Israel at war day 524: What is going on in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria?

Terrorist infiltration sirens sounded in Harasha in the West Bank on Friday evening after several suspects were seen outside the settlement, according to the IDF.

IDF troops deployed to the scene and opened fire toward the suspects. The suspects fled the area, and troops have begun a manhunt to find them.

Home Front Command announced that the incident ended approximately 25 minutes after the alarms sounded.

It had earlier said that residents should enter a nearby building immediately, lock the doors, and close the windows.

US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff dismissed on Friday Hamas's claim that it would release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander in addition to the remains of four other American hostages. 

In a joint Friday statement with the US National Security Council, Witkoff warned that the organization could no longer play for time with a ceasefire and hostage deal. 

"Unfortunately, Hamas has chosen to respond by publicly claiming flexibility while privately making demands that are entirely impractical without a permanent ceasefire," the statement read.

"Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side.  It is not.  Hamas is well aware of the deadline, and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes."

Following the reported findings of the IDF probe into its response on October 7, Kibbutz Nir Oz said that results of the military investigation are "harrowing and deeply unsettling," in a Friday statement.

"Nir Oz Kibbutz has become a symbol of failure and abandonment on that dark day, October 7," the statement read.

The kibbutz continued that in addition to its "painful findings," the report highlighted the heroism of its members of the emergency response team, "who—outnumbered by hundreds—fought alone for nearly two hours, doing everything they could until they were either killed or taken hostage."

"In the absence of security forces, the entire community struggled and fought—[there were] those who took up arms to defend their homes, those who held their doors shut, those who sent messages and called for help, and those who simply fought for their lives," the kibbutz continued.

The Eshkol Regional Council Head, Michal Uziyahu, called the results of the probe "difficult and unsettling, but not surprising."

Besides all of the “standard” disasters of October 7, around 300-500 Hamas terrorists, killing 47 Israelis and kidnapping 76, Nir Oz stands out because no IDF soldiers arrived there before the last Hamas attacker had already returned to Gaza, the IDF’s probe disclosed on Friday.

The IDF probe concluded that, in addition to the failure that no top military officials realized that the slaughter at Nir Oz was even worse than in many other places that had more IDF support, additional reasons it was utterly abandoned included its geographic distance from Israel’s center and its perception as smaller than some other Gaza border villages.

Israeli forces arrested over a hundred terror suspects over the past week as part of continued IDF operations in the West Bank, the military said Friday.

The IDF said it carried out targeted counterterrorism raids in Kabatiya and Arrabeh, near Jenin in the northern West Bank. Dozens of weapons were confiscated in the operation, it added.

The US and Israel have contacted officials of three East African countries to discuss using their territories for resettling Palestinians from Gaza, the Associated Press reported on Friday, citing US and Israeli officials.

Officials stated that Sudan rejected the offer, while Somalia and Somaliland said they weren't aware of any offer, KAN reported.

In February, when US President Donald Trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Trump proposed a controversial plan of the US "taking over" Gaza, relocating the Palestinian population, and turning the war-torn strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

The IDF identified and arrested several suspects who crossed into Israeli terrority from the Jordanian border and engaged in a gunfire exchange with the troops, the military announced late on Thursday night.

Israel's military added that before their arrest, the suspects approached the IDF troops in a manner that posed a threat.

The troops responded to the threat with gunfire, the IDF said.

The IDF also noted that there were individuals hit from the gunfire exchange. However, there were no casualties among Israeli forces. 

Defense Minister Israel Katz has approved the entry of over a hundred Druze sheikhs from Syria into Israel to visit the Nabi Shu'ayb shrine near Tiberias, Walla learned on Thursday.

Nabi Shu'ayb was an ancient Medinite prophet, and the most revered prophet in the Druze faith. Because Shu'ayb is often identified as Jethro, Moses's father in law, the shrine is sometimes referred to as Jethro's Tomb in English.

Every year, the Druze carry out a pilgrimage to the holy site, where, according to Druze tradition, the Prophet Shu'ayb is buried.

Most of the world now knows that Iran gave critical and multifaceted support to Hamas, which enabled the October 7 invasion of Israel, but few know the story of how these two strange bedfellows came together unexpectedly decades before and what their alliance means for the future.

In an interview on Wednesday with The Jerusalem Post, one of the FBI's foremost counterterror experts, Lara Burns, said that the relationship was started by top Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook during a trip to Tehran in 1992 and that the continuous alliance between the parties frames their common anti-Israel, anti-US, anti-democracy goals for the future as well.

The IDF will demolish the Nablus home of terrorist Ja'far Muna, who carried out a bombing attack in Tel Aviv on August 18, 2024, the military announced on Thursday.

Muna carried out a serious terrorist attack using a powerful explosive device, which wounded an Israeli citizen, the military added.