Israel-Hamas War day 312: What's happening in Israel and Iran?

An Israel Air Force (IAF) aircraft eliminated two Hezbollah terrorists in the Marjaayoun area in southern Lebanon, the military said on Wednesday night. 

In addition, IAF jets struck a Hezbollah military structure in the Ayta ash Shab area of southern Lebanon. Artillery forces also fired at the Rmeish area, the IDF added. 

Furthermore, following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel earlier on Wednesday night, the military said that several projectiles had crossed into Israeli territory and hit open areas. No injuries were reported. 

Hamas official Osama Hamdan spoke on the hostage deal talks in conversation with AP on Wednesday. 

Hamdan was cited as saying that the terror group had "some difficulties" in communicating with the Hamas chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, for consultation on the matter.

The IDF announced on Wednesday that four soldiers were wounded in Tubas in the northern West Bank after their partially armored David vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive.

The IDF did not provide how many times this has happened, but it has already reported on several such instances in recent months, starting with a June 27 incident in Jenin in which one soldier was killed and 22 were wounded.

On Wednesday, two soldiers were moderately wounded and another two soldiers were lightly wounded.

These soldiers were wounded during a 12-hour operation that also led to the killing of five Palestinian terrorists and concluded on Wednesday.

Four of the terrorists were killed by an IDF drone strike.

A Palestinian man checks a car damaged in an Israeli raid, in Tubas, in the West Bank, August 14, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/RANEEN SAWAFTA)

According to the military, an unidentified member of a terror group in the area was killed during an exchange of fire with the IDF troops.

Three additional Palestinians suspected of terrorism were arrested, said the IDF.

In addition, the IDF seized five M-16 assault rifles and one Carlo submachine gun, as well as explosive devices and other weapons.

During the June 27 incident, a Panther armored vehicle drove over a road where there was one of multiple planted explosive devices underground.

The road had already been bulldozed and “cleared” by an IDF D-9 bulldozer to ensure that such hidden improvised explosive devices could not ambush the soldiers.

The initial injuries to the soldiers within the Panther were much more limited, but nearby Palestinians activated a second improvised explosive device – possibly remotely – against the rescuers.

During the June 27 incident, the IDF said that the D-9 missed the explosive devices because they were buried at a much deeper depth than usual.

Until then, the devices had been buried around 40 to 50 cm. under a road.

These devices were probably placed around 1.5 m. deep.

According to public records, D-9's standard digging depth cuts off at less than 70 cm.

Of course, if a D-9 does multiple runs through a specific area, it can go much deeper, but this creates other operational dilemmas when operating in a hostile environment and trying to maintain an element of surprise and quick and decisive action.

Back in June, the IDF was unclear how it would overcome such ambushes if the Palestinians copied their success in the future and based on numerous such incidents, including Wednesday, it does not seem that the military has arrived at a solution.

What operations are the IDF carrying out in Gaza?

In southern Gaza, the IDF announced on Wednesday that the air force struck a Hamas rocket launch site near a humanitarian aid route in Khan Yunis from which the terror group had fired rockets on Tuesday.

This attack was more significant than regular attacks on Hamas rocket launch sites because the organization had fired two M-90 long-range rockets, one of the first time in months they had managed to fire anything but short-range rockets.

Ultimately, one of the rockets landed in the sea and the other did not even reach Israeli territory given the long distance from southern Gaza.

However, the two rockets could have potentially hit Tel Aviv and central Israel based on their maximum range.

The IDF strikes were carried out adjacent to the launch site, outside of the humanitarian aid route with the military noting in a statement that Hamas continues to flagrantly violate the laws of war by placing rocket launchers next to humanitarian and civilian sites in Gaza.

IDF International Spokesperson Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani shared a video on X, formerly Twitter, showing Hamas terrorists in civilian clothes launching rockets from within tents near the humanitarian zone in Khan Yunis.

“Hamas terrorists continue to terrorize Israelis and endanger the Gazans around them,” Shoshani said.

“This is a video showing how Hamas terrorists, dressed in civilian clothing, launched two rockets towards central Israel today from a humanitarian area. Once again, Hamas is putting Gazan civilians at risk in an attempt to harm Israelis,” he concluded.

Later Wednesday, IDF soldiers dismantled Hamas terrorist infrastructure, sniper, and observation posts, with the IAF striking over 40 such targets through the Gaza Strip, including sites from which terrorists had fired anti-tank missiles.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi visited Rafah, telling his troops that every day Hamas continues to hold the Israeli hostages it will pay a price and be degraded further.

That said – even after 10 months – Halevi did not suggest any specific deadline or strategy for getting the hostages back beyond a potential deal, which he hopes will come about through ongoing IDF military pressure.

In the North, the IDF attacked Hezbollah in at least eight different rounds, somewhat of an increase over recent days, but still limited to southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah fired some rockets and an anti-tank missile in open areas in Israel without causing injuries or damage. There were no reports of large fires from the attacks.

It is unclear from Hezbollah’s overall reduced activity in the last week or so whether this is a ploy to try to lull Israel into complacency before a much larger attack or whether the group is secretly hoping for a ceasefire to avoid a larger conflict with the Jewish state.

Also, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, some 10,056 wounded soldiers and security organization members have been absorbed by the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department, the department said Wednesday.

The department predicted that by 2030, there would be 100,000 IDF disabled cared for by the department, 50% of whom would be facing mental health injuries.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report

US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns will be in Qatar for talks on a ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Burns would be accompanied by Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and Africa. The CIA declined to comment on the matter in line with its policy of not disclosing the director's travel.

The Israel Air Force (IAF) struck Hezbollah military structures in the Rab El Thalathine and Blida areas of southern Lebanon, the military said on Wednesday.

In addition, the IAF struck a launcher that was aimed at Israeli territory in the Houla area of southern Lebanon.  

Forces also attacked a military structure in the Naqoura area in southern Lebanon. 

Very large amounts of Iranian academic research have been refocused to advancing issues relevant to nuclear bomb detonation, the Institute for Science and International Security’s president David Albright told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

This is a potentially radical paradigm shift in how close a real Iran nuclear weapons threat could become, given that until now, defense officials and analysts always said that no matter how far along the Islamic Republic was enriching uranium, there would be time to stop it from getting the bomb seeing as it had not mastered key “weapons group” activities.

Albright is not alone in sounding the alarm.

Recently, IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram warned the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of increased signs of Iranian nuclear weaponization. Further, the US’s annual intelligence estimate in July carried similar implied warnings. The IAEA has also repeatedly said that it is blind and concerned about Iranian weaponization. As for Tehran itself, Iran International just reported on Wednesday that three Iranian sources had confirmed progress concerning nuclear armament and detonation issues.

Multiple top defense officials have also expressed concern to the Post about new Iranian nuclear weaponization progress, intimating that there could be new clandestine efforts against Tehran’s recent violations.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei views a model of a nuclear facility, in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023 (credit: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS)

More specifically, Albright told the Post that he will soon be coming out with a report that summarizes the analysis of over 150 Iranian “academic” papers related to computer modeling for simulations in connection with nuclear weapons as well as with neutron initiators.

“There are some weaponization matters going on under the guise of civilian undertakings. Israeli and US officials are discussing this. If you look at Iranian ‘academic’ studies related to computer modeling, their capabilities are quite significant and relevant to working on codes and simulations that you would need to perform to weaponize a nuclear bomb,” Albright explained.

Because this research has obvious dual-use purposes relating to nuclear weapons and not just civilian uses, he went so far as to say that Iran is probably violating Section T of the 2015 nuclear deal regarding weaponization.

How has Iran advanced its technology?

Moreover, he noted that Tehran has “contracted out for work to its allied universities and research centers other things which can be done that will advance” its nuclear program, including projects that have to do with neutron initiators.

According to Albright, neutron initiators carry out compression which creates a fusion reaction involving two deuteride atoms which releases a burst of neutrons. This kick-starts a chain reaction at the optimal moment.

In addition, he warned that once the academic research is completed, the actual nuclear weapons-version testing can be performed “clandestinely at a small lab. And they did a lot already during the Amad [underground nuclear weapons] plan and after it.”

Conjointly, he said that “we know from the Mossad documents that what was farmed out to academia was actually controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” referring to Iran’s secret nuclear archives seized by the secret intelligence agency in 2018.

Another weaponization matter that Iran could be working on covertly, said Albright, is multipoint initiation. “They can do this openly and claim that this is not spherical geometry, but rather that it is rectangular geometry,” he said, explaining that the same activities can be done to advance nuclear weapons detonation.

Albright enlightened that multipoint initiation “initiates an explosive charge which compresses the core,” in the detonation process.

He added that the secret Iranian archives seized by the Mossad showed that Iran possessed blueprints of how to carry out such activities, and that the actual weaponization efforts could be easily hidden in small “civilian” facilities.

Regarding the Iran International report, the three independent sources in Iran said that the Islamic Republic has made significant progress in its nuclear program.

This included restructuring the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), keeping Mohammad Eslami as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and resuming tests to produce nuclear bomb detonators, the report noted.

For years, US intelligence agencies have maintained that Iran was not engaged in the key activities necessary to develop a testable nuclear device.

However, Avril Haines, the director of US National Intelligence, marked in the office’s 2024 report, which was released in July, that there was a shift in this assessment, noting that Iran has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device if it chooses to do so.”

Additionally, the Iranian Parliament recently approved a bill to restructure SPND, granting it financial independence and exempting it from the oversight of the National Audit Office, said the report. This restructuring allows SPND to operate with increased autonomy, continuing its work on nuclear detonators under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On January 20, the IRGC launched a satellite using a solid-fuel, three-stage carrier, which prompted criticism from Germany, Britain, and France due to concerns over the dual use of long-range ballistic missile technology.

All of this comes against a background where Albright said that Iran could enrich enough uranium for several nuclear weapons all underground at one nuclear site at Fordow in around a month.

Although Iran has been enriching uranium to the 60% level since 2020, it only recently installed massive numbers of IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Fordow facility, which is much harder to destroy by airstrike than other facilities.

Iran International also highlighted the ongoing involvement of Saeed Borji, an explosives and metals expert associated with Iran’s Defense Ministry, in the development of nuclear detonators. Along with other key figures, Borji continues to play a crucial role in Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, which remains under the oversight of Gen. Reza Mozaffarinia, the current head of SPND.

Mozaffarina replaced IRGC Brig.-Gen. Seyyed Mahdi Farahi in September 2021 as head of the nuclear weapons program after Farahi had replaced Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the father of Iran’s nuclear bomb program who was assassinated in November 2020, attributed by most to Israel.

While Fakhrizadeh’s killing was likely a setback to Iran’s nuclear program, the country has clearly more than recovered since.

Albright cautioned that US and world inaction and denial on the issue is reaching dangerous levels now that the Islamic Republic could potentially master both enrichment and weaponization issues in a matter of months, and certainly less than the year or two which were previously estimated as the time frame that Iran still needed to achieve these goals. 

Itamar Peretz, a 19-year-old from Afula, is set to enlist in the IDF's Battalion 13 on Wednesday, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Captain Raz Peretz, who served as a company commander in Battalion 51 and fell in battle at the Kisufim outpost on October 7. “My motivation to become a soldier only grew stronger after my brother fell,” Itamar shared. “Even before enlisting, I already feel connected to the battalion, like it’s a family.”

Itamar will be accompanied by his parents, Roni and Nava, family members, friends, Raz’s fiancée and her family. On the shirts worn by Itamar and his supporters is the inscription: “In the path you took, I will go, and I will win for you.”

Captain Raz Peretz was a platoon commander in Battalion 51. During the attack on October 7, he led his troops to a protective shelter, ran under fire to fetch them weapons, and neutralized a terrorist. Despite his troops’ lack of experience with combat, Raz issued pivotal fire commands and fought off numerous terrorists with two weapons, one in each hand. Even after being injured in his left hand, he continued fighting, eventually charging the terrorists and killing several, saving the lives of 12 soldiers.

Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet chief (Israel Security Agency) Ronen Bar are set to take part in the Israeli delegation at the hostage deal summit expected to take place on Thursday, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.  

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and other banks were targeted on Wednesday as part of a significant cyber attack that led to widespread disruptions in the country's banking system, Iran International reported.

#BREAKING A major cyberattack has targeted the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and several other banks, leading to widespread disruptions in the country’s banking system, @IranIntl has learned. Initial assessments indicate this could be one of the largest cyberattacks ever against… pic.twitter.com/6TiuNrxosL

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) August 14, 2024

According to reports, all the computer systems of the banks in Iran were paralyzed following the cyber attack. Initial estimates indicated that this could be one of the largest-ever cyberattacks against Iranian state infrastructure.

A signal to Iran?

The cyber attack is most likely a signal from the Western countries to Iran, that is, conveying a message that demonstrates how Iran can be harmed. 

Hands are seen interfering with cyber code (Illustrative). (credit: PIXABAY)

The last cyber attack carried out against Iranian institutions took place last December when a significant part of the gas stations in the country were damaged as part of a cyber attack, which the Iranians attributed to Israel and the US.

This is a developing story. 

The ambassadors of the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany made a joint statement, calling on a hostage deal to be achieved, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

"We don't know how many more chances we have to bring this negotiation back together and to have a successful conclusion. The conclusion means the hostages come home; the families get to be reunited."

"We stand with the hostages and their families, and we call on all parties to reach an agreement for a deal now."