Today’s Image
This is Fuad Shukr, also known as Al-Hajj Mohsen, who today was made a Shahid today courtesy of the Israeli Air Force and intelligence forces. He is second in command in the entire Hezbollah organization, only below Hasan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah. Nasrallah has been living in tunnels deep below Beirut for the last 20 years of his life, afraid that Israel will assassinate him as well. More follows.
Gaza Rockets
No rockets fired from Gaza landed in Israel the past two days.
Casualties
No IDF casualties have been reported in the past four days, BUT a civilian was critically injured today resulting from a Hezbollah rocket attack near his home on Kibbutz HaGoshrim which sits right on the border with Lebanon. Hir Poupko - 28 (Z’’L) died from injuries sustained in that rocket attack.
Gaza Operations
The IDF announced today that it has concluded its week long operation in Khan Younis. These “clean up” operations will continue for the weeks and months ahead. They will be shorter and shorter, as the Hamas combatants are losing their will and ability to fight. The IDF says that during the week long operation more than 150 terrorists were killed. Several tunnels were demolished along with other Hamas infrastructure.
In the Netzarim Corridor that crosses mid Gaza from East to West, several gunmen tried to conduct a raid on Israeli troops but were killed without any Israeli casualties.
Lebanon Operations
The big news of the day is the highly successful IDF orchestrated assassination of Fuad Shukr, the head of all Hezbollah military operations and second in command only to the Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah. The assassination resulted from a precision fired missile by an Israeli fighter jet on a building in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Nearby is Hezbollah’s Shura Council, the decision making authority of the organization. This neighborhood is a known stronghold of Hezbollah. The office of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was informed just prior to the operation. You can see a short video taken today of the immediate vicinity of the blast as well as related photos here.
The assassination resulted from a precision fired missile by an Israeli fighter jet on a building in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Nearby is Hezbollah’s Shura Council, the decision making authority of the organization. This neighborhood is a known stronghold of Hezbollah. The office of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was informed just prior to the operation. There are reports from Beirut that 35 people were injured in the airstrike with 3 in serious condition.
Shukr was on Israel’s most wanted list. He was not only leading the war effort against Israel, but the US State Department reports that during the Syrian Civil War he aided both Hezbollah fighters and Syrian troops loyal to the butcher of Syria, Bashir Assad as they battled the internal Syrian rebel forces. He served as the most senior military advisor to Hassan Nasrallah and sat at the head of the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body. This successful assassination was at least as significant as the recent assassination of Hamas’s number 2, Mohammed Deif. The IDF contends that he held ultimate responsibility for the horrendous murder of 12 children in the Israeli Druze village of Majdal Shams.
He was also on the USA’s most wanted list. In 2017, the United States offered a reward of $5 million for the capture of Fuad Shukr, the target of the attack in Beirut. The Americans claim that he played a central role in attacking the U.S. Marines in Beirut in 1983, in which 241 American soldiers were murdered. The image below is the “wanted poster” issued by the US State Department. Maybe you can call that number and try to claim the reward??
The IDF and the Israeli Intelligence Agencies are recovering quite well from their disastrous failure on October 7, 2023. There was some confusion regarding whether Shukr survived the blast or not, but the IDF as well as Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, Arabic versions, are now confirming that he is dead and his body is interred temporarily at a hospital in Beirut. No doubt, at his funeral procession tomorrow there will be a lot of threats and fists into the air vowing revenge.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib announced that he will file a complaint against Israel at the UN. He added that he hopes that Hezbollah’s response to Israel’s airstrike will be “proportionate”. I could have sworn that Hezbollah has already done enough murder to last quite awhile. What do these blood thirsty maniacs want???
But Lebanon does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy. Russia’s Tass News Agency issued this statement today:
The Israeli strike on Lebanon's capital Beirut is a flagrant violation of international law.
I guess Russia is fine with the murder of 12 innocent children.
And President for Life Tayip Erdogan of Turkiye said:
If Israel enters Lebanon, we will send forces to defend Lebanon.
I guess that this universal protector of the downtrodden will remove his troops from northern Syria? Or maybe this is a play by him to take part of Lebanon as well. Someone should point out to this idiot that to get to Lebanon his troops will have to cross through Syria, in areas that are not under his control. I wonder what Syria would say about such an invasion?? One of you asked, with sarcasm, what would happen if Turkiya attacked Israel, and Israel attacked back? Would NATO come to the defense of Turkiye??
In other news from our northern border, early this morning Hezbollah fired five rockets towards the northern Kibbutz Hanita near the Lebanese border. But all fell short and landed in Lebanese territory instead.
Later in the day the IDF carried out a series of strikes against Hezbollah positions using coordinated artillery, fighter jets and drones. Destroyed in these operations includes several arms depots, military bases and launchers. Several Hezbollah operatives were nearby these facilities at the time of the attack so they are presumed dead.
The Israeli Health Ministry reports that 16 victims from the Majdal Shams attack by Hezbollah remain hospitalized. All are children. Seven of them remain in serious condition. In some cases surgeons had to remove shrapnel as large as 2-3 cm in diameter (about 1 inch) near the victim’s spine. All seven remain in intensive care. All the others are in mild condition. Some might be released as early as tomorrow. Here are a couple of videos of the Hezbollah rocket attack on Majdal Shams. The second video appears to be taken from a phone of someone actually present on the football field at the time of the explosion.
Greece has also announced that it is halting flights to/from Beirut.
Syria/Iraq/Egypt/Jordan/Turkiye/Iran
Leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are in Iran at the moment attending the coronation of their new President. While there they met with the Iranian Supreme Leader.
Reports coming out of Syria are claiming that missiles fired from Israeli fighter jets struck targets in the rural area of Daraa which is right across its border with Israel. No further information has been provided.
IDF General
Yesterday I reported on the military arrest of nine IDF soldiers on charges of abuse of a high ranking Hamas commander in custody. The arrest was accompanied by violent demonstrations by a couple hundred right wing extremists. The charged soldiers were moved to a different military base. The protests continue but they are now without violence as many ministers have warned the demonstrators to keep their discipline. There are mixed stories coming out regarding the actual incident so I am refraining from detailing them here as the stories are conflicting. Hopefully, after the hearing things will be more clear.
In the meantime, the government is presenting its plan on shutting down Sde Teiman detention facility and its schedule for opening a new, proper prison to house the prisoners. This is the second hearing with the Court on the subject.
Aid
Today, Israel facilitated the evacuation of 150 sick and injured civilians from Gaza to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emerates where they will be treated in a local hospital there. COGAT says in a press statement that the humanitarian operation was carried out “under the directive of Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, who tasked the defense establishment and relevant authorities with its execution.” According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 35 of the evacuees are children, part of the biggest single evacuation amid the current war between Israel and Hamas. The patients include those suffering from cancer, blood diseases, congenital conditions, neurological conditions, cardiac and liver and renal disease, as well as injuries sustained during the war, the WHO says.
COGAT reports that 246 trucks carrying humanitarian goods were transferred to staging areas within Gaza. About 200 trucks worth of aid was picked up by UN aid agencies for distribution. You can read more here.
International
The new Labour Government announced that while there is no arms embargo on Israel at this time, they are investigating if any of the weapons they sell Israel could have been used in “war crimes”. We will wait to see how this proceeds. In the meantime the UK Government announced that it wants to start discussions with Israel on a Free Trade Agreement. I find it hard to believe that Israel would consider a Free Trade Agreement should the UK blockade arms shipments.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
If you have about 25 minutes to spare you might catch this interview with Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired commander from the British Armed Forces. He had much combat experience from operations in Afghanistan and has some insight into what is happening along Israel’s borders.
And here is a 25 minute monologue from an Israeli historian, Gaudi Taub, on his perspective of how The War is just the first phase of a much longer war that is being funded and orchestrated by Iran.
And here is a guest op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, submitted by one of Israel’s better know military correspondents, Amit Segal. He focuses on Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris’s first comments on The War after she recently met with Prime Minister Netanyahu. His perspective is from someone on the right of center spectrum within Israel’s political arena, although he is NOT a politician.