Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 88?
IDF strikes Hamas commander, four Hezbollah terrorists killed • Hamas terrorists admit to exploiting civilians in IDF investigation
Hamas deputy head Saleh al-Arouri killed in alleged Israeli drone strike in Beirut - report
The strike reportedly targeted an office belonging to Hamas in Mushrifiyah in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital.
Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of the Hamas terrorist movement, was killed along with at least three other people in an alleged drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold for Hezbollah, according to Lebanese reports.
According to the reports, the strike targeted an office belonging to Hamas in Mushrifiyah in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital.
Initial reports indicated that both an apartment and a vehicle were targeted in the area.
Arouri has been an Israeli target
Arouri has been noted as a central target for Israel in the past year due to his role in organizing terrorism in the West Bank.
A member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist movement told Lebanese media after the incident that the secretary general of the movement, Ziyad al-Nakhala, was not harmed in the strike.
Hamas terrorist admits Hamas stopped Gazans fleeing south
WATCH: Hamas terrorists admit to exploiting civilians in IDF investigation
Operatives exploited civilians by invading personal space, telling them they would be bombed if they moved south, and several other threats.
Interrogation of terrorists in an investigation by the IDF's Unit 504 has exposed tactics used by Hamas to exploit Gazan civilians, a report by the IDF revealed.
Two terrorists from different factions within Gaza - Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad - have divulged details on Hamas threatened residents of Gaza to meet the needs of the terrorist organizations.
Zohadi Ali Zahadi Shahin, a Hamas terrorist in their Shati Battalion, admitted during the investigation that Hamas not only stopped Gazans fleeing south towards Rafah and relocated them back north to Shifa Hospital. There, civilians were kept while Hamas terrorists waited in hiding under the hospital in tunnels.
Shortly after realizing that the IDF would be on the hospital grounds, he said that the terrorists went to the ground floor where the civilians were being hosted.
Entering homes without permission
Shahin spoke about Hamas terrorists would overtake civilian homes and make them their own, plant explosives next to doors in homes where small children were staying, and tell the residents that they could "leave if [you] have a problem with it."
He added that a Hamas operative threatened him and said, "If you don't like it, I'll put the bomb between you and your wife."
Muhammad Darwish Amara, an Islamic Jihad operative from the group's Gaza Brigade admitted that Hamas terrorists planted a bomb in his home, where his children were staying, to coerce him into participating in their terrorist actions.
Amara described the feeling of being used as human shields for Hamas' gain.
Go to the full article >>IDF strike on Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure
Netanyahu holding talks on 'day after' Gaza plans
The Security Cabinet and the War Cabinet are expected to discuss the day after on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding discussions about a ‘day-after’ plan for Gaza, in advance of a possible visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
He discussed the issue with the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s sub-group on intelligence and secret services on Monday, the details of which are confidential.
The Security Cabinet and the War Cabinet are expected to discuss the day after on Tuesday. Parliamentarians will also hold a conference to discuss day-after plans in the Knesset that same day.
According to KAN, the IDF has a first phase plan by which portions of Gaza where Hamas is no longer present will be governed by local Palestinians who would also help oversee humanitarian aid distribution.
It put forward the plan just as the IDF began to transition from a high-intensity to a low-intensity phase of its military campaign to destroy Hamas, which has forcibly ruled Gaza since 2007.
Netanyahu has been clear that Hamas can no longer be allowed to govern or even exist in Gaza and that Israel must maintain security control of the enclave.
The United States wants to see the Palestinian Authority govern Gaza, while Israel has insisted that only a newly formed Palestinian government that does not support terror – such as the existing one – can rule the enclave.
“It is very important” for Israel to put forward its plan for the day after, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) told The Jerusalem Post.
“If we do not come with plans of our own, then someone else, maybe the Americans, will come forward with their understanding of what should happen,” Edelstein said.
“I am not sure” that those proposals would “necessarily coincide with our views,” he said.
The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is the first forum in which the issue was raised, including talks with the National Security Council and Netanyahu, he said.
This was in the very early stages of the war, he added.
“The first time we mentioned the necessity to start discussing it was before there were boots on the ground in Gaza,” he said. There was also a discussion about it last week with the National Security Advisor Tzahi Hanegbi.
Edelstein spoke globally about options that could be put in place, such as placing the Gulf states in charge of reconstruction.
But any possible scenario, including local Palestinian governance, can only occur if Hamas is truly ousted from Gaza, he said.
Any potential Hamas replacement would have to believe that the terror group has left the enclave and would not be revived, he explained.
“We have to be accurate and persistent here because we can not let Hamas infiltrate this new structure in any way,” Edelstein said.
IDF responds to rockets from Syria, four Hezbollah terrorists killed in Lebanon
In response to the attacks, the IDF reported that it had targeted the sources of the rocket fire.
Five rockets were fired from Syrian territory into Israel on Monday, the IDF stated. The rockets reportedly fell in open areas. Separately, Hezbollah said the four of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon.
An earlier report regarding the rocket attacks noted that the rockets landed on a road near two communities in the Golan Heights. In response to the attacks, the IDF reported that it had targeted the sources of the rocket fire.
Also on Monday, the IDF said that it had struck Hezbollah infrustructure.
Miracle: a rocket by Hezbollah crashed in an open field right near a vehicle in the Golan pic.twitter.com/22pOCH9Xzf
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) January 1, 2024
The IDF stated that the Hezbollah position had been used earlier in the day to fire rockets toward Adamit, an Israeli community located less than a kilometer from the border with Lebanon.
Four Hezbollah terrorists killed in southern Lebanon
Late on Monday night, Reuters reported that Hezbollah had updated its toll of fighters killed in southern Lebanon to four.
The statement was reportedly released to the Lebanon-based Iranian proxy's Telegram channel.
Reuters reported that the terrorist group said its fighters "were martyred on the road to (liberate) Jerusalem" but did not specify how they had been killed.
The international news agency added that security sources had reported the first three were killed in an Israeli raid on two houses in the town of Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon.
This comes after the IDF said on Saturday that Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror infrastructure in the town.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Go to the full article >>Yemen's Houthis attack American warship in Red Sea - report
Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked an American warship in the Red Sea, Israeli media reported.
The two groups engaged in an intense exchange of fire on the scene.
Go to the full article >>Israel-Hamas War: What you need to know
- Hamas launched a massive attack on October 7, with thousands of terrorists infiltrating from the Gaza border and taking some 240 hostages into Gaza
- Over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered, including over 350 in the Re'im music festival and hundreds of Israeli civilians across Gaza border communities