News Digest — 10/16/24
Israel Strikes Hezbollah Weapons Cache In Dahieh, Beirut After Week Of Quiet
After a week of quiet, Israel Air Force jets struck the Dahieh neighborhood of southern Beirut on Wednesday morning (16th).
Witnesses told Reuters that after Israel struck the Lebanese capital, a blast was heard, and a plume of smoke could be seen.
The IDF later stated that the IAF had targeted “strategic weapons belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization” in a strike conducted according to precise intelligence from the Military Intelligence Directorate.
The weapons were being stored in a subterranean storage facility, the military noted.
The military stated that a number of measures were taken prior to the strike in order to minimize potential harm to civilians.
Approximately an hour before the strike, IDF Arab media spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted a warning on X/Twitter, urging Lebanese residents near a building identified on a map in the post to evacuate. Adraee noted in his post that the building was located in Haret Hreik, a municipality in Dahieh.
“You are located near facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, and the IDF will work against them in the near future,” the IDF spokesperson wrote. “For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate this building.”
The map shared in the post noted, in Arabic, that the people in the vicinity of the building highlighted on the map were required to move 500 meters from the site. The map also highlighted the Marty Mahmoud Faid School, located next to the building.
IDF Chief: Hezbollah Hides Its Dead As Israel Tightens The Noose
Israel’s military chief said on Tuesday (15th) that Hezbollah’s decision to withhold information about its casualties shows the terrorist group is in a difficult position.
“Hezbollah is hiding its casualties while fabricating losses on our side. There is a gap that shows the organization is in a difficult situation,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said during a security briefing. “We need to widen this gap, protect our forces, strike their operatives and apply more pressure as Hezbollah faces growing distress.”
Halevi’s remarks come as Hezbollah has reportedly stopped publishing its daily list of casualties since Israel launched its Operation Northern Arrows, which opened with a spree of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies that killed dozens of Hezbollah terrorists and maimed thousands and continued with airstrikes on Beirut and a ground incursion into southern Lebanon. While the group has also refrained from disclosing the names of its senior commanders killed in the fighting, Israel continues to target key figures.
Meanwhile, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari highlighted on Tuesday (15th) during an interview with the US-based Arabic language channel Alhurra the list of top Hezbollah commanders killed since the start of the war, including Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
Hagari presented a graphic showing other high-ranking figures, such as Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s expected successor, and Hezbollah intelligence chief Ali Hussein Hazima, also targeted.
Among the confirmed slain leaders are Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaisi, head of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket division; Ali Karaki, southern front commander; and Ibrahim Aqil, head of operations. The list also includes Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander, Nabil Qaouk, head of Hezbollah’s preventive security unit, and several others responsible for arms transfers and air defense.
Hagari reiterated that Hezbollah initiated the hostilities last year and emphasized that the Israeli military would continue targeting locations where the group stores weapons. “Any home containing Hezbollah weaponry will be struck,” he said, adding that Lebanon’s borders would remain under close surveillance to prevent arms smuggling.
“We are not at war with the State of Lebanon or its people,” Hagari said, clarifying that Israeli operations are focused on Hezbollaah’s use of southern Lebanese villages as military bases. “Our actions are limited to targeting the villages Hezbollah has turned into terror hubs near our border.”
Netanyahu: Israel Will Respond To Iran ‘Based On National Security Needs’
The decision to respond to Iran’s missile attack against Israel will be “based on Israel’s national security needs,” according to a statement released by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, early Tuesday (15th).
“We listen to the American government’s thoughts, but will make our final decisions based on Israel’s national security needs,” the statement continued.
The statement was an apparent response to a Washington Post report on Monday (14th) that Netanyahu had informed US President Joe Biden that Israel’s retaliatory strike on the Islamic Republic would avoid oil and nuclear installations and instead focus on military sites.
A US official and an official familiar with the matter told the Post that the comments were made during a phone call last week between the two leaders. The latter official said that the retaliatory action would be adjusted to avoid the perception of “political interference in the US elections.”
Both officials suggested that the alleged softening of Netanyahu’s stance in favor of a more limited strike was related to Washington’s decision to deploy in Israel a THAAD advanced aerial defense system to defend against a potential Iranian response.
The Israeli strike on Iran would be carried out before the US presidential election on Nov. 5, the official familiar with the matter said, because a lack of action could be seen by the regime in Tehran as a sign of weakness.
Jerusalem’s target list will likely include Iranian military and energy infrastructures, but not nuclear facilities or assassinations, NBC News reported on Saturday (12th), citing US officials.
However, the sources stressed that Israel has not decided on the type or timing of the strikes.
The Jewish state has vowed a significant response to Tehran’s second-ever direct attack on Oct. 1, in which over 180 ballistic missiles were fired at Israel from Iranian soil. The Israeli military with the assistance of the United States and Jordan shot down most of the missiles, with the sole casualty of the attack being a Palestinian man from Gaza who was struck by falling missile debris near Jericho.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Oct. 9 that Israel’s strike “will be powerful, precise and above all, surprising,” adding that the Islamic Regime “will not understand what happened and how it happened.”
Policeman Killed, 4 Injured In Terror Shooting On Highway Near Ashdod
A policeman was killed and four people were wounded when a terrorist opened fire along the Route 4 highway north of the coastal city of Ashdod Tuesday (15th).
The victim was identified as First Sgt. Adir Kadosh, 33. He was critically wounded in the attack, and died of his injuries on the way to the hospital, medical officials and police said.
Reports in Hebrew and Arabic media identified the terrorist as 28-year-old Muhammad Dardouna, who entered Israel illegally from the West Bank. According to the reports, Dardouna was originally from Jabalya, in the Gaza Strip, but resided in the West Bank after moving there several years ago.
Assuta Medical Center said it was treating an individual who was moderately hurt by pieces of his car window that was shattered by gunfire, and two others who were lightly hurt, including a doctor who stopped his car to treat the injured and was hit by another car.
Another injured person was taken to Kaplan Medical Center.
An initial probe found that Dardouna approached the road on foot, police said. Citing the Central District Police Commander, Channel 12 reported that he approached the police car stationed at the side of the road after the officers noticed him walking and called him over for a security check.
He then fired at Kadosh and injured the additional four people before he was shot by a Magen David Adom ambulance service volunteer who happened to be at the scene.
In a statement, the Israeli Police said Kadosh was supposed to be getting married in November. He joined the Israel Police in 2013, after completing his military service in the Border Police and served in the traffic division since 2022. He is survived by his parents and two siblings.
The incident is the latest in a string of deadly attacks as Jewish Israelis mark the High Holidays.
Last Wednesday (9th), a man was killed in a terror-stabbing rampage in Hadera.
Days earlier, Sgt. Shira Suslik, 19, a Border Police officer, was killed by a gunman at the central bus station in Beersheba – with 10 wounded in the attack.
Earlier this month, seven people were killed and at least eight were wounded in a shooting and stabbing attack in Jaffa, in one of the deadliest attacks in Israel in recent years.
In a statement, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s office said a greater disaster was averted on Tuesday (16th) due to the minister’s easing of private gun ownership, adding that the civilian who shot the attacker had received his private gun license three months earlier.
Israel’s Strategic Goals In The Current War – Prof. Eitan Shamir
Many commentators claim that Israel lacks a clear plan for “the day after” the end of the current war. But Israel is not playing a short-term game. Beyond its declared war goals, Israel is aiming to create a new security reality in the region by weakening Iran and its proxies. This broader goal stems from the understanding that to Israel, this war is existential, and the removal of significant threats from Israel’s border is non-negotiable.
Post-Oct. 7, Israel now understands that it can no longer allow hostile terrorist armies to exist on its borders waiting for the order to invade Israeli territory. When a war is existential, the goal is first to remove the threat and only then to clarify arrangements for “the day after.” This is not, after all, the American invasion of Iraq, a war that took place thousands of miles from U.S. borders.
In Gaza, the fight against remnants of Hamas, isolated terrorist cells that continue to operate, will go on for many months and perhaps even years. The realistic goal is to hit Hamas hard enough that Gaza does not pose a greater threat than that posed by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank.
The IDF understands that in Lebanon it is not possible to destroy most of the enemy’s forces. It is, however, possible to hit Hezbollah extremely hard. The goal is to bring Hezbollah to the point where it no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel and is unable to carry out a massive invasion of the Galilee. Israel’s test will be whether or not it can prevent Iran from rehabilitating Hezbollah. Israel will have to expand the campaign between the wars that it has been conducting in Syria for 10 years. It will now need to include Lebanon for the purpose of disrupting, delaying, and preventing Hezbollah’s buildup.
Finally, there is potential for new regional arrangements, including normalization with more Arab countries, if Israel succeeds in significantly weakening the Iranian threat. If Israel can show potential allies major military achievements against a common enemy, it can suggest a political plan that will improve its position in the region – but not before then. For Israel there is no end game, only a long game.
The writer is head of the BESA Center and professor in the Department of Political Studies of Bar-Ilan University.
The Psychological Barrier Of Western Ideology – Irwin J. Mansdorf
• Western ideology and consciousness fail to grasp the depth of a culture that does not accept a Jewish state in its midst. On Oct. 1, just before Iranian missiles rained down on Israel, two armed Palestinians exited a train in Jaffa, adjacent to Tel Aviv, systematically killing seven civilians, including one young woman clutching a baby to her chest.
• The two likely knew they would not survive their rampage to kill as many Jews as possible, but this probably raised their motivation even higher, presenting them with a prize of martyrdom and a place in the hearts of family and community who celebrated rather than mourned their deaths.
• Western minds want to believe that we are all alike, that we all want the same things, and that we all just want peace. It is the same thinking that glorifies “resistance” as legitimate and fails to recognize that internal belief systems are far more responsible for behavior than any external environmental factors.
• The West’s noble but naive approach, based on wishful magical thinking, absolves the putative “victim” of any responsibility and assumes that a “fair” solution would solve everything. As with any ideology, this thinking is hard to crack, despite the test of reality.
• A reality where Palestinian leadership rewards terror, with stipends if they survive, and subsidies for their families if they are killed. A reality where Palestinians educate children that Jews have no history in the land and have no rights to exist as a state. A reality where Palestinians chose and continue to support Hamas. A reality where Hezbollah and Iran both seek to eliminate Israel.
• The inability to recognize the defining role of ideology in the culture of the Middle East has incapacitated much of Western thinking and has tilted policy towards solutions that impose Western-based values on a culture that views things very, very differently.
The writer is a clinical psychologist and a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs specializing in political psychology.
