News Digest — 5/3/24
Syria Says 8 Soldiers Hurt In Alleged Israeli Strike that ‘Caused Material Losses’
Eight Syrian soldiers were wounded and material losses were caused in an alleged Israeli strike on Damascus on Thursday evening (2nd), Syria’s state-run SANA broadcaster reported, citing a military source.
According to the report, shortly before 11 pm, Israeli warplanes launched missiles from over the Golan Heights in northern Israel at a site on the outskirts of Damascus.
The strike appears to be the first since the April 1 killing of several top Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers, a strike also blamed on Israel.
Speaking to Reuters, a security source in the alliance that backs Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government alleged that the building, situated just south of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, was used by Syrian security forces. The report was disputed, however, by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor which claimed that the building has been used by members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group as a detention center since 2014.
There was no comment on the strike from the Israel Defense Forces. While Israel’s military does not, as a rule, comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed terror groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country over the last decade.
While there has been an increase in strikes on Iranian targets in Syria since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas in October, the alleged strike overnight is the first one since an April 1 airstrike leveled what Iran said was a consulate building in Damascus, which killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals. While Israel didn’t comment on the strike, both Iran and Syria blamed Jerusalem.
After vowing vengeance for the April 1 strike, Iran launched a first-ever direct missile and drone attack against Israel on April 13-14, against which Israel and its allied partners mounted a successful defense.
On April 19, however, a radar system for a Russian-made air defense battery in the central Iranian city of Isfahan was hit, causing precise damage. Israel did not publicly take responsibility for the strike, and Tehran appeared to downplay what had occurred.
In the months following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, several rocket launches have been carried out against Israel from southern Syria, which have not caused injuries.
Recent months have seen several alleged sorties carried out against sites in Syria as part of Israel’s ongoing efforts to prevent Iran from supplying arms to its proxy Hezbollah which has stepped up attacks on northern Israel over the past several months amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
The attacks forced most Israeli residents in the north to evacuate from the border areas. Israel has responded with its own regular strikes on Hezbollah targets and has warned it will not tolerate the terrorists’ continued presence on the border.
The Iran-backed terror group Hamas launched a massive onslaught on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapping 253, mostly civilians, amid horrendous acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Netanyahu To Holocaust Day Torchlighters: ‘If We Need To Stand Alone – We Will Stand Alone’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara on Thursday (2nd) met with the Holocaust survivors who will serve as the torchlighters at the opening ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, which will be memorialized Sunday (5th) through Monday (6th).
During the meeting, which was held at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Netanyahu promised the torchlighters that if need be, Israel will stand alone to defend itself.
Itzhak Kabilo, one of the survivors said: “The State of Israel is the one and only sanctuary of the Jewish people,” to which Netanyahu responded, ”This is so correct.”
Michel Bar-On, another survivor said: “We cannot rely on the nations of the world who make promises.”
“If it is possible to receive the assistance of the nations of the world, I am always for it. However, in the greatest Holocaust, great leaders like Roosevelt, who was told what was happening at Auschwitz and Birkenau and in the other death camps – they told him and he knew, but his answer was that he would not lose a single pilot and refused to accept the Jews. They were great leaders. Churchill, who I greatly admire, tried to recruit his army but his army rebelled against him,” said Netanyahu.
“If we need to stand alone – we will stand alone,” Netanyahu promised. “If it is possible to recruit the nations of the world, how much better that is. But if we do not defend ourselves – nobody will defend us.”
“The strength at our disposal is the strength that I have heard here – we have no other,” Netanyahu added.
US Says Hamas Seized First Humanitarian Aid Shipment That Entered Gaza Via Reopened Erez Crossing
Hamas managed to seize a major shipment of humanitarian aid that was delivered to Gaza from Jordan this week, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday (2nd) after the supplies were the first to be shipped to the enclave through a newly reopened Israeli border crossing.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken viewed the aid on Tuesday (4/30) just before it departed from the headquarters of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman bound for the renovated crossing into the Gaza Strip at Erez, which was largely destroyed by Hamas during the Oct. 7 terror onslaught that sparked the ongoing war.
The reopening of Erez, Israel’s sole crossing on the northern edge of Gaza, had been a main plea of international agencies for months, to alleviate the humanitarian situation which is believed to be worse in the north of the enclave.
According to Miller, “the aid shipment was unloaded by the Jordanian military inside the Strip before being picked up by a humanitarian implementer for distribution inside Gaza, but the aid was intercepted and diverted by Hamas on the ground in Gaza.”
“The UN is either in the process or has by now recovered the aid, but it was an unacceptable act by Hamas to divert this aid to begin with,” he said during a press briefing.
“If there is one thing that Hamas could do to jeopardize the shipment of aid, it would be diverting it for their own use, rather than allowing it to go to the civilians that need it,” he said, claiming this was the “first widespread case of diversion that we have seen in Gaza.”
Hamas held the aid trucks for “sometime” before releasing them, according to Miller.
His comments follow Israel’s long-standing contention that Hamas stockpiled supplies and kept them from civilians in need.
Footage from Gaza in the past, has shown Hamas gunmen, who were reportedly linked to the terror group, stealing trucks that were delivering humanitarian aid from Egypt.
IDF Plans For Rafah Op Draws On Extensive Israeli Experience
As the War Cabinet waits for a reply from Hamas to the latest far-reaching, unprecedented Israeli proposal for a hostage release deal, the IDF has drawn up operational plans for large-scale urban warfare in Hamas’ last remaining bastion in Rafah, southern Gaza.
These plans rely on the massive experience the IDF has gained over recent months while fighting in Gaza City and Khan Yunis, including the ability to evacuate masses of civilians.
The IDF will need to move over a million people out of Rafah, an ability it honed when it moved even more civilians out of Gaza City between October and December, but this time, the military will need to set up checkpoints and screen those leaving, to ensure that Hamas terrorists do not flee with civilians, as they did during the evacuation of Gaza City.
Like Gaza City, Rafah is a densely populated urban area, and the military will aim at dismantling Hamas’ infrastructure while seeking to avoid civilian casualties to the extent possible, with Hamas, as usual, entrenching itself within the population to use it as human shields.
The IDF is highly familiar by now in dealing with tunnels and overground terror facilities set up in civilian areas.
As part of its commitment to reduce harm to noncombatants – a goal the IDF always tries to meet, and one that the Biden administration continues to publicly pressure Israel on – the military will likely focus on large-scale evacuation of Gazan civilians well before the operation gets underway.
The IDF has marked out two evacuation zones: an expansion of the Al-Mawasi zone along the central southern Gaza coastline, and Khan Yunis.
The 98th Paratroopers Division, which led the four-month operation in Khan Yunis, and the 162nd Armored Division, which spent six months fighting in central Gaza and setting up the Netzarim Corridor separating northern and southern Gaza, are expected to lead the operation.
On Tuesday (4/30), the military announced that these two divisions, both of which are currently out of Gaza, have been enhancing readiness and holding assessments, as well as holding sessions to draw conclusions from combat against Hamas thus far.
The two divisions reviewed combat procedures and plans for continued operations in the Gaza Strip, according to the IDF, while the headquarters of the divisions and of the brigades that operate within them, as well as reservists forces, held professional learning days at all operational levels to prepare for the continuation of their missions.
“The commanders of the divisions have completed the approval of plans for upcoming missions and are now continuing to enhance readiness in all areas and in training,” the IDF stated this week.
The IDF must draw up these plans while knowing that the fate of the hostages will be far from known under such a scenario, much like when a counterterrorism unit bursts into a home where hostages are being held.
The IDF cannot plan for every scenario but will need to take into account developments such as threats to the hostages made by Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding in the tunnels of Rafah, or new attempts by Sinwar to stop the momentum of the IDF by making new overtures regarding a deal.
Assuming that the IDF may know the location of some of the hostages, the need to prevent strikes in these locations will be paramount, while the intelligence community will likely be monitoring events to see if new rescue operations become realistic during the operation.
On Feb. 12, the IDF rescued two Israeli hostages from their captivity in a Rafah apartment building.
The Rafah operation is expected to involve significant air and artillery strikes and tank movements.
In the rest of Gaza, the IDF is conducting targeted raids in the center and north of the Strip – any hostage deal that would freeze the military’s activities would see Hamas able to rebuild its forces.
Regardless of whether the operation goes ahead soon or further down the road due to a deal, Israel will need to be ready for the possibility that Hezbollah, which has already forced the military to fight on two fronts for the past six months, will no doubt escalate its attacks in the north to try and force Israel to divert military resources away from Gaza.
The Iranian-led terror axis does not want to see Israel destroy the remnants of the Hamas terror army, one of its most prized assets in the region, and could be willing to take new risks to try to save the Iranian-backed jihadist force in the Strip.
Why Israel Must Win – And Why American Jews Must Support It – Karen Bekker
We are hearing from influential people in America that Israel’s time in Gaza has effectively expired, that a unilateral ceasefire, without victory over Hamas, is a “moral imperative.” But they have it totally backwards. It is victory over Hamas that is the moral imperative.
When Israel is seen as weak, Jews around the world are more vulnerable. When Israel is secure, Jews around the world are secure as well. The fate of Jews in Israel and Jews in the diaspora are intertwined. If Israel does not destroy Hamas, all Jews around the world will be less safe.
If Hamas is allowed to live another day, it will mean that Hamas is able and allowed to cross the border and attack Jews with impunity. This will bring the Jews both in Israel and worldwide back to the pre-Israel condition of being essentially defenseless, as they were in Europe as well as the Middle East from the beginning of the diaspora until the re-establishment of theJewish State in 1948. The fact of Jews having a refuge in Israel will become meaningless.
Jews in the diaspora need Israel to be secure. It is imperative, therefore, that American Jews insist to all of our political leaders that Israel has the right to proceed into Rafah in order to finish the job that was started. And Israel needs Jews in the diaspora to make clear to all, the necessity of an Israeli victory.
The writer is assistant director of the Media Response Team of CAMERA.
Palestinian Militias Are Resurgent In The Northern West Bank – Khaled Abu Toameh
Armed groups control the streets of many Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank, particularly in the areas of Nablus, Jenin, Qalqilya, and Tulkarem. Most armed groups in the West Bank currently operate within the framework of “battalions” whose members belong to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and disgruntled activists from Abbas’ ruling Fatah party. These armed men are hailed by the Palestinian public as “heroes” and “resistance fighters.”
The PA and its media also glorify the gunmen, although many of them harshly criticize PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and his policies. In some cases, the funerals of gunmen killed by Israeli security forces are broadcast live on Palestine TV in Ramallah.
The only person authorized to crack down on the armed groups and individuals roaming the streets of Palestinian communities in the northern West Bank is 88-year-old Abbas. In recent years, however, Abbas has shown that he has no intention of ending the widespread phenomenon of armed groups operating in the areas under his control.
Although Israeli security forces have killed dozens of West Bank gunmen since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, Palestinian security sources estimate that there are still between 3,000 and 3,500 militiamen in the northern West Bank. The Tulkarem Battalion alone has more than 200 gunmen.
The U.S. plan to “revitalize” the PA should focus first and foremost on enforcing law and order in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank.
The writer is a veteran Israeli journalist, and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
(jcpa.org)
