News Digest — 7/31/26
IDF Destroyed Hezbollah Tunnel System Below South Lebanon’s Beaufort, Netanyahu and Katz Announce
The Israeli military has blown up Hezbollah’s tunnel system beneath the Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon Thursday evening (30th), Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz announced in a joint statement.
They said that the IDF used 700 tons of explosives to demolish the subterranean facility.
The demolition was planned for an earlier date but was postponed because of the ceasefire. The two Israeli leaders said the destruction of the tunnel system at this time comes in response to Hezbollah’s blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement on Wednesday (29th) by targeting an unmanned bulldozer with an explosive drone.
The tunnel, which journalists toured earlier this month, served as a “central part of the Hezbollah terror organization’s invasion plan against the Galilee communities,” the statement said.
“The State of Israel will not accept any violation of the ceasefire agreement. Any attempt by Hezbollah to harm IDF troops or Israeli civilians will be met with a severe and powerful response that will exact a heavy price from the terrorist organization,” Netanyahu and Katz said, adding that the IDF “will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon and will continue to destroy all terror infrastructure in order to prevent any attempt by Hezbollah to restore its capabilities.”
The IDF, in its own statement said it demolished “several key underground routes in the Beaufort Ridge area.”
“Over the past several weeks, IDF troops completed securing the Beaufort Ridge area, while taking control of and clearing the underground infrastructure and preparing it for destruction,” the military said.
The military had already, or July 13, demolished a tunnel that was part of the Beaufort Ridge area underground system. With the latest demolition, most of the tunnel network in the area has been destroyed.
The IDF is still monitoring a major Hezbollah tunnel system beneath the Ali Taher ridge, where dozens of operatives are still believed holed up.
Hamas Destruction, Gaza Emigration ‘Only Solution,’ Ben Gvir Says
Destroying Hamas and encouraging the emigration of Palestinians is “the only solution in Gaza that Israel is prepared to be a partner in,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Thursday (30th), amid reports of an emerging deal to disarm the terrorist group.
Israel should not sign an agreement with Hamas “through a third party, through mediators or through any other party,” the minister said.
“With Hamas, whose banner is our destruction, you do not commit to stopping the elimination of terrorists, and you do not sign agreements,”Ben-Gvir tweeted.
Ben-Gvir said that after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre led by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should make clear, “even to our best friends,” that the Jewish state will accept “no other solution” than the terrorists’ destruction.
A diplomatic source with knowledge of the talks in Cairo toldJNS on Thursday (30th) that “Hamas will have no role in governing Gaza, either openly or behind the scenes,and the NCAG [National Committee for the Administration of Gaza] will hold full authority under the principle of one authority, one law and one weapon.”
“The implementation roadmap provides for the decommissioning of all weapons, heavy and light, with no exceptions, alongside the elimination of tunnels, weapons depots and production facilities,” the source said.
“The process is based on reciprocity and independent verification, not trust. Each step by one side enables the next step by the other.”
A second Israeli source told JNS that “the Gaza issue did not come up at all in the meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump.”
He insisted that Israel remains adamant in its demand for “the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the withdrawal of weapons from Gaza and the full demilitarization of the Gaza Strip as a precondition for any process.”
Referring to the document detailing the sequence of steps for deescalation and the transition to technocratic governance in the Gaza Strip laid out by the Trump administration, the Israeli source said, “The 15-point document in question does not adequately address these demands, and Israel forwarded its objections on the matter to envoy Tony Blair.”
The former British prime minister sits on the executive board of the Board of Peace.
“There will be no Israeli withdrawal from the Yellow Line in the Gaza Strip before Hamas disarms and demilitarizes,” the source said, speaking of the demarcation line dividing Gaza in two.
Hebrew media reported on Thursday (30th) that mediators had reached a proposed agreement with Hamas outlining Gaza’s disarmament under Phase 2 of Trump’s peace plan.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News, the terms call for Hamas to surrender all heavy and light weapons, including arms held by its “policing” forces, as well as control of its underground tunnels.
The report said the terrorist group’s weapons would be transferred over a period of weeks to depots secured by the U.S.-backed International Stabilization Force.
Under the proposal, Hamas would also cease all terrorist activity and recruitment, while the Israel Defense Forces would remain on the Yellow Line in Gaza until disarmament is completed.
Trump’s Board of Peace, which oversees the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to JNS requests for comment.
Phase 2 envisions the demilitarization of Hamas, the establishment of a Palestinian technocratic administration backed by an international Board of Peace and stabilization force, expanded humanitarian aid, and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction.
Hamas And Its Two Million Hostages – Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
Hamas has been in control of Gaza for almost two decades. With 2/3 of Gaza’s residents under the age of 30, few have any real memory of life before Hamas.
I left Gaza in 2005 as a 15-year-old high school student on a U.S. cultural exchange program. I was supposed to return a year later . While I was in Egypt preparing to cross back in, Hamas abducted an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, triggering a mini war that prevented me from returning home. A year later, at 17, I interviewed for political asylum in the U.S. on the day that Hamas seized control of Gaza and violently ejected the Palestinian Authority. I became the first Palestinian from Gaza to receive U.S. asylum, a consequence of Hamas’ takeover.
I have been ferociously anti-Hamas, and so I have firmly opposed vocal elements of the Western-based pro-Palestinian camp that often justifies violence, promotes hate and refuses to endorse any national discourse or pragmatic solution that could actually help the people of Gaza. I have chosen to engage in work that advocates for Palestinians and Israelis.
A Palestinian who challenges the conventional wisdom and speaks against Hamas, who renounces its narrative of armed resistance, is perceived as a heretic. Since Oct. 7 it has been horrifying to see Hamas apologists, presenting themselves as pro-Palestinian, celebrate the group as a legitimate entity that supposedly represents the Palestinian people’s best interests. Since its inception, Hamas has been deeply detrimental to Palestinian interests.
Hamas is a moral stain on the Palestinian cause: those who genuinely support our national aspirations should have found it entirely unproblematic to condemn the group’s murders and rapes, its firing of rockets at civilians,and its Islamic ideology. The failure to call out Hamas weakened genuine pro-Palestinian advocacy, which by default became associated with celebrations of Oct. 7, finding excuses for Hamas’ heinous acts of terror.
Instead, a form of mass psychosis took hold of activists, academics, journalists, advocates, politicians and average individuals, all blinded to Hamas’ criminality against both Gazans and Israelis. I experienced the tragedy of seeing a group of jihadi fascists destroy the Palestinian national project. This is why I focus on speaking out against Hamas.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington. (Jewish News-UK)
Israel Aims To Build Its Own Stealth Fighter Jets, Autonomous Combat Aircraft, Senior Official Says
As Israel aims to reduce its dependence on American aid, the Jewish State plans to produce its own stealth aircraft as well as unmanned combat aircraft in the next 10 years, a senior Israeli official said.
“I can envision Israel producing its own stealth fighter aircraft,” he said. “If the assessment is that one day others may stop supplying these systems, then we should begin producing them ourselves. The goal is ten years from now.”
The senior official, speaking to reporters in Washington, added that, along with stealth fighter aircraft, Israel also plans to develop unmanned combat aircraft.
Unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) are designed to operate in close coordination with manned fighter jets. Unlike conventional drones, these aircraft are equipped with advanced artificial intelligence, enabling them to fly autonomously or semi-autonomously, execute complex missions, and respond dynamically to revolving battlefield conditions.
Their roles range from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ICR) to electronic warfare and direct combat. Crucially, UCAVs are intended to serve as force multipliers, extending the reach, survivability, and lethality of manned aircraft without requiring additional pilots.
The senior official’s statement echoed similar comments made by former senior Israeli Air Force and defense industry sources who have spoken to Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post over the past year.
In a recent podcast with D&T, Col. Yishai Cohen, the head of the Integration Department at the Directorate of Defense, Research, &Development (MAFAT) at the Defense Ministry, declined to answer if Israel was examining such aircraft, saying, “I think it takes us back to the question about surprises for the next war” against Iran.
The Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program emphasizes human-machine teaming, allowing pilots to command multiple autonomous aircraft that can scout ahead, engage targets, or absorb enemy fire.
The CCA is a key component of the US Airforce’s future force design, intended to distribute combat power, reduce risks to human pilots, and expand the reach of crewed aircraft that are intended to serve as force multipliers and expand the lethality of manned aircraft, such as the F-35 and Boeing’s F-47 fighter jets for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform that will replace the F-22 Raptors.
The CCA program emphasizes human-machine teaming, allowing pilots to command multiple autonomous aircraft that can scout ahead, engage targets, and absorb enemy fire. CCA aircraft offer a cost-effective means of expanding airpower, allowing militaries to deploy large numbers of capable aircraft without the logistical and human constraints of traditional fleets.
Their AI-driven autonomy enables rapid decision-making and mission adaptability, particularly in scenarios where communication may be degraded or denied. Further, by assigning unmanned systems to high-risk roles, commanders can reduce human pilots’ exposure to hostile fire, thereby enhancing survivability and operational resilience.
In May the US Air Force informed Congress that it intends to produce more than 150 CCA by fiscal year 2031, making it a top modernization priority.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a long-term plan to substantially reduce the country’s dependence on the US, favoring the expansion of the local military-industrial base. The plan so far focuses primarily on artillery, missiles, electronic and cyber warfare systems, rather than platforms like fighter jets.
Israel has had the technological know-how to manufacture its own fighter jets, and in the 1980s, Israel Aircraft Industries (now known as Israel Aerospace Industries-IAI) developed the Lavi. The project led to a fully functioning aircraft, and foreign air forces later acquired some of the later versions. Some aircraft are still flying today. Nevertheless, the project was canceled in 1987 due to budgetary and political reasons, one being pressure from the US to buy American platforms. IAI also manufactured the Kfir jet for the Israel Air Force until the aircraft was retired in the mid-1990s. The company continues to maintain Kfir squadrons, and recently announced that it is upgrading the Kfir aircraft flown by the Sri Lankan airforce.
Since then, Israel has relied on the Americans to provide manned fighter aircraft to maintain its air superiority throughout the Middle East, and shifted to producing a significant number of unmanned aircraft for the IDF and other countries.
Cohen explained that “there is a huge race in all countries to achieve all these capabilities, so for us to be able to develop and produce in Israel, because we want to be independent and at scale, that’s something that was not necessarily deep in the DNA of MAFAT. Now for my colleagues and me, that is a main lesson learned – we need not only to be in charge of development, but then scale it and produce it independently in Israel for the needs of the IDF,” he said.
Words Matter: Reject The Dangerous “Genocide” Libel – William C. Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn
Violence rarely begins with violence. It begins with words. Before people are attacked, they are vilified. Before they are excluded, they are portrayed as dangerous or uniquely evil. Language prepares the ground. That is why New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s video accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of genocide demands a clear response.
Genocide is not a synonym for a brutal war or civilian suffering. It requires the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The accusation therefore turns not simply on the tragic consequences of war, but on an intent to destroy a people.
Presenting genocide as established truth is not serious analysis; it is a defamatory libel, false and dangerous. By stripping away Hamas, the hostages, Israel’s military objectives and the extraordinary difficulties of fighting terrorists embedded among civilians, Mayor Mamdani transforms a complex war into a morality play in which Israel represents absolute evil.
Those with whom the mayor disagrees are not merely mistaken. They are portrayed as monstrous, sinister or complicit in history’s gravest crime. Jewish New Yorkers are living amid persistent antisemitic threats and violence. In such an atmosphere, repeatedly portraying Israel and its supporters as beyond the bounds of moral legitimacy contributes to a climate in which hostility toward Jews is normalized and those already inclined toward hatred feel emboldened.
Israel is stripped of context, subjected to standards applied to no other country, and cast as uniquely illegitimate. The Jewish people are again told that their collective existence stands outside the ordinary protections afforded to others. In effect, Israel is treated the way Jews have so often been treated: singled out, demonized and denied the benefit of the doubt.
William C. Daroff is CEO and Betsy Berns Korn is chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. (JTA)
(jta.org)
