BICOM

What happened: Fighting between Hamas and Israel has continued for a 9^th  day.

• Despite a brief lull Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) continue to fire rockets into southern Israel, with some aimed at Israel Air Force bases in the south. Overnight and this morning around 50 rockets were fired towards Israel.
• Yesterday, two workers from Thailand were killed and eight wounded when a rocket fired from Gaza made a direct hit on a packing plant at Moshav Ohad in Eshkol Regional Council.
• Also yesterday, Israel allowed civilian aid donated by international aid organisations to enter Gaza, including medical equipment, animal feed, and petrol tanks. During the transfer the delivery trucks came under mortar fire from inside Gaza.
• The IDF have struck more rocket launching sites as well as 12 homes belonging to senior Hamas commanders.
• Overnight, for the fifth time the Israeli Air Force conducted a large-scale air campaign on Hamas’s underground tunnel network, dubbed the ‘metro’.  According to the IDF they carried out 52 sorties that dropped 122 bombs over 12km of tunnels where rocket launchers were being kept. In the IDF’s assessment, dozens of Hamas and PIJ terrorists were killed in Khan Yunis and Rafah, where rockets were launched.
• According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry 220 people have died since the beginning of the fighting, including 63 children and 36 women. The IDF assess that the majority of those killed were military targets, claiming 160 Hamas and PIJ operatives.
• In the West Bank, two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded after Palestinian gunmen opened fired during rioting outside Ramallah.
• In Jerusalem, hundreds of Arab Jerusalemites demonstrated between Damascus Gate in the Old City and the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Context: So far, 3,750 rockets have been fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip. Around 540 have landed inside Gaza. The Iron Dome defence system has intercepted around 90 per cent of rockets expected to land on civilian infrastructure.

• There have been 12 fatalities on the Israeli side, 114 people have been injured in explosions, 7 of whom are in severe condition.
• One of the more controversial strikes occurred over the weekend when the IDF struck a high-rise tower that also contained the offices of international media agencies, including the Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Israel has insisted that Hamas were also using the building for terror activity, therefore making it a legitimate target. Yesterday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the US had received further intelligence on that specific strike.
• Despite ongoing exchanges of fire, there has been a drop in the intensity over the last 24 hours.
• Commander of the IDF Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva told Channel 12 News that the IDF had accomplished in 50 hours in Operation Guardian of the Walls what it accomplished in 50 days of Operation Protective Edge. Haliva said: “We spent many years preparing for this campaign. We gathered intelligence very meticulously, we invested a great deal of resources in being ready, and I think that the military achievements of this past week are very significant achievements.”
• There have been growing calls for a ceasefire from the international community. However, Israeli officials claim that at no point has the US or a European country demanded that Israel stop its campaign to restore security for its citizens.
• On Monday US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu for the third time since the operation began. Biden recognised Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket fire, but said that he supports a ceasefire, without demanding an immediate end to Israel’s military operation.

Looking forward: Israeli media has suggested that Israel is looking to continue the operation for another two or three days. One of the IDF’s remaining objectives could be to strike Hamas military commanders Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa.

• The Israeli security cabinet is expected to reconvene over the next day to reassess the continuation of the campaign.
• Egypt has proposed a ceasefire that would come into effect on Thursday at 6am, but this is unlikely to conform to Israel’s timeline.