Israel Update 30.4.26

THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE)

The IDF sent an Iron Dome battery with interceptors and several dozen IDF operators to the UAE early in the war with Iran.
The system intercepted dozens of Iranian missiles and was the first time Israel had sent an Iron Dome battery to another country.
The Israeli Air Force also conducted numerous strikes to take out short-range missiles positioned in southern Iran before they could strike the UAE and other Gulf countries.
Tareq al-Otaiba, a former official at the UAE’s national security council, wrote: “Primarily, the United States and Israel have proved to be true allies by offering support through extensive military aid, intelligence sharing, and diplomatic backing.”  “We are not going to forget it,” a senior Emirati official said. Report here

THE WAR AGAINST HIZBULLAH

Elisha Ben Kimon: The reality emerging in southern Lebanon over the past two weeks (since the ceasefire) leaves the IDF unable to act with full freedom against Hizbullah, paying the price of its strategic “partnership” with a superpower. Israel’s security relationship with Washington is indeed critical when it comes to Iran. But in Lebanon, that partnership is starting to look like a liability. The result: The IDF is fighting with one hand tied behind its back, as diplomacy constrains its room to manoeuvre.
The ceasefire is unravelling daily. In 11 days, Israel has lost three soldiers. Hizbullah is moving operatives from central Lebanon into the south. It is laying IEDs, firing rockets at northern communities and IDF forces, and launching attack drones. This is not a ceasefire. It is a slow-drip war of attrition. Article here

Sgt. Idan Fooks, 19, was killed and six soldiers were wounded, three seriously, in a Hizbullah explosive drone attack in southern Lebanon on Sunday.Report here

Sgt. Liem Ben Hamo was killed and another soldier moderately wounded in a Hezbollah explosive drone attack, today Thursday.Report here

Amer Hujirat, a Defence Ministry civilian contractor was killed and his son (also a civilian contractor) was wounded by a Hezbollah explosive-laden first-person view (FPV) drone in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. Report here

After two rockets and a drone were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel on Saturday afternoon, activating sirens in several towns, Israel’s PM instructed the IDF to go after Hizbullah targets “with force”. Report here

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Wednesday that there “is no ceasefire,” as Israel and Hezbollah continued exchanging fire, amid a reported push from Jerusalem to get the US to limit its historic direct talks with the Lebanese government to a two-week timeframe, and to sign off on a large-scale IDF campaign against Hizbullah if the talks fail. Report here

Hezbollah launched several drones at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, a day after a soldier was severely wounded in a similar incident. Report here

Today (Thursday) twelve soldiers were wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack on an artillery position near the northern Israel border.  Report here

The IDF has blown up two vast Hizbullah attack tunnels, built with direct guidance from Iran. The underground systems spanned 2 km and reached depths of 25 metres. Report here

On Wednesday, IDF soldiers identified and destroyed a rocket launcher placed inside a civilian building in southern Lebanon, which was aimed towards IDF soldiers operating in the region. Report here

Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern on Tuesday accused the government of selling out the north’s security. He said “What’s determining our security at the moment is an agreement between the US, Lebanon and Iran” as Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah kept up attacks on Israel’s north and on the IDF in southern Lebanon, despite the truce that was declared on April 16. Report here

This morning (Thursday) a Hizbullah missile hit northern Israel. As many pupils were on their way to school, sirens sounded in around 17 communities. Children waiting at bus stops had to take cover while one school bus was forced to stop en route while the pupils searched for cover. Report here

Footnote:

Last Thursday, during the second round of Israel/Lebanon peace talks at the White House, President Trump had announced that the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, due to expire on 26 April, would be extended for three weeks.Report here

EXPLOSIVE DRONE THREAT

In southern Lebanon, Hizbullah’s explosive drones have become one of the most challenging threats facing IDF soldiers. Since the beginning of the week, two Israelis have been killed by explosive drone strikes.
When Hizbullah switched to drones using fibre optics that make detection and interception harder, Israel found itself facing a “low-tech” threat that disrupts its operational plans.
Lebanese sources report that Hizbullah has amassed a huge stockpile of First-Person View (FPV) drones in recent months with a range of 50 km. and an explosive payload of 7 kg.
The drone is physically connected by fibre optic cable to the operator, avoiding detection by IDF electronic warfare systems. Hizbullah launches the drones from areas where the IDF is not present. Report here

The IDF is working on defensive and offensive measures to counter Hizbullah’s drone force buildup. Currently drone detection relies on soldiers serving as spotters but the IDF wants tactical radars that can move with the forces and provide relatively long warning times, allowing troops to prepare for interception or at least take cover.They are examining various technologies from Israel and abroad, while also procuring existing, available means to deal with the threat, including protective nets, fragmentation rounds, shotguns and dedicated launchers for intercepting small aircraft. Report here

IRAN WAR

Nesya Karadi, an 11-year-old girl critically wounded in a Passover eve Iranian cluster bomb attack on Bnei Brak, died on Friday, just over three weeks after the April 1 attack. Report here

President Trump has told advisers he is not satisfied with Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war. The Iranian proposal calls on the U.S. to end its naval blockade but set aside questions about Iran’s nuclear programme.
U.S. officials say Iran’s leadership has not authorized its negotiators to make concessions on the nuclear deal, frustrating any attempts to forge a compromise or peace agreement.

On Sunday Trump said (inter alia) that the Iranians “cannot have a nuclear weapon” Report here (paywall)& here

HAMAS IN GAZA – UPDATE

Since the October 2025 ceasefire, Hamas in Gaza has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars, in addition to $134-335 million in cash it managed to hide in its tunnel network during its war against Israel. Hamas has been levying charges of 15-25% per humanitarian aid vehicle, with 4,200 aid trucks entering every week. An IDF source said Hamas taxes the aid twice – a percentage “on every truck carrying food, fuel, or medicine, and an additional tax on the goods when they are sold in the market. They are making tens of millions of shekels a day, and the coffers keep growing.”Report here

MEDIA MISREPORTING

On April 20, a Palestinian Authority village, Turmus Aiya, dedicated a park in memory of a local terrorist killed last year by IDF soldiers while attacking Israeli motorists.
Their social media channels actively promoted the event and called on participants to carry out stone-throwing attacks afterward. Israeli vehicles were pelted with stones on Route 60 immediately afterwards.
Despite the IDF presence, documented incitement, and the IDF arrest of the perpetrators, some journalists misreported the event, attributing the stone-throwing to Israelis.
By the time retractions or corrections trickled in, the story of Israeli violence against the “peaceful” village of Turmus Aiya had already taken hold. Article here

SWITZERLAND

 Switzerland’s National Council, one house of its bicameral parliament, on Tuesday voted 116-66 against recognizing Palestine as a state, with 11 abstentions.
Citing international law, which requires an independent and functioning government, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council said that conditions are not yet in place to recognize a Palestinian state. Report here

ORANGUTAN

The first orangutan to be born at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, as part of a European breeding programme, is an important addition to the world’s shrinking orangutan population.  Report here

SPORT

Israeli epee fencers Dov Vilensky and Yehonathan Messika make their mark at the U23 European Championships in Italy. Dov won gold and is the U23 European Champion
while Yehonathan secured a bronze medal. Photo here

Israeli windsurfer Tamar Steinberg won a silver medal at the World Cup event in France.Photo here

Footnote:

This week, Borussia Dortmund hosted and welcomed former Israeli hostages Omri Miran and Ziv and Gali Berman in Germany, presenting them with team shirts.  Photo here

COMMENT & OPINION

Lebanon

Lt.-Col. (res.) Shaul Bartal: The current war cycle has stripped away any remaining ambiguity about Hizbullah’s role. It is no longer simply a “resistance movement” but a strategic arm of Iran operating on Lebanese soil, often in direct contradiction to Lebanon’s own national interests. Lebanon must confront this reality and embrace a framework that enables Hizbullah’s exit from the military sphere.
Following the 1949 armistice after Israel’s War of Independence, the Israeli-Lebanese border remained relatively quiet for decades. The Lebanese civil war in 1975 transformed the reality in the south. Palestinian armed organizations, chiefly the PLO, turned the area into a forward base against Israel.
During the First Lebanon War in 1982, a short-lived Israel-Lebanon agreement emerged on May 17, 1983, offering mutual recognition and normalization. Hizbullah emerged from that same war, reshaping the self-image and sociopolitical position of Lebanon’s Shi’ite community and elevating loyalty to Tehran.
Successive Lebanese governments have lacked both the capacity and the will to confront Hizbullah. Until such a strategic decision is made in Beirut, Israel will likely insist on maintaining a security zone up to the Litani River, and on preventing the organized return of the Shi’ite population to devastated villages that could quickly be remilitarized.
The hard choice before Lebanon is clear: either assume responsibility for disarming Hizbullah and normalizing relations with Israel, or live for the coming years with an Israeli-controlled buffer zone on its soil as the price of leaving Hizbullah’s weapons in place. article here

Iran War

Majeed Gly:  For millions of people across the Middle East, this war did not start on Feb. 28. It started decades ago. Across the Gulf, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, people want what any American wants: a job, a stable country and a future that is not hostage to someone else’s ideology. What stops progress, every time, is the same force. Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen – all taking orders from Tehran, all blocking the future the rest of the region is trying to build.
Since Feb. 28, Iran has struck every country in the region that chose partnership with the West – and not one of them fired a shot at Iran. In the UAE, 13 people were killed and over 200 were wounded. Kurdistan has been hit more than 700 times, with 14 dead. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar – all struck. None of them threatened Iran. The fear across this region is not that America acted. It is that the world will lose interest before anything changes.article here

Jonathan Schanzer: Adherents to jihadism believe that their faith commands them to fight and that victory is inevitable, even if it takes decades. Adherents to Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1979 Islamic Revolution view the world this way. When your enemy is the infidel, and your victory is ordained by Allah, your obligation is to keep fighting, even in defeat. Surrender is not an option.
The Islamic Republic embraces this mindset. Military losses or economic pain are spun as proof of martyrdom and sacrifice, to be answered with even greater confidence in the revolution.
But just because someone refuses to admit defeat doesn’t mean he is immune to it. The relentless Israeli-American assault on the assets of the regime is undeniably taking its toll. The problem is that such things take time. article here

Resilience

Eric R. Mandel: Israelis are not fighting on distant battlefields, they are fighting in their own backyards. This is the essence of Israeli resilience…Americans like myself cannot fully grasp what it means to wake up multiple times a night to sirens, rushing children into shelters, living under a constant cloud of fatigue. Nor can we easily comprehend a society where nearly everyone is one degree removed from someone physically or emotionally scarred by war…In the U.S., happiness is often equated with material success and individual achievement. Israelis value prosperity as well, but their sense of fulfillment is more closely tied to meaning, contribution, and collective responsibility. The sanitation worker and the tech executive stand side by side in the reserves. article here