News Digest — 6/30/26
IDF Marks Day 1,000 Of The War Of Redemption
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday (29th) held a conference marking 1,000 days of fighting in the War of redemption launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
As part of the Summit, IDF Chief of Staff LTG. Eyal Zamir held an intelligence, operational, and strategic assessment with the IDF’s General Staff Forum, which includes about 30 of the military’s most senior commanders.
The meeting opened with a moment of silence for the 964 soldiers killed since the morning of Oct. 7.
As part of the ceremony, a recording was played of the late Col. Asaf Hamami, declaring war some 30 minutes after the invasion got underway.
“We are at war, everything is fine, war,” Hamami says in the radio clip, in what is believed to be the first such declaration made that day.
The memorial service was followed by a panel discussion with field commanders discussing the 1,000 days of fighting.
“We are currently at a significant strategic crossroads in this campaign,” Zamir said in his remarks at the event.
“One thousand days and one thousand nights we have been fighting in one of the longest, most complex, and most demanding campaigns we have ever known.”
The chief of staff said the IDF’s success on seven fronts was the result of combat leadership, decision-making, command, and the courage of our troops on the front lines, under fire and at the most difficult decision points.”
He added, “There is operational and command experience here unlike anything the IDF has seen since its establishment.”
Referring to the Hamas massacre, Zamir said: “The Oct. 7 attack was an assault on the very existence of the Jewish people. We remember the fallen, their heroism, and their families, alongside those wounded in body and spirit.”
“The heat grows again,” Zamir concluded his speech, quoting an iconic Israeli song written after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
“Just as it has throughout Jewish history, it will continue to grow thanks to the commanders and soldiers of the IDF. The responsibility now rests with us.”
Some 6,000 terrorists from Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Fatah as well as unaffiliated Gazans civilians, infiltrated the Jewish state’s southern border on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people , wounding thousands and kidnapping 251.
Israel ground forces entered Gaza on Oct. 27, following a weeks-long air campaign in response to the Oct. 7 attacks.
Jerusalem’s stated goals for the war were: to destroy Hamas as a military and governing force in Gaza, ensure that it cannot threaten Israel again, and return all hostages.
The war quickly expanded beyond Gaza, with Jerusalem also fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, battling terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria, conducting military operations in Syria, confronting Houthi attacks from Yemen, carrying out strikes inside Iranian territory and responding to attacks from Iraq.
Terrorist Or Journalist:? Danny Danon’s Trivia With The UN Security Council
Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, on Monday (29th), chose to replace his speech to the Security Council with a game of sorts, presenting council members with a series of enlarged photographs and asking out loud: “Terrorist or journalist?,” “UNRWA worker or commander in Hamas’ Nukhba force?”
The purpose of the ambassador’s display was to expose to the international community the method by which the Hamas terror organization uses international bodies and media coverage to protect its military activity.
Danon presented a long list of intelligence-based cases in which the UN and human-rights organizations, has said, adopted Hamas’ false narrative blindly, referring to armed militants as legitimate “media figures” or as aid workers of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Part of the speech by the Israeli ambassador was directed specifically at the local politics of the host city housing the UN headquarters. Danon showed council members how New York City Zohran Mamdani has adopted Hamas’ narrative as well.
Danon demonstrated that Mamdani recently repeated Hamas’ propaganda when he publicly presented a key activist in the group’s military wing as an “innocent journalist” who was allegedly killed by IDF forces. The ambassador clarified that this is a clear example of how lies manufactured in Gaza filter into the political mainstream in the West, without speakers bothering to verify facts on the ground.
“Hamas spreads fabrications, the UN repeats them, and the world quickly condemns Israel. Then when the unambiguous truth is revealed, there is no apology, no correction of the official reports and no retraction of the serious allegations. It’s time for the world to stop amplifying Palestinian and Iranian terror propaganda, and to start applying real pressure on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, who are the real perpetrators of violence in the Middle East,” Danon concluded.
Israel Sending Aid Team To Venezuela As Quake Toll Passes 1,700
Israel will send a joint delegation from the Foreign Ministry, the IDF and the Home Front Command to Venezuela on Tuesday (30th) after powerful earthquakes killed more than 1,700 people and left thousands homeless, as rescue teams raced against time to find survivors.
The delegation’s departure was approved after a review led by the National Security Council, which examined the coordination and operational requirements needed between the Israeli bodies involved in the mission.
The Foreign Ministry component of the delegation will be led by Ambassador Yoad Magen, who grew up in Venezuela. The IDF delegation will be commanded by BG. Elad Edri, chief of staff of the Home Front Command.
The mission is diplomatically unusual because Israel and Venezuela have had no formal diplomatic relations since 2009, when Caracas severed ties with Jerusalem during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
Despite the absence of relations, the Israeli delegation is expected to coordinate professionally with Venezuela counterparts according to the needs on the ground.
The team leaving Tuesday (30th) will include engineering professionals from the Home Front Command and representatives from the Foreign Ministry. Additional experts from the Home Front Command and the National Emergency Management Authority are expected to join later.
The Israeli experts will work with their Venezuelan counterparts according to the needs on the ground.
In Venezuela, rescue teams on Monday (29th) continued searching through the ruins of buildings toppled by last week’s back-to-back earthquakes, while a 4.6 magnitude aftershock shook the northern state of La Guaira near the disaster zone.
Relief organizations say the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are usually the most critical for finding survivors, though survival can be expanded if people have access to food and water. Five days after the twin quakes struck northern Venezuela, attention has increasingly turned to the humanitarian crisis emerging in the devastated areas. The death toll has risen to more than 1,700 people according to the Venezuelan government.
Major questions remain over whether the cash-strapped government under acting President Delcy Rodriguez can coordinate the large-scale response needed for thousands of people who lost their homes.
On Monday (29th) the government released footage of Rodriguez inspecting a school that had been turned into a shelter for displaced people in the badly hit town of Catia la Mar as well as videos showing survivors being pulled from ruins to applause.
But at the epicenter, families continued to wait at search sites for news of missing relatives.
“We have to stay strong, even without food, without sleep,” said Ana Rada, who watched as civil defense workers searched for her brother. “Until I see the body, I still have hope.”
The disaster has also raised questions about the extent of the US assistance given Washington’s takeover of Venezuela’s oil industry earlier this year. A senior State Department official said 300 first responders sent from the US were working on the ground alongside dozens of other international rescue teams, and that two dozen C-17 military transport planes were arriving daily with supplies. US financial support now exceeds $300 million, the official said.
A preliminary NASA assessment estimated that the earthquakes destroyed 58,870 buildings, using radar imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1satellites to detect infrastructure changes.
The UN has said that up to 6.8 million of Venezuela’s nearly 30 million residents may be affected, including people displaced or cut off from essential services such as electricity or water.
Because of chaos and poor cellphone service, many Venezuelans have turned to non-governmental digital databases to report missing relatives. More than 50,000 people were listed as missing in one such database, though it remains unclear how many have since been found.
Massive Hezbollah ‘Drone Fortress’ Tunnel Destroyed In Lebanon
The IDF destroyed a fortified Hezbollah tunnel complex in southern Lebanon on Sunday night (28th), setting off a blast heard across northern Israel as troops demolished what Israeli officials described as one of the group’s key underground assets in the western sector.
The tunnel was located in the village of Majdal Zoun, inside the security zone in southern Lebanon.
According to the IDF, the underground route was more than 200 meters long and more than 25 meters deep, and contained hundreds of weapons, four launch shafts aimed toward Israeli territory, and storage and staging areas used by Hezbollah terrorists.
Troops of the 551st Brigade Combat team and Yahalom forces, under the command of the 91st Division, destroyed an underground route located in the village of Majdal Zoun, in the security zone in southern Lebanon,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
“The compound was built using technology and knowledge from the Iranian terror regime,” the military added.
Earlier military disclosures said the tunnel complex contained 12 rooms, including living quarters, as well as explosive devices, anti-tank missiles and UAVs.
“The IDF will continue to operate in the security zone in southern Lebanon, remove any threat to our forces, and will not allow Hezbollah to harm the citizens of the State of Israel or its forces,” the military said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the demolition was carried out as part of an operation named “Sof Pasuk” or “Full Stop,” and said Washington had been notified ahead of the blast.
The route, more than 200 meters long and more than 35 meters deep, contained hundreds of weapons and launch shafts intended to strike the territory of the State of Israel and its citizens,” Netanyahu and Katz said.
They added that “Israel updated the United States and the American representative in Lebanon in advance regarding the destruction of the infrastructure.”
According to Israeli reports, the compound was heavily fortified and had been used to store drones, warheads, explosives, aircraft components and other weaponry.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the tunnel system could not be destroyed from the air and had to be seized and demolished from inside.
During the fighting to take control of the area, Israeli forces killed more than 20 Hezbollah terrorists, including about 10 members of the elite Radwan Force, according to the report.
The IDF had first revealed the Majdal Zoun tunnel earlier this month, saying troops had located more than 50 Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the area, including observation posts and weapons depots. The military said forces were operating around Majdal Zoun, roughly 10 kilometers from the Israeli border, “in accordance with the understandings” and in order to protect northern communities and troops in the area.
The demolition came two days after Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered security arrangement aimed at reducing hostilities along the border. The framework provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal from parts of southern Lebanon alongside the deployment of the Lebanese army, while allowing Israeli forces to remain temporarily in an expanded security zone.
Hezbollah denounced the Israeli operations as a “flagrant” violation of the ceasefire and said it retained the right to “defend its homeland and people.” Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has rejected the security arrangement, describing it as a surrender to Israel and vowing continued armed resistance.
Netanyahu said Sunday night (28th) that Israeli forces would remain in the southern Lebanon security zone and “continue to destroy terrorist infrastructure, remove threats from the northern communities, and safeguard the security of Israel’s citizens.
Israel Developing Space Lasers To Attack Above The Earth, Katz Says
Israel is developing space lasers to carry out attacks above the Earth, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday (30th).
“One of the central goals that the prime minister and I set is that we are recruiting the best minds,” he said in a briefing with military reporters. “As of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability.”
“If we achieve this, it will ensure the advantage of deterrence of the ability to attack, destroy, and all of the other matters, versus our enemies with large resources,” he added.
Last Thursday (25th), Katz said Israel was committed to becoming the leading player with capabilities to attack from space. But his latest statement was the first time he had specifically mentioned space lasers.
Israel is already a leading country in this field, having developed Iron Beam as a land-based space laser. During a recent visit to Elbit, The Jerusalem Post both witnessed and was informed about a project to enable fighter jets to fire lasers in the future..
DELIVERED TO THE IDF last year, the Iron Beam system marks a historic milestone – the world’s first operational laser defense platform capable of neutralizing rockets, drones, and mortars at a fraction of the cost of traditional interceptors.
During the briefing, Katz seemed to be referring to Iran. Notably, during the war with Iran this year, Israel struck multiple Iranian facilities related to the space war, including those that were developing capabilities to attack satellites in space.
What remains unclear is whether Katz seeks to deter Russia and China from assisting Iran in the space race and other matters.
His statement that no other country has these capabilities was not entirely accurate, however, because both Russia and China have performed attacks on their own satellites and convincingly destroyed their test targets.
Lasers potentially could destroy enemy satellites and incinerate debris used by attacks in space, according to foreign reports.
There has been speculation that Israel has the capability to destroy enemy satellites using the Arrow-3 missile system, which currently can strike ballistic missiles in space.
Being that Russia and China already have experience dealing with debris, however, many countries are working on other techniques, such as paralyzing, damaging, jamming, dragging, or using lasers against satellites in space.
Katz’s statements last week and this week are the clearest to date from any senior Israeli official.
Notably, if Iran or other enemies were to get ahead of Israel in the space race, they could attack Israel’s satellites and reduce its surveillance capabilities.
