Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 94?

Hezbollah and foreign media reports claimed on Monday that the IDF killed Wissam al-Tawil, known as Jawad, a key operations commander in southern Lebanon, in an air strike in Khirbat Salem, Lebanon.

It was unclear if Jawad, a reportedly significant figure within Hezbollah, had been killed as part of ongoing exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah or whether he was specifically targeted.

If he was specifically targeted, the attack would seem to be part of a series of recent escalations.

From October 8 until early December, Hezbollah attacked Israel with rockets and anti-tank missiles, but only close to the northern border, to show solidarity with Hamas, and the IDF tended to respond proportionately.

In early December, the IDF ramped up its "responses" to start destroying much of Hezbollah's forces or assets within firing range of the northern border.

Israeli artillery unit firing shells towards Lebanon near the Israeli border with Lebanon, northern Israel, January 4, 2024. (credit: Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

Just six days after assassination of senior Hamas commander in Beirut

It would also mark the second major assassination on Lebanese soil in less than a week, following the killing of Hamas's Deputy Chief of Staff Saleh al-Arouri, the senior Hamas official, in a strike in Beirut last Tuesday.

In response to that strike, Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets on Saturday and significantly damaged an important piece of the IDF's air defense capabilities in the North.

If the IDF intentionally killed Jawad, it could be the latest response to that Hezbollah attack. Early reactions suggested Hezbollah itself could escalate even further.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Lebanon rejected an Israeli proposal to place German troops on the countries' shared border, according to reports in Arabic media.

After years of hearing about the tunnel threat in the North and South, now the residents of the Seam Line fear the threat has expanded to the eastern front. Dr. Daphne Richemond-Barak, an expert in the field, explains in an interview with Maariv why this is nothing less than an oversight. 

In parallel to the IDF’s extensive activity to destroy Hamas’s terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip, this week, the IDF will mark five years since the end of Operation Northern Shield, during which six Hezbollah tunnels that penetrated Israeli territory were located. The decision to launch the extensive activity in December 2018 was preceded by repeated reports of digging noises by residents of Israel’s northern border, many of whom are currently forced to stay outside their homes following the exchange of fire at the border.

In recent weeks, after many years in which we have become accustomed to hearing about the underground threat in the north and south, similar complaints have been forwarded to the Israeli security forces by the residents of the seam line, raising the fear of the expansion of the tunnel threat to the eastern front as well.

"In the two years before the discovery of the tunnels in the north, there were many residents who complained, but at first they were not believed," recalls Dr. Richemond-Barak, a senior lecturer at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at Reichman University, who recognizes a great similarity between the various arenas.

Having gained substantial experience in researching Israel’s underground threats, she is convinced that the publications in the media concerning the region of Emek Hefer and the Sharon point to a failure of the security forces.

 "Even if there is currently no real threat, once we realized that our enemies are using the underground in all sorts of ways, we had to anticipate and prepare for such a threat. “How can this be a surprise to anyone at this point, when we know that there are tunnels in Gaza, in Lebanon, and the entire Middle East? 

A rocket fall was reported in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona on Monday morning, despite no sirens sounding in the area.

No casulaties or structural damage was caused, as per Israeli media.

South Korea's spy agency said Monday that Hamas is using weapons made in North Korea to fight Israel in Gaza, according to a report in the South Korean outlet Yonhap.

It has been widely suspected that Hamas used North Korean weapons since the war broke out three months ago, with North Korea's first public denial of the allegations coming less than a week after the October 7 attack. The totalitarian state denies any involvement in attacks on Israelis. 

The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed a report in Voice of America, the US's state-owned international broadcaster, in which a photo of an F-7 grenade launcher allegedly used by Hamas bore Korean writing on it. The NIS said its "assessment is the same as the VOA report."

NIS said it is "collecting and accumulating" further evidence of North Korea's supply of arms to Hamas, but that "it is currently difficult to provide such evidence due to the need to protect information sources and in consideration of diplomatic ties," according to Yonhap. NIS had previously reported to the South Korean parliament that Kim Jong-Un, the North Korean dictator, had ordered officials to strategize assisting the Palestinian cause. 

The confirmation by South Korea comes just days after it was revealed that North Korea is also supplying weapons to Russia that have recently been used in Russia's war against Ukraine. 

FILE PHOTO - Military vehicles carrying DF-21D ballistic missiles roll to Tiananmen Square during a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, September 3, 2015 (credit: DAMIR SAGOLJ/ REUTERS)

Hamas leaders did not initially take the IDF's war in Gaza seriously, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Sunday night.
 
"They didn’t take it seriously, even when we first went in," Gallant was quoted by the WSJ as saying. 

Gallant said Israel is fighting an Iranian-led axis, rather than just Hamas, warning that the IDF's war in Gaza "will last for a longer time.

"My basic view: We are fighting an axis, not a single enemy," Gallant told the WSJ. "Iran is building up military power around Israel in order to use it."

Gallant: World needs to understand - October 7 is different

In his interview, Gallant explained to WSJ that the scale of Hamas's October 7 massacre, "the bloodiest day for Jewish people since 1945....is different.

"The world needs to understand. This is different," the defense minister was quoted as saying. "Should Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran be allowed to decide how we live our lives here in Israel? This is something we don’t accept."
 

Israeli forces struck some 30 'significant' terror targets across Gaza's southern city of Khan Yunis, the IDF said Monday morning as it continued its war on Hamas in the Strip.

As part of operations in Khan Yunis, IDF soldiers located and directed a drone to strike a cell of 10 terrorists in an area of the southern city which the IDF said rockets continued to be fired from. 

In addition, an Israeli Air Force helicopter tracked down and killed a Gaza terrorist who gathered intelligence on Israeli forces in the city. The terrorist was observed exiting a building only a few meters away from where forces were located, the IDF said.

Following the identification, troops directed a helicopter to the area where the terrorist was observed.

Some of the significant targets struck by the IDF included underground tunnels, terror infrastructure, and warehouses storing Hamas weaponry, the IDF said, adding that these strikes will "assist the continuation of operational activities on the ground in the area."

Israeli forces operate in the Gaza Strip on January 8, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Thousands of dollars found in central Gaza tunnel shaft

Elsewhere across the Strip, an Israeli fighter jet struck a weapons storage facility in central Gaza in which Hamas kept long-range missiles, the IDF said. 

In addition, a tunnel shaft containing thousands of dollars as well as weaponry was located in an agricultural area in the central Strip.

An Israeli airstrike on a car near Rafah in southern Gaza on Sunday killed two alleged Palestinian journalists who were out reporting, according to health officials in Gaza and the journalists' union there. However, the IDF later issued a claim that the 'journalists' were terrorists engaged in activities that threatened the safety of the IDF.

It was claimed that Hamza Al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya were freelancers. Al-Dahdouh had done freelance work for Al Jazeera and was the son of the Qatar-based TV station's chief correspondent in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh. A third freelancer, Hazem Rajab, was wounded.

Al Jazeera Media Network condemned the killing of the two and said it had been a deliberate attack.

"We urge the International Criminal Court, the governments and human rights organizations, and the United Nations to hold Israel accountable for its heinous crimes and demand an end to the targeting and killing of journalists," the network said in a statement.

The response of the IDF to the attack

The Israel Defence Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike or on the TV network's allegation that the two journalists had been deliberately targeted. However, they have since told the French news agency AFP that those who were targeted were terrorists who flew a "flying device" that posed a threat to the forces in the field.

In a statement on December 16, in response to the death of another Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza, the Israeli army, said, "the IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists".

The Israel-Hamas war that started on October 7 has been deadly for journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international watchdog, said that as of Saturday, 77 journalists and media workers had been killed - 70 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.

Palestinians inspect the site of Israeli strikes on a house in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 23, 2023 (credit: REUTERS/IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA)

The Hamas-run Gaza government's media office said the two new deaths raised its own tally of journalists killed by the Israeli offensive to 109.

A video posted on an Al Jazeera-linked YouTube channel showed Wael Al-Dahdouh crying next to his son's body and holding his hand. Later, after his son's burial, he said in televised remarks that journalists in Gaza would keep doing their job.

"All the world needs to see what is happening here," he said.

Wael Al-Dahdouh is particularly well known to viewers across the Middle East after he learned during a live broadcast last month that his wife, another son, daughter, and grandson had been killed in an Israeli air strike.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday's killings were an "unimaginable tragedy" and that he was "deeply deeply sorry" for the Al-Dahdouh family's loss.

"One (journalist killed) is far too many," Blinken said at a press conference in Doha, the Qatari capital.

Another journalist who died covering the conflict was Reuters Visuals Journalist Issam Abdallah.

A Lebanese citizen, he was killed on October 13 by an Israeli tank crew while filming cross-border shelling in Lebanon, a Reuters investigation found.

Since the beginning of the current Israel-Hamas war, on October 7, Israel has aimed to eliminate senior Hamas officials, regardless of their location, as part of its campaign to destroy the group’s military capabilities.

The Israeli military and security agencies have targeted Hamas leaders since the armed Palestinian group began attacks on Israeli civilians and military personnel, and particularly in response to Hamas suicide bombings and other attacks that escalated following the signing of the Oslo Accords and intensified during the Second Intifada. The goal was to disrupt the operational capabilities and leadership structure of Hamas and deter further attacks.

Yahya Ayyash, often referred to as “The Engineer” due to his expertise in bomb-making, was a prominent figure in Hamas and a key target for Israeli security forces in the mid-1990s. Ayyash was responsible for designing explosive devices used in a series of deadly attacks against Israeli targets. Israel’s pursuit of Ayyash culminated in January 1996, when he was assassinated in a targeted operation.

Another high-profile action was the January 2010 killing of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas military commander, in Dubai. The operation was widely attributed to the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, though Israel never officially confirmed its involvement. Al-Mabhouh was a founding member of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and was believed to be involved in arms smuggling and coordinating attacks against Israel. The assassination, carried out in a Dubai hotel room, drew significant international attention due to its complexity and the use of forged passports, leading to a diplomatic fallout and increased scrutiny of Israel’s covert operations abroad.

On January 2, 2024, Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas, was assassinated in a presumed Israeli strike in Lebanon, marking the most prominent targeted killing of a Hamas leader since the beginning of the war on October 7. Arouri, a key figure in Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel and responsible for expanding Hamas’ activities in the West Bank, was killed alongside six others, including high-ranking Hamas operatives. This attack, in the Dahieh neighborhood, a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb south of Beirut, took place in the context of broader regional tensions, including the escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian proxy group in Lebanon.

The question on many minds now: Who’s next in the crosshairs?

Despite the advance of Israeli military forces into Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ chief in the Gaza Strip, remains unlocated and among Israel’s most wanted individuals.

The IDF attacked a series of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight, the IDF said in a statement Monday.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets attacked a Hezbollah military compound near the village of Marwahin overnight, as well as a rocket launcher and terrorist infrastructure near the village of Ayta ash Shab.

Over the past 24 hours, a remotely manned aircraft of the Air Force attacked a launcher from which a shot was fired at Israeli territory, and a combat helicopter attacked an area from which an anti-aircraft missile was launched into Israel.