Update Nov 4th (Day 395)

UPDATES ON THE WAR – Day 395 (Nov 4^th):

*We are one Day 395 (Nov 4^th).

*BIG NEWS…Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza and also retaliated with a strike on Iran who is currently threatening a response (see details below)…

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* We will be updating this blog bi-weekly. Below is a summary below of the last several week’s important points.

Headlines:

• Israel faces a “serious” shortage of interceptor missiles, former military officials and analysts told the Financial Times. Former senior U.S. defense official Dana Stroul told the Financial Times that “if Iran responds to an Israel attack [with a massive air strike campaign], and Hezbollah joins in too, Israel air defenses will be stretched…the U.S. can’t continue supplying Ukraine and Israel at the same pace. We are reaching a tipping point.”
• Yahya Sinwar, the military head and de facto leader of Hamas, was killed during an Israeli raid in southern Gaza Wednesday (Oct 16^th), officials confirmed yesterday. Sinwar had long been considered Israel’s top target and is believed to have been the architect of the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, which killed almost 1,200 people and kick-started the current Israel-Hamas war.
• Hezbollah said it was escalating its war against Israel after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
• Some 180 rockets were fired by Hezbollah at Israel on Saturday (Oct 19^th), the IDF said. One man in his 50s was killed in Acre, northern Israel, ten other people were wounded and fires erupted near Safed after rockets hit open areas, the fire department said.
• A drone launched from Lebanon targeted Netanyahu’s private residence in the central Israeli city of Caesarea, damaging it but causing no casualties, adding that Netanyahu and his wife were not present at the time of the attack.
• Israeli Air Force jets struck Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut early on Sunday (Oct 20^th), killing three of the organization’s commanders, the IDF said.
• Over 175 rockets were fired by Hezbollah at northern Israel on Sunday (Oct 20^th), the IDF said, sparking fires broke out in several northern Israeli towns.
• Hezbollah fired at least 150 rockets at northern Israel on Monday (Oct 21^st), the IDF said. The IDF intercepted five drones over the Mediterranean Sea before they entered Israeli territory, the IDF said. Shortly beforehand, departures from Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport were briefly halted.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said at a press conference in Kuwait that Tehran is not interested in war in the Middle East and is making efforts to reduce tensions, but added that Iran knows “that Israel does not obey international law. We have our own tools to protect ourselves and our nuclear infrastructure.”
• The IDF confirmed Tuesday (Oct 22^nd) that Hashem Safieddine, the likely successor to replace Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an IDF strike in Beirut three weeks ago.
• Hezbollah fired over 140 rockets and drones at Israel on Tuesday (Oct 22^nd) and 30 on Wednesday (Oct 23^rd), according to the IDF, sparking fires and killing a few and wounding others in the central Israeli city of Herzliya. Hezbollah said it had targeted the headquarters of Israel’s intelligence Unit 8200 in Glilot, in the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
• The IDF said it killed Hezbollah’s sector commanders in south Lebanon, as well as about 70 operatives in the organization.
• The FBI said Tuesday that it is investigating the unauthorized release of classified documents on Israel’s preparation for a potential retaliatory attack on Iran.
• ISRAEL-IRAN: The Israeli army said it attacked missile production facilities and surface-to-air missile systems in a series of strikes on military targets in Iran overnight into Saturday (Oct 26^th) in response to Iran’s major missile attack on Israel earlier in October. Iranian media reported that four Iranian soldiers were killed in Israel’s attack. The Israeli army hit “roughly 20 sites over the course of the night.” More than a hundred fighter jets and drones reportedly took off from Israel, first attacking air defense batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq to prevent interceptions by Iranian allies. Iran’s Tasnim news agency said Israel’s attack that it targeted 20 locations in Iran is false, and that the actual number is “significantly lower.”
• Israel destroyed a number of air defense systems in its attack on Iran, which were protecting, among other things, oil refineries, a gas field and a port, the New York Times reported, citing three Iranian sources and three senior Israeli security officials. The damage to the defense systems has left the sites vulnerable to possible future attacks, the Iranian sources said, causing serious concern in the country.
• Israel’s airstrike in Iran on Saturday targeted a building associated with Tehran’s defunct nuclear weapons development program, an American researcher told Reuters, adding that he and another researcher also reported that facilities for mixing solid fuel for missiles were hit.
• Israel’s airstrikes on Iran Saturday morning targeted military sites, including two secretive bases, satellite imagery shows. The attacks, which killed at least four soldiers, came in response to Iran firing around 200 missiles into Israel this month, most of which were intercepted. See a timeline of escalations here.
• The attacks are the first Israel has acknowledged on Iranian soil. They came in waves, with jet fighters destroying portions of Iran’s missile defense system, including those protecting Iranian oil facilities. Israel also struck three missile manufacturing bases and two military bases, including a former nuclear testing site.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel achieved all its objectives. The attacks steered clear of direct strikes on oil and nuclear facilities, which Iran warned could provoke a full-scale war.
• Gallant also said that Hezbollah only has 20 percent of the missiles and rockets that it had before the war, which is hurting its firing capability.
• In his first speech since succeeding Hassan Nasrallah as Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Naim Qassem said he will keep to the war plan devised by his predecessor “while making changes in the developments on the ground,” emphasizing that he will continue supporting Hamas in Gaza.
• Israeli forces capture senior Hezbollah naval leader

OUCH:

• Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said that Sinwar’s death “is undoubtedly painful for the Axis of Resistance, but this front did not cease advancing with the martyrdom of prominent figures. Hamas is alive and will remain alive.”
• Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, killed by the IDF last week, declined an offer by Arab mediators to leave Gaza in exchange for allowing Egypt to negotiate for the release of the hostages on Hamas’ behalf, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Israeli officials and Arab mediators in contact with Hamas.
• The Israeli army said it recovered documents from the Gaza Strip which confirm six Al Jazeera journalists’ affiliation with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. [Al Jazeera said it “vehemently condemns” Israel’s claims that six of the network’s reporters in Gaza belong to Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s military wings, calling the allegations “unfounded.”]
• At least 17 people were killed and 42 wounded in an Israeli strike on a school which served as a shelter for displaced persons in Nuseirat, medical sources in Gaza told Reuters, adding that among the deceased are an 11-month-old baby, six children, and three women. Eyewitnesses told Reuters that the IDF opened artillery fire on the area, followed by an aerial strike targeting several classrooms within the school complex.
• The amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza in October was the lowest of any month this year, according to data from Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
• The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 43,374 Palestinians have been killed and 102,261 wounded since the start of the war.
• Since October 7 last year, around 12,000 Israeli soldiers have been wounded, and the number of patients in rehabilitation wards has increased by around 20 percent to 74,000, according to Defense Ministry data.
• Israel declared war after Hamas killed at least 1,200 Israelis and wounded more than 3,300 on October 7. In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled health ministry reports that at least 43,374 Palestinians have been killed. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad hold hostage more than 120 soldiers and civilians, dead and alive, including foreign nationals.

YEAH:

• The second phase of a polio vaccination campaign has started in central Gaza, the World Health Organization said.
• Israeli authorities said that thirty trucks transferred aid to Gaza through a central Israeli port.
• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Netanyahu during their meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday (Oct 29th) that Israel needs to increase the volume of humanitarian aid entering northern Gaza. Blinken also said Netanyahu told him that Israel does not plan to establish a permanent presence in Gaza.
• Mossad chief David Barnea will participate in a summit in Qatar on Sunday (Oct 27^th) together with the head of the CIA, the director of Egyptian intelligence and the Qatari prime minister in an attempt to renew stalled negotiations on a hostage and cease-fire deal to end the war.
• A senior U.S. official said following the attack that “This should be the end of the direct military exchange between Israel and Iran.”
• The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, announced the expansion of the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. The expanded humanitarian zone, the statement said, “includes field hospitals established since the outbreak of the war, tent areas, shelter supplies, and provisions of food, water, medicine, and medical equipment.”

JERUSALEM:

• Seven residents of East Jerusalem were indicted for spying for Iran including a mission to assassinate prominent Israeli figures.
• Israel’s parliament is expected to pass legislation next week restricting UNRWA’s activity. Israel has not pursued any alternative solution for the services provided by UNRWA in Gaza and East Jerusalem, and the bills have been criticized by Western and Arab countries.
• Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, approved on Monday (Oct 28^th) two bills that ban UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, from operating in Israel, despite there being no alternative body to take on the agency’s operations in Gaza or East Jerusalem. This is alarming to many in the international communities as it is the agency that administers relief to Palestinians in those areas even though Israel has legitimate grievances with the organization.
• An Israeli court ruled on Sunday evening (Nov 4^th) that the leak of military intelligence from the IDF to the Prime Minister’s Office, and subsequently to foreign media outlets, could have harmed the security services’ ability to secure the release of the hostages held in Gaza by Hamas. (Four of the suspects in the affair all serve in a defense unit entrusted with securing state secrets and preventing leaks. The unit was initially tasked with investigating the leak to foreign media, before the probe was transferred to the Shin Bet).

IN THE NORTH (LEBANON):

• The IDF said that it killed the commander of the anti-tank unit in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an airstrike, and demanded that the residents of 25 more villages in southern Lebanon evacuate (Oct 14^th).
• The Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar featured a picture of Hezbollah members launching a drone on its front page on Monday, alongside the headline “Haifa is Like Kiryat Shmona.” The newspaper praised the drone strike on an IDF base on Sunday (Oct 13^th), saying that it “confirmed the group’s claims that the resistance sees and hears the enemy and can reach unexpected locations.”
• Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qassem said the organization asked “to cease the fighting and will retreat 10 kilometers in order to not provoke Israel, but we demanded that there will be a cease-fire in Gaza,” adding that “it is not possible to separate Lebanon from Palestine.” Qassem also said that “since Israel has attacked anywhere in Lebanon, we have the right to attack anywhere in Israel,” and that Hezbollah will “focus on targeting the Israeli military and its centers and barracks.”
• The IDF said it killed the Hezbollah commander in charge of drone attacks against Israel several days ago.
• Around 60 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel on Friday (Oct 18^th), the IDF said.
• The IDF said it killed Nasser Abd al-Aziz Rashid, a Hezbollah deputy commander in the Bint Jbeil area of southern Lebanon, as well as located and destroyed a weapons depot and tunnel shafts in the area.
• The IDF said it destroyed four underground tunnels belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Force in southern Lebanon using more than 100 tons of explosives, after finding dozens of tunnel openings found in mosques, schools and other civilian-use buildings and a weapons cache including landmines and missiles.
• 87 people were killed or are missing under rubble after an Israeli attack on Saturday (Oct 19^th) on the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahiya, Hamas’ health ministry said. The IDF said that according to its preliminary investigation, Hamas’ numbers do not align with its own information, the precise munitions used or the accuracy of the strike, which it said was directed at a Hamas target.
• Over 5,000 Palestinians were evacuated from north Gaza’s Jabalya via arranged routes, the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson said.
• Israel’s Air Force struck dozens of Hezbollah command centers and financial assets across Lebanon overnight into Monday (Oct 21^st), including Beirut, the IDF said. Among the targets were branches of the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Qard Al-Hassan loan association, which the IDF claimed holds millions of dollars used to finance the group’s activities, including weapons purchases.
• 18 people were killed and 57 wounded in Monday’s Israeli strike on Monday (Oct 21^st) near Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Beirut’s main public hospital, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. The IDF said that Israeli jets hit a Hezbollah target close to the hospital but did not target it, adding it was not affected by the strike. (The IDF called on residents of Al-Hawsh in southern Lebanon to evacuate, and said fighter jets attacked weapons warehouses and Hezbollah command centers and naval unit in Beirut).
• Hezbollah fired over 80 rockets at northern and central Israel on Tuesday (Oct 22^nd) in frequent barrages. A large fire erupted near Kibbutz Beit HaEmek in the Western Galilee following rocket fire.
• The IDF announced that Master Sgt. Saar Eliad Navarsky (res.), 27, was killed in a rocket barrage on northern Israel, with three other reservists seriously wounded.
• The IDF Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, called on residents of large neighborhoods in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre to evacuate northwards. Hours later, the IDF said it struck Hezbollah command posts in the area.
• Hezbollah fired at least 95 rockets at northern Israel on Thursday (Oct 24^th), the IDF said. Two men were moderately wounded and one was lightly wounded following rocket sirens in northern Israel, emergency services said.
• The IDF said that it destroyed an underground tunnel and weapons storage facility for Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in a house in a southern Lebanese village, as well as a subterranean Hezbollah compound equipped with beds, food, weapons, and launch positions. Israeli forces killed some 20 Hezbollah operatives and struck over 160 Hezbollah targets throughout Lebanon over the past day.
• Two people were killed and seven were wounded after Hezbollah fired a rocket barrage at the northern Israeli town of Majdal Krum. The dead were identified as Arjun Manah, 25, and Hassan Suad, 22.
• At least 35 rockets were fired at northern Israel on Friday (Oct 25^th), the IDF said, adding that earlier in the day a missile fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory was intercepted. A Hezbollah drone that entered northern Israel was also intercepted.
• The Israel Air Force killed a Hezbollah commander in the organization’s elite Radwan Force, Abbas Adnan Maslam, and attacked about 200 terrorist targets in Lebanon, the IDF said.
• S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a bilateral meeting in London with Jordan’s foreign minister that there was “a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701” to ensure “real security” along the Israel-Lebanon border. Blinken also met with Lebanon’s interim PM Najib Mikati and emphasized the same points, the State Department said.
• The Israeli army said on Saturday (Oct 26^th) that its air force struck more than 70 Hezbollah “terror targets” in Lebanon, including anti-tank positions, military buildings, weapons storage facilities, terrorist cells, and military headquarters.
• 180 rockets were launched on Israel from Lebanon throughout Saturday – including 160 fired within the last two hours – with some intercepted and others falling in open areas, sparking fires in Israel’s north. Hezbollah said on Saturday (Oct 26^th) that it had targeted Israel’s Tel Nof airbase, south of Tel Aviv, with drones. Israeli police said shrapnel from interceptors damaged cars and buildings in northern Israel.
• The IDF said that some 30 Hezbollah members were killed in strikes in Lebanon in the last day and that dozens of the group’s targets were destroyed. Earlier on Sunday (Oct 27^th), the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson called on residents of two buildings in Beirut’s Dahiyeh neighborhood and the area surrounding them to evacuate.
• Hezbollah fired at least 90 rockets at northern Israel throughout Sunday (Oct 27^th) wounding many.
• Israel conducted air strikes on Hezbollah targets in the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, the IDF said, calling the town a “Hezbollah stronghold.” Prior to the strikes, the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson issued an immediate evacuation order for many neighborhoods in the city, one of what the IDF called “many steps” taken before the attack to reduce the chance of harming civilians.
• Hezbollah fired at least 50 rockets at northern Israel, the IDF said, adding that it also intercepted two drones launched from Lebanon.
• Hezbollah announced that it had appointed its deputy chief, Naim Qassem, to succeed the group’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut last month. The decision comes after Nasrallah’s heir apparent, executive council chief Hashem Safieddine, was also killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in early October.
• Netanyahu is set to discuss negotiations for a cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon with Israel’s defense chiefs later on Tuesday (Oct 29^th).
• Hezbollah fired at least 50 rockets towards Israeli territory on Wednesday, the IDF said, wounding two Israelis, one seriously, near the northern city of Metula following a barrage from Lebanon.
• U.S. mediators are working on a proposal for a truce between Israel and Hezbollah that will begin with a 60-day cease-fire, two sources with knowledge of the talks told Reuters, who added that the two-month period would be used to finalize full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006 to keep southern Lebanon under the control of the Lebanese Army, not Hezbollah.
• Seven people, four Thai foreign workers and three Israeli citizens, were killed by Hezbollah rocket fire on northern Israel. Since the start of the war, 41 civilians have been killed by rocket fire from Lebanon, including six foreign workers. Hezbollah fired at least 55 rockets at northern Israel on Thursday, the IDF said.
• A draft for cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah, crafted by the U.S. and shown to Israel as part of the discussions on a final version, states that Israel may take military action if it identifies threats to it deep inside Lebanon, including weapons production and storage, and the movement of heavy weaponry, ballistic missiles or medium- and long-range missiles. However, it will only be free to take action if the Lebanese government or another monitoring body under U.S. auspices fails to remove the threat.
• Israel’s air force struck in the Dahiyeh neighborhood in Beirut overnight into Friday (Nov 1^st), destroying dozens of buildings and igniting fires in the area, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported, noting that the bombardments came after a four-day lull in attacks on the neighborhood.
• Hezbollah fired at least 40 rockets at northern Israel on Friday (Nov 1^st), the IDF said.
• Mikati said that the renewal of strikes on Dahiyeh, combined with the “expansion of the scope of Israeli aggression in Lebanon” and the repeated threats to evacuate populations, indicate “the rejection by the Israeli enemy of all efforts to secure a cease-fire,” AFP reported.
• Lebanese media reported that 35 people were killed in strikes attributed to Israel on Baalbek.
• The IDF confirmed that Israeli naval troops in northern Lebanon captured a Hezbollah operative “with knowledge in his field” on Saturday (Nov 2^nd) to be brought to Israel for questioning.
• The IDF announced that it had killed Hezbollah coastal sector commander Ma’in Mousa Az al-Din and the artillery unit commander Hassan Majed Dhiab in the area of Tyre in Lebanon.
• Dozens of rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon on Saturday, according to the Israeli army, including 40 rockets launched within an hour. Hezbollah said it launched drones toward an air force base in northern Israel and claimed there was a hit. The IDF said an army helicopter shot down a drone above Binyamina in central Israel.
• Israel’s emergency services said rockets fired from Lebanon wounded 11 people in the central Israeli city of Tira on Saturday. Three people were moderately wounded and eight were lightly wounded after a rocket struck an apartment building in the city.
• Hezbollah fired around 100 rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel on Sunday (Nov 4^th), the IDF said. A 57-year-old Israeli man died from wounds sustained from a Hezbollah rocket barrage last week in the city of Nahariya.
• The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson ordered the residents of several buildings in the area of the city of Baalbek, in the Bekaa Valley, to evacuate, saying that the buildings are being used by Hezbollah and the IDF will act against them soon. Reports in Lebanon later said that Israel was conducting airstrikes in the city.
• The IDF announced that it killed Abu Ali Rach’a, the commander of the Hezbollah stronghold in the southern Lebanese village of Barashit.
• Hezbollah fired at least 50 rockets at northern Israel on Monday (Nov 5^th), the IDF said.

GAZA (NORTH/CENTRAL):

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd issued a highly irregular warning to their Israeli counterparts, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, writing that failure to dramatically address and ameliorate the Gaza humanitarian crisis within 30 days would have ramifications, potentially including the suspension of U.S. arms sales.
• Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza bearing the photo of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s body with a message that reads “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza. Whoever gives up their weapons and hands over the hostages will be allowed to leave and live in peace,” according to residents of the southern city of Khan Yunis and images circulating online.
• Israel has made it clear to the U.S. and major European countries that it is not acting to remove the entire civilian population from northern Gaza, Western diplomats from countries told Haaretz, but added that Israel did not do enough to quieten their fears, and that it is difficult to gather reliable information on what is happening inside Gaza.
• The Israeli army said tens of thousands of Palestinians have been evacuating from the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip since Thursday (Oct 24^th), and that approximately 150 Hamas members have been detained.
• The IDF said that Israeli forces are operating in the Jabalya refugee camp, in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, based on intelligence that Hamas was operating in the area. The IDF said that the operation was preceded by evacuations, including of hospital patients, from the area, and that it allowed the entry of a fuel truck for the hospital and the delivery of 180 blood units and medical supplies.
• The IDF said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza over the weekend, adding that weapons, funds and other materials were found in it. On Friday (Oct 25^th), the WHO said Israeli forces detained 44 male staff from the hospital. Palestinian medical officials told Reuters that the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.
• At least 94 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, medical sources in Gaza said. Marwan Al-Hams, an official at Hamas’ Health Ministry, said 150 people were wounded. Medics said 20 children were among the dead.
• The IDF said that fighter jets conducted “a precise strike” on Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants who were “conducting terrorist activity within the humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis,” adding that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.”
• At least 26 people, including five children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, medics in Gaza told Reuters. Eye-witnesses told Haaretz that the intensive bombardment there is ongoing. Hamas’ Health Ministry said that 55 people were killed and 186 wounded in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours (Nov 2^nd).
• Calling the situation in north Gaza “apocalyptic,” top U.N. officials warned in a statement on Friday that the entire Palestinian population there “is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”
• The Israeli army and Shin Bet said they killed Izz al-Din Kassab, a senior Hamas official who they describe as one of the last high-ranking members of Hamas responsible for coordinating with other groups in Gaza, in an airstrike in Khan Yunis. According to the statement, Kassab’s aide, Iman Ayish, was also killed.
• The IDF is expanding its operations in north Gaza’s Jabalya and sent a Kfir Brigade combat team to join Israeli forces there on Friday (Nov 1^st), marking the third deployment of forces in the area since the start of the war.
• At least 31 people were killed during Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Sunday (Nov 4^th), Palestinian medics told Reuters. The IDF has thus far not commented on its military actions in Gaza on Sunday.

GAZA (SOUTH):

• The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, announced the expansion of the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. The expanded humanitarian zone, the statement said, “includes field hospitals established since the outbreak of the war, tent areas, shelter supplies, and provisions of food, water, medicine, and medical equipment.”

POST WAR GAZA / PALESTINIAN STATE:

• A few hundred people, including many families and several government ministers, gathered on Israel’s southern border with Gaza for a two-day conference entitled “Preparing to Resettle Gaza.” These are far right nationalists who want to take over the entire country and all the land. Yikes!

WEST BANK:

• The U.K. government announced sanctions on seven Israeli groups connected to illegal construction in the West Bank and “sponsored violence against communities in the West Bank,” adding that the “measures put strict financial restrictions on those who commit these acts.”
• The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday that a 29-year-old Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire in the West Bank city of Tul Karm. The Israeli army said that the man, identified as Aslam Odeh, was a Hamas operative planning to carry out an attack who had opened fire at Israeli soldiers, and that weapons and materials for making explosives were found in his vehicle.
• The IDF said that it killed two “operatives who engaged in shooting and explosives” at the Nur al-Shams refugee camp, adding that they were known to have used a hospital complex in the West Bank city of Tul Karm to transfer weapons.
• Masked men torched 17 vehicles overnight into Monday (Nov 5^th) in the Palestinian city of El Bireh, security footage showed. Alongside the burnt vehicles, the assailants spray-painted the words “For Judea and Samaria – War.” Israel Police, the Shin Bet security service and the IDF said they launched an investigation into the incident. Local residents told News sources that the assailants were Jewish settlers.

TEL AVIV/SOUTHERN ISRAEL:

• Sirens blared in Tel Aviv and across central Israel due to three rockets fired from Lebanon, the IDF said. Hezbollah fired over 75 rockets at Israel since midnight (Oct 13^th), the IDF said. One person was lightly wounded by falling shrapnel in northern Israel’s Carmiel area.
• The IDF announced the names of the four soldiers killed by a Hezbollah drone strike on an IDF base in central Israel on Sunday (Oct 13^th). A preliminary IDF investigation found that the drone flew at a low altitude for half an hour, which led to a mistaken assumption that it had crashed, and was therefore not intercepted.
• Two armed men dressed in military fatigues entered Israel from Jordan and opened fire at Israeli soldiers in the southern Dead Sea area and wounded two before being shot and killed by Israeli forces, the IDF said.
• Protests calling for a cease-fire/hostage deal and demonstrations against Israel’s ruling coalition are set to take place across Israel on Saturday (Oct 19^th). The event takes place on the eve of Israel’s national day of mourning for Hamas’ October 7 attack and the subsequent war, which will be held according to the Hebrew date, starting on the evening of October 26 and progressing into the next day.
• One person was killed and 32 were wounded, including six in serious condition and seven in moderate condition, in a truck ramming attack at a bus stop near an IDF intelligence training base in central Israel, emergency services reported. The truck driver, Rami Nasrallah Natour, an Israeli citizen from the Arab city of Kalansua in central Israel, was shot dead at the scene.

IN THE EAST (JORDAN/IRAQ/SYRIA/IRAN):

• SYRIA: Syrian authorities said that a guided missile hit a vehicle in Damascus, killing at least one person.
• The IDF said it downed a drone over Syria, heading towards Israel from the east.
• The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it attacked the southern Israeli city of Eilat with drones twice on Wednesday (Oct 23^rd), and that it struck “vital” targets there. The IDF said it intercepted the drones, which were launched from the east and crossed into Israel’s waters.
• ISRAEL-IRAN: Israel has delayed its retaliation for Iran’s ballistic missile attack on October 1 following a Pentagon leak that allegedly revealed Israeli plans, The Times reported, citing an intelligence source with knowledge of Israeli deliberations who said “there will be a retaliation, but it has taken longer than it was supposed to take.”
• SYRIA: Syrian state media said Israel struck in Damascus early on Thursday (Oct 24^th). Later in the day, the Syrian Defense Ministry said one soldier was killed and seven wounded in Israeli strikes in Damascus and Homs.
• Seven residents of northern Israel and Haifa have been charged with spying for Iran and carrying out hundreds of espionage missions. The missions included photographing and gathering intelligence on sensitive facilities, such as military bases and Iron Dome systems, as well as on senior Israeli officials.
• SYRIA: Israel’s air force attacked weapons storage facilities and headquarters used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and weapons unit in the region surrounding the city of Al Qusayr in Syria, the IDF said.
• Iran is likely to increase the range of its ballistic missiles, and may change its nuclear doctrine if it faced an existential threat, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen reported, quoting Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader.
• ISRAEL-IRAN: The attack that Iran is planning against Israel will be “the largest in quantity and quality so far,” anonymous Iranian sources told the Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper, adding that preparations for the attack are nearly complete.
• The U.S. Central Command announced that B-52 long-range American bombers have arrived in the Middle East.
• Israel says it carried out ground raid into Syria in recent months, seized a Syrian citizen who they believe is tied to Iranian network targeting Israel.
• SYRIA: State media in Syria said that according to initial reports, Israel attacked the city of Al-Saida Zainab, south of the capital Damascus. The opposition-affiliated Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also attributed the explosions to Israel and described the target as a farm owned by Hezbollah and Iran.

IN THE SOUTH (RED SEA) / HOUTHIS:

• HOUTHIS: A spokesperson for the Iran-backed said the group launched drones at the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. Earlier on Tuesday (Oct 29^th), the IDF said that a drone that entered Israeli territory fell in an open area near the city.
• The Houthis targeted a ship traveling through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea, but failed to damage it, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
• The IDF said that three drones launched from the east were intercepted over the Red Sea, and that no sirens were activated because the drones did not enter Israeli territory. Later, the IDF said a drone was intercepted above the Mediterranean Sea.

NEGOTIATIONS – HOSTAGE RELEASE – CEASE FIRE:

• U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken landed in Israel in the hope of restarting cease-fire/hostage negotiations, and met Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant before continuing on to Egypt and Qatar, the main mediators in negotiations with Hamas.
• U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said the U.S. will send representation to an international conference that France will convene on Thursday in order to garner support for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Israel and Iran have not been invited.
• On Sunday (Oct 27^th), Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi announced a plan for the release of four living hostages in exchange for a two-day cease-fire in Gaza and the release of several Palestinian prisoners, adding that the cease-fire would be followed by ten days of intensive negotiations aimed at achieving a permanent cease-fire.
• Hamas sources told the Saudi news channel Al-Sharq that it is prepared to accept the Egyptian proposal, adding that the organization is not optimistic that a permanent cease-fire can be reached before the U.S. elections on November 5. Hamas is willing to discuss any proposal leading to a cease-fire, the sources said, but is also demanding guarantees that a temporary cease-fire be extended after this round of negotiations until a more comprehensive deal can be reached.
• At a meeting with his Israeli and Qatari counterparts, CIA Director Bill Burns presented a proposal for a 28-day Gaza cease-fire which would include the release of around eight hostages by Hamas and dozens of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, Axios reported, citing three Israeli officials.
• A senior Hamas official told AFP that the group rejects any proposal for a temporary truce with Israel and insists on a permanent cease-fire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
• Mediators are expected to propose a temporary cease-fire of “less than a month,” a source familiar with the talks told AFP.
• A Hamas delegation rejected a new cease-fire proposal presented by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, a Hamas source told Al-Aqsa TV, a channel run by the organization.
• According to Egyptian reports, Hamas is insisting on unified negotiations to prevent Israel from resuming the war after hostages are released.
• A dialogue among Palestinian factions in Cairo (Nov 4^th) has been “positive,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told the group’s Al Aqsa TV, adding that Hamas has not received any new written proposals regarding a possible cease-fire in Gaza.

GLOBAL RESPONSE & INVOLVEMENT:

• The US is sending an air defense system to Israel, along with 100 US troops trained to operate it, the Pentagon said yesterday (Oct 12^th). The deployment comes after Iran launched around 200 missiles into Israel earlier this month in retaliation for assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, and as Israel has said it plans to respond.
• “I wish for the release of the Israeli hostages to the same extent that I wish for my own liberation. I call on the world to relate to us just as it relates to them, as hostages, and save us from both the brutality of the Israeli occupation and from our Hamas kidnappers. This will only happen by exerting great pressure on our kidnappers and on Israel’s government so that they stop colluding against Gaza, and finally let us decide our own fate” – An anonymous resident of northern Gaza
• In a joint statement with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Blinken said that “Sinwar was a brutal murderer and terrorist who was bent on eradicating Israel and its people,” adding that he “stood in the way of a cease-fire in Gaza” and that “His death can create a momentum to end the conflict.”
• U.S. President Joe Biden said during a joint press conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that “there is a possibility of working towards a cease-fire in Lebanon,” but that it will be harder to achieve one in Gaza.
• France pledged to provide a 100-million euro ($108-million) package to support Lebanon at an international conference in Paris Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron said, adding “massive aid” is needed to support the country.
• ISRAEL-U.S.: U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Reuters he spoke with Netanyahu on Wednesday and believed that an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia could be reached before the end of the year, adding that he thinks “the time to do this is on Biden’s watch,” as Vice President Kamala Harris is “far more beholden to the left” and had not shown interest in working for such an agreement.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday Iran should not respond to a wave of Israeli strikes, urging restraint on all sides. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also called on Iran to exercise restraint.
• Saudi Arabia condemned the targeting of Iran as a “violation of its sovereignty” and international laws, urging all parties to exercise maximum restraint and calling on the international community to take action towards de-escalation.
• WASHINGTON – One of the most persistent storylines of the 2024 U.S. presidential election has been the Democratic nominees’ failure to quell concerns from voters disillusioned by the Biden administration’s policies toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Germany ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates there yesterday, expelling 32 Iranian diplomats and leaving only Iran’s embassy in Berlin. The move followed Iran’s execution of German-Iranian citizen Jamshid Sharmahd.
• U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Friday with Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and the pair discussed “necessary steps for regional de-escalation.”
• Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder announced new U.S. military deployments to the Middle East, including “ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and several U.S. Air Force B-52 long-range strike bombers.”
• Germany’s Development Minister Svenja Schulze arrived in Lebanon on Monday (Nov 5^th) for a short visit to pledge further aid to the country.

OPINIONS/THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

• “Joy, pride, confusion, uncertainty and fear for the future. This is the range of feelings among residents of the Gaza Strip after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The mixed emotions reflect the disagreement over the path taken by Sinwar. While some respect him and even declared him a hero, others scorn him and were relieved by his death” – Sheren Falah Saab
• “A path to Palestinian statehood and a cease-fire could facilitate renewed diplomacy between the United States, the great powers, the Gulf and Iran. Iran in turn might curb its nuclear program through diplomacy – the evidence is that it did so once – instead of threatening to build nuclear weapons in light of the war. That’s good for Israel. What’s also good for Israel is acknowledging that racism is not just wrong, it’s dangerous and blew up in its face. Not all Israelis are racist, of course; but all Israelis can do better” – Dahlia Scheindlin

 

Holy Land Scripture Series

*If you would like to gain more understanding of the history of this country and conflict from a scriptural standpoint we recommend you take our Holy Land Scripture Course created to accompany our Virtual Tour of the Holy Land. Link below:

 

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

What should Israel do in order to secure peaceful borders and relations with the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors as well as facilitate the release the hostages still being held in Gaza AND also defend their citizens from attacks and threats?   

Who Should Lead the Palestinians after the Gaza War, and How?

*We know the questions are MANY and the issues deep and complex. We hope the information shared on this blog will help you process all the information and issues.

 

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