Day 350 — Friday, September 20

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called the series of blasts of communication devices across Lebanon in the past two days an ‘act of war’ by Israel. In his highly anticipated televised speech on Thursday, Nasrallah said Israel crossed ‘all red lines’ and vowed to administer a ‘just punishment.’ 

He promised to deliver the retribution where Israel expects it and where it does not, without elaborating any further. 

This was the first time the leader of the Lebanese terror group has spoken publicly about the two waves of explosions that shook the country. He admitted that Hezbollah was dealt an “unprecedented blow” with reportedly dozens of operatives killed and injured around 3,000. 

Nasrallah also admitted that he knew of the second round of explosions in advance, after he allegedly received a warning from Israel. 

“On Tuesday, I received messages from Israel to stop the attacks. Otherwise, there would be another strike on Wednesday,” Nasrallah explained. 

The Hezbollah chief said the sequence of attacks pose “a major assault on Lebanon, its security and sovereignty,” adding they could be seen as a “war crime” or a “declaration of war” by Israel.  

During his speech, Israeli fighter jets were reportedly heard flying low altitude over Beirut, creating large sonic booms. 

Isarel has so far has kept its silence over its alleged involvement in the mysterious blasts, but Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hinted on Thursday, saying: “Hezbollah feels that it is being persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue.”

In a briefing for top security officials on recent developments on the northern front, Gallant noted that “in the new phase of the war there are significant opportunities but also significant risks.”

He reiterated the goal is to ensure the safe return of around 60,000 residents of Israel’s northern communities to their homes.

“As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price,” he warned. 

Gallant’s remarks came after Nasrallah stressed in his speech that the only way Israel would be able to return the displaced to the North is by “stopping the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

He added that Hezbollah will not cease its attacks on Israel’s territory as long as the war in Gaza continues. 

Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – have repeatedly said that the situation in the north must either be resolved by a diplomatic solution or a military one. Israel demands that Hezbollah would adhere to UN Security Council resolution 1701 which ended the Second Lebanon war in 2006. It stated that Hezbollah must disarm and withdraw 18 miles north of the Litany River. 

Nasrallah mocked the idea of creating a such security zone inside Lebanon and dared Israel to invade the country’s territory. 

“We are waiting for your tanks, and we will see this as a historic opportunity,” he said. 

Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah launched over 8,000 missiles, projectiles and explosive drones at Israel, killing dozens of civilians and soldiers and causing damage to property. 

All Israel News

Day 350 — Friday, September 20

As we approach the anniversary of October 7, there will no doubt be a somber mood throughout Israel.  But it will also be a day of high anxiety.  Considering jihadists enjoy sowing their reign of terror on symbolic dates, Israel’s military and intelligence services will have no time to reflect.

They will need to be at the highest level of alertness in order to prevent any attacks which would cause even more pain to the Jewish people.

Gabriel Senderowicz, president of the Jewish Community of Porto (also known as Oporto) in Portugal recently said: “To know the 1506 massacre in Lisbon is to know the 7 October 2023 massacre in Israel and the historic genocides of Jews all over Europe.  The only change has been in the weapons.”  Considering not many people are aware of the 1506 genocide, I thought it would be prudent to examine it, particularly given the comparisons drawn by Senderowicz to the terrible atrocities inflicted on the Jewish people on October 7.

In the streets of Lisbon (Portugal) between April 19 and April 21 in the year 1506, up to 4,000 Jews were brutally murdered.

According to the Jewish Community of Oporto today, the Lisbon massacre is not included in the school curriculum and has all but been forgotten by the Portuguese people.  They may have chosen to forget, but the Jewish people have not.  How can they, when nation after nation seeks their destruction?

Yotam Kreiman, charge d’affaires at the Israeli Embassy in Portugal recently said: “The same boiling hatred under the surface that erupted in the 1506 Lisbon massacre, is the same 3,000 years old hatred for Jews that keeps erupting, as we say in Passover: every generation an evil rises to eliminate us. This is the hatred we saw in 1939, and also in October 7, and also today in the U.S. campuses. It is nourished by blood libels and false accusations, and it is more dangerous than any assassin: because it uses the masses to lay the grounds to slaughter innocents.”

In what must feel like a cruel twist of irony to the Jewish people, one of the people most dismissive of the October 7 attacks is current United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.  Earlier this year, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote that under the leadership of Guterres, the UN has “become an antisemitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror.”  Why is this all tragically ironic?  Guterres was born in Lisbon, Portugal.

Day 350 — Friday, September 20

(Galilee, Israel) — Shalom from Galilee! You know, sometimes you look at the events happening around you and all you can do is sit back and say, “Oh, my goodness.” I mean, seriously! If you’ve read my thrillers, you know what a great fan I am of the Mossad and how highly I think of their skillset. But the events of Tuesday and Wednesday? Again, oh my goodness!

It was 3:30 PM, Tuesday afternoon. All the Hezbollah leadership and mid-level guys were out doing their Hezbollahy things – buying some fruit, visiting family, torturing prisoners. Suddenly, their pagers went off. Yes, you read that right. Their pagers, just like what happens to millions of people every day all around the world, or at least it did back in the 90s. The message was an error code that kept the device beeping and vibrating for ten seconds. Some lifted their pagers up so they could read the code before clearing it. Others just figured there was a problem and cleared the code while the device remained on their belts. As soon as they pressed the clear button, the devices exploded.

It was ugly. Many had their waists severely burned. Others had others parts of their nether regions seriously and permanently compromised. The ones who got the worst of it, though, were those who were trying to make out the numbers on the tiny LED screen. Many of them were blinded. Others lost their lives. It was the most direct, well-planned, and perfectly executed cyberstrike of the modern era. More than 4000 Hezbollah terrorists were wounded initially, and at least 11 were killed. Four hundred of those wounded are in critical condition, more than 500 lost their eyesight, and 18 high-ranking terrorist commanders were injured.

This all started with Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, calling on his minions to abandon their cell phones, because they could be tracked. He encouraged them to go back to low tech communications, like pagers. So, the terrorist organization put in an order with a Taiwanese company who subbed the order out to a Hungarian company that just might have been tied in very deeply with the Mossad. Hungary, by the way, claims the devices were never in their country. But one way or another the order was fulfilled, with a free bonus to 5000 of the pagers – 20 grams of PETN explosives. Once completed, they shipped them to Lebanon where they were distributed to various levels of leadership. Soon, all the cool terrorists were sporting them on their belts. The run-of-the-mill terror-guys didn’t need them, because they just follow the orders of their bosses.

Then came 3:30 PM, the alerts, and the explosions. It happened all across Lebanon and even into Syria. Lebanese terrorists were taken down. Some Syrians were hit. Even Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, lost an eye and had his other severely damaged. Strange that an Iranian ambassador would be carrying a Hezbollah pager, don’t you think? The Iranian connection goes even farther with the son of Ali Maruf Hejazi, the Iran Supreme Leader’s representative in Lebanon, seriously injured in both of his eyes when his Hezbollah pager blew up. Later in the day yesterday, Al-Hadath, a Saudi newspaper, reported that 19 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed by the pagers in Syria and another 150 were injured.

Back in Lebanon, it was chaos for Hezbollah. They had ditched their cell phones and now their pagers had blown up. Thankfully for the terrorists, many of the leaders who had survived the attack still had their hand-held radios. They were large and a little clunky, but they kept them connected.

Then Wednesday came, and it all started happening again.

Day 349 — Thursday, September 19

Israeli fighter jets in the last several hours struck over 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon that were primed for immediate attacks on Israel, the military says.

The IDF says that in total, the launchers included around 1,000 launch barrels.

The strikes began this afternoon and were carried out in several waves.
“The IDF continues to damage and degrade the terror capabilities and military infrastructure of the Hezbollah terror organization,” the military adds.

After intensive Israel airstrikes in southern Lebanon, the IDF published a list of guidelines for civilians in several communities and cities in northern Israel, telling them to remain close to bomb shelters.

The guidelines apply to civilians in the Merom HaGalil Regional Council, Upper Galilee Regional Council, Mevo’ot HaHermon Regional Council, Yesud HaMa’ala, Hatzor, Rosh Pina, Safed, Metula, and towns in the Golan Heights from Katzrin and northward.

The IDF calls on civilians in those areas to reduce movement outside of homes, avoid large gatherings, guard the entrances to the communities, and remain close to bomb shelters.

Times Of Israel

Day 349 — Thursday, September 19

An Israeli citizen was recruited by Iranian intelligence agencies to assassinate Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a joint statement by the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police.

Identified as 73-year-old Moti Maman from Ashkelon, he was taken into custody last month.

In addition to Netanyahu, the conspiracy aimed to kill Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar. The Israeli was smuggled twice into Iranian territory and received payment for carrying out missions.

He was arrested in August for allegedly committing security offenses related to contact with intelligence elements of the Iranian regime.

The suspect is a businessman who had lived in Turkey for significant periods of time, maintaining business and social relations with persons of Turkish and Iranian origin.

In April, the Israeli agreed, through the mediation of Turkish officials, to meet with a wealthy businessman living in Iran to promote business activity.

He also met with an Iranian handler in May – during these meetings, he was asked to perform certain tasks for Iran. These included transferring money or a gun at pre-determined points, photographing various sensitive sites in Israel and sending them to the Iranian authorities, and threatening other Israeli citizens in Israel on behalf of the regime.

In August, he returned to Iran while smuggled in the cab of a truck. During this visit, he was asked to help carry out the assassinations of the Israeli leaders, as well as other public figures, avenging the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The Israeli demanded $1 million in advance for his services, but this was refused. He received 5,000 euros for taking part in the meetings.

He was captured and indicted on September 19. A senior Shin Bet official called it “a very serious affair that is an example of the great efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit Israeli citizens to promote terrorist activities in Israel.”

i24 News

Day 349 — Thursday, September 19

Jerusalem’s Old City, in addition to Judea and Samaria, must be Judenrein within a year, according to a Palestinian-drafted resolution, which the U.N. General Assembly passed on Wednesday.

The resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line.

More than 40 countries sponsored the resolution, which was the first that Palestinians filed after being granted unprecedented privileges, for a non-U.N. member, earlier this year.

The resolution calls on the Israel Defense Forces to withdraw completely from Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip within 12 months, which means evacuating all Jewish communities beyond the armistice line, including Jerusalem’s Old City.

It also bans arms sales to the IDF of any equipment that would be expected reasonably to be used in the territory over the 1949 lines and calls for a boycott of all products produced by Jews in those areas.

The resolution text lacks any mention of Israeli security concerns, historic ties to the lands or Hamas’s terror attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.

The vote came after a day of debate on Tuesday. 

Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Hungary, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Tuvalu and the United States joined Israel in opposing the resolution.

Notably, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Ukraine and Australia were among those who abstained.

General Assembly resolutions have no legal force, but the resolution’s passage on Wednesday is expected to be used in international courts and other fora to seek additional action against the Jewish state.

It is widely expected that the Palestinians will request that the U.N. Security Council take up the issue. Security Council resolutions are binding, but the United States would be expected to thwart such an effort, including with its veto power.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called it “a shameful decision that backs the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic terrorism.”

He added that the General Assembly “continues to dance to the music of the Palestinian Authority, which backs the Hamas murderers.”

Before the vote, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters he would back the implementation of the resolution should it pass.

Seth Riklin and Daniel Mariaschin, president and CEO, respectively, of B’nai B’rith International, said the international nonprofit is “appalled” by the “atrocious” resolution.

“B’nai B’rith International strongly condemns the U.N. General Assembly’s passage of the first resolution officially sponsored by Palestinians days after they became the first non-member state group further upgraded to many member state privileges at the U.N. General Assembly, despite the world body’s own rules and practices,” they said.

“Coming from an assembly in which Arab and other pro-Palestinian governments wield an automatic majority to annually condemn Israel more than all other countries combined, the motion is unprecedented in its shamelessly one-sided endorsement of Palestinian claims and political demands, and further erodes the U.N.’s credibility as a serious contributor to promoting conflict-resolution and universal human rights,” they added.

“Shame on all countries that enabled this atrocious affront to justice and peace as part of the latest UNGA ’emergency session’ on the Middle East that does nothing to help seriously address and settle the emergency,” Riklin and Mariaschin said.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations condemned the “biased and dangerous” resolution strongly, Harriet Schleifer and William Daroff, chair and CEO respectively said. They called it “the latest salvo in an obsessive, decades-long campaign against Israel.”

“Attempting to isolate Israel in this manner is undoubtedly a threat to her national security as she faces terror threats on all sides and offensive to her status as the only democracy in the Middle East and therefore cannot be accepted by the international community,” they added.

Arsen Ostrovsky and Nadav Steinman, CEO and board chair, respectively, of the International Legal Forum, stated that “today, simply put, the United Nations has become the diplomatic arm of Hamas” and that the resolution “is just the latest in a litany of obscenely one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. since Oct. 7.” 

“All it does is reward the murderers, rapists and abductors of Hamas while pouring further fuel on worldwide antisemitism and eroding whatever remaining credibility of the already problematic and politicized International Court of Justice, upon which this resolution is meant to be based,” they added. “Ultimately, peace will only prevail when Hamas is defeated and the hostages are released, not through tiresome antics and pyrrhic Palestinian ‘victories’ at the U.N.”

JNS

Day 349 — Thursday, September 19

A fresh wave of explosions ripped across Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon, appearing to mainly target hand-held radios used by Hezbollah members, a day after thousands were wounded when their pagers spontaneously exploded in a coordinated attack widely blamed on Israel after months of cross-border fire.

At least 20 people were killed and 450 were wounded in Wednesday’s second wave of blasts, according to Lebanese officials. An Israeli report said Jerusalem believes the death toll to be higher than reported, with Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit hit hard by the two days of attacks.

Explosions were reported Wednesday in phones, solar energy systems and fingerprint reading devices used by the group.

At least one of the blasts took place at a funeral organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for some of the 12 people killed in the pager explosion attack on Tuesday.

An AP photographer in the southern coastal city of Sidon saw a car and a mobile phone shop that were damaged by devices exploding inside of them.

“A number of walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” a source told Reuters, with Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers confirming devices had exploded inside two cars in the area.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon, and a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded as part of blasts heard in Beirut. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Images circulating online purported to show the devices, which appeared to be different and larger than the pagers that exploded Tuesday. The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, said a security source.

A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking out the batteries of any walkie-talkies on them that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels around them.

Images of the exploded walkie-talkies examined by Reuters showed an inside panel labeled “ICOM” and “Made in Japan.” According to its website, ICOM is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.

Lebanon’s Red Cross said on X that it was responding with 30 ambulance teams to multiple explosions in different areas.

Lebanon’s official news agency reported that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and in southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl. The reports of further electronic devices exploding suggested even greater infiltration into Hezbollah’s supply chain than was previously thought.

According to a Ynet report, Israel believes Hezbollah’s toll from the attacks over the last two days is much higher than the official numbers released so far.

“The estimation is that there are many dozens of dead, if not more,” veteran investigative reporter and analyst Ronen Bergman wrote, without naming his sources.

Bergman added that Israel believes the explosions caused “significant harm” to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, with much of its leadership taken out of action.

The new round of explosions on Wednesday came as Lebanon and Hezbollah were still struggling to come to terms with the shock and scale of Tuesday’s attack. 

Times Of Israel

Day 348 — Wednesday, September 18

The IDF announced Wednesday morning the deaths of three combat soldiers and a paramedic who were killed during the fighting in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Captain Daniel Mimon Toaff, aged 23, from Moreshet, was a Deputy Company Commander from the ‘Shaked’ Battalion, ‘Givati’ Brigade. Staff Sergeant Amit Bakri, aged 20, from Yoshivia, was a soldier in the ‘Shaked’ Battalion, ‘Givati’ Brigade. Staff Sergeant Dotan Shimon, aged 21, from Elazar in Gush Etzion, was a soldier from the ‘Shaked’ Battalion, ‘Givati’ Brigade. Staff Sergeant Agam Naim, aged 20, from Kibbutz Mishmarot, was a Paramedic in the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade.

During operations in the southern Gaza Strip, troops of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion entered the area of the Tel Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.

When the troops were in a building in the area, an IED apparently exploded, causing the building to partially collapse and leading to the deaths of the four soldiers.

First Sergeant Agam Naim is the first female combatant to fall in ground operations in Gaza since the beginning of the current campaign.

All Israel News

Day 348 — Wednesday, September 18

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon lost one eye and suffered serious injury to the other when a pager he was carrying exploded on Tuesday, amid a nationwide attack targeting Tehran’s terror proxy Hezbollah.

Two members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps briefed on the attack confirmed the extent of Mojtaba Amini’s injuries to The New York Times, saying that they were more serious than initially reported and that he was being transported to Tehran for treatment.

Hossein Soleimani, the editor-in-chief of Mashregh, the main IRGC news website, tweeted, “Unfortunately, the injuries inflicted on the Iranian ambassador in the eye area were very severe.”

A video published by Iranian news media outlets of Amini being transported to the hospital shows him on a street in Beirut in the chaotic aftermath of the attack with his eyes covered with bandages and the front of his white shirt covered in blood.

According to Iranian media reports, two of Amini’s bodyguards were also wounded when their pagers exploded.

One of the IRGC members told the Times that the pagers beeped for around 10 seconds before exploding, prompting some to put the pagers close to their faces to check for a message.

The two IRGC members also said that the pagers were only used by Hezbollah members.

JNS

Day 347 — Tuesday, September 17

At least 11 people were killed and thousands were injured when pagers held by Hezbollah members across Lebanon exploded on Tuesday afternoon, in what appeared to be a widescale, coordinated attack attributed to Israel.

The unprecedented wave of explosions, which also reportedly killed and injured several people in Syria, sparked chaos in a region already on high alert for the outbreak of full-scale hostilities.

It came hours after Israel designated the halting of Hezbollah’s attacks one of its main war goals and announced that it had foiled an assassination attempt by the Iranian proxy group against a former senior official.

Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said in an initial evening press conference that nine people were killed and 2,750 more were injured in the blasts, including some 200 people in critical condition. In a later update, Abiad was cited by Arabic-language media as saying that the death toll had risen to 11, and another 4,000 were wounded, including 400 in critical condition.

Ambulances carrying Hezbollah members and others with bloodied limbs and faces streamed to hospitals for hours after the blasts, overwhelming health services.

Hezbollah said three people were killed, including two members of the group, and blamed Israel for the spree of pager blasts, promising to retaliate.

“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” the group said in a statement, adding that Israel “will certainly receive its fair punishment for this sinful aggression.”

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was lightly injured by an exploding pager, Iran’s state-run media said.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was not hurt in the explosions, the group said.

In Syria, seven people were killed in the coordinated attack, according to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Saberin News.

The fatalities were reportedly in the Damascus neighborhood of Seyedah Zeinab, a Shiite stronghold.

Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary said his country condemned the “Israeli aggression,” becoming the first Lebanese official to directly implicate Israel.

Israel did not respond to allegations that it had been behind the attack; the Israel Defense Forces said Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi met with top brass for talks “with an emphasis on readiness for attack and defense in all arenas.”

Hebrew media reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and other security chiefs were meeting at the Defense Ministry headquarters at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv following the apparent attack.

The wave of explosions started at about 3:45 p.m. local time and lasted around an hour. It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated, but media outlets reported that owners received a message before the blasts.

Regional broadcasters carried CCTV footage that showed what appeared to be a small handheld device placed next to a grocery store cashier where an individual was making a payment spontaneously exploding.

In other footage, an explosion appeared to knock out someone standing at a fruit stand in a market area.

The Hezbollah communication devices that exploded throughout Lebanon and in Syria were the latest model, brought in by the terror group in recent months, three security sources told Reuters.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, a Hezbollah official said the explosions were the result of “a security operation that targeted the devices.” He added that the new pagers that Hezbollah members were carrying had lithium batteries, which can smoke, melt, and even catch fire when overheated.

A video circulating on social media purports to show the moment that a pager used by a Hezbollah operative exploded in Lebanon. According to Lebanese media, dozens were injured after Israel allegedly hacked the devices and detonated them. https://t.co/1RMiF8wqAA pic.twitter.com/b07wTuRQ0N

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 17, 2024

Times Of Israel

Day 347 — Tuesday, September 17

According to a report in the German daily Bild, the German government has postponed further weapons sales to Israel while at the same time approving the sale of heavy weapons systems to the Emirate of Qatar.

Qatar is one of the most significant financial supporters of the terror group Hamas and has hosted several of the Hamas political leaders in Doha for around a decade.

Bild reported that the decision to continue arms sales to Qatar appears to be linked to an agreement in which Qatar would transfer older equipment to Ukraine in exchange for newer equipment from German defense firms.

Last year, the Israeli government requested the purchase of several thousand rounds of ammunition for its Merkava battle tanks, with additional requests for other military equipment.

However, according to the Bild article, Germany has not responded with its decision, despite Israel being engaged in active fighting on several fronts, including the war in Gaza against Hamas, and the escalating conflict with Hezbollah, along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

The move is concerning for Israel as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had pledged solidarity with Israel following the Hamas invasion and terror attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Shortly after the attack, Scholz visited Israel and made a bold declaration of support for the Jewish nation, saying: “Germany’s history and the responsibility it had for the Holocaust requires us to help maintain the security and existence of Israel.”

According to Austrian news magazine Profil, the German government has not issued export permits for arms to Israel since March.

In November, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is responsible for arms exports, said that “applications for the export of arms to Israel would be processed and decided on as a matter of priority.”

However, according to Profil, the majority of export permits for weapons were granted in the period immediately following Oct. 7.

Profil reported that export volumes (figured in sales amounts) had fallen “massively,” from 326 million Euros in the 2023 year to 14.5 million Euros in 2024 (with a cutoff date of Aug. 21, 2024). The report noted that this amount did not even cover the costs of the item, “Contribution to the procurement of defense systems for Israel,” which was allotted 45 million euros for 2024.

There appear to be factors hindering the sale of weapons to Israel, despite Scholz’s promises of support.

In July, when asked about Germany’s support for Israel following the release of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) opinion regarding Israel, Scholz stated, “We have supplied Israel with weapons, and we have not made a decision not to do so again.”

Profil noted that Scholz chairs the Federal Security Council, which meets in secret and has the responsibility of approving applications for arms exports from Germany. The magazine also noted that while “Scholz is wary of saying that Germany has made the decision to stop supplying weapons of war to Israel,” that is the de facto result of the council’s failure to approve export licenses.

All Israel News

Day 347 — Tuesday, September 17

Israel’s security cabinet, which is responsible for setting military policy, decided early Tuesday morning to adopt the return of the residents of northern Israel’s border towns to their homes as an official war goal.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement:

The Security Cabinet has updated the objectives of the war to include the following: Returning the residents of the north securely to their homes.

Israel will continue to act to implement this objective.

The decision does not formally commit Israel to a war against the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah, which occupies southern Lebanon illegally and has been firing rockets, missiles, and drones at Israel since October.

However, it means that Israel is committing to pursue such a war in the event that ongoing diplomatic efforts, led by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, fail to resolve the conflict.

Some 60,500 residents of northern Israel, from a total of 74 towns, have been evacuated since October.

The other three war objectives are: destroying Hamas’s military and governing capacities; freeing the hostages; and making sure that Gaza can never threaten Israel again.

Breitbart

Day 346 — Monday, September 16

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Sunday at the opening of the government meeting about the missile fired from Yemen at Israel in the morning, and touched on the situation in the north.

“The current situation will not continue,” Netanyahu said. “We will do everything necessary to safely return our residents to their homes.”

Regarding the Houthis in Yemen, Netanyahu said that “they should have already known that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.”

“Anyone who needs a reminder is welcome to visit the port of Hodeidah,” Netanyahu said, referring to the extensive Israeli attack against Houthi terror targets in Yemen about two months ago.

The Iran-backed Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree earlier hailed a “new hypersonic ballistic missile” as a success, even though it apparetly broke apart in the air before reaching its target.

“We are in a multi-front battle against Iran’s axis of evil that strives to annihilate us,” Netanyahu continued. “Anyone who attacks us will not escape our arm’s reach. Hamas is already learning this through our resolute action that will lead to its destruction and the release all our captives.”

i24 news

Day 346 — Monday, September 16

The ballistic missile fired by Yemen at Israel at 6:21 a.m. on Sunday morning was not a hypersonic missile as the Houthis have claimed, the IDF said Tuesday night.

Further, the IDF said that the missile was not an especially new advanced kind of maneuvering missile that could outwit Israel’s air defense systems.

Rather, the IDF said that it fired multiple interceptors, including both the Arrow 2 and the Iron Dome, against the missile and that at least one interceptor struck the missile but failed to destroy it completely on impact.

Instead, the impact of the interceptor led the missile to break up in Israeli airspace and fall mostly in an open field near Kfar Daniel, with other pieces of multiple interceptors falling in other areas, such as the Paatei Modiin Train Station and Rehovot. 

The IDF will now probe why the interceptor impact only caused the missile to break up and did not completely destroy it.

In fact, the IDF also said that the warhead remained intact when it struck the open area, which was one of the reasons why a significant fire was caused.

Jerusalem Post

Day 345 — Sunday, September 15

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that he has not spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the Oct. 7 massacre as the Israeli leader refuses to answer his calls.

“I have not talked to him because he didn’t pick up my phone calls, but I have no reason not to speak with him,” Guterres told Reuters in an interview published on Thursday. “So if he comes to New York and he asks to see me, I will be very glad to see him.”

Guterres made the same complaint in January to Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news outlet whose journalists had their press cards revoked by Israel on Thursday for incitement.

Guterres told the broadcaster that he has “asked to speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu and until now, that phone call has not been received.”

The two men last met in person in September 2023 at the annual U.N. General Assembly session.

The secretary-general has taken a consistently anti-Israel approach since Oct. 7.

Speaking to Reuters, Guterres accused Israel of “very dramatic violations of the international humanitarian law and the total absence of an effective protection of civilians.

“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he said.

On Aug. 29, Guterres called on Israel to cease its anti-terror operations in Judea and Samaria, consistent with his ongoing demand that Israel immediately cease operations in Gaza.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon defended Israel’s actions, noting that Iran has been working to introduce sophisticated explosives into Judea and Samaria to “detonate in the centers of Israeli cities.”

“The State of Israel cannot sit idly by and wait for the spectacle of buses and cafés exploding in city centers,” he said. “The activity of the IDF forces in Judea and Samaria is intended for the clear purpose of thwarting terrorist attacks and acts before they are carried out under Iranian direction.”

 In March, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed Guterres, tweeting, “Under his leadership, the @UN has become an antisemitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror.”

On Oct. 24, shortly after the Hamas attack, Guterres drew the ire of Israeli officials when he told the U.N. Security Council, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” adding that “the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

Guterres has come under fire from many Israeli civil society groups and U.S. Jewish organizations that believe that the U.N. has shown little to no empathy for the victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault.

JNS

Day 345 — Sunday, September 15

After UNRWA claimed that one of its workers was killed by an Israeli sniper, the IDF stated that the man who was killed was a known terrorist and was shot as he was hurling explosives at Israeli soldiers operating in the Fara’a camp as part of its ongoing “Summer Camps” counter-terror operation.

The UN agency claimed in a post on X on Friday that a “sanitation labourer in the northern West Bank was shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper yesterday. This marks the first time an UNRWA staff member was killed in the West Bank in more than 10 years.”

IDF International Spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani retorted that “as per usual, UNRWA isn’t telling the full story.”

“During an IDF counterterrorism operation in the Far’a area, which was characterized by violence that included shooting and the hurling of explosive devices at the security forces, a terrorist was identified hurling explosive devices that posed a threat to the forces operating in the area,” Shoshani wrote.

“IDF troops opened fire toward him to remove said threat, and he was killed. The terrorist was subsequently identified and it was discovered he is also an UNRWA employee named Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad. It should be noted that after receiving his details, it was found that the terrorist was known to Israeli security forces and he had been complicit in additional terrorist activities.”

“This is yet another example of an UNRWA employee taking active part in terrorist activities against Israel, as has been proven in several other cases in the past, including employees who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre,” the spokesman added.

Just last Thursday, UNRWA had claimed that six of its workers were killed in an IDF airstrike on a school building in Gaza. The IDF later published a list of nine names of people who died in the strikes, which it said were verified Hamas terrorists.

These included at least three confirmed terrorists who at the same time worked for UNRWA, as well as several terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre.

The raid in Far’a, in northern Samaria (West Bank) was part of a large-scale joint operation by the IDF, the Border Police and the Shin Bet in five locations at the same time, during which the IDF killed 10 gunmen, and destroyed a car bomb, several explosives laboratories, communications rooms and many weapons.

During 2-day long raids in the towns of Far’a, Tubas and Tamoun, Israeli security forces destroyed a car rigged with explosives and a remote activation system.

At the same time, raids in Tulkarem and Nur a-Shams saw eight terrorists being killed in airstrikes, while another was killed and 15 wounded during a gunbattle.

Three of the terrorists eliminated in an airstrike in Nur a-Shams were senior commanders in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, the IDF said. In addition, another one of the killed was a suspect in the killing of police officer Maxim Rizhakov on October 19 of last year.

Anti-terror operations continued on Friday, when the IDF announced that soldiers found a terror tunnel in the town of Tulkarem.

“An underground tunnel was found near a hospital located inside the Tulkarm camp. The tunnel has an entrance hole and no exit. The forces continue to study the tunnel and will destroy it,” the army stated.

Israeli troops confiscated several weapons, including two M-16 rifles and sniper rifles.

In Tulkarem, four explosives laboratories, four communications rooms with cameras and a lathe used to make weapons were located and destroyed. In Tubas, five more gunmen were killed in an airstrike.

The Israeli army at the end of August launched Operation Summer Camps, the largest counter-terror operation in Judea and Samaria since 2022’s Operation Defensive Shield, during which the IDF reoccupied several towns in the area.

The name “Operation Summer Camps” refers to the so-called refugee camps across the region which have been hotbeds of repeated terror incitement and activity. The IDF also said the raid is a response to the unsuccessful Tel Aviv terror attack and was based on intelligence connected to that incident.

All Israel News 

Day 344 — Saturday, September 14

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared victory Thursday in the battle of Rafah, having destroyed Hamas’s four battalions there over the course of four months.

It was a battle that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president, told Israel not to fight, warning of the consequences for civilians there, and even threatening to withhold U.S. weapons.

“I have studied the maps,” Harris said, declaring that it was impossible to attack Rafah without hurting civilians.

Israel, believing it would lose the war without taking Rafah, entered anyway.

At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the importance of eliminating the last remaining Hamas battalions. As of May 2024, Israel had destroyed 18 of those battalions, leaving four in Rafah and two in central Gaza. Without destroying the final six battalions, Netanyahu argued, it would be impossible to win the war.

After delaying from February to May, in the fact of opposition from Harris and President Joe Biden, Netanyahu proceeded with battle plans, and IDF troops seized the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border before turning toward the rest of Rafah, fighting neighborhood by neighborhood, street to street, and house to house.

As Breitbart News reported, the prime minister’s office declared Thursday that all of the Hamas battalions had been destroyed, and that Hamas was now reduced to guerrilla warfare and no longer functioning as a coherent military.

The Jewish News Syndicate added that the IDF formally declared victory in Rafah over the four battalions there:

The Israel Defense Forces has defeated Hamas’s Rafah brigade, the military declared on Thursday after four months of targeted raids in the area of the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city near the border with Egypt.

Since the start of the Rafah operation on May 6, troops have killed more than 2,000 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists and destroyed some eight miles of underground smuggling and attack routes, according to an Israeli army statement on Thursday evening.

The Rafah brigade and its four battalions—Yabna (south), east Rafah, Tel al-Sultan (west) and Shaboura (north)—was the terror group’s final functioning brigade, according to past Israel military assessments.

As Caroline Glick noted, U.S. Ambassador Jack Lew tried to claim credit on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration for Israel’s military success, claiming that Israel improved its military plans for Rafah by addressing U.S. objections.

The Biden administration claimed to be concerned about the fate of one million civilians who had left northern portions of Gaza to seek shelter in Rafah. Israel successfully evacuated those civilians from Rafah before attacking.

Breitbart

Day 344 — Saturday, September 14

Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday blasted outgoing European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Josep Borrell over his anti-Israel actions.

In a post on X, Katz shared a photo in which Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is portrayed as an octopus, with Borrell next to Khamenei, holding an Iranian flag.

“In the same week that the US, Germany, France, and the UK imposed sanctions on Iran’s aviation ties following missile supplies threatening Europe, the outgoing EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borell is busy with hate campaigns against Israel,” Katz wrote.

“Instead of pushing for the EU to join the sanctions on Iran, Borrell supports establishing a Palestinian terror state controlled by Iran and the axis of evil against Israel, moderate Arab states, and Europe. This is Borrell’s legacy – antisemitism and hatred towards Israel,” he added.

The post followed Borrell’s participation in a conference hosted by Spain which dealt with a “two-state solution” and which was attended by ministers from both Muslim and European nations.

Asked about Katz’s comments on Friday, Borrell said that “accusing those who disagree with a government’s position of antisemitism makes no sense.”

“There have unfortunately been examples in history of what it means to be antisemitic, and I don’t think we should play with big words that have had a tragic dimension in history,” he added.

Borrell has been critical of Israel and most recently sought to promote a series of anti-Israel resolutions, including sanctions against ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Israel worked to thwart Borrell’s initiative, which ultimately did not pass as it did not have a majority.

In January, Borrell asserted that Israel had “created” and “financed” Hamas. Later, he repeated that claim when pressed about it by reporters.

Borrell previously condemned Hamas for using “hospitals and civilians as human shields” in Gaza, but also urged Israel to show “maximum restraint” to protect civilians from the war it is waging against Hamas.

In February, the EU foreign affairs chief urged allies of Israel — primarily the United States — to stop sending Israel weapons.

Arutz Sheva

Day 350 — Friday, September 20

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called the series of blasts of communication devices across Lebanon in the past two days an ‘act of war’ by Israel. In his highly anticipated televised speech on Thursday, Nasrallah said Israel crossed ‘all red lines’ and vowed to administer a ‘just punishment.’ 

He promised to deliver the retribution where Israel expects it and where it does not, without elaborating any further. 

This was the first time the leader of the Lebanese terror group has spoken publicly about the two waves of explosions that shook the country. He admitted that Hezbollah was dealt an “unprecedented blow” with reportedly dozens of operatives killed and injured around 3,000. 

Nasrallah also admitted that he knew of the second round of explosions in advance, after he allegedly received a warning from Israel. 

“On Tuesday, I received messages from Israel to stop the attacks. Otherwise, there would be another strike on Wednesday,” Nasrallah explained. 

The Hezbollah chief said the sequence of attacks pose “a major assault on Lebanon, its security and sovereignty,” adding they could be seen as a “war crime” or a “declaration of war” by Israel.  

During his speech, Israeli fighter jets were reportedly heard flying low altitude over Beirut, creating large sonic booms. 

Isarel has so far has kept its silence over its alleged involvement in the mysterious blasts, but Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hinted on Thursday, saying: “Hezbollah feels that it is being persecuted and the sequence of military actions will continue.”

In a briefing for top security officials on recent developments on the northern front, Gallant noted that “in the new phase of the war there are significant opportunities but also significant risks.”

He reiterated the goal is to ensure the safe return of around 60,000 residents of Israel’s northern communities to their homes.

“As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price,” he warned. 

Gallant’s remarks came after Nasrallah stressed in his speech that the only way Israel would be able to return the displaced to the North is by “stopping the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

He added that Hezbollah will not cease its attacks on Israel’s territory as long as the war in Gaza continues. 

Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – have repeatedly said that the situation in the north must either be resolved by a diplomatic solution or a military one. Israel demands that Hezbollah would adhere to UN Security Council resolution 1701 which ended the Second Lebanon war in 2006. It stated that Hezbollah must disarm and withdraw 18 miles north of the Litany River. 

Nasrallah mocked the idea of creating a such security zone inside Lebanon and dared Israel to invade the country’s territory. 

“We are waiting for your tanks, and we will see this as a historic opportunity,” he said. 

Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah launched over 8,000 missiles, projectiles and explosive drones at Israel, killing dozens of civilians and soldiers and causing damage to property. 

All Israel News

Day 350 — Friday, September 20

As we approach the anniversary of October 7, there will no doubt be a somber mood throughout Israel.  But it will also be a day of high anxiety.  Considering jihadists enjoy sowing their reign of terror on symbolic dates, Israel’s military and intelligence services will have no time to reflect.

They will need to be at the highest level of alertness in order to prevent any attacks which would cause even more pain to the Jewish people.

Gabriel Senderowicz, president of the Jewish Community of Porto (also known as Oporto) in Portugal recently said: “To know the 1506 massacre in Lisbon is to know the 7 October 2023 massacre in Israel and the historic genocides of Jews all over Europe.  The only change has been in the weapons.”  Considering not many people are aware of the 1506 genocide, I thought it would be prudent to examine it, particularly given the comparisons drawn by Senderowicz to the terrible atrocities inflicted on the Jewish people on October 7.

In the streets of Lisbon (Portugal) between April 19 and April 21 in the year 1506, up to 4,000 Jews were brutally murdered.

According to the Jewish Community of Oporto today, the Lisbon massacre is not included in the school curriculum and has all but been forgotten by the Portuguese people.  They may have chosen to forget, but the Jewish people have not.  How can they, when nation after nation seeks their destruction?

Yotam Kreiman, charge d’affaires at the Israeli Embassy in Portugal recently said: “The same boiling hatred under the surface that erupted in the 1506 Lisbon massacre, is the same 3,000 years old hatred for Jews that keeps erupting, as we say in Passover: every generation an evil rises to eliminate us. This is the hatred we saw in 1939, and also in October 7, and also today in the U.S. campuses. It is nourished by blood libels and false accusations, and it is more dangerous than any assassin: because it uses the masses to lay the grounds to slaughter innocents.”

In what must feel like a cruel twist of irony to the Jewish people, one of the people most dismissive of the October 7 attacks is current United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.  Earlier this year, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote that under the leadership of Guterres, the UN has “become an antisemitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror.”  Why is this all tragically ironic?  Guterres was born in Lisbon, Portugal.

Day 350 — Friday, September 20

(Galilee, Israel) — Shalom from Galilee! You know, sometimes you look at the events happening around you and all you can do is sit back and say, “Oh, my goodness.” I mean, seriously! If you’ve read my thrillers, you know what a great fan I am of the Mossad and how highly I think of their skillset. But the events of Tuesday and Wednesday? Again, oh my goodness!

It was 3:30 PM, Tuesday afternoon. All the Hezbollah leadership and mid-level guys were out doing their Hezbollahy things – buying some fruit, visiting family, torturing prisoners. Suddenly, their pagers went off. Yes, you read that right. Their pagers, just like what happens to millions of people every day all around the world, or at least it did back in the 90s. The message was an error code that kept the device beeping and vibrating for ten seconds. Some lifted their pagers up so they could read the code before clearing it. Others just figured there was a problem and cleared the code while the device remained on their belts. As soon as they pressed the clear button, the devices exploded.

It was ugly. Many had their waists severely burned. Others had others parts of their nether regions seriously and permanently compromised. The ones who got the worst of it, though, were those who were trying to make out the numbers on the tiny LED screen. Many of them were blinded. Others lost their lives. It was the most direct, well-planned, and perfectly executed cyberstrike of the modern era. More than 4000 Hezbollah terrorists were wounded initially, and at least 11 were killed. Four hundred of those wounded are in critical condition, more than 500 lost their eyesight, and 18 high-ranking terrorist commanders were injured.

This all started with Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, calling on his minions to abandon their cell phones, because they could be tracked. He encouraged them to go back to low tech communications, like pagers. So, the terrorist organization put in an order with a Taiwanese company who subbed the order out to a Hungarian company that just might have been tied in very deeply with the Mossad. Hungary, by the way, claims the devices were never in their country. But one way or another the order was fulfilled, with a free bonus to 5000 of the pagers – 20 grams of PETN explosives. Once completed, they shipped them to Lebanon where they were distributed to various levels of leadership. Soon, all the cool terrorists were sporting them on their belts. The run-of-the-mill terror-guys didn’t need them, because they just follow the orders of their bosses.

Then came 3:30 PM, the alerts, and the explosions. It happened all across Lebanon and even into Syria. Lebanese terrorists were taken down. Some Syrians were hit. Even Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, lost an eye and had his other severely damaged. Strange that an Iranian ambassador would be carrying a Hezbollah pager, don’t you think? The Iranian connection goes even farther with the son of Ali Maruf Hejazi, the Iran Supreme Leader’s representative in Lebanon, seriously injured in both of his eyes when his Hezbollah pager blew up. Later in the day yesterday, Al-Hadath, a Saudi newspaper, reported that 19 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed by the pagers in Syria and another 150 were injured.

Back in Lebanon, it was chaos for Hezbollah. They had ditched their cell phones and now their pagers had blown up. Thankfully for the terrorists, many of the leaders who had survived the attack still had their hand-held radios. They were large and a little clunky, but they kept them connected.

Then Wednesday came, and it all started happening again.

Day 349 — Thursday, September 19

Israeli fighter jets in the last several hours struck over 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon that were primed for immediate attacks on Israel, the military says.

The IDF says that in total, the launchers included around 1,000 launch barrels.

The strikes began this afternoon and were carried out in several waves.
“The IDF continues to damage and degrade the terror capabilities and military infrastructure of the Hezbollah terror organization,” the military adds.

After intensive Israel airstrikes in southern Lebanon, the IDF published a list of guidelines for civilians in several communities and cities in northern Israel, telling them to remain close to bomb shelters.

The guidelines apply to civilians in the Merom HaGalil Regional Council, Upper Galilee Regional Council, Mevo’ot HaHermon Regional Council, Yesud HaMa’ala, Hatzor, Rosh Pina, Safed, Metula, and towns in the Golan Heights from Katzrin and northward.

The IDF calls on civilians in those areas to reduce movement outside of homes, avoid large gatherings, guard the entrances to the communities, and remain close to bomb shelters.

Times Of Israel

Day 349 — Thursday, September 19

An Israeli citizen was recruited by Iranian intelligence agencies to assassinate Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a joint statement by the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police.

Identified as 73-year-old Moti Maman from Ashkelon, he was taken into custody last month.

In addition to Netanyahu, the conspiracy aimed to kill Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the Shin Bet Ronen Bar. The Israeli was smuggled twice into Iranian territory and received payment for carrying out missions.

He was arrested in August for allegedly committing security offenses related to contact with intelligence elements of the Iranian regime.

The suspect is a businessman who had lived in Turkey for significant periods of time, maintaining business and social relations with persons of Turkish and Iranian origin.

In April, the Israeli agreed, through the mediation of Turkish officials, to meet with a wealthy businessman living in Iran to promote business activity.

He also met with an Iranian handler in May – during these meetings, he was asked to perform certain tasks for Iran. These included transferring money or a gun at pre-determined points, photographing various sensitive sites in Israel and sending them to the Iranian authorities, and threatening other Israeli citizens in Israel on behalf of the regime.

In August, he returned to Iran while smuggled in the cab of a truck. During this visit, he was asked to help carry out the assassinations of the Israeli leaders, as well as other public figures, avenging the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The Israeli demanded $1 million in advance for his services, but this was refused. He received 5,000 euros for taking part in the meetings.

He was captured and indicted on September 19. A senior Shin Bet official called it “a very serious affair that is an example of the great efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit Israeli citizens to promote terrorist activities in Israel.”

i24 News

Day 349 — Thursday, September 19

Jerusalem’s Old City, in addition to Judea and Samaria, must be Judenrein within a year, according to a Palestinian-drafted resolution, which the U.N. General Assembly passed on Wednesday.

The resolution, which passed by a 124-14 margin with 43 abstentions, is meant to give force to a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, which declared Israeli presence to be illegal in any area over the 1949 armistice line.

More than 40 countries sponsored the resolution, which was the first that Palestinians filed after being granted unprecedented privileges, for a non-U.N. member, earlier this year.

The resolution calls on the Israel Defense Forces to withdraw completely from Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip within 12 months, which means evacuating all Jewish communities beyond the armistice line, including Jerusalem’s Old City.

It also bans arms sales to the IDF of any equipment that would be expected reasonably to be used in the territory over the 1949 lines and calls for a boycott of all products produced by Jews in those areas.

The resolution text lacks any mention of Israeli security concerns, historic ties to the lands or Hamas’s terror attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.

The vote came after a day of debate on Tuesday. 

Argentina, Czechia, Fiji, Hungary, Malawi, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, Tuvalu and the United States joined Israel in opposing the resolution.

Notably, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Ukraine and Australia were among those who abstained.

General Assembly resolutions have no legal force, but the resolution’s passage on Wednesday is expected to be used in international courts and other fora to seek additional action against the Jewish state.

It is widely expected that the Palestinians will request that the U.N. Security Council take up the issue. Security Council resolutions are binding, but the United States would be expected to thwart such an effort, including with its veto power.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called it “a shameful decision that backs the Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic terrorism.”

He added that the General Assembly “continues to dance to the music of the Palestinian Authority, which backs the Hamas murderers.”

Before the vote, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters he would back the implementation of the resolution should it pass.

Seth Riklin and Daniel Mariaschin, president and CEO, respectively, of B’nai B’rith International, said the international nonprofit is “appalled” by the “atrocious” resolution.

“B’nai B’rith International strongly condemns the U.N. General Assembly’s passage of the first resolution officially sponsored by Palestinians days after they became the first non-member state group further upgraded to many member state privileges at the U.N. General Assembly, despite the world body’s own rules and practices,” they said.

“Coming from an assembly in which Arab and other pro-Palestinian governments wield an automatic majority to annually condemn Israel more than all other countries combined, the motion is unprecedented in its shamelessly one-sided endorsement of Palestinian claims and political demands, and further erodes the U.N.’s credibility as a serious contributor to promoting conflict-resolution and universal human rights,” they added.

“Shame on all countries that enabled this atrocious affront to justice and peace as part of the latest UNGA ’emergency session’ on the Middle East that does nothing to help seriously address and settle the emergency,” Riklin and Mariaschin said.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations condemned the “biased and dangerous” resolution strongly, Harriet Schleifer and William Daroff, chair and CEO respectively said. They called it “the latest salvo in an obsessive, decades-long campaign against Israel.”

“Attempting to isolate Israel in this manner is undoubtedly a threat to her national security as she faces terror threats on all sides and offensive to her status as the only democracy in the Middle East and therefore cannot be accepted by the international community,” they added.

Arsen Ostrovsky and Nadav Steinman, CEO and board chair, respectively, of the International Legal Forum, stated that “today, simply put, the United Nations has become the diplomatic arm of Hamas” and that the resolution “is just the latest in a litany of obscenely one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N. since Oct. 7.” 

“All it does is reward the murderers, rapists and abductors of Hamas while pouring further fuel on worldwide antisemitism and eroding whatever remaining credibility of the already problematic and politicized International Court of Justice, upon which this resolution is meant to be based,” they added. “Ultimately, peace will only prevail when Hamas is defeated and the hostages are released, not through tiresome antics and pyrrhic Palestinian ‘victories’ at the U.N.”

JNS

Day 349 — Thursday, September 19

A fresh wave of explosions ripped across Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon, appearing to mainly target hand-held radios used by Hezbollah members, a day after thousands were wounded when their pagers spontaneously exploded in a coordinated attack widely blamed on Israel after months of cross-border fire.

At least 20 people were killed and 450 were wounded in Wednesday’s second wave of blasts, according to Lebanese officials. An Israeli report said Jerusalem believes the death toll to be higher than reported, with Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit hit hard by the two days of attacks.

Explosions were reported Wednesday in phones, solar energy systems and fingerprint reading devices used by the group.

At least one of the blasts took place at a funeral organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for some of the 12 people killed in the pager explosion attack on Tuesday.

An AP photographer in the southern coastal city of Sidon saw a car and a mobile phone shop that were damaged by devices exploding inside of them.

“A number of walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” a source told Reuters, with Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers confirming devices had exploded inside two cars in the area.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon, and a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded as part of blasts heard in Beirut. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Images circulating online purported to show the devices, which appeared to be different and larger than the pagers that exploded Tuesday. The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, said a security source.

A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking out the batteries of any walkie-talkies on them that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels around them.

Images of the exploded walkie-talkies examined by Reuters showed an inside panel labeled “ICOM” and “Made in Japan.” According to its website, ICOM is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.

Lebanon’s Red Cross said on X that it was responding with 30 ambulance teams to multiple explosions in different areas.

Lebanon’s official news agency reported that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and in southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl. The reports of further electronic devices exploding suggested even greater infiltration into Hezbollah’s supply chain than was previously thought.

According to a Ynet report, Israel believes Hezbollah’s toll from the attacks over the last two days is much higher than the official numbers released so far.

“The estimation is that there are many dozens of dead, if not more,” veteran investigative reporter and analyst Ronen Bergman wrote, without naming his sources.

Bergman added that Israel believes the explosions caused “significant harm” to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, with much of its leadership taken out of action.

The new round of explosions on Wednesday came as Lebanon and Hezbollah were still struggling to come to terms with the shock and scale of Tuesday’s attack. 

Times Of Israel

Day 348 — Wednesday, September 18

The IDF announced Wednesday morning the deaths of three combat soldiers and a paramedic who were killed during the fighting in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Captain Daniel Mimon Toaff, aged 23, from Moreshet, was a Deputy Company Commander from the ‘Shaked’ Battalion, ‘Givati’ Brigade. Staff Sergeant Amit Bakri, aged 20, from Yoshivia, was a soldier in the ‘Shaked’ Battalion, ‘Givati’ Brigade. Staff Sergeant Dotan Shimon, aged 21, from Elazar in Gush Etzion, was a soldier from the ‘Shaked’ Battalion, ‘Givati’ Brigade. Staff Sergeant Agam Naim, aged 20, from Kibbutz Mishmarot, was a Paramedic in the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade.

During operations in the southern Gaza Strip, troops of the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion entered the area of the Tel Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.

When the troops were in a building in the area, an IED apparently exploded, causing the building to partially collapse and leading to the deaths of the four soldiers.

First Sergeant Agam Naim is the first female combatant to fall in ground operations in Gaza since the beginning of the current campaign.

All Israel News

Day 348 — Wednesday, September 18

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon lost one eye and suffered serious injury to the other when a pager he was carrying exploded on Tuesday, amid a nationwide attack targeting Tehran’s terror proxy Hezbollah.

Two members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps briefed on the attack confirmed the extent of Mojtaba Amini’s injuries to The New York Times, saying that they were more serious than initially reported and that he was being transported to Tehran for treatment.

Hossein Soleimani, the editor-in-chief of Mashregh, the main IRGC news website, tweeted, “Unfortunately, the injuries inflicted on the Iranian ambassador in the eye area were very severe.”

A video published by Iranian news media outlets of Amini being transported to the hospital shows him on a street in Beirut in the chaotic aftermath of the attack with his eyes covered with bandages and the front of his white shirt covered in blood.

According to Iranian media reports, two of Amini’s bodyguards were also wounded when their pagers exploded.

One of the IRGC members told the Times that the pagers beeped for around 10 seconds before exploding, prompting some to put the pagers close to their faces to check for a message.

The two IRGC members also said that the pagers were only used by Hezbollah members.

JNS

Day 347 — Tuesday, September 17

At least 11 people were killed and thousands were injured when pagers held by Hezbollah members across Lebanon exploded on Tuesday afternoon, in what appeared to be a widescale, coordinated attack attributed to Israel.

The unprecedented wave of explosions, which also reportedly killed and injured several people in Syria, sparked chaos in a region already on high alert for the outbreak of full-scale hostilities.

It came hours after Israel designated the halting of Hezbollah’s attacks one of its main war goals and announced that it had foiled an assassination attempt by the Iranian proxy group against a former senior official.

Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said in an initial evening press conference that nine people were killed and 2,750 more were injured in the blasts, including some 200 people in critical condition. In a later update, Abiad was cited by Arabic-language media as saying that the death toll had risen to 11, and another 4,000 were wounded, including 400 in critical condition.

Ambulances carrying Hezbollah members and others with bloodied limbs and faces streamed to hospitals for hours after the blasts, overwhelming health services.

Hezbollah said three people were killed, including two members of the group, and blamed Israel for the spree of pager blasts, promising to retaliate.

“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” the group said in a statement, adding that Israel “will certainly receive its fair punishment for this sinful aggression.”

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was lightly injured by an exploding pager, Iran’s state-run media said.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was not hurt in the explosions, the group said.

In Syria, seven people were killed in the coordinated attack, according to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Saberin News.

The fatalities were reportedly in the Damascus neighborhood of Seyedah Zeinab, a Shiite stronghold.

Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary said his country condemned the “Israeli aggression,” becoming the first Lebanese official to directly implicate Israel.

Israel did not respond to allegations that it had been behind the attack; the Israel Defense Forces said Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi met with top brass for talks “with an emphasis on readiness for attack and defense in all arenas.”

Hebrew media reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and other security chiefs were meeting at the Defense Ministry headquarters at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv following the apparent attack.

The wave of explosions started at about 3:45 p.m. local time and lasted around an hour. It was not immediately clear how the devices were detonated, but media outlets reported that owners received a message before the blasts.

Regional broadcasters carried CCTV footage that showed what appeared to be a small handheld device placed next to a grocery store cashier where an individual was making a payment spontaneously exploding.

In other footage, an explosion appeared to knock out someone standing at a fruit stand in a market area.

The Hezbollah communication devices that exploded throughout Lebanon and in Syria were the latest model, brought in by the terror group in recent months, three security sources told Reuters.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, a Hezbollah official said the explosions were the result of “a security operation that targeted the devices.” He added that the new pagers that Hezbollah members were carrying had lithium batteries, which can smoke, melt, and even catch fire when overheated.

A video circulating on social media purports to show the moment that a pager used by a Hezbollah operative exploded in Lebanon. According to Lebanese media, dozens were injured after Israel allegedly hacked the devices and detonated them. https://t.co/1RMiF8wqAA pic.twitter.com/b07wTuRQ0N

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 17, 2024

Times Of Israel

Day 347 — Tuesday, September 17

According to a report in the German daily Bild, the German government has postponed further weapons sales to Israel while at the same time approving the sale of heavy weapons systems to the Emirate of Qatar.

Qatar is one of the most significant financial supporters of the terror group Hamas and has hosted several of the Hamas political leaders in Doha for around a decade.

Bild reported that the decision to continue arms sales to Qatar appears to be linked to an agreement in which Qatar would transfer older equipment to Ukraine in exchange for newer equipment from German defense firms.

Last year, the Israeli government requested the purchase of several thousand rounds of ammunition for its Merkava battle tanks, with additional requests for other military equipment.

However, according to the Bild article, Germany has not responded with its decision, despite Israel being engaged in active fighting on several fronts, including the war in Gaza against Hamas, and the escalating conflict with Hezbollah, along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

The move is concerning for Israel as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had pledged solidarity with Israel following the Hamas invasion and terror attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Shortly after the attack, Scholz visited Israel and made a bold declaration of support for the Jewish nation, saying: “Germany’s history and the responsibility it had for the Holocaust requires us to help maintain the security and existence of Israel.”

According to Austrian news magazine Profil, the German government has not issued export permits for arms to Israel since March.

In November, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is responsible for arms exports, said that “applications for the export of arms to Israel would be processed and decided on as a matter of priority.”

However, according to Profil, the majority of export permits for weapons were granted in the period immediately following Oct. 7.

Profil reported that export volumes (figured in sales amounts) had fallen “massively,” from 326 million Euros in the 2023 year to 14.5 million Euros in 2024 (with a cutoff date of Aug. 21, 2024). The report noted that this amount did not even cover the costs of the item, “Contribution to the procurement of defense systems for Israel,” which was allotted 45 million euros for 2024.

There appear to be factors hindering the sale of weapons to Israel, despite Scholz’s promises of support.

In July, when asked about Germany’s support for Israel following the release of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) opinion regarding Israel, Scholz stated, “We have supplied Israel with weapons, and we have not made a decision not to do so again.”

Profil noted that Scholz chairs the Federal Security Council, which meets in secret and has the responsibility of approving applications for arms exports from Germany. The magazine also noted that while “Scholz is wary of saying that Germany has made the decision to stop supplying weapons of war to Israel,” that is the de facto result of the council’s failure to approve export licenses.

All Israel News

Day 347 — Tuesday, September 17

Israel’s security cabinet, which is responsible for setting military policy, decided early Tuesday morning to adopt the return of the residents of northern Israel’s border towns to their homes as an official war goal.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement:

The Security Cabinet has updated the objectives of the war to include the following: Returning the residents of the north securely to their homes.

Israel will continue to act to implement this objective.

The decision does not formally commit Israel to a war against the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah, which occupies southern Lebanon illegally and has been firing rockets, missiles, and drones at Israel since October.

However, it means that Israel is committing to pursue such a war in the event that ongoing diplomatic efforts, led by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, fail to resolve the conflict.

Some 60,500 residents of northern Israel, from a total of 74 towns, have been evacuated since October.

The other three war objectives are: destroying Hamas’s military and governing capacities; freeing the hostages; and making sure that Gaza can never threaten Israel again.

Breitbart

Day 346 — Monday, September 16

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Sunday at the opening of the government meeting about the missile fired from Yemen at Israel in the morning, and touched on the situation in the north.

“The current situation will not continue,” Netanyahu said. “We will do everything necessary to safely return our residents to their homes.”

Regarding the Houthis in Yemen, Netanyahu said that “they should have already known that we exact a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.”

“Anyone who needs a reminder is welcome to visit the port of Hodeidah,” Netanyahu said, referring to the extensive Israeli attack against Houthi terror targets in Yemen about two months ago.

The Iran-backed Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree earlier hailed a “new hypersonic ballistic missile” as a success, even though it apparetly broke apart in the air before reaching its target.

“We are in a multi-front battle against Iran’s axis of evil that strives to annihilate us,” Netanyahu continued. “Anyone who attacks us will not escape our arm’s reach. Hamas is already learning this through our resolute action that will lead to its destruction and the release all our captives.”

i24 news

Day 346 — Monday, September 16

The ballistic missile fired by Yemen at Israel at 6:21 a.m. on Sunday morning was not a hypersonic missile as the Houthis have claimed, the IDF said Tuesday night.

Further, the IDF said that the missile was not an especially new advanced kind of maneuvering missile that could outwit Israel’s air defense systems.

Rather, the IDF said that it fired multiple interceptors, including both the Arrow 2 and the Iron Dome, against the missile and that at least one interceptor struck the missile but failed to destroy it completely on impact.

Instead, the impact of the interceptor led the missile to break up in Israeli airspace and fall mostly in an open field near Kfar Daniel, with other pieces of multiple interceptors falling in other areas, such as the Paatei Modiin Train Station and Rehovot. 

The IDF will now probe why the interceptor impact only caused the missile to break up and did not completely destroy it.

In fact, the IDF also said that the warhead remained intact when it struck the open area, which was one of the reasons why a significant fire was caused.

Jerusalem Post

Day 345 — Sunday, September 15

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that he has not spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the Oct. 7 massacre as the Israeli leader refuses to answer his calls.

“I have not talked to him because he didn’t pick up my phone calls, but I have no reason not to speak with him,” Guterres told Reuters in an interview published on Thursday. “So if he comes to New York and he asks to see me, I will be very glad to see him.”

Guterres made the same complaint in January to Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news outlet whose journalists had their press cards revoked by Israel on Thursday for incitement.

Guterres told the broadcaster that he has “asked to speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu and until now, that phone call has not been received.”

The two men last met in person in September 2023 at the annual U.N. General Assembly session.

The secretary-general has taken a consistently anti-Israel approach since Oct. 7.

Speaking to Reuters, Guterres accused Israel of “very dramatic violations of the international humanitarian law and the total absence of an effective protection of civilians.

“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he said.

On Aug. 29, Guterres called on Israel to cease its anti-terror operations in Judea and Samaria, consistent with his ongoing demand that Israel immediately cease operations in Gaza.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon defended Israel’s actions, noting that Iran has been working to introduce sophisticated explosives into Judea and Samaria to “detonate in the centers of Israeli cities.”

“The State of Israel cannot sit idly by and wait for the spectacle of buses and cafés exploding in city centers,” he said. “The activity of the IDF forces in Judea and Samaria is intended for the clear purpose of thwarting terrorist attacks and acts before they are carried out under Iranian direction.”

 In March, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed Guterres, tweeting, “Under his leadership, the @UN has become an antisemitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror.”

On Oct. 24, shortly after the Hamas attack, Guterres drew the ire of Israeli officials when he told the U.N. Security Council, “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” adding that “the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

Guterres has come under fire from many Israeli civil society groups and U.S. Jewish organizations that believe that the U.N. has shown little to no empathy for the victims of Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault.

JNS

Day 345 — Sunday, September 15

After UNRWA claimed that one of its workers was killed by an Israeli sniper, the IDF stated that the man who was killed was a known terrorist and was shot as he was hurling explosives at Israeli soldiers operating in the Fara’a camp as part of its ongoing “Summer Camps” counter-terror operation.

The UN agency claimed in a post on X on Friday that a “sanitation labourer in the northern West Bank was shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper yesterday. This marks the first time an UNRWA staff member was killed in the West Bank in more than 10 years.”

IDF International Spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani retorted that “as per usual, UNRWA isn’t telling the full story.”

“During an IDF counterterrorism operation in the Far’a area, which was characterized by violence that included shooting and the hurling of explosive devices at the security forces, a terrorist was identified hurling explosive devices that posed a threat to the forces operating in the area,” Shoshani wrote.

“IDF troops opened fire toward him to remove said threat, and he was killed. The terrorist was subsequently identified and it was discovered he is also an UNRWA employee named Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad. It should be noted that after receiving his details, it was found that the terrorist was known to Israeli security forces and he had been complicit in additional terrorist activities.”

“This is yet another example of an UNRWA employee taking active part in terrorist activities against Israel, as has been proven in several other cases in the past, including employees who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre,” the spokesman added.

Just last Thursday, UNRWA had claimed that six of its workers were killed in an IDF airstrike on a school building in Gaza. The IDF later published a list of nine names of people who died in the strikes, which it said were verified Hamas terrorists.

These included at least three confirmed terrorists who at the same time worked for UNRWA, as well as several terrorists who took part in the October 7 massacre.

The raid in Far’a, in northern Samaria (West Bank) was part of a large-scale joint operation by the IDF, the Border Police and the Shin Bet in five locations at the same time, during which the IDF killed 10 gunmen, and destroyed a car bomb, several explosives laboratories, communications rooms and many weapons.

During 2-day long raids in the towns of Far’a, Tubas and Tamoun, Israeli security forces destroyed a car rigged with explosives and a remote activation system.

At the same time, raids in Tulkarem and Nur a-Shams saw eight terrorists being killed in airstrikes, while another was killed and 15 wounded during a gunbattle.

Three of the terrorists eliminated in an airstrike in Nur a-Shams were senior commanders in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, the IDF said. In addition, another one of the killed was a suspect in the killing of police officer Maxim Rizhakov on October 19 of last year.

Anti-terror operations continued on Friday, when the IDF announced that soldiers found a terror tunnel in the town of Tulkarem.

“An underground tunnel was found near a hospital located inside the Tulkarm camp. The tunnel has an entrance hole and no exit. The forces continue to study the tunnel and will destroy it,” the army stated.

Israeli troops confiscated several weapons, including two M-16 rifles and sniper rifles.

In Tulkarem, four explosives laboratories, four communications rooms with cameras and a lathe used to make weapons were located and destroyed. In Tubas, five more gunmen were killed in an airstrike.

The Israeli army at the end of August launched Operation Summer Camps, the largest counter-terror operation in Judea and Samaria since 2022’s Operation Defensive Shield, during which the IDF reoccupied several towns in the area.

The name “Operation Summer Camps” refers to the so-called refugee camps across the region which have been hotbeds of repeated terror incitement and activity. The IDF also said the raid is a response to the unsuccessful Tel Aviv terror attack and was based on intelligence connected to that incident.

All Israel News 

Day 344 — Saturday, September 14

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared victory Thursday in the battle of Rafah, having destroyed Hamas’s four battalions there over the course of four months.

It was a battle that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president, told Israel not to fight, warning of the consequences for civilians there, and even threatening to withhold U.S. weapons.

“I have studied the maps,” Harris said, declaring that it was impossible to attack Rafah without hurting civilians.

Israel, believing it would lose the war without taking Rafah, entered anyway.

At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the importance of eliminating the last remaining Hamas battalions. As of May 2024, Israel had destroyed 18 of those battalions, leaving four in Rafah and two in central Gaza. Without destroying the final six battalions, Netanyahu argued, it would be impossible to win the war.

After delaying from February to May, in the fact of opposition from Harris and President Joe Biden, Netanyahu proceeded with battle plans, and IDF troops seized the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border before turning toward the rest of Rafah, fighting neighborhood by neighborhood, street to street, and house to house.

As Breitbart News reported, the prime minister’s office declared Thursday that all of the Hamas battalions had been destroyed, and that Hamas was now reduced to guerrilla warfare and no longer functioning as a coherent military.

The Jewish News Syndicate added that the IDF formally declared victory in Rafah over the four battalions there:

The Israel Defense Forces has defeated Hamas’s Rafah brigade, the military declared on Thursday after four months of targeted raids in the area of the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city near the border with Egypt.

Since the start of the Rafah operation on May 6, troops have killed more than 2,000 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists and destroyed some eight miles of underground smuggling and attack routes, according to an Israeli army statement on Thursday evening.

The Rafah brigade and its four battalions—Yabna (south), east Rafah, Tel al-Sultan (west) and Shaboura (north)—was the terror group’s final functioning brigade, according to past Israel military assessments.

As Caroline Glick noted, U.S. Ambassador Jack Lew tried to claim credit on behalf of the Biden-Harris administration for Israel’s military success, claiming that Israel improved its military plans for Rafah by addressing U.S. objections.

The Biden administration claimed to be concerned about the fate of one million civilians who had left northern portions of Gaza to seek shelter in Rafah. Israel successfully evacuated those civilians from Rafah before attacking.

Breitbart

Day 344 — Saturday, September 14

Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday blasted outgoing European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Josep Borrell over his anti-Israel actions.

In a post on X, Katz shared a photo in which Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is portrayed as an octopus, with Borrell next to Khamenei, holding an Iranian flag.

“In the same week that the US, Germany, France, and the UK imposed sanctions on Iran’s aviation ties following missile supplies threatening Europe, the outgoing EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borell is busy with hate campaigns against Israel,” Katz wrote.

“Instead of pushing for the EU to join the sanctions on Iran, Borrell supports establishing a Palestinian terror state controlled by Iran and the axis of evil against Israel, moderate Arab states, and Europe. This is Borrell’s legacy – antisemitism and hatred towards Israel,” he added.

The post followed Borrell’s participation in a conference hosted by Spain which dealt with a “two-state solution” and which was attended by ministers from both Muslim and European nations.

Asked about Katz’s comments on Friday, Borrell said that “accusing those who disagree with a government’s position of antisemitism makes no sense.”

“There have unfortunately been examples in history of what it means to be antisemitic, and I don’t think we should play with big words that have had a tragic dimension in history,” he added.

Borrell has been critical of Israel and most recently sought to promote a series of anti-Israel resolutions, including sanctions against ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Israel worked to thwart Borrell’s initiative, which ultimately did not pass as it did not have a majority.

In January, Borrell asserted that Israel had “created” and “financed” Hamas. Later, he repeated that claim when pressed about it by reporters.

Borrell previously condemned Hamas for using “hospitals and civilians as human shields” in Gaza, but also urged Israel to show “maximum restraint” to protect civilians from the war it is waging against Hamas.

In February, the EU foreign affairs chief urged allies of Israel — primarily the United States — to stop sending Israel weapons.

Arutz Sheva