Israel Update 19.9.24

As context, I repeat last week’s Introduction: While the world’s attention is focussed on Gaza, Israel’s North continues to suffer devastating and escalating attacks by Hezbollah and other terrorist groups in Lebanon.

Further, a reminder that around 80,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in Northern Israel for over 11 months, unable to return due to relentless Hezbollah attacks.

 

EVENTS IN LEBANON

Regarding recent events in Lebanon:

The known facts are:

Pagers carried by Hizbullah members exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding at least 2,700 others. Hizbullah has used pagers for years to make it harder for messages to be intercepted. At 3:30 p.m., the pagers received a message that appeared to come from Hizbullah’s leadership, before exploding. In Syria, the exploding pagers injured at least 14 people. Among those wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini. Report here (paywall)

 

Hand-held walkie-talkies and other wireless communication devices used by Hizbullah were detonated across Lebanon on Wednesday, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 300. Explosions took place, including from hand-held radios, in southern Beirut, Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Hermel and the Bekaa Valley, as well as in scattered villages and towns in the south, all areas with a heavy Hizbullah presence. Reports here (paywall)and here

 

 

SAUDI NEWS SOURCE Al-HADITH REPORTS

 

19 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members were killed after their pagers exploded in Deir ez-Zur in eastern Syria, Saudi news source Al-Hadithreported Wednesday. An additional 150 IRGC members were wounded.

Explosions occurred at the headquarters of the terrorist organization al-Hashd al-Shaabi in Mosul, Iraq, at the same time as the explosions of Hizbullah walkie-talkies in Lebanon.Report hereand here

 

 

HEZBOLLAH ATTACKS CONTINUED

Eight people were injured this morning, one seriously, one moderately and the others with minor injuries, when an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon struck the Upper Galilee. Report here

 

 

On Tuesday, Israel’s security cabinet updated its official goals for the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza to include the objective of allowing residents of the north to return safely to their homes after being displaced by attacks by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.Report here

 

 

 

The Shin Bet foiled a recent attempt by Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior Israeli security official using a remotely detonated explosive device.

The attack was intended to have been carried out in the coming days, according to the Shin Bet who also said that the Hezbollah network behind the attempted attack was also responsible for a bombing in Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv last year, targeting former defence minister Ya’alon..Report hereand here

 

 

In the early hours of Saturday morning, Hezbollah bombarded northern Israel with over 60 rockets marking the second day in a row that the terror group has targeted the Safed area. Safed is 8 miles from the Lebanese border, and unlike many communities nearer the frontier, the city of some 38,000 remains largely inhabited, with attacks that deep into Israel having been relatively uncommon. Report here

 

 

Hamas leader Sinwar recently thanked Hezbollah for its support in fighting against Israel praising the Iran-led “axis of resistance” of armed groups in the Middle East which have repeatedly attacked Israel since October 7. Report here

 

 

GAZA WAR AGAINST HAMAS

 

 

Four Israeli soldiers, including a female paramedic, were killed in southern Gaza, on Tuesday after a hidden explosive device detonated and caused a partial collapse of the building they were in. Five other soldiers were wounded, three seriously.Report here

 

 

HELPING ISRAELI BEREAVED FAMILIES

 

 

On July 27, an Hezbollah-launched Iranian-made missile with a warhead of over 50kg killed 12 children & teenagers playing football in the Druse town Majdal Shams. Aware of the need for mental health support, a group of Israeli women volunteers (some coming from as far away as Jerusalem) organised a day retreat for bereaved mothers, offering alternative treatments to ease grief. Article here

 

 

More than 180 women gathered at an IDF Widows and Orphans Organization (IDFWO) conference in Kfar Saba in central Israel on Tuesday to discuss what seems like a painful and impossible task: how to continue their lives as new widows, now defined by the aching loss of their spouses.

Spouses of soldiers, police, and special forces across the broad spectrum of Israeli society – religious and secular Jews, Bedouins, Druze, Muslims, and Christians – have become widows in the war against Hamas.

The one-day event, called “Stronger than the Wind: Embrace, Strengthen and Support,” provided the widows — some who came with newborn babies — the opportunity to be with other women “who are the only ones who understand what we’re going through”. Article here

 

 

GAZA AID & SUPPLIES

 

 

Hamas terrorists have confiscated so much humanitarian aid that it is struggling to find space in warehouses to store all of it, according to intercepted communications between Hamas operatives that were played on Israel’s Channel 12 on Friday. One operative said, “At this point, we have everything….The warehouse is at full capacity.” The recordings expose how Hamas takes control of these shipments and also highlight how this aid is not being used for humanitarian purposes but is instead aiding the enemy. Report here

 

 

 

Despite claims of goods shortages in Gaza, a video obtained by French journalist Jonathan Serero on Sunday shows fresh fruits, soaps, perfumes, sweets, snacks, soft drinks, and more in the central Gaza market.    A resident was heard saying, “In Gaza, during the war, you can get everything at the stalls.”He showed the PlayStation5 game console that cost him only 700 shekels ($188); the current retail price on the Sony website is $500. Report here

 

 

 

Recent images from Gaza-based bloggers show that large amounts of food, including meat and eggs, have recently entered the territory…Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced this week that “over 50,000 aid trucks and nearly a million tons of aid have been sent to Gaza since the start of the war.”Report here

 

 

 

 

HOUTHI ATTTACK & THREAT

 

 

A ground-to-ground missile launched at central Israel by the Houthis in Yemen on Sunday was immediately tracked by the Arrow missile defence system’s radar. An interceptor struck the target, but without completely destroying it.
The missile broke apart in mid-air, and parts of it landed in an open area close to the central Israeli city of Lod.

Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. Loud booms were heard. Missile pieces landed in fields and near a railway station. There were no direct casualties, but nine people were lightly hurt while seeking cover. Report here& here

 

 

A Houthi source confirmed the arrival of Houthi fighters from Yemen to Syria, after a Syrian source told i24News that the Houthis were on their way to Israel’s border with Syria in the Golan Heights “to open a new firing front – using drones against Israel.”
The Yemeni armed group claimed that “this is a prelude to a new phase of escalation against Israel.” Report here

 

 

 

SYRIA

 

 

Reportedly, the IDF raided Syria in a ground operation on Sep. 8 and destroyed an underground precision missile factory built by Iran. The Iranians began building the underground facility in coordination with Hizbullah and Syria in 2018 after Israeli airstrikes destroyed most of the Iranian missile production infrastructure in Syria. Israeli intelligence monitored the building for five years and realized they would not be able to destroy the facility with an airstrike. Report here

 

 

UNITED NATIONS RELIEF & WORKS AGENCY (UNWRA)

 

 

 

UNRWA said Friday that Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, one of its employees, was killed this week during an Israeli raid in the West Bank. The IDF spokesperson said Jawwad was throwing explosives at troops. “The terrorist was known to Israeli security forces and he had been complicit in additional terrorist activities. This is yet another example of an UNRWA employee taking active part in terrorist activities against Israel, as has been proven in several other cases in the past, including employees who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre.” Report here

 

 

After UNRWA said that its staffers were killed in a strike on a school in central Gaza on last week, the IDF revealed that 9 terrorists had been eliminated in the strike. Muhammad Adnan Abu Zayd, an UNRWA employee and one of the 9, launched mortars at Israel. Yasser Ibrahim Abu Sharar, another employee of UNRWA, was a member of Hamas’s Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, as was Ayad Matar.Report here

 

 

 

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told the Security Council on Monday, “The UNRWA workers who were killed last week are Hamas terrorists….UNRWA-Gaza has become nothing more than a cartel, fostering hatred and prolonging misery in Gaza.” Israel has provided more than 100 names of terrorists who were Hamas military operatives employed by UNRWA, “yet some here continue to fund this agency as if it were neutral, as if it were part of the solution and not part of the problem.”
“The root of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is not a shortage of food or medicine – it is that Hamas continues to hold its people hostage in service of their evil ideology….It is time for this council to acknowledge the truth: the humanitarian crisis in Gaza…stems from…the grip of a terror organization that values death over life. The defeat of Hamas is not only an Israeli interest – it is a humanitarian imperative.”      Report here

 

 

THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

 

 

The 14 countries that voted against yesterday’s non-binding anti-Israel resolution were: Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Hungary, Israel, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Tuvalu and the USA. The UK was among 43 abstentions. Among the 124 countries voting for were Barbados, Belgium, Estonia, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain & Thailand.  Full list here (click to expand)

 

 

The UN votes 124-14 to strip Israel of a right to self-defence in  Gaza,West Bank. Report here

 

Israel condemned the vote. MFA statement here

 

ASSASSINATION PLOT FOILED

 

 

Israel foiled an Iranian assassination plot targeting PM Netanyahu, Defence Minister Gallant & Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar. An Israeli businessman  has been arrested. Report here

 

 

WOLT

 

Magen David Adom (MDA) will train 1,000 Wolt delivery drivers, giving them life-saving first aid tools, in a first-of-its-kind co-operation

aimed at taking advantage of the widespread of Wolt drivers around the country, which means that many thousands of delivery people are in the streets at any given time, often encountering situations in which first aid training could enable them to help others.Report here

 

 

 

INNOVATION

 

 

Sheba Medical Centre, Israel’s largest hospital, was recognized on Tuesday by Newsweek and by Statista, the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider, as one of the top 10 best smart hospitals in the world. Report here

 

 

ALBANIA

 

 

President  Herzog’s visit to Albania last week marked the first time that  an Israeli leader has visited the only European country that ended World War II with more Jews than it started with.

Albania’s role in saving Jews during the Holocaust was a key theme of the Israeli president’s brief visit, which included a ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in Tirana as well as meetings with descendants of some of the 75 Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians listed by Israel’s Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles — those who risked their lives to save Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps following Germany’s occupation of Albania in September 1943. Article here

 

A CHALLENGE

 

 

The New Tolerance Campaign (NTC)  has secured $1,000,000 to underwrite expenses for an LGBTQ Pride Parade in Gaza or the West Bank. For nearly a year, “Queers for Palestine” and allied groups have insisted that Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are “inclusive” — here’s their chance to prove it.

NTC is “a watchdog organization mobilizing Americans to confront intolerance double-standards by establishment institutions, civil rights groups, universities, and socially-conscious brands” Reports here& here

 

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

 

HEZBOLLAH

 

WSJ Editorial:  Israel has ample cause to target Hizbullah fighters who have fired more than 8,000 rockets at Israel since Oct. 7, forcing 60,000 Israelis from their homes for nearly a year. The bombing has widened recently to other Israeli cities. No sovereign state can tolerate this and Israel can’t afford to let a terrorist militia backed by Iran and operating next door bomb its territory with impunity. The pager attack was discriminating, exploding in the hands and pockets of Hizbullah combatants.  Editorial here (paywall)

 

 

 

Maj. (ret.) John Spencer (X):
I cannot find a similar intelligence-military operation with such secrecy, lethality, ingenuity, audacity, and impact – targeted lethal use of force, precise and proportionate, as many enemy hit over a wide geographic area…Comment here

 

 

Allister Heath: Bereft of any sense of right and wrong, incapable of distinguishing heroes from villains, the West can no longer celebrate when good triumphs over evil. Israel’s brilliantly audacious booby-trapping of thousands of Hizbullah pagers, followed by the blowing up of the terror group’s walkie-talkies, is a stunning boost for the forces of civilization worldwide. A tiny nation of just 9.3 million, of which 7.2 million are Jewish, living in a country the size of Wales, reeling from the worst antisemitic pogroms since the Holocaust, Israel is leading the war against barbarism. The fact that so many in Britain, Europe and America no longer take Israel’s side in this existential combat exemplifies our cultural, intellectual and ethical degeneration. Article here (paywall)

 

Melanie Phillips interviewed on X (3 mins 41) Interview here

 

Melanie Phillips : Article here

 

 

 

THE UK

 

 

Emmanuel Navon: It is the fact that Britain officially supports Israel’s right to defend itself but undermines that right by suspending military export licenses. Among allies, criticism and frank dialogue are welcome and necessary. Israel is not, and should not, be above criticism. But neither should it be held by impossible standards which NATO forces did not apply to themselves in Iraq and Syria.

Two weeks ago, ELNET* hosted a delegation of former senior commanders, most of them from the UK. Among them was General Sir John McColl, former deputy senior allied commander of NATO. He came away from the trip, he said, “satisfied that the IDF’s operations and rules of engagement were rigorous compared to the British Army and our Western allies.”… (the UK) imposing a partial arms embargo on Israel sends the wrong message to our common enemies: not only to Hamas, but also to the Russia-Iran axis that supports it.

Abba Eban wrote the following about British politics: “It became a Zionist truism that our friends were former ministers, while incumbent ministers were our former friends.”

*European Leadership Network

Article here

 

 

HOUTHIS

 

Editorial (WSJ): The Houthis in Yemen fired an Iranian ballistic missile at Israel on Sunday from 1,200 miles away.
The attack underscores that the Houthis are undeterred by American denunciations and pinprick responses to their assault on commercial shipping in the Red Sea region.
The U.S. should long ago have taken stronger action against the Houthis, as well as against Iran for supplying missiles to Russia and the Houthis.
The civilized world is losing its war with the Houthis and Iranians as Israel has to live with Houthi attacks while U.S. Navy commanders in the region play defence against Houthi assaults.
Imagine what will happen when Iran gets nuclear weapons. Editorial here

 

ISRAEL’S WAR AGAINST HAMAS

 

 

Stephen Pollard: While Ukraine is fighting Russia on behalf of the rest of Europe’s security, Israel is doing the West’s dirty work fighting Islamists on our behalf.
And how do we help them? Not so much by tying their hands behind their backs as attempting to chop them off – by imposing a form of arms embargo, by funding a body that employs terrorists who took part in the Oct. 7 massacre, and by acquiescing in arrest warrants labeling Israeli leaders fighting Hamas as war criminals. Article here

 

 

Bernard-Henri Levy interview:
French philosopher, war reporter and documentary-maker Bernard-Henri Levy described the scene at what was left of Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel on Oct. 10. “The bodies of the victims had been buried by that point, but there were still pieces of bodies that hadn’t been assigned yet. They were stacked in a corner of a vegetable shed that was being used to house unidentified body parts. And that image? There is not a day or a night when I do not see it in my head. It follows me around constantly.”

He says that after Oct. 7, “there’s a realization not just that things will never be the same again, but that things were not what we thought they were before….Hours after the attack, there were…actual, veritable explosions of joy. Professors at U.S. universities with huge online followings recorded and broadcast messages of absolute joy. This, when the bodies of the dead had not even all been buried.” He points out that even many of those who did offer early support began to fall away within the ensuing weeks and months.
Asked if he still believes Israel’s response has been just, he doesn’t have to think about it for a second: “Yes. I still don’t think the response has been disproportionate.” When filming the liberation of Mosul in 2016, he says, “I saw what indiscriminate hits looked like, what the desire to destroy a place from top to toe looks like, and let me tell you: that is not what is happening in Gaza.”
He also stands by the assertion that Israel “has done everything to avoid civilian casualties….I’ve been covering wars for 40 years, and it’s the first time in my life that I’ve ever seen an army open up a corridor every day between 6 a.m. and noon in order to warn civilians that they are going to hit an area where they are. The Israeli army is the first army in the world that I have seen say: ‘We’re going to hit here – please move’.”
“I cannot let people say that the hits are indiscriminate and targeting civilians, because that is wrong. And I cannot allow it to be said that there has been a genocide, because that is wrong. Interview here (paywall)