News Digest — 11/12/26
IDF Said Overnight Strike Targeted Top Hamas Commander, Other Operatives
A senior Hamas commander and other members of the terror group were targeted in an Israeli strike at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, the military said.
The strike at the Nasser hospital complex in Khan Younis killed six people and wounded 20 according to Hamas authorities.
In a statement, the IDF and Shin Bet said that the strike targeted a senior terrorist and additional Hamas terrorists as they were hiding at the Nasser Hospital,” and that the results of the strike are still under review.
A security source said the target of the strike was the current commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade. His predecessor had been killed by Israel in September.
The military said it took measures to reduce harm to civilians in the strike, including by using precision munitions and aerial surveillance.”
The Hamas operatives were targeted to “remove a threat, as they were advancing terror plots against Israeli civilians and IDF troops, after Hamas established a presence on the hospital grounds and turned it into a headquarters for military and terror activities against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the joint statement said.
The IDF and Shin Bet said that Hamas had stored weapons inside the hospital complex, conducted “interrogations and torture,” operated command centers from the compound, and used the medical center’s facilities as surveillance posts and shelters for operatives, all of which they said, constitutes a blatant violation of international law and cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure.”
The IDF and Shin Bet view Hamas’ cynical use of civilian and medical infrastructure for military purposes, while endangering the lives of patients, medical staff, and civilians, gravely,” the statement added.
Erdogan Accuses Israel Of ‘Genocide’ In Gaza, Israel Strikes Back
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday (11th) used the United Nations climate summit in Antalya to accuse Israel of widespread environmental destruction in the Gaza Strip, drawing a sharp response from Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
Addressing world leaders and climate representatives attending COP31, Erdogan claimed that Israel’s military operations had caused extensive damage to Gaza’s environment and infrastructure.
“What has taken place in Gaza is not only a genocide, but it is also an ecocide,” Erdogan declared, receiving applause from participants, as quoted by the Associated Press.
“Centuries old olive trees have been cut down. The soil and water have been polluted in Gaza, and cities there have been turned into enormous piles of rubble,” he charged. “With Gaza’s destroyed infrastructure, compounded by torrential rain and by flooding, tens of thousands of tents and shelters have been inundated.”
Israel, which was not invited to participate in the summit, rejected the accusations and criticized the Turkish President for using an international environmental conference to attack the Jewish state.
In a statement published on social media, the Foreign Ministry accused Erdogan of “using an international forum to push his anti-Israel campaign of lies” and criticized his support for Hamas.
“Those who truly care about Gaza should demand that Hamas disarm so construction can begin,” the ministry stated.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas-led terrorist massacre on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were murdered and 251 were taken hostage.
Erdogan’s latest remarks came after days of heavy rainfall and flooding in Gaza that damaged or destroyed numerous tents and temporary shelters housing residents of the territory.
Earlier this week, the IDF and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced that more than 91,000 tents and over 8.200 trucks carrying water supplies had entered Gaza as part of preparations for the colder months.
The announcement came amid continued international criticism of Israel’s humanitarian assistance efforts.
Relations between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated considerably since the October 7 massacre reversing diplomatic progress that had been underway between Ankara and Jerusalem before the attack.
Erdogan has repeatedly condemned Israel’s military operations, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Turkish leader of antisemitism and described him as a “tyrant.”
In March 2025, Erdogan called Israel a “terror state” following Israeli preemptive strikes against terrorist infrastructure in Gaza. He subsequently accused Netanyahu’s government of posing the greatest threat to regional stability.
The diplomatic confrontation intensified in August when Turkey requested that Interpol issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials.
The request was connected to criminal proceedings being conducted in absentia by Istanbul’s 11th High Criminal Court.
According to reports, the case concerned Israel’s interception of the “Global Sumud” flotilla, whose participants attempted to reach the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza before being stopped by Israeli forces in international waters.
Netanyahu’s office responded with a strongly worded statement condemning Erdogan and rejecting the Turkish initiative.
“Erdogan is an antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him. He now seeks to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate it.”
“Erdogan’s pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, will go nowhere,” the statement stressed.
Lebanon’s Salam Declares ‘Era Of Impunity’ After Five Hezbollah Members Arrested In North
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces (ISF) arrested five Hezbollah members in the border area between the Batroun and Bcharre highlands in northern Lebanon on Tuesday (10th), according to Lebanese officials and media reports.
The Hezbollah members were reportedly carrying maps and documents, some of which they allegedly attempted to destroy before being taken into custody.
The five men were spotted by an ISF patrol passing through the area, which encountered them by chance, according to the Arabic-language news outlet Al-Modon. The suspects reportedly appeared nervous and began destroying documents, prompting the officers to arrest them and search the surrounding area.
Beirut Time journalist Riad Tawk reported that the documents contained lists of locations across the Koura, Batroun, and Bcharri districts, as well as references to weapons, including sniper rifles.
The five men are currently being questioned by the ISF Information Branch.
Following the arrests, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he had contacted Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar, Justice Minister Adel Nassar, Prosecutor General Ahmad Rami al-Hajj, and ISF Director General Raed Abdallah.
“The era of impunity is over,” Salam said in a statement from Turkey, while condemning “previously buried cases,” according to L’Orient Today.
“The investigations that have been opened will have no other limits than those imposed by the law,” he said.
Reacting to the arrests Lebanese MP Ghassan Yazbeck posted on X that the area where the men were detained was not close to Israel and suggested that the Iran-backed group was planning to carry out sectarian violence.
His comments referenced a recent case in which Hezbollah justified the attempted smuggling of 500 kg. Of explosives into Beirut with the excuse that it would be used for attacks on the Jewish state.
“How will the party and its press justify this veiled aggression against a peaceful community that has always been careful to maintain good neighborly relations with Shiite villages, even during the darkest days of the war,” he wrote.
“While we do not expect an answer from a party mired in arrogance and out of touch with reality, we are certain that it assumes either that the people of Batroun and Bcharri are planning to invade Shiite villages – an erroneous assumption – and it is therefore drawing up plans to defend itself, or it is planning to invade neighboring villages. The second possibility is the correct one.”
“In either case, the party will fail. What it may succeed in doing, however, is sowing hatred in areas that have never known this scourge and luring Israel into military action that will bring destruction to communities that have embraced members of its sect and displaced people who fled there in search of safety.
“In fact, the Lebanese government’s laxity in the face of the unchecked use of weapons, its refusal to implement its own decisions, and official rhetoric defending and justifying its inaction, encourages the party (Hezbollah) to expand its militia’s military presence further within Lebanon, far from Israel, which it has written off,” Yazbeck wrote.
Son Of Israel’s US Envoy Discharged From Hospital For Continued Rehabilitation
Neriyah Leiter, the son of Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, was discharged on Wednesday (11th) from Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center and transferred to neurological rehabilitation seven weeks after being critically injured in a terrorist ramming attack.
He remains unconscious but is breathing independently, the hospital said in a statement.
Leiter was admitted to the hospital’s trauma unit in critical condition with severe head injuries and remained in immediate, life-threatening danger for several days, according to the statement.
During his hospitalization, he underwent several neurosurgical procedures and major orthopedic surgeries. He spent several weeks in the general intensive care unit, sedated and on a ventilator, receiving specialized medical care, the hospital said.
He will now be treated by Dr. Yevgeny Karpov, a senior neurosurgeon specializing in trauma and intensive care, under the direction of Dr.Steefan Mausbach, according to Shaare Zedek.
In the statement the Leiter family thanked the medical teams at Shaare Zedek for their “dedicated and professional care, which went above and beyond.” The family added that it wishes to maintain its privacy and asked everyone to continue praying for Neriyah.
Leiter, an Israel Defense Forces reservist, was struck by a Palestinian terrorist at a checkpoint on Route 443 near Maccabim on Sept. 23. The attacker was shot dead by Israeli security personnel.
Ambassador Leiter’s eldest son, Maj. Moshe Leiter, was killed in Gaza in2023. The ambassador noted that Neriyah continued to serve in uniform after his brother’s death.
Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, “he has served hundreds of days in the reserves on multiple fronts,” the ambassador said of Neriyah following the terrorist attack.
“Palestinian terrorism seeks to uproot the people of Israel from their land,” he stated. “They choose death. We choose life.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Leiter family at the Jerusalem hospital in September and asked the public to pray for the recovery of “Neriyah Dov ben [son of]Chana.”
(jns.org)
Huckabee: ‘Biblical Illiteracy Is Killing America
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Monday (9th) that Biblical illiteracy is “killing America” and urged pastors not to be afraid to speak out in support of the Jewish state.
The unequivocal remarks by the pastor-turned diplomat come as international support for Israel has declined amid the fallout from the regional wars sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, with some pastors reluctant to address what has become a divisive issue.
“Too many pastors in America are fearful that if they speak about Israel it might be divisive in their church,” Huckabee said in a Jerusalem address to the evangelical organization Bridges for Peace.
“Well, if we are going to divide people, let’s at least divide them over something worth the division.”
In the impassioned address, laced with biblical references, the US envoy urged the group of international pastors from 14 countries visiting Israel to “speak truth” about the Jewish state and not be intimidated by their congregations or political correctness, citing God’s covenant with the Jewish people.” Go home and challenge something that is killing America and killing the faith in America and that is biblical illiteracy,” Huckabee said.
“Go home, be bold, be brave but most of all be biblical.”
The staunchly pro-Israel Baptist pastor, former governor, television host and two-time Republican presidential candidate has emerged as one of the most impassioned international supporters of the Jewish state during this year and a half as US ambassador, a period marked by regional tensions and wars on multiple fronts.
Before his appointment, Huckabee visited Israel scores of times and led thousands of Christians on solidarity tours over the past half-century, beginning with his first trip to the Jewish state shortly after high school, just before the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
He told the Christian group that walking in the land of the Bible was an unparalleled experience.
“If you’ve read the Bible for all of your life, you read it in black and white until you come here,” he said. “Once you’ve been here, you go home and read it in 4K color for the rest of your life.”
