Important Takeaways:
- Agreeing to the world’s demands to leave Gaza prematurely, even to have the IDF leave the Egyptian border area temporarily, would be a serious and strategic error that would embolden and resupply Hamas and put Israelis in grave danger.
- That’s the case that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made last night in a nationally televised press conference in Hebrew.
- A visibly emotional Netanyahu apologized to the hostage families and nation for not being able to get the six recently murdered hostages out in time. He called the six “pure souls” and vowed Hamas would pay a heavy price for this “horrible massacre.”
- However, the prime minister insisted that the only way to get back the remaining 101 hostages and protect all Israelis from future attacks by Hamas was not to surrender the vital gains the IDF has made so far.
- His top priority right now?
- The IDF absolutely must maintain control of the border between Gaza and Egypt called the Philadelphi Corridor, Netanyahu said.
- He called it “the oxygen tube for Hamas” because through the smuggling tunnels on that border has come most of the weapons, ammunition, rockets, explosives, and other supplies that the terror group needs to fight Israel.
- Cutting off those supply lines will suffocate Hamas and persuade them to make a deal, the prime minister insisted.
- “They thought that Iran will save them. Or Hezbollah will come save them. They are hoping that international pressure — or internal Israeli pressure — will affect it. But the first change for a possible [hostage deal] came because we took control of the Philadelphi Line.”
- “Once we get out of it we will not be able to go back in,” Netanyahu said.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced early Sunday morning local time that it had launched a preemptive strike on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to thwart a major imminent attack by the Iran-backed terror group.
- Residents of northern Israel were advised to enter bomb shelters and “safe rooms” in their homes in anticipation of a response by Hezbollah. Israel’s missile defense system, notably the Iron Dome, was said to be intercepting rockets.
- Israel’s Army Radio reported that residents were being advised to take shelter even in cities relatively far from the northern border, such as the port city of Haifa, which is in the north of the country but typically safe from rockets.
- In a statement in Hebrew, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the military had detected that Hezbollah was about to fire a large barrage of rockets and missiles into Israel. Therefore, he said, the Israel Air Force (IAF) had taken preemptive action. A response was expected from Hezbollah, and therefore he said that residents of the north should enter safe rooms for at least ten minutes. He stressed that Israel’s defenses were “not hermetic.”
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Important Takeaways:
- President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with his national security team in the Situation Room later on Monday amid heightened tensions between Iran and Israel.
- The Islamic Republic could attack Israel in the next 24 to 48 hours following a major attack by Hezbollah that left two IDF soldiers injured, top western diplomats have warned.
- Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the G7 yesterday that an attack in response to Israel killing Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Fuad Shukr in Beirut, was imminent, as reported by Axios.
- It would be the second time during the growing crisis in the Middle East that Iran has directly attacked Israel, the first being in April when it sent a salvo of missiles and drones overnight.
- But unlike the April attack, the US admitted in a private call with G7 members that it doesn’t know what the expected retaliatory strike will look like.
- Nevertheless, Iran has clearly signaled that it intends to attack its foe, claiming it has the ‘legal right’ to respond to Haniyeh’s assassination, with foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani telling a news conference: ‘No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime.’
- The threats from Iran comes just hours after Hezbollah, backed by the Iranian regime, launched a silo of 30 missiles from Lebanon towards upper Galilee.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hamas called the IDF retaliatory strike on Beirut, targeting Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr a dangerous escalation, as the White House said Israel has a right to defend itself against Iranian back threats.
- “Our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said.
- “Israel has a right to defend itself against the severe threats it faces. “At the same time, the United States is continuing to work on a diplomatic solution to end these terrible attacks and allow citizens on both sides to safely return to their homes,” she stated.
- The Iranian proxy group Hamas, which operates in both Lebanon and Gaza said, “We strongly condemn the brutal Zionist aggression against Lebanon and the brotherly Lebanese people.”
- “We consider it a dangerous escalation for which the Nazi-Zionist occupation bears full responsibility,” it stated.
- The attack comes as Hamas and Israel are negotiating a hostage and ceasefire deal.
- US officials had urged Israel not to strike at Beirut in retaliation for the children’s death, even though the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah is located there.
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Important Takeaways:
- Military assesses it will take months to locate all tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, but Rafah Brigade mostly dismantled; half of terror group’s military leadership killed
- The IDF believed that its intelligence indicating that Deif arrived at a compound belonging to Rafa’a Salameh, the commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, was highly accurate, and that the pair were together in the building that was targeted with several heavy munitions.
- Salameh was killed in the strike, the IDF announced Sunday after obtaining final confirmation on the matter. It has yet to receive the same kind of information on Deif, and if he was dead, Hamas would attempt to hide the truth for some time.
- Deif was one of the chief architects of the October 7 massacre in southern Israel, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists broke through the border, killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
- He has been one of the figures most wanted by Israel since 1995 for his involvement in the planning and execution of many terror attacks, including bus bombings in the 1990s and early 2000s.
- The IDF has also been working to locate Hamas’s attack tunnels, which approach the Israeli border, as well as tunnel junctions that connect between various underground networks in the Strip.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Pentagon has warned Israel against any “miscalculation” along its northern border with Lebanon, as fighting between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia continues and Israeli leaders threaten to launch a full-scale cross-frontier incursion.
- Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the U.S. believes a diplomatic solution to the border tensions is still achievable and that “no one” would benefit from a new Israel-Lebanon war, which could plunge the region into fresh conflict
- Israeli troops, meanwhile, have been training for a possible incursion into southern Lebanon for several months, with “operational plans” for an offensive into Lebanon already “approved and validated,” according to the IDF.
- Hezbollah has said it will keep fighting until Israeli forces fully withdraw from Gaza. But Israel is demanding that Hezbollah pull back its forces north of the Litani River—around 18 miles north of the Israeli border—in accordance with a 2006 United Nations Security Council resolution that sought to end the last major clash between the two sides.
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Important Takeaways:
- In a video message, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said, “In case an inclusive war is imposed on Lebanon, the resistance will fight without restraints, without rules, without limits.”
- The minute-long clip then shows footage of various sites in central Israel, along with their GPS coordinates.
- “Whoever thinks of war against us, will regret it,” the video ends.
- The White House official reportedly rejected Jerusalem’s demand that a diplomatic deal to end the conflict in the north be based on the implementation of U.N. Security Resolution 1701—which was adopted to end the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and calls for a demilitarized zone from the Blue Line to the Litani River some 18 miles to the north.
- Instead, he said it should include a range of options, including moving Hezbollah six miles from the border. He stressed that the United States was concerned about further escalation and called for calm on both sides.
- Iran-backed Hezbollah has attacked northern Israel nearly every day since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, killing more than 20 people and causing widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel, Hezbollah on ‘brink’ of all-out war, officials warn
- The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) made the warning on Sunday, just a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to meet with Amos Hochstein, a top aide to President Biden. Biden’s administration is pushing Israel to avoid a war in Lebanon, but IDF officials continue to highlight the outsized threat posed by Hezbollah compared to Hamas.
- “Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation,” an IDF spokesman warned Sunday.
- “We are committed to the diplomatic process, however Hezbollah’s aggression is bringing us closer to a critical point in the decision-making regarding our military activities in Lebanon,” he told the Biden representative.
- Hezbollah, however, is far more well-equipped and has more manpower. Their rockets and drone attacks have already forced over 100,000 Israelis to evacuate their homes in northern Israel.
- “Hezbollah is the crown jewel in the Iranian empire of terror and evil and is by far the most powerful Iranian proxy, equipped with nation state capabilities and even more firepower than several European countries have today,” former IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus told Fox News.
- “In a military comparison, Hezbollah is far more powerful than Hamas,” he added.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel says tent camp blaze that killed 45 Palestinians and sparked international outcry could have been caused by exploding Hamas weapons cache – as IDF tanks roll into the center of Rafah
- …the Israeli military claimed on Tuesday that the munitions it dropped near the camp were not enough to cause the large fires, instead suggesting an exploding weapons cache may have caused the inferno to spread.
- IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that the strike was conducted against a ‘closed structure… away from the tent camp’ and claimed several Hamas officials were sheltering inside.
- He said the IDF dropped two munitions with 35lb warheads. ‘These are the smallest bombs we have. Our munitions alone could not have ignited a fire of this size.’
- As international pressure mounts on Israel over the horrific scenes emerging from Rafah – and as calls grow for its war in Gaza to cease – Israeli tanks reportedly reached the center of the beleaguered city on Tuesday.
- The Gaza Government Media Office claimed that Israel dropped seven 2,000lb (900kg) bombs as well as missiles on the camp in Tal as-Sultan, as reported by Al Jazeera.
- The UN Security Council is set to convene for an emergency meeting today to discuss the strike as the UN human rights chief Volker Turk expressed his ‘horror at the further loss of civilian life in Gaza’.
- Yet the Israeli Prime Minister’s resolve appears unwavering, as he declared in parliament: ‘I don’t intend to end the war before every goal has been achieved.’
- The Israeli military’s top legal official said authorities were examining the strikes and that the military regrets the loss of civilian life.
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