Israel-Hamas War day 285: What is happening in Gaza, the Middle East?

In recent days, the IDF and Shin Bet have been able to track down and kill senior Hamas officials, as well as Nukhba terrorists who partook in the October 7 massacre, with the assistance of footage uploaded by Hamas terrorists themselves.

More and more Israelis are calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government to establish a National Committee of Inquiry over the October 7 massacre. But the coalition today struck down a bill proposing precisely that.

IDF troops demolished this week a route in the Rafah area from which four terrorists attempted to infiltrate into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip in June.
 

The High Court of Justice on Wednesday maintained its freeze of the State Comptroller's probe of the IDF's October 7 failures until at least July 28, with parts frozen until October 31, and possibly longer.

Israel must first defeat Hamas and only then investigate the events leading up to the October 7 Hamas massacre, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday during a special debate.

IDF representatives in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said on Wednesday morning that the IDF does not yet know how many draft orders to haredi citizens it plans to send out on Sunday morning.  

The meeting was coined an "urgent" meeting by committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) after the IDF announced on Tuesday that it would begin sending draft orders on Sunday. The IDF representatives said in the meeting on Wednesday that their goal was to draft 3,000 haredim in the coming year in addition to the approximately 1,800 haredim that already serve.

The representatives said that the orders on Sunday would target haredi men they believed to have a high potential to serve and who would not avoid the orders or be found incapable. However, the representatives could not say exactly how many orders they would send out, nor the criteria for choosing whom to send them.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Chairman of Yisrael Beytenu Avigdor Liberman met on Wednesday. The meeting occured amid contacts to establish a new "right-wing party."

As revealed by MK Zeev Elkin, current and former politicians were holding continuous talks with various right-wing entities to establish a liberal right-wing party to challenge coalition mandates.

A spokesperson for Liberman said that the meeting with Bennett was held in "good spirits" and added that they were in "constant contact" and were "coordinating positions."

Hezbollah will hit new targets in Israel if it keeps killing civilians in Lebanon, the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday, noting a spike in the number of non-combatants killed in Lebanon in recent days.

Five civilians, all Syrians and including three children, were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday and at least three Lebanese civilians were killed the day before, according to state media and security sources.

"Continuing to target civilians will push the Resistance to launch missiles at settlements that were not previously targeted," Nasrallah said, in comments made during a televised address to mark the Shi'ite holy day Ashoura.

The IDF has identified distress within Hamas in recent days and weeks. This is the reason why Hamas seeks to reach a deal and demand a cessation of fighting. In just the past seven days, the IDF has eliminated about a thousand Hamas terrorists in operations across Gaza. Since the beginning of the maneuver, the IDF has reportedly killed approximately 14,000 militants in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the IDF has struck at Hamas's ordnance, command capabilities, and numerous tunnel areas throughout Gaza and has cut Hamas off from the outside borders by taking control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing.

IDF increases military pressure across Gaza

The IDF states that several alternatives for maintaining control of the Philadelphi Corridor are being discussed privately. During the week, the IDF changed the deployment of operating forces in Gaza. Division 99, which had secured the Nitzarim Corridor in the center of the Strip, was relieved by Division 252, which replaced them in the area.

One in four Jewish Israelis and four in ten Arab Israelis would have emigrated if given the opportunity, according to a new survey. These results underscore a growing discontent with the nation's leadership and security situation.

A new report from the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), published on Wednesday, highlighted a significant trend of emigration sentiments among Israelis. According to the July 2024 Israeli Society Index, 25% of Jewish Israelis and 40% of Arab Israelis expressed a willingness to leave the country if they had a practical opportunity. This finding came at a time when trust in both military and political leadership was notably low.

The report painted a picture of a nation grappling with internal strife and diminishing confidence in its institutions. Public trust in the senior command of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had dropped dramatically, with 55% of Jewish respondents expressing low or very low trust. The decline was particularly stark among right-wing Israelis, 80% of whom distrusted the IDF's top leadership. This erosion of confidence extended to the political realm, where only 27% of Israelis trusted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a mere 26% had confidence in the government.