Today’s Image
An Israeli F15 fighter jet flying near an Israeli Air Base. Today, three Israeli fighter jets flew at low altitude over the skies of Beirut triggering three very loud sonic booms just minutes before a scheduled speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah from his underground bunker deep below the streets of Beirut. It was intended as a warning.
Gaza Rockets
Late this evening Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed credit for firing three rockets near Sderot, a town 2 km from the Gaza border. No injuries or damage reported.
Casualties
No IDF casualties have been reported in the past ten days.
Gaza Operations
This morning the IDF announced that it killed another Hamas officer. Muhammad Mahasna was responsible for coordinating arms smuggling operations by sea, through tunnels and over various land crossings. In the same statement the IDF said that its troops killed roughly 20 terror combatants during fighting in Khan Younis as well as 25 in the vicinity of Rafah in the past 24 hours. All in close quarters combat with IDF infantry. You can read more here. During operations in Rafah a medical officer and reservist paramedic were seriously injured in the field and rushed to a nearby hospital.
There are reports that Hamas’s Shura Council temporarily appointed Muhammad Ismail Darwish as the head of Hamas’s Political Wing in order to pick up Ismail Haniyeh’s responsibilities for communications with Iran. You can read more here. This is temporary until new elections can be held. In addition, Yahya Sinwar was officially announced as Hamas’s new Politburo Chief, effectively the head of Hamas. Here is an interesting analysis on the internal struggle within Hamas to find a successor. It reveals much inside fighting amongst the leadership.
Lebanon Operations
Early this morning an anti-tank missile fired by an Hezbollah operative struck a home in the evacuated northern town of Avivim, less than a km from the Lebanese border. These types of missiles are fired much like a Rocket Propelled Grenade. The launcher is held on the shoulder of the person firing. The range is very short so the Hezbollah combatant must come right up to the border and fire it. The IDF has cameras all along the border but there are likely some blind spots and it is hard to react in time to stop these kinds of attacks. Light damage was done to a building. If you want to learn more about ATGMs you can read this.
An Israeli jet aircraft strike this morning on an Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon resulted in the death of four Hezbollah combatants. Here is a “after” photo of the facility. The strike took place in the town of Maifadoun. According to reports from the AFP (a French news network like AP and Reuters) they were in formed by a reliable security source that all four were confirmed Hezbollah operatives. According to the IDF all were members of the Southern Front unit. You can see the “before” images here. The four were identified by Hezbollah as Amin Badreddin, Hussein Yassin, Ali Chamseddin, and Hassan Mansour. Their roles in the organization were not made clear by either the IDF or Hezbollah. Later, according to reports in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hadath, Israeli fighter jets struck an Hezbollah facility in Nabatiya, southern Lebanon, killing an unidentified senior Hezbollah official.
Early afternoon several Hezbollah Kamikaze Drones made it into the Israeli Arab town of Mara’a, in the northern coastal area about 10 km from the Lebanese border and less than 1 km from the Mediterranean Sea shore. One man was hurt and rushed to the hospital where the doctors have classified him in critical condition. He was hit by shrapnel in the head. He was found unconscious but was resuscitated before being rushed to the hospital. A woman was lightly injured and discharged from the hospital after being treated. Hezbollah took credit for the attack, claiming that they struck military targets. Altogether, seven people were hospitalized and all but the seriously injured male have been discharged. You can see footage of the attack here. Apparently three of the drones were neutralized by Iron Dome but two made it through. Sirens sounded well before the drones exploded. And then in a subsequent Drone attack soon after, one landed in a small IDF military base about 3 km away causing light injuries to six IDF soldiers.
This evening residents of Beirut reported several loud sonic booms resulting from passing Israeli fighter jets. Here is the report in Al-Arabiya. It is believed that this was intended to be a warning to Hezbollah. It was deliberately timed to take place just before a major policy speech from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. His speech is not noteworthy as it was another one of his overconfident, boisterous meandering speeches. And two more Hezbollah Kamikaze Drones crossed into Israeli air space. Both were shot down, but sirens sounded anyway for fears of flying shrapnel. No injuries or damage reported.
And later this evening more than 30 rockets were fired by Hezbollah into the northern tip of Israel, along the Golan Heights. There were no reports of injuries. Some targeted at Kiryat Shmona were neutralized by Iron Dome. Some minor fires resulted from the attack but appear to be under control.
And this evening Hezbollah announced the death of another one of its combatants resulting from an Israeli drone attack in Tyre, Muhammed Hussein Taleb. Again, no description of his role in Hezbollah.
Syria/Iraq/Egypt/Jordan/Turkiye/Iran
In this report in the UK’s Jewish Community Daily Paper, The Jewish Chronicle, it is claimed that the bomb that killed Ismail Haniyeh was placed under his bed on the same day of his death by two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Apparently they were caught on camera placing the bomb. According to the report they were hired by Israel’s Mossad and each paid a six figure sum (presumably in US dollars). And subsequent to placing the bomb they walked into a black sedan and were shuffled to a border from where they were provided transportation to a Northern European country.
Yesterday, I reported that rockets were fired on a military base in Iraq resulting in some injured US Army troops injured. A few more details have emerged. They were two Katyusha rockets that have a very short range. Both fell inside the base. Injured US troops were taken to a hospital. It has now emerged that a total of seven US soldiers and two US contractors were injured in the attack. Here are more details from Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya.
The New York Times today reports that at the request of Iran, Russia has started the delivery of advanced air defense systems and radar equipment to Iran. This makes a lot of sense. All of Iran’s internal armament investments are in offensive weapons. They have very, very poor active defensive systems, in particular against Israeli fighter jets. I am not sure which systems Russia is providing, but I doubt that it is their most advanced S-400 systems. They had a few batteries deployed in Syria, but pulled them out as they needed them in the war with Ukraine. Now that Ukraine has received US F-15 fighter jets, Russia will most likely need them even more now. Israeli fighter jet pilots have trained against both the S-300 and S-400 systems and has methods for averting being struck by these Surface to Air Missile systems. That is, unless Russia has come up with some significant upgrade. But I would have to guess that IDF Intelligence would know about it if they did. If you can’t get past the NYT paywall you might read this.
General Mood - Israel
I went to the supermarket today, again, on the way to Tel Aviv. There was a normal level of traffic and most goods were in stock. But bottled, still water was sold out. This article describes what items Israelis are stocking up on, in anticipation of attacks from Iran and its proxies.
Here are the results from a recent poll checking on the mood here in Israel. This one, has been running the same questions by Israels each month for the past four months. Some highlights:
71% of surveyed Israelis disagree that living in Israel will be better in the coming months,
Of those, 29% said they were considering relocating, or about 22% of all surveyed,
Yet only 1% of the 71% or 0.7% say that they are actively looking at leaving the country
IDF General
Today the IDF Legal Division announced that it was involved in nearly 300 separate investigations into improper behavior by IDF soldiers during operations in Gaza that might be classified as war crimes. You can read more here.
Aid
The road from the Kerem Shalom border crossing, bridging the Egypt-Israel-Gaza border, came under attack by nearby fighting this afternoon and was briefly shut down. Hamas claims to have attacked an Israeli tank, but none were nearby.
Hostages/Ceasefire
The last remaining “missing person” from the October 7 attack, Bilha Inon - 76, was declared dead today by the IDF. While it was believed that she was killed alongside her husband, Yakov, there was no evidence until today when forensic scientists concluded that the evidence recently uncovered confirms her death.
Politics/Protests
Last night a large contingent of Border Police went to an illegal outpost in Judea/Samaria (West Bank) contracted by far right activists. It is illegal because it was not approved by the government. After the police dismantled the improvised 4 structure outpost the activists returned to try and reconstruct the facilities and were then arrested.
Families of hostages blocked a major artery in Tel Aviv this morning at rush hour and held up a sign saying STOP BULLSHITTING US. This is a message for the government and intended to echo President Biden’s telephone message to the Prime Minister from last week. As you can see from this video, it was just a handful of protesters.
Ultra-orthodox continued their demonstrations today outside the IDF recruitment office. They actually broke into the facility and were quickly apprehended and 7 were arrested. Most likely they will be released in a day or two. You would think that if studying Torah every waking moment is so critical to them that they would not be wasting their time standing around and yelling insults. Here is a short video clip. Women held a counterprotest across the street. A few years ago there was a similar ultra-orthodox anti-draft protest in Jerusalem. Several secular women showed up, braless, and lifted up their shirts. The ultra-orthodox scattered and ran away as they are not permitted to look at women, or even photos of them. Not a bad tactic I think.
Yesterday, our “esteemed” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of one of the extreme right wing parties, issue a statement that it might be “justified and moral” to cause 2 million Gazan civilians to die of hunger. What an idiot. I am sure that the ICC is recording his statement to use in the prosecution case. Today the US based Anti Defamation League issues a statement criticizing this idiot.
International
Canada announced that it was evacuating its Embassy Staff from Israel.
The International Criminal Court ICC said, in all seriousness, that it would halt the issuing of arrest warrants against the Hamas leaders that are now dead.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
Here is podcast I highly recommend you listen to if you have the time. It is an interview by Dan Senor of Haviv Rettig Gur on what we might expect in the coming days. During the interview you can hear Gur’s frustration, not so much with the Israeli government but with the US Biden Administration. I think his sentiments are shared by many here in Israel. Here it is on Apple Podcast. And here on Spotify. If you can’t afford the time to listen, read this. Tomorrow or Thursday I hope to find the time to expand on his views with my own … on Israel, Iran, the Middle East, the USA and the West.
You should definitely take the time to read this truly great military analysis appearing in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya. I am beginning to have more hope about Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbors than the future of its relationship with the EU. THEY “GET IT”.
And here is an article describing the mood in Gaza amongst the civilian population there. You should definitely take the time to read it.
Look forward to reading this every day