Israel-Hamas war day 339: What's happening in the West Bank, Gaza?

The UN human rights chief said on Monday that ending the nearly year-long war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel's "blatant disregard" for international law in the West Bank.

"States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (UN) Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a speech at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He cited an opinion released by the UN top court in July that called Israel's "occupation" illegal and said this situation must be "comprehensively addressed," Israel has rejected the opinion.

A building was hit in Nahariya on Monday morning, according to the Fire and Rescue Authority, following the drone intrusion alerts that sounded in the area. 

Magen David Adom said that no injuries had been reported to date. 

The Fire and Rescue Authority further stated the firefighters were operating to exclude the possibility that people had been trapped inside the building. 

Israel's border guard fighters arrested 570 illegal residents and 50 suspects over the last week, Israel police announced on Monday.

לוחמי משמר הגבול עצרו 570 שוהים בלתי חוקיים ו-50 חשודים שסייעו בידם בסוף השבוע האחרון pic.twitter.com/Una9luUYPT

— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) September 9, 2024

Esther Buchstab, the mother of dead hostage Yagev Buchstab, whose body was recovered from Gaza in August, revealed to a Knesset committee after she received his autopsy report on Sunday that Yagev had been murdered by Hamas, Israeli media reported on Monday.

Yagev "was executed" while being held in Hamas captivity, his mother said.

As was the case with the six hostages returned to Israel last week, Buchstab said the autopsy revealed "the army came close to the tunnel area, and [the hostages] were executed," according to N12. The six hostages rescued from Gaza last week were similarly executed shortly before rescue. 

Abdulmalik Dehamshe, former leader of the Islamist Ra’am party, stirred up a storm after a series of statements he made in an interview with Makan, the Arabic-speaking outlet of the ‏Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, in which he justified Hamas’s bloody incursion into Israel on October 7 and cast doubt on the accounts that took place in that horrific day.

In the interview, Dehamshe claimed that those who were taken into Gaza on October 7 were not “hostages” but rather "prisoners of war," which Hamas took in order to free the other prisoners of war who are in Israeli prison.

He then asked the surprised anchors: "Are the prisoners in Israel not human beings? Do they not have the right to be freed?"

The IDF has opened an in-depth investigation into who, why, and how the names of the hostages were leaked on social media last weekend before the IDF provided official confirmation, N12 reported on Monday. The leak led hostage families to learn of their loved ones' deaths via social media.

The IDF discovered the bodies of Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, and Alex Lobanov in a tunnel in Rafah before returning them to Israel for burial. They had been killed in captivity shortly before being discovered. Hamas has since released videos of the hostages' last statements. 

As noted in the N12 report, hours before the bodies of the six hostages were returned to Israel, a wave of rumors spread on social media with the names of the hostages.

To stop the proliferation of rumors in the army, the IDF published a special announcement to say that the bodies had been recovered, but without identifying them.

Former head of the National Security Council and Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) fellow Yaakov Amidror spoke on the state of affairs in the fight against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon in a recent interview with Radio 103FM. 

"The intense phase of the fighting is behind us, and now we must ensure that Hamas does not rebuild itself as a major threat," he said. 

"The IDF must maintain operational flexibility and be able to act in accordance with the needs on the ground," Amidror added. 

Chairman of the National Unity Party, Benny Gantz, told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he expects the world to support Israel's efforts to intensify military and civil pressure on Gaza at a meeting in Washington DC on Sunday.

He added that the current hostage deal has widespread support from the Knesset and the Israeli public.

Gantz also told Blinken his appreciation for the US administration’s commitment to securing a hostage deal and added that the US, along with moderate Arab countries, should work together to form a regional coalition against Hamas.

"From the moment the political leadership gives the green light, it will take the IDF just minutes to execute an operation in Lebanon," an IDF official told Maariv.

The Northern Command is waiting for the political echelon's green light to act in Lebanon. In the meantime, the IDF continues to update its attack plans. The military has also taken several steps to ensure that once the order is given, the transition to high-intensity combat will be particularly swift.

On October 7, the Northern Command was pleasantly surprised when reserve forces immediately arrived at the emergency warehouses, departed within hours, and deployed to the operational combat zones.

The Israel Air Force struck Hezbollah military structures and launchers in the areas of Kfarkela, Taybeh, Hanine, Khirbet Selm, and Yarine in southern Lebanon on Sunday night, the IDF announced on Monday morning.