Israel Update 19.12.24

CENTRAL ISRAEL TARGETED TWICE IN 4 DAYS BY HOUTHI TERRORISTS

 

 

Today Thursday, at 02.36 am air raid sirens were triggered across central Israel, jolting millions of Israelis out of bed as they rushed to take shelter. Israel’s Arrow missile defence system intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen. A school in Ramat Gan, suffered major damage when its main building collapsed, also causing damage to nearby cars and homes. The Ramat Gan Mayor estimated the damage at NIS 40 million ($11 million). The school will be demolished and rebuilt. Fortunately, as the attack was in the middle of the night, no children or staff were in the building. An initial investigation by the Israel Air Force found that part of the warhead from the missile had exploded following only a partial interception. Other interception fragments were scattered over a wide area including  the outer perimeter area of the Knesset compound in Jerusalem and   Modi’in Maccabim-Re’ut.Reports herehere

 

 

 

On Monday afternoon, air raid sirens blared across central Israel, sending millions of Israelis into shelters after a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthis targeted the country. Five people were injured while running for shelter. The missile was intercepted outside Israeli airspace but debris fell in Leshem, a community in Samaria, and in a Jerusalem neighbourhood.
The Houthis have fired a dozen ballistic missiles and drones at Israel since the start of November, including several in the last two weeks. Report here

 

 

ISRAEL STRIKES YEMEN

 

The Israeli airforce was already on its way to Yemen when last night’s missile was fired towards Israel.Report here

 

 

Israel responded to weeks of Houthi missile and drone attacks with its third strike in Yemen early Thursday. The Israeli strikes, carried out 2,000 km. from Israel, disabled three seaports, Yemen media said. In the Yemen capital of Sanaa, which came under Israeli attack for the first time, planes targeted fuel storage areas and a power station.
The IDF spokesperson said the strikes aimed to degrade Houthi military capabilities and prevent the use of the targeted facilities for military operations, including the smuggling of Iranian weapons. Report here

 

 

 

MORE EVIDENCE OF GAZA WAR CASUALTY FIGURES MANIPULATION & FALSIFICATION

 

The number of civilians killed in the Gaza conflict has been manipulated for propaganda purposes to portray Israel as deliberately targeting innocent people, according to a study by the Henry Jackson Society think tank. The Gaza ministry of health is accused of overstating casualty data by including natural deaths, failing to differentiate between civilian and combat casualties, and over-reporting the numbers of women and children killed. In fact, the majority of those killed are fighting-age men.
Around 5,000 natural deaths, which would have happened even without the conflict, appear to have been added to the list of casualties. The casualty figures also failed to distinguish between Gazans killed by the IDF and those killed by misfired Hamas (and PIJ) rockets.
The Hamas-sanctioned casualty figures are taken at face value by the BBC, the New York Times and CNN. Only 5% of 1,378 news articles cited casualty figures issued by the Israeli authorities, while 98% used those provided by Hamas. During previous conflicts, similar inaccuracies were documented.

The Gaza health ministry, under Hamas, “has systematically inflated the death toll by failing to distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, over-reporting fatalities among women and children and even including individuals who died before the conflict began,” the report said.

Report here (paywall)and here

 

 

Research by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) found that in nearly 30 separate reports, BBC Arabic failed to give any indication that Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers were fighters with terror groups such as Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Researchers found that, during an 18-month period after August last year, there were 18 items in which BBC Arabic failed to report cases of Jewish civilians falling victim to Arab violence. A report in October described all 24 Israeli fatalities in the West Bank since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks as “soldiers,” when more than a third were civilians. In another 19 items, civilian hostages taken by Hamas were described as “prisoners of war” and Jewish fatalities as “settlers” – despite them living inside Israel’s internationally recognized territory.
A spokesman for CAMERA noted that “even when Hamas, the PIJ and Israel alike agree that a certain fatality was a combatant, the BBCopts not to mention this.”  Report here (paywall)

 

 

 

SYRIA

 

Videos circulating on social media depicted a gathering of dignitaries from the village of Hader, on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, speaking in favour of joining Israel. A dignitary said he spoke on behalf of several villages in the region and told a crowd of dozens: “We ask to be annexed to the Golan….We want to ask to join our kin in the Golan, to be free from injustice and oppression,” to which those present replied: “We agree, we agree!” Report here

 

 

 

Villagers and rebels in the Syrian Golan and around the buffer zone have been transferring weapons from the previous regime to the IDF footage aired by Israeli TV channel  N12 revealed on Monday. IDF soldiers told N12 that they found several weapons filled with chemical warfare material. Report here

 

 

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last Thursday that Israel had a right to defend itself against risks to its security from Syria. “What Israel is doing is trying to identify potential threats, both conventional and weapons of mass destruction, that could threaten Israel and, frankly, threaten others as well,” he said. Report here (paywall)

 

 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday that Israel carried out 61 airstrikes on military sites across Syria on Saturday, targeting tunnels housing ballistic missile stockpiles. On Sunday the IAF targeted missile launchers and weapons depots.Reports here & here

 

 

THE IDF STILL FIGHTING IN GAZA & OPERATING IN LEBANON

 

The IDF carried out strikes on two groups of terrorists trying to loot humanitarian aid trucks in Gaza  last Thursday.Report here

 

The IDF is continuing to dismantle rocket launch sites in both Gaza and southern Lebanon, the army reported Friday. In southern Lebanon, soldiers discovered a large weapons store, including Kornet missile launchers, AK-47 rifles, magazines, and missiles hidden in dense, mountainous terrain. The IDF also removed an anti-tank missile launch site and a weapons cache containing RPG missiles and mortar shells. The IDF reiterated that in removing threats to Israel, it is acting in accordance with the ceasefire agreement.
In Gaza, IDF troops dismantled a rocket launch site in Beit Lahia with three underground multi-barrel launchers loaded with rockets. In Rafah, IDF troops located tunnel shafts and eliminated terrorists. Report here

 

 

The IDF said Sunday that an Al Jazeera cameraman killed in an airstrike in the central Gaza Strip earlier in the day was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.Report here

 

 

The IDF reported Sunday that it has confiscated over 10,000 Hizbullah weapons in southern Lebanon.
In Gaza troops raided a terrorist meeting point in the Beit Hanoun area resulting in the elimination of dozens of Hamas terrorists and the arrest of others.Report here

 

 

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (PA) MOVES AGAINST PIJ IN JENIN

 

After nearly a decade of inaction, Palestinian security forces intensified operations to regain control of the Jenin refugee camp on Monday. PA security officials announced the capture of the main operations centre of the Jenin Brigade, affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the arrest of 12 terror operatives.
Members of the Jenin Brigade have been given an ultimatum to surrender their weapons or face arrest and prosecution for weapons trafficking and collaboration with foreign entities like Iran and Hamas.
The Jenin operation was launched after terrorists seized two PA security vehicles and paraded them through the streets of the camp last week draped in Hamas and PIJ flags. There were also clashes in Tulkarm and Nablus on Sunday. Report here& here

 

 

THE US

 

The withholding of crucial military assistance from Israel remains a point of contention between the outgoing U.S. administration and the Israeli government…
Senators supporting Israel said the delayed military assistance included “120 mm tank ammunition, 120 mm mortar ammunition, light tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, F-15s, F-35 engines, joint direct attack munition kits, 2,000 pound bombs, rifles, and guided missile systems,” as well as Apache attack helicopters and Caterpillar D9 bulldozers.
Under National Security Presidential Directive-56, [the] State [Department] was directed to complete the review and adjudication of license applications within 60 days of receipt. However, these cases have been awaiting final approval for an average of over four months. Report here (paywall)

 

 

 

 

ISRAEL CONTINUED TO SEND AID WORLDWIDE IN 2024

 

Even though during wartime many new aid projects focussed internally on Israeli needs, locally based international  humanitarian aid organizations continued to send out dedicated and trained staff to help in all sorts of crisis situations.

In January, SmartAID sent help to earthquake-hit Japan, then to Taiwan after another earthquake in April. In October, SmartAID provided solar power units and communication systems to communities in Florida and North Carolina in the wake of two devastating hurricanes, Helene and Milton.

In June,  IsraAID sent help to Papua New Guinea after a deadly landslide. It also continued to integrate psychological support into the Ukrainian health system, expand access to safe water in Ukraine, and drill new bore holes in Kenya after the country suffered its worst drought in 40 years. Article here

 

 

SOLAR ENERGY

 

 

A Bedouin school in southern Israel is pioneering what is thought to be the first model of its kind for living sustainably without any connection to state electricity, water, or sewage infrastructure, just by harnessing the power of the sun. It is a pilot technological project that, according to Fareed Mahameed of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, could help over 70 percent of the world’s population cope with the effects of climate change.Report here

 

 

 

TRAVEL

 

 

China, Japan and the UK softened their travel warnings to Israel on Friday. The UK limited its travel warning to the borders with Lebanon and Syria, some parts of the West Bank plus the Gaza Strip and its border area. Report here

 

 

 

 

AMSTERDAM POST-SCRIPT

 

 

Described by some as spontaneous reactions to Israeli provocations, evidence at the trial of 7 suspects revealed the assaults as having been meticulously planned. Organisers had worked for days to bus in assailants, including dozens of taxi drivers, from across the Netherlands to ambush Israelis. Report here

 

DEFENCE

 

 

Greece is in advanced talks to buy 36 PULS rocket artillery systems from Israel. Most of the new artillery systems will protect Greece’s north-eastern borders with Turkey and its islands in the Aegean.Report here

 

 

 

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC)

 

Israel has appealed against the ICC arrest warrants stating that the court violated its own charter and rulings.Report here

 

 

 

IRELAND – CLOSURE OF ISRAELI EMBASSY

 

 

Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Dublin is “the correct move at this juncture,” according to Israel’s ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich, who claims there is “an anti-Israel obsession” in the country that doesn’t help peace or co-existence.” Report here

 

Israel’s Foreign Minister blasted the Irish President’s unsubstantiated claim that Israel “would like in fact actually to have a settlement into Egypt.” Report here

 

 

 And see Comment & Opinion below.

 

 

POST-SCRIPT TO VATICAN  “KEFIYAH” NATIVITY SCENE

 

 

The controversial nativity scene has been removed following a critical backlash.Report here

 

 

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Syria

 

Rolf Dobelli interview with Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin.

After October 7, 2023, Israel decided that there will be no terror organization on its border with the capability to launch an attack within hours. And HTS [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham] which just toppled the Assad regime, demonstrated their ability to emulate Hamas with a surprise attack from a point of zero distance to the border. So, Israel is making sure that this buffer zone will not be taken by terrorists. When Israel will see that there is an accountable regime in Syria, a regime committed to the 1974 agreement, it will withdraw back to the lines where it started from. Any rumours that Israel is moving toward Damascus are nonsense. Article here

 

 

Dr Carmit Valensi:The military capabilities of the various rebel groups are far inferior to those of Iran and its proxies. The main adversary of these rebels is the Assad-Iran-Hizbullah axis. As a result, Israel is unlikely to be a top priority for these groups in the near future.
Moreover, the rebels in the border area with Israel do not belong to or identify with the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham but rather are remnants of the Free Syrian Army and Druze forces, which have had a positive attitude toward Israel and with whom Israel has been able to work in the past. Article here

 

 

Prof. Eyal Zisser: Today, Syria’s new leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, a former ISIS operative and leader of the Levant Liberation Front, speaks in tones pleasing to Western and even Israeli ears, claiming he shouldn’t be judged by his actions as a young man and that his only desire is to build a new Syria and ensure its people can earn a living with dignity.
Time will tell whether he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing or whether this former jihadist has genuinely transformed. Meanwhile, his vision for Syria is becoming clearer – an Islamic state governed by religious law.Article here

 

 

Jonathan Spyer: Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed Shara/Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is now the de facto ruler in Damascus…In the period between 2017 and 2024, al-Jolani and his movement were the de facto rulers of Idleb (Idlib) province. Observation of how they governed there is likely to yield clues.
Israeli researcher and former IDF military intelligence officer Alex Grinberg has made a close study of HTS’s seven-year experiment at governance in Idleb. HTS did not go in for the mad excesses of their rival jihadis in the Islamic State. There was no enslavement of non-Muslim women, none of the lurid insanity associated with IS.
On the other hand, what was established was a repressive, authoritarian statelet ruled in accordance with Islamic Sharia law. Women were required to wear the hijab, music and alcohol were banned. No opposition was permitted to the edicts of HTS. Non-Muslims and women were not allowed to be in the representative bodies established. In al-Jolani’s prisons, incarceration without trial and the practice of torture were routine. There is every reason to believe that the system developed in Idleb will now be installed throughout the country.
HTS’s highest religious authority Abd al-Rahim Atoun, called the Oct. 7 attacks “the greatest act of Islam in this era.” Atoun compares HTS’s march from Idleb to Damascus to the Oct. 7 attacks, and requests “the Almighty to disgrace the Jews, suppress them, and curse them and those who support and back them.”
The government of Israel has been engaged in recent days in preventing the emergent Islamist regime in Damascus from possessing any but the most rudimentary military capacity. Some have questioned the motivation for this action. Yet Israel’s decision to disarm HTS as far as is possible is likely to yet be considered prescient. Article here (paywall)

 

 

 

Jake Wallis Simons: Every action that would save Israeli lives has been opposed by somebody and some have been opposed by everybody.
With its actions to destroy Syria’s MiG warplanes, attack helicopters, surface-to-surface missile batteries and cruise missiles, not to mention chemical weapons, Israel may have done more for regional counter-proliferation in a single week than the UN has achieved in eight decades.
The loudest howls came when Israel temporarily seized a buffer zone along the frontier to prevent jihadi infiltration of its territory.
While critics accused Israel of occupying “a chunk of Syria,” Turkey has occupied 5,500 square miles of northwest Syria for years. Article here (paywall)

 

Ireland

 

Michael Murphy: Just last week, the Irish government called to “broaden” the definition of genocide to vaguely include civilian harm, effectively turning Israel into a perpetrator of a crime yet to exist.
For Jerusalem, this attempt to shift legal goalposts, redefining established terms to engineer guilt, was the final straw. After years of diplomatic snubs, boycotts, and genocide accusations – not to mention Ireland’s recognition of a Palestinian state soon after Oct. 7 – Israel decided to cut its losses.
Ireland is for international law when it suits. That’s why it now seeks to rewrite the Genocide Convention to retroactively lower the bar for convicting Israel. This more closely resembles authoritarian justice, where the accused is condemned first and the crime tailored to fit.
Ireland may claim to be “pro-peace,” but when Irish peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon turned a blind eye to Hizbullah amassing rockets on Israel’s border – in blatant violation of international law – Dublin remained silent. Had the peacekeepers done their job, Hizbullah’s emboldening of Hamas, and this war, might have been avoided.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris declared that Israel was not “entitled to have an alternative set of facts.” But this cuts both ways. The facts reveal that Ireland’s government is determined to accuse the Jewish state of genocide – a term born from the Holocaust – at any cost. Ireland abandons its principles when the violators aren’t Jews but weaponizes them when they supposedly are. Article here (paywall)

 

 

 

Brendan O’Neill:  It’s not often I feel ashamed to be Irish. But this unconscionable state of affairs, where my motherland finds greater favour among the neo-fascists of Hamas than it does with the democratic nation of Israel, makes me ashamed. Israel is right to cut ties with Ireland. It is right to say the Irish government’s attitude to Israel is fuelled by “double standards.”…If you go mad when Israel dares to fight back against the anti-Semitic terrorists who raped and murdered more than a thousand of its people, then you are not “pro-peace” – you’re just a garden variety Israel-hater. Ireland has failed the great moral test of our time, the test set by the barbarous acts of Oct. 7, and now finds itself loved more by the killers of that day than by their victims. For shame. Article here (paywall)

 

 

 

Angela Epstein: The move by the Irish government overlooks overwhelming evidence that Israel’s campaign in Gaza is anything but genocide. Routinely Israel is lauded by military experts for the humane way in which it is fighting the war. If the determination was to kill for the sake of killing, why drop leaflets warning innocent people to take cover?
It remains unconscionable that Israel’s attempts to protect its citizens and secure the release of hostages, while trying to avoid loss of innocent life, is labelled as genocide. Israel’s war is not with the Palestinian people. Otherwise it would surely have flattened Gaza within days of the Oct. 7 attack. Article here