IDF finds one of Hamas's last weapons factories, operates against Jenin terrorists

Rocket sirens sounded in northern Israel on Thursday evening.

Hamas may have up to 12,000 fighters left, according to US officials who spoke to Reuters. This assessment would mean that Hamas has lost around half its strength in eight months of war.

Israel’s assessments were that Hamas had some 24 battalions at the outset of the war and that most of them were defeated. Israel also believed that around 14,000 Hamas members were killed. This would mean thousands were wounded.

This is now a numbers game of interpretation. If Hamas has 9,000-12,000 fighters left, then it has some 12-15 battalions left, not just a few.

The IDF confirmed on Thursday afternoon that fighter jets struck several military structures in the area of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon.

Additionally, an IAF aircraft struck two Hezbollah terrorists that had been identified on Thursday morning in the area.

The United States will impose sanctions on the Lions' Den terrorist group operating in Nablus, the US State Department announced on Thursday. 

The deadline set by Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz for his party National Unity to leave the government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not make the changes Gantz laid out in May will be reached on Saturday.

Gantz said on May 18 that his party would leave if Netanyahu did not adopt six objectives: Returning the hostages; demolishing Hamas and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip; providing a governing alternative in the strip; returning residents of the North to their homes by September 1 and rehabilitating the western Negev; promoting normalization with Saudi Arabia; and adopting an outline for standardized national service in which all Israelis serve the country.

“If you choose to lead the nation to the abyss, we will withdraw from the government, turn to the people, and form a government that can bring about a real victory,” Gantz said.

Talks involving Qatari, Egyptian, and US mediators aimed at reaching a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza war were still underway on Thursday but had shown no sign of a breakthrough, two Egyptian security sources said.

The talks began on Wednesday when CIA director William Burns met senior officials from Qatar and Egypt in Doha to discuss a proposal that US President Joe Biden publicly endorsed last week. Biden described the three-phase plan as an Israeli initiative.

The talks in Qatar were aimed at finding a formula that could reassure Hamas over its demand for guarantees that the deal would deliver a complete cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory, the Egyptian sources said.

 The IDF announced on Thursday that it continuing operations in the areas of eastern Bureij, eastern Deir al Balah, and Rafah.

The announcement comes in the wake of recent discoveries of new underground terror tunnel shafts and weapons in the area. 

Operations are being carried out to dismantle the tunnels, the military added. Additionally, during a targeted raid on a military structure in the area, the troops located large quantities of weapons, including firearms, grenades, explosives, vests, and additional military equipment. 

The IDF also noted that Hamas terrorists were struck with tank fire and aerial strikes. These terrorists included members of Hamas's Rockets Array.

The IDF also successfully eliminated a terror cell responsible for the Wednesday mortar shells fired toward Kibbutz Kissufim.

Yemen's Houthi group said on Thursday it launched two joint military operations with the Iraqi Islamic Resistance against ships at Israel's Haifa port.

The IDF has so far denied the claims that such an attack occurred. "It's not true," military spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said.

However, according to the Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree, the group "first targeted two ships carrying military equipment in the port of Haifa, while the second targeted a ship that violated the decision to ban entry to the port."

There was an exchange of fire between IDF soldiers and Palestinians in the West Bank Palestinian city of Jenin on Thursday afternoon, according to Israeli media reports citing the Palestinian Red Crescent.

According to the report, seven Palestinians were wounded in the exchange of fire with the IDF soldiers. 

Spain has requested to intervene in South Africa's genocide case against Israel's actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Thursday.

Spain joins a small number of other countries that have said they wish to intervene, including Ireland, which, along with Spain and Norway, officially recognized a Palestinian state last week.

Albares said Madrid wanted to support the ICJ in its implementation of measures, including an order to Israel to cease its military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza, but gave few details of what its requested intervention would entail.