Today’s Image
Meet these 12 principals of UNRWA schools in Gaza. They are also commanders in Hamas’s terrorist army. You can read more details about these great educators of a future generation of terrorists in the “In your copious spare time… “ section below. But according to UNRWA and the UN, they have conducted a full investigation into a handful of their staff who appear to be involved with Hamas and fully deny the IDF allegations that their organization is deeply entrenched with Hamas.
Casualties
Today the IDF announced the death of a combat officer, Lt. Ivri Dickshtein - 21 (Z’’L) who was killed in an exchange of fire with Hezbollah troops.
Rockets & Missiles & Drones
Very early this morning the IDF intercepted two drones crossing Syrian skies from the direction of Iraq on its way to Israel’s Golan Heights.Both were intercepted over Syrian air space. This evening a drone launched by Hezbollah reached the Israeli city of Elyakim, located about 30 km southeast of Haifa. Two injuries have been reported and, so far, no damage. The victims were said to be in moderate condition, suffering from shrapnel wounds. The IDF has vastly improved its interception rate of these kamikaze drones, reaching recently as high as 90% effectiveness in locating and neutralizing them. Most damage and injuries recently were a result of falling shrapnel, not the drones themselves.
This afternoon a barrage of five rockets launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon targeted the coastal city of Haifa. They were either intercepted or landed in open areas.
Overall, the IDF reports a significant drop in rocket launches by Hezbollah over the past week. On Tuesday this week Hezbollah launched a total of 55. Yesterday it was 50. So far today it was only 25. Monday appears to have been an anomaly with a total of 190 rockets fired because it was some kind of holiday for Hezbollah. This is to be compared to about 150-200 rockets on an average day in October.
Lebanon Operations
Very early this morning IDF fighter jets struck several Hezbollah buildings in the Southern Beirut where Hezbollah maintains many underground military facilities buried beneath residential buildings. The IDF provides advanced warnings to the residents of these buildings before it strikes. Altogether about 30 Hezbollah facilities in the neighborhood of Dahiyeh were hit.
Continuing with its sweeps of Hezbollah facilities in Southern Lebanon IDF ground troops uncovered large weapons depots inside several buildings in villages. They found rocket launchers, rockets, anti-tank missiles, sniper rifles and much more. Here you can see a video showing the massive amounts of arms being uncovered. The IDF is recovering so much arms smuggled in by Hezbollah that they have stopped transporting them back to Israel and just blow them up “on-site”. Israeli special forces units are leading the expansion of the ground operations. Here you can see a video of the massive arms they have uncovered just in the last 24 hours, including a loaded 32 barrel rocket launcher.
In many of the homes in Southern Lebanese villages owners leased out rooms to Hezbollah to be used as rocket and missile firing positions, including the storage of the arms right in their homes. The IDF is now systematically going to each of these homes, destroying all those where arms were found in an effort to convince the owners that letting Hezbollah use their homes to launch attacks is not a good idea.
This afternoon Israeli fighter jets struck a Hezbollah arms storage facility near the Beirut Airport that was being concealed. Here you can see the explosion taking place as a civilian airplane was taxiing on the landing strip.
This evening air strikes were conducted against Hezbollah positions in Baalbek, a Lebanese city in northeastern Lebanon not far from the Syrian border.
In Southern Lebanon today, unknown forces fired about 30 rounds against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). UNIFIL issued a statement reminding the Lebanese government that their independence must be respected. If it had been IDF troops, I am sure that it would have made the front page of The New York Times.
Gaza Operations
On Tuesday a single rocket was launched from the humanitarian zone in Gaza heading towards Israel. It was intercepted. Early this morning, the IDF struck the position from where the rocket was launched, after providing advanced notice to those in the vicinity. There were many secondary blasts after the initial strike suggesting that other rockets were stored nearby. Here you can see a video of the inbound missile and then the aftermath of the site where it struck.
Yemen Operations
The US CENTCOM issued a statement today saying that both Air Force and Naval fighter jets and drones conducted strikes inside Houthi positions in Yemen. This was after a massive combined attack of missiles and drones on US naval ships yesterday.
Syria/Iran/Jordan/Egypt/Iraq/Turkiye
Early this afternoon Syrian official media outlets are reporting a series of explosions in the vicinity of Damascus, its capital. Later in the day, in an unusual move, the IDF said that the strikes were conducted by its forces and targeted several building used by the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad. You can read more here and see a video of the strike, including after explosions.
Hostages/Ceasefire
In the Israeli Press there are many reports from officials in the government on progress being made regarding a ceasefire in the north along the border with Lebanon. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer has been shuffling between Moscow, Washington and Jerusalem trying to get a deal nailed. Israel is involving Moscow because part of the deal being contemplated includes a role for the Russians to stop arms transiting through Syria, where it has a close relationship with the Syrian Regime and has some troops stationed there. It is in Russia’s interests to assist, to some degree, as it wishes to protect its vassal state of Syria. There its interests often conflict with those of Iran. According to reports here, there is a proposal in the hands of the “Lebanese Government” and everyone is waiting to hear back a response. Part of the deal calls for Lebanese Army troops to move into Southern Lebanon, replace all the troops deployed there by Hezbollah, dismantle all Hezbollah infrastructure found there. After all this, Israel has signed up to withdraw its troops from within Lebanon. I, for one, remain skeptical. Part of the deal presumes that the IDF will have the ability to strike within Lebanon if it can show how Hezbollah is moving back into positions south of the Litani River.
Aid
COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) reports that yesterday more than 102 humanitarian trucks entered Gaza, including 35 from the Northern Erez border crossing and 16 from the newly constructed border crossing in central Gaza. There are a few thousand civilians in the northern part of Gaza still and getting aid to them is a challenge. Those 35 truck loads of aid are designated from those civilians. As of now, aid has accumulated inside Gaza near the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south that amounts to an equivalent of more than 870 trucks worth. Hamas tries to confiscate the aid and sell it to its own population on the Black Market in order to earn money to pays its terrorists. This remains a major problem.
Meanwhile there are claims by UN agencies operating in Gaza that the IDF has blocked its access to to aid, including food water and medications, for the purposes of distributing it to civilians in Northern Gaza.
International
The EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell is pushing to suspend discussions between Israel and any EU country due to “serious concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza”. Any suspension of relations with Israel would require the agreement of all 27 countries that constitute the European Union. This guy is a relentless anti-semite from the far left party in Spain. The upcoming meeting of the Foreign Ministers from all the EU countries will the the last meeting run by Borrell as his tenure has expired.
Human Rights Watch HRW, one of those balanced (NOT) international NGOs, released a report today accusing Israel of committing war crimes of forcible transfer of the population in Gaza. You can download a copy of the report if you are of a sadistic nature here. In this report they state “Israel’s actions appear to also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing”. I guess that HRW would prefer that Israel encourage the civilians to remain in an active battle zone so they can suffer even more casualties. Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement denying all the charges of HRW, saying “Time and again, Human Rights Watch’s rhetoric regarding Israel’s conduct in Gaza is completely false and detached from reality”. You can read more here.
It has been announced that Greece is in negotiations with Israel over the possibility of co-producing a version of Iron Dome that could be used in the European Theater. Apparently, Greece has an obligation to spend 12.8 billion Euros by 2035 in an effort to modernize its army. You can read more here in Reuters.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
Here in this report David Bedein documents many of the incidents in which the IDF has shown that UNRWA has either collaborated with Hamas, knowingly hired Hamas officials, allowed Hamas to use its facilities and more.