Israel News, Sunday, 06.10.2024  
  An Israeli Border Police officer was killed in a shooting attack in southern Israel. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israel attacked in Beirut over 30 times overnight into Sunday, calling it “the most violent night yet” since the beginning of the war. Israeli officials are examining the possibility of exiling Hamas leader Sinwar to Sudan as part of a cease-fire/hostage deal, sources told Haaretz. The IDF said that its forces returned to the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabalya due to intelligence that Hamas was trying to rebuild its capabilities there.
  What happened today 
 ■ ISRAEL-LEBANON: Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israel attacked Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh over 30 times overnight into Sunday, calling it “the most violent night yet” since the beginning of the war.

• The IDF said it killed in a strike in southern Lebanon a Hezbollah company commander allegedly responsible for anti-tank fire that killed two Israelis in northern Israel last January. Air force fighter jets attacked a series of Hezbollah targets in Beirut, the IDF said, adding that warnings were issued to civilians in the area prior to the strike.
  
• The IDF’s Arabic spokesman called on residents of nearly two dozen southern Lebanon villages to evacuate their homes and travel north of the Awali River.
  
• Some 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon at Israel since midnight, the IDF said, adding that it intercepted a drone off the coast of central Israel and two off the coast of northern Israel. Emergency services said that a rocket directly hit a building in a northern Israeli city, causing fires in the area.
  
• Esmail Ghaani, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, visited Beirut last week to meet with high-ranking Hezbollah members and assist the group in recovering from recent Israeli strikes in Lebanon, three Iranian officials told the New York Times.
  
• U.S. Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris said that she is “concerned about the security and well-being of civilians suffering in Lebanon and will continue working to help meet the needs of all civilians there,” adding that the U.S. will provide nearly $157 million in additional aid “to the people of Lebanon.”
  
• Israel originally came up with the plan to plant explosives in pagers and distribute them to Hezbollah in 2022, and even rigged Hezbollah walkie-talkies as early as 2015, the Washington Post reported, citing a number of sources.

“In Lebanon, as we have learned in the past, the connection between Israel’s original or stated plans and how things develop from friction with the enemy is loose. It’s hard to wage a war in second gear: One of the most important principles in war is the pursuit of a speedy victory. This is not how Israel has been acting, first in Gaza and now in Lebanon” – Amos Harel

■ ISRAEL: A 19-year-old Israeli Border Police officer, Sergeant Shira Chaya Suslik, was killed in a shooting at the central bus station in the southern city of Be’er Sheva. Ten other people were wounded, with two in serious condition.

• Police identified the attacker, who was shot and killed by IDF soldiers at the scene after he opened fire on a McDonald’s branch at the station, as an Israeli citizen from an unrecognized Bedouin village in the Negev.
  
• The IDF announced that Sergeant First Class (res.) Nir Hadad died from wounds he sustained while fighting in Gaza four months ago.

■ HOSTAGES/CEASE-FIRE: Israeli officials are examining the possibility of exiling Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other senior organization officials to Sudan with their consent as part of a cease-fire/hostage deal, sources told Haaretz.

• Family members of hostages held hostage in Gaza and activists for a deal blocked the intersection near the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. Moran Ben Yishai Moses, daughter of 80-year-old hostage Gadi Moses, said: “Now is the time to turn military gains into a diplomatic effort that’ll bring back the hostages and [lead to] regional calm…The military triumphs won’t erase the stain of shame and the criminal legacy of ‘Mr. Abandonment,’ Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners.”
  
• The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that “It’s inconceivable that a full year has passed since the horrific Saturday of October 7, when so many were murdered, injured, and kidnapped. It’s inconceivable that 101 hostages – our loved ones, our family members, our children, our parents, our grandparents – remain captive in the hands of the terror organization Hamas,” and called on the world to “maintain pressure on Hamas to accept a deal for the release of all hostages.”
  
• The families of the American hostages in Gaza said that “our hope keeps eroding with every failure. As this hellish nightmare goes into its second year, our message is simple: Get the deal done and bring them home now. Nothing should slow down their release. They are depending on us.”

■ GAZA: The IDF said that its 162nd Division resumed operations in the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabalya, following intelligence that Hamas was trying to rebuild its infrastructure in the area, adding that it is expanding the area designated as a humanitarian zone for Gazans evacuating from the north of the Strip.

• The IDF said it struck a Hamas compound in northern Gaza previously used as a school. Hamas said 24 people were killed in a strike on a school and mosque in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, adding that 27 buildings were hit in different IDF strikes across the Strip in the past 48 hours, including schools and refugee centers.
  
• The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 41,870 Palestinians were killed and 97,166 wounded since the start of the war.

■ IRAN-ISRAEL: During a visit to the Nevatim air base, hit during Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel last week, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “the Iranians haven’t even scratched the capabilities of the Air Force. There has been no disruption in our operations. Those who think that attempting to strike Israel will deter us from responding should look at what’s happening in Gaza and Beirut. We are strong in both defense and offense, and we’ll demonstrate this in the manner, time and place of our choosing.”

• Flights from all Iran’s airports have been canceled from Sunday 21:00 to Monday 06:00 local time, Iran’s Mehr news agency said, citing a spokesperson for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization.

“Iran can be expected to fight with all its might against [a political weakening within Lebanon of Hezbollah], which could mean the loss of its most important strategic stronghold in the Middle East. Because a Lebanese government without Hezbollah or with a weakened Hezbollah means not just a forced withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon to north of the Litani River, but also an effort to disarm it, as prescribed by Resolution 1701” – Zvi Bar’el

■ WEST BANK: The police announced that two German activists were deported through the Allenby border crossing between Israel and Jordan after entering the illegal Israeli outpost of Havat Maon in the West Bank on Wednesday and confronted IDF soldiers. Police claimed it found “materials expressing support for Hamas” on their mobile phones during their interrogation.

■ ISRAEL-U.S.: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will host his Israeli counterpart Gallant at the Pentagon on Wednesday “to discuss ongoing Middle East security developments,” the Department of Defense said in a statement.

■ UN: In a video statement marking one year since the events of October 7, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “this is a day for the global community to repeat in the loudest voice our utter condemnation of the abhorrent acts of Hamas,” adding that “it is time to release the hostages, and silence the guns.” 

 Israel declared war after Hamas killed at least 1,200 Israelisand wounded more than 3,300 on October 7. In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled health ministry reports that at least 41,870 Palestinians have been killed. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad hold hostage more than 120 soldiers and civilians, dead and alive, including foreign nationals.

The war comes after ten months of the most significant domestic political and social crisis in decades, due to legislation promoted by the Netanyahu government aimed at dramatically weakening Israel’s judiciary and potentially rescuing Netanyahu from the three corruption trials he faces – and amid an escalation of violence between West Bank Palestinians and Israeli settlers, the latter empowered by Israel’s most right-wing government ever.