Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 91?

The German government is monitoring the situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday, as the country's top diplomat prepares to travel to the Middle East for talks.

"The risk of escalation is unfortunately very real," the spokesperson said.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will depart on Sunday for Israel to meet her new counterpart Israel Katz and Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog, according to the spokesperson. She is also scheduled to hold talks in the Palestinian territories.

After Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the deadly terrorist attack in Iran on Wednesday, Major General Hossein Salami of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps said that "the [ISIS] terrorists are only acting as agents for America and Israel."

At the funeral for the victims of twin Islamic State bombings two days earlier, Salami claimed that the "hated Zionist regime is on the verge of destruction and every day 20 Zionists are killed by the Palestinians," numbers that do not align with actual casualty numbers for Israel and the IDF. 

Nearly 100 people were killed at a memorial in the city of Kerman on Wednesday for top commander Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone.

Islamic State said on Thursday that two of its members had detonated explosive belts in the crowd that had gathered at the cemetery in the southeastern city.

In a televised speech, President Ebrahim Raisi said: "Our enemies can see Iran's power and the whole world knows its strength and capabilities. Our forces will decide on the place and time to take action."

On Friday, the State Attorney's Office submitted an indictment to the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court against Yehezkel Varshoyar, a 35-year-old resident of Jerusalem, who beheaded a donkey and hung it in a Muslim cemetery in the Old City of Jerusalem last week.

The prosecution also requested the arrest of the accused until the end of the proceedings against him.
 

The IDF found tunnel shafts, a chemical lab for weapon production, and anti-tank launch sites in a raid of a central Gaza neighborhood's high-rise district, the Israeli military said Friday.

The military said that an operation led by the 646th Brigade, in cooperation with the Yahalom special engineering unit, targeted many high-rise buildings the IDF said were used by Hamas as launch sites, targeting Israeli tanks and fighter jets.

During the operation, Israeli forces found launches loaded with rockets and several tunnel shafts across the neighborhood.

IDF finds chemical laboratory used for terror in Gaza

The IDF also found a chemical laboratory used by Hamas terrorists for weapon production. The weaponry found and seized included sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, and pistols. 

Yahalom forces destroyed terrorist observation posts, booby-trapped buildings, and underground tunnel shafts as part of the operation.

The IDF added that "many terrorists" were killed by forces during their raid of the Gaza district, as the IDF continued its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel Air Force fighter jets attacked the areas of Eita al-Sha'ab and Majdal Zon in Lebanese territory, the IDF said on Friday.

The attack destroyed several parts of Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure, including a military site where terrorists were believed to be working.

Is the Israel-Hamas war keeping you awake? You are not alone.

Data from Israel's health insurance funds and pharmacies reveal a significant increase in the consumption of sleep medication, under a doctor's prescription or in alternative forms. Experts warn that this increase can add to the risk of addiction and damage to the normal sleep mechanism.

We spend a third of our lives sleeping, which is important not only for preventing fatigue and functioning alertly during the day but also for a huge variety of medical processes that happen at night. A lack of sleep has already been proven to shorten lifespan and can increase the risk of chronic diseases including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

The security and political situation since the October 7 massacre has led to an increase in patient inquiries and complaints of feelings of fear and anxiety. In the last three months, close to a hundred thousand distress calls were registered about a feeling of loneliness, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and also related sleep disorders, according to data provided by health professionals in Israel.

According to data from the United Health Insurance Fund, the first month of fighting showed a 170% increase in the number of patients who for the first time started treatment with sleeping pills and sedation compared to the corresponding period last year.

In the second month, from November 7, there was a decrease of about 50% in patients who started treatment with anti-anxiety drugs, compared to an increase of about 20% in the number of patients who started using sleeping pills for the first time, compared to the first month of fighting.

Israeli security forces located and found and confiscated weapons and hundreds of explosive devices in the West Bank Nur Shams refugee camp inside a building that also housed a kindergarten run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), according to a Thursday IDF statement. 

In addition, many weapons and other pieces of military equipment were confiscated and destroyed, besides those found in the kindergarten. 

The operation was a joint effort between IDF reservist teams, the Shin Bet, and the Border Police and was the result of a 40-hour-long counter-terrorism operation in which hundreds of buildings were searched and hundreds of suspects were questioned, leading to 11 arrests.

Overnight on Thursday, Israeli forces arrested five more suspects and confiscated weaponry used for terror across the West Bank.

 Since the onset of the conflict in Gaza, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have led a surge in not only incitement disseminated on social media, particularly Telegram channels in the West Bank, but also concrete tactical guidance for perpetrating terror attacks.

In a report by Dr. Eitan Azani and Daniel Haberfeld of the International Institute for Counter-terrorism Cyber Desk of Reichman University obtained first by the Jerusalem Post, the authors break down these Telegram trends and how while some of the channels are local initiatives, the two major terror groups have created a new atmosphere and platform for promoting terror online, beyond even earlier rounds of social media incitement.

“The correlation between these online posts and real-life outcomes is unmistakable, manifested in the increase in attempted and successful terrorist attacks by Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including a rise in shooting incidents,” says the report.

One such attack occurred on December 8, when the report notes that terrorists committed a shooting attack against an IDF outpost near Mevo Dotan in which one soldier was injured.

On November 30, terrorists attacked civilians in a bus station in Jerusalem with automatic guns, killing three civilians and wounding five others – with both the November and December incidents having posts that mirrored them very closely.

Telegram app (credit: FLICKR)

Tamir Adar, a 38-year-old resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz who was taken hostage by Hamas, was murdered, his kibbutz announced.

His grandmother, Yaffa Adar, is an 85-year-old released hostage. Adar's body is held in Gaza, according to Army Radio.

EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will be in Lebanon from January 5 to January 7 to discuss the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border and the importance of avoiding regional escalation, the EU said in a statement on Friday.

"[Borrell] will re-emphasise the need to advance diplomatic efforts with regional leaders", the statement said.