Today’s Image
An IDF tank parking lot just outside Gaza’s Khan Younis. IDF Operations there are picking up pace.
Gaza Rockets
No rockets launched from Gaza crossed into Israel in the last 9 days. But one rocket launched by Hamas landed on an UNWRA school building inside Gaza.
Casualties
There were no casualties reported by the IDF in the past 24 hours.
Gaza Operations
The main news here is the major operation launched earlier in the Khan Younis area. The IDF has already struck more than 50 Hamas facilities within the city and killed dozens of Hamas combatants trying to protect those facilities. IDF special forces are also entering the tunnel infrastructure within Khan Younis, killing many combatants. You can read more here.
There are reports that instructions coming from Major General Yaron Finkelman, commander of the IDF Southern Command, that he is shifting the emphasis of the fighting in Gaza. Firstly, you should know that Finkelman is highly respected amongst most of the Israeli population. He would be a “shoe in” for the next Chief of Staff except he is known to speak his mind and has pissed off some of the politicians whose support he would need. In any case, the reports are suggesting that the focus of IDF operations now should shift to destroying the Hamas infrastructure, putting into place all the means necessary to prevent Hamas from re-arming and to continue pursuing assassinations of the commanders. That is, unless they are fired upon by the Hamas combatants rank and file, they should not be pursued. All of this makes a lot of sense to me as I explain below.
Despite what Prime Minister Netanyahu says, it is not possible to completely destroy Hamas’s military capabilities. There is always a new generation of jihadis waiting to fill in the shoes of those killed in action. But if their military infrastructure is destroyed and they are unable to rebuild it, it doesn’t matter. And if their leadership is killed off, then they are not able to quickly rebuild with the combat knowledge needed to train them. So this is a very sound strategy, I believe. And this is why conquering Rafah, maintaining control over the border crossing with Egypt and destroying the many tunnels traversing the border is so important. I should add that there is also a need, that is outside the realm of combat troops, to dry up the Hamas sources of money. Doing so will block their ability to pay their troops, maintain their villas and fund the construction of their infrastructure. You can read about this here.
Towards this emphasis of going “after the money”, the IDF just announced the assassination of Tahsin Al-Andis inside Gaza. He was one of the few key channels for inbound funding. One of the other key channels was Syrian businessman Barak Katerji who was assassinated in his office in Lebanon a couple of months ago. And last Friday the IDF captured the building in Gaza that housed the company “al-Khara”. Al-Khara was instrumental in the siphoning and storage of funds to the Hamas infrastructure. It is my guess that Israeli intelligence units are inside that building taking disk drives and files out so they can start tracing the money.
Lebanon Operations
This evening Hezbollah launched a barrage of 15 rockets at Israel’s northern city of Kiryat Shmona. They were either shot down by the Iron Dome system or fell in open areas. No injuries or serious damage reported. IDF artillery responded by firing on the locations from where the rockets were launched. In addition, IDF fighter jets also struck several Hezbollah operations facilities, including some of those used to launch the rockets.
Yemen Operations
Not to be outdone by the “Hollywood” movies broadcast by Hezbollah, the Houthis produced this nifty little video showing a model of the drone they used in their attack on Tel Aviv last week. You can also hear a chorus of their vocalists…. Here is the link. Enjoy, and be sure to bring the popcorn.
And the Houthis are looking desperate in trying to find targets in Israel for the purposes of retaliating for the Israeli attack on their port of Al-Hodeidah on Saturday. They are threatening to attack the ports of Ashdod and Haifa. So far, they have only been able to reach the southern city of Eilat with ballistic missiles and the IDF has destroyed them each time before reaching Israeli air space. I am sure that the IDF has new procedures to track inbound enemy aircraft coming from the Mediterranean Sea now, after the drone attack on the Tel Aviv apartment building. What IS worrisome is their threats to attack ships bypassing the Red Sea and heading to South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. If they succeed in such operations it could bring a full halt to international shipping routes.
International
Yesterday, I reported that China hosted a reconciliation meeting between various factions amongst the Palestinian Arabs in the hopes of bringing them together into a framework of sorts. I said that the talks blew up and Hamas had walked out. But, I guess that I was a bit premature. It now appears that Hamas and Fatah signed some form of declaration to end their differences. I do not attribute much significance to this as this has happened many times before. Hamas killed thousands of Fatah officials in their 2007 coup when they took over Gaza.
And I am embarrassed once again by our Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, who is at it again. He unnecessarily posts childish social media photos that accomplish nothing other than provoking people unnecessarily. Here you can see what he posted about President for Life of Turkiye Tayip Erdogan. It shows an AI generated image of the Iranian Supreme Leader holding Erdogan as a puppet. Firstly, I do not think that there is any reason to believe that Erdogan takes orders from Iran. Secondly, this is provocative and does not accomplish anything good.
Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived in Washington DC. He attended a memorial ceremony to honor US Senator Joe Lieberman (Z’’L) today. He brought with him many of the families of the hostages. They are testifying in front of US Congressional Committees as well as individual politicians. Some of them are urging US officials to apply pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu who they view as blocking a negotiated deal. The Prime Minister is also scheduled to meet with leaders from the US Evangelical Community while he is in Washington DC. It turns out that he will also meet with President Biden on Thursday, Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump on Friday during his trip.
There are reports that the US, UAE and Israel held joint “secret” meetings in Abu Dhabi recently to discuss postwar plans for Gaza. I do not know why the press is treating it as so “top secret”. It was announced in the Israeli Press late last week that Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, flew off to Abu Dhabi. So everyone here knew something was up.
And more than 60 countries have filed “amicus briefs” at the International Criminal Court as they deliberate over whether to comply with their chief prosecutor’s, Karim Khan’s, request to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. According to the dictionary, an amicus brief is a text that is sufficiently authoritative in its field to be admissible as evidence in a court. Among other things such a large number of submissions means that any decision will be significantly delayed. According to International Law Professors here in Israel, the fact that the court is accepting such a large number of briefs and at such a late stage of the process suggests that the court has internal concerns regarding its jurisdiction and admissibility of the arrest warrants. It was recently announced that both the USA and the UK were told by Karim Khan’s office that he was visiting Israel in order to solicit testimony from government officials. But, to the surprise of both governments they learned that he cancelled his trip and decided to submit the request without consideration of Israel’s views on the subject.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
And here is an interesting article you can classify in the “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” category. Those of you following my posts recall that I have talked about the problem the IDF has in identifying and destroying the kamikaze drones launched by Hezbollah. They are really affecting our defensive systems. So this article describes successful research and testing at the Tel Aviv University’s Electrical Engineering Department in identifying drones by their electromagnetic footprint using a combination of remote sensors and AI. It shows a lot of promise.