Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 127?

Israeli forces have discovered a tunnel network hundreds of meters (yards) long and running partly under UNRWA's Gaza headquarters, the military says, calling it new evidence of Hamas exploitation of the main relief agency for Palestinians.

Army engineers took reporters for foreign news outlets through the passages at a time of crisis for UNRWA, which has launched an internal probe and seen a string of donor countries freeze funding over allegations last month by Israel that some of its staff doubled as Hamas operatives.

The Palestinians have accused Israel of falsifying information to tarnish UNRWA, which employs 13,000 people in the Gaza Strip and has been a lifeline for the aid-dependent population for years. The agency runs schools, primary healthcare clinics and other social services, and distributes aid, describing its activities as purely humanitarian.

UNRWA Headquarters is in Gaza City, among northern areas that Israeli troops and tanks overran early in the four-month-old war against the governing Islamist faction Hamas, sending hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing southward.

Reporters on the closely escorted trip entered a shaft next to a school on the periphery of the UN compound, descending to the concrete-lined tunnel. Twenty minutes of walking through the stifling hot, narrow and occasionally winding passage brought them underneath UNRWA Headquarters, an army lieutenant-colonel leading the tour said.

Weapons found in an UNRWA building and an explanation by the Commander of the 401st Brigade Combat Team, COL Benny Aharon. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON UNIT)

The tunnel, which the military said was 700 meters long and 18 meters deep, bifurcated at times, revealing side-rooms. There was an office space, with steel safes that had been opened and emptied. There was a tiled toilet. One large chamber was packed with computer servers, another with industrial battery stacks.

Hunnels hold advance infrastructure

“Everything is conducted from here. All the energy for the tunnels, which you walked through them are powered from here," said the lieutenant-colonel, who gave only his first name, Ido.

"This is one of the central commands of the intelligence. This place is one of the Hamas intelligence units, where they commanded most of the combat."

But Ido said Hamas appeared to have evacuated in the face of the Israeli advance, preemptively cutting off communications cables that, in an above-ground part of the tour, he showed running through the floor of the UNRWA Headquarters' basement.

It appeared that heavy Israeli barrages and sustained winter rains may also have played a part in the departure: Several stretches of the tunnel were clogged with dislodged sand and knee-high water.

In a statement, UNRWA said it had vacated the headquarters on Oct. 12, five days after the war began, and was therefore "unable to confirm or otherwise comment" on the Israeli finding.

"UNRWA ... does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises," the statement said.

"In the past, whenever (a) suspicious cavity was found close to or under UNRWA premises, protest letters were promptly filed to parties to the conflict, including both the de facto authorities in Gaza (Hamas) and the Israeli authorities."

UNRWA's supporters say it is the only agency with the means of aiding Palestinians in deepening humanitarian distress. Israel says the agency is "perforated by Hamas" and must be replaced. Hamas has denied operating in civilian facilities.

"We know that they (Hamas) have people working in UNRWA. We want every international organization to work in Gaza. That is not a problem. Our problem is the Hamas," Ido told reporters.

Lack of cellphone reception in the tunnel made geolocating it as under UNRWA Headquarters impossible. Instead, reporters were asked to put personal items in a bucket that was lowered by rope into a vertical hole on the grounds of the headquarters. They were reunited with the still-tethered items during the tunnel tour.

As a condition of taking journalists on the trip, the Israeli military did not allow photographs of military intelligence such as maps or certain equipment in the convoy of armored vehicles they traveled in. It also requested approval before transmission of photographs and video footage taken on the trip.

A drone attacked a car north of Sidon in southern Lebanon on Saturday, on the Wadi al-Zaina road in the town of Jadeira, according to various reports from social networks in Lebanon.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing two drones flying over the area for hours - before two consecutive explosions were heard, according to Israeli media. The area is about 55 km from the border with Israel.

According to initial reports, the target was a Palestinian figure, but he survived.

Two men are reported to have come on a motorcycle to help, but a second missile was fired at them, so they sheltered with a young Syrian who happened to be passing through the area.

Lebanese networks reported that Khalil Fars from the town of Aitaroun near the Israeli border was killed in the attack.

Smoke rises on the Lebanese side of the border between Israel and Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike, as seen from northern Israel, November 18, 2023 (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)

Al-Jazeera reported that three others were killed in the same strike, as well as some reported wounded.

Conflicting reports

Sky News reported that the target was a member of Hezbollah, while other networks including Al-Arabiya reported that they were members of Hamas.

The Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar reported on ambulance crews including four injured people traveling from a nearby church.

This is the second time since the beginning of the war that an attack in Sidon has been attributed to Israel.

This is one of the more distant airstrikes since the beginning of the war, after the strike in Beirut which eliminated Saleh al-Arouri.

Three senior members of the Hamas police in Rafah were killed as a result of an attack on their vehicle in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, according to Israeli media reports from Saturday afternoon.

Those killed are the director of investigations Ahmed al-Yakoubi, his deputy Ayman al-Rantisi, and Ibrahim Shatt.
 

Sirens sound for a hostile aircraft intrusion in northern towns near Kiryat Shmona.

Sirens sound in the Northern Israeli town of Avivim.

Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan Hassan Kazemi Quomi claimed on Tuesday that Afghanistan is part of the “axis of resistance” and Afghan martyrs would be willing to travel the distance to fight in Gaza, according to a Middle East Monitoring Research Institute’s (MEMRI) translation of an interview given on Iranian TV. 

"Afghanistan is quite far away from Gaza. But what is clear to us today is that Afghanistan is part of the axis of resistance,” Quomi said. “If there is an opportunity and a need, more than one military division of martyrdom-seekers can go from Afghanistan to support Gaza."

Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Hassan Kazemi Qomi: If Needed, Military Divisions of Martyrdom-Seekers Can Go from Afghanistan to Gaza #Iran #Hamas #Afghanistan #Gaza @IRANinKabul pic.twitter.com/T6Z1u9KPIC

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 8, 2024

The Taliban, a terrorist group of radical Islamic terrorists known for their policies limiting the rights and freedoms of women, retook Afghanistan in 2022 following the United States's pull out from the country. 

In a report from October 7, the same day Hamas launched a devastating terror attack against Israel which took the lives of over 1200 people, the Taliban had asked Iran for safe passage to Israel so that they could help Hamas “conquer Jerusalem.” 

A Taliban fighter stands guard at the site where an explosive-laden vehicle detonated amidst an attack on a Sikh Temple in Kabul, Afghanistan, June 18, 2022. (credit: REUTERS/ALI KHARA)

Iranian tensions with the Taliban

Despite what is now a seeming unity under the “axis of resistance,” the Jerusalem Post reported in May that tensions were high between the Taliban and Iran. The Taliban threatened to conquer Iran over water disputes, which left at least three people dead. In August the Post also reported that the Taliban had detained an Iranian state media journalist. 

Israeli politicians responded to the recently announced drop in Israel's credit rating as per Moody's recent announcement, stating other views on the state of the economy late Friday night.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted in a Friday evening statement that Israel's economy is "solid" and is set to rise again following the end of Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza following the October 7 attacks.

The drop in rating, however, creates concern for Israel's economy as other credit ratings companies, Fitch and S&P, could follow after Moody's decision to lower Israel's rating to A2 from A1 with a negative outlook.

Early Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: "Israel's economy is solid. The downgrade is not related to the economy, it is entirely due to that we are at war. The rating will go back up as soon as we win the war - and we will win."

Former Finance Minister cites destructive government for economic downfall

Former Finance Minister, MK Avigdor Liberman, turned to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to the credit rating drop. 

 "The decision to downgrade Israel's credit rating by Moody's did not come like a thunderbolt on a bright day, but is the result of populist and intolerable measures that the government has promoted since its establishment. The government of destruction continues to degenerate us into an economic disaster just as it brought us to a security disaster on October 7."

He continued: "The budget, as approved by the Knesset just this week in first reading, is a budget that harms growth, gives negative incentives to go to work and acquire a profession, and does not include No news and no growth engines."

ההחלטה להוריד את דירוג האשראי של ישראל על ידי מודי׳ס לא הגיעה כרעם ביום בהיר. אלא, היא תוצאה של צעדים פופוליסטיים ובלתי נסבלים שהממשלה קידמה מאז הקמתה.

ממשלת החורבן ממשיכה לדרדר אותנו לאסון כלכלי בדיוק כפי שהביאה אותנו לאסון ביטחוני בשבעה באוקטובר.

התקציב כפי שאושר בכנסת רק…

— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) February 9, 2024

Liberman's concerns about a threat in drops to Israel's credit rating go back beyond a year, with the MK voicing dismay and concern over allocations of funds. "It's impossible to give NIS 3 billion to haredi coalition partners whose schools don't provide core studies and NIS 1 billion for food stamps without deficit," Liberman said in November 2022.

Now, Israel's economy feels the lasting impact of the October 7 attacks, questioning when the economy will bounce back, with the financial implications associated with the geopolitical conflict in Israel and Gaza.

At least three people were killed in Israeli-attributed airstrikes in Syria early Saturday, according to reports by Israeli media citing Syrian media.

The strikes were in the Dimas area, just west of Syria's capital city Damascus, and are believed to have killed "non-Syrian" individuals, according to AP.

Syrian air defenses shot down Israeli missiles launched at the Damascus countryside in the early hours of Saturday, the Syrian army said, in the second such attack in less than a day.

This comes as Israel and the United States have stepped up strikes on Iranian and Iran-aligned targets.

Israeli reserve soldiers take part in a drill in the Golan Heights, northern Israel, December 19, 2023 (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)

Earlier attacks

The Syrian army said in a statement the air strikes were carried out from the direction of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, causing "some material losses."

On Friday, Syria said its air defenses had downed two drones in the western outskirts of Damascus during an attack also originating from the Golan Heights.

However, it refrained from explicitly attributing responsibility to Israel for that incident.