Day 164: What is going on in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria?

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back at the Biden administration’s red lines against a major Rafah military operation, insisting that Israel had no choice if it wanted to defeat Hamas.

“I emphasized to the president in our conversation, in the clearest way, that we are determined to complete the destruction of these [Hamas] battalions in Rafah. 

“There is no way to do it, other than the ground entrance,” Netanyahu told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

He spoke one day after his phone conversation with Biden, the first between the two leaders in over a month. It came amid a sharp debate between them over IDF plans for a major operation Rafah, where over 1.3 million Gaza Palestinians are located. Many of them fled to the southern part of the enclave to escape bombing in the north.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that during Biden’s talk with Netanyahu, the Israeli leader agreed to send a team of military and intelligence experts to Washington so the US could show them an alternative military plan for Rafah.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan, based in Lebanon, told the Hezbollah-linked Al-Manar this week that “the battlefield is not confined to Gaza” and that Hamas’s goal is to create a multifront threat to Israel.

Hamas has sought to increase its power in Lebanon, and Hezbollah has allowed Hamas to threaten Israel from there. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has launched thousands of missiles at Israel since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel.

Israel has tried to avoid escalation on the other fronts while concentrating on Gaza. Yet the mere fact that terrorist armies – Hezbollah and Hamas – have generated such a massive threat illustrates just how much they have grown over the last decades. Israel, in the old days, was able to confront multiple fronts, like in 1967 and 1973; Israel was not concerned about fighting both Hamas and Hezbollah along with other terrorist groups in the 1990s.

Today, however, Hamas and Hezbollah are stronger. Israel is defeating Hamas battalions in Gaza, but it is doing so slowly, and there are growing concerns that Hamas is trying to regroup in northern Gaza, necessitating raids into Shifa, Zeitoun, and Shati.

Hamdan said that Israel is facing an “extensive resistance front,” referencing threats to Israel from Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and other places. He said Israel has not met its objectives.

Of course, a terrorist official would say these types of things; Hamdan’s propaganda doesn’t have to be taken at face value. However, it is worth considering because it reflects what the Iranian-backed axis thinks.

Two Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) officers were wounded in a shooting attack near Gush Etzion junction on Tuesday afternoon, the agency reported. One of the victims was in serious but stable condition, while the other was lightly wounded, according to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

The terrorist, Ziad Khomeran, 30, of Jenin, was shot at the scene, the Shin Bet said. The two officers were operating in the area when they were attacked.

Gush Etzion Regional Council head Yaron Rosenthal said: “The campaign we are in is a campaign of the Zionist movement against the Arab enemy that is being waged in all parts of the country. We have been in Gush Etzion, a front-line post of the State of Israel, for nearly a century. Our grip on this good mountain will continue to deepen. This is our true answer to murderous terrorism.”

An IDF soldier was moderately wounded and another soldier was lightly wounded by rocket fire near Manara in northern Israel on Tuesday, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

Additionally on Tuesday afternoon, the IDF struck Hezbollah targets in Ayta Ash Sha'ab, Mays al-Jabal, Odeissah, Naqoura, and Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon. Several rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel throughout the day and a suspicious aerial object was intercepted near the border as well.

The IDF also struck a Hezbollah observation post near Marwahin in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, shortly after an IDF observer from Unit 869 spotted a terrorist in the structure, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said.

Earlier in the day, the IDF struck a Hezbollah building near Odaisseh in southern Lebanon.

Later on Tuesday, Israeli strikes targeted sites in Mays al-Jabal and Ayta ash Shab in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese reports.

Eli Elbag, the father of Liri Elbag, the 19-year-old soldier who is currently being held captive by Hamas, attacked Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's recent comments regarding the hostages on Tuesday.

Eli claimed that he "exploded" on Smotrich and "will continue [to do so] every time he expresses himself with genius ideas." 

Elbag's remarks slammed Smotrich's previous comments regarding that "the return of the hostages is not the most important objective [of the war]." As such, Elbag targeted Smotrich by wishing Smotrich's children would be kidnapped "and after that happens, we will see what he has to say. Right now Smotrich has no right to speak and he should be quiet."

According to him however, he claims to trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in promoting the release of the hostages, including his daughter, who is the youngest girl to remain in Hamas captivity. "I want my daughter home," Elbag emotionally stated.

Italy is opposed to a ground incursion by Israeli forces into the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday.

"We will reiterate our opposition to military action on the ground by Israel in Rafah that could have even more catastrophic consequences for the civilians crowded in that area," Meloni told lawmakers in the Senate.

She added that the opening of new land routes and a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza, to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave, was a priority.

This is a developing story.

"Factions in Israel are cooperating with the US to prevent an Israeli operation in Rafah," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a confidential discussion on Tuesday, according to a Walla! report. 

Britain's deputy prime minister defended on Tuesday Israel's right to protect itself amid growing tension between the Middle Eastern country and its biggest backers, but called for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza on humanitarian grounds.

Oliver Dowden said the British government was "continuously" urging Israel to abide by international humanitarian law and had also raised concerns about getting aid into Gaza, where a humanitarian crisis is raging after six months of fighting.

"That's why we are calling for an immediate ceasefire to allow that aid in, and crucially, the hostages to come out," he told Reuters in an interview in Seoul, where he was attending a US-backed Summit for Democracy.

Dowden's comments came in response to a query about tension between Israel and its most steadfast allies in the United States over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war, particularly an expected military push into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded enclave.

Shayetet 13 troops, along with forces of the 401st Brigade, the 162nd Division, and the Shin Bet, continued operations in the Shifa hospital area, the military said on Tuesday.

The fighters engaged with terrorists in face-to-face combat and eliminated them. 

In addition, troops located weapons in the area while assuring no harm was done to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment.

So far, during the operation, the forces killed over 50 terrorists and arrested about 180 suspects in the area, the military added. 

The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday new information regarding the assassination of  Hamas's Interior Ministry Operations Chief Faack Mabhough. 

According to the report, in the past few weeks, Mabhough had been holding meetings with representatives of the UN and local clans in Gaza, which resulted in the arrival of two sets of trucks delivering goods and humanitarian aid to the Strip.

After 12 a.m., a large number of IDF troops broke into the western area of the Shifa hospital, accompanied by fighter jets. In parallel, there were reports that tanks had completely besieged the area.