Today’s Image
This is War Minister Benny Gantz, head of the National Unity Party (which gathered 8 seats in the parliament of 120 representatives), former Defense Minister and former Chief of Staff. About 2 weeks ago he announced that he would leave the government by June 8 if Prime Minister Netanyahu hadn’t dealt with 8 key issues which he listed. Well there has been no response to those demands so we will see if he stays or leaves the government. I really don’t know….
Hamas Gaza Rockets
Two rockets were launched from Rafah, crossed into Israel and landed in an open area near Moshav Ya’ad. This breaks a nine day run without rockets. I believe that this happened because Hamas and PIJ are just trying to unload whatever armaments they have in that area before the IDF destroys it.
Casualties
One IDF soldier was killed during a gun battle that ensued when a small group of Hamas combatants attempted to sneak across the border with Israel not far from Rafah. The soldier’s name is Warrant Officer Zeed Mazarib - 34 (Z’’L), a bedouin Israeli citizen. And one of the victims of yesterday’s Hezbollah attack on the football field in the Druze village of Hurfeish succumbed to his wounds today: Staff Sgt. (res.) Refael Kauders - 39 (Z’’L). Kauders died because the IDF troops were ordered not to fire unless they were fired on first.
Gaza Operations
Today, Israel carried out an air attack consisting of two smart guided missiles with limited explosive power on an UNRWA facility in the Gaza town of Nuseirat. The IDF was tracking the site for days and estimates that in the part of the facility struck by the attack, between 20-30 Hamas combatants were killed. Medics in Gaza are claiming that 37 people are dead. According to the IDF they were tracking closely the movements of the combatants and waited for them to be together. They were meeting in three different classrooms at the UNRWA school. In the hours prior to the firing of the two missiles, the IDF had postponed the operation two times as there was an unacceptable number of civilians in the vicinity of the targets. The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said:
Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law.
Actually he is not correct. When adversarial combatants are actively using a school, place of worship, hospital or medical facility for the purposes of planning or executing military operations, they negate the protection of the facility under the Geneva Conventions. You can see more details here. Using facial recognition, the IDF was able to identify that some of the combatants in the UNRWA facility participated in the October 7 attack.
Israeli fighter jets and drones conducted several airborne operations in Gaza today striking several rocket launchers and a terror cell about to launch mortars and an Israeli community near the border. Overall operations continue in east Bureij and east Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Many storage facilities for weapons were found along with tunnel entryways. Also, IDF troops continue operations in Rafah uncovering pretty much the same. There are a lot of rocks in Gaza. It seems like each home and under each rock there are weapons stored. Today they found a tunnel entrance in the bedroom of a home in Rafah that was clearly designated for a little girl. You can see the photo here, along with other related photos. They also found several UNRWA labeled bags containing many explosive devices nearby.
A gun battle emerged in the Rafah vicinity as Hamas combatants were trying to make use of foggy conditions this morning to try and sneak across the border to launch an attack agains a nearby Israeli settlement. They were found and killed, but the IDF suffered one casualty as a consequence of the battle. See above. Also, during operations in Rafah this afternoon IDF troops uncovered another Hamas weapons factory. The IDF believes that they have by now located and destroyed most of these workshops building rockets and mortars.
Lebanon Operations
Very early this morning, Israeli fighter jets attacked two Hezbollah armories in southern Lebanon, near the villages of Wadi Jilou and Aadchit. Then later today, an Israeli drone conducted a targeted assasination on two Hezbollah operatives while they were on a motorcycle.
And Hezbollah claims to have successfully hit an Iron Dome battery in northern Israeli with a kamikaze drone. There has been no confirmation from the IDF, but it does look like they succeeded. You can see here.
Yemen Operations
The Houthis claim that, in coordination with two Iranian proxy groups in Iraq, that it has successfully targeted commercial ships in the Haifa Port. The Israeli Government said, in response, that there is no evidence of any attack from Iraq on any facility near Haifa.
British security firm Ambrey says a Greek-owned bulk carrier was allegedly targeted by Yemen’s Houthis while traveling northbound in the Red Sea. The ship’s transmissions stopped 118 nautical miles east of Massawa, Eritrea when it was underway from Mormugao, India, with its destination as Suez, Egypt. So I guess that the Houthis are now also attacking Indian and Egyptian ships.
Aid
Today, two Israeli Human Rights NGOs filed a petition in an high level court requesting that the government enable the evacuation of Gazans in severe need of medical care. While I am not certain, I think that they are requesting that Israel enable the opening of the Rafah border crossing so they can leave Gaza for improvised hospitals set up in Egypt. I will track this and update in the future.
Hostages/Ceasefire
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said today that the US draft resolution at the UN Security Council is dependent on an Israeli ceasefire proposal that Hamas had already seen and rejected. Again, Hamas officials are being clear that they will not accept anything other than a full, permanent and guaranteed ceasefire accompanied by a full Israeli troop withdrawal. That Security Council resolution has been revised at least twice so far. It now places pressure on both parties to accept it, which is strange since it was presented as an Israeli Proposal. And it demands that the parties go back to the original borders once hostilities end. The IDF has carved out a 1 km buffer surrounding Gaza so that future attacks can be prevented. This part of the resolution is supposed to force Israel to forego that border.
Meantime the Israeli negotiating team told an interviewer today on one of the TV stations that they are still waiting for a formal response from Hamas to the most recent hostage/ceasefire proposal. And no less than 17 countries have now called on Hamas to accept the ceasefire proposal.
International
In that category of “you can’t make this stuff up”, comes a report form Spain. As you may remember, Spain along with Norway and Ireland accounced that they recognize Palestine as a state. Well, Spain logically wants to dispatch diplomats to establish their presence in Ramallah where the PA has its offices. BUT, none of the diplomats want to go there as they are fearful of the violence. It is much more comfortable for them in Israel. I have talked about this before. You can read more here.
According to reports in the Axios News Web Site, meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a group of Arab counterparts in Riyadh in late April deteriorated into a shouting match between the foreign minister of the UAE and a senior Palestinian official. Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed said during the meeting that:
There was no real reform in the Palestinian Authority, accused the Palestinian leadership of being “Ali Baba and the 40 thieves” and said all of the PA leadership is “useless.” Bin Zayed went further, asking why the UAE would want to provide funding to such a body. The report continues… The feeling among many of those present in the meeting was that Abbas has not been willing to institute the significant reforms that are necessary in order to reform the PA so that it can return to governing Gaza and advance a two-state solution.
Here is the article where you can read more.
The NAACP called on President Biden to “indefinitely” halt all weapons deliveries to Israel. Further, it said that Israel had a right to defend itself after the Hamas massacre of October 7 and urges the terror group to return the hostages and “stop all terrorist activity.” It also urges Israel to “commit to an offensive strategy that is aligned with international and humanitarian laws.” You can read more here.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
I highly recommend reading this article written by Daniel Pomerantz but appearing on Ambassador Michael Oren’s Substack site. He takes a contrarian view saying that it makes no sense to come up with a “Day After” plan without eliminating Hamas first, as any international or local power that presumes to take a leadership role will be quickly assassinated by Hamas combatants. Worthy your time to read. Pomerantz is adjunct Professor of International Law at two universities here in Israel.
Here is a good article out of Reuters summarizing the state of fighting in Gaza and how Hamas, with more than ½ its combatants killed and many more seriously injured, is shifting tactics in its fight with Israel. The major conclusion is that fighting is likely to continue through the end of this calendar year, which is consistent with what the Israeli Government has been telling us.
And here is a great article posted in the Wall Street Journal documenting, statistically, that there is no real food supply crisis in Gaza, but there is likely to be a major issue with distribution.