan Younis. The Palestinian Civil Defence said the attack set several tents housing displaced families ablaze.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said the death toll was expected to rise.

Patients who are in the hospital were “expected to lose their lives simply because there is no medical care, medical supplies and insufficient medical staff,” Mahmoud said.

“This is not the first time we’ve seen this happening. There’s a growing frustration among the displaced population in the al-Mawasi evacuation zone,” he said. “The Israeli military ordered them in the initial weeks of this genocidal war to evacuate in order to avoid being bombed, but they repeatedly find themselves the victims of these unpredictable attacks.”

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At least 10 people were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit three houses in Gaza City, the Civil Defence said. Many victims were still trapped under the rubble with rescue operations under way.

Medics said 11 people were killed in three air strikes on areas in central Gaza, including six children and a medic. Five of the dead had been queueing outside a bakery, they said.

A further nine Palestinians were killed by tank fire in Rafah near the border with Egypt, medics said.

‘Extremely urgent’

Israeli forces also fired on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza for the fifth straight day, hospital Director Hussam Abu Safiya said. Three of his medical staff had been wounded, one critically, on Tuesday night, he said.

“Drones are dropping bombs filled with shrapnel that injure anyone that dares to move,” Abu Safiya said. “This situation is extremely urgent.”

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He said more than 100 patients inside the besieged hospital are at risk of death and Israeli forces are preventing access to the nearby al-Awda Hospital.

Residents in the north’s main three towns – Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon – said Israeli forces have blown up dozens of houses.

Palestinians said Israel’s army is trying to drive people out of the northern edge of Gaza by issuing threats that if residents do not flee, they risk death and by carrying out bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli military has besieged the area since it began a renewed ground offensive there nearly two months ago.

The siege has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis amid a looming famine.

Hamas said the bombings of homes in Beit Lahiya and the targeting of Kamal Adwan Hospital are “an insistence on the ongoing war” and “genocide” in Gaza.

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The group said in a statement that Israel is showing it plans to keep disregarding international law “in light of the shameful failure of the international system to put an end to these horrific crimes”.

Hamas said Israeli actions “are carried out under the full cover and protection of the American administration and some Western capitals”.

In the Khan Younis area, residents told the Reuters news agency that Israeli tanks advanced a day after the military issued new evacuation threats, saying there had been rocket launches by Palestinian groups from the area.

With shells crashing near residential areas, families left their homes on Wednesday and headed westwards towards al-Mawasi, which was designated by the Israeli military as a “safe zone” but has since repeatedly come under attack.

Palestinian and United Nations officials said there are no safe areas left in Gaza and almost all of its 2.3 million residents have been displaced multiple times.

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Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians, injured many others and reduced much of the enclave to rubble since it began in October last year.

Israel agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week that has halted most fighting in a conflict that has unfolded in Lebanon in parallel with the Gaza war.

But the war in Gaza has ground on with only a single ceasefire more than a year ago that lasted for one week.

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Voters want more US involvement on world stage despite isolationist talk, Ronald Reagan Institute survey finds

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Voters want more US involvement on world stage despite isolationist talk, Ronald Reagan Institute survey finds

FIRST ON FOX: An overwhelming majority of Americans view foreign policy and national defense as being “somewhat” or “extremely” important to them, according to a new survey from the Ronald Reagan Institute that also weighed U.S. attitudes about rival nations and revealed which is viewed as posing the “greatest threat” to the country.

As Americans await another change in the White House while the Biden and Trump administrations prepare for the executive reshuffle, and uncertainty has set the tone for what the U.S.’s geopolitical future will look like amid increasingly volatile relations with nations like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, there is stark uniformity in the way Americans view the topic of national defense.

“Americans who cast their votes for different candidates share an unshakable core set of beliefs: the United States must lead on the world stage, backed by a strong military that can secure the peace through its strength,” the Ronald Reagan Institute said in a report first obtained by Fox News Digital detailing its 2024 National Defense Survey results.

US ‘SLEEPWALKING’ INTO WWIII, EXPERTS WARN NATION IS UNDERPREPARED: ‘WE DO NOT HAVE OUR CHURCHILL’

The survey’s results – which reflected the answers from some 2,500 questionnaires issued between Nov. 8-14 through telephone and online based platforms – not only highlight that U.S. security and foreign policy issues remain important topics, but they also indicated that the U.S. should take the lead in major international issues.

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The opinion shows a divergence from the position frequently pushed by president-elect Donald Trump, who has long championed an “America first” policy, which some fear could isolate the U.S. during a geopolitically turbulent time as Russia’s aggression continues to ramp up in Europe, Iran remains a chief threat in the Middle East, and China continues to pose a threat politically, militarily and economically. 

“I think it’s really interesting to compare some of the campaign rhetoric that we saw, frankly, from both candidates, and see where that is and is not resonating with the American people,” Rachael Hoff Policy Director at the Ronald Reagan Institute, told Fox News Digital in reference to both Trump and his previous campaign challenger Vice President Kamala Harris.

The survey also found that since the annual poll began six years ago, “a record high” number of Americans support “U.S. leadership and international engagement” with a strong support for a global military posture.

Parachutists jump from a US American airplane near Burgenlengenfeld, Germany, 12 April 2016. On Tuesday, 912 American, British, and Italian soldiers trained in Upper Palatinate deployment in war zones. The airborne manoeuvre is part of the ‘Saber Junction 16’ drill.  (Photo: ARMIN WEIGEL/dpa | usage worldwide   (Photo by Armin Weigel/picture alliance via Getty Images)

“This represents a significant 15-point increase since just last year and a steady upward trend from a low-point in the early 2020s,” the report said, noting that this shift was most prevalent among younger survey takers which saw a 32-point jump this year for those under the age of 30, along with a 19-point increase for those between the ages of 30 and 44.   

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WHAT DOES PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP’S WIN MEAN FOR US AMID WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA, UKRAINE?

The drive for more U.S. involvement abroad particularly in East Asia, which includes areas like China and the Korean peninsula, the Middle East and Europe reflects the growing concern Americans have over not only the burgeoning alliance between Russia, Iran, North Korea and China, but on whether the U.S.  military can stand up to these nations.

While more than half of male survey takers, 59%, said they believe the U.S. could win a war against China, the female participants were more skeptical with only 45% expressing the same confidence, while 23% said they were unsure compared to 18% of male participants expressing the same. 

President Ronald Reagan

President Ronald Reagan waves to the crowd.

More confidence in the U.S. military was displayed when asked if the U.S. could win a war against Russia, though again women signaled less confidence than their male peers, with 73% of male participants saying the U.S. would come out on top compared to only 56% of female survey takers.

While it remains unclear why female participants were less confident in the U.S. military, the majority of survey takers collectively agreed that China is the U.S.’s greatest threat, though Russia as the U.S.’s chief enemy. 

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TIRED OF UKRAINE? REMEMBER SOUTH VIETNAM

“One of the biggest trends that we’ve seen in the last three or four years in the poll is really the consensus growing that China is the is the greatest threat that we face –  that’s really resonating with the American people, and it’s something that clearly we’ve heard on a bipartisan basis from national security leaders in Washington,” Hoff said.  That doesn’t mean that Americans don’t perceive Russia, Iran, North Korea, or even the cooperation between those malign actors as a threat. 

South Korean and U.S. Marines take positions during a joint amphibious landing exercise with their Filipino counterparts on a beach facing the South China Sea in San Antonio town, Zambales province, Oct. 7, 2022.  (Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images)

South Korean and U.S. Marines take positions during a joint amphibious landing exercise with their Filipino counterparts on a beach facing the South China Sea in San Antonio town, Zambales province, Oct. 7, 2022.  (Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty Images)

“In fact, one interesting takeaway from our poll this year is that 85% of Americans, a huge percentage…are concerned about the cooperation and collaboration between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, and we’re seeing that play out under the front lines in Ukraine,” Hoff added. “We’re seeing it play out in the Middle East and it’s something that Americans want our government to understand and to get after.”

Hoff explained that though the survey – which reflected information made clear in the lead up to and after the U.S. general election – showed Americans prioritize paying for domestic issues like healthcare, border security and social security above the military and foreign policy-based initiatives, national security and geopolitics remain a major issue for Americans.

“What we see from the poll across the board is that they don’t see foreign policy and national security as something that they want to divest from,” she said. “When asked to sort of put those in competition with each other, that’s where it gets really, really tough. 

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“But they clearly want their government to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time,” Hoff said. “The perception that there’s kind of a growing isolationist sentiment in this country really doesn’t bear out in the data. 

Four way split photo of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Ali Khamenei and Kim Jong Un.

Split screen showing Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Kim Jong Un. (Xi: TINGSHU WANG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images, Putin: Getty Images, AK: ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images, KJU: VLADIMIR SMIRNOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“There’s a lot of rhetoric – whether you listen to the debates on Capitol Hill or the debates in the media – that would lead you to believe that the American people want to want the U.S. to do less in the world, that they want us to take a step back from international leadership. And it turns out, when you ask the American people, that’s simply not the case,” Hoff said.

“They want America to lead from a position of strength. They want us to have a strong military,” she continued. “They want us to stand up for the values of freedom and democracy around the world. And that’s true on a bipartisan basis among both Republicans and Democrats, those who voted for President Trump and has voted for Vice President Harris.”

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Ukraine seeks to ensure weapons supply as Russia hammers its defences

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Ukraine seeks to ensure weapons supply as Russia hammers its defences

Russia has pounded Ukraine with long-range weapons and sustained ground assaults in the country’s east during the past week, showing little sign of fatigue in the supply of men or arms, as Ukraine tried to ensure that the US presidential transition would not dent military aid.

While they did not capture new settlements, Russian forces maintained their strongest pressure on the towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in Donetsk, devoting almost half of their activity to those fronts.

On Sunday they also appeared to be closing in on Velyka Novosilka on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border, in an operation coordinated with their assaults on Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.

“We understand that Velyka Novosilka is a continuation of the events taking place in the Kurakhove-Pokrovsk region. This is a logistics hub that also helps our Kurakhove garrison,” said Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman of the volunteer Ukrainian army group “South” on the ArmyTV stream.

He said if Velyka Novosilka fell, pressure was likely to pass onto Orikhiv, 6km (3.7 miles) from the frontline, and Huliaipole, just 2km (1.2 miles) from the frontline, both towns lying south of Zaporizhzhia.

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(Al Jazeera)

Russian stamina has not abated since the beginning of the year, when Moscow’s forces began a gradual crescendo of attacks that stole the initiative and put Ukrainian forces on the defensive.

They have paid dearly for it.

On November 28, Ukraine estimated Russian casualties at 2,030 for the day, one of the highest daily tallies of the war, and more than 738,000 for the duration of the war.

Al Jazeera was unable to confirm the toll.

Until this year, Russia has employed what Ukrainians called “meat assaults”, in which a large number of soldiers charged a target until they overwhelmed it, suffering high casualties.

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Since the summer, Russian forces have switched to using small vanguards that establish a bridgehead and are later reinforced – but attrition has remained high, as Ukrainian forces target them with pinpoint precision and drop small munitions on them using drones.

Describing a Russian attempt to reach the Oskil River, Oles Malyarevich, deputy commander of the 92nd separate assault brigade, said: “Out of a hundred people, about 10 reach the line, and the rest die. They do not save manpower. Life is worth nothing to them. They throw them forward in order to grab something.”

Mykola Koval, spokesman of the 14th brigade, described similar enemy tactics in Pokrovsk: “If we repel the assault, we destroy 90% of the group. Another group enters after it.”

INTERACTIVE-WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN EASTERN UKRAINE copy-1733319905
(Al Jazeera)

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, Russia lost 45,720 soldiers in November, setting a monthly casualty record for the war. The figure is equivalent to three motorised rifle divisions, said Ukraine.

Ukraine also destroyed or disabled 307 Russian tanks during the month, equivalent to 10 battalions’ worth, after destroying or disabling similar numbers in September and October.

Ukraine estimated it had hit 884 artillery pieces – in all, incurring equipment losses worth $3bn – in November alone.

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Yet Russia’s defence industrial base has proven resilient enough to replace these losses and provide firepower.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with Sky News on Sunday: “In just one week, Russia used more than 500 guided aerial bombs, almost 660 attack drones and about 120 missiles of various types against us. No country in the world has faced such attacks every day for such a long time.”

Russia has flown more than 57,000 drones and 13,000 missiles into Ukraine during the war, according to Ukraine’s Radio Engineering Troops, which spot them.

Russia has defied international sanctions that have crimped its earnings from oil exports and restricted the flow of raw materials to increase production of drones and missiles.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published research this week finding that Russia’s biggest defence contractors increased their turnover by 40 percent last year, compared with 2.5 percent increases among their US counterparts and 0.2 percent among their European counterparts.

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INTERACTIVE-WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN SOUTHERN UKRAINE-1733319909
(Al Jazeera)

That, experts told Al Jazeera, was because of the reflexes Russia has shown during this war.

“The 40 percent growth in Russian defence revenues reflects preparations made as early as 2022, when state orders and industrial shifts were accelerated,” said Hanna Olofsson, spokesperson for Security and Defence Companies (SOFF), the Swedish defence industry lobby.

“The rapid scaling of production – including arms for prolonged attritional conflict – was facilitated by state planning, multi-shift factory work, and reduced export dependencies,” Olofsson said.

In contrast, Western companies’ revenues “largely reflect delivery timelines on older contracts”, she said. “The disparity emphasises the immediate operational focus of Russian arms production compared to the logistical and structural constraints in Western countries, showing varying capabilities in crisis adaptation.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday signed a three-year budget into law.

It increases 2025 defence spending to $128.6bn, or 6.3 percent of gross domestic product, according to Meduza, an independent Russian news outlet. Military and national security spending will together amount to $162bn – up from $157bn this year – taking up 41 percent of government expenditure.

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Russia has also sought additional weapons from North Korea and Iran.

Russian Minister of Defence Andrei Belousov met with his North Korean counterpart No Kwang Chol on Friday, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday to bolster that military relationship.

Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) spokesman Andriy Chernyak said Russia had used 60 out of 100 KN-23/24 ballistic missiles it had received from North Korea. North Korea had also sent approximately five million artillery rounds, 170 self-propelled artillery pieces and 240 multiple-launch rocket systems, Chernyak told Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

“We discussed what more allies can do to provide critical ammunition and air defences, as Russia steps up its attacks and expands the war with the aid of North Korean troops and weapons,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told journalists on the second day of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting on Wednesday.

“Allies are working to deliver on the financial pledge of 40 billion euros ($42bn) in security assistance for Ukraine in 2024,” Rutte said.INTERACTIVE-ATTACK_ON_KURSK_DEC_4_2024-1733319900

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a 650-million-euro ($684m) package of military aid as he paid a visit to Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Monday.

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Germany has been a leading supplier of air defence systems to Ukraine, providing five IRIS-T systems, three Patriot systems, and more than 50 Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. It is to deliver another IRIS-T system and additional Patriot and Gepard units this month.

Ukraine has sought to shore up military aid pledges from its Western partners to ensure its armies were supplied through the US presidential transition in January.

“It is vital for Ukraine that the level of German support does not decrease in the future. This would be the most important and timely signal to all our other partners,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address.

“During my meeting with the Chancellor, we agreed that Germany will continue to support Ukraine as needed, regardless of what happens in global politics or how sentiments may shift.”

The US Pentagon on Tuesday announced a $725m drawdown on air defence missiles, rocket artillery, man-portable air defence systems and other systems.

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“Between now and mid-January, we will deliver hundreds of thousands of additional artillery rounds, thousands of additional rockets, and other critical capabilities,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.

In his interview with Sky News, Zelenskyy said US permission to use long-range weapons in Russia had come late, and the number of available missiles was not enough: “The Russians knew that we could not destroy them. We lost people, territories, initiative at a certain point. Before this decision was made. Is it good? Yes. Is it late? Yes. Are such complexes enough for us? Not enough. And we have the right to attack only military objects.”

The European Union sought to provide political support as it transitioned to a new Commission.

The new president of the European Council, Antonio Kosta, together with the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaya Kallas, and the commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, arrived in Kyiv for a surprise visit on Sunday.

“In my first visit since taking up office, my message is clear: the European Union wants Ukraine to win this war. We will do whatever it takes for that,” Kallas wrote on X.

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INTERACTIVE Ukraine Refugees-1733319894
(Al Jazeera)
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Experts believe study of 700-year-old handwriting unveils leading Byzantine painter's true identity

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Experts believe study of 700-year-old handwriting unveils leading Byzantine painter's true identity

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Crime-solving techniques applied to a medieval illuminated manuscript in Paris may have solved a centuries-old puzzle — the true identity of a leading Byzantine painter who injected humanity into the rigid sanctity of Orthodox religious art.

A contemporary of Giotto, considered the father of Western painting, the artist conventionally known as Manuel Panselinos was equally influential in a totally different tradition that’s largely overlooked in the West.

But nothing is known of his life, and scholars now believe Panselinos was just a nickname that eventually supplanted the real name of the man for whom it was coined — likely Ioannis Astrapas, from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

The art of Byzantium, that decorates churches across Greece, Serbia and other Orthodox countries, stands out for the stark formalism of its elongated, glowering saints, quasi-cubist mountains and doe-eyed Madonnas.

Work attributed to Panselinos, from the late 13th and early 14th centuries, is considered the finest produced in an empire that straddled Europe and Asia and endured from the fall of Rome until the capture of the imperial capital Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

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Art historians had long suspected that the name — Greek for “full moon” — could have originated as a nickname for some member of the so-called Macedonian School of painting, based in Thessaloniki.

Recent research by a Greek monk and linguistics scholar linked “Panselinos” with Macedonian School painter Astrapas. Now court handwriting expert Christina Sotirakoglou has matched lettering on a manuscript tentatively attributed to Astrapas with characters on a church painting in northern Greece, long seen as Panselinos’ best work.

Father Cosmas Simonopetritis, a former senior administrator in Mount Athos, the semiautonomous monastic community where the Protato church stands, says Sotirakoglou’s and his own research “clearly prove” Panselinos’ real identity.

“Panselinos was a real person, and (the name) was just the nickname by which Ioannis Astrapas became known,” he told The Associated Press.

Constantinos Vafiadis, a professor of Byzantine art in Athens who was not involved in the studies, said he found merit in the nickname theory and Astrapas link, even though it appeared more than one painter had undertaken the Protato project.

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“I agree with attributing part of the paintings to Ioannis Astrapas,” he said. “But again there remains much ground for future research into that person, because other Mount Athos monuments from the same period have not yet been sufficiently published.”

“Panselinos” — a role model for generations of painters — and his contemporaries are associated with a renaissance of kinds in Orthodox art that revived forms and techniques inherited from antiquity. Facial expressions acquired a deeper humanity, and greater attention was paid to proportion and depth of field in composition.

Father Cosmas said Astrapas was an “extremely gifted painter … with vast knowledge who harmonically combined the ancient, classical world with Orthodox Byzantine spirituality.”

“And that … makes his work unique worldwide,” he added.

Artists’ signatures were not common at the time, although some survive from members of the Astrapas family. There are none by “Panselinos.”

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The trail started with earlier research linking Astrapas with the artist and scholar who wrote and illustrated Marcian Codex GR 516, an early 14th century Greek handwritten text treating subjects from astronomy to music theory. Among the painted illustrations was a full moon.

“For me … that was the main proof,” Father Cosmas said.

With a name found for the hand that produced the manuscript, the next step was to check its style against writing on the Protato painting, traditionally linked with “Panselinos.”

“Mrs Sotirakoglou, who is a handwriting expert, filled in that blank,” Father Cosmas said.

There was one problem: Women have for more than 1,000 years been banned from entering Mount Athos.

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“I was forced to study the Protato paintings based on photographs,” Sotirakoglou, who works as a court consultant on identifying or authenticating handwriting in criminal cases, told the AP.

“(The work) was very difficult, because the writing on the wall paintings is in capital letters, and the painters subdued their personal handwriting to conform” with the traditional format, she said — rather like anonymous letter-writers’ attempts to disguise their true style. “The Marcian codex is written in very small lower-case letters.”

The first clue came from the Greek letter Phi, the English F.

“It’s a Phi that stands out, and is similar” in both the manuscript and the Protato painting, she said. “Matches also followed with other letters, T, with its proportions, which is bigger, covering the other letters and is topped with a curve, the proportions of the K.”

“But when the Phi was revealed, the code of the writing was broken and the job became much easier,” she added.

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Father Cosmas said that during his administrative duties on Mount Athos he attended services at the Protato church on a daily basis.

“That’s where my desire was born … to explore the mystery around the name and the identity of Panselinos,” he said, adding that he thinks the artist “has now acquired his true identity.”

___

Paphitis reported from Athens, Greece.

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