Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 209?

The leader of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party in Lebanon, sounded the alarm on Hezbollah and the low-level conflict with Israel that it has brought on Lebanon. His comments were published by the Associated Press this week and represent an important development in the Lebanese political landscape.

They coincide with a BBC report that also revealed how the ongoing clashes have led some areas in southern Lebanon to be deserted.

Hezbollah pretends that it is waging a successful war on Israel. In Israel, there is concern that this is the new normal, and there are discussions and disputes reported in Ynet on Thursday among the security establishment about how best to deal with Hezbollah.

Washington and Riyadh are close to finalizing details of a defense pact, but the Gaza war must end for that agreement and the one regarding normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia to be completed, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

“There are a few details [on the defense pact] that we have to continue to work through, but we think we can reach agreement on those details in very short order,” Miller said.

“We are very far along,” he said.

He explained, however, that this defense agreement is just one part of a triad understanding that would also see a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia and would set out a pathway for Palestinian statehood.

Eight Syrian soldiers were injured in alleged Israeli airstrikes that targeted a building in the Damascus area on Thursday night, the first such strikes reported since several senior commanders in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in early April.

According to Syrian reports, the airstrike on Thursday targeted a building used by Syrian security forces near Najha, south of Damascus. 

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that the airstrikes were carried out from over the Golan Heights, causing material damage and injuring several Syrian soldiers in the Damascus area.

متابعة || 🚨 || مصادر محلية: العدو١١ن الاسر١١ئيلي استهدف مبنى مدرسة أمن الدولة، شرقي طريق #دمشق _ #السويداء ، وأدى لدمار كبير في الموقع، وأصوات سيارات الإسعاف تسمع بقوة في المنطقة التي تم استهدافها، ولم تردنا معلومات عن ارتقاء شهد١ء او جرحى.

- البناء المستهدف مؤلف من ثلاث… pic.twitter.com/qWmCnkAfjb

— درعا نت (@daraa_net_2020) May 2, 2024

Local media outlets reported that ambulances were seen in the area shortly after the strike and that three missiles targeted the building south of Damascus.

In the past couple of weeks enormous billboards were seen around Israel showing an hourglass with the flag of the Islamic Republic and promising that the end of the Ayatollah regime in Iran is nearing – setting the date for a mysterious October 28, 2028. Some of the billboards also featured a plight reassuring that “hundreds of millions of evangelicals have Israel’s back,” signed by a mysterious “Jerusalem Prayer Team.”

The billboard reminded many in Israel of the reminiscent of the well-known countdown clock placed in Palestine Square in Tehran which counts the days left until Israel’s alleged “fall” in 2040. Nevertheless, while Israelis attempted to decipher the meaning of the messages and guess who was behind them, the billboard gained much traction in Persian-speaking outlets, especially those that oppose the Islamic Republic regime, such as Iran International and Radio Farda, which shared its images with hundreds of thousands of followers and stirred heated debates.

BBC Persian reporter Kasara Naji shared a video of one of the billboards with his almost 145 thousand followers, adding “It's not only Iranians who ask when they [the Islamic Republic] will go - this is in Jerusalem in the past days!”. From his part, BWNS reporter Morteza Ismailpour expressed ironic criticism arguing that “We Iranian people are allies of Israel, but we don't want to wait for 4 years!”

Dror Or, a resident of Kibbutz Be'eri, was murdered on October 7, and his body was taken by Hamas to Gaza, the kibbutz announced on Thursday evening.

Or's wife, Yonat, was murdered on October 7 as well, and their children, Noam and Alma, were kidnapped and released in the ceasefire deal in November. Their eldest son, Yahli, was in northern Israel at the time, escaping the Hamas assault.

A committee of experts met on Thursday and, together with representatives of the Health Ministry, intelligence officials, Israel Police, the Religious Services Ministry, and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, determined that the evidence shows that Or was murdered.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq claimed they launched cruise missiles toward Tel Aviv and Beersheba on Thursday afternoon in two statements published by the militias on Thursday night.

No alerts were activated and no entry of projectiles was reported from the direction of Iraq at the time.

A maritime pier constructed by the U.S. military to speed the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza should be open within a matter of days, despite poor weather that is hampering preparations, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.

"We were hoping within days. I think that's still a hope," Kirby said at a news briefing.

The Palestinian Embassy in Egypt is seeking temporary residency permits for tens of thousands of people who have arrived from Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas, which it says would ease conditions for them until the conflict is over.

Diab al-Louh, the Palestinian ambassador in Cairo, said as many as 100,000 Gazans had crossed into Egypt, where they lack the papers to enroll their children in schools, open businesses or bank accounts, travel, or access health insurance - though some have found ways to make a living.

Louh stressed that residency permits would only be for legal and humanitarian purposes, adding that those who arrived since the war began on October 7 had no plans to settle in Egypt.

Head of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh said in a phone conversation with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel that the terror group was examining the proposed hostage deal in a "positive spirit," according to Israeli media on Thursday, citing a Hamas statement.

The statement reportedly further added that a Hamas delegation would visit Cairo soon to continue the talks. 

The Israeli National Security Agency (NISA) increased the threat level of traveling to Sweden from level 2 to level 3 on Thursday, ahead of Eurovision. 

"Malmo is recognized as a hub for anti-Israel protests, given its high concentration of immigrants from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran. These protests are a weekly occurrence and often involve demonstrations, calls for harm against Jews and Israelis, and the burning of Israeli flags, among other actions. Notably, on October 7 (the day of Hamas' attack on Israel), anti-Israeli elements in Malmo openly celebrated the tragic events that occurred in Israel," the statement began

"Furthermore, alongside the protests in Malmo, there has been a recent surge in calls from global jihadist groups and radical Islamists to carry out attacks against Western targets. This includes specific threats against Israelis and Jews worldwide, with a particular focus on events garnering significant media attention. In light of this, it's worth mentioning that just recently (on March 19), two ISIS activists were apprehended for plotting an attack on the Swedish parliament."