Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 95?
IDF takes responsibility for killing head of Hezbollah's drone operations • Israeli fire led to death of six soldiers in Gaza blast
Israeli fire led to death of nine soldiers in Gaza blast - IDF
Six of the killed soldiers and most of the wounded came from an incident with explosive material near the partially underground and partially above-ground Hamas rocket manufacturing factory.
Nine IDF soldiers were killed in three incidents in Gaza on Monday, with eight soldiers wounded.
Six of the killed soldiers and most of the wounded came from an incident with explosive material near the partially underground and partially above-ground Hamas rocket manufacturing factory uncovered by the IDF at al-Bureij in central Gaza.
Israeli fire on a Gaza utility pole caused the blast inside a terror tunnel that led to the death of six IDF fighters on Tuesday, as per new details published on Tuesday evening by Israeli media.
A truck was bringing explosive material to soldiers operating near the partially underground and partially above-ground Hamas rocket manufacturing factory uncovered by the IDF at al-Bureij in central Gaza.
Israeli forces were going to use it to explode and destroy aspects of the Hamas manufacturing facility.
The incident, in which six soldiers were killed and a number wounded, occurred after an Israeli tank fired at what it identified as a suspicious terrorist target during operations across the Strip.
The tank fired two shells, one hitting its target and the other landing on the utility pole, causing an explosion around thirty minutes before planned and killing the soldiers.
There was another incident in Khan Yunis in which two soldiers died and a third incident elsewhere in which another soldier died.
Go to the full article >>In Egypt, German FM says Gaza, West Bank belong to Palestinians and PA has role in Gaza
Egypt and Germany are agreed that Gaza and the West Bank belong to Palestinians, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said during a visit to Cairo on Tuesday.
She added that the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza cannot continue and concrete measures are needed now to ensure aid gets to the people there.
Baerbock also said that the international community has an obligation to organise security in Gaza after the war and that a reformed Palestinian Authority must play a crucial role in the future.
Go to the full article >>Abbas: Arabs should enter Gaza, PA cannot rule there right now
Israeli Arab politician Mansour Abbas stated on Tuesday that, "We need a ceasefire, to stop the war now and to bring about a political solution together with the Arab countries. We need to give hope to the Palestinian side."
Abbas's comments came as he spoke on Tuesday at a conference of Givat Haviv, a civil society organization aimed at promoting better relations between Arabs and Jews.
The Ra'am leader emphasized that "Arab countries should enter Gaza, the Palestinian Authority is unable to control there at the moment," adding that "the terrorist attack on October 7 did not harm the fabric of civil life between Jews and Arabs, despite the attempts to present the fabric of relations in a negative light. I must praise Jewish society for not having anyone call for revenge against the Arab public."
Go to the full article >>Genocide claim to ICJ is 'preposterous,' Herzog tells Blinken
Israel's president noted that Hamas has a charter that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
The claim before the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians is “atrocious and preposterous,” President Isaac Herzog told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when the two men met in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning.
“There's nothing more atrocious and preposterous than this claim,” Herzog stated. “Actually, our enemies, the Hamas, in their charter call for the destruction and annihilation of the State of Israel, the only nation-state of the Jewish people.”
The two men spoke in advance of Thursday’s ICJ hearing on a genocide claim against Israel filed by South Africa.
It can do so, because both countries are signatories to the 1948 Convention Against the Prevention of Genocide.
The Convention “was enacted by the international community following the worst atrocities of humankind, the Shoah, the Holocaust, which was aimed specifically against the Jews, the Jewish people, in order to eliminate the Jewish race, the Jewish people,” Herzog told Blinken.
He noted that Hamas has a charter that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Herzog: we are in the right, we will proudly make our case
The ICJ hearing comes three months after the start of the Gaza war, sparked by the Hamas-led infiltration into Southern Israel, in which over 1,200 people were killed and some 250 people were seized as hostages.
Hamas has asserted that over 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war and that most of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced. Israel has claimed that over 8,000 of those fatalities are combatants.
At the ICJ, Herzog said, Israel “will present proudly our case of using self-defense under our most inherent right under international humanitarian law, where we are doing our utmost under extremely complicated circumstances on the ground, to make sure that there will be no unintended consequences and no civilian casualties.
“We are alerting, we are calling, we are showing, we are sending leaflets, we are using all the means that international law enables us in order to move out people, so that we can unravel this huge city of terror underneath, in people's homes, living rooms and bedrooms, mosques and shops and schools.
“Yesterday we unraveled a huge factory of terror underneath a humanitarian corridor which Israel is employing to help the civilians of Gaza,” Herzog told Blinken.
He lauded the support shown to Israel by the Secretary of State and US President Joe Biden, for standing “steadfast with Israel in this battle, which has to do clearly with humanity and with the values of the free world.”
Blinken arrived in Israel late Monday night after visiting Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Go to the full article >>Three Hezbollah leaders killed in Israel attack, terror group attacks IDF base
UAV warnings and rocket sirens sounded across Israel on Tuesday morning.
Three members of Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli UAV attack on a vehicle in southern Lebanon, according to media reports on Tuesday morning.
Two sources who spoke to Reuters said that the attack, which took place in Ghandouriyeh, was a targeted drone strike on a vehicle.
Israel has been expecting a Hezbollah response since the assassination of the commander of Hezbollah's Radwan Force, Wissam al-Tawil, on Monday.
Hezbollah stated on Tuesday that they sent an attack drone to target the IDF's Northern Command base near Safed.
Sirens alerting residents to a possible unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) intrusion sounded in the northern city of Safed and across northern Israel on Tuesday morning.
UAV warnings were sounded in Dishon; Yiftah; Malkia; Mevuot Hermon Regional Council; Ramot Naftali; Avivim; Bar'am and Yir'on.
Rocket sirens also sounded in northern Israel shortly afterward, including in Malkia and Ramot Naftali, communities that had just received aircraft intrusion alerts. There were reports of rockets falling in open areas in Israel. 
Although Hezbollah has increasingly fired rockets and sent UAVs into Israeli territory from Lebanon since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, sirens sounding as far south as Safed are rare. A second siren sounded in Safed shortly after the first.
Israel expected Hezbollah response
Israel has been bracing itself for a heavy response from Hezbollah since the killing of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri, the terrorist organization's deputy leader outside Gaza, last Tuesday in an alleged Israeli drone strike in Beirut. Israel was also behind the assassination of the commander of Hezbollah's Radwan Force, Wissam al-Tawil on Monday.
Some 80,000 Israeli civilians have been displaced since October and had to leave around 40 communities in the north. “Since Hezbollah began its attacks, the IDF has been responding by striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari noted in December.
Blinken to discuss 'way forward' in Gaza as he meets Israeli leaders
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will discuss the "way forward" in Israel's war in Gaza as he meets with leaders including Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday after touring Israel's Arab neighbors.
Speaking alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog ahead of their meeting on Tuesday morning, Blinken said he would share what he had heard from regional countries during a day of meetings with Israel's government.
That will include meeting the war cabinet formed in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants that Israel says killed 1,200 people.
Israel launched an air and ground assault on the enclave of Gaza in response that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Go to the full article >>Israel's Herzog to Blinken: Genocide claim at ICJ 'atrocious and preposterous'
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Tuesday that "there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous" than the lawsuit filed in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocidal actions against Palestinians in the Gaza war.
Speaking to visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Herzog censured South Africa for bringing the case, which is due to begin hearings on Thursday, and thanked Washington for its support of Israel.
Go to the full article >>Hostile aircraft, rocket sirens sound in Safed and Israel's North
UAV warnings and rocket sirens sounded across Israel on Tuesday morning.
Sirens alerting residents to a possible unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) intrusion sounded in the northern city of Safed and across northern Israel on Tuesday morning.
UAV warnings were sounded in Dishon; Yiftah; Malkia; Mevuot Hermon Regional Council; Ramot Naftali; Avivim; Bar'am and Yir'on.
Rocket sirens also sounded in northern Israel shortly afterward, including in Malkia and Ramot Naftali, communities that had just received aircraft intrusion alerts. There were reports of rockets falling in open areas in Israel.
Although Hezbollah has increasingly fired rockets and sent UAVs into Israeli territory from Lebanon since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, sirens sounding as far south as Safed are rare.
Israel expected Hezbollah response
Israel has been bracing itself for a heavy response from Hezbollah since the killing of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri, the terrorist organization's deputy leader outside Gaza, last Tuesday in an alleged Israeli drone strike in Beirut. Israel was also behind the assassination of the commander of Hezbollah's Radwan Force, Wissam al-Tawil on Monday.
Some 80,000 Israeli civilians have been displaced since October and had to leave around 40 communities in the north. “Since Hezbollah began its attacks, the IDF has been responding by striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari noted in December.
IDF kills dozens of Hamas terrorists as Khan Yunis battle intensifies
Some 40 Hamas terrorists were killed over the past 24 hours in ground battles with troops and Israeli airstrikes.
Israeli military units continue to try and gain complete control of Khan Yunis as fighting increases in the southern end of Gaza, the IDF stated on Tuesday.
Some 40 Hamas terrorists were reportedly killed over the past 24 hours in ground battles with troops and Israeli airstrikes.
Additionally, terror tunnel shafts were located, as well as a variety of weapons, including twelve AK-47 rifles, four loaded RPG launchers, dozens of grenades, cartridges, and military vests.
IDF troops identified terrorist operatives from Hamas's Central Camps Brigade in the Maghazi refugee camp, following IDF intelligence. The forces directed an air force fighter jet that struck and killed the terrorist cell.
The Israeli Navy also struck military posts, storage facilities, and vessels used by Hamas’s naval forces.
Four more fallen soldiers named
Four soldiers who fell in battle in Gaza on Monday were also named by the IDF on Tuesday morning.
Sgt. Roi Tal, 19; Maj. (res.) David Schwartz, 26; and Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yakir Hexter died in the same incident on Monday in southern Gaza. Maj. (ret.) Gavriel Bloom fell in central Gaza.
Go to the full article >>IDF announces names of four soldiers killed fighting in Gaza
The four fallen soldiers fell in central and southern Gaza.
The IDF announced the names of four soldiers who fell in battle in Gaza on Tuesday morning.
The four fallen soldiers
Sergeant Roi Tal, 19 years old, from Kfar Yehoshua, a fighter in the 94th Battalion, Kfir Brigade, fell in battle in the southern Gaza Strip.
Major (res.) David Schwartz, 26 years old, from Elazar, a fighter in the 8219th Engineering Battalion, Haci Hash formation (551), was killed in battle in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Major General (res.) Yakir Hexter, 26 years old, from Jerusalem, a fighter in the 8291 Engineering Battalion, Hace Hash formation (551), fell in battle in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Major (ret.) Gavriel Bloom, 27 years old, from Beit Shemesh, a fighter in the divisional engineering team of the 36th division, fell in battle in the center of the Gaza Strip.
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