Today’s Image
Meet Gali Baharav-Miara, a real heroine in my eyes. She is Israel’s Attorney General and finds herself in the unfortunate position of serving a government that is intent on eroding the checks and balances in our democracy by destroying the independence of our Supreme Court. She also had the task of informing this government that they must comply with the orders of the Supreme Court by drafting the ultra-orthodox. She also informed Prime Minister Netanyahu that his National Security Minister has violated the law, is using his position for purely political purposes and he must be removed from office. She is a “tough cookie”.
Casualties
No casualties were reported by the IDF in the past day.
Rockets & Missiles & Drones
No rockets fired out of Gaza crossed into Israeli air space in the past 2 days.
About 100 rockets were fired by Hezbollah into Israel today. Yesterday there were about 80. One barrage of five rockets targeting the coastal city of Haifa resulted in one rocket landing directly in the Arab village of Shfar’am, about 10 km due West of Haifa. The strike resulted in one woman killed. She was in her apartment on the top floor of three story building when the rocket hit her building. In that incident, You can see the building that was hit here. 12 other people wrestled injured. Names have not been released yet. Earlier in the day a barrage or rockets targeted the very northern part of Israel, but landed in open areas. And this was followed by a rocket barrage of 10 rockets that landed in open areas. In a separate barrage a 65 year old woman was injured when shrapnel from a destroyed rocket hit her in the neck. She is in stable condition at the hospital. During the course of another barrage, Hezbollah managed to strike another chicken coop. That is its second. It has also successfully struck two outdoor dairy farms in previous strikes.
Last this afternoon two drones launched by Hezbollah were intercepted in Israeli air space.
Just before I was ready to post today’s report, a long range missile fired by Hezbollah towards the Tel Aviv area was intercepted, but the falling shrapnel triggered fires in the densely populated area of Ramat Gan, bordering the ultra-orthodox city of Bnei Brak. The site of the landing was only about 3 km from Tel Aviv. Both are considered suburbs of Tel Aviv. One person is reported in serious condition. Four others were injured. Here is an early report.
Lebanon Operations
As you may recall, yesterday I reported on IDF fighter jets striking a building in Southern Lebanon and killing Hezbollah’s Media Director (or Propaganda Minister if you prefer). Today Hezbollah confirmed his death along with four other members of Hezbollah’s media operations.
Officially, Hezbollah counts 521 of its operatives killed during Israeli air and ground operations. The IDF estimates that the number is closer to 3,000. And this does not include the many seriously injured, including the more than 2,000 injured during “The Great Beeper” attack.
During ground operations in Southern Lebanon another major cached of arms and rocket launchers were uncovered. This time dozens of launchers, some of them loaded with rockets were found. As in previous discoveries like this, there was a tunnel and underground armory nearby that served to store all the arms. You can see the newest underground bunker here. And see its destruction here.
And it seems that when they are fired on by Israel UNIFIL forces make the issue a major mess and make wild accusations in all the foreign press. But when Hezbollah fires on its troops it refuses to name the perpetrators by name. Read this.
Gaza Operations
While there has been no official announcement, it is my impression that the IDF has nearly wrapped up its operations in Northern Gazan cities of Jabaliya (actually a part of Gaza City), Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. I highly recommend you read this report which summarizes what happened there, how the IDF maneuvers managed to catch the remaining Hamas forces off guard and how they managed to eventually evacuate the remaining 55,000 civilians to the humanitarian zones. The IDF reports that it killed more than 1,200 Hamas combatants and took another 1,000 prisoners.
It is also my view that this leaves only two remaining areas where Hamas still operates in strength - Deir al-Balah and Nusayrat, both in central Gaza. Further, I believe that this is where the remaining hostages are being kept. So, I am beginning to wonder if there is some impending major special forces operation being planned by the IDF.
What is puzzling is that if the IDF has virtually eliminated all but 2-3,000 Hamas combatants, how is it that they are still confiscating so many aid trucks?? My guess is that we are going to learn much more over the next few weeks…
Yemen Operations
Reports from a commercial ship in the Red Sea reports that the Houthis launched a missile intended to strike the vessel but fell short. The attack took place about 48 km off the Yemen port of Mocha.
Syria/Iran/Jordan/Egypt/Iraq/Turkiye
A minor incident happened very early this morning. An inbound drone launched from Iraq headed towards the southern Israeli city of Eilat on the Red Sea. An Iron Dome missile attempted to neutralize the drone but failed. Instead the Iron Dome fell on the adjacent Jordanian city of Aqaba. There were no injuries and the countries have been communicating. You can see a video of the errant Iron Dome missile here. The report says that it fell in Eilat, but it actually fell in Aqaba. The two cities are separated by less than 2 km. As you can see there was no explosion.
Aid
Today officials from UNRWA reported that two days ago a convoy of 109 trucks bearing aid from the staging area inside Gaza to the humanitarian zone was violently looted resulting in loss of most of the trucks. Without naming Hamas, probably out of fear of reprisals, the agency suggested that the infrastructure must change.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, during his speech today in the Knesset stated that he has instructed the IDF to create a plan for securing the aid shipments in order to prevent Hamas from stealing it all.
Hostages/Ceasefire
It was announced by Lebanese media outlets that the Lebanese government has issued its formal response to the US sponsored ceasefire proposal it has been examine for the past 5 days. There has been no official comment from any of the parties concerned yet. But the fact that US envoy Amos Hochstein plans on visiting Beirut shortly suggests that some progress must have been made.
IDF/Government
Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered a speech in the Knesset today. In that speech he openly criticized the Biden Administration for its very poor advice throughout the past year regarding Gaza. I have commented on this previously. But, like all Netanyahu speeches, her made it sound like he alone stood up against the US Administration. The reality is very different from his claims as it was his decision to sit and do nothing between February and May of 2023, under the threats from the Biden Administration. Netanyahu is just too much of a narcissist for his own good and that of the country. He said:
The US had reservations and suggested that we not enter Gaza. It had reservations about entering Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and, most critically, strongly opposed entry into Rafah. President Biden told me that if we go in, we will be alone. He also said that he would stop shipments of important weapons to us. And so he did. A few days later, [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken appeared and repeated the same things and I told him — we will fight with our nails.
As in all Netanyahu speeches it is all in the first person. Every one else had nothing to do with our successes, it was all a result of his personal perseverance. With regards to the IDF response to Iran’s attack back in April 2024, Netanyahu said:
Again, we were told by our friend that there is no need to respond. And I said that sitting and not reacting is not acceptable, and we responded.
He went on to criticize the ongoing problem of leaks to the press of details coming out of the War Cabinet and Security Cabinet. However, it is now coming out that some of these leaks were initiated by members of his own staff that he had hired. Nor does he mention that those leaks were intended to sabotage ongoing hostage/ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.
Netanyahu went on to disclose more details of the IDF’s airborne missions that struck Iran, in April and then again in October. He confirmed pretty much what has been disclosed in the press. In April, Israel destroyed one of Iran’s advanced S-300 Surface to Air Missile batteries that it purchased from Russia some years ago. It did this without even being detected. Then, he confirmed that in October the IAF eliminated the other 3 S-300 SAM batteries rendering Iran totally defenseless to any air led attack. He also confirmed that the IAF destroyed a secret nuclear facility that Iran never reported. Finally, he said that the IAF did massive damage to Iran’s ballistic missile production operations and its ability to produce solid rocket fuel needed for long range missile attacks, like those on Israel.
The IDF announced the formation of a new brigade to be dedicated solely to ultra-orthodox draftees to be called the Hasmonean Brigade to honor the famous Hasmoneans that fought the Greeks to recover the Holy Temple, the basis for the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah. The Hasmoneans are buried not far from the Israeli city of Modi’in.
Protests/Politics
Unlike in the USA the Attorney General in Israel is independent of the Executive Branch. The AG has several major roles. First, to advise the government on legislature to ensure that it is legally sound. Secondly, it represents the government in court when it must defend its actions, typically in the Supreme Court. The office also represents state authorities in court if necessary. Israel is lucky to have Gali Baharav-Miara as our current Attorney General. Today Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a leader of an extremist right wing party in the government, went on record attacking her. His claim is that she is not doing enough to prosecute those protesters who threw flares onto the Prime Minister’s residence on Saturday night. I don’t know what he wants. There have been more than 3 arrests made and all suspects are currently in custody awaiting trial. Maybe, he expects her to “string them up”? She is also the one that informed the government that in order to be compliant with the Supreme Court ruling they must issue draft orders to 7,000 ultra-orthodox on this current draft period.
In fact, each Minister and each Knesset committee chairperson has a lawyer assigned to work along side them that is assigned by the Attorney General to ensure that legislation complies with the law and that any Ministerial Policy decisions are also compliant.
The Attorney General is now coming under attacks from many directions. A billboard was put up in Tel Aviv which portrays her as responsible for the flares that were fired at the Netanyahu residence claiming that should anything happen to Netanyahu it will be her fault. You can see the billboard here. The word in blue closely resembles the logo for the Likud Political Party, of which Netanyahu is the chairman.
This same Finance Minister called today for rebuilding settlements in Northern Gaza.
Not known for his silence our National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir accused our Attorney General of seeking to have him removed from office. In fact, she informed the Prime Minister that Ben Gvir violated the law by interfering at a personal level on police operations and politicizing his appointments. So far Netanyahu has taken no action. To dismiss Ben Gvir would lead to a coalition crisis and the likely fall of the government.
But because Netanyahu came to an arrangement with the High Court regarding one of the criminal investigations against him, he cannot fire Baharav-Mirara. It gets complicated to explain.
Mothers of some of the hostages held a protest today outside the Knesset.
International
Turkiye announced today that the Hamas officials that were booted out of Doha and arrived in Turkiye are just there visiting and have no plans to stay.
Using Hamas documents captured during one of the many raids into Gaza, families of American victims of the October 7 attacks have filed a law shit against Iran in a US federal court. The documents prove that Tehran was involved in the attack, including the training of the terrorists involved.
The Biden Administration announced today that it was sanctioning the construction company Amana. It is one of several building contractors that operated in construction in Judea/Samaria (West Bank). The claim is that Amana and a couple other smaller firms have contributed to the violence perpetrated by right wing extremists residing in Judea/Samaria (West Bank). You can read more here.
I haven’t heard from her in some time so it is “nice” to hear that she has not gone away, but UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese posted today on her x.com account accusations that Israeli prison guards likely raped to death a doctor from Gaza captured during IDF operations in Gaza. You can read her post here. And you can read the Sky News report here. After reading both it will hard to understand where/how Albanese comes up with her outlandish claims. While the Sky News report is certainly not flattering of the Israeli prison system and how they might have treated Dr. Al-Bursh, there is no basis for this hysterical UN Official to make the claims that she has. All this being said, it would appear obvious that the Israeli Prison System should provide a better explanation for what happened and why they were holding Al-Bursh.
And In Your Copious Spare Time…
You need to read this. It appears that the Iranian Ministry of Energy has a fuel shortage inside the country while they are exporting as much oil and natural gas they can. In this incredible report from The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies the authors document how the Iranian Government is warning its population of fuel shortages this winter and how they may not be able to heat their homes. The Ayatollahs are so busy exporting their revolution that they are unable to take care of their own population.
Here is another report on UNRWA’s hiring of Hamas commanders and combatants under their payroll. And they do nothing after being shown the proof.
And in this report by Lebanese English Press, the IDF Arabic spokesman posted on his x.com account that any Lebanese with information on Hezbollah facilities should contact him. Since posting it he has been overwhelmed by responses and has forwarded them all to Mossad where they will need to filter them all. It is easy to understand why Israel’s intelligence on Hezbollah is so rich. There are just so many Lebanese that hate the organization.