Weekly dispatches from Israel provided by Forbes Israel.
Local. 100 Days of War. This week marks 100 days since Hamas’ murderous terrorist attack against Israel that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and sparked a war in Gaza. Currently, 136 hostages, including many women and children, remain in Hamas captivity under harsh living conditions.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) now control approximately 60% of the entire Gaza Strip. In the northern part of the strip, the IDF maintains full security control after neutralizing all 14 Hamas battalions and eliminating its top command chain in the area. Defense Minister Yoav Galant told the Wall Street Journal that with the completion of the first phase, Israel soon will move to the second phase in the Gaza conflict, characterized by a gradual reduction of combat forces and a shift towards targeted military operations in specific areas in and around Gaza City.
IDF intensifying its activity in the Khan Yunis region in the southern part of the strip. During these operations, dozens of terrorists have been killed and the IDF has destroyed numerous terror infrastructures, including command positions and launch sites. The increased military pressure in this crucial area, where the leadership of the organization and the military wing are believed to be hiding, serves two main goals of the war: undermining Hamas’ control in the strip and return of the hostages. According to a report in The New York Times, Israel has received vital information gathered by a special task force of the CIA regrading the locations of senior Hamas figures in the strip and the hostages.
Uncovering terror infrastructure hidden among civilians in Gaza. Since the beginning of the ground incursion into the strip, the IDF has destroyed some 700 rocket launchers used to fire at cities and communities in Israel. Hamas located many of its rocket launcher facilities near or within civilian structures such as schools, kindergartens, mosques, cemeteries and homes. As the IDF has deepened ground operations in the northern part of the strip in the past month, Hamas has moved launchers to the south, where approximately 1.3 million people now live. The IDF has identified hundreds of launch sites in that area.
The IDF uncovered a tunnel in Khan Yunis, in the heart of the city’s civilian areas, connected to an extensive underground network. The exposed tunnel once held Israeli hostages. The IDF so far has destroyed more than 100 tunnels and located more than 300 shafts, which Hamas used as caches for combat supplies and holding hostages. Hamas invested tens of millions of dollars in constructing these tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip. They span hundreds of kilometers across the strip, sometimes as deep as dozens of meters below ground.
“This war is a very, very complex warfare, fought above ground and below the ground, against an enemy that has been preparing for a long time for organized warfare within a civilian population,” stated Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi during a situation assessment. “We are conducting operations here that we have never done before. A prolonged and challenging warfare in many areas,” added Halevi.
Israel to take control of Gaza-Egypt border? Israel has informed Egypt of its plans to launch a major military operation that would put IDF troops in control of the border zone through which Hamas could smuggle out leaders and hostages and has bought in supplies. Egypt already has announced its opposition to such a plan.
Against the backdrop of escalating diplomatic efforts, tensions continue to rise between Israel and Hezbollah. On Sunday, a Hezbollah attack on one of the communities near the border killed a 76-year-old woman and her son in a village in northern Israel by firing an anti-tank missile into their home. In another attack, all three members of a Hezbollah terrorist squad died attempting to infiltrate an IDF outpost. Five IDF soldiers were wounded in the incident.
Last week, following Hezbollah’s rocket barrage on an IDF base in Israel’s north, the IDF responded with a widespread strike on a series of Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon. Although Israel has not claimed responsibility for the roadside bombing last week that killed Wissam al-Tawil, the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Hezbollah blamed Israel and retaliated by launching a suicide drone near an IDF command center in northern Israel. Shortly after the attack, four terrorists, including the senior commander of Hezbollah’s air unit, were killed by the IDF. This time, the Israeli military took responsibility for the targeted killings.
Amid the prolonged hostilities, senior White House adviser Amos Hochstein landed in Beirut last Thursday for a series of meetings with local officials, part of the U.S. effort to prevent further escalation that could ignite a war on the Israel-Lebanese border. Hochstein had previously visited Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During the meeting, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel is determined to push back Hezbollah, which holds positions along its northern border, either through diplomatic means if possible but by other means if necessary. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which marked the end of the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, prohibits Hezbollah’s presence south of the Litani River.
In an attempt to calm tensions in the region and prevent further escalation, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently made a special visit to Israel, his fourth since the beginning of the conflict. During his visit, Blinken met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and held an extended meeting with the security cabinet. “This immense human toll is one of the many reasons that we continue to stand with Israel in ensuring that October 7th can never happen again,” Blinken declared at the end of his visit. “It’s also why we’re intensely focused on bringing the remaining hostages home, addressing the humanitarian crisis and strengthening protection of civilians in Gaza, and preventing the conflict from spreading,” he said.
World. Attack against Houthi Targets in Yemen. Maritime coalition forces, led by the United States and Britain, targeted a series of Houthi targets in Yemen following continued attacks by the Iranian-aligned Yemeni militia on international shipping routes despite repeated and escalating warnings. The coordinated attack struck more than 60 targets in 16 locations, targeting command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities and air defense radar systems, according to a U.S. statement published on Thursday.
On Saturday, the U.S. Navy conducted two additional attacks near the capital city Sana’a, using Tomahawk missiles that destroyed a missile emplacement used by the Houthi rebels for attacks on naval vessels in the Red Sea.
Following the reprisals, President Joe Biden issued a stern message to Iran, declaring that the United States will continue its aggressive policy if Houthi attacks on trade routes persist. Biden also referred to the Houthis as a terrorist organization, a departure from his previous stance. Houthi leaders responded with a threat of a “strong and effective response,” vowing to continue attacks on Israeli vessels as part of their “support for the Palestinian struggle against Israel,” even though most of the ships attacked have no connection to Israel. On Friday, the Houthis targeted a Russian oil tanker, causing significant embarrassment within its ranks due to the close ties between its Iranian patron and the Putin regime. Meanwhile, Iran itself has hijacked an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.
Israel rejects allegations that it is committing genocide in Gaza. On Thursday, The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands, convened to address South Africa’s accusation that Israel’s response to Hamas’ terror attacks breaches the 1948 Genocide Convention. “The baseless assault in The Hague against the Jewish state that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust to defend itself against those seeking to carry out another Holocaust is a moral low point in the history of nations,” declared Prime Minister Netanyahu in a special statement.
The Israeli prime minister thanked Germany for its support of Israel and its intention to join the discussion in The Hague as a third party in support of Israel. “On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally attacked, tortured, killed and kidnapped innocent people in Israel. Hamas’ goal is to wipe out Israel. Since then, Israel has been defending itself against the inhumane attack by Hamas,” said the German government on Friday. “The Federal Government firmly and expressly rejects the accusation of genocide that has now been made against Israel at the International Court of Justice. This accusation has no basis whatsoever.”
British Foreign Minister David Cameron attacked South Africa’s argument against Israel at the ICJ as “false” and “unhelpful” and called the accusation that Israel is committing genocide “nonsense.” U.S. Secretary of State Blinken proclaimed that “the charge of genocide is meritless” and diverts the world’s focus from truly important matters: “the return of the abductees held captive by Hamas, the humanitarian aid to Gaza and the prevention of the expansion of the conflict.”
Culture. Key Jewish figures in Hollywood protest under-representation. As the war continues and and anti-Semitism rises in the US and worldwide, more than 260 actors and industry professionals in Hollywood, including Julianna Margulies, David Schwimmer and Debra Messing, have voiced their protest against the lack of representation of Jews on an important committee in Hollywood.
“Jewish people being excluded from the Motion Picture Academy’s Representation and Inclusion Standards is discriminating against a protected class by invalidating their historic and genetic identity,” alleged the Hollywood Bureau for Jewish Representation (JITC). In the statement, industry-leading figures argued that the under-representation of Jews in Hollywood constitutes “an inclusion effort that excludes Jews is steeped in antisemitism and misunderstands it.”
Itai Zehorai, Alan Sacks