Israel at war day 392: What is happening in Gaza, Lebanon?

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed "opportunities for regional de-escalation" with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant during a phone call, the Pentagon said on Thursday, amid the conflict in the Middle East.

Austin "also reviewed steps Israel is taking and should continue to advance to improve the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, and prospects for a hostage release and ceasefire deal," according to the readout.

Israeli bulldozers damaged the office of UN aid agency UNRWA in the West Bank's Nur Shams camp on Thursday, the agency's chief said, with Israel disputing his account in the latest exchange between both sides.

Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UNRWA, said on social media platform X that the office was severely damaged and was no longer usable. The Israeli military, however, issued a statement denying responsibility for any damage to the building.

IDF explanation for damage 

"The claim that the UNRWA offices in Nur Shams were destroyed by IDF soldiers is false," the statement read, in reference to Israel Defence Forces.

Following reports of explosions heard in Eilat, the IDF announced that two drones were shot down outside of Israel's territory by the IAF on Thursday night.

On a deadly day in the North, Hezbollah killed seven people in two separate rocket attacks in open areas on Thursday.

In the first incident, five people – an Israeli farmer and four foreign workers – were killed in an agricultural area in Metulla. A sixth person was seriously wounded from shrapnel.

In the second incident, a woman, in her 60s, and her son, in his 30s, were killed by shrapnel in an olive grove near Gil’am junction west of Haifa. A man in his 70s sustained light wounds.

The wounded from both attacks were evacuated to Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

Hezbollah fired some 25 rockets altogether, the IDF said.

The attacks came as the IDF was trying to frame its latest efforts to reduce the dangers of Hezbollah drones in a more positive light.

Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics treat a wounded person who was hit by shrapnel from an intercepted Hezbollah rocket in northern Israel, October 31, 2024. (credit: MDA SPOKESPERSON)

Hezbollah's reduced fire power

The military said it has destroyed around 70% of the group’s drones, mostly since it escalated its attacks in mid-September.

It also said it has killed a full 10% of Hezbollah’s drone operators as well as the commander of the entire unit.
Next, the IDF said it had killed the Hezbollah drone commander of the North Litani region and destroyed 54 positions that had held drones.

Further, it stated it had destroyed 24 detection or operations installations related to Hezbollah’s drone units, and it had eliminated eight centers for assembling drones, six underground drone-related bases, and seven drone storage centers.

Despite these significant numbers, the IDF has shot down drones at lower percentages than rockets, and drones have killed and wounded a large number of soldiers and civilians over the course of the war, with 231 out of 1,300 not being shot down.

Although that shootdown rate is over 80%, the rocket shootdown rate has been closer to 90%.

All of these developments with Hezbollah take place against the mixed background of increased anticipation of a ceasefire on one hand, along with the escalation of IDF airstrikes against Hezbollah in Baalbek, kilometers deep into Lebanon, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Although the IDF has periodically carried out surgical airstrikes in the Baalbek area since early 2024, this was only the second time the IDF called for a mass evacuation and then bombarded the area.

Most of the IDF’s focus to date has been in southern Lebanon with portions of Beirut also being hit hard since mid-September.

The IDF also announced Thursday that it has gained significant information from its Unit 504 interrogations of hundreds of Gazan terrorists in the last month as well as from an unidentified number of Hezbollah terrorists.

Next, The Jerusalem Post has learned that the defense establishment overall wishes to move closer to a ceasefire on both fronts, not believing there is much more to achieve militarily and frustrated by the daily losses of soldiers.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant both elevated their pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would return the remaining 101 living and dead Israeli hostages held by Gazan terror groups.

At speeches at an officer graduation ceremony, both top defense officials said time is of the essence to return the hostages, which most officials now agree will only happen, if at all, through a deal with Hamas.

At the same time, defense sources still do want to confirm that Hezbollah will – at least publicly – commit to withdrawing north of the Litani River, which has been Israel’s primary position since the war started.

In addition, Israel will want to ensure it has the right to self-enforce violations of such a withdrawal without having to get permission from UNIFIL, which has been seen as utterly ineffective for around 18 years.

Separately, six Lebanese health workers were killed and four wounded in Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon on Thursday, Beirut’s Health Ministry said.

The total number of health workers killed by Israel since October 2023 rose to 178 and 279 wounded, the ministry added.

The IDF had not yet responded to the allegations at press time, but has alternately denied some such incidents or confirmed some incidents, blaming Hezbollah for intentionally battling and attacking Israel from among civilians.

Also, the air force struck weapons storage facilities used by Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces in the Qusayr area of Syria, near the Syrian-Lebanese border, the military said on Thursday.

A statement said the attack was specially guided by IDF intelligence.

The military said it was conducting strikes to reduce the transfer of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah via Syria.

The IDF noted that Hezbollah’s Munitions Unit recently increased its activities in the border town as part of attempts to set up logistical infrastructure in the area.

The military said its Syria strike was part of its broader operations in targeting the terror group’s Unit 4400, which foresees the transfer of weapons from Iran.

“With the support of the Syrian regime, the Hezbollah terrorist organization endangers the security of Syrian and Lebanese civilians by embedding command centers and forces in civilian areas in both these countries,” the IDF said.

Earlier on Thursday, Reuters reported that civilians had been wounded during an alleged Israeli strike in the area, which targeted the city’s industrial zone along with residential neighborhoods.

Last week, the IAF targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in the Jousieh border crossing, operated by the Syrian regime, in the area of northern Bekaa in Lebanon.

In Gaza, the IDF continued a variety of airstrikes, and divisions 162 and 252 continued fighting small groups of Gazan terrorists, especially in Jabalya in northern Gaza.

With the IDF still attacking Gazan terrorists in northern Gaza, it was unclear what deal has or has not been worked out between the US and Israel about the humanitarian situation there.

In mid-October, the US threatened to freeze arms transfers if the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza did not improve significantly.

Reuters contributed to this report.