Israel-Hamas War day 302: What happened in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon?

The IDF uncovered a document from 2021 that reveals the involvement of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul with the Hamas terrorist organization as part of the Nukhba unit, which attacked Israel on October 7.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry stated on Saturday that the death toll in Gaza has reached 39,550 since the war started on October 7 of last year.

A further 91,280 have thus far been wounded in the conflict, the Gazan ministry added.

The number has not been independently verified, and the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its toll.

The Hamas-run ministry has also been repeatedly criticized for distorting casualty figures.

In May, departing from Hamas’s reported figures, the UN halved the number of women and children it had previously reported had been killed thus far in the war.

The family of murdered hostage Eitan Levi published footage of his body being abused in the streets of Gaza on Oct. 7 to their Instagram account on Saturday.

The footage, which has been blurred, is graphic.

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Secretary-General of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, Salahaddin Muhammad Baha al-Din, congratulated Hamas's late political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, on his "martyrdom" in a message shared by the Islamist organization on Saturday.

"Congratulations on your martyrdom, O symbol of steadfastness and jihad; O Abu al-Abd, you have achieved what you always hoped for and wished for," al-Din reportedly said. "Congratulations to the Islamic nation for having such heroes, and congratulations to Palestine, the people of giving, steadfastness, and martyrdom, and shame and disgrace to the wicked, the killers of children, and the traitors wherever they are."

IDF troops continued operations in Rafah and Tel al-Sultan overnight on Friday, the IDF reported on Saturday morning.

Ground troops, in cooperation with the IAF, struck and eliminated several terrorist cells identified in the area, the military added.

Several terrorists were reportedly identified exiting from a terror tunnel shaft embedded within a structure. The air force subsequently struck the structure and the tunnel shaft from which the terrorists had operated.

Fighter jets also destroyed a military structure in Rafah from which terrorists had fired anti-tank missiles toward IDF troops, the military added.

Rocket sirens sounded in the northern Israeli community of Matat on Saturday.

The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations told CBS News in an exclusive on Friday that the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah would begin deliberately targeting Israeli civilians - claiming that it had not done so until now. 

Hezbollah has reportedly decided to increase its targets in attacks in response to the assassination of its commander, Fuad Shukr.

"Until now, Hezbollah and the regime have, in an unwritten understanding, practically adhered to certain limits in their military operations, meaning that confining their actions to border areas and shallow zones, targeting primarily military objectives,"  a spokesperson from the delegation told CBS News. "However, the regime's attack on Dahieh in Beirut and the targeting of a residential building marked a deviation from these boundaries. We anticipate that, in its response, Hezbollah will choose both broader and deeper targets, and will not restrict itself solely to military targets and means."

The IDF has managed, in the space of a few days, to eliminate several top leaders between Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel's enemies have learned once again that no one is immune to the deadly concoction of quality intelligence and military capability, a reminder not only for Israel's enemies but a reassurance for the citizens it is supposed to protect. 

With that being said, the many threats of revenge and retaliation expressed by Iran and its proxies have created a sense of panic in all of Israel, potentially turning the entire country into one big war zone. 

Northern Israel doesn't seem fazed by this concept, seeing as it has been in an active war with Hezbollah since October 8. Be that as it may, Hezbollah is sure to up the ante in response to their second-in-command being taken out last week. This inevitable further escalation begs the question: what should be done to end this vicious cycle that has already seen several dozen soldiers and citizens killed by the Shia terror group?