Israel Update 16.10.24

No Update next week as it’s Shemini Atzeret (Simchat Torah in Israel)

UN INTERIM FORCE IN LEBANON (UNIFIL)

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has utterly failed in its core mission of monitoring Hizbullah’s activities in southern Lebanon and enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which bans non-government military forces in southern Lebanon. Hizbullah’s military infrastructure has grown massively over the years – and UNIFIL failed to notice or document this in any of its reports.
Further, Hizbullah has increasingly positioned its military sites near UNIFIL posts, using the peacekeepers as a shield. On Oct. 13, 2024, the IDF International Spokesperson detailed a disturbing pattern of Hizbullah attacks launched from positions near UNIFIL posts, a strategy designed to exploit the IDF’s reluctance to strike areas near peacekeeping forces. He recounted multiple incidents in which Hizbullah fire came from areas adjacent to UNIFIL posts, including one event, on Oct. 6, that resulted in the deaths of two IDF soldiers. Article here

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Sunday, “Hizbullah terrorists are using UNIFIL outposts as hiding places and as places for ambushes. The UN’s insistence on keeping the UNIFIL soldiers in the line of fire is incomprehensible.”

Israel’s PM on Sunday appealed to the UN Secretary-General to pull UNIFIL forces away from the fighting in South Lebanon…He said the IDF had repeatedly asked that UNIFIL move out of the area where fighting was taking place and was repeatedly refused. “Your refusal to remove the troops makes the UNIFIL forces hostages in the hands of Hizbullah….Unfortunately, several European leaders are applying pressure in the wrong place. Instead of criticizing Israel, they need to direct their criticism at Hizbullah which is using UNIFIL as a human shield just like Hamas used UNRWA in Gaza.”

He added “We regret the harm to UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone.” Reports hereand here

Two Unifil soldiers from Sri Lanka were injured on Friday by an Israeli strike near their watchtower in south Lebanon. The IDF troops fired at an “immediate threat” from Hizbullah fifty metres from the UNIFIL post. The IDF said they had warned the UN forces hours earlier to take shelter. Report here

and see Comment & Opinion articles below

THE WAR AGAINST HIZBULLAH

Four IDF soldiers were killed and 58 others were wounded, 7 seriously, when a Hizbullah drone struck a dining hall inside a military training base of the Golani Brigade on Sunday. The drone had failed to set off any warning sirens.
An initial probe indicated that two drones launched by Hizbullah entered Israeli airspace from the sea and were tracked by Israeli radar. One was shot down off the coast north of Haifa. The second drone dropped off the radar and Israeli forces lost track of it. Reports hereand here

IDF troops operating inside a Shi’ite village near the Lebanon border with Israel found military equipment for Hizbullah’s preparation to invade Israel.
Hizbullah’s Radwan forces were embedded in the village, appearing as regular villagers, while their rifles, grenades and more were stored in the houses, waiting for the order to launch the assault which “would have been bigger than the one on Oct. 7,”.
Hizbullah’s Radwan forces, numbering 4,000 to 6,000 men, were to breach the border at the same time through six points, and overrun military bases and communities on the Israeli side.Report here

Short 2 minute video of the underground Hizbullah base for the planned invasion of Israel embedded in this article.View here

Hizbullah’s entrenchment in forward positions a short walk north of the border with Israel was evidence of its meticulous preparations to invade northern Israel. The quantity and quality of weaponry that Hizbullah had brought to these forward positions, less than half a mile from the border, proved that when Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah “spoke openly about conquering the Galilee, it wasn’t just talk,” said IDF Brig.-Gen. Yiftach Norkin. Given Hizbullah’s strength, such an attack could have been much more devastating than the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Within one square km., IDF forces found about 100 sites used by Hizbullah for tunnel shafts, weapons caches, water stores and supplies…the munitions were new and well stored, some with manufacturing dates from last year.Report here (paywall)

IDF troops were amazed at the amount and quality of Hizbullah military equipment and weapons they found metres away from the Israeli border town of Metula, as they realized the extent of the danger posed by Hizbullah’s Radwan force that was preparing for an invasion of Israel. Troops uncovered hundreds of weapons. They found vehicles filled with gas, armed with heavy machine guns, and packed with combat uniforms, personal weapons, and medical supplies. Report here

The IDF has captured three members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces after discovering them in a shaft underneath a building in southern Lebanon, “entrenched” “alongside many weapons and equipment needed for a long stay.” The military also published a video clip of a Radwan operative being interrogated in which he painted a picture of chaos within Hezbollah at large and the Radwan forces in particular.Report here

Hizbullah has been launching rockets and drones at Kafr Manda and Sakhnin. two Arab towns in northern Israel, damaging homes, cars and commercial properties. Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defence system intercepted the majority of missiles.
Hizbullah claimed last week that its missiles had targeted “Sakhnin’s military base for arms development.” But there is no military base in Sakhnin. Several other Israeli Arab towns have endured Hizbullah missile strikes including Deir Al-Asad and Nazareth. Report here (paywall)

Yonah Jeremy Bob reported that on Thursday he saw the IDF in a Lebanese town taking apart the military infrastructure, including advanced Kornet missiles, rockets, and anti-aircraft guns, which Hizbullah had embedded into nearly every civilian house.Report here

But some of Hizbullah’s missiles are still hitting Israel: David Vaknin, a building supervisor from northern Haifa, had been working in a second-storey apartment last Tuesday when the air raid sirens went off.
He barely had time to get to a safe room before a Hizbullah rocket smashed through the roof, hitting the very spot where he had been moments before.
He said “Every week there are injuries, there are deaths. We can’t keep living like this. We need to defeat this hatred and those terrorist organizations. We need to deal with them once and for all.” Report here

Israeli Defence Minister Gallant told the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday that Hizbullah has less than 1/3 of the missiles it once possessed. He said Hizbullah has fired more than 14,000 rockets and that Hizbullah’s senior command structure has been almost entirely eliminated.Report here

The Ziv Medical Centre in Safed is seven miles from the border with Lebanon, and became a target after Hizbullah began launching rockets at Israel “in solidarity” with Gaza on Oct. 8. In February, a Hizbullah missile burrowed into the ground just outside the entrance to the hospital. Fortunately, it did not explode. In December 2023, Israel’s national cyber directorate said Iran and Hizbullah were behind an attempt to hack Ziv and cripple its operations. Three rockets landed near the hospital’s helipad last week. Article here (paywall)

TERROR ATTACK IN ISRAEL

An Israeli policeman was killed and four others were injured in a shooting attack on Route 4 near Ashdod on Tuesday. The attacker was eliminated.Report here

IRAN & HIZBULLLAH SPREAD ILLEGAL DRUGS (Middle & Far East & Western Hemisphere)

Among the groups operating the smuggling of weapons and the drug Captagon in Southern Syria are Iran’s Quds Force, Hizbullah, Iranian proxy militias, and elements in the Assad regime. Captagon is Syria’s largest export, providing as much as $10 billion a year. A former Jordanian Minister of Information and a former Jordanian Ambassador to Iran both insist that Iran is behind the militias smuggling arms and drugs into Jordan. Report here

In laboratories across southern Lebanon, Hizbullah recruits stir amphetamines together with cheap chemicals. The result is Captagon, the “cocaine of the poor.” The drug will be sold to Gulf nations and the profits, in the tens of millions of dollars, used to fund terrorism.
Some 40% of Hizbullah’s revenues come from trading Captagon…While a Hizbullah fighter earns $1,500 a month, a soldier in the Lebanese army earns just $300. Report here (paywall)

DEFENCE

The U.S. is sending an advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD) battery to Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it, the Pentagon announced on Sunday. The move comes after Iran launched 200 missiles at Israel on Oct. 1. The battery will give Israel another layer of protection to defend against ballistic missiles.
Report here (paywall)

HAMAS

Minutes from 10 secret meetings over two years, seized by the Israeli military, provide a detailed record of the planning for Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
Hamas deliberately avoided major confrontations with Israel for two years from 2021, in order to maximize the surprise of the Oct. 7 attack. Hamas leaders said they “must keep the enemy convinced that Hamas in Gaza wants calm.” The minutes were discovered on a computer found in January by Israeli soldiers as they searched an underground Hamas command centre in Khan Yunis from which the group’s leaders had recently escaped. Report here (paywall)

Years before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Hamas’s leaders plotted a deadlier wave of terrorist assaults against Israel, potentially including a Sept. 11-style toppling of a Tel Aviv skyscraper, while they pressed Iran to assist in helping achieve their vision of annihilating the Jewish state, according to documents seized by Israeli forces in Gaza. Report here (paywall)and here

GAZA

As Jabaliya area residents of Gaza try to heed IDF calls to evacuate to safe zones due to ongoing military operations, Hamas is obstructing their efforts by resorting to violence.
The IDF recorded a conversation between an IDF representative and a Gaza resident who stated: “Hamas members are beating us with batons, blocking our evacuation attempts, and forcing us back from the designated humanitarian zone.”
“What are we supposed to do? We want to leave but they’re beating us.Report here

Former CIA director Gen. (ret.) David H. Petraeus has emphasized that Israel should maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt until a reliable security force is established to prevent the resurgence of Hamas and other extremist groups.
He stressed that without Israel’s continued presence, any efforts at rebuilding Gaza could be undermined by terrorists adding “Only if you establish security can you introduce humanitarian assistance in an organized way, without it being hijacked by criminal elements or Hamas remnants” Report here

NEW POLISH AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL

Maciej Hunia, Poland’s new ambassador, arrived in Israel last week. He has held various senior positions, including head of Poland’s intelligence service and military intelligence agency. During his confirmation hearing in the Polish parliament, he was asked if he believes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Hunia replied that military actions causing unintended civilian casualties cannot be characterized as genocide, explaining: “We saw this in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Article here

UNWRA

The Israel Land Authority (ILA) announced plans for the UNRWA complex located in a Jerusalem neighbourhood to become a housing project with 1,440 units.
The ILA informed UNRWA in May that it must vacate the premises and pay Israel tens of millions of shekels in overdue rent for the years they had been using the property. The IDF had uncovered evidence that UNRWA workers were involved in the October 7 massacre, and multiple instances were found where Hamas terror infrastructure was embedded within UNRWA facilities in the Gaza Strip.Report here

THE UK

Lord Walney, the government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, said: “I have been really concerned with the level of criminality that has been on display at (pro-Palestinian) protests and the evident difficulty that police officers have in being able to charge all of that criminality even when it is readily in evidence at times on social media.”
While “the police cannot be everywhere,” on Oct. 5 in London “there were banners on display in clear support of a proscribed terrorist organization, Hizbullah, committed to the violent eradication of Israel, which is in clear contravention of the law….Some of these clear offences are not being immediately brought to justice in a way we’d like to see.” Report here

COMMENT & OPINION

UN Interim Force in Lebanon – Unifil

J.Post Editorial: UNIFIL’S INACTION AND THE WEST’S BLIND EYE.

Hezbollah has built fortifications and has transferred weapons to southern Lebanon for years, but in a 2017 report to the UN Security Council, the Irish commander of UNIFIL declared, “I have no evidence, nor have I been provided with any evidence of weapons transfers into my area of operations. We are extremely active in the area, and if there was a large cache of weapons, we would know about it.”

An incredulous Nikki Haley, then the US ambassador to the UN, said Hezbollah openly bragged about its stockpiled weapons; only the UNIFIL commander remained “blind” to this.

What does (UN Sec-Gen) Guterres think – that the Hezbollah attack tunnels full of equipment and weapons that the IDF is unearthing each day in southern Lebanon were formed as if by magic? That the rockets and missiles stored in scores of homes in the area materialized out of thin air?

An IDF spokesperson has said that in the last month alone, Hezbollah fired 25 rockets at Israel from positions near UNIFIL posts, including one attack that killed two IDF soldiers.

Given that UNIFIL has done little to prevent Hezbollah from bombarding Israel from southern Lebanon since October 8, and given that it did nothing to report Hezbollah’s massive buildup in the region over the years, the claim by European foreign ministers that the organization is a force for stability, is utterly baseless.

Furthermore, the accusation that Israel is deliberately targeting UNIFIL personnel is ridiculous. Israel cannot tolerate a situation where Hezbollah terrorists believe they can fire near UNIFIL positions and be immune from an Israeli response.

UNIFIL, to ensure that its personnel are not harmed, should withdraw from southern Lebanon. And top-tier European foreign ministers, to retain credibility with Jerusalem, should direct their condemnations at Hezbollah for brazenly violating the UNSC Resolution 1701 and for putting UNIFIL at risk rather than accusing Israel of defending itself against terrorists. Full editorial here

Douglas Murray:
Ever since the 2006 Lebanon war, the UN’s peacekeeping force has been worse than useless…the UN resolution that ended the 2006 war — Resolution 1701 — was meant to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its stockpile of weapons aimed at Israel… That resolution was never implemented. Since 2006, Iran is believed to have gathered some 160,000 long- and short-range rockets in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has been firing them since Oct. 8 last year, forcing tens of thousands of Israelis out of their homes in the north of the country.

They (UNIFIL) were meant to ensure that peace was kept, but for the past year they have sat useless as Hizbullah fired tens of thousands of rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel. I have seen footage of Hizbullah firing rockets over their heads into Israel. On Sunday, I saw two Hizbullah tunnels whose shafts opened not much more than 100 metres away from a giant UN peacekeeping base and observation point.
How is it possible that the kind of heavy digging needed to create these tunnels could have happened literally right under the noses of the UN? The answer seems to be that they decided not to look. The international peacekeeping force has been a joke for years. There would be no need for another war in Lebanon if the UN had actually done its job for the past 18 years. Article here