Israel at War day 606: What happened in Israel and Gaza?

The IDF is striking in Syria, the military confirmed early Wednesday morning. 

Syria's foreign ministry condemned an Israeli strike on the Syrian province of Daraa, saying that it caused "significant human and material losses," state news agency SANA reported early on Wednesday.

Sirens sounded in villages and towns across northern Israel and the Golan Heights on Tuesday evening, following a barrage of rockets fired from southern Syria, the military said. 

Israeli media reported that the IDF responded with artillery fire on southern Syria. 

Defense sources told The Jerusalem Post that as of right now, it is unclear whether the missile launch from Yemen and the rocket launch from Syria were coordinated, and sources noted that the military is investigating. 

Additionally, the sources said that the rockets were fired from deeper in Syria, beyond the buffer zone with Israel, indicating that the entity that launched the rockets used a medium-range rocket. 

France will not recognize a Palestinian state at an upcoming conference co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. 

Amid heightened tensions between Jerusalem and Paris, Anne-Claire Legendre, Senior Advisor to Macron on Middle East Affairs, and Romaric Roignan, Director of the Middle East Department at the French Foreign Ministry, arrived in Israel for meetings with Israeli officials. 

Their visit comes ahead of the June conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, which aims to advance the implementation of the two-state solution.

Hamas is seeking to use reports of shooting incidents near the new aid distribution centers in Gaza to create chaos and suspicion about the initiative. Over the past three days, there have been reports that civilians have been killed seeking aid, though Israel and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have denied such statements. However, this has not stopped the reports from spreading quickly and from Hamas seeking to leverage the incidents.

On Sunday, CNN wrote, “Dozens of Palestinians were shot dead by the Israeli military near an aid distribution site in Gaza on Sunday, according to Palestinian officials and eyewitnesses.”

Hamas had already condemned the new aid sites earlier on May 27. “The scenes of thousands of our people rushing into the site designated for implementing the occupation’s aid distribution mechanism, accompanied by live fire on civilians who gathered under the pressure of hunger and siege, confirm beyond doubt the failure of this suspicious mechanism,” the terror group said.

IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen.Effie Deffrin said on Tuesday evening that Hamas’s grip on the Gaza Strip is weakening, as Israeli forces continue operations both above and below ground. “Hamas is losing control. It continues to operate against its own civilians,” Deffrin told the media. He emphasized that “the distribution of food severely harms Hamas and its rule. Tens of thousands of meals are distributed daily to Gazans,” he said.

Deffrin slammed Hamas for spreading false reports about IDF activity near aid distribution sites, which have been parroted by world media.

“[Hamas] spreads false information, which some Western media outlets have disseminated.” 

Senior IDF officials held a security assessment to discuss an extreme scenario in which Hamas could incite the population in central and southern Gaza to storm the Israeli border during a military assessment, Walla reported on Wednesday. 

In response, the military has allocated intelligence resources and reserve forces, and clarified open-fire orders for senior commanders on the ground. 

The military assessment also discussed Hamas’s efforts to prevent the distribution of food packages by an American company at three locations in Rafah.

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday appointed Col. (res.) Avichai Tenami as the special project manager to handle the topic of hilltop youth. 

The decision to appoint a special project manager was made as part of discussions Katz held with the National Security Council, the Attorney General's office, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and other relevant government ministries. 

Tenami is an educator and a former commander and soldier in the elite unit Sayeret Matkal.

Spain's Defense Ministry has suspended the license of an Israeli company intending to manufacture missiles in Spain, local media reported on Tuesday afternoon.

The missiles were intended to equip the Army and Marine Corps units.

Pap-Tecnos is the Spanish subsidiary of the Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and had been awarded a €285 million contract to develop 168 firing points and 1,680 Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles.

A resident of east Jerusalem was arrested over spying for Iran, including plans to carry out terrorist attacks against Jews, the Israel Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Wednesday. 

This case follows a pattern of Israeli nationals investigated for allegedly spying for Iran. In May, two Israelis were indicted for carrying out a series of intelligence missions on behalf of agents operating for Iranian intelligence agencies, in the latest case of 

The suspect was discovered to be acting on behalf of Iranian intelligence, including recruiting the suspect and working with him to recruit his family members and activate them to carry out tasks within Israeli territory, the statement read.