Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 150?
IDF airstrikes pummel terrorists • Kamala Harris calls for ceasefire • Airstrikes hammer Hezbollah infrastructure
One killed, 7 wounded by anti-tank missile fire in northern Israel
The wounded, all Thai workers, were evacuated by helicopter to several hospitals.
One person was killed, two people were seriously wounded, four others were moderately wounded, and one other person was lightly wounded after an anti-tank missile was fired toward Margaliot in northern Israel on Monday morning, according to Israel's emergency medical service, Magen David Adom.
The wounded, all Thai workers, were evacuated by helicopter to Rabin Medical Center-Hasharon Hospital, Rambam Medical Center, and Ziv Medical Center.
"Using an MDA bullet-proof intensive care vehicle, we arrived near the place where the anti-tank missile fire occurred and retrieved the wounded from there," said MDA senior medic Yigal Ben Udiz and MDA paramedic Walid Kezel. "Together with the IDF medical personnel, we provided medical treatment and evacuated five wounded people who suffered from shrapnel injuries with Air Force helicopters."
IDF strikes Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon
Shortly after the anti-tank missile attack, the IDF struck a site in Chihine in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese reports.
On Sunday night, Hezbollah claimed that Israeli forces made two attempts to infiltrate into Lebanese territory. The terrorist movement said it fired at and set off explosive devices targeting the troops.
Additionally, on Sunday night, the IDF struck sites belonging to Hezbollah in Ayta ash Shab and Kfarkela.
Go to the full article >>Regev: Gantz acting subversively against government with US visit
The transportation minister said that she believes that US officials "see a sort of weakness in Benny Gantz."
Transportation Minister Miri Regev attacked War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz for his trip to Washington, DC, saying that Gantz was acting "subversively" as the only one who can make decisions is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Regev's comments came in an interview with KAN Reshet Bet radio on Monday morning.
Regev said that Gantz was making a "private trip" and could not make any decisions as he does not represent the government and did not receive permission from the government or Netanyahu. She called on Gantz to "act responsibly," saying that the visit was "incorrect."
The transportation minister added that she believed that US officials "see a sort of weakness in Gantz" as "they understand that [Netanyahu] is standing strong on our national interests on all things related to there not being a Palestinian state and on all things related to us not leaving Gaza and not stopping the war until we achieve the two goals of the war: destroying Hamas and bringing the hostages home."
US should stay out of Israel politics
"I don't give grades to [US] President Joe Biden," said Regev. "I very much appreciate the aid provided by Biden, but at the end of the day, the one who decides who the prime minister and government are in Israel are the citizens of Israel. We have a lot of respect for the Americans. Just like we don't get into the elections within the US, I expect the president of the US not to get into and disrupt our elections or not respect the choice of the citizens of Israel."
Regev also referred to polls showing that the Likud would weaken in future elections, saying that she was seeing "other polls" that showed that the Likud was actually gaining support and that Netanyahu was still seen as the best option for prime minister.
Go to the full article >>UNRWA draft report alleges beatings, sexual abuse of Gazan detainees - NYT
The IDF strongly denies allegations of sexual abuse and says that all deaths in custody, as well as any formal complaints of mistreatment, are investigated by the military police.
An as-yet unpublished investigation by UNRWA, the controversial UN agency tasked with managing Palestinian needs in Gaza and elsewhere, accuses Israel of human rights violations in its treatment of detained Gazans, alleging beatings and sexual abuse, according to a report by The New York Times on Sunday.
The IDF strongly denies allegations of sexual abuse and says that all deaths in custody, as well as any formal complaints of mistreatment, are investigated by the military police.
The report comes amid increased scrutiny of UNRWA itself— which is accused of turning a blind eye to Hamas support among its ranks, including staff who actively participated in the October 7 attacks.
It also comes amid scrutiny of Israel’s detention of Palestinians, with widespread interrogations a crucial component of the intelligence-gathering operation behind Israel’s military campaign to depose Hamas and free the estimated 134 Israeli hostages held captive to the terror group.
“The document”— “based on interviews with more than 100 of the 1,002 detainees who were released back to Gaza by mid-February”— “includes accounts from detainees who said they were beaten, stripped, robbed, blindfolded, sexually abused and denied access to lawyers and doctors, often for more than a month,” The Times report said, adding that while the newspaper could not corroborate the allegations, parts of the report match testimony of released detainees interviewed by the outlet.
Prisons recently released detainees due to lack of space
The Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights published a report last month on the conditions of Palestinian detainees since October 7, writing that “reports received… raise fears that incarceration conditions have deteriorated to far below the minimum required by law, endangering the lives of those in custody.” The organization called in December for "an immediate ceasefire and the urgent release of all hostages" in Gaza.
Israel’s security agency, the Shin Bet, released a number of detainees last week, citing a lack of space in the country’s prisons. The move was denounced by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, who called the releases a “gesture for Ramadan” and denied that the Prison Service was acting within its jurisdiction.
The minister’s relationships with both the Shin Bet and the Prison Service have been contentious since his appointment to the government in 2022.
Go to the full article >>In rare interview, Syria’s Assad defends Hamas, praises Putin to pro-Kremlin journalist
The Syrian dictator also expressed support for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and compared the war between Israel and Hamas to that war, painting both Hamas and Russia as acting in self-defense.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave a rare interview this week to a Kremlin-aligned Russian news presenter from his palace in the capital city of Damascus, defending Hamas, praising Putin, and casting the United States as a hypocritical hegemon that the two dictatorships have served to humble.
Assad, whose government has been fighting rebel groups for almost thirteen years in a civil war that has taken about 500,000 lives, presented Israel as the aggressor in Gaza, and justified Hamas’s October 7 invasion of Israel’s south as self-defense, insisting that the attack is justified by historical context.
The Syrian dictator also expressed support for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and compared the war between Israel and Hamas to that war, asserting that Russia’s invasion of the European nation was self-defense, just as he views Hamas’s invasion of Israel to have been:
“Anyone from Israel will come and say to you, ‘but you are talking about history,’” Assad told his Russian interviewer, Vladimir Solovyov, “[but] is history separated from the past?” The Syrian president then implied that the invasion of Ukraine was a response to “attempts to encircle your country, Russia, from the south,” concluding, “Everything that happens in the present is a result of history. The situation is the same."
Interview underscores Syria-Russia-Iran alliance
Assad has been allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin since September 2015, an alliance that is widely credited with having shifted the balance of the conflict, turning the battlefield in Assad’s favor and thus rescuing the Arab nationalist regime. A relentless Russian bombing campaign allowed the regime to retake the city of Aleppo in late 2016, and Idlib from 2018 to 2020.
Both these campaigns were widely accused of war crimes, with Russian forces appearing to routinely target civilian infrastructure.
Iran also participated in the war, supporting Assad via arms, training, special forces, and the support of its proxy militias, such as Hezbollah, which has been attacking Israel’s north, and exchanging fire with the IDF along the Israel-Lebanon border, since Hamas attacked the Jewish state on October 7, initiating the ongoing war. Iran has also supported Russia’s war against Ukraine, supplying the Russian military with arms such as Shahed drones.
Solyvov, the Russian journalist who interviewed Assad, began the sit-down by praising Assad’s Syria as “great country that freely chose its fate,” while invoking Iran as a potential victim of nuclear aggression by the United States or Israel, saying that these two were the “only countries that could use nuclear weapons” and that Iran could be targeted, if the conflict in the region escalates.
Denial of war crimes by Assad or Russia in Syria and Ukraine
Assad and Solovyov also commiserated over the global condemnations of alleged war crimes by the Syrian government during the country’s civil war and by the Russian army in Ukraine. “In 2017,” the Russian presenter told Assad, “the lying West alleged the use of chemical weapons,” a reference to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack in Syria, which the US, Israel, Human Rights Watch, and others charge was conducted by the Assad regime and killed around 90 people, but Damascus and Moscow deny took place.
“When the special Russian military operation began,” Solovyov went on, using an official term for the invasion of Ukraine two years ago, “the West tried to break the negotiations. In Istanbul, Russia was accused of horrific crimes in Bucha. Our people do not believe this.”
Solovyov was referring to the allegations of summary executions, rape, and torture by Russian forces during the period of its occupation before the Ukrainian army recaptured it about a month into the war. Russia denies that any crimes took place, contrary to findings by the United States government as well as NGOs such as Amnesty International and media outlets such as the New York Times.
“The people of the West are not a bad people,” Assad responded, “but the media and politicians are allied in order to make this people ignorant and therefore they can tell them anything.”
Assad praises Putin, decries the West
Solovyov asked Assad about the upcoming presidential election in Russia, in which Putin will face several pre-approved candidates, none of whom opposes the war in Ukraine. “To what degree will these elections affect the future of the world and not just Russia?” Solovyov asked.
“Russia,” Assad answered, “is a country on which the fate of the world depends,” and invoked an Arabic proverb that one must not switch horses in the middle of a battle, asserting that due to the war in Ukraine, Russia must not change leaders. Assad then said that Syrians “cannot look at the situation in Russia as an internal situation,” and that there was no question whom Syrians support, the obvious answer being Putin.
Meanwhile, the Syrian leader mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying that the wartime leader is “basically a clown. This was his role before the presidency”— Zelensky was a comedian prior to entering politics— “and he succeeded more after he became president in this respect.”
The remark about Zelensky came in the context of a discussion of western sanctions, with Assad dismissing their long-term importance and urging Russians not to succumb to international pressure, describing the west as a transactional actor that cannot be counted on. “You may pay a price… in the short term,” Assad said of coming under Western sanction, “but in the long term, far and away, you will win.” The Syrian president invoked the history of the Shah in Iran as an example of allying with the West only to be betrayed when interests were no longer aligned.
Go to the full article >>IDF strikes Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon
The IDF continues to strike terrorist infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced on Sunday.
IAF fighter jets attacked terrorist infrastructure in the areas of Ayta ash Shab and Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon.
A number of rocket launches from Lebanon were detected entering Israeli territory in the areas of Metula, Ghajar, and Malkia on Sunday.
This is a developing story.
Go to the full article >>Hamas terrorist responsible for recruitment killed by IDF strike
A Hamas terrorist responsible for recruiting others to Hamas was killed in an IDF strike on Sunday, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced.
The terrorist, Mahmoud Muhammad Abd Haz was killed in a refugee camp in central Gaza. Haz was responsible for recruiting Hamas operatives, specifically to the Zeytun Brigades. He also raised funds for other Hamas activities, the IDF said.
Haz was killed by a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet.
This is a developing story.
Go to the full article >>'Save us': Israeli media leaks recording of killed Gaza hostages' final moments
In the audio, Alon and Yotam can be heard yelling "save us" and "we're hostages." The audio then has a few shots of gunfire and is abruptly cut.
Leaked audio from the moments when Alon Shamriz tried to get the IDF to rescue him as well as Yotam Haim and Samer Talaka, before they were wrongfully identified as terrorists and accidentally killed by the IDF, was published by Kan news on X on Sunday.
בלעדי: הקלטות הגבורה של אלון שמריז – כך ניסה להציל את עצמו ואת חבריו מהשבי בלב עזה | לכתבה המלאה >>> https://t.co/imzN4qKlSi@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/NYSy6NniAG
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 3, 2024
In the audio, Alon and Yotam can be heard yelling "save us" and "we're hostages." The audio then has a few shots of gunfire and is abruptly cut.
The audio was obtained from a camera attached to a dog from the Oketz unit. According to reports, the dog was shot upon entrance of the building by the terrorists holding the three hostages, but the camera continued to record.
Alon's brother Yonatan revealed that the audio was leaked before it was presented to the family, on a post on X.
את התחקיר ראינו בגלילות מול חבורת קצינים זחוחים..בקטע של ההקלטות אמא שלי יצאה כי ידעה שלא תעמוד בזה. הקשבתי-הדמעות זלגו והדם קפא במשך כמה דקות.
— Shimriz (@shimrizzz) March 3, 2024
חשבתי שזה מאחורינו..אף אחד לא צריך לשמוע את זה.
והנה צהל מדליף ועושה לנו טרור פסיכולוגי של החמאס.
עכשיו זה בחוץ..לעולם
תחיי מדינת ישראל
The IDF denied the appeal to recognize Shamriz as a fallen soldier
This leak happened one day after the IDF announced that it would refuse to recognize Alon Shamriz with the status of a fallen soldier, Israeli media reported.
The family of Shamriz had filed an appeal to the IDF and the state to change his status shortly after it was reported that he was killed.
The IDF stated that its reason for denying the appeal, was because Alon Shamriz wasn't in active ore reserve duty at the time of his death.
Go to the full article >>Israel-Hamas War: What you need to know
- Hamas launched a massive attack on October 7, with thousands of terrorists infiltrating from the Gaza border and taking some 240 hostages into Gaza
- Over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered, including over 350 in the Re'im music festival and hundreds of Israeli civilians across Gaza border communities
- 134 hostages remain in Gaza, 33 of which killed in captivity, IDF says