Israel Update 12.12.24

SYRIAN REBELS THREATEN ISRAEL

 

 

On Sunday, video footage from a mosque in Damascus showed Syrian rebels vowing to march on Jerusalem.

“This is the land of Islam, this is Damascus, the Muslim stronghold. From here to Jerusalem. We’re coming for Jerusalem. Patience, people of Gaza, patience,” vows an Islamist rebel spokesman surrounded by a group of gunmen who respond with cries of “Allahu akbar! (“God is greatest” in Arabic)

It is not clear which rebel group the fighters represent.

The Syrian uprising is being spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist jihadi organization.

Report hereReport here

 

 

ISRAEL & SYRIA

 

Power in Syria is now de-centralized, with the country fragmented between several groups, most of them Islamist extremists, potentially posing a new array of threats to Israel. Report here

 

Israel fears that following the collapse of the Assad regime, the former Syrian army’s weapons could fall into the hands of hostile forces in the country, as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In a message to the new regime taking shape in Syria, Israel’s PM said on Tuesday that Israel would seek to establish “correct” relations, but wouldn’t hesitate to attack if it threatens the Jewish state. So the Israeli Air Force was bombing “military strategic capabilities” left by the Syrian Army of the ousted Assad regime, “so that they won’t fall into the hands of the jihadists.”

Following a major 48-hour bombing campaign in Syria, the IDF on Tuesday said it had destroyed most of the former Assad regime’s strategic military capabilities, in an effort to prevent advanced weaponry from falling into the hands of hostile elements. The military said the airstrikes destroyed many long-range projectiles, a chemical weapons site, Scud missiles, cruise missiles, coast-to-sea missiles, air defence missiles, fighter jets, helicopters, radars, tanks, hangars etc… Report here

 

 

The IDF on Sunday captured the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon, along with the 235-sq km demilitarized buffer zone, which has been manned for decades by UN peacekeepers.. The IDF fears that following the fall of the Assad regime, and with an abundance of weapons in the area, hostile forces could attack Israel. They stressed that the move was temporary, but also acknowledged that troops would likely remain inside Syrian territory for the foreseeable future, until order is restored in Syria.

The IDF deployment was carried out in coordination with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which is tasked with the buffer zone. UNDOF members were staying in their positions.

Israel has sent warnings to the rebel forces in southern Syria to not approach the buffer zone. On Saturday, the IDF intervened with artillery fire to repel unidentified gunmen who tried to attack a UN post near the Syrian border town of Hader.Report here

 

 

On Monday night, the Israeli Navy carried out a large-scale operation to destroy the Syrian Navy. 15 Syrian navy vessels, many armed with sea-to-sea missiles, were destroyed by Israeli Navy missile boats to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile forces.Report here

 

 

The IDF is accelerating the addition of new combat engineering elements along the Syrian border in the Golan Heights to prevent armed terrorists infiltrating Israel, prioritizing fortifications in areas close to Israeli communities and sectors with limited visibility.Report here

 

 

 

LEBANON

 

 

Four IDF reservists were killed in an operational accident in south Lebanon on Sunday, when munitions in a Hezbollah tunnel exploded. The deadly incident underlined lingering dangers for troops in south Lebanon, despite the ceasefire.Report here

 

 

Since Oct. 7, the IDF’s 7th Armoured Brigade has not stopped for a moment, participating in battles in Gaza and, for the past two months, engaging in three rounds of fighting in Lebanon. Brigade commander Col. Elad Zuri: “When we were fighting in Gaza, I said it was hard to imagine the sheer number of tunnels. Here, I say it’s hard to imagine the quantity of weapons Hizbullah has accumulated and hidden.””Almost every house we enter to search reveals weaponry. Some are wrapped in plastic and stored in homes converted into emergency depots for the organization, but we’ve also found launchers with missiles ready to fire at Israel.”  Report here

 

 

 

Hizbullah obtained large quantities of advanced Russian arms originally sent to the Syrian military. 70% of Hizbullah’s weapons seized by the IDF in Lebanon were Russian-made. In October, the Lebanese daily An-Nahar cited intelligence sources saying that Russia transferred drones to Hizbullah and that Russian soldiers trained its operatives on how to use them.Report here (paywall)

 

 

GAZA

 

On Saturday an IDF officer was killed by anti-tank fire in Rafah Report here

Three IDF  soldiers were killed and 12 others were wounded in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, when they came under Hamas fire.Report here

 

Four rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel on Wednesday. No damage was caused.Report here

 

 

The IDF and Shin Bet said last Friday that several senior Hamas commanders were killed in recent Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, including a leader who masterminded the terror group’s use of paragliders to infiltrate Israel on October 7, 2023. Report here

 

On Saturday, COGAT, the Defence Ministry body that oversees coordination in the West Bank and Gaza, announced that more than 3,270 tons of flour on 218 trucks were delivered to Gaza the previous week via Israel.Report in 5th paragraph

TERROR ATTACKS

 

A 12 year-old Israeli boy was killed in a shooting attack late Wednesday on a civilian bus traveling from Beitar Illit to Jerusalem. A woman in her 40s sustained gunshot wounds. Two other passengers were injured from gunfire and shattered glass. The assailant, reportedly firing from a passing vehicle, struck the bus with 23 bullets and subsequently surrendered to security forces.Report here

 

An Israeli soldier was seriously wounded in a car-ramming attack near Hebron on Saturday evening. Later the suspected attacker turned himself into security forces.Report here

 

A man was lightly hurt in a terror ramming in Bnei Brak on Tuesday; the Arab-Israeli driver was arrested. Report here

 

UNWRA

 

Secret internal Hamas documents seized by Israel show that at least 24 people employed by UNRWA in 24 different schools across Gaza were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. A majority were top administrators – principals or deputy principals.
Secret Hamas military plans that show that the Qassam Brigades regarded schools and other civilian facilities as “the best obstacles to protect the resistance.” The documents listed two schools to be used as redoubts where fighters could hide and stash weapons in a conflict.
The seized records – coupled with interviews of current and former UNRWA employees, residents and former students in Gaza – offer the most detailed evidence yet of the extent of Hamas’s presence inside UNRWA schools. In several cases, educators remained employed by UNRWA even after Israel provided written warnings that they were militants. Gazan residents said in interviews that the idea that Hamas had operatives in UNRWA schools was an open secret. Report here (paywall)

 

 

 

YEMEN

 

 

A drone from Yemen struck a 16th-floor penthouse in the central Israeli city of Yavne on Monday, sparking a fire and causing damage to two apartments, though no injuries were reported.Report here

 

The IDF intercepted missiles launched from Yemen, today Thursday as well as last Saturday & Sunday.Reports herehere& here

 

 

 

HOSTAGES UPDATE

 

 

After 15 months of war, the homes of Israeli hostages are like time capsules of a war zone….The abandoned homes stand as a testament to growing grief among families who still don’t have their loved ones home after more than a year — and wonder if they ever will.Report here

 

 

Hamas released a propaganda video showing the first sign of life from her son, hostage Matan Zangauker. His mother Einav Zangauker is included in The BBC has revealed its list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2024.Reports here& here

 

The UK’s Daily Telegraph has named Mandy Damari, a British mother whose daughter Emily was taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, in its “Women of the Year” list. Report here

 

IRAN

 

 

The danger of Iran choosing to build a nuclear weapon is increasing, the U.S. intelligence community said in a report released last Thursday. Iran now has enough fissile material to make more than a dozen nuclear weapons, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.Report here (paywall)

 

 

 

Iran’s acceleration in its enrichment of uranium to close to bomb grade is “extremely serious,” has no civilian justification, and contradicts Tehran’s assertions on wanting serious nuclear negotiations, a Western diplomatic source said on Saturday. UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said Friday that Iran was dramatically accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the 90% level that is weapons grade. Report here

 

 

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Admiral Tony Radakin, the UK’s chief of defence staff, said that Israel showed the power of F-35s in destroying nearly all of Iran’s air defences without a loss on October 26^th.
“It has destroyed Iran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles for a year and left Tehran with a strategic dilemma in how it responds. That is the power of fifth-generation aircraft, combined with exquisite targeting and extraordinary intelligence…And that was all delivered from a single sortie.”Report here

 

 

SPAIN

 

 

The U.S. has opened an investigation into whether NATO ally Spain has been denying port entry to cargo vessels transporting U.S. weapons to Israel. The Federal Maritime Commission opened the probe after receiving information that Spain had refused to allow at least three cargo vessels into its ports.Report here

 

 

WAVE ENERGY (continued)

 

An Israeli company Eco Wave Power’s pioneering ocean wave energy technology has attracted interest from countries with which Israel currently has no diplomatic relations, including Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar,

As reported last week, its demonstration project at the Jaffa Port with its significant strategic partner EDF Renewables Israel has opened.  The technology, designed to use existing infrastructure such as breakwaters, piers, and jetties, is mainly onshore or near shore. The only parts in contact with the water are large floaters, which move with the waves, setting in motion pistons and motors that turn electric generators.Report here

 

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

 

Israel Discount Bank has recently underwritten a NIS 453 million ($125.3m) package to complete the financing of the country’s first anaerobic waste facility, which will recycle organic waste and produce gas and fertilizer, to be built near the Gaza border.Report here

 

 

DEFENCE

 

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

David Horowitz: Israel pulls itself together; Iran’s axis falls apart.

The jihadists’ lighting takeover of Syria was followed by the IAF’s lighting destruction of Assad’s military infrastructure.

One hundred hostages are still held in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Israelis are only just beginning to hope that stability has been restored to the north. Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are still capable of launching rockets and drones. Soldiers are still losing their lives in Gaza and in south Lebanon. But 14 months after Hamas invaded, on the worst day in modern Israeli history, it is the Iranian “Axis of Resistance” that is falling apart, and the State of Israel that is pulling itself together.Editorial here

 

 

 

 

Sune Engel Rasmussen:.The loss of Syria will have economic ramifications for Iran. In 2023, Syria imported 40 million barrels of oil from Iran. Syria paid for the oil on credit lines, and its total debt to Iran is estimated at tens of billions of dollars. Syria had also been the source for amphetamine-like captagon, which Hizbullah smuggled in annual trade estimated at $6 billion. Article here (paywall)

 

 

 

Col. (retd) Richard Kemp: Given the Assad regime’s monstrosities, many in the West have been enthusiastic about its fall, with some even hailing HTS as the good guys.
Not so fast. We can see many echoes of Afghanistan in what’s been happening in Syria…We should not forget that HTS is a jihadist group with origins in al-Qaeda. For the time being, HTS has its sights set on control within Syria. But it is not credible that they will not turn their attention beyond the borders in time. Before welcoming the rise of HTS, we should bear in mind that the enemy of my enemy can still be my enemy. Article here (paywall)

 

 

Eli Lake:Biden’s approach has been to prevent regional escalation. That may sound sensible on the surface, but it has meant trying to limit Israel’s war to a purely defensive one against Iran’s proxies – one at a time – while preventing Israel from taking the fight to Iran, the patron of those proxies…It turns out that another regional power – Israel – was able to extinguish much of Iran’s vaunted “ring of fire,” despite the warnings, arm-twisting, and weapon-shipment delays from the Biden administration. The Israelis did not have to “share” the region with a regime intent on dominating it.
While the Washington foreign policy establishment had persuaded itself of the futility of fighting a regime dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state, Israel could not afford that illusion. It demonstrated the fragility of Iran’s imperium and the delusions about that imperium.Article here

 

Iran

 

 

Andrew Neil: Tehran’s foreign policy is in ruins…and its options limited. The people of Iran have never shared the regime’s antisemitism, its obsession with Israel, its imperialist expansion, or its passion for medieval theocracy. They have watched billions squandered…on the likes of Hizbullah. The ayatollahs have never been more vulnerable. The smell of regime change is in the Tehran air.

Washington, London and Paris all urged Israel to show restraint against Hamas and not to open a second front against Hizbullah. The New York Times, the BBC and Le Monde piled on the pressure for Israel to back off by constantly highlighting the humanitarian cost of the conflict, usually with suspect Hamas statistics. But Israel took only cursory notice, pursued its own interests, and did us all a favour.Article here

 

 

 

Amnesty International

 

 

WSJ Editorial: Amnesty International’s new report, Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, begins:
“On 7 October 2023, Israel embarked on a military offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip of unprecedented magnitude, scale and duration.”
Gaza wasn’t occupied, and Hamas, not Israel, embarked on a military offensive.
Amnesty even criticizes Israel for evacuating civilians from active war zones.
Not one of the groups yelling genocide calls on Egypt to let women and children escape to safety by opening its border with Gaza.
Uniquely in this conflict, they insist that civilians be penned in the war zone. Article here (paywall)

 

Israel’s Druze Community

 

On the Syrian border in war-struck Majdal Shams, Assad’s fall sparks hope for Israel’s Druze, with some hoping to meet their relatives in Syria again.Article here

 

The Pope & the “Keffiyeh” Nativity Scene

 

On Saturday, Pope Francis joined Palestinian officials to inaugurate a nativity scene in the Vatican. The event should have been unremarkable, except for one detail  baby Jesus, a Jew, was lying on a keffiyeh, the scarf used as a national symbol for Palestinians. Article here

 

 

Elica Lebon: The keffiyeh emerged as a symbol for Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire beginning in the early 1900’s. It subsequently became a symbol for Palestinian resistance after being popularized by Yasser Arafat in the 1960’s. Today, it is used as a symbol for solidarity with Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas conflict, and often worn by those advocating for the destruction of Israel and its replacement with an Arab/Muslim state, which was not the identity of the land Jesus was born in.

This symbol has nothing to do with Jesus who lived 2,000 years ago in Judea, before these violent identity conflicts that began with the Arab identity conquering the land with the 7th century Muslim conquests, later conflicting with the Jewish identity returning to the land.

To associate Jesus with violence and wars by forcing him to wear a symbol associated with one side against the other is abhorrent, and a complete misevaluation of Jesus’s teachings. Full “X” post here

 

 

Syria – further reading

 

 

Yoav Limor:  Since the Syrian rebels subscribe to an extreme jihadist ideology, with deep-seated hostility toward Israel and a desire for its destruction, it was decided to obliterate as much of Syria’s military infrastructure as possible that risked falling into rebel hands.Article here

 

 

Yishai Elmakies: Despite the rebels’ attempts to project a “clean” image to the West, they are unequivocally jihadist in nature. Once they are done with Damascus, their sights will turn to Al-Aqsa.(Jerusalem) The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is nicknamed “al-Jolani,” a reference to his connection to the Golan Heights. Someone bearing such a name will not relinquish the area without a fight.Article here

 

JCFA Iran-Syria Desk: Post-Assad Syria: Winners and Losers, Crisis and Opportunity. Article here

 

Ron Ben-Yishai: Developments in Syria Favour Israel, but the Tide Could Suddenly Turn. Article here

 

 

Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin and Col. (res.) Udi Evental : Syria: Better the Devil We Don’t Know. Article here

 

 

David Millar: The lines drawn on the map of the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement have little meaning for the northern Sunni, the eastern Shia, the Druze to the south or the Alawite on the Mediterranean coast. There simply is no great purpose in a nation called Syria within borders drawn by European diplomats at the fall of the Ottoman Empire.Article here