The south: Over recent days, amid cautious optimism over a potential hostage deal, Israeli forces have continued to operate across the Gaza Strip.
- On Saturday, at least 16 people died in a strike on a school in Nuseirat. The IDF said the school, as well as sheltering displaced Gazans, was being used as a Hamas hideout and operational base for planning attacks against Israeli forces in the area.
- The IDF said: “Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise aerial surveillance and additional intelligence. The Hamas terrorist organisation systematically violates international law, exploiting civilian structures and population as human shields for its terror attacks against the State of Israel.”
- The IDF reported yesterday that, acting on intelligence, the Israeli Air Force struck a complex inside of which terrorists were operating and hiding in the area of another school building in Gaza City. The IDF also struck a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility embedded by Hamas in the area of the school.
- Also in Gaza City, “following intelligence indicating the presence of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist infrastructure, operatives, weapons, and investigation and detention rooms in the area of Gaza City, including in the UNRWA headquarters, the IDF and Shin Bet began a counterterrorism operation in the area.”
- The IDF also revealed that soldiers from the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit have been operating in the Shejaiya area over the past week. “The soldiers have been locating large quantities of weapons, destroying dozens of booby-trapped buildings and eliminating terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters.”
- Also in Shejaiya, “troops raided and destroyed a combat compound and a command and control centre of Hamas terrorists located in schools and a clinic that were converted from civilian use to terrorist purposes.”
- “During the searches in the compound, soldiers of the Rotem Battalion located and destroyed a weapons production site and dozens of weapons including: mortars, machine guns, grenades and intelligence documents… hidden alongside equipment and UNRWA uniforms.”
- Troops and air force planes also operated to eliminate more than 30 Hamas fighters who posed a threat to soldiers in the area of Rafah. Troops also located tunnel shafts and confiscated weapons in the area. In the areas of Khan Younis and Gaza City, two ready-to-use launch sites aimed at Israeli territory were struck by the IDF.
The north: 20 rockets crossed from Lebanon towards the Lower Galilee yesterday. As sirens sounded across the north, the IDF’s Aerial Defence Array also successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target. No injuries or damage were reported.
- Sirens also sounded Sunday, as around 20 projectiles crossed from Lebanon towards the Meron area. Fire and Rescue services fought to extinguish blazes caused by the launches.
- Two anti-tank missiles were also launched from the area of Ayta Ash Shab in southern Lebanon toward the area of Shtula. The air force carried out a strike on the source of the missile fire. Later on Sunday, two further anti-tank missiles were fired towards the area of Zar’it in northern Israel. An IDF soldier was lightly injured and evacuated to hospital.
- The IDF also struck a military structure in the area of Maaroub and terrorist infrastructure in the area of Naqoura. Overnight Sunday, the air force then struck a Hezbollah military site in the area of Jabal Tourah, a weapons storage facility in the area of Qabrikha, a military structure in the area of Tallouseh, and Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites in the areas of Houla and Ayta ash Shab in southern Lebanon.
- The air force also killed Hezbollah fighter Mustafa Hassan Salman in the area of Qlaileh in southern Lebanon. According to the IDF, Salman was “an operative in Hezbollah’s Rockets and Missiles Unit, who took part in the planning and execution of numerous terror attacks against the State of Israel.”
- Defence Minister Gallant held a security assessment in the north on Sunday. “These are critical days in terms of exercising our power against an enemy [Hezbollah] that only responds to force,” he said. “Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist organizations have lost 450 [fighters] – 15 commanders at the level of brigade commanders or above, were eliminated. This includes 3 division commanders and makes up for over 50 percent of Hezbollah’s total number of commanders in southern Lebanon. This is very significant.”
- In other remarks later, he continued: “Even if we reach agreement for a hostage deal, and I very much hope that we will be able to achieve it – it does not bind us on what happens here, unless Hezbollah reaches a framework or agreement. Even if there is a ceasefire there [in the south], here [in the north] we will continue fighting and doing everything necessary to bring about the desired result [bringing Israeli communities home safely].”
Context: Parallel to the ongoing fighting in Gaza, talks have begun in Cairo aimed at securing a hostage release/ceasefire deal. Shin Bet director Bar arrived in the Egyptian capital yesterday, the Israeli delegation also including Director of the Political-Security Staff in the Defence Ministry Shalom, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Aliyan, Strategy and Third-Circle Director Maj. Gen. Toledano, and Mossad representatives.
- US National Security Council Coordinator McGurk and CIA Director Burns also arrived in Egypt, where they will meet with Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate Director Abbas Kamel.
- With Prime Minister Netanyahu’s far-right government colleagues, Ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich, opposing a hostage deal and threatening to quit the government, Opposition Leader Lapid yesterday echoed Benny Gantz in offering to support Netanyahu in the pursuit of a deal.
- “Netanyahu doesn’t need to choose between a hostage deal and his continued tenure as prime minister” Lapid said. “Let him make the deal. If Smotrich and Ben Gvir quit, he’ll get a safety net from me. This isn’t an easy statement [to make]. This isn’t an easy decision. Netanyahu is a terrible, failed prime minister, and he is to blame for the October 7 disaster, but the most important thing is to get the hostages back home. A hostage deal has [the support of] a large majority in the public; it has a large majority here in the Knesset; it needs to happen. We are repeating our offer of a political safety net to Netanyahu to make the deal now.”
- Meanwhile, A report from Channel 12’s Amit Segal, a reporter known to have close ties with the prime minister’s office, suggests that despite the IDF’s achievements during the course of the war in degrading Hamas’s military capabilities, its vast, labyrinthine network of tunnels remains largely intact.
- Despite killing what the latest assessments number as 16,000 Hamas personnel, and successfully reducing its capacity to fire long and medium-range rockets, as well as Kornet and other anti-tank missiles, tunnels remain a threat all over the Strip. This includes tunnels reaching close to the Israeli border.
- Segal suggests that the tunnel network remains intact in the refugee camps in the central Strip and in most of Rafah and Shejaiya, and that damaged tunnels in Khan Younis have been largely repaired. Crucially, cement factories used to produce material for building tunnels seem to be operational.
Looking ahead: Hostage negotiations in Cairo will continue in the coming days.
- US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf will also visit the region this week, traveling to the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank. A State Department statement said, “the assistant secretary will meet with government officials on continued diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement, secure the release of all hostages and ensure humanitarian assistance is distributed throughout Gaza. She will also have further discussions on the post-conflict period in a way that builds lasting peace and security.