Hostages:
After some hints at progress with Hamas, Israel sent a negotiating team back to Qatar.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Deputy Secretary-General told media: “I believe we have come close to achieving a prisoner exchange deal, even if only partially.” (Prisoner exchange here means terrorists released in exchange for innocent hostages.)
Hamas is now demanding a 10-day ceasefire in order to prepare a list of the hostages. The mediators asked Israel not to raise any new demands in exchange.
Defense Minister Israel Katz is threatening a return to high-intensity fighting in Gaza, if hostages are not returned: “If Hamas does not soon allow the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza, despite Israel’s willingness to make far-reaching compromises in accordance with the principles outlined by the US president, and continues to fire at Israeli communities, it will receive blows with a force not seen in Gaza for a long time.”
The Tikva Forum, which represents some families of the hostages, asked that the government stop negotiations and only use military force to return the hostages. The forum believes that the current negotiations will only lead to more harm for most of the hostages. The larger Hostage Families Forum is in support of negotiations.
Gaza:
Thank G-d, the IDF did not report any fallen heroes.
Sirens on the Gaza border late Thursday night were a false alarm. Earlier in the day, Hamas fired one rocket at an Israeli border town. The rocket was successfully intercepted.
Over the month of December, the IDF launched 1,400 airstrikes in Gaza, from fighter jets, drones, and attack helicopters. Targets included squads of terrorists, tunnel shafts and systems, weapons depots, sniper posts, and other Hamas infrastructure. The Air Force worked closely alongside troops on ground, providing airstrikes as backup in emergency situations.
Once again, following rockets launched from Jabaliya, the IDF gave evacuation warnings for the civilians in the area, ahead of intensified operations.
After evacuation warnings were given in Deir al-Balah, Central Gaza, following rocket launches, reports indicate that the IDF has begun striking Hamas targets. Central Gaza remains mostly untouched by the war, unlike the rest of Gaza.
A precision airstrike targeted a group of Hamas terrorists in a municipality center in Khan Younis, in the designated humanitarian zone, which they were using as a command center. Other airstrikes targeted terrorists in Jabalia, Shati, and Al-Marazi.
Troops in Rafah located and destroyed a rocket manufacturing facility. At the facility, troops found medium and long-range rockets, along with other weapons. Hamas used to fire most long-range rockets from within the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the edges of Rafah and Gaza’s border with Egypt. Hamas knew that Israel would hesitate to attack Hamas’s positions when they were too close to the Egyptian border.
Hamas announced that on Thursday morning, Israel eliminated Hamas’s police chief, Mahmoud Salah, and commander of the Khan Younis district, Hussam Shahwan.
A Hamas source told Al-Arabiya, a Saudi news channel, that they are recruiting new terrorists in Gaza. According to him, they are “receiving requests to join.” He confirmed that Hamas has suffered heavy losses in Gaza, but claimed that Hamas is capable of recovering.
Israel is now mulling two major operations to further crush Hamas:
1. Destroying Hamas’s governmental capabilities. This would mean eliminating all Hamas government employees, and their infrastructure. Something which has only been half done until now.
2. Retake Gaza City—a move which would be disastrous for Hamas, but also put many civilians back in tents during the winter months. The IDF took Gaza City earlier in the war, and then left it, after declaring the local battalions as defeated. Troops frequently return for small operations, but civilian life in the city has returned, and so has Hamas, though on a smaller scale.
Operation Many Ways:
Israel has now declassified an operation carried out in Syria in September, dubbed “Operation Many Ways.” This operations is seen as Israel’s most daring since the Entebbe Raid in 1976.
For decades, Iran has been building missile production factories in Syria, and smuggling the missiles into Lebanon for Hezbollah to use against Israel. And for decades, Israel has been unofficially bombing these factories. In 2017, Iran thought they’d outsmart Israel, and build a factory deep inside a Syrian mountain, so that it would be between 70 to 120 kilometers underground, and Israel’s Air Force couldn’t reach it. The location in northeastern Syria was also chosen for it’s distance from Israel, and because, after Damascus, it was protected by the strongest air defense systems in Syria.
The factory was planned to produce between 150 to 300 powerful long-range missiles per year.
In 2022, Israel’s intelligence establishments began to closely monitor construction of the factory. In 2024, a junior officer convinced her superiors that they must act immediately, because as soon as the factory construction was completed, Iran would heavily increase the security around it.
The operation took place after three months of training, in September 2024, while Assad was still in power, and when the factory was about to begin full operations. Over 46 aircraft took part in the operation. First, the IAF created an envelope of fire around the site—both to distract to Syrian Army, and ensure that they couldn’t reach the site quickly. The strikes also took out security systems and eliminated most of the 30 guards.
The commandos came in on four helicopters, which flew unusually low in order to evade Syrian radars, and travelled mostly over the sea for a 90 minute flight. The team included 100 commandos from the elite Shaldag unit, and 20 from Unit 669 who set up an emergency medical rescue in case it would be needed (spoiler: it was not). IDF calculations gave the commandos a two and a half hour time limit, calculating that the Syrian Army could send reinforcements by then—possibly an entire division of hundreds of soldiers.
The first IDF commandos to unload eliminated the few remaining Syrian guards to secure the ground. After 45 minutes, the troops managed to break into the factory. Once inside, they found everything to be exactly as the intelligence dictated. Intelligence was so accurate, that some of the commandos had been given forklift training ahead of the operation, knowing that they’d find them onsite, and be able to use them to knock down doors.
The mission was to lay 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of explosives, and primarily on the mixers, which were the most critical component of the factory. The commandos successfully located all the mixers, and laid explosives throughout the factory. They returned over ground, and detonated the entire string of explosives before departing. Just an hour after the IDF left, hundreds of Syrian soldiers arrived. Thank G-d, there were zero casualties to our forces.
The Iranians and Syrians were left dumbfounded—it took them days to figure out what had happened. No efforts to reconstruct were made, and moths later, both were chased out of Syria by the rebel forces.
Syria:
Late Thursday night, Syrian media reported an Israeli airstrike near Aleppo. The Saudi Al-Hadath channel reported that the target was a rocket storage depot, while the Sham FM radio station reported the strikes hit a Syrian defense facility and scientific research center. The IDF has not yet commented on the strikes.
In an interesting development, Bechor Simantov, who is one of the last Jews in Damascus, was invited to meet with an official from al-Julani’s new government. Simantov reported that the meeting was smiles all around, and that the government approved restoration of the historic Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in Jobar, and its security. The official also said that Jews would now be protected in Syria, along with all other religions.
Al-Julani is also reportedly showing interest in friendship with Saudi Arabia, while rejecting Qatar.
Again, nobody knows if the Al Queda break-off has actually turned a new leaf, or is just putting on a fantastic show to gain acceptance by the west. Al-Julani desperately needs that acceptance so that the sanctions against Syria are dropped, and he can build a stable government without relying on Russia or Iran as did Assad.
Judea and Samaria:
On Thursday evening, a terrorists threw stones at a civilian bus in Karnei Shomron. The bus was damaged, and one civilian was injured. IDF forces immediately began searching the area for the terrorists. Later, they were reported to be making arrests in Beit Ula, northwest of Hebron.
On Wednesday night, Border Police went undercover and made a surprise arrest of a wanted terrorist who was in a cafe in Shechem (Nablus).
A Wednesday evening terror attack left an IDF soldier lightly injured. The terrorist was neutralized.
In a welcome move, the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced that it’s banning Al Jazeera from areas under its control. Al Jazeera, which is owned by Qatar and promotes terrorism, has already been banned in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bahrain. Earlier in 2024, Israel came under intense international condemnation for banning the channel. It’s yet to see if the PA can enforce the ban at all.
On tv, the PA security spokesperson, Gen. Anwar Rajab, said that “outlaws” (aka, terrorist groups) target and use hospitals, and plant explosives near schools.
Yemen:
At 4:30 Friday morning, the Houthis launched a ballistic missile at Central Israel. Sirens sounded in the wider Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas, sending millions from Israel’s two largest cities to shelter. It was intercepted over Israel and shrapnel was reported to have fallen in Modiin.
No direct injuries were reported, but 12 people were treated for injuries sustained while running to shelter. Waking up in the middle of the night to a siren, and running to shelter, often grabbing children on the way, is very disorienting and frequently leads to injuries.
Lebanon:
On Thursday, the IDF carried out two airstrikes in Southern Lebanon to destroy medium-range rocket launchers. The strikes were carried out after the IDF followed the procedure of the current ceasefire agreement, and requested that the Lebanese Army neutralize the launchers. After the Lebanese Army chose not to handle the launchers, the IDF took care of them with airstrikes.
On Wednesday, the IDF used an airstrike to hit a squad of Hezbollah terrorists who were transferring weapons from a warehouse into a large van. Since the terrorists were in active violation of the ceasefire, the IDF did not need to ask the Lebanese Army to act, and instead was able to attack right away.
The Lebanese Al-Mayadeen channel reported that IDF forces have begun withdrawing from the town of A-Naqura while the Lebanese army is preparing to deploy there. At the same time, it was reported that IDF forces entered the Beit Lef area.
Other:
– Wednesday night sirens for a drone attack in Eilat were determined to be a “false identification.” This could either mean that the object on the radar was falsely identified and wasn’t an attack drone, or that a drone was falsely identified as a threat, since it wouldn’t reach Israeli shores.
