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Posted: 6/11/2024 8:13:01 PM EDT
[#1]
Rescued Israeli Hostages Endured Punishments, Fear and Isolation--First details emerge about captivity of three men, held in a dark room and told no one would come for them. Link
Entire article in quote box Rescued Israeli Hostages Endured Punishments, Fear and Isolation TEL AVIV—For six months, the three men lived in a single dark room, sleeping on small mattresses on the ground. Their sole contact with the outside world came from the guards who brought them food and at times abused them. They could hear the Gazan family that lived downstairs, including children, but never met them. One day, when the family went out, they were allowed downstairs to use the kitchen. Their captors doled out punishments if the captives didn’t follow their strict rules, including locking them in the bathroom and piling blankets on them during hot weather. They repeatedly threatened to kill them. The hostages played cards, studied Arabic, taught each other Hebrew or Russian and kept time in journals. The three became close friends, and it was that bond that helped them through the ordeal. Their guards at times told them that no one cared about them or was coming for them. But one day, they were allowed to watch Al Jazeera’s Arabic broadcast and saw a rally in Tel Aviv by the families of the hostages. One of them spotted his own face among those whose freedom was being demanded. It also happened to be his birthday, which he knew because the captives had a notebook and were able to keep track of the date. “It made him feel he hadn’t been forgotten,” said Aviram Meir, the uncle of one of the hostages. When Israeli special forces burst into a building in central Gaza on Saturday in a high-risk daylight operation, they got to the room where Almog Meir Jan, 22 years old, Andrei Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, had spent most of their time since they were taken captive from a music festival in Israel in the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7. The account of their time as captives in Gaza is based on interviews with relatives of the hostages, and Israeli security and medical officials. Some of the details are being reported for the first time. Almog Meir Jan, before his abduction by Hamas, in an undated photo.Photo: Hostages Families Forum Headquarter/Associated Press Much remains to be revealed about what the three men and Noa Argamani, 26, who was also taken captive at the music festival and rescued in the same operation from a building about 200 yards away, went through as captives. Relatives of the hostages said they were advised to not probe for details, and expect to learn more about their loved ones’ ordeals as time passes. Israeli security officials have asked the hostages and their relatives to keep details of their captivity a secret. A full account of the abuses suffered by other hostages who were released earlier only emerged more than a month after their release. They have described being kept in tunnels underground, as well as psychological, physical and sexual abuse. The four hostages who were rescued on Saturday smiled in videos released from their return to Israel and their recovery in an Israeli hospital. None looked emaciated as they were greeted by family and friends. But a doctor who has been treating groups of rescued or released hostages since Oct. 7 said that despite the initial positive assessments based on their cheerful demeanor on TV, they had endured “physical and mental torture.” Dr. Itai Pessach, who is part of a team at Sheba Medical Center in central Israel and treated the hostages rescued on Saturday, said their initial appearances had a lot to do with the adrenaline running through their bodies, and jubilation on being released. Israeli security forces and the hostages identified Palestinian journalist Abdullah Aljamal, who lived in the apartment, as one of their captors. Abdullah and his father Ahmad Aljamal—a doctor and imam at a local mosque that is run by Hamas—were both killed during the operation. Their neighbors said they always knew that Abdullah Aljamal was affiliated with Hamas. The rescue operation sparked heavy fighting in the crowded streets of Nuseirat in central Gaza. Palestinian health authorities said 274 Gazans were killed and almost 700 injured from airstrikes, shelling and gunfire. The Israeli military said about 100 Palestinians were killed or wounded, including Hamas militants and civilians caught in the crossfire. Debris in the area of Nuseirat, in central Gaza, where the Israeli military rescued four hostages on Saturday. Photo: abed khaled/Reuters The Biden administration is pushing Hamas and Israel to accept a deal that would see the war come to a halt and the release of hostages being held in Gaza. Many of the relatives of those being held captive support such a deal, as do relatives of the four hostages recently rescued. Pessach said it is likely that the captives’ weight fluctuated during their captivity due to fear, stress and maltreatment. He said they showed signs of having suffered muscle atrophy and malnutrition and have lost the ability to perform certain activities. “We’ve heard stories that are beyond anything you can imagine,” Pessach said. When the three male hostages arrived in Israel they looked freshly shorn—well groomed, with buzzed heads and clean beards. Aviram Meir, the uncle of Meir Jan, said the three were able to groom themselves while in captivity. He described his nephew’s skin as pale. Almog Meir Jan at his return to Israel on Saturday after eight months in captivity. Photo: marko djurica/Reuters “They hadn’t seen the sun for eight months,” he said. The successful rescue operation will force Hamas to change how it hides hostages, but won’t necessarily increase the harshness of conditions in which they are held, said Younis Al-Zuraie, a Palestinian political analyst. “They will likely ensure that no more than one hostage is in the same location and will move hostages frequently to avoid detection. Their security apparatus will manage these arrangements,” Al-Zuraie said. It isn’t clear yet where the three male hostages were held before moving to the home where they were rescued. Argamani had been held in homes with other hostages before arriving at her final place of captivity. Other released hostages said they were held underground in tunnels. U.S. intelligence officials in Israel have been helping to locate hostages, according to people familiar with the matter. The fact that the three male hostages were kept together for such a long period without a rescue mission shows the high level of intelligence necessary to pull one off, said Avi Kalo, a former hostage-affairs commander in the Israeli military. “They need to be verified with high standards of intelligence,” he said. |
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Posted: 6/11/2024 10:13:23 PM EDT
[#2]
 Institute for the Study of War Backgrounder 11 June Key Takeaways Gaza Strip The IDF continued to operate along the Netzarim Corridor south of Gaza City on June 11. The Air Force struck a Palestinian cell that posed a threat to ground forces in the area. On June 11 the 98th Division withdrew from the Gaza Strip. The IDF launched raids with two brigades targeting eastern Deir al Balah and eastern Bureij on June 8th; the operations were timed with the hostage rescue mission. Israeli forces in the Central Governorate killed about 100 Palestinian fighters and destroyed several kilometers of tunnels there, including one near the border with Israel in eastern Bureij. The IDF continued clearing operations in Rafah. Three Palestinian militias claimed attacks on the Israeli forces conducting the clearing operation. The IDF that Palestinian fighters detonated a house-borne improvised explosive device (HBIED) killing four soldiers in the Givati Brigade in eastern Rafah. Israeli forces entered a house and triggered the booby trap. The house collapsed onto them. IDF discovered a tunnel in the house which was the home of a Hamas operative. PIJ fighters fired a rocket salvo at an IDF site near Kissufim in southern Israel. West Bank Israeli forces engaged Palestinian fighters in at least five locations across the West Bank in the last 24 hours. Israeli forces located and destroyed an explosives production facility along with 80 explosive charges and pipe bombs they found at the site. and engaged Palestinian fighters during an 18-hour raid in the al Farah refugee camp, north of the Jordan Valley. An IDF helicopter killed four Palestinians who attacked Israeli forces in Kfar Dan. Israeli forces conducted a raid in Kfar Nima targeting Palestinian fighters who carried out an arson attack on an Israeli settler farm in Sde Efraim. One of dead militants was a Hamas leader who spent 20 years in an Israeli prison. Southern Lebanon--Iraqi Resistance Israeli forces conducted strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure across Lebanon. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) attacked Hezbollah Unit 4400 compound in the Beqaa Valley overnight. Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 is responsible for transferring weapons from Iran to Hezbollah media. The IAF also attacked a Hezbollah military site in Aitaroun, southern Lebanon. Syrian media reported the IDF attacked a truck repair garage and warehouse in Hawsh al Sayyid Ali, Syria; Hawsh al Sayyid Ali is along a main Hezbollah supply route from Syria into Lebanon. The IDF also attacked a weapons shipment in transit from Syria to Lebanon. Lebanese Hezbollah carried out at least eight attacks into northern Israel in the last 24 hours. Hezbollah launched about 50 Katyusha rockets from southern Lebanon into the Golan Heights on June 10 in retaliation for the IDF airstrikes on Hezbollah sites in the Beqaa Valley. The IDF intercepted ”several” of the rockets and the remaining rockets landed in open areas. The IDF intercepted one Hezbollah drone launched from Lebanon at western Galilee. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq conducted drone attacks targeting a “military target” in the Golan Heights, Eilat, and Haifa. Yemen US intelligence learned that Houthis are in talks to provide weapons to Somalia-based Sunni militant group al Shabaab. CENTCOM intercepted a Houthi one-way attack drone over the Gulf of Aden.   
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Posted: 6/12/2024 10:22:07 AM EDT
[#3]
170 rockets fired at north after IDF killing of ‘most senior’ Hezbollah officer yet. Link
Hezbollah launched more than 170 rockets and several more missiles and drones at northern Israel on Wednesday, in what it said was a response to the killing of a senior commander in the terror group by an Israeli airstrike a night earlier. The barrages marked the largest attack carried out by Hezbollah during ongoing fighting on the Lebanon border amid the war in the Gaza Strip. And the terror group vowed to ramp up its attacks in retaliation for Israel’s elimination of top commander Taleb Abdullah. At a funeral procession in Beirut, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said the group would increase the intensity, force and quantity of its operations against Israel. “If the enemy is screaming and moaning about what happened to it in northern Palestine, let him prepare himself to cry and wail,” Safieddine said. The successive Hezbollah attacks began on Wednesday morning with a barrage of at least 90 rockets fired at several areas in northern Israel, including Tiberias — for the first time amid the war — Safed and Rosh Pina, sending tens of thousands of people to shelters, as Jewish Israelis celebrated the Shavuot holiday. The Israel Defense Forces said another 70 rockets were then launched at the Mount Meron area, home to a sensitive air traffic control base. Ten more rockets were fired at Kibbutz Zar’it, and an anti-tank guided missile struck a factory of the Plasan armored vehicle manufacturer in Kibbutz Sasa, causing damage. Later in the morning, a drone launched from Lebanon detonated in an open area near the northern community of Zivon, local authorities said. There were no injuries in the attacks, but several rocket impacts sparked fires in northern Israel. Some 25 firefighting teams and eight planes were working to extinguish fires near Amiad, in the Ein Zeitim forest, and near Beit Jann, the Fire and Rescue Service said. Hezbollah took responsibility for the rocket and missile fire, claiming to have targeted several Israeli military sites, including the Meron air traffic control base and the Amiad camp — located some 20 kilometers from the border — as well as the Plasan factory. Hezbollah said the attacks were a response to Tuesday night’s Israeli strike in southern Lebanon’s Jouaiyya — some 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of the border with Israel — which killed Abdullah and three other operatives. The IDF on Wednesday confirmed it had carried out the strike. Abdullah had commanded Hezbollah’s Nasr unit, one of three regional divisions in south Lebanon. The unit is responsible for the region between Mount Dov and the Bint Jbeil area in south Lebanon, and is considered to be the terror group’s first line of attack and defense against Israel. According to the IDF, Abdullah was the “most senior” Hezbollah commander it had killed amid the ongoing fighting. Hezbollah referred to Abdullah as a commander in a statement announcing his death. The terror group rarely refers to its senior operatives slain in Israeli strikes as commanders. The only other operative referred to as a commander was Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of the terror group’s elite Radwan force, killed by Israel in January. Abdullah was considered to be senior to al-Tawil. Abdullah was behind numerous attacks on northern Israel in the past eight months, mostly against the city of Kiryat Shmona, and other towns and army positions in the Galilee Panhandle, Upper Galilee, and the Golan Heights area, the IDF said. On Tuesday night, hours before being killed, Abdullah commanded a rocket barrage on the Kiryat Shmona area as Israelis gathered to celebrate Shavuot. The military published footage of the Jouaiyya strike, as the commander and the three operatives had been gathered in a building for a meeting. All four were killed. Abdullah was also considered by the IDF to be a “source of knowledge” with many years of experience in the terror group. Abdullah was involved in the 2005 attempted kidnapping in Ghajar, and in the 2006 Lebanon war, was the commander of the Bint Jbeil area, according to the military. The IDF said it was prepared for the terror group’s response to the strike, and was bracing for additional attacks throughout the day. Following the rocket barrages, the IDF said it struck four sites belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Yater, used to carry out the attack. Rocket launchers in Hanine and Yaroun, used in the barrages, were also hit, the military said. Since the day after Hamas’s October 7 attack, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there. So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in 10 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 15 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries. Hezbollah has named 342 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 62 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed. Israel has expressed openness to a diplomatic solution to the conflict, but has threatened to go to war against Hezbollah to restore security to the north of Israel, where tens of thousands of civilians are currently displaced. While Israel’s political echelon has not yet made a decision on launching an offensive in Lebanon, and turning the Gaza Strip into the secondary front, the IDF said it continues to target Hezbollah commanders behind attacks on Israel. |
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Posted: 6/12/2024 1:11:33 PM EDT
[#4]
 Attached File
The IDF and Hezbollah report that the commander of Hezbollah's Nasr Division was killed in an airstrike yesterday. The Nasr Unit (circled in black) is responsible for the area between the Israeli border and the Litani. 2 of its 4 sector (brigade) commanders, the Coastal and Ramim Ridge sectors, were already eliminated previously. The Nasr Unit is the first line of defense for Hezbollah against Israel in the case of an invasion.  Attached File
During the last night (June 11), according to local reports, a number of trucks were attacked in the area of Hawsh AL-Sayyid Ali, the #Syria-#Lebanon border, northeast of the city of Al Harmel in the Bekaa (Eastern Lebanon). According to the #IDF announcement, a compound belonging to #Hezbollah's Unit 4400 was attacked. Unit 4400 is responsible for the transfer of weapons into and within Lebanon. It works in cooperation with Unit 190 of the #Quds Force, which is responsible for transporting weapons within the Iranian weapons corridor. The area of Hawsh AL-Sayyid Ali is a central area through which weapons are transferred to Lebanon. To this area, weapons are transferred to Lebanon through the corridor routes that pass through Syria through the city of Homs and from there to the town of Al-Qusayr, which is close to Hawsh AL-Sayyid Ali. There are two central vehicle crossings in Hawsh AL-Sayyid Ali and 8 more optional ones (see map). |
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Posted: 6/12/2024 1:54:08 PM EDT
[#5]
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Posted: 6/12/2024 10:31:22 PM EDT
[#6]
 Institute for Study of War Backgrounder 12 June Key Takeaways Gaza Strip Detailed, in depth ISW discussion on ceasefire demands in spoiler below quote box Hamas issued new demands in the ceasefire negotiations with Israel. Hamas portrayed its new demands as technical iteration rather than an outright rejection of the proposal likely to frame Israel as the party that is obstructing ceasefire talks. 99th Division continued to operate along the Netzarim Corridor, south of Gaza City. Militants continued to attack them with mortars and rockets. 162nd Division continued to operate in several sectors of Rafah. Givati Brigade has operated in Shaboura neighborhood in Rafah in recent days. Israeli forces engaged Palestinian fighters, directed airstrikes, and destroyed explosively rigged structures. Palestinian militias conducted several attacks on sraeli forces in Rafah using mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Rafah said on June 12 that Israel informed it that fighting will continue in western Rafah. CNN obtained footage of civilians leaving al Alam in western Rafah. A Palestinian activist reported that the IDF issued warnings to people in al Alam of a military operation in the next 24 hours. Three Palestinian militias inside Gaza lauched rocets at an IDF site in Nahal Oz. West Bank Israeli forces engaged Palestinian fighters in at least five locations in the West Bank in the last 24 hours. The al Aqsa Martyrs‘ Brigades fired small arms and detonated IEDs targeting Israeli forces in two areas near Jenin. Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed a senior Lebanese Hezbollah commander and three other Hezbollah fighters in an airstrike in southern Lebanon on June 11. The commander, Taleb Sami Abdullah, was one of the seniormost Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon and responsible for attacks into northern Israel. Abdullah commanded Hezbollah’s Nasr unit, which is one of three regional commands in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel. Pictures of Abdullah alongside IRGC Quds Force commanders Qassem Soleimani and Esmail Ghaani appeared after his death. Hezbollah launched over 200 mortars and rockets into northern Israel on June 12 in response to the killing of Abdullah. The attack are the largest that Hezbollah has conducted into Israel since the war began. The attack caused fires but no casualties. Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine threatened to increase the rate and scale of attacks into northern Israel in response to the killing of Abdullah. Hezbollah has continued almost daily attacks into northern Israel since October 2023. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF has killed around half of Hezbollah’s field commanders in southern Lebanon. The IDF killed the senior officer in Hezbollah’s Radwan special forces in January 2024. Iran Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is framing his candidacy in the presidential election around improving the Iranian economy. Yemen The Houthis attacked and disabled a commercial vessel in the Red Sea on June 12. The Houthis struck the vessel with an unmanned surface vehicle and again with an “unknown airborne projectile.” The crew lost control of the vessel. Maritime security firms identified the vessel as the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned Tutor, which was sailing to India. US CENTCOM destroyed two Houthi anti-ship cruise missile launchers in Yemen. Houthi-affiliated media reported that the strikes occurred in al Salif in the Hudaydah Governorate. Iraq The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed a drone attack targeting Eilat. Detailed discussion on Hamas ceasefire demands inside spoiler below Click To View Spoiler    |
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Posted: 6/13/2024 8:50:57 AM EDT
[#7]
Firefighters and police have received reports of numerous rocket impacts in northern Israel, following a barrage fired from Lebanon. According to MDA, two men in their 20s are lightly hurt in the Katzrin area in the Golan Heights after being hit by shrapnel. Rockets that hit the Katzrin area sparked several fires, footage purportedly from the area shows.
A body in a state of extreme decomposition was found by a civilian near the Sha'ar Henegev Junction in southern Israel, police say. The body was taken for identification, and police are investigating if it is linked to the October 7 onslaught.
 Attached File
Troops of the 99th Division completed a raid in Gaza City's Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods this week, the military says. The pinpoint operation was carried out by the Carmeli and Yiftah brigades, along with the elite Multi-Domain, or Ghost, Unit. Amid the operation, the IDF says troops killed dozens of gunmen and demolished some 50 sites belonging to terror groups, including rocket launchers and weapon depots. Meanwhile, the Alexandroni Reserve Infantry Brigade and 8th Reserve Armored Brigade were deployed this week to the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip, where the 99th Division has been based. The division, along with troops of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, recently demolished an 800-meter-long tunnel in the Juhor ad-Dik area in the corridor, the IDF says. According to the IDF, the tunnel, which goes down some 30 meters deep, had several rooms and blast doors, and had been used by Hamas operatives.
Brigades swapped: - In the past week the Res. Carmeli and Res. 679th Armored Brigade left the #Gaza strip and were replaced by the Res. Alexandroni and Res. 8th Armored Brigade. - The brigades operate in Netzarim under the 99th Division. - This is a routine and expected replacement. Reserve brigades are only able to be deployed to Gaza for 2 months at a time.  Attached File |
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Posted: 6/13/2024 10:42:13 AM EDT
[#8]
 Attached File Attached File Attached File |
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Posted: 6/13/2024 10:57:24 AM EDT
[Last Edit: michigan66]
[#9]
Tweet from Palestinian reporter purports to show the IDF at the Mediterranean end of Rafah's Philadelphi Corridor.
Translation: Philadelphia Axis, Rafah Beach The occupation army is carrying out bulldozing operations and setting up security observation points on the shore of the Rafah Sea  Attached File
 Attached File
Hezbollah takes responsibility for the barrage of rockets and attack drones on northern Israel this afternoon, claiming to have targeted several military bases. The terror group in a statement says it launched Katyusha and Falaq rockets at six army bases in northern Israel, and several more swarms of explosive-laden drones at three more bases in the area. The IDF reported that some 40 rockets crossed the border, many of which were intercepted by air defenses, but others impacted, causing at least 15 fires. Two men in their 20s were also lightly hurt by shrapnel. Another seven "suspicious aerial targets" -- thought to be drones -- were identified, the military said. Four of the suspected drones were shot down by air defenses, the IDF says, adding that there were no injuries.
Two Palestinian gunmen were killed by troops of the Duvdevan commando unit in the West Bank city of Qabatiya, near Jenin, military sources say. The commandos had carried out a tactic known as “pressure cooker” that involves escalating the volume of fire directed at a building to force suspects to come out. Amid the operation, the troops fired shoulder-launched missiles at the building. In ensuing clashes, the pair were killed. The IDF continues to operate in the Jenin area since launching a raid there overnight. At least two wanted Palestinians were detained in the operation so far, the sources say. |
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Posted: 6/13/2024 1:56:09 PM EDT
[#10]
Seven rockets were launched from northern Gaza at Sderot, Ashkelon, and other communities near the Strip, the IDF says. Four of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, while the other three struck open areas, according to the military. There are no reports of injuries or damage. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. |
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Posted: 6/13/2024 2:37:54 PM EDT
[#11]
IDF now using flaming arrows to burn vegetation around positions in the north.
 Attached File |
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ESP
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Posted: 6/13/2024 7:21:53 PM EDT
[#12]
After participating in Saturday's hostage rescue operation in the Nuseirat, the IDF's 98th Division has been withdrawn from the central Gaza Strip:
A barrage of rockets launched from Lebanon at the Kiryat Shmona area in northern Israel is seen being intercepted by the Iron Dome, as Israelis celebrate the Shavuot holiday. Another Israeli bombardment: Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon's Yater: Israeli fighter jets and other aircraft carried out strikes against some 30 targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day: The Israeli military confirms it carried out last night's airstrike in southern Lebanon's Jouaiyya, killing senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdullah. |
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Posted: 6/13/2024 7:39:12 PM EDT
[Last Edit: michigan66]
[#13]
Times of Israel reporter has video but no more information.
 Attached File
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Posted: 6/13/2024 9:13:49 PM EDT
[Last Edit: michigan66]
[#14]
H/T to GBTX01 for getting a possible name of the target in Israel's airstrike: Hashim Safi Al Din
Hashim Safi Al Din was born in 1964 in Deir Qanoun En Nahr, southern Lebanon, to a respected Shia family. He is a maternal cousin of Hassan Nasrallah. (Nasrallah is the Secretary General of Hezbollah aka the #1 guy). Al Din is among three major leaders of Hezbollah, the other two are Hassan Nasrallah and Naim Qassem. He is also regarded as second only to Nasrallah In 2006, Al Din was reportedly promoted by Iran as a possible successor to Hassan Nasrallah for the post of Secretary-General of Hezbollah.
If (and it's a big if) Israel indeed targeted and eliminated a member of Hezbollah's upper echelon, I suspect the Israeli assessment would be that it would significantly expand the war in the north. That being said, if the assessment holds true, why wait for Hezbollah to respond? It would be wise to strike while the iron is hot and catch Hezbollah off guard by launching simultaneous attacks on their strongholds and areas avoided by the IDF in the last eight months. This would have been an opportunity to gain the upper hand. However, since nothing of the sort has happened, I'm inclined to be skeptical about the accuracy of the reports that a Hezbollah leader was targeted tonight. My instincts suggest that this may be another instance of overhyping an event in the middle of a war. Though, I've been wrong before.
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Posted: 6/13/2024 10:31:31 PM EDT
[#15]
 Institute for Study of War Backgrounder 13 June Key Takeaways Gaza Strip 99th Division concluded its week long operation in Zaytoun and Sabra neighborhoods of southern Gaza City. The objective was to deepen Israeli control over the Netzarim Corridor. Israeli forces killed dozens of Palestinian fighters and destroyed over 50 militia sites during the most recent Zaytoun operation. Israeli forces have conducted at least five distinct clearing operations in Zaytoun since the war began. Alexandroni Reserve Infantry Brigade and 8th Reserve Armored Brigade deployed to the Netzarim Corridor, south of Gaza City. The two brigades are operating under the 99th Division. Palestinian militias conducted several mortar and rocket attacks targeting Israeli forces along the Netzarim Corridor. 99th Division and Yahalom combat engineering unit destroyed an 800-meter-long tunnel in Juhor ad Dik, adjacent to the northern side of the Netzarim Corridor. Hamas dug the tunnel 30 meters underground and included military rooms and side hatches. The IDF continues to uncover and demolish Hamas underground infrastructure months after gaining operational control over the Netzarim Corridor, underscoring how many tunnels Hamas was able to dig. 162nd Division continued clearing operations in Rafah. Israeli forces. Givati Brigade engaged and killed several Palestinian fighters in Shaboura neighborhood in Rafah. The Agoz Commando unit directed a strike on a Palestinian fighter and military building in Rafah. The IDF denied on June 13 that it expanded operations into the al Mawasi humanitarian zone northwest of Rafah. Palestinian sources reported that Israeli airstrikes, artillery, and small arms fire targeted areas within the humanitarian zone. Palestinian reports indicate that the IDF is operating in the westernmost part of Rafah. A Palestinian journalist posted footage of Israeli forces establishing security operation points as well as Israeli bulldozers moving earth along the westernmost part of the Philadelphi Corridor. A Palestinian militia mortared Israeli forces operating in al Alam, western Rafah. PIJ fired rockets at the major Israeli cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, along with several smaller towns closer to the Gaza Strip. PIJ also mortared IDF sites near the Kerem Shalom crossing into Rafah. West Bank Israeli forces have engaged Palestinian fighters in at least three locations in the West Bank. All three locations are in Jenin Governorate. The IDF conducted a 13-hour raid near Jenin. Special operations forces (SOF) engaged Palestinian fighters and detained suspected. The IDF killed two high-value targets in Qabatiya. Qabatiya is a ”stronghold” for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights Lebanese Hezbollah has conducted at least 19 attacks into northern Israel. Hezbollah attacked eight IDF sites in the Golan Heights, using one-way attack drones in three of the attacks. Hezbollah also fired 40 rockets into northern Israel. Israeli air defenses intercepted most of the rockets with some landing in Israeli territory and causing fires. Shrapnel from the attacks wounded two Israeli civilians. Unspecified senior IDF officials told Israeli media that Israeli strikes on Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon will not achieve Israel's desired end state in Lebanon. They said that Hezbollah attacks have increased over the past month and that Israel must make a political decision on restoring Israeli security in northern Israel. Several senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former War Cabinet member Benny Gantz, have indicated that Israel will respond to Hezbollah through diplomatic or military action. The IDF said on June 13 that the IDF Kiryati Reserve Armored Brigade and 226th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade concluded a two-week-long military exercise simulating a potential conflict in Lebanon. Yemen The Houthis were responsible for at least two attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf of Aden and Red Sea on June 13. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKTMO) reported that two “unknown projectiles” struck a merchant ship 98 nautical miles east of Aden, Yemen, causing a fire. British maritime security firm Ambrey separately said on June 13 that a ship was struck by a missile 129 nautical miles east of Aden. UKTMO also reported an explosion near a merchant ship 82 nautical miles northwest of Hudaydah, Yemen.[82] The explosion did not cause any damage to the ship. US CENTCOM stated on June 12 that its forces destroyed three Houthi anti-ship cruise missile launchers in Houthi-controlled Yemen and intercepted a Houthi drone in the Red Sea. CENTCOM also reported that the Houthis launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen into the Red Sea.    
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TX, USA
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Posted: 6/14/2024 12:24:40 AM EDT
[Last Edit: GBTX01]
[#16]
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Posted: 6/14/2024 10:09:51 AM EDT
[#17]
US military considering taking down Gaza aid pier amid weather concerns — report Link
The US military is reportedly considering temporarily dismantling its floating pier off the coast of Gaza amid concerns over sea conditions, weeks after it was damaged by bad weather. CNN cites US officials as saying a decision on whether to move the pier to the Israeli port of Ashdod will be made today. The US military-built pier, designed to carry aid into Gaza by boat amid the ongoing war, was reconnected to the beach in the Strip last week after it broke apart in storms and rough seas. The section that connects to the beach in Gaza, the causeway, was rebuilt nearly two weeks after heavy storms damaged it and abruptly halted what had already been a troubled delivery route.
The Israeli military releases footage showing how Hamas smashed holes in walls of homes in southern Gaza's Rafah to allow terror operatives to move between buildings to fight IDF troops. The IDF says troops of the Nahal Brigade found several such holes in dense neighborhoods of Rafah. The Nahal troops have also killed numerous gunmen and located numerous tunnel shafts and weapons in the Rafah area, the military says. Nahal forces also directed an airstrike on a booby-trapped building in the area. The military says it identified secondary blasts after the building was hit by a fighter jet, indicating explosives were hidden there. Video inside tweet  Attached File Attached File
This is obviously a tactic borrowed from the Israeli army, employed most notably during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 in the West Bank. Amid the Gaza war, the IDF has also routinely broken through walls to avoid Hamas traps, as seen in this report I wrote last year from the Shati Camp. "Tomer said the troops are not entering alleyways or even through the main entrances to buildings in the camp. Instead, they are blowing holes through the walls, clearing the building, and moving to the next, without ever needing to be exposed in the streets. In many of the buildings, he said, troops found explosive devices planted by the doors." The IDF began to widely encounter Hamas's use of breaking through walls in the Jabaliya camp during the most recent offensive there last month.
The IDF says this morning's barrage from Lebanon on Kiryat Shmona and the nearby community of Kfar Szold comprised of 35 rockets. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack. Several of the rockets were intercepted, the IDF says, while others impacted the area, causing damage in Kiryat Shmona and sparking a fire near Kfar Szold. In response, fighter jets hit several sites belonging to the terror group in Odaisseh and Kafr Kila, the military says. The IDF says it also shelled the launch sites with artillery.
Hezbollah claims responsibility for launching dozens of Katyusha and Falaq rockets at the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and the nearby community of Kfar Szold. In a statement, the terror group says the attack is a response to a deadly IDF strike in southern Lebanon's Jannata last night, in which at least two civilians were reportedly killed. The IDF has not yet commented on the strike. In Kiryat Shmona, damage was caused to property by several rocket impacts, police say.
 Attached File |
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Posted: 6/14/2024 10:31:07 AM EDT
[#18]
Israeli fighter jets and drones struck some 45 targets across the Gaza Strip:
Israeli fighter jets struck several buildings used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Ayta ash-Shab: Israeli soldiers using old-school methods to clear vegetation by the Lebanese border to make sure Hezbollah terrorists cannot hide and infiltrate the border into Israel. They’re doing whatever it takes to keep their base secure Israel Defense Forces operate in Gaza: Documentation from the fall in Katsrin: |
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Posted: 6/14/2024 12:05:24 PM EDT
[#19]
The Shin Bet security agency publishes an image showing a makeup room during preparations for the hostage rescue mission in central Gaza's Nuseirat last weekend. A report by the Saudi-owned Asharq outlet last week quoted local residents saying that a special forces unit, including women, entered Nuseirat in disguise. Forces of the police's elite Yamam counter-terrorism unit and Shin Bet agents rescued the four hostages from two buildings in Nuseirat, as the IDF provided support for the mission. Another image released by the Shin Bet shows a member of the security agency speaking with agency chief Ronen Bar, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, head of the Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, head of the Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, and IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, just before the operation began.
An IDF soldier was wounded after being hit by a vehicle near the Rantis checkpoint in the West Bank, the military and medics say. The soldier, aged 33, was taken to a hospital in good-to-moderate condition, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says. The IDF says it has launched a pursuit for the suspect who fled the scene. According to a military source, the incident is not believed to be a terror attack. |
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Posted: 6/14/2024 2:31:35 PM EDT
[#20]
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Posted: 6/14/2024 5:12:43 PM EDT
[#21]
The IDF releases footage from last weekend showing troops of the Paratroopers Brigade's reconnaissance unit operating near central Gaza's Nuseirat, as rescued Israeli hostages and special forces were transferred to armored vehicles. The video shows the paratroopers arriving at an area where the Yamam and Shin Bet officers got stuck with the rescued hostages, and securing it. The special forces, including fatally wounded Yamam officer Ch. Insp. Arnon Zmora, and the hostages were then extracted in armored vehicles and taken to the Netzarim Corridor area, from where they were airlifted to a hospital in Israel. |
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Posted: 6/14/2024 5:34:35 PM EDT
[#22]
US Navy faces ‘most sustained combat’ since WWII against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis Link
Drawings of drones and missiles that have been shot down are painted on the fuselage of a fighter jet stationed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower  Attached FileHighpoints Near-daily attacks by the Houthis since November have seen more than 50 vessels clearly targeted, while shipping volume has dropped in the vital Red Sea corridor that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. The pace of the fire can be seen on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, where the paint around the hatches of its missile pods has been burned away from repeated launches. Its sailors sometimes have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound. The Eisenhower’s air crews have dropped over 350 bombs and fired 50 missiles at targets in the campaign, said Capt. Marvin Scott, who oversees all the air group’s aircraft. Houthi attacks continue to depress shipping through the region. Revenue for Egypt from the Suez Canal — a key source of hard currency for its struggling economy — has halved since the attacks began. US and European partners patrol the waterways; Saudi Arabia largely has remained quiet, seeking a peace deal with the Houthis. Reports suggest some Mideast nations have asked the US not to launch attacks on the Houthis from their soil, Entire article in quote box The US Navy prepared for decades to potentially fight the Soviet Union, then later Russia and China, on the world’s waterways. But instead of a global power, the Navy finds itself locked in combat with a shadowy, Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen. The US-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, has turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II, its leaders and experts told The Associated Press. The combat pits the US Navy’s mission to keep international waterways open against a group whose former arsenal of assault rifles and pickup trucks has grown into a seemingly inexhaustible supply of drones, missiles and other weaponry. Near-daily attacks by the Houthis since November have seen more than 50 vessels clearly targeted, while shipping volume has dropped in the vital Red Sea corridor that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. The Houthis say the attacks are aimed at stopping the war in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though it comes as they try to strengthen their position in Yemen. All signs suggest the warfare will intensify — putting US sailors, their allies and commercial vessels at more risk. “I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Cmdr. Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon told the AP on a visit to his warship on the Red Sea. “We only have to get it wrong once,” he said. “The Houthis just have to get one through.” The pace of the fire can be seen on the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, where the paint around the hatches of its missile pods has been burned away from repeated launches. Its sailors sometimes have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound. “It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that,” said Capt. David Wroe, the commodore overseeing the guided-missile destroyers. One round of fire on Jan. 9 saw the Laboon, other vessels and F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower shoot down 18 drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthis. Nearly every day — aside from a slowdown during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan — the Houthis launch missiles, drones or some other type of attack in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the waterways and separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. The Navy saw periods of combat during the “Tanker Wars” of the 1980s in the Persian Gulf, but that largely involved ships hitting mines. The Houthi assaults involve direct attacks on commercial vessels and warships. “This is the most sustained combat that the US Navy has seen since World War II — easily, no question,” said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. “We’re sort of on the verge of the Houthis being able to mount the kinds of attacks that the US can’t stop every time, and then we will start to see substantial damage. … If you let it fester, the Houthis are going to get to be a much more capable, competent, experienced force.” Dangers at sea and in the air While the Eisenhower appears to largely stay at a distance, destroyers like the Laboon spend six out of seven days near or off Yemen — the “weapons engagement zone,” in Navy speak. Sea combat in the Mideast remains risky, something the Navy knows well. In 1987, an Iraqi fighter jet fired missiles that struck the USS Stark, a frigate on patrol in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war, killing 37 sailors and nearly sinking the vessel. There’s also the USS Cole, targeted in 2000 by boat-borne al-Qaida suicide bombers during a refueling stop in Yemen’s port city of Aden, which killed 17 on board. AP journalists saw the Cole patrolling the Red Sea with the Laboon on Wednesday, the same day the Houthis launched a drone-boat attack against a commercial ship there that disabled the vessel. Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, the Navy’s commander for its Carrier Strike Group Two, which includes the Eisenhower and supporting ships, said the Navy had taken out one underwater bomb-carrying drone launched by the Houthis as well during the campaign. “We currently have pretty high confidence that not only is Iran providing financial support, but they’re providing intelligence support,” Miguez said. “We know for a fact the Houthis have also gotten training to target maritime shipping and target US warships.” Asked if the Navy believed Iran picks targets for the Houthis, Miguez would only say there was “collaboration” between Tehran and the rebels. He also noted Iran continues to arm the Houthis, despite UN sanctions blocking weapons transfers to them. Iran’s mission to the United Nations told the AP that Tehran “is adept at thwarting the US strategy in a way that not only strengthens (the Houthis) but also ensures compliance with the pertinent resolutions.” The risk isn’t just on the water. The US-led campaign has carried out numerous airstrikes targeting Houthi positions inside Yemen, including what the US military describes as radar stations, launch sites, arsenals and other locations. One round of US and British strikes on May 30 killed at least 16 people, the deadliest attack acknowledged by the rebels. The Eisenhower’s air crews have dropped over 350 bombs and fired 50 missiles at targets in the campaign, said Capt. Marvin Scott, who oversees all the air group’s aircraft. Meanwhile, the Houthis apparently have shot down multiple MQ-9 Reaper drones with surface-to-air missile systems. “The Houthis also have surface-to-air capabilities that we have significantly degraded, but they are still present and still there,” Scott said. “We’re always prepared to be shot at by the Houthis.” Officers acknowledge some grumbling among their crew, wondering why the Navy doesn’t strike harder against the Houthis. The White House hasn’t discussed the Houthi campaign at the same level as negotiations over the Israel-Hamas war. There are several likely reasons. The US has been indirectly trying to lower tensions with Iran, particularly after Tehran launched a massive drone-and-missile attack on Israel and now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Meanwhile, there’s the Houthis themselves. The rebel group has battled a Saudi-led coalition into a stalemate in a wider war that’s killed more than 150,000 people, including civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. The US directly fighting the Houthis is something the leaders of the Zaydi Shiite group likely want. Their motto long has been “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.” Combating the US and siding publicly with the Palestinians has some in the Mideast praising the rebels. While the US and European partners patrol the waterways, Saudi Arabia largely has remained quiet, seeking a peace deal with the Houthis. Reports suggest some Mideast nations have asked the US not to launch attacks on the Houthis from their soil, making the Eisenhower’s presence even more critical. The carrier has had its deployment extended, while its crew has had only one port call since its deployment a week after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Meanwhile, the Houthi attacks continue to depress shipping through the region. Revenue for Egypt from the Suez Canal — a key source of hard currency for its struggling economy — has halved since the attacks began. AP journalists saw a single commercial ship moving through the once-busy waterway. “It’s almost a ghost town,” Blomberg acknowledged. |
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Posted: 6/14/2024 8:47:52 PM EDT
[#23]
 Institute for Study of War Backgrounder 14 June Key Takeaways Gaza Strip 99th Division continued to operate in the Netzarim corridor, south of Gaza City, on June 14. 3rd Alexandroni Reserve Infantry Brigade directed an Israeli Air Force airstrike strike on Palestinian fighters in Zaytoun. Hamas reported that its fighters detonated a building east of Zaytoun rigged to explode, killing an unknown number of IDF soldiers. Hamas also stated that it detonated a rigged tunnel entrance east of Zaytoun, killing and wounding IDF soldiers. 162nd Division continued to operate in Rafah, engaged Palestinian fighters, seized weapons, and identified several underground tunnel shafts.] An IDF Maglan drone team conducted a strike killing a Palestinian fighter approaching Israeli forces. Nahal Brigade killed armed fighters, located tunnel shafts, seized weapons, and destroyed several improvised explosive devices; they also directed an airstrike on a rigged, booby trapped building. IDF reported secondary explosions at the site. Palestinian fighters engaged Israeli forces using rocket-propelled grenades, anti-personnel mines, and mortars. Nahal Brigade identified openings between buildings in Rafah that Hamas fighters use to traverse quickly through dense neighborhoods. The IDF previously identified similar openings in between buildings in dense areas of Jabalia camp during clearing operations in May 2024. IDF reported on June 14 that it detected several indirect fire attacks launched from the Gaza Strip targeting the surrounding area. West Bank Israeli forces engaged Palestinian fighters in Jenin and Jenin refugee camp. Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights Lebanese Hezbollah has conducted at least 22 attacks in the last 24 hours. Hezbollah launched approximately 35 rockets targeting Kiryat Shmona and the surrounding area. The IDF said that it has intercepted approximately 69 percent of Hezbollah drones that targeted northern Israel. IDF conducted airstrikes targeting Hezbollah military infrastructure and launch sites in al Adisa and Kafr Killa, southern Lebanon on June 13 and 14. Lebanese state media reported on June 13 that an IDF airstrike killed at least one civilian and injured 14 others near Tyre. A Hezbollah official said they would increase the rate and scale of attacks against Israel in response to targeted strikes on Hezbollah leaders. Hezbollah launched over 200 mortars and rockets into northern Israel on June 12 in response to an IDF airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah commander on June 11. Yemen US CENTCOM destroyed several Houthi systems, including an air defense sensor, drone, and two patrol boats. Houthis claimed to attack three vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on June 13. The Houthis struck the Palauan-flagged, Ukranian-owned, Polish-operator M/V Verbena in the Gulf of Aden with two anti-ship cruise missiles. The Verbena reported damage and subsequent fires on board. The attack ”severely injured” one civilian mariner. An aircraft from the USS Philippine Sea medically evacuated the injured mariner to a US partner force ship nearby Iran Iranian hardline candidate Saeed Jalili launched his 2024 presidential campaign by defining his political platform as a continuation of former President Ebrahim Raisi’s policies. Peformist presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian is adopting an increasingly reformist political agenda likely to bolster endorsements from high-profile reformist individuals.   
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Posted: 6/15/2024 9:45:32 AM EDT
[#24]
Rockets fired by Hamas at southern Israel last night were launched from the Israeli-designated "humanitarian zone" in the Gaza Strip, the military says. Five rockets were launched in the barrage, two of which crossed the border, impacting open areas near Kibbutz Kissufim. The other three fell short in the Strip. Hamas claimed to have targeted a military base in the area. In a statement, the IDF says Hamas's use of the humanitarian zone to launch rockets at Israel is "a further example of the cynical exploitation of humanitarian infrastructure and the civilian population as human shields by terror organizations in the Gaza Strip for their terrorist attacks."  Attached File
One rocket launched from the Gaza Strip struck an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council, causing no injuries, the military says. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed to have launched a barrage of rockets at a military base near the community of Sufa. Sirens had sounded in Sufa, as well as the adjacent towns of Sdei Avraham, Holit, Pri Gan, and Talmei Yosef.
Two missiles launched from Lebanon this morning struck the Israeli military's sensitive Mount Meron air traffic control base. The IDF says there are no injuries and "no harm to the unit's capabilities" in the attack. Hezbollah took responsibility for the incident, claiming to have targeted equipment at the base with guided missiles. The terror group has attacked Mount Meron, located some eight kilometers (5 miles) from the Lebanon border, several times amid the ongoing war, launching large barrages of rockets at the mountain, as well as guided missiles at the air traffic control base that sits atop it.
Article referenced in tweets in quote box below--link. For three years, violence in the West Bank has persisted with no signs of abatement, fueled mainly by Iran-backed terrorist groups. While Israeli forces conduct near-daily counterterrorism raids, attacks on Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and civilian targets continue. Branches belonging to Islamic Jihad, the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Hamas, and other armed groups not only continue to be operational but are expanding their presence in the West Bank. The FDD’s Long War Journal “Mapping Terrorism in the West Bank” project breaks down attacks carried out by armed groups between March 31, 2022, and June 13, 2024. Additionally, the project breaks down data to show attacks pre- and post-October 7, 2023. Notable figures from the tally reveal that Katibat Jenin, the Islamic Jihad’s Jenin branch, has been responsible for the majority of attacks against Israeli targets. The Lions’ Den has also conducted a significant number of attacks. However, that group has since ceased its activities following repeated Israeli counterterrorism raids against its leadership and members. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades’ Tulkarm Battalion has also demonstrated a capacity to launch a substantial number of attacks, with a total of 132 recorded incidents. Separately, LWJ’s mapped data highlight a concerning issue regarding the presence of numerous terrorist groups operating in the West Bank. While the infographic identifies 15 groups, many linked to known terrorist organizations, additional factions are also active. The data illustrate a marked rise in the number of armed cells, indicating a substantial uptick in terrorist activity in comparison to previous years when only a few militant groups were active in the West Bank. A significant development the infographic does not highlight is the substantial increase in the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against Israeli troops. Initially, Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank relied on automatic weapons, pipe bombs, and crudely rigged fire extinguishers. However, as the violence in the West Bank evolved, armed groups have grown in capability. For example, IED manufacturing labs have been established, creating more sophisticated and powerful explosives capable of causing significant damage to thinly armored Israeli military vehicles. Two notable examples of this trend are attacks in January and May of this year. On January 7, an Israel Border Police officer succumbed to injuries sustained in a roadside bomb explosion, which was claimed by Islamic Jihad’s Jenin branch. On May 5, a car bomb detonated against an Israeli bulldozer, with Islamic Jihad’s Tubas branch taking responsibility for the attack. These incidents demonstrate the evolving tactics of Palestinian terrorist groups and the growing sophistication of their explosive devices. Iran is arming West Bank terrorist groups Iran has been advocating for arming Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank since 2014. In August 2022, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Chief Hossein Salami stated that the West Bank was “being armed” against Israel. He repeated the claim less than a year later, hinting that the Iranian regime was involved in the surge of West Bank violence. “But invisible hands have armed the West Bank, and you [now] see modern automatic rifles and automatic weapons in the hands of the Palestinians,” said Salami. Salami’s words were not mere rhetoric. A significant indicator that the status quo had changed in the West Bank was that armed groups increasingly clashed with Israeli troops, and shooting attacks against IDF posts and Jewish communities became prevalent. Iran’s strategy to arm Palestinian terrorist groups involved employing its proxies and networks of clients in the region to smuggle arms to the West Bank. In September 2023, a senior Israeli military official confirmed to LWJ that Lebanese Hezbollah was involved in the plot. Moreover, on March 25, the Shin Bet said it had thwarted an Iranian plot to smuggle advanced weapons into the West Bank. The smuggling network involved two units from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a senior Fatah official in Lebanon. The Iranian regime has demonstrated a shrewd ability to identify areas of weak governance in the region and leverage its proxies to exploit them. One such example is the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which has a troubled history of corruption and declining popularity. Recognizing an opportunity, Iran initiated a substantial campaign to arm and support its existing proxies in the West Bank, creating a new “resistance” front on Israel’s doorstep. This development has presented a serious security challenge, as armed Palestinian groups supported by Iran continue to pose a threat despite three years of perpetual Israeli efforts to mitigate it.  Attached File |
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Posted: 6/15/2024 10:10:36 AM EDT
[#25]
Road damage is actually a way to see where armored vehicles likely operated. This map therefore portrays the extent of operations and it also reveals areas where large IDF forces probably didn’t operate. It’s actually a more complex story than the initial reaction of “this is where roads were damaged”…it’s a major insight into the history of the war. When I always say Hamas controls 80-90% of Gaza after 8 months of war, here you can see part of that story
New analysis: approximately 65% of the total road network has been damaged across the Gaza Strip as of 29 May 2024. UNOSAT identified approximately 1,100km of destroyed roads, 350km of severely affected roads, and 1,470km of moderately affected roads.  Attached File |
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Posted: 6/15/2024 12:06:18 PM EDT
[#26]
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast in southern Gaza's Rafah this morning, the military announces, in what marks the deadliest incident for the IDF in the Strip since January. Only one of the soldiers is named: Cpt. Wassem Mahmoud, 23, a deputy company commander in the Combat Engineering Corps' 601st Battalion.from Beit Jann. The families of the other seven soldiers have been notified, and their names are due to be released later. According to an initial IDF probe, the troops were all killed inside a Namer armored combat engineering vehicle (CEV). The soldiers had been driving in a convoy at around 5 a.m. on Saturday following an overnight offensive against Hamas in the northwestern areas of Rafah's Tel Sultan neighborhood, during which troops under the 401st Armored Brigade killed some 50 gunmen, according to the IDF. The convoy was heading to buildings captured by the army, for the troops to rest following the overnight operation. The Namer CEV was the fifth or sixth vehicle in the convoy, and at some point, it was hit by a major explosion. It was not immediately clear if it was a bomb planted ahead of time or if Hamas operatives had approached the vehicle with an explosive device and directly placed it on the CEV. The military was also investigating the possibility that explosives stored on the outside of the CEV contributed to the massive blast. Normally, the mines and other explosives stored on the outside of a CEV would not manage to cause injuries to troops inside if they detonated. There was no gunfire amid the incident, and the vehicle was not at a standstill when the blast occurred, the probe found. Their deaths bring the toll of slain IDF soldiers in the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border to 207. A police officer was killed in a hostage rescue operation last week, and a civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip. The deadliest incident in Gaza occurred in January, during which 21 soldiers were killed in a blast following Hamas RPG fire that collapsed two buildings. |
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Posted: 6/15/2024 12:43:11 PM EDT
[Last Edit: michigan66]
[#27]
Crew has abandoned ship hit by Houthis earlier this week (6/13)
 Attached FileVideo showing damage in tweet below
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Posted: 6/15/2024 1:36:50 PM EDT
[Last Edit: michigan66]
[#28]
Tweet with English subtitles.
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Posted: 6/15/2024 4:57:16 PM EDT
[#29]
They made it official--pier is off line, again,
Today, due to expected high seas, the temporary pier will be removed from its anchored position in Gaza and towed back to Ashdod, Israel. The safety of our service members is a top priority and temporarily relocating the pier will prevent structural damage caused by the heightened sea state. The decision to temporarily relocate the pier is not made lightly but is necessary to ensure the temporary pier can continue to deliver aid in the future. After the period of expected high seas, the pier will be rapidly re-anchored to the coast of Gaza and resume delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza. Since May 17, over 3,500 metric tons (7.7 million pounds) have been delivered through the maritime corridor for onward delivery by humanitarian organizations. |
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Posted: 6/15/2024 9:11:07 PM EDT
[#30]
 Institute for Study of War Backgrounder 15 June Key Takeaways Gaza Strip Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades conducted two separate mortar attacks targeting Israeli forces in eastern Zaytoun. Hamas and the Nasser Salah ad Din Brigades conducted mortar and rocket attacks targeting Israeli forces along the Netzarim Corridor on June 15. The Nasser Salah ad Din brigades are the armed wing of a group that left Fatah--Popular Resistance Committees. Palestinian fighters are still active in western Rafah. Hamas and the al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades attacked IDF vehicles with rocket propelled grenades. The National Resistance Brigades attacked an IDF D9 with an improvised explosive device (IED). Palestinian fighters attacked a convoy of the IDF 401st Armored Brigade in Tel al Sultan on June 15, killing eight IDF soldiers. The IED attack struck an IDF Namer armored combat engineering vehicle (CEV). The IDF explained that the CEV should have prevented injuries to troops inside and suggested that the Palestinian fighters may have planted the IED on the vehicle. Palestinian fighters have conducted at least four indirect fire attacks into southern Israel. Hamas and PIJ fighters launched a salvo of rockets targeting an IDF site at Sufa. Hamas, PIJ, and the Nasser Salah ad Din Brigades launched rockets at Kisuffim site. The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades launched a salvo of rockets targeting Israeli forces stationed at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. West Bank Israeli forces engaged PIJ and the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fighters in Kfar Dan. Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights Iranian-backed militias, including Lebanese Hezbollah, conducted four attacks from southern Lebanon into northern Israel. Yemen US CENTCOM destroyed seven Houthi radars in a Houthi-controlled area in Yemen. Crew from a commercial vessel that the Houthis attacked evacuated the vessel, marking the second such incident in 24 hours. Region The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed two separate drone attacks targeting Haifa, Israel.   
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Posted: 6/16/2024 4:09:43 AM EDT
[#31]
Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon's Deir Seryan:
Firefighters and police have received reports of numerous rocket impacts in northern Israel, following a barrage fired from Lebanon. Surveillance camera footage shows two rockets launched from the Gaza Strip at the Ashkelon area: Israeli fighter jets struck a building used by Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon: In the past 72 hours, Hezbollah launched 16 explosive-laden drones from Lebanon at Israel, the military says. According to the IDF, 11 of the drones were shot down by air defenses. It publishes footage of some of the interceptions. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 8:28:30 AM EDT
[#32]
Israeli fighter jets struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Yaroun a short while ago, the military says. Troops also shelled areas near southern Lebanon's al-Amra with artillery to "remove threats," the IDF says. Last night, another building belonging to the terror group in Kafr Kila, and Hezbollah infrastructure in Marwahin were struck, the military adds.
The Israeli military says it will carry out a daily "tactical pause of military activity" in areas of the southern Gaza Strip to enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to Palestinians. The IDF says the pause will take place between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. every day along a road that leads from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah a-Din road, and then northward toward the Khan Younis area. "This is an additional step in the humanitarian aid efforts that have been conducted by the IDF and COGAT since the beginning of the war," the military says.  Attached File
It seems clear that the IDF's decision to have a "tactical pause" for humanitarian purposes from 08:00-19:00 from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards coincides with Eid al-Adha...meanwhile PIJ openly says it is using the holiday to make weapons.
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Posted: 6/16/2024 11:05:56 AM EDT
[#33]
The Israeli military releases footage showing how Hamas smashed holes in walls of homes in southern Gaza's Rafah to allow terror terrorist to move between buildings to fight IDF troops.
The IDF says this morning's barrage from Lebanon on Kiryat Shmona and the nearby community of Kfar Szold comprised of 35 rockets. The military says it carried out a strike on a Hezbollah rocket launcher in southern Lebanon's Yaroun , used in an attack on the northern community of Avivim. Israeli fighter jets struck a building in southern Lebanon's Kafr Kila last night, which the IDF says was used by Hezbollah and was adjacent to an area from which the terror group fired rockets at Metula. The heart-stopping moment when Noa Argamani was saved from Gaza by Israeli security forces. Watch the Israeli Police talk about the rescue of Noa Argamani. Better than any movie. |
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Posted: 6/16/2024 9:44:06 PM EDT
[#34]
 Institute for the Study of War Backgrounder 16 June Key Takeaways Gaza Strip The National Resistance Brigades conducted a mortar attack targeting Israeli forces southeast of Zaytoun. The al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades conducted mortar and rocket attacksagainst Israeli forces along the Netzarim Corridor. Palestinian fighters have continued to engage Israeli forces in western Rafah. The al Qassem Brigades and National Resistance Brigades mortared Israeli forces around Tal al Sultan. The al Quds Brigades fired a rocket propelled grenade targeting an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) vehicle in Saudi neighborhood. The IDF announced it has begun executing a daily 11-hour “tactical pause” along a route east of Rafah to increase humanitarian aid delivery into the southern Gaza Strip. The IDF stated that it will suspend military activities daily between 0800 and 1900 local time along an approximately 10.5 kilometer route that leads from the Kerem Shalom crossing along Salah ad Din Road to al Fukhkhari, south of Khan Younis. The IDF has previously announced “tactical pauses” in several neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid delivery to Palestinian civilians. The new 11-hour daily tactical pauses are longer and cover a larger area than the IDF’s previous pauses. The IDF clarified that the fighting in Rafah will continue despite the tactical pauses east of the city. The al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades launched a salvo of rockets targeting the IDF Sufa site in southern Israel. West Bank Israeli forces engaged the al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in al Faraa refugee camp, Tubas, and Balata refugee camp, Nablus. Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights The IDF intercepted a ”suspicious aerial target” over Lebanese airspace approaching Nahariya. Yemen United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported two explosions near a vessel approximately 40 nautical miles south of al Mokha, Yemen. US Central Command (CENTCOM) published an update about the Palauan-flagged, Ukranian-owned, Polish-operated commercial vessel Verbena on June 15. The Houthis struck the Verbena in the Gulf of Aden on June 13 with two anti-ship cruise missiles, causing fires onboard. CENTCOM reported that the Verbena’s crew issued a distress call and abandoned ship on June 15 due to “continuous fires and an inability to control them.” The Cayman Islands-flagged commercial vessel Anna Meta responded to the distress call and rescued the crew. CENTCOM noted that the Iranian Artesh Navy frigate Jamaran was eight nautical miles from the Verbena but did not respond to the distress call. UKMTO reported on June 15 that the crew of an unspecified vessel abandoned their vessel after the Houthis attacked it, likely referencing the Verbena. 
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Posted: 6/17/2024 1:49:44 AM EDT
[#35]
A Hezbollah weapons depot was struck by Israeli fighter jets in southern Lebanon's Aitaroun:
Hamas using civilian areas to launch rockets. The UN seems to be sleeping. Israeli fighter jets struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Yaroun: IDF Spox. on Hezbollah’s Escalation on the Northern Front: Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in four areas of Southern Lebanon: |
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Posted: 6/17/2024 9:39:48 AM EDT
[#36]
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Posted: 6/17/2024 10:21:21 AM EDT
[Last Edit: michigan66]
[#37]
Posted in the big Gaza thread but might be of interest here.
The Israel Defense Forces says it has dismantled about half of Hamas's fighting force in Rafah, killing at least 550 gunmen in the area, as the operation against the terror group in the Gaza Strip's southern city continues. The IDF's 162nd Division has been fighting in Rafah for more than 40 days, initially taking control of the city's eastern outskirts and the border crossing with Egypt in early May. In the second stage of the operation, about a week and a half later, the division captured the Brazil neighborhood. The third stage of the Rafah offensive saw the IDF take control of the entire Egypt-Gaza border, known as the Philadelphi Route, as well as push into the city's northwestern Tel Sultan neighborhood. The IDF says it has killed at least 550 gunmen in the Rafah operation, meaning those it was able to physically identify following battles. Many more terror operatives were killed in strikes against buildings and tunnels, it has assessed. Additionally, an unknown number of terror operatives fled the Rafah area as the military began its offensive there. Of Hamas's Rafah Brigade's four battalions, two — Yabna (South) and East Rafah — are considered to be almost completely dismantled, while the capabilities of the other two — Shaboura (North) and Tel Sultan (West) — are somewhat degraded from IDF operations. Along the Philadelphi corridor, the IDF says it has located hundreds of rockets, including dozens of long-range projectiles aimed at central Israel. Also in the border area, more than 200 tunnel shafts were located, leading to many underground routes. The IDF says it has located at least 25 "long" tunnels that reach up to the border with Egypt, some of which likely cross into Sinai and had been used by Hamas to smuggle weapons. The military says it is investigating these tunnels further. Aside from the Philadelphi Route, the IDF says it has established "complete operational control" over the Brazil neighborhood and so-called NPK neighborhood of Rafah — located near the Shaboura and Yabna camps. The latter neighborhood is considered to be a major Hamas stronghold, and the army says troops killed dozens of gunmen inside tunnels there. The 162nd Division has lost 22 soldiers amid the fighting in Rafah, eight of whom were killed on Saturday in a blast in an armored vehicle that came under attack.
"Although security around him has been tightened, former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen recently revealed unequivocally, "We know the exact location of the Secretary-General of the terrorist organization, and we can take him out at any moment." He added, "If a decision is made to settle the score with Nasrallah, Israel can do so at any given time." 2/2
This messaging is somehow supposed to deter Nasrallah...but considering the fact Hezbollah likely assumed this to be true for a decade and a half...I don't think it matters. This is built into the Hezbollah calculous. They know Israel hasn't taken out Sinwar and that Israel is fine with having Hamas leaders in Doha...they can also watch what is happening in Gaza and see how Israel's campaign has left most of Hamas intact in parts of Gaza. I don't think Hezbollah buys the threats anymore. They've fired 5,000 missiles and rockets at Israel and suffered only minor setbacks of 300 of their personell eliminated and some fields and "launch sites" and empty buildings struck...they know the equation and they have been busy changing it. Stories about "we will flatten Beirut and make it like Gaza" and "we know your location" doesn't impress them anymore, and probably never did. Hezbollah is a very sophisticated organization and puts a lot of thought into this. It knows the equation. So far it hasn't seen Israel do anything surprising. It is familiar with this Israeli leadership...it's not facing off against Ariel Sharon and Meir Dagan... Palestinian twitter in quote box. Video of attacks on IDF troops
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Posted: 6/17/2024 12:46:22 PM EDT
[#38]
The IDF confirms carrying out this morning's drone strike in southern Lebanon's Salaa, killing a "prominent" member of Hezbollah's rocket unit. Muhammad Ayoub served in the rocket unit of Hezbollah's Nasr regional division, according to the IDF. In recent months, Ayoub was behind several rocket attacks on Israel, and plans to carry out other attacks. Fighter jets also struck a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon's Mays al-Jabal, the IDF adds. |
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ESP
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Posted: 6/17/2024 1:19:16 PM EDT
[#39]
We are a generation of victory, not victimhood. Israel must finish the job.
Video from Israeli troops operating in Rafah: Seconds from disaster: Dramatic video from Kiryat Shmona - a missile fired from southern Lebanon falls in the city's territory and almost hits a vehicle passing by. |
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Posted: 6/17/2024 7:43:34 PM EDT
[#40]
 Institute for the Study of War Backgrounder 17 June Key Takeaways Gaza Strip The Israel Defense Forces said it has dismantled about half of Hamas’ forces in Rafah. The IDF said that it now controls approximately 60 to 70 percent of the governorate, including the Egypt-Gaza Strip border and that Israeli forces have completely “dismantled” two of four battalions in Hamas’ Rafah Brigade and that IDF units have “somewhat degraded” the other two. An Israeli correspondent estimated that Israel will take “several more weeks” to completely “dismantle” Hamas’ Rafah Brigade. Israeli forces located 200 tunnel openings, 25 of which led to tunnels that reach the border with Egypt. The IDF said that its forces have killed at least 550 Palestinian fighters in Rafah. Twenty-two 162nd Division soldiers have died during fighting in Rafah. The IDF will shift to a “targeted raid” approach in the whole of the Gaza Strip after the end of the Rafah operation; forces in northern Gaza have already transitioned to this approach to target reconstituting Hamas units. Hamas’ Rafah Brigade will likely survive with sufficient assets to reconstitute itself, given the time and space to reconstitute. An Israeli war correspondent said an unspecified number of Hamas fighters left the Rafah area when Israeli forces first arrived. This group of surviving Hamas fighters could provide Hamas commanders in Rafah sufficient human capital to rebuild the Rafah Brigade. The IDF has discovered large numbers of Hamas fighters in previously uncleared areas during other operations. 99th Division continued to operate along the Netzarim Corridor south of Gaza City. Israeli forces continued clearing operations in two areas of Rafah. 162nd Division is operating in Tal al Sultan and Shaboura. Israeli forces destroyed a weapons storage facility in Tal al Sultan and executed controlled detonations of explosives that Palestinian fighters had previously planted. Israeli forces established “operational control” over the “NPK“ neighborhood in central Rafah, the area is a known Hamas stronghold. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters fired on Israeli forces near Kerem Shalom. Palestinian Mujahideen Movement fighters launched rockets at an IDF site in southern Israel. West Bank No IDF activity reported. Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights The IDF intercepted a drone off the coast of Acre, northern Israel. CTP-ISW did not record any claimed attacks by Lebanese Hezbollah since CTP-ISW's last data cut off on June 16. An IDF drone strike killed a senior Hezbollah fighter in Selaa, southern Lebanon. The target of the strike, Mohammed Ayoub, was the head of the Rocket and Missile Department in Hezbollah’s Nasr Unit. The Nasr Unit commander Taleb Sami Abdullah was airstrike in southern Lebanon on June 11--Abdullah was the most senior Hezbollah commander killed in the current conflict. The Nasr Unit is one of three regional commands in southern Lebanon. Ayoub planned rocket attacks from southern Lebanon into Israel. IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari highlighted the increased risk of a wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah amid a heightened rate of Hezbollah attacks into northern Israel. Hezbollah launched its largest attack into northern Israel on June 12 in response to the IDF airstrike that killed the commander of Hezbollah’s Nasr Unit on June 11. Hezbollah has previously planned attacks like the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. Hezbollah has also established an elite commando arm—the Radwan Force—that is designed to conduct ground operations into Israeli territory. US envoy Amos Hochstein met with senior Israeli officials on June 17 to deescalate rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah on the Israel-Lebanon border. Yemen The Houthis conducted four attacks that caused physical damage to commercial vessels between June 9 and June 13, indicating an increase in the effectiveness of Houthi attacks. The Houthis claimed to attack three vessels in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. The Houthi movement claims it launched ballistic missiles at a US Navy destroyer in the Red Sea. Houthi media claimed on June 17 that the United States and the United Kingdom conducted six airstrikes targeting Hudaydah International Airport and three airstrikes targeting Kamaran Island, west of Hudaydah. Houthis use routes through Djibouti and Lebanon to import Iranian weapons and equipment and Chinese-manufactured weapons parts. Iranian arms arrive in Djibouti and are transfered to civilian ships. The Houthis use an established corridor between Djibouti and Houthi-controlled ports along the Yemeni Red Sea coast to smuggle “illicit cargo.". Officials also noted that the Houthis are using Lebanon to buy spare drone parts from China. The UN Panel of Experts on Yemen found in two 2023 Panel of Experts reports that the Houthis smuggled weapons that were manufactured or partially manufactured in China. Iranian Presidential Election Iranian reformist presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian appears to be struggling to consolidate support among Iranian youth, a key voter demographic. The Sharif University students’ statements—while not emblematic of all individuals in this demographic—are demonstrative of the increased disillusionment of Iranian youth in recent years.   
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ESP
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Posted: 6/18/2024 2:40:35 AM EDT
[#41]
Israeli fighter jets struck a building used by Hezbollah and additional infrastructure in Southern Lebanon's Aitaroun:
A group of British rioters broke into Israel's largest arms manufacturer in Kent. Computers and other essential equipment were destroyed: If you support Hamas, Islam or the so called Palestinians, you support: Terrorism! Rape! Beheadings! Baby killing! Kiddenapping! You support Antisemitism! Jewish extermination! You support people who call for YOUR death! They are coming for you, and yelling "I supported you" will not save you! |
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Posted: 6/18/2024 9:34:05 AM EDT
[#42]
3 weeks before Oct. 7, IDF Gaza Division warned of Hamas plan to attack, take 250 hostages --link.
Link to thread in GD dealing with the issue Article A document compiled within the IDF’s Gaza Division less than three weeks before October 7 warned that Hamas was training for a large-scale invasion of Israel during which hostages would be taken en masse, the Kan public broadcaster revealed Monday. Titled “Detailed raid training from end to end,” the document was circulated on September 19 and was reportedly brought to the attention of at least some senior intelligence officials, but apparently ignored. Kan did not specify who produced the document or clarify who may have seen it. Reportedly based on information from Military Intelligence’s Unit 8200, the document estimated the number of hostages Hamas was aiming to seize at 200-250, according to Kan, citing unnamed security sources. During the actual October 7 massacre, 251 hostages were taken and 1,200 people were killed amid acts of brutality. The document described a series of exercises that the Palestinian terror group’s elite forces were carrying out, including drilling for raids on Israeli towns and military posts, and training on how to hold soldiers and civilians hostage inside Gaza and in what circumstances they could be killed. “At 11 a.m., several companies were observed gathering for prayer and lunch before start of training,” part of the document states. “At noon, equipment and weapons are distributed to the fighters, after which a company headquarters drill takes place. At 2:00 p.m., the raid practice begins.” The document was said to add that the Hamas commandos also practiced infiltrating mock Israel Defense Forces outposts, simulating bases on the Gaza border. This exercise was carried out by four companies from the terror group, with each assigned a different outpost. The document also detailed the areas within the bases that the commandos planned to target, including control rooms, synagogues and living quarters, according to the TV report. Commandos in Hamas’s elite Nukhba force were instructed not to leave documents behind after they raided bases, according to the memo. Terrorists were trained to ensure hostages did not have telephones on them, were forbidden from informing hostages’ families of their condition, and were ordered to move them if it became apparent that Israel determined their location, the document reportedly noted. They were also told to threaten to kill hostages to deter them from escaping. The document was brought to the attention of senior intelligence officials, at least within the Gaza Division, the unnamed security officials told Kan. The government and top military leaders have contended they were not warned about an imminent planned invasion at the time. The report added that the most extreme scenario the Gaza Division had prepared for before October 7 was dozens of terrorists breaching the border in three spots — far less than the estimated 3,000 who ended up entering Israel via some 30 breaches during the onslaught. One of the soldiers involved in the report wrote after October 7, “I feel like crying, yelling and swearing,” according to Kan. In its response to the TV report, the IDF did not acknowledge the document, but said it was investigating the failures that led to the massacre and would present them “transparently to the public.” The report follows numerous others in which the military was said to have received and compiled intelligence material and other information pointing to the imminent invasion and massacre. Israel had multiple sources of information on Hamas’s drills and other preparations for an assault in the weeks and even hours ahead of October 7, reportedly including a 2022 attack plan from the terror group. A military assessment in 2022 determined it was too soon to say the plan had been approved by Hamas, and when an analyst with the country’s signals intelligence unit noted the organization had carried out a training exercise in line with the plan, her warnings were dismissed. Following the October 7 onslaught, surveillance soldiers who served along the border with Gaza specified they too had raised concerns before that day about suspicious activity but were ignored. The IDF had long touted its security fence, with cameras, watchtowers and high-tech sensors, as providing security to residents of Gaza border towns. But on October 7, Hamas terrorists knocked chunks of it aside with explosives and bulldozers at multiple locations, then drove through the gaping holes in jeeps and on motorcycles, while others sailed over in hang gliders, as drones dropped explosives on observation towers and took out cameras. Amid a simultaneous rocket barrage across southern and central Israel, an estimated 3,000 terrorists stormed into southern Israel and slaughtered soldiers and civilians alike, with some local resistance but the military establishment slow to react. The Israeli military announced earlier this month that it would begin to present its investigations into its failures in the lead-up to the Hamas terror group’s October 7 attacks in July.
June 17 U.S. Central Command Update In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed four Houthi radars and one uncrewed surface vessel (USV) in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. Additionally, USCENTCOM forces successfully destroyed one Iranian-backed Houthi uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) over the Red Sea. There were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition, or merchant vessels. Senior Israeli negotiator says dozens of Gaza hostages ‘alive, with certainty’ link A senior Israeli negotiator told AFP on Monday that dozens of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are certainly alive and that Israel cannot accept halting the war until all captives are released in a deal. “Dozens are alive, with certainty,” the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. “We cannot leave them there a long time, they will die,” he said, adding that a vast majority of them were being held by Hamas in Gaza. The hostages were taken during the terror group’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault. Israel believes 116 remain in Gaza, including 41 who the Israel Defense Forces has confirmed dead. US President Joe Biden last month presented what he said was a three-phase Israeli proposal to end the war in Gaza, which includes a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas. Biden said the first phase would include a “full and complete ceasefire” lasting six weeks, with Israeli forces withdrawing from “all populated areas of Gaza.” The official said Israel could not end the conflict with Hamas before a hostage deal is signed because the terror group could “breach its commitment… and drag out the negotiations for 10 years” or more. “We cannot, at this point in time — before signing the agreement — commit to ending the war,” he said. “Because during the first phase, there’s a clause that we hold negotiations about the second phase. The second phase is the release of the men and male soldier hostages.” The official said the Israeli negotiating team had green-lit the Biden plan, though the government has yet to publicly approve it. “We expect, and are waiting for, Hamas to say ‘yes,'” the official said. “In the event we don’t reach an agreement with Hamas, the IDF will continue to fight in the Gaza Strip in a no less intense fashion than it’s fighting now,” he said. “In a different manner, but an intense manner.” Fighting is ongoing in multiple areas in Gaza, with the IDF announcing on Tuesday that soldiers had eliminated a number of terrorists in battles in the southern city of Rafah and in central Gaza over the past day. The negotiator’s comments came as anti-government protests were holding a “week of disruption,” calling for early elections and a deal to free the remaining hostages held in Gaza. Tens of thousands gathered near the Knesset for a mass rally on Monday evening, with many marching to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem where violent clashes ensued between police and protesters. Public pressure on the government to close a deal to free the remaining hostages has been building since Biden presented the latest Israel-backed proposal. However, negotiations appear to remain stalled, with Hamas reportedly seeking to change the terms of the deal by pushing forward a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza into the very initial stages of a phased implementation, as well as insisting that it be a clear end to the war. Link to liveblog articles here. Fire ignited in an open area near Metula, northern Israel, following a rocket launch from Lebanon  For the first time in two days: Sirens activated in northern Israel due to a possible hostile drone infiltration U.S. military says destroyed four Houthi radars, one uncrewed surface vessel and one drone After 5+ months of air strikes, why do they have any radar sites left? The U.S. military said on Monday it had destroyed four Houthi radars, one uncrewed surface vessel and one drone in the past 24 hours. The radars and uncrewed surface vessel were destroyed in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, U.S. Central Command said in a post on the social media site X. The drone was destroyed over the Red Sea. Here's what you've missed on day 256 of the war ■ The UN Famine Review Committee published a report on the situation in the northern Gaza Strip which said that there is not enough reliable information to declare a famine situation. ■ In the coming weeks, the IDF is expected to present its achievements since the beginning of the war in Gaza in an attempt to convince the public that it has succeeded in defeating Hamas' military wing. ■ The IDF said that two of the four battalions of the Rafah Brigade have been defeated, and that the other two are nearing defeat in the coming weeks. ■ The IDF said it killed a senior Hezbollah member in a strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon. ■ PM Netanyahu met with Amos Hochstein, U.S. President Biden's envoy and senior advisor to the Middle East, in Jerusalem. ■ Security sources told Haaretz that the government has not yet given the IDF clear orders regarding its activities in Gaza after the fighting ends, saying that without a decision on the "day after," the IDF's achievements in Rafah will be eroded and Israel may lose its leverage against Hamas. ■ At a state audit panel in the Knesset, Israeli combat soldiers accused the state of failing to provide care for them, including treatment for PTSD. ■ Russia's Human Rights Commissioner said she had issued a fresh appeal to senior UN officials to take action to secure the release of Russian nationals still held by Hamas in Gaza. |
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Posted: 6/18/2024 10:20:51 AM EDT
[Last Edit: michigan66]
[#43]
The Hostages Next Door: Inside a Notable Gaza Family’s Dark Secret link
To the outside world, they were a physician, a journalist. No one suspected their apartment had become a prison. Highpoints The 73-year-old general practitioner Ahmad Al-Jamal was a fixture of his community...when he finished his duties each day, he would return home to the apartment he shared with his son, his daughter-in-law and their children—and the three Israeli hostages they were hiding there for Hamas. Ahmad and Abdullah Al-Jamal were part of an extended family that had a number of ties to Hamas. Abdullah (the doctor's son) was a freelance contributor to the Palestine Chronicle..his recent articles for the Palestine Chronicle reported on civilian deaths in the invasion of Gaza, accusing Israel of massacres and genocide. One article published on June 3...one of his articles talked about Gaza families that had taken in people displaced by the war. It carried the headline, “My House Will Always Be Open. Israeli intelligence caught wind of the hostages’ location in May Entire article in quote box The 73-year-old general practitioner Ahmad Al-Jamal was a fixture of his community. He worked mornings at a public clinic in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nuseirat and afternoons at his own small private clinic, where residents turned to him for procedures such as circumcisions. He also was an imam at a local mosque, where he was known for his beautiful voice when reciting the Quran. But for the past several months, when he finished his duties each day, he would return home to the apartment he shared with his son, his daughter-in-law and their children—and the three Israeli hostages they were hiding there for Hamas. It was common knowledge in Nuseirat that the Al-Jamal family was close to Hamas, according to local residents who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. But they said few people in the densely populated area in central Gaza knew of the secret locked in the small, darkened room in the family’s apartment. The hostages and Israeli security forces have said their captors included Al-Jamal’s son, 37-year-old Palestinian journalist Abdullah Al-Jamal. From their locked and guarded room, the hostages said, they could hear Abdullah and his wife, Fatma, a phlebotomist at a local clinic, and their children going about their daily lives in the apartment. The building on Bisan Street is no longer standing. An Israeli airstrike destroyed it earlier this month, soon after Israeli commandos burst into the apartment and extracted the hostages, according to local residents. Abdullah and his father were killed in the operation along with Abdullah’s wife, according to the local residents, who confirmed the sequence of events. The Al-Jamals’ children survived the raid, according to a next-door neighbor. A few blocks away from the Al-Jamal home, another family with Hamas links called Abu Nar was holding Noa Argamani, according to local residents and an Israeli official. Argamani’s kidnapping at the Nova festival was recorded on video, making her one of the best-known of the roughly 250 hostages taken Oct. 7. The Abu Nar family was also killed, and their building destroyed, local residents said. They were less prominent in the neighborhood than the Al-Jamals, residents said. Surviving members of the Al-Jamal family declined to comment or weren’t reachable. Israel’s military operation in Nuseirat on June 8 rescued the four hostages but also left a large number of Palestinians dead following heavy fighting. The Israeli military said the special forces who carried out the rescue eliminated armed Hamas militants guarding the hostages but declined to comment on whether they killed the family members they encountered in both buildings. The military didn’t reply to a request for comment on whether it destroyed the buildings. The rubble where the Al-Jamal family once lived has drawn a steady flow of gawkers eager to see the place where hostages had been imprisoned in their midst, some of the people said. The June 8 rescue operation was accompanied by heavy airstrikes and turned into a fierce battle with Hamas in the streets, leaving behind death and destruction. In the days since, local residents have discussed the folly of Hamas keeping Israeli hostages above ground in a residential area near a bustling market. Some people said they were surprised by the revelation, because it is hard to keep a secret in the densely built neighborhood. Even a cough can be heard through the walls of the concrete and cinder-block apartment buildings, they said. Others were furious that Hamas had put civilians in danger. Any Israeli military action in the narrow streets of Nuseirat was bound to result in large numbers of dead and wounded, some residents said. Some locals said Hamas should have held the hostages in tunnels. Others said they should have been returned to Israel as part of a deal to end the war. The failure to secure a cease-fire despite months of negotiations is causing growing frustration in Gaza, people across the war-torn enclave say. “Hamas should give us a map of the safe zones we can stay in, because if we knew there were hostages in the neighborhood, we would have looked for another place,” said Mustafa Muhammad, 36, who fled from Gaza City to Nuseirat early in the war with his wife and infant daughter. When the raid got under way, Muhammad and his family found themselves trapped with nowhere safe to go. Many hostages have been held in tunnels, but a number have been held in apartments, potentially reflecting the challenge of moving around so many captives in an active war zone. Local residents said Ahmad and Abdullah Al-Jamal were part of an extended family that had a number of ties to Hamas. Mosques throughout Gaza are controlled by Hamas, and imams serve with the approval of the militant group. Ahmad’s brother Abdelrahman Al-Jamal is a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza’s legislative council. Abdullah was a freelance contributor to the Palestine Chronicle, a pro-Palestinian news website based in the U.S. He also worked for the Hamas-run news agency Palestine Now, according to Gaza’s government media office, which noted his death, and had served as a spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Labor. He made no secret of his support for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians. Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza has killed over 37,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, whose numbers don’t say how many were militants. “Praise be to God…Oh God, guide us…Oh God, guide us…Oh God, guide us…Oh God, grant us the victory you promised,” Abdullah posted on Facebook on Oct. 7. The Palestine Chronicle said it was saddened by his death and denied he was involved in holding the Israeli hostages. The family was well-regarded and popular in Nuseirat, a refugee camp established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that has grown into a dense urban area. Palestinian refugee camps, especially in the West Bank, remain focal points of a militant struggle against Israel. The Al-Jamals originally came from the majority Arab town of Al-Ramla, now Ramla in central Israel, and fled to Gaza in 1948. Ahmad, the head of the family, was busy throughout the war, coming and going from his clinic and the mosque or buying groceries as normal, a neighbor said. His son Abdullah was rarely seen, the neighbor said. Released Israeli hostage Andrey Kozlov arriving at a hospital near Tel Aviv. Photo: gidon markowicz/Shutterstock “Dr. Ahmad was the one who circumcised my three boys,” said Ali Bkhit, a social-media consultant who was born and raised in the neighborhood. “When I dealt with him, he was a nice character; his smile never left his face.” Bkhit said he grew up hearing Ahmad Al-Jamal’s voice reciting the Quran at the local Al-Farouk Mosque. “He was always there, his voice was beautiful, and people admired him a lot,” he said. Bkhit said he was shocked to learn that the Al-Jamals had been holding hostages in their home, because he didn’t expect the family to be involved in such a way in Hamas’s war with Israel. Israeli intelligence caught wind of the hostages’ location in May, according to Israel’s military. Special forces spent weeks practicing for the rescue mission on models of the two small apartment blocks, the military said. The hostages’ return home caused jubilation in Israel. It was a rare day of joy amid a grim war that is still far from achieving its declared goals of destroying Hamas and bringing home the 116 remaining Israelis and others seized on Oct. 7. The Nuseirat area, swollen with civilians displaced from other parts of Gaza, suffered the heaviest bombardment by Israeli air and ground forces that it has seen in the eight-month war. Palestinian health authorities said 274 people were killed and nearly 700 injured. Israel’s military said around 100 people were killed or wounded, including militants and civilians caught in the crossfire. The numbers couldn’t be independently verified. On June 8, Israeli commandos launched a rescue mission to free four hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. WSJ spoke with the uncle of one of the hostages, Almog Meir Jan, about their time in captivity. Photo: Israeli Army/AFP/Getty Images Rescue team leader Arnon Zamora was wounded in a firefight at the Al-Jamal house and later died. A video released by Israel’s military showed commandos entering a room in the apartment and finding the three male hostages. In the second building, about 200 yards away, Israeli commandos found Noa Argamani. Abdullah Al-Jamal’s recent articles for the Palestine Chronicle reported on civilian deaths in the invasion of Gaza, accusing Israel of massacres and genocide. One article published on June 3, just a few days before he died, talked about Gaza families that had taken in people displaced by the war. It carried the headline, “My House Will Always Be Open.”  Attached File Attached File |
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Posted: 6/18/2024 3:39:24 PM EDT
[#44]
Three suspected drones were shot down over the Western Galilee a short while ago, the military says. The IDF says it launched interceptor missiles at the three "suspicious aerial targets" that had crossed into Israeli airspace, and successfully intercepted them. Sirens had sounded due to fears of falling shrapnel following the interceptions.
The IDF says it carried out a series of strikes in southern Lebanon today, targeting several Hezbollah operatives involved in launching drones. The operatives were part of Hezbollah's aerial forces unit, which the military says was behind dozens of explosive-laden drone attacks on northern Israel and other surveillance operations. Drone strike video in tweet — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 18, 2024
The head of the IDF Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin and head of the Operations Directorate, Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, approved battle plans today, the military says. The IDF in a statement says the generals held an assessment, during which "operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved." The top commanders also made decisions regarding "accelerating the readiness of the forces on the ground," the military adds. |
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Posted: 6/18/2024 4:26:25 PM EDT
[#45]
Clifford Sobin is an attorney who has researched Hezbollah for some time in collaboration with the Alma Center, an Israeli think tank. Below is a post he put up that's an excerpt from his book about Hezbollah. It is a long post, so you've been warned. The entire book on Israel and Hezbollah--Israel's Struggle with Hezbollah: A War Without End can be found at the Amazon link here. Amazon might put it into its Kindle daily deals, they've been doing that recently.
Hezbollah: Its Origin, Growth, and Capability—Part One Link April 2, 2024 by Clifford Sobin Today, Israel has reached a decision point: will it accept the status quo with Hezbollah or will Israel force a change if diplomatic efforts fail? The eighty thousand evacuated inhabitants of the now emptied forty-two communities and one city located close to the Lebanese border, currently living in temporary shelters, will only return to their homes when it is safe to do so. Now it is not. Hezbollah’s daily firing of missiles and drones targeting civilians and military targets in the north (almost 5,000 as of April 1, 2024), along with its capability to initiate an even more deadly October 7, make it unsafe to go back. As a result, that now barren region is devoid of civilian activity and most economic pursuits are at a standstill. Farther back, Israeli citizens are at risk too. And so is Israel’s future imperiled if Hezbollah succeeds in challenging Israel’s sovereignty and use of lands that have been part of the nation since its founding in 1948. The direct culprit is Hezbollah, behind which stands Iran. Simply put, Hezbollah is Iran’s creation planted deeply in Lebanon—but with worldwide tentacles. It is a hybrid terrorist organization, a ruling governmental power in Lebanon, and it presents a grave threat to Israel. Led by Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah is a Shiite organization dedicated to Israel’s destruction that is funded primarily by Iran and Hezbollah’s international criminal enterprises—including in the United States. And it is powerful, resourceful, and resilient. Therefore, since Hezbollah is likely to remain a threat to Israel for a long time to come, it is important to understand what Hezbollah is, how it grew, its track record, and what it is capable of. To do that, this article is divided into four parts. This, part one, covers the early days of Hezbollah but first takes a necessary, shallow dive into Lebanon’s history which is one of religious strife, cruelty, and dysfunction. Part two tracks Hezbollah’s growth over the following twenty years. Part three begins with the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and ends with Hezbollah’s battle and political experience through 2019. Part four describes Hezbollah’s present military assets and reviews pertinent events of the last four years, up to the summer of 2023, that were warning signs of Hezbollah’s newfound aggressiveness. Lebanon Before Hezbollah For centuries, the population of Lebanon has mainly consisted of four major religious groups: Christian, Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslims, and Druze. In 1943, when Lebanon first became an independent nation, Christianity (mostly Maronites) was the religion that somewhere between a slight majority or largest minority of people in Lebanon identified with. They were followed by Shiites, Sunnis, and bringing up the rear with only a few percentage points of the population, the Druze. Therefore, as part of the deal the Maronites negotiated with France to gain independence, an agreement known as the National Pact was reached. The most important governmental aspects of that unwritten deal were: The President and the Commander of Lebanon’s armed forces must be a Maronite Christian. The Prime Minister must be a Sunni Muslim. The Speaker of the Parliament must be a Shiite Muslim. The ratio of Christians to all other religions in parliament must always be 6:5. In effect, this meant that Christians would control Lebanon’s government. For the next thirty years all went relatively well, despite some widening fissures that included: A change in demography within Lebanon due to differing birth rates and emigration. Those identifying as Sunni or Shiite at some point cumulatively took over majority status from the Christians. King Hussein evicted the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from Jordan in the early 1970’s. As a result, many members of that Sunni terrorist organization moved to Lebanon and took control in Southern Lebanon. Sunnis somewhat prospered while Shiite economic conditions stagnated or worsened. In effect Shiites became second class citizens, never loved by the Christians, and hated by the Sunnis—an enmity that began decades after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 CE due to differences over how successor leaders of the Muslims should be chosen. Then, in April 1975, an extremely destructive and bloody Civil War broke out in Lebanon. Primarily, it was fought by the Christians against the PLO and the Sunnis, with some Druze involvement. The Shiites mostly sat it out. Not so the Syrians, whose main goal was to take control of Lebanon, but in furtherance of it flip flopped more than once as to which side it supported. By 1979, most of the bloodshed was over, although the conflict still simmered. However, a new player was soon to exert influence in Lebanon—Iran—the most powerful Shiite state in the world. In April 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini had returned from exile to take control of Iran. He declared that Iran would now be an Islamic republic guided by Shiite religious values. And, for good measure, he spewed a virulent hatred for Israel. In 1980, Syria and Iran issued a joint communique binding both nations to friendship and bilateral support for their mutual hatred of Israel, Egypt, and the United States. Simultaneously, Ayatollah Khomeini plotted to impose his brand of Shiite ideology and revolution worldwide. Lebanon—with its mass of Shiites already connected in many ways to Iran and resentful of their inferior political, social, and economic status—was low hanging fruit. Therefore, it was not long before Iranian agents arrived to radicalize the Shiites in Lebanon. And for the next decade a struggle ensued among Shiites between those energized by Iran’s agents and a more secular Shiite organization known as AMAL. Hezbollah—An Iranian Proxy—Is Born in 1982 No discussion of the origins of Hezbollah is complete unless it illuminates the unintentional part played by the PLO. After the PLO’s eviction from Jordan and its arrival in force in southern Lebanon in the early 1970’s, the level of terrorist activity emanating from Lebanon at the PLO’s behest increased substantially. The years between 1974 and 1982 were particularly bloody. PLO terrorists crossed the border to indiscriminately kill Israeli citizens, including children, and the PLO’s minions indiscriminately fired rockets at Israeli towns along the northern border. This is when the massacres at Ma’alot, Kiryat Shmona, Nahariyah, and the bus attack that killed thirty-eight Israelis south of Haifa occurred. So too at Misgav Am where PLO terrorists took toddlers captive. Therefore, it was no surprise when in June 1982, Israel’s government unleashed Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) on the PLO to drive the terrorist organization back from the border. By the end of August, the IDF had succeeded in pushing the PLO out of Lebanon. Nevertheless, because the operation had other goals and because of issues over whether those goals were properly disclosed to decision makers, as well as other related matters, there remains much controversy concerning the 1982 war, all of which is beyond the scope of this article. However, what is important for this discussion, is that Iran saw an opportunity it was determined pursue. Two days after the IDF crossed the border into Lebanon, an Iranian delegation went to Damascus to discuss providing Iranian military support for Syria and the entry of more Iranians into Lebanon. Soon 5,000 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members arrived in Syria. Iran had hoped to embroil them in the fight with Israel inside Lebanon. But by then the fighting had ebbed. Therefore, Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad (father of now president, Bashar al-Assad), feared that their entry would restart the fighting which had involved the Syrian army. Nevertheless, Assad allowed 1,500 of them to enter Lebanon from Syrian land. Many went to Baalbek, the largest town in the Bekaa Valley, which was predominately Shiite. Soon, they were busy traveling to throughout the region—pushing the teachings of Khomeini and building a foundation for hatred of Israel. The converted operated at first under the name, Islamic Amal, to separate themselves from the more secular members of AMAL. As such, there is scholarly debate as to whether Hezbollah began in 1982, 1984, or 1985 when the organization officially announced itself to the world. But make no mistake, Hezbollah’s origin, if not founding, was in 1982. Iran provided the nutrients and Syria, with its border with Lebanon, the feeding tube. If you think of Iran’s and Syria’s goals as two circles of a Venn diagram, Hezbollah occupied the middle where the two circles intersected. Syria wanted to control events in Lebanon for its own economic and hegemonial dreams and to create leverage to use against Israel in hopes of recovering the Golan heights. Iran wanted to push its ideological Shiite revolution throughout the Middle East. Both nations hated Israel. As such, Hezbollah was a perfect vehicle for furthering their nefarious causes. By later summer of 1982, organized Shiite resistance began to confront the IDF and allied Christian forces. Meanwhile, a steady supply of weapons sent by Iran moved through Syria into the Bekaa valley into Hezbollah’s hands. At first, both the IDF and Amal failed to appreciate the danger Hezbollah presented. But it was not long before the IDF felt Hezbollah’s growing power and Amal found itself being swallowed whole. Later in the year, Hezbollah (sometimes using the name of Islamic Jihad that was an arm of Hezbollah’s) initiated a bombing and kidnap campaign. Within a year, bombs delivered by suicide drivers struck IDF headquarters buildings, the American Embassy, and an American marine base. Hundreds of Americans and dozens of Israelis died in the blasts. In addition, Hezbollah launched an insidious kidnapping campaign that lasted years and took captive more than 100 Americans and Western Europeans. It also captured the American CIA station chief in Lebanon and years later the American chief of the UN Truce Supervision Organization—savagely torturing and then killing both. 1985 also saw Hezbollah’s hijack of TWA Flight 847, during which a Hezbollah hijacker killed an American soldier who was a passenger on the plane and tossed his body to the tarmac. Amid all this mayhem, Hezbollah came out from the shadows. On February 16, 1985, Hezbollah revealed itself to the world at a press conference from a mosque in Lebanon and published a manifesto that its spokesperson read aloud. The document contained four major themes: Hezbollah’s clear desire to obliterate Israel. It said in part, “Israel’s final departure from Lebanon is a prelude to it final obliteration from existence and the liberation of venerable Jerusalem from the talons of occupation.” A demand that “Imperial Powers” must leave Lebanon—meaning the United States and France. A call for Lebanon to decide its own future but a prediction that it would choose Islam. Left unsaid was how much of that prediction would be based on planned coercion. A confirmation of Hezbollah’s strong allegiance to Iran and its Supreme Leader. This was Hezbollah’s coming-out-party. Hassan Nasrallah, now Hezbollah’s leader for the last three decades, later said, “After 1985. . .was when the popular resistance ended and organized armed resistance began.” Now, Hezbollah began its meteoric growth. A new era had begun. |
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Posted: 6/18/2024 9:10:33 PM EDT
[#46]
 Institute for Study of War Backgrounder 18 June Key Takeaways Gaza Strip 99th Division continued operations along the Netzarim Corridor south of Gaza City. They directed an airstrike killing the head of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) sniper unit. raeli forces. Three Palestinian militias launched mortars and rockets at Israeli forces along the corridor. The Air Force conducted dozens of airstrikes in multiple areas in the Gaza Strip. The IDF Navy attacked targets in Gaza in support of ground forces. 162nd Division continued operations against fighters and military infrastructure in Rafah. Givati Brigade (162nd Division) engaged and killed several fighters in Rafah. 401st Brigade (162nd Division) killed fighters, found a weapons cache, and destroyed military infrastructure above and below ground in Tal al Sultan. Three Palestinian militias separately engaged Israeli forces in Shaboura and Tal al Sultan. A senior Israeli negotiator told Agence France-Presse on June 17 that Hamas still holds “dozens” of living hostages in the Gaza Strip. The official said that Hamas—rather than other militias—is holding most of the hostages, adding that Hamas may not release the remaining hostages if Israel ends the war before the release of Palestinian prisoners. Israeli Army Radio reported details from an IDF Southern Command briefing on Hamas’ military capabilities in the Gaza Strip. The IDF believes Hamas has reverted back to being a “guerilla army” and lacks organized and uniform command and control in Gaza. The IDF estimates that Hamas maintains approximately 310 miles of tunnel systems in Gaza. The IDF estimates that 15,000 Hamas fighters remain in the strip, including 2,000 fighters in northern Gaza. Officials believes 2K fighters are not sufficient for Hamas to govern northern Gaza but are enough to prevent Israel from establishing an alternative government. PIJ launched mortars targeting Israeli forces near Kerem Shalom and the IDF Sufa site. The al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which is the self-proclaimed military wing of Fatah, conducted a combined mortar attack with PIJ and the Popular Resistance Committees on Israeli forces at Abu Mutaybaq. The Mujahedeen Brigades fired rockets at an IDF site near Re’im. West Bank Israeli forces engaged Palestinian fighters in at least two locations in the West Bank. The IDF, Shin Bet, and Israeli Border Police detained 14 Palestinians, and seized small arms and approximately 27,000 US dollars in Kharbatha Bani Harith, west of Ramallah. Israeli forces operating in Nablus confiscated small arms, destroyed improved explosive device (IED) manufacturing materials, and identified and destroyed a planted IED. The al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fired small arms and detonated IEDs at Israeli forces in Nablus. Southern Lebanon and Golan Heights Lebanese Hezbollah conducted three attacks into northern Israel. Hezbollah launched a ”squadron” of one-way attack drones targeting artillery elements of the IDF 411th Artillery Battalion in Neve Ziv. Israeli Army Radio reported that the IDF intercepted three drones over Kibbutz Kabri. Hezbollah also targeted a Merkava tank near Yiron with a one-way attack drone. Hezbollah posted footage on June 18 reportedly showing a Hezbollah reconnaissance drone flight over northern Israel, including Haifa. Hezbollah claimed that the footage included shots of an IDF naval base, Iron Dome batteries, and a David’s Sling air defense system. Iraq The US State Department designated Harakat Ansar Allah al Awfiya (HAAA) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Yemen US CENTCOM said that it has destroyed four Houthi radars and one Houthi unmanned surface vessel in Yemen. Iran Iranian presidential candidates discussed the economy in the first debate for the upcoming election. Iran has begun running computer models that could support the research and development of nuclear weapons.   
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Posted: 6/19/2024 10:16:30 AM EDT
[#47]
Some 15 rockets were launched from Lebanon at the Kiryat Shmona area earlier today, the military says. Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack. The IDF says some of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses, and it shelled the launch sites with artillery. Some of the rockets caused damage to property and sparked fires in Kiryat Shmona, authorities said. Meanwhile, the IDF confirms carrying out a strike against a building in the the Tyre area earlier today. According to the IDF, the building in the coastal town of Borgholiyeh was used by Hezbollah. Another site belonging to the terror group was struck in Khiam, the military says. Separately, a suspected drone heading toward Israel was shot down by air defenses over southern Lebanon, the IDF adds.
"[A]s the IDF began its operation in Rafah, the military assessed that only 2,000 terror operatives remained in the city, meaning that many had fled with the estimated 1.2 million civilians to an Israeli-designated 'humanitarian zone' further north. As of Tuesday, the IDF said it has killed at least 550 armed operatives in Rafah amid the fighting, with many more believed dead in airstrikes on buildings and tunnels. While only 550 gunmen have been killed in Rafah, the military said it had dismantled about half of Hamas’s fighting force in Rafah. Of the four battalions in Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, two — Yabna (South) and East Rafah — are considered to be almost completely dismantled, while the capabilities of the other two — Shaboura (North) and Tel Sultan (West) — are somewhat degraded due to IDF operations."
Overnight, a drone strike was carried out against a Hezbollah weapons depot in southern Lebanon's Yaroun, where the military says it identified a cell of operatives. At the same time, another strike was carried out against infrastructure belonging to the terror group in Baraachit, the IDF adds. Meanwhile, the military says an explosive-laden drone launched from Lebanon struck the Metula area this morning, causing no injuries. The IDF says another suspected drone was shot down by air defenses over the northern town of Sde Eliezer. No sirens sounded "according to protocol," the military says.
A Syrian officer was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike this morning in southern Syria, the state-run SANA news agency reports. Citing a military source, SANA says two Syrian military sites in Quneitra and Daraa were targeted by Israeli drones. The strikes also caused "material losses," the report adds.
An Israeli peace activist who was seized from her home on 7 October and held hostage for 53 days in Gaza has told the BBC how her ordeal destroyed her belief that peace is possible between Palestinians and Israelis. In her first UK interview since being freed in November, Ada Sagi, 75, also told Emma Barnett on Radio 4's Today programme how she was held in an apartment by paid guards, that Hamas kept her in a hospital before her release - and that she now believes the world hates Jews. "I don't believe in peace, I don't sorry," the Arabic and Hebrew teacher said. "I understand Hamas don't want it." |
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Posted: 6/19/2024 10:40:14 AM EDT
[Last Edit: michigan66]
[#48]
In Rafah, IDF focuses on tunnels, with aim of destroying Hamas brigade within a month Link
Highpoints The Givati brigade entered Rafah...in early May. Givati pushed deeper into Rafah, operating in..neighborhoods where Hamas had built up its infrastructure..recently, the brigade has been readying itself for an offensive in Shaboura, a neighborhood in central Rafah adjacent to Yabna. A Hamas fighter [who attempted to close with Israeli troops] with an RPG was a relatively rare sight for the troops fighting in Rafah...the terror group largely abandoned its posts, with very few operatives attempting to engage Israeli forces in close quarters. Instead...Hamas operatives have booby-trapped...many homes in Rafah, and wait in tunnels for his troops to arrive. Hamas has used difficult-to-spot car backup cameras to identify when troops arrive at a booby-trapped building and detonate the explosives. [L]ast week, five soldiers of the brigade’s reconnaissance unit were killed after a booby-trapped home exploded and part of the building collapsed on the troops. ...of the 150 or so Hamas operatives Givsti has located and killed in Rafah, nearly all were hiding in tunnels. “The center of gravity is the tunnels. If we don’t [dismantle] the tunnels, it is very hard to control the area. Hamas’s Rafah Brigade was bolstered by terror operatives who fled ..other parts of the Strip. this gave the Rafah Brigade, considered by the IDF as the weakest of Hamas’s brigades, considerable time and manpower to prepare itself for the looming Israeli offensive in southern Gaza. [The brigade commander] said his troops had also encountered freshly dug tunnels while operating in Rafah, in addition to the major underground networks built up by Hamas over the past decade and a half. “Not everything was the way we thought it would be. We found places where new routes were [dug],” he said. In a recent incident, Hamas operatives burrowed a tunnel under an IDF encampment in Rafah and using a newly dug shaft, attempted to place an explosive device next to an armored vehicle, highlighting the terror group’s ability to quickly build new infrastructure. On the eastern outskirts of Rafah, close to the Israeli border, nearly every single building visible along David’s Route was flattened, as part of the IDF’s plans to construct a kilometer-long buffer zone. Entire article in quote box ToI joins commander of Givati Brigade in Gaza’s southernmost city, where army says the terror group’s operatives have embedded themselves inside booby-trapped buildings and tunnels By Emanuel Fabian 19 Jun 2025 RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Shots rang out in the Yabna camp in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city, as troops of the Givati Infantry Brigade closed in on an RPG-wielding Hamas operative who had been spotted just a few hundred meters from Col. Liron Betito’s makeshift command center. Betito, who commands Givati, was giving Israeli reporters a tour of Yabna — known in the Israel Defense Forces as NPK — on Tuesday, highlighting the brigade’s successes and challenges in this now deserted neighborhood of Rafah. “They identified a terrorist, approaching the force with an RPG, a sniper team identified him, hit him, but I’m not sure if we killed him, they are verifying it now,” the colonel said after speaking to a subordinate over the radio, just as the journalists left a heavily damaged apartment building where Givati had set up shop. The infantry brigade entered Rafah along with other troops from the 162nd Division in early May. As armored forces captured the Rafah Crossing with Egypt and the so-called Philadelphi Route — the Egypt-Gaza border area — Betito’s brigade pushed for Gaza’s key north-south road, Salah a-Din. In the following weeks, Givati pushed deeper into Rafah, operating in Yabna and other neighborhoods where Hamas had built up its infrastructure. Most recently, the brigade has been readying itself for an offensive in Shaboura, a neighborhood in central Rafah adjacent to Yabna. The Hamas fighter with an RPG was a relatively rare sight for the troops fighting in Rafah. Unlike in other areas of Gaza, the terror group largely abandoned its posts, with very few operatives attempting to engage Israeli forces in close quarters. Instead, Betito said, Hamas operatives have booby-trapped a vast number of homes in Rafah, and wait in tunnels for his troops to arrive. Hamas has used difficult-to-spot car backup cameras to identify when troops arrive at a booby-trapped building and detonate the explosives. In one such an incident last week, five soldiers of the brigade’s reconnaissance unit were killed after a booby-trapped home exploded and part of the building collapsed on the troops. “Hamas took an approach here where it avoided fighting with terrorists at the front, but instead chose to booby-trap [buildings]. And it booby-trapped loads of buildings. I haven’t seen this many booby-trapped buildings before,” Betito, whose brigade has been operating in Gaza since the beginning of the war, told The Times of Israel. “Our challenge is trying to locate them ahead of time,” he said. According to military assessments, Hamas’s Rafah Brigade was bolstered by terror operatives who fled from northern Gaza and other parts of the Strip as the IDF first operated there. This gave the Rafah Brigade, considered by the IDF as the weakest of Hamas’s brigades, considerable time and manpower to prepare itself for the looming Israeli offensive in southern Gaza. Still, as the IDF began its operation in Rafah, the military assessed that only 2,000 terror operatives remained in the city, meaning that many had fled with the estimated 1.2 million civilians to an Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” further north. As of Tuesday, the IDF said it has killed at least 550 armed operatives in Rafah amid the fighting, with many more believed dead in airstrikes on buildings and tunnels. Tunnels are Hamas’s ‘center of gravity’ While only 550 gunmen have been killed in Rafah, the military said it had dismantled about half of Hamas’s fighting force in Rafah. Of the four battalions in Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, two — Yabna (South) and East Rafah — are considered to be almost completely dismantled, while the capabilities of the other two — Shaboura (North) and Tel Sultan (West) — are somewhat degraded due to IDF operations. Betito said the most reliable indicator for determining if a Hamas battalion is dismantled is if its military infrastructure — especially its tunnels — is destroyed. He said that of the 150 or so Hamas operatives his troops located and killed in Rafah, nearly all were hiding in tunnels. “The center of gravity is the tunnels. If we don’t [dismantle] the tunnels, it is very hard to control the area. You can be above ground operating freely, but [Hamas] can surprise you from underground,” he said, noting that the entrances to such tunnels are mostly hidden inside the booby-trapped buildings, forcing Israeli forces to inspect them. “In the end, if I want to hold the area properly, I need to reach underground, locate tunnel shafts, put explosives inside, destroy it, locate the next shaft, and demolish the whole network. This way, [Hamas] will have no choice but to either die inside [the tunnel] or to come outside. Above ground, I want them there, I have a major advantage there,” Betito said. As many as 25 major tunnels have been found so far by the IDF along the Philadephi Route, reaching up to the border with Egypt, some of which likely crossed into Sinai and were used by Hamas to smuggle weapons. Combat engineers have been digging down along the border, in an attempt to sweep the entire 14-kilometer axis of Hamas’s underground smuggling routes. Meanwhile, Betito said his troops had also encountered freshly dug tunnels while operating in Rafah, in addition to the major underground networks built up by Hamas over the past decade and a half “Not everything was the way we thought it would be. We found places where new routes were [dug],” he said. In a recent incident, Hamas operatives burrowed a tunnel under an IDF encampment in Rafah and using a newly dug shaft, attempted to place an explosive device next to an armored vehicle, highlighting the terror group’s ability to quickly build new infrastructure. East Rafah flattened The journey to Rafah’s Yabna from the Kerem Shalom area in southern Israel only took about 15 minutes in an open-top humvee. The first section of the drive, from the Gaza border to the Rafah Crossing, was along a new road built by the army, dubbed David’s Route. From there, the humvees drove along the Philadelphi corridor to the central part of the city. On the eastern outskirts of Rafah, close to the Israeli border, nearly every single building visible along David’s Route was flattened, as part of the IDF’s plans to construct a kilometer-long buffer zone. The Rafah Crossing was also in no shape to be used again to deliver much-needed aid to the Strip. Many of the buildings are damaged, including the crossing’s main terminal building which was also burnt in recent days. No Palestinian civilians were seen in the Rafah area, although a few dozen empty trucks were lined up near Kerem Shalom to transport aid from the border crossing with Israel to the humanitarian zone. ‘Demolish them entirely’ As the IDF works to demolish Hamas’s tunnel networks in Rafah, Betito said he expects the operation against the terror group in the southern Gaza city to wrap up within a month. “I estimate that to [achieve] our next objective, which is to finish up Shaboura and Tel Sultan… we want to demolish them entirely, it will take more or less a month, at this level of intensity,” he said. The operation in Rafah is being carried out in a “precise manner,” the IDF has said. This is due to sensitivities surrounding the border with Egypt, amid strained ties between the nations, as well as due to the possibility that hostages abducted by the terror group may still be held by Hamas in the city. But Betito said the extra time being taken to tackle Hamas in Rafah, as well as weeks of delays before the operation began, has made little to no difference. “Naturally, the place you reach last [in Gaza], is more prepared. It doesn’t matter an extra week or two or a month. [Hamas] doesn’t have tanks, armored personnel carriers, or an air force. It’s the same terrorists with the same anti-tank projectiles, the same tunnels,” he said. “We need to act smart, act with reason, protect our forces, but bring forth our power. It’s only a matter of time,” Betito added. |
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Posted: 6/19/2024 11:15:58 AM EDT
[#49]
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Posted: 6/19/2024 1:49:29 PM EDT
[#50]
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