Israel-Hamas War: What happened on Day 130?

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stated Israel should look after its own interests rather than Paris’s, in a Tuesday post on X.

“After giving a "guarantee" for the introduction of medicines, which reached Hamas instead of the hostages, France continues to help us with additional ‘gifts,’” Ben-Gvir wrote, stating France was simultaneously attempting “to bring an outline of surrender to Hezbollah in the north, and sanctions against dozens of settlers from Judea and Samaria.

“The time has come for us to clarify: the State of Israel should look after the interests of the State of Israel, not the interests of Paris.”

אחרי שנתנה ״ערבות״ להכנסת תרופות, שהגיעו לחמאס במקום לחטופים, ממשיכה צרפת לסייע לנו ב"מתנות" נוספות: ניסיון להביא מתווה של כניעה לחיזבאללה בצפון, וסנקציות נגד עשרות מתיישבים מיהודה ושומרון.

הגיע הזמן שנבהיר: מדינת ישראל צריכה לדאוג לאינטרסים של מדינת ישראל, ולא לאינטרסים של…

— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) February 13, 2024

Israeli fighter jets attacked Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, the IDF said.

Among the targets struck were military compounds, an observation post, and other infrastructure in the areas of Houla, Khilat al-Daba, Yaroun, Meiss e-Jabal, Yarine, and Shikhin, the IDF said.

Additionally, IDF artillery targeted Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon throughout the day, the IDF added.

According to the Israeli military, Hezbollah’s military activities south of the Litani River in Lebanon are in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adding that the IDF would continue to take the necessary steps to defend Israel’s borders.

The head of UNRWA said on Tuesday calls for it to be dismantled were short-sighted and that terminating the mandate of the agency that provides essential services to Palestinian refugees would deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Israel has said UNRWA, which has helped Palestinians for over 70 years, is not fit for purpose and major donors have suspended funding after allegations that 12 of UNRWA's thousands of Palestinian employees were suspected of involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that touched off the Gaza war.

"I have talked to the member states about all these calls to have UNRWA dismantled, to be terminated. I have warned about the impact, I have said that these calls are short-sighted," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said after meeting member states at the United Nations in Geneva.

Even prior to the Israeli allegations, Israel had repeatedly called for UNRWA to be dismantled, arguing that it fosters anti-Israeli sentiment among its staff.

UNRWA, which a spokesperson for the agency said had about two more weeks of funding before some programs might be disrupted, strongly disputes this.

"There is absolutely no other UN agency or international NGOs which have been tasked over the last two decades to provide government-like services like education to hundreds of thousands of children," Lazzarini said.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah will not stop attacking Israel until the war in Gaza is ended, rejecting efforts by the international community to prevent an expansion of the conflict in the region during a speech on Tuesday afternoon.

"The front in southern Lebanon is a front of support, assistance, solidarity, and participation in weakening the Israeli enemy until it reaches the point where it is convinced that it must stop its aggression. This front will only stop when the aggression against Gaza stops within an agreement with the Palestinian resistance."

Nasrallah also rejected threats by Israeli officials of a large-scale war if Hezbollah refuses to stop its assaults, saying, "If Israel had been able [to launch such a war], it would have done so on the second or third day.

"The enemy is not in the position of imposing conditions on Lebanon, as he is weak and in crisis, and he is the one who spent four months unable to complete the battle in Gaza."

The Hezbollah leader insisted that his movement's decision to launch attacks on Israel "stabilized the balance of deterrence and proved that Lebanon has a real deterrent power."

Hezbollah: Preventing an Israeli victory in Gaza 'a national interest'

Nasrallah stated that Hezbollah began attacking Israel after October 7 "primarily to prevent an Israeli victory," stressing that this "constitutes a national interest" for Lebanon.

The Israeli delegation, a group including Mossad director David Barnea, Shin Bet Director Ronan Bar, and IDF Lt.-Gen. Nitzan Alon landed in Cairo for hostage negotiations on Tuesday morning, Israeli media reported.

According to the reports, the talks are already underway and are being attended by Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani, the head of Egyptian intelligence, and CIA director Bill Burns.

A Qatari source conveyed to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas has agreed to form a technocratic government in Gaza after the war, according to a Tuesday report from Sky News Arabia citing a Palestinian source in Ramallah.

On Sunday, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Abbas was set to discuss a new Palestinian unity government with the Qatari Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

According to the report, Hamas has shown initial acceptance of the idea of the Islamist terror organization’s joining the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on the basis that this merging be attached to a political horizon wherein a Palestinian State is formed along the 1967 borders.

Further, the technocratic government, that is, a government composed of individuals based on their technical expertise and knowledge rather than political ideologies, that would theoretically oversee Gaza would not have any Hamas pre-stipulated members.

The Palestinian source conveyed to Sky News Arabia that this supposed agreement is based on three points laid out in an “Arab principles paper.” The paper was followed up on by a Palestinian-delegated Saudi team.

IDF combat soldiers were the target of attacks by packs of stray dogs inside the Gaza Strip over the past several days, KAN News reported on Tuesday, citing combat soldiers and other sources within the Israeli military.

The report, first revealed on KAN Reshet B's noon radio show, claimed that hundreds of wild canines have been approaching soldiers at military gathering areas across the northern Gaza Strip.

No IDF soldier was reported to have been injured by the dogs, who were reported by combat soldiers on the ground as being overly aggressive, "growling and baring teeth while approaching and trying to bite the troops," the report noted. 

Thus far, the soldiers have been able to repel attacks by the packs. 

Israeli forces from the Shin Bet, Border Police, and the IDF on Tuesday arrested Omar Faid, a senior Hamas official in charge of the terrorist organization's military infrastructure in Jenin, according to Israeli media.

Two Border Police officers were lightly wounded during the West Bank operation, it was further reported.

This is a developing story.

The French foreign ministry said on Tuesday it would impose sanctions on Israeli settlers who use violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

"France will impose sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers who are guilty of violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank ... 28 individuals will be banned from entering French territory," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell of helping Hamas by calling for Israel’s allies, primarily the United States, to halt or limit its flow of arms to the IDF as it battles to oust the Palestinian terror group from the Gaza Strip.

“Calls to limit Israel's defense only strengthen Hamas. Rest assured, Israel is resolute in its mission to dismantle Hamas,” Katz wrote in a post on X on Tuesday, above a story about Borrell’s statements.

“Israel adheres strictly to international laws of war, ensuring the safe movement of civilians in Gaza,” Katz explained in the post. “In stark contrast, Hamas prevents their safe passage. Our commitment to the lives of Gazan civilians is greater than Hamas’s,” Katz stated.

At a press conference in Brussels on Monday, Borrell said that countries who believe the Israeli army has killed too many Palestinian civilians in its military campaign against Hamas should put muscle behind that stance by halting or constraining arms sales to Israel.

“If the international community believes that this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe they have to think about the provision of arms,” Borrell said.

“Let’s be logical: how many times have you heard the most prominent leaders and foreign ministers around the world saying, “Too many people are being killed?” Borrell asked.