π️Lonny's War Update- October 253, 2023 - June 15, 2024 π️
π️Day 253 that 120 of our hostages in Hamas captivity
**There is nothing more important than getting them home! NOTHING!**
“I’ve never met them,But I miss them. I’ve never met them,but I think of them every second. I’ve never met them,but they are my family. BRING THEM HOME NOW!!!”
There is no victory until all of the hostages are home!ΧΧΧ Χ Χ¦ΧΧΧ Χ’Χ Χ©ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧΧ€ΧΧ ΧΧΧΧͺ
Red Alerts - Missile, Rocket, Drone (UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles), and Terror Attacks and Death Announcements
*12:10am- South - rockets Kissufim*6:50am- north - rockets/missiles Zvi'on*12:55pm- north - hostile aircraft Arab Al Aramsha, Eilon, Admint, Goren, Gordon Hagalil, Hanita, Yaara*2:05pm- south - Rockets - Holit, Sufa, Pri Gan, Sde Avraham, Talmei Yosef - One rocket launched from the Gaza Strip a short while ago struck an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council, causing no injuries, the military says. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed to have launched a barrage of rockets at a military base near the community of Sufa.*2:25pm- north - rockets/ missiles Kibbutz Malkia*7:20pm - south - rockets Kibbutz Kissufim, Gaza Border communities
**The army announced the deaths of 8 soldiers in Gaza. An engineering force moving towards Tel Sultan in Rafah after completing an operation in a Namer"ah (engineering APC - armored personel carrier) vehicle was hit by an explosive device. It is not yet clear whether the device was planted there or attached to the vehicle. The Namer"ah, which was fifth in the column of APCs, caught fire from the explosion. It is being investigated whether it was a belly explosion. The vehicle burned for a long time, and rescuers had difficulty reaching it. It was later towed to a safe location. The rest of the vehicles in the convoy were not harmed at all. The IDF launched drones into the air to try to find terrorists in the area, but did not locate them. As part of past lessons learned, and the incident at the beginning of the war in which 11 Givati fighters were killed, the IDF tries to store ammunition in separate compartments from those where the fighters are stationed in the engineering vehicles. At this time, only one soldier's name has been released to the public which means that the army is still informing the families of the fallen soldiers.- Captain Wisam Mahmud, 23 from Beit Jan. Wisam was supposed to be released from the army tomorrow and was supposed to arrive home for the Druze holiday that starts this evening.
May their memories be forever a blessing
Hostage Updates
Interview with my brother in Al-Monitor: Hamas open to direct channel on cease-fire, says former
hostage negotiator
After months of failed talks, Israel's former back-channel
negotiator Gershon Baskin says it’s time to bypass the mediators and open a
direct line of communication with Hamas.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre, Israeli peace
activist Gershon Baskin cut off contact with Ghazi Hamad, a senior
Hamas official with whom he maintained a back channel for 18 years.
“I never want to speak to you again,” Baskin
wrote in a Nov. 1 open letter to Hamad, his counterpart in the
negotiations over the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by
Hamas in 2006.
But as the Gaza war dragged for several months,
Baskin had a change of heart.
“I wrote to him, saying that if our channel of
communication could save human lives, I'm ready to renew it. He wrote back to
me about a month later, and we renewed it," Baskin said.
With the two sides still far apart over a
US-backed cease-fire deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt, Baskin believes now is
the time for Israel to open a channel with Hamas similar to the one he used to
help free Shalit after five years in captivity.
“There are better chances of reaching
compromises and understandings when communication is direct, when answers are
given back and forth quickly and we don't have to wait two weeks to get an
answer,” Baskin said.
He described indirect talks between Israel and
Hamas as more complicated, where "third parties have their own interests
and their own styles." He added, "When you control the process, you
can be a lot more creative."
About a month ago, Baskin said his Hamas
contacts indicated to him they would be open to a direct channel: “an ongoing,
non-stop-until-the-white-smoke-comes-out-of-the-chimney kind of
arrangement.”
The Israeli negotiating team rejected the idea.
“In their view, it wasn't a problem of communication, but that the issue was
the goals of the two sides were diametrically opposed,” Baskin said.
Baskin said Hamad stopped returning his Telegram
messages last month.
Two weeks after President Joe Biden
unveiled a three-phase plan for a “durable end” to the war in the Gaza Strip, a
cease-fire remains a distant prospect. Asked by reporters Thursday if an
agreement would be reached soon, Biden answered, “No,” but added, “I haven’t
lost hope.”
In its formal response this week, Hamas put
forward “amendments,” some of which Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
were “not workable” and go “beyond positions that it had previously taken and
accepted.”
Blinken declined to characterize what differed
in Hamas’ counterproposal, but said the last-minute additions makes one
“question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not.”
Hamas demands enduring
cease-fire
Israel's commitment to a permanent cease-fire is
a primary sticking point for the militants. Hamas official Bassem Naim told
Al-Monitor the group is "looking for guarantees that the negotiations will
lead to [a] permanent cease-fire and total withdrawal."
Specifically, Naim said Hamas wants assurances
of the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor, a
buffer zone separating Egypt and Gaza, in phase one and its full withdrawal
from all of Gaza in phase two.
“My experience with Hamas is that they negotiate
on the margins,” Baskin said. “They put out their positions way at the
beginning, and they stick to those positions.”
“The bottom line, which is uncompromising, is
ending the war, the withdrawal of Israel from Gaza and exchange of hostages for
prisoners. That's been out there since the beginning of the war.”
Negotiators have tried for months to reach an
agreement to halt the war that the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory
says has killed more than 37,100 people, a majority of them women and children.
Israel launched its war in retaliation for the militants’ killing of 1,200
people and taking 250 hostages during its unprecedented cross-border attack on
Oct. 7.
For the Biden administration, the goal is for
Hamas and Israel to at least implement the six-week cease-fire outlined in
phase one, during which Hamas would release women, elderly and severely wounded
hostages in return for scores of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli troops would
withdraw from Gaza’s heavily populated areas.
The second and third phases call for the release
of male and deceased hostages, a permanent cessation of hostilities, the full
withdrawal of Israeli troops and the reconstruction of the devastated
Palestinian territory.
US officials say they
will try to bridge the gaps between the deal endorsed by the UN Security Council on
Monday and the changes proposed by Hamas a
day later. But time is of the essence to reach a deal.
Israeli authorities believe at least 41 of the 116
hostages who remain in Gaza are dead. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told
CNN Thursday that “no one has any idea” how many are alive. He reiterated that
any deal to free them must involve guarantees of a permanent cease-fire and
full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
In 2011, the deal
brokered for Shalit’s release had been on the table for nearly five years: his
freedom in exchange for some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails,
including Hamas' current leader Yahya Sinwar.
Baskin worries the haggling over the current
hostage deal could similarly go on for years.
“The hostages don't have years,” Baskin said. “I
can't believe we're already eight-and-a-half months into this war and the
hostages aren't home yet.”
Report: US army in October planned, shelved, potential op to
rescue American hostages
US imaging capacities played secondary but crucial role in
recent rescue op, say officials, with Israel’s lackluster data underscoring its
pre-Oct. 7 human intel failure
The United States made
plans early in the war for a potential operation to rescue eight
American-Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, the Washington Post reported
on Friday, citing current and former US and Israeli officials.
Though that operation
was never carried out, US intelligence ultimately played an important, though
secondary, role in Israel’s June 8 operation that saw four hostages rescued,
the Post cited Israeli officials as saying.
According to American and Israeli officials quoted in the
In a joint operation
of Israeli security forces, hostages Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv,
and Andrey Kozlov were rescued from two separate apartments in the central Gaza
Strip refugee camp of Nuseirat. Hamas authorities said the operation, amid massive
exchanges of fire with terror operatives, killed over 270 people and injured
nearly 700, though it did not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israel said its information pointed to under 100 people killed, some of them
civilians.
Israel depended on US
intelligence to discover the hostages’ precise location, the Post said.
According to the newspaper, that dependence underscored Israel’s overreliance
in recent years on technology at the expense of traditional
intelligence-gathering methods — specifically human intelligence — as
exemplified by Israel’s failure to put together a spy network in Gaza.
Israel has gradually
increased its cache of human intelligence as the war goes on, including by
interrogating detained Hamas operatives and scouring documents and digital
files discovered during ongoing operations in the Strip.
Intelligence gleaned
from such sources was used in Saturday’s hostage rescue operation, as well as
in previous operations to recover bodies of hostages, the Post reported. The
paper cited current and former Israeli officials as saying the lack of human
intelligence was partially to blame for the country’s failure to detect Hamas’s
preparations for October 7, when the terror group led a thousands-strong
onslaught on southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking over 250
hostages.
Of the hostages, eight
were US citizens, three of whom have been confirmed dead. Current and former US
officials told the Post that in October, plans were made to deploy troops from
the Joint Special Operations Command — an elite military force experienced in
rescuing hostages — to rescue the American hostages.
“If we managed to
unilaterally get information that we could act on, and we thought we could actually
get US people out alive, we could act, but there was genuinely very little
information specifically about US hostages,” the Post quoted one of the US
officials as saying.
Before October 7,
neither Israel nor the US considered Hamas to be a major threat, but that
changed “almost immediately” after the onslaught, according to the Post. Since
then, officials from the US State and Defense Departments, as well as the CIA,
FBI and the Joint Special Operations Command have been working in Israel to
investigate Hamas attacks on US citizens and help oversee hostage recovery
efforts, the paper said.
US intelligence
assistance provided “capabilities to us that we never had before October 7,”
the Post quoted an Israeli official as saying. Another Israeli official
indicated that those capabilities included highly detailed satellite imagery.
Per an agreement with
the White House, Israel can use US intelligence only to locate hostages and
Hamas leadership. However, the Post said, the pact has no apparent
enforcement mechanism. Moreover, since hostages are surrounded by Hamas gunmen
using them as human shields, using US intelligence to locate the captives
inevitably enables Israel to hone in on lower-level Hamas operatives as well.
A serving member of
the Israeli army’s 8200 intelligence gathering unit told the Post that Israel’s
intelligence organizations “are very careful not to use what the US gives them
operationally if that’s not allowed. “Intelligence
sharing with the United States is very good. There are direct relationships at
the working level, and it’s important to preserve them,” said the service member.
The once-celebrated unit has been at the epicenter of
criticism for eschewing traditional information-gathering methods to focus on
new technologies before Oct. 7. The top brass of 8200 has also been accused of
dismissing voices that called into question the unit’s overall disregard of
Hamas as a major security threat. The US
provided Israel with overhead imagery to help plan the daylight rescue, as well as advanced imaging and data analysis
technologies. The Post said the Israeli officials stressed they could have
obtained most of the intelligence without US help.
Hostage Updates
Interview with my brother in Al-Monitor: Hamas open to direct channel on cease-fire, says former hostage negotiator
After months of failed talks, Israel's former back-channel negotiator Gershon Baskin says it’s time to bypass the mediators and open a direct line of communication with Hamas.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre, Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin cut off contact with Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official with whom he maintained a back channel for 18 years.
“I never want to speak to you again,” Baskin wrote in a Nov. 1 open letter to Hamad, his counterpart in the negotiations over the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.
But as the Gaza war dragged for several months, Baskin had a change of heart.
“I wrote to him, saying that if our channel of communication could save human lives, I'm ready to renew it. He wrote back to me about a month later, and we renewed it," Baskin said.
With the two sides still far apart over a US-backed cease-fire deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt, Baskin believes now is the time for Israel to open a channel with Hamas similar to the one he used to help free Shalit after five years in captivity.
“There are better chances of reaching compromises and understandings when communication is direct, when answers are given back and forth quickly and we don't have to wait two weeks to get an answer,” Baskin said.
He described indirect talks between Israel and Hamas as more complicated, where "third parties have their own interests and their own styles." He added, "When you control the process, you can be a lot more creative."
About a month ago, Baskin said his Hamas contacts indicated to him they would be open to a direct channel: “an ongoing, non-stop-until-the-white-smoke-comes-out-of-the-chimney kind of arrangement.”
The Israeli negotiating team rejected the idea. “In their view, it wasn't a problem of communication, but that the issue was the goals of the two sides were diametrically opposed,” Baskin said.
Baskin said Hamad stopped returning his Telegram messages last month.
Two weeks after President Joe Biden unveiled a three-phase plan for a “durable end” to the war in the Gaza Strip, a cease-fire remains a distant prospect. Asked by reporters Thursday if an agreement would be reached soon, Biden answered, “No,” but added, “I haven’t lost hope.”
In its formal response this week, Hamas put forward “amendments,” some of which Secretary of State Antony Blinken said were “not workable” and go “beyond positions that it had previously taken and accepted.”
Blinken declined to characterize what differed in Hamas’ counterproposal, but said the last-minute additions makes one “question whether they’re proceeding in good faith or not.”
Hamas demands enduring cease-fire
Israel's commitment to a permanent cease-fire is a primary sticking point for the militants. Hamas official Bassem Naim told Al-Monitor the group is "looking for guarantees that the negotiations will lead to [a] permanent cease-fire and total withdrawal."
Specifically, Naim said Hamas wants assurances of the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Rafah and the Philadelphi corridor, a buffer zone separating Egypt and Gaza, in phase one and its full withdrawal from all of Gaza in phase two.
“My experience with Hamas is that they negotiate on the margins,” Baskin said. “They put out their positions way at the beginning, and they stick to those positions.”
“The bottom line, which is uncompromising, is ending the war, the withdrawal of Israel from Gaza and exchange of hostages for prisoners. That's been out there since the beginning of the war.”
Negotiators have tried for months to reach an agreement to halt the war that the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory says has killed more than 37,100 people, a majority of them women and children. Israel launched its war in retaliation for the militants’ killing of 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages during its unprecedented cross-border attack on Oct. 7.
For the Biden administration, the goal is for Hamas and Israel to at least implement the six-week cease-fire outlined in phase one, during which Hamas would release women, elderly and severely wounded hostages in return for scores of Palestinian prisoners and Israeli troops would withdraw from Gaza’s heavily populated areas.
The second and third phases call for the release of male and deceased hostages, a permanent cessation of hostilities, the full withdrawal of Israeli troops and the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory.
US officials say they will try to bridge the gaps between the deal endorsed by the UN Security Council on Monday and the changes proposed by Hamas a day later. But time is of the essence to reach a deal.
Israeli authorities believe at least 41 of the 116 hostages who remain in Gaza are dead. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told CNN Thursday that “no one has any idea” how many are alive. He reiterated that any deal to free them must involve guarantees of a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
In 2011, the deal brokered for Shalit’s release had been on the table for nearly five years: his freedom in exchange for some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, including Hamas' current leader Yahya Sinwar.
Baskin worries the haggling over the current hostage deal could similarly go on for years.
“The hostages don't have years,” Baskin said. “I can't believe we're already eight-and-a-half months into this war and the hostages aren't home yet.”
Report: US army in October planned, shelved, potential op to rescue American hostages
US imaging capacities played secondary but crucial role in recent rescue op, say officials, with Israel’s lackluster data underscoring its pre-Oct. 7 human intel failure
The United States made plans early in the war for a potential operation to rescue eight American-Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing current and former US and Israeli officials.
Though that operation was never carried out, US intelligence ultimately played an important, though secondary, role in Israel’s June 8 operation that saw four hostages rescued, the Post cited Israeli officials as saying.
According to American and Israeli officials quoted in the
In a joint operation of Israeli security forces, hostages Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Shlomi Ziv, and Andrey Kozlov were rescued from two separate apartments in the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nuseirat. Hamas authorities said the operation, amid massive exchanges of fire with terror operatives, killed over 270 people and injured nearly 700, though it did not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel said its information pointed to under 100 people killed, some of them civilians.
Israel depended on US intelligence to discover the hostages’ precise location, the Post said. According to the newspaper, that dependence underscored Israel’s overreliance in recent years on technology at the expense of traditional intelligence-gathering methods — specifically human intelligence — as exemplified by Israel’s failure to put together a spy network in Gaza.
Israel has gradually increased its cache of human intelligence as the war goes on, including by interrogating detained Hamas operatives and scouring documents and digital files discovered during ongoing operations in the Strip.
Intelligence gleaned from such sources was used in Saturday’s hostage rescue operation, as well as in previous operations to recover bodies of hostages, the Post reported. The paper cited current and former Israeli officials as saying the lack of human intelligence was partially to blame for the country’s failure to detect Hamas’s preparations for October 7, when the terror group led a thousands-strong onslaught on southern Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages.
Of the hostages, eight were US citizens, three of whom have been confirmed dead. Current and former US officials told the Post that in October, plans were made to deploy troops from the Joint Special Operations Command — an elite military force experienced in rescuing hostages — to rescue the American hostages.
“If we managed to unilaterally get information that we could act on, and we thought we could actually get US people out alive, we could act, but there was genuinely very little information specifically about US hostages,” the Post quoted one of the US officials as saying.
Before October 7, neither Israel nor the US considered Hamas to be a major threat, but that changed “almost immediately” after the onslaught, according to the Post. Since then, officials from the US State and Defense Departments, as well as the CIA, FBI and the Joint Special Operations Command have been working in Israel to investigate Hamas attacks on US citizens and help oversee hostage recovery efforts, the paper said.
US intelligence assistance provided “capabilities to us that we never had before October 7,” the Post quoted an Israeli official as saying. Another Israeli official indicated that those capabilities included highly detailed satellite imagery.
Per an agreement with the White House, Israel can use US intelligence only to locate hostages and Hamas leadership. However, the Post said, the pact has no apparent enforcement mechanism. Moreover, since hostages are surrounded by Hamas gunmen using them as human shields, using US intelligence to locate the captives inevitably enables Israel to hone in on lower-level Hamas operatives as well.
A serving member of the Israeli army’s 8200 intelligence gathering unit told the Post that Israel’s intelligence organizations “are very careful not to use what the US gives them operationally if that’s not allowed. “Intelligence sharing with the United States is very good. There are direct relationships at the working level, and it’s important to preserve them,” said the service member. The once-celebrated unit has been at the epicenter of criticism for eschewing traditional information-gathering methods to focus on new technologies before Oct. 7. The top brass of 8200 has also been accused of dismissing voices that called into question the unit’s overall disregard of Hamas as a major security threat. The US provided Israel with overhead imagery to help plan the daylight rescue, as well as advanced imaging and data analysis technologies. The Post said the Israeli officials stressed they could have obtained most of the intelligence without US help.
Gaza
Rockets fired by Hamas at southern Israel last night were launched from the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Gaza Strip, the military says. Five rockets were launched in the barrage, two of which crossed the border, impacting open areas near Kibbutz Kissufim. The other three fell short in the Strip.
Hamas claimed to have targeted a military base in the area.
In a statement, the IDF says Hamas’s use of the humanitarian zone to launch rockets at Israel is “a further example of the cynical exploitation of humanitarian infrastructure and the civilian population as human shields by terror organizations in the Gaza Strip for their terrorist attacks.”
Security Establishment to Political Echelon: IDF on the
Verge of Defeating Hamas, Don't Fear Ending the War in Exchange for the Return
of Hostages
The IDF believes that the tactical achievement allows Israel
to "move to the next phase," essentially ending the war in Gaza
through an agreement for the return of hostages. "The end of the war is
not the end of fighting," say security officials, "Intelligence will
continue to flow, as will the ability to strike from the air or ground."
Ending the war in the south is not an issue for senior
security officials. For over a month, the IDF has been telling the cabinet that
the defeat of Hamas's military wing is very close.
The organization has lost more than a third of its fighting
force, according to IDF estimates about 15,000 of its members. About 60% of
Hamas's military infrastructure has been destroyed. Hamas has no capability to
launch an attack approaching the scale of October 7. The Rafah battalions are
on the verge of disintegration. Last week, IDF forces operated in the heart of
Nuseirat, with strength and surprise, in the heart of a built-up area where
they had not been present before; a demonstration of IDF control throughout the
Strip.
Israel has achieved an impressive tactical achievement, says
a senior security official in closed discussions, "but no matter how many
tactical achievements we bring, there needs to be a clear strategic goal,
otherwise we'll continue to navigate from point to point without
resolution."
The IDF believes that the excellent tactical achievement of
the divisions in the Gaza Strip allows Israel to "move to the next
phase," essentially ending the war in the south through an agreement for
the return of hostages. The Israeli interest, according to the security
establishment, as well as the vast majority in the General Staff, is to
recognize that Israel has defeated Hamas and to move on to the stage of
"fighting."
"As part of a deal, there's no need to fear saying clearly:
this is the end of the war," say security officials, "The end of the
war is not the end of fighting. Intelligence will continue to flow, as will the
ability to strike from the air or ground. There will be complete legitimacy to
act even after the end of the war if Hamas tries to act against us. And we know
very well that they will try."
No one in the political system - Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz,
Yoav Gallant, and certainly not Benjamin Netanyahu - is willing to say clear
things about ending the war. The Prime Minister has managed to turn this issue
into the 11th commandment: the war will not end before total victory, which he
has not defined at all. But behind the scenes, the Israeli system sounds
completely different. The issue is that it is afraid; afraid of the public's
reaction, afraid of giving wind to Hamas's sails, and mainly afraid of how the
poison machine will brand any statement that the war needs to end. link Netanyahu's amorphous 'Total Victory' which he has never defined will remain amorphous and out of anyone's grips. There is no way to consider anything but getting the hostages home a victory. Netanyahu is terrified of Hamas' statements that they have won the war, especially if they are still in Gaza in any role whatsoever. But it doesn't matter what they say or what Netanyahu will respond. We lost the war on October 7. That is the bottom line. We allowed thousands of Hamas terrorists to invade the south western part of the country, take over a majority of the settlements and army bases on and close to the border, to viciously massacre over 1200 people and kidnap over 250. And then the total lack of any strategic plan for the war or for the future of Gaza meant that for every tactical win for the army, they would lose ground multiple times because of it. There is no winning this war. Israel lost, The Palestinian Gazan population lost. Period!. But there are ways to make our future better, first and foremost to get our hostages home and then to have a strategic future for Gaza that doesn't include an Israeli military occupation at all. To reach the first, we need a leader who will risk his own political position and future, which we don't have. To reach the second, same thing.
Rockets fired by Hamas at southern Israel last night were launched from the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Gaza Strip, the military says. Five rockets were launched in the barrage, two of which crossed the border, impacting open areas near Kibbutz Kissufim. The other three fell short in the Strip.
Hamas claimed to have targeted a military base in the area.
In a statement, the IDF says Hamas’s use of the humanitarian zone to launch rockets at Israel is “a further example of the cynical exploitation of humanitarian infrastructure and the civilian population as human shields by terror organizations in the Gaza Strip for their terrorist attacks.”
The IDF believes that the tactical achievement allows Israel
to "move to the next phase," essentially ending the war in Gaza
through an agreement for the return of hostages. "The end of the war is
not the end of fighting," say security officials, "Intelligence will
continue to flow, as will the ability to strike from the air or ground."
Ending the war in the south is not an issue for senior
security officials. For over a month, the IDF has been telling the cabinet that
the defeat of Hamas's military wing is very close.
The organization has lost more than a third of its fighting
force, according to IDF estimates about 15,000 of its members. About 60% of
Hamas's military infrastructure has been destroyed. Hamas has no capability to
launch an attack approaching the scale of October 7. The Rafah battalions are
on the verge of disintegration. Last week, IDF forces operated in the heart of
Nuseirat, with strength and surprise, in the heart of a built-up area where
they had not been present before; a demonstration of IDF control throughout the
Strip.
Israel has achieved an impressive tactical achievement, says
a senior security official in closed discussions, "but no matter how many
tactical achievements we bring, there needs to be a clear strategic goal,
otherwise we'll continue to navigate from point to point without
resolution."
The IDF believes that the excellent tactical achievement of
the divisions in the Gaza Strip allows Israel to "move to the next
phase," essentially ending the war in the south through an agreement for
the return of hostages. The Israeli interest, according to the security
establishment, as well as the vast majority in the General Staff, is to
recognize that Israel has defeated Hamas and to move on to the stage of
"fighting."
"As part of a deal, there's no need to fear saying clearly:
this is the end of the war," say security officials, "The end of the
war is not the end of fighting. Intelligence will continue to flow, as will the
ability to strike from the air or ground. There will be complete legitimacy to
act even after the end of the war if Hamas tries to act against us. And we know
very well that they will try."
No one in the political system - Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Yoav Gallant, and certainly not Benjamin Netanyahu - is willing to say clear things about ending the war. The Prime Minister has managed to turn this issue into the 11th commandment: the war will not end before total victory, which he has not defined at all. But behind the scenes, the Israeli system sounds completely different. The issue is that it is afraid; afraid of the public's reaction, afraid of giving wind to Hamas's sails, and mainly afraid of how the poison machine will brand any statement that the war needs to end. link Netanyahu's amorphous 'Total Victory' which he has never defined will remain amorphous and out of anyone's grips. There is no way to consider anything but getting the hostages home a victory. Netanyahu is terrified of Hamas' statements that they have won the war, especially if they are still in Gaza in any role whatsoever. But it doesn't matter what they say or what Netanyahu will respond. We lost the war on October 7. That is the bottom line. We allowed thousands of Hamas terrorists to invade the south western part of the country, take over a majority of the settlements and army bases on and close to the border, to viciously massacre over 1200 people and kidnap over 250. And then the total lack of any strategic plan for the war or for the future of Gaza meant that for every tactical win for the army, they would lose ground multiple times because of it. There is no winning this war. Israel lost, The Palestinian Gazan population lost. Period!. But there are ways to make our future better, first and foremost to get our hostages home and then to have a strategic future for Gaza that doesn't include an Israeli military occupation at all. To reach the first, we need a leader who will risk his own political position and future, which we don't have. To reach the second, same thing.
Northern Israel - Lebanon/Hizbollah
Israeli fighter jets struck a building in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila last night, which the IDF says was used by Hezbollah and was adjacent to an area from which the terror group fired rockets at Metula yesterday.
Meanwhile, sirens that sounded this morning in the northern community of Tziv’on were triggered by two projectiles fired from Lebanon at the Mount Meron area, the military says. There were no injuries in the attack.
Lebanese media report an Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle between the southern towns of Bint Jbiel and Aitaroun a short while ago. Causalities are reported in the strike. **The IDF confirms carrying out a strike against a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun this morning.
US officials are increasingly concerned that an all-out war could break out between Israel and Hezbollah due to increasingly deeper attacks by the two sides, according to a CBS news report. Some US officials tell the American network they believe recent Israeli strikes deeper in Lebanese territory are setting the stage for a broader operation, which would spark a war Israel cannot complete with Washington’s support. Other US officials speaking to CBS say they are concerned over the scenario that intensifying Hezbollah rocket attacks will result in “unintended consequences” that give Israel cause to launch a major assault. Hezbollah has upped its attacks after a strike this week that killed Taleb Sami Abdullah, its most senior commander to die by Israel’s hand since the round of violence started eight months ago.
Two missiles launched from Lebanon this morning struck the Israeli military’s sensitive Mount Meron air traffic control base. The IDF says there are no injuries and “no harm to the unit’s capabilities” in the attack.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the incident, claiming to have targeted equipment at the base with guided missiles. The terror group has attacked Mount Meron, located some eight kilometers (five miles) from the Lebanon border, several times amid the ongoing war, launching large barrages of rockets at the mountain, as well as guided missiles at the air traffic control base that sits atop it. link The base on Mt. Meron is not just an air traffic control base; it is the eyes of the north of the country. That is the reason that Hizbollah continues to target it.
Several explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon impacted near the northern community of Goren, sparking a fire. Hezbollah in a statement claims to have targeted a military base in the area. The IDF says it is investigating why it failed to down the drones.
Israeli fighter jets struck a building in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila last night, which the IDF says was used by Hezbollah and was adjacent to an area from which the terror group fired rockets at Metula yesterday.
Meanwhile, sirens that sounded this morning in the northern community of Tziv’on were triggered by two projectiles fired from Lebanon at the Mount Meron area, the military says. There were no injuries in the attack.
Lebanese media report an Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle between the southern towns of Bint Jbiel and Aitaroun a short while ago. Causalities are reported in the strike. **The IDF confirms carrying out a strike against a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun this morning.
US officials are increasingly concerned that an all-out war could break out between Israel and Hezbollah due to increasingly deeper attacks by the two sides, according to a CBS news report. Some US officials tell the American network they believe recent Israeli strikes deeper in Lebanese territory are setting the stage for a broader operation, which would spark a war Israel cannot complete with Washington’s support. Other US officials speaking to CBS say they are concerned over the scenario that intensifying Hezbollah rocket attacks will result in “unintended consequences” that give Israel cause to launch a major assault. Hezbollah has upped its attacks after a strike this week that killed Taleb Sami Abdullah, its most senior commander to die by Israel’s hand since the round of violence started eight months ago.
Two missiles launched from Lebanon this morning struck the Israeli military’s sensitive Mount Meron air traffic control base. The IDF says there are no injuries and “no harm to the unit’s capabilities” in the attack.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the incident, claiming to have targeted equipment at the base with guided missiles. The terror group has attacked Mount Meron, located some eight kilometers (five miles) from the Lebanon border, several times amid the ongoing war, launching large barrages of rockets at the mountain, as well as guided missiles at the air traffic control base that sits atop it. link The base on Mt. Meron is not just an air traffic control base; it is the eyes of the north of the country. That is the reason that Hizbollah continues to target it.
Several explosive-laden drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon impacted near the northern community of Goren, sparking a fire. Hezbollah in a statement claims to have targeted a military base in the area. The IDF says it is investigating why it failed to down the drones.
West Bank
Politics
A French district court rules that organizers of the Eurosatory 2024 defense and security trade show must ban all Israelis working for or representing Israeli firms from participating, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by the Le Parisien news outlet.
The French Defense Ministry last month ordered organizers to ban the Israeli defense industry from setting up a stand at the event, saying that “the conditions are no longer right to host Israeli companies at the Paris show, given that the French president is calling for the cessation of IDF operation in Rafah.”
Seventy-four Israeli firms had been set to be represented at the June 17 to 21 event at fairgrounds close to Paris’s main international airport, with Coges previously saying around 10 of them were to exhibit weapons. However, organizers said that Israelis would still be allowed to visit the fair.
Elite Police Unit Operating Against Protesters in Jerusalem: "Is This Where Resources Are Diverted?" The Central Unit (Yamar) (equal to a national major crimes unit), which by definition should deal with serious crime, is deploying undercover detectives against protesters in demonstrations for the hostages or against the government. There are also attempts to recruit informants, ambushes, and concerns about wiretapping: "A woman laughed with me - and then participated in an arrest." Police: "These are riots, Yamar's purpose is to deal with them too."
Recently, the police have been investing enormous resources in dealing with protests in Jerusalem, or as they insist on calling them: riots. The police admitted to Ynet that they are using Yamar (the Central Unit) - which is considered an elite unit with many sophisticated means - to deal with protesters for the hostages, or against those protesting against the government. But this doesn't quite align with its definition. "An investigation and intelligence unit that operates at the level of the various districts in the Israel Police, whose role is to deal with serious crime within the district," is written in Yamar's definition.
The use of these officers for demonstrations raises questions about police priorities and the realization of freedom of protest. The use of the prestigious unit against protesters - which regularly deals with serious crimes such as thwarting terrorist attacks - along with the allocation of undercover detectives, intelligence resources, and much time, also raises questions about whether resources are being diverted to the right place.
For example, in the police podcast, a detective officer says that a Yamar detective, unlike patrol, "deals only with criminals." These questions arose after unusual testimonies and documentation were collected from recent times, illustrating the police's massive efforts to suppress protests. For instance, protesters shared that after being arrested in road blockades and illegal protests, the police tried to recruit them as undercover agents to extract details about protest organizations in the city. In other words - to recruit them as informants.
Additionally, at a demonstration against the government held in Jerusalem about three weeks ago, a large group of detectives disguised as protesters roamed around, wearing "Kaplan Force" shirts, carrying megaphones and Israeli flags. At the beginning of the demonstration (which was legal, it should be noted), they chatted with protesters, asked questions, ingratiated themselves with people, and even attended strategy meetings. Later - when the demonstration escalated and turned into an illegal protest and roads were blocked - those same "protesters" were suddenly seen donning police hats and making surprise arrests.
The same group continued to pop up at various events. For example, last Monday, a protest organization planned to block the access road to government offices in Jerusalem as an act of protest, which is illegal, of course. Before the action, the organization tried to act with absolute discretion, talking through alternative channels for fear of wiretapping and even avoiding giving journalists the exact location of the demonstration. However, upon arriving at the location, undercover officers were already waiting for them, including Yamar officers who knew in advance about their intentions - and arrested two of them within moments.
The police's remarkably impressive readiness for that protest action, which involved a tiny number of people, sent the protest organization to do some soul-searching. How could it be that they were waiting for them despite the heightened caution? The wonder led to the clear assumption that resources and prior intelligence work were invested to act against the protest. The organization does not rule out the possibility of wiretapping conversations and even an undercover agent infiltrating their ranks.
"She Talked to Me Near the Knesset - and Then Participated in the Arrest"
A., a protest activist in the capital who was arrested at one of the demonstrations by undercover police officers, including Yamar officers, says in a conversation with Ynet: "We have already seen many things from the police in recent years since Balfour - use of excessive force, including water cannons and skunk spray, mounted police charging into the crowd, beatings, mass false arrests, and even stun grenades. We've seen police stations disproportionately invested in protesters, detectives calling protest activists on their personal phones, and even intelligence coordinators trying to recruit collaborators from among the activists.
"But the appearance of Yamar, who disguise themselves among the protesters or set up an ambush for them before they raise an exhibit, is already crossing a red line - at a time when organized crime is rampant and the number of murders is skyrocketing and breaking records year after year, it is inconceivable that the police send their highest quality officers to deal with protesters. Just like it's inconceivable that the IDF would now send Commando Brigade soldiers to catch a guard in Tzrifin. The only conclusion is that the police are abandoning human lives for political interests, and therefore it cannot be avoided to say: the Israel Police is committing a crime against the State of Israel."
M., a leader in the same protest organization, shared: "We wanted to raise an exhibit with a few dozen activists and the police thwarted the activity. This is after they invested a lot of resources to gather intelligence around the activity and also brought a lot of operational force. There were about 20 Yasam fighters, a group of undercover agents, and many senior officers from the Moriah station." He notes that this is not the first time they have encountered these forces, but claims that this time more than ever it is felt that the police are prioritizing activity against protests at the expense of other activities.
M. continues: "The police invest a lot of resources to thwart protests and to harm the freedom of expression of protesters and people who protest against government policy and want to replace it. From our perspective, all these forces come at the expense of solving murders, at the expense of activity in the courts, security, stopping the next thief, rapist, and murderer. And it's important to say: it's not our fault, the protesters. At the end of the day, there are many forces fighting for the police's attention, and who is responsible for where resources are diverted - that's the government. And there is a clear prioritization. They will stop the protests at any cost, even at the expense of citizens' security. What's important to them is to stop protesters, heaven forbid they shouldn't raise an exhibit near a government office, and not to stop murderers and thieves... That's how the prioritization looks."
However, M. wants to point out that although it may seem so from his words - he does not blame the police. "I'm sure they receive very clear instructions from the political echelon, which ostensibly runs on the 'governance' ticket - that same governance is manifested in thwarting protests and harming the freedom of expression of protesters. We salute the security forces and their activities. We have our activities and hope that in the future the government will prefer to invest resources in truly important issues and not just think about its own behind, lest there be elections."
S., another protester, shared: "Someone at the demonstration near the Knesset talked to me, laughed with me, and asked questions. Later I saw her participating in an arrest. It's bizarre."
Police response: "First, we reject and condemn the systematic attempt, time and again, to normalize disturbances and acts performed contrary to the law under the headline - 'demonstrations'. For the avoidance of doubt, no protest was coordinated with the police in the Government Complex in Jerusalem, and the acts they performed there and were about to perform - are contrary to the law, and therefore were enforced and handled by the officers accordingly, including police detectives. The main purpose of the police with all its units is to maintain internal security, enforce offenses and fight crime, as well as maintain public order and deal with traffic aspects. In Jerusalem, all police units bear the complex and challenging operational burden of these missions, shoulder to shoulder, stations and district units, uniformed and undercover officers - and we are proud of that.
"Jerusalem's Yamar is a central unit that also acts to combat terrorism - it has thwarted many attacks in recent months alone, also resolutely fights serious crime, and also deals with disturbances and troublemakers of any kind. We will continue to allow freedom of expression and protest within the boundaries of the law, but we will not allow and will deal with the disruption of public order performed contrary to the law." link This is what happens when we have a prime minister whose main concern is staying prime minister despite being the one most responsible for the worst day in the history of the State and when he gives a criminal the ministry for internal security (Police) to be his own militia.
A French district court rules that organizers of the Eurosatory 2024 defense and security trade show must ban all Israelis working for or representing Israeli firms from participating, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by the Le Parisien news outlet.
The French Defense Ministry last month ordered organizers to ban the Israeli defense industry from setting up a stand at the event, saying that “the conditions are no longer right to host Israeli companies at the Paris show, given that the French president is calling for the cessation of IDF operation in Rafah.”
Seventy-four Israeli firms had been set to be represented at the June 17 to 21 event at fairgrounds close to Paris’s main international airport, with Coges previously saying around 10 of them were to exhibit weapons. However, organizers said that Israelis would still be allowed to visit the fair.
Elite Police Unit Operating Against Protesters in Jerusalem: "Is This Where Resources Are Diverted?" The Central Unit (Yamar) (equal to a national major crimes unit), which by definition should deal with serious crime, is deploying undercover detectives against protesters in demonstrations for the hostages or against the government. There are also attempts to recruit informants, ambushes, and concerns about wiretapping: "A woman laughed with me - and then participated in an arrest." Police: "These are riots, Yamar's purpose is to deal with them too."
Recently, the police have been investing enormous resources in dealing with protests in Jerusalem, or as they insist on calling them: riots. The police admitted to Ynet that they are using Yamar (the Central Unit) - which is considered an elite unit with many sophisticated means - to deal with protesters for the hostages, or against those protesting against the government. But this doesn't quite align with its definition. "An investigation and intelligence unit that operates at the level of the various districts in the Israel Police, whose role is to deal with serious crime within the district," is written in Yamar's definition.
The use of these officers for demonstrations raises questions about police priorities and the realization of freedom of protest. The use of the prestigious unit against protesters - which regularly deals with serious crimes such as thwarting terrorist attacks - along with the allocation of undercover detectives, intelligence resources, and much time, also raises questions about whether resources are being diverted to the right place.
For example, in the police podcast, a detective officer says that a Yamar detective, unlike patrol, "deals only with criminals." These questions arose after unusual testimonies and documentation were collected from recent times, illustrating the police's massive efforts to suppress protests. For instance, protesters shared that after being arrested in road blockades and illegal protests, the police tried to recruit them as undercover agents to extract details about protest organizations in the city. In other words - to recruit them as informants.
Additionally, at a demonstration against the government held in Jerusalem about three weeks ago, a large group of detectives disguised as protesters roamed around, wearing "Kaplan Force" shirts, carrying megaphones and Israeli flags. At the beginning of the demonstration (which was legal, it should be noted), they chatted with protesters, asked questions, ingratiated themselves with people, and even attended strategy meetings. Later - when the demonstration escalated and turned into an illegal protest and roads were blocked - those same "protesters" were suddenly seen donning police hats and making surprise arrests.
The same group continued to pop up at various events. For example, last Monday, a protest organization planned to block the access road to government offices in Jerusalem as an act of protest, which is illegal, of course. Before the action, the organization tried to act with absolute discretion, talking through alternative channels for fear of wiretapping and even avoiding giving journalists the exact location of the demonstration. However, upon arriving at the location, undercover officers were already waiting for them, including Yamar officers who knew in advance about their intentions - and arrested two of them within moments.
The police's remarkably impressive readiness for that protest action, which involved a tiny number of people, sent the protest organization to do some soul-searching. How could it be that they were waiting for them despite the heightened caution? The wonder led to the clear assumption that resources and prior intelligence work were invested to act against the protest. The organization does not rule out the possibility of wiretapping conversations and even an undercover agent infiltrating their ranks.
"She Talked to Me Near the Knesset - and Then Participated in the Arrest"
A., a protest activist in the capital who was arrested at one of the demonstrations by undercover police officers, including Yamar officers, says in a conversation with Ynet: "We have already seen many things from the police in recent years since Balfour - use of excessive force, including water cannons and skunk spray, mounted police charging into the crowd, beatings, mass false arrests, and even stun grenades. We've seen police stations disproportionately invested in protesters, detectives calling protest activists on their personal phones, and even intelligence coordinators trying to recruit collaborators from among the activists.
"But the appearance of Yamar, who disguise themselves among the protesters or set up an ambush for them before they raise an exhibit, is already crossing a red line - at a time when organized crime is rampant and the number of murders is skyrocketing and breaking records year after year, it is inconceivable that the police send their highest quality officers to deal with protesters. Just like it's inconceivable that the IDF would now send Commando Brigade soldiers to catch a guard in Tzrifin. The only conclusion is that the police are abandoning human lives for political interests, and therefore it cannot be avoided to say: the Israel Police is committing a crime against the State of Israel."
M., a leader in the same protest organization, shared: "We wanted to raise an exhibit with a few dozen activists and the police thwarted the activity. This is after they invested a lot of resources to gather intelligence around the activity and also brought a lot of operational force. There were about 20 Yasam fighters, a group of undercover agents, and many senior officers from the Moriah station." He notes that this is not the first time they have encountered these forces, but claims that this time more than ever it is felt that the police are prioritizing activity against protests at the expense of other activities.
M. continues: "The police invest a lot of resources to thwart protests and to harm the freedom of expression of protesters and people who protest against government policy and want to replace it. From our perspective, all these forces come at the expense of solving murders, at the expense of activity in the courts, security, stopping the next thief, rapist, and murderer. And it's important to say: it's not our fault, the protesters. At the end of the day, there are many forces fighting for the police's attention, and who is responsible for where resources are diverted - that's the government. And there is a clear prioritization. They will stop the protests at any cost, even at the expense of citizens' security. What's important to them is to stop protesters, heaven forbid they shouldn't raise an exhibit near a government office, and not to stop murderers and thieves... That's how the prioritization looks."
However, M. wants to point out that although it may seem so from his words - he does not blame the police. "I'm sure they receive very clear instructions from the political echelon, which ostensibly runs on the 'governance' ticket - that same governance is manifested in thwarting protests and harming the freedom of expression of protesters. We salute the security forces and their activities. We have our activities and hope that in the future the government will prefer to invest resources in truly important issues and not just think about its own behind, lest there be elections."
S., another protester, shared: "Someone at the demonstration near the Knesset talked to me, laughed with me, and asked questions. Later I saw her participating in an arrest. It's bizarre."
Police response: "First, we reject and condemn the systematic attempt, time and again, to normalize disturbances and acts performed contrary to the law under the headline - 'demonstrations'. For the avoidance of doubt, no protest was coordinated with the police in the Government Complex in Jerusalem, and the acts they performed there and were about to perform - are contrary to the law, and therefore were enforced and handled by the officers accordingly, including police detectives. The main purpose of the police with all its units is to maintain internal security, enforce offenses and fight crime, as well as maintain public order and deal with traffic aspects. In Jerusalem, all police units bear the complex and challenging operational burden of these missions, shoulder to shoulder, stations and district units, uniformed and undercover officers - and we are proud of that.
"Jerusalem's Yamar is a central unit that also acts to combat terrorism - it has thwarted many attacks in recent months alone, also resolutely fights serious crime, and also deals with disturbances and troublemakers of any kind. We will continue to allow freedom of expression and protest within the boundaries of the law, but we will not allow and will deal with the disruption of public order performed contrary to the law." link This is what happens when we have a prime minister whose main concern is staying prime minister despite being the one most responsible for the worst day in the history of the State and when he gives a criminal the ministry for internal security (Police) to be his own militia.
The Region
Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani discussed opening up a Hamas media office in Baghdad with the Iraqi government, according to the Lebanese Al-Akhbar news outlet.
Citing informed sources, the outlet says that Hamas has also discussed potentially opening an office in Iraq’s capital, which would be focused on media and public relations.
- June 14 U.S. Central Command Update
In the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed two Houthi uncrewed surface vessels (USV) in the Red Sea.
Additionally, USCENTCOM forces successfully destroyed one uncrewed aerial system (UAS) launched from a Houthi controlled area of Yemen over the Red Sea.
Separately, USCENTCOM forces successfully destroyed seven Iranian-backed Houthi radars in a Houthi controlled area in Yemen. These radars allow the Houthis to target maritime vessels and endanger commercial shipping.
It was determined these systems presented an imminent threat to U.S., coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region. This action was taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels. link
Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani discussed opening up a Hamas media office in Baghdad with the Iraqi government, according to the Lebanese Al-Akhbar news outlet.
Citing informed sources, the outlet says that Hamas has also discussed potentially opening an office in Iraq’s capital, which would be focused on media and public relations.
Acronyms and Glossary
ICC - International Criminal Court in the Hague
IJC - International Court of Justice in the Hague
MDA - Magen David Adom - Israel Ambulance Corp
PA - Palestinian Authority - President Mahmud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen
PMO- Prime Minister's Office
UAV - Unmanned Aerial vehicle, Drone. Could be used for surveillance and reconnaissance, or be weaponized with missiles or contain explosives for 'suicide' explosion mission
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