Israel Update 31.10.24

HIZBULLAH’S WAR ON ISRAEL –MULTIPLE ISRAELI CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

 

 

Daily heavy rocket barrages continue to target Israel’s northern communities.

 

Today, Thursday, a Hezbollah rocket attack near Metula killed 5 civilians in an orchard: an Israeli farmer and 4 foreign workers. A sixth person was seriously wounded. Also today two civilians  were killed by shrapnel in an olive grove  during a t rocket barrage targeting  the Haifa bayside suburbs.  Reports hereand here

 

 

Arjwan Manaa, 19, a minimarket cashier and Hassan Suad, 21 a customer buying produce, were killed when Hizbullah rockets struck the northern Arab town of Majd al-Krum on Friday.  Seven others were injured. Report here

 

 

On Tuesday, 24-year-old Israeli Arab Mohammad Naim was killed by a direct hit to his house in Ma’alot-Tarshiha. A total of 13 others were wounded in the rocket fire and are in light condition, including three children. A barrage of about 50 rockets had been fired from Lebanon at the time. Report here

 

 

 

On Sunday, Hizbullah launched at least 75 rockets at the Galilee region wounding three people in Tamra, an Israeli Arab town. A 57-year-old woman was in serious but stable condition with chest and limb injuries, while a 21-year-old woman and 13-year-old girl were listed as being in mild condition due to smoke inhalation. Report here

 

and UNIFIL casualties

 

 

Eight Austrian UNIFIL soldiers in Lebanon sustained injuries in a rocket strike on Tuesday.
The IDF said that Hizbullah was responsible while UNIFIL confirmed that the rocket was fired from the north.  Report here

 

Footnote: Hizbullah has experienced a wave of desertions, sources told Elaph (Arabic independent online newsite)in a report published Sunday. Some have fled to Syria with their families. Report here

 

A PAINFUL & DIFFICULT WEEK IN ISRAEL

 

It has been a particularly difficult period for the IDF.

 

Friends and colleagues paid tributes Sunday to five soldiers who died in battle against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon the previous evening, including teacher Cpt. (res.) Rabbi Avraham Yosef Goldberg, the beloved rabbi of a Jerusalem high school, as well as two other religious Zionist educators. On Monday it was reported that over the previous week, twenty-four IDF soldiers were killed, including one who on Sunday succumbed to wounds sustained in the Gaza Strip earlier this month. The deaths that week have left 56 children bereft of a parent. Report here

 

 

On Tuesday four IDF soldiers fell in battle against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip and another officer was severely wounded. Report here

 

 

Last week the commander of the 401st “Iron Tracks” Brigade, Col. Ehsan Daxa, was killed in combat in northern Gaza. He was from  Daliyat al-Karmel, the largest Druze community in Israel and is considered the highest-ranking officer to die in ground combat.Report here

 

 

The Defence Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department reported on Tuesday at least 12,000 soldiers have been injured and registered under the department since the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023. The report added at least 910 soldiers have been injured in Lebanon since the start of the military’s group operation in the area on October 1.        Report here

 

 

IRAN

 

Israel carried out a wave of “precise strikes” against military targets in Iran early Saturday. The attacks were limited to military assets. An Israeli official had said the attacks would not hit Iran’s oil production or nuclear facilities. US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett described Israel’s launches against Iran “as an exercise of self-defence” in retaliation for a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles fired at Israel on Oct. 1. Report here (paywall)

 

 

More than 100 combat aircraft, including fighter jets and unmanned drones, took off from Israel early Saturday. To prevent interceptions by Iran’s allies, jets first targeted air defence batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq. In Iran, more than 1,000 miles away from Israel, Israeli jets first struck air defence systems. A second wave of jets targeted Iran’s long-range missile production sites, specifically aimed at destroying a critical component in the production process. Israel targeted 20 sites over the course of the attack.Report here (paywall)

 

Four female F-16 combat navigators took part in the attack.Photos here

 

 

Israel’s precise strikes on military targets in Iran were wider and more destructive this time, but remained within the range defined as a “degradation of capabilities” and was not an “all-out” war. Iranian media outlets tried hard to minimize the extent of the damage.
Israel’s retaliation proved its military capability of striking dozens of targets deep inside Iran, over a large and dispersed area.Report here (paywall)

 

 

 

Israel targeted an Iranian solid-fuel plant crucial to the production of Kheibar and Qasem ballistic missiles, which were fired at Israel earlier this month, a Saudi news site reported.
The strike is said to have taken the facility completely offline, destroying 12 heavy fuel mixers, each worth $2 million. Sources said the facility will likely require years to resume operations.
A senior Israeli source noted that while the Israel public expects dramatic displays, the high level of U.S.-Israel cooperation on security matters weighed heavily on operational decisions. Report here

 

 

TERROR TRUCK RAMMING ATTACK IN ISRAEL

 

 

Bezalel Carmi, 72, was killed and 32 others were wounded in a suspected terror truck-ramming attack at a bus stop near Herzliya on Sunday, five in serious condition, seven moderately wounded, and 20 lightly hurt. Many of the injured were senior citizens who had disembarked from the bus for a day trip to a nearby museum.                          Police said that the Arab-Israeli truck driver was shot by armed civilians.Report here

 

 

AL-JAZEERA

 

The IDF on Thursday published documents captured in Gaza that revealed close co-operation between Hamas and Al Jazeera. Hamas advised the Qatari network not to criticize it, and they coordinated on concealing incidents of failed rocket launches. The IDF also released evidence of Hamas’s efforts in 2023 to establish a secure line with Al Jazeera for classified information and emergencies.
On Wednesday, the IDF publicized documents naming six active Al Jazeera reporters who are operatives in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.Report here

 

 

DEFENCE

 

 

The IDF recently positioned an M61 Vulcan cannon on the northern border in an attempt to counter the drone threat.
The cannon can shoot 6,000 rounds per minute. Report here

 

 

In response to the growing drone threat from Hizbullah and Iran, Israeli defence companies and the Defence Ministry are promoting the use of small, agile drones to intercept kamikaze drones launched at Israel. Israel’s current rate of drone interception is 80%, relying mainly on Iron Dome and missiles from planes, helicopters and naval units.
In mid-October, the Defence Ministry conducted trials in which eight companies presented their solutions for intercepting UAVs and drones.Article here (paywall)

 

 

Israel’s Defence Ministry has announced the signing of a $500 million deal to expand its laser defence capabilities through the Iron Beam programme, partnering with lead developer Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and Elbit Systems. The operational laser system, the first of its kind worldwide, is expected to be deployed within the next year.
The system has demonstrated its capabilities in recent trials to intercept rockets, mortar shells, drones and cruise missiles.Report here

 

 

The German Army has received its first Leopard battle tank equipped with Israel’s Trophy active protection system. Report here

 

 

THE WAR AGAINST HAMAS

 

Hamas uses hospitals for terror purposes, an ambulance driver at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalya confirmed during his interrogation in a recently released video. He stated, “Hamas military operatives are present; they are in the courtyards, at the gates of the buildings, in the offices of Kamal Adwan Hospital.”
“They operate ambulances to transport their wounded military operatives, and to transport them for their missions, and this is instead of using the ambulances for the benefit of civilians. We, the public in northern Gaza, are sick of this situation. We have had enough; they (Hamas) are stationed in the hospitals, stationed in the schools.”

This comes as the IDF and Shin Bet carried out targeted operations in the Gaza hospital to counter terror activities in the area. Prior to the operation, the IDF facilitated the evacuation of civilians and made sure that emergency care continued. Report here

 

 

The IDF said Monday that within hours in a single night a week ago, it had trapped hundreds of terrorists inside Jabalya in northern Gaza, including senior operatives. The IDF encircled the area, evacuated the civilian population, isolated the terrorists, and prevented them from escaping. Some 600 terrorists surrendered, while hundreds of others were eliminated.
At Kamal Adwan Hospital, which served as a Hamas command centre, 60 terrorists surrendered and 20 were eliminated. Terrorists were hiding in the hospital wards and were using patients as human shields.Report here

 

 

UNWRA

 

 

Israeli intelligence estimated that 10% of UNRWA’s Gaza workforce, equalling 1,200 UNRWA employees, are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives while 50% or 6,000 UNRWA employees have immediate family members who are affiliated with these terror groups.

A  non-exhaustive list of evidence of UNRWA’s aid to Hamas and other terrorists in Gaza on and after October 7^th can be found here: Evidence here

 

 

The Knesset on Monday approved two bills aimed at blocking the activity in areas under Israeli control of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein said UNRWA’s operations “eternalized” the issue of Palestinian refugees. He cited the fact that UNRWA employees had participated, and even served as commanders, in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre. He also noted incitement against Israel in UNRWA school curriculums.
Edelstein said that UNRWA long ago ceased to be a humanitarian aid agency, but in addition to it being an integral supporter of terror and hate, it is an agency to eternalize poverty and suffering.Report here

 

 

Israel provided video evidence that UNRWA food rations were found in a bunker in Khan Yunis used by the late Hamas leader Sinwar. Israel has long maintained that some of the food and healthcare distributed by UNRWA in Gaza is taken by Hamas…Israel says that while refugees from other conflicts assimilate into their host countries, with support from UN agencies like the High Commissioner for Refugees, the presence of UNRWA in countries such as Lebanon encourages Palestinians to believe that they should be allowed to return to Israel and undo the establishment of Israel, which took place in 1948. UNRWA’s presence also enables host governments to deny Palestinians full rights. In Lebanon, for example, they are barred from many jobs and are unlikely to ever gain citizenship.
“If the issue is providing humanitarian assistance, there are other UN agencies for this very purpose, such as the World Food Programme, World Health Organization, UNICEF and others,” said George Deek, an Israeli ambassador who is himself Arab.Article here (paywall)

 

 

For Israel, UNRWA represents not just an ineffective aid organization but a security liability that is complicit in perpetuating the conflict.
UNRWA grants refugee status to Palestinians generationally, allowing it to pass from parent to child, creating a growing population without a permanent solution.
This unique policy perpetuates a sense of refugeehood that is more about feeding political grievances. Report here

 

 

 

UNRWA  confirmed last week that a terrorist who led the killing and kidnapping of Israelis from a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7 last year, who was killed by a recent Israeli airstrike in Gaza, had been one of its staffers. The IDF and Shin Bet said that Muhammad Abu Attawi, had been employed by UNRWA since July 2022 while serving as a Hamas Nukbha commander.Report here

 

 

Footnote:

Moti Kahana, an American-Israeli businessman and CEO of the American logistics company GDC, says his company has been chosen to serve as a contractor “to secure humanitarian aid and ensure that civilians in Gaza receive it and that Hamas and other criminals don’t steal it.”
“This will…allow Israel to focus on fighting terrorism where it needs to. The U.S. Army sometimes brings in contractors and that’s how we should be seen too.”
GDC “is made up of former soldiers from elite units in the U.S., UK and France. The common denominator is that none of them are Jewish.”
Kahana says his employees have extensive experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said “This will begin stabilizing post-war Gaza so that people there will understand there’s free food available. There isn’t a starvation problem in Gaza. The problem is that criminals steal food and sell it, becoming very rich.”
“The American plan is to flood Gaza with so much food that the price of sugar won’t make it worth stealing.”   Report here

 

and see Comment & Opinion articles below.

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Strike against Iran

 

 

Telegraph editorial: At a bleak time in global affairs, a powerful blow has been struck against the most malign regime in the Middle East. On Friday night the IDF conducted a measured, precise but devastating aerial assault on Iran. It was a proportionate response to Iran’s missile attack on Israel, and civilian casualties were kept to a minimum.
Israel has reminded allies and enemies alike of just how formidable its military capabilities are. The IDF has established air superiority over Iran and can destroy its military infrastructure with virtual impunity. Having already decapitated Hamas and Hizbullah, Israel has demonstrated that it could do the same to their masters in Tehran at a time of its choosing.
While Europe and America have sought to bully Israel into ceasefires, the IDF has methodically set about eliminating the terrorist threat on its border, while checking Iranian power and influence. editorial here (paywall)

 

 

Ron Ben-Yishai:The Israeli strike was deliberately designed to offer the Iranian regime the option to avoid retaliation. The IDF spokesperson explicitly stated the strike was “focused,” and Israel has no interest in prolonging the exchange of blows.
The strikes on facilities for the development and production of surface-to-surface missiles and rocket engines were carried out around 2:00 a.m., when no civilians were present. (Other) attacks targeted surface-to-surface missile launch facilities and arrays, from which ballistic missiles were launched at Israel in the two previous Iranian attacks. Article here

 

 

The US

 

Gil Troy: Israelis appreciate the munitions America has supplied, and President Biden’s tremendous moral support. Still, the obsessive administration attempts to restrain Israel terrify me as an American historian. Such moral and strategic confusion does not bode well for America’s defence posture. It telegraphs weakness to America’s enemies, along with impatience with the kind of sustained conflict required to defeat evil. Article here

 

Hizbullah

 

 

Robert Williams: It took the world community nearly a year to condemn the war in Lebanon, but instead of condemning Hizbullah for starting the war in support of the terrorist organization Hamas, the West’s political “elites” condemned Israel for defending itself by targeting Hizbullah’s leadership. The UN Security Council called an emergency session on Sep. 20, during which UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said he was “appalled” by the attacks on Hizbullah pagers and walkie-talkies.
Slovenian ambassador Samuel Zbogar, whose country held the Security Council presidency, blamed Israel for creating destabilization and “terror” with its precision targeting of Hizbullah terrorists…There was no mention of international law for Hizbullah’s unprovoked, year-long bombardments of missiles and attack drones. Israel, in other words, must supposedly be brought before a world court for having the gall to defend its civilians from a terrorist organization.Article here

 

 

 

Bassem Eid (Palestinian peace advocate, political analyst, and human rights pioneer who founded the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group in 1996.)
Hizbullah, the most heavily armed non-state actor in the world, has for decades murdered Americans, destabilized Lebanon, and targeted innocent Jewish communities around the world.
In April 1983, Hizbullah assaulted the U.S. Embassy in Beirut with a suicide truck bomb that slaughtered 63 people, including 17 Americans. In October of that year, Hizbullah bombed the U.S. and French Marine barracks in Beirut, murdering 240 U.S. and 58 French servicemembers. In April 1984, Hizbullah bombed a restaurant near the U.S. Air Force Base in Torrejon, Spain, killing 18 U.S. servicemembers and injuring 83.
In 1992, a Hizbullah suicide bombing at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires killed 29 and injured 240. In 1994, Hizbullah struck the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, murdering 85 and injuring 300. In 2005, when Lebanon was on the verge of shaking off Syrian domination, Hizbullah assassinated the popular Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Hizbullah has shown that, in line with the ideology of the Iranian Revolution, their war is not only with the “Little Satan” of Israel but with the “Great Satan” of the U.S.
American and Western objectives in this conflict must be to empower and support Israel to finish the job, comprehensively defeating and demilitarizing Hizbullah and transferring control of Lebanon back to the Lebanese people.Article here

 

 

UNWRA

 

Seth Mandel: When Ditza Heiman, 84, was released from Hamas captivity, she revealed that she was held in Gaza for 53 days under the watchful eye of a teacher from the UN agency in Gaza, UNRWA. Israel said hundreds of UNRWA employees were moonlighting with one of Gaza’s terrorist groups, the head of the UNRWA teachers union was also Hamas’s top official in Lebanon, the agency shared facilities with Hamas command centres, and rockets were stored in UNRWA schools and the Hamas tunnels underneath them. Why on earth was UNRWA given free rein in Gaza for so long?
An agency funded by hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money does nothing but perpetuate the conflict. We are told that the vote by the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) against UNRWA will deprive over 650,000 children of an education, but the “education” provided by UNRWA schools teaches children to venerate terrorists and to hate Jews.Article here

 

 

Limor Simhony Philpott: This long-standing and known problem of incitement to violence and hatred in textbooks has been acknowledged and criticized by American administrations and the EU, but has never been resolved. But it was the massacre of Oct. 7 and the subsequent war that has pushed the Knesset to sever ties with UNRWA. It is estimated that 10% of UNRWA’s 30,000 employees have connections to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Some of them participated in the massacre of civilians and soldiers, raped and abducted Israelis, and have hidden Israeli hostages and the bodies of Israelis killed on Oct. 7.
For years, UNRWA facilities provided shelters for Hamas’s terror activities, including in schools and medical clinics. Even though it was known that UNRWA has been plagued by extremism, no real action has been taken by the UN or by donor states to bring meaningful reforms.
The very existence of UNRWA has helped to perpetuate the Palestinians’ refugee status, instead of helping Palestinians resettle, build a sustainable self-rule, and a functioning economy that would render the refugee agency obsolete. Israel recognizes the need for humanitarian assistance, but it wants this done through agencies that have not been compromised by ties to terrorism.
The Oct. 7 massacre and the war have exposed the depth of UNRWA’s involvement in terrorism and, as such, it should no longer have a mandate to exist. This is an opportunity to replace it with organizations that can provide relief without enabling terrorism and who could reform the educational system in ways that de-radicalize rather than incite.Article here (paywall)

 

 

David Patrikarakos: On the face of it, the Israeli Parliament’s new legislation banning UNRWA from operating inside the country appears dangerous. But Israel had no choice. In July, the IDF shared with UNRWA a list of over 100 of the group’s staff who are members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The  UN Secretary-General has said, “There is no alternative to UNRWA.” Except, of course, there is. Many other UN agencies provide aid and assistance. What’s stopping them from being called in? The legislation will take effect in 90 days. This gives the UN three months to find alternative arrangements, if only it is willing to do so. Israel should hold firm on the decision to ban UNWRA – but ensure that innocent Gazans do not suffer as a result. Article here

 

 

 

Seth J. Frantzman. For 75 years, UNWRA has sought to undermine Israel… The concept of UNRWA is to keep Palestinians dependent, living in refugee camps generation after generation, while using its young men as foot soldiers to fight Israel. Article here