Israel-Hamas War Day 255: What is happening in Gaza, Israel's North?

Hezbollah commander Muhammad Ahmed Ayoub was killed in a UAV-targeted strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon, the Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya reported on Monday.

The strike allegedly took place in the village of Sela. 

The Israel-Hamas War will last three years, IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) and former government minister Effi Eitam said Monday in an interview with 103FM.

The past 48 hours have been some of the most difficult since the start of the war with Hamas, with 12 IDF soldiers having been killed throughout the Gaza Strip, eight of them in Rafah. 

"The IDF has a set goal to crush Hamas," Eitam said. "Everyone who carries a weapon [in Gaza] must die. All weapons must be seized. Nearly the entirety of the Gaza Strip is in our hands, and we can move about it relatively freely."

Prof. Hagai Levine, chairman of the Union of Public Health Physicians, said at the beginning of the State Control Committee meeting on Monday that Noa Argamani has no rehabilitation plan.

Argamani, the Israeli woman whose image was the very face of the fight to bring the hostages back home, was rescued from the Gaza Strip a little over a week ago in a complex operation coordinated between Yamam (Israel Police), the IDF, and the Shin Bet.

"I visited Noa Argamani last night, and I was amazed that there is no rehabilitation plan for her,” Levine said. “Even after the return, they are being abandoned.”

Hostilities continue in Rafah and southern Gaza despite the Israeli military's announcement on Sunday of tactical pauses in operations to allow humanitarian aid to enter, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, told reporters in Oslo on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticized plans announced by the military to hold daily pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into the Palestinian enclave.

Dr Ahmad Al-Jamal, a general practitioner, imam, and member of a prominent family in Gaza, secretly held three Israeli hostages captive in his home for six months, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Monday.

Every day Al-Jamal returned home from work to his son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and Israeli Hamas captives Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv.

The hostages were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.

The IDF’s 401st Brigade in the Armored Corps has employed drones to eliminate terrorists in Rafah, the IDF reported on Monday morning.

The brigade pressed forward and engaged terrorists in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah. The Israeli troops, in addition to combating the terrorists, ultimately destroyed a weapons warehouse from which anti-tank missiles were fired at IDF soldiers.

This is not the first time the IDF has used drones for close-quarters combat. The IDF has regularly trained with drones and developed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for combat alongside civilian security systems companies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the end of the war cabinet in a Sunday meeting with the political-security cabinet, it was reported on Monday.

"The cabinet was in the coalition agreement with [National Unity MK Benny] Gantz at his request. As soon as Gantz left - there is no need for a cabinet anymore," he added.

No new cabinet

According to Netanyahu, there will not be a new cabinet formed of the leaders of the coalition parties, the idea previously put forward by ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.

The Security Cabinet is set to vote at its next meeting on a series of measures against the Palestinian Authority and countries that unilaterally recognize Palestinian statehood, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Office.

“The Prime Minister instructed that all of the proposals be submitted to a vote at the next Security Cabinet meeting,” the PMO stated.

It spoke out after the Security Cabinet met late Sunday night to discuss the measures, which would include “steps to strengthen settlement in Judea and Samaria.”

Prominent Iranian political prisoner Fatemeh Sepehri, who in the past has criticized the Islamic Republic, has been sentenced to an additional 18 and a half years in prison after condemning the Hamas October 7 attacks and supporting Israel, a Thursday report from Iran International said.

According to the report, Sepehri has been suffering from a heart ailment and ill health during her time in prison as an Iranian dissident.

Regardless of her condition and imprisonment, Sepehri decided to issue a statement supporting Israel following October 7, which the Islamic regime in Iran viewed as a clear act of defiance.

A senior Biden adviser will travel to Israel on Monday for meetings to avoid further escalation between Israel and Lebanon, a White House official said.

Amos Hochstein will advance efforts to avoid further escalation along the "Blue Line" between Israel and Lebanon, said the official, who did not wish to be identified.

Amos Hochstein visited Israel in November, also in an effort to contain the cross-border violence with Hezbollah and to contain the conflict with the Houthis in Yemen, who have continued attacking commercial ships along the shipping route in the Red Sea.