IDF troops reach Litani River, Ceasefire announcement expected

Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Tuesday that he has won a years-long battle to get authority to build a new hi-tech border fence with Jordan to block smuggling, especially from Iran.

An announcement said that the fence, which will include a variety of cutting-edge sensors and cost tens of millions of shekels, would be constructed in “a number of months” but did not set a formal end date.

Heads of localities in the North have criticized in recent days the ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon that could be signed in the near future.  

"A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon that does not include an arrangement to ensure the security of the communities along Israel's northern border would be a disaster," Moshe Davidovich, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council, said on Tuesday.

Sgt.-Maj. Yona Betzalel Brief, who was wounded while fighting in the Gaza border communities on October 7 of last year, succumbed to his wounds, the IDF announced on Tuesday. 

The European Union's foreign policy chief urged Israel on Tuesday to back a proposed ceasefire deal in Lebanon, which he said has all the necessary security guarantees for Israel.

A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon that does not include an arrangement to ensure the security of the communities along Israel's northern border would be a disaster, Moshe Davidovich, head of the Mateh Asher Regional Council said on Tuesday. 

Sources in the security establishment do not rule out the possibility that signing an agreement between Lebanon and Israel, in a manner that binds Hezbollah, could lead to a breakthrough in negotiations with Hamas for the release of hostages, including maintaining Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor.

Additionally, a senior security official on Sunday told Walla that the military pressure placed on Hamas and its allies has brought the possibility of achieving a deal to return the hostages closer than ever before.

The Israeli outlet reported that security officials believe Hamas's ability to coordinate its activities with Hezbollah has been severed, placing the terror organization under immense pressure.

The Islamic Republic was informed that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was imminent, two members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps told The New York Times on Monday.

Iran’s Sabalan Destroyer has quadrupled its missile diversity and range as part of recent model evolutions, Tehran’s navy chief claimed in an interview with Iran’s semi-state official newspaper Tasnim News Agency on Sunday. 

The Sabalan is now equipped with 16 anti-ship cruise missiles, the official claimed. The destroyer had previously reportedly been equipped with only four ‘Qader’ and ‘Qadir’ cruise missiles.

The Israel Air Force intercepted a drone crossing from the East targeting the Golan Heights area, the IDF reported on Tuesday overnight.

The IDF Logistics Command, under Maj.-Gen. Michel Yanko has had to handle an unprecedented challenge to keep the military’s machine moving through 14 months of war and fighting on seven fronts, including massive invasions against Hamas and Hezbollah.

During that time, Yanko transformed the command into a much larger and battle-focused corps, even eventually getting recognition as combat fighters for the 97 members of his command killed in battle, and the around 2,500 wounded.

At the same time, the Logistics Command was slammed early on in the war for being slow to get weapons, bulletproof vests, helmets, food, and other needed supplies to some troops on the frontlines and many troops close to the frontlines.

Further, it has had to contend with partial arms embargoes from the US and other allies, sometimes resorting to creativity to keep up with daily needs.

According to the IDF, it has undertaken 2,000 large logistics and supply operations. This included establishing six forward logistics bases, some inside areas where forces operate in Gaza, six airlifts which led to bringing 100 tons of water, food, ammunition, and gas to the fronts, as well as delivering supplies by sea.

IDF soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip, November 25, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The IDF also established a new school to update the corps’ training to be more ready for battle conditions. This is all part of the recognition for logistics personnel, that they were required to move through war zones much more than expected in the past, and knowing that prior training for logistics personnel was inadequate.

Logistics command enhances war readiness

Besides working to improve its own operations, the command has distributed around 2.5 million clothing and footwear items and created a variety of new facilities to make the whole military more war-ready, including 15 new shooting ranges, 40 new kitchens, 120 new work areas, and 30 mobile food facilities.

Close to one million booster meal packages have been distributed as well as 35,000 special battlefield hot meals, using newly developed technologies

A major question during the fighting last winter applied not just to Gaza but also to Lebanon – could the IDF maintain operational effectiveness in the mountainous northern region?

The IDF said that it distributed around 300,000 winter equipment items for its soldiers to stay warm and effective. Various such items were revealed to The Jerusalem Post on Monday, including different levels of clothing for special forces in especially cold alpine areas versus more standard warm clothing for regular infantry.

Also included was a variety of specially customized electronic items the military designed for keeping its soldiers warm and effective under battlefield conditions, including in the winter.
One part of the Logistics Command is the Medical Corps, led by Brig.-Gen. Zivan Aviad-Beer. According to the IDF, the Medical Corps has handled around 6,000 wounded soldiers, 700 in the Lebanon invasion. During the Second Lebanon War (2006), it handled 833 wounded, and during the 2014 Gaza conflict, 709.

The IDF said that a senior medical officer has on average reached wounded soldiers during the current war in between zero-to-four minutes, whereas in 2006, the delay was between 10-25 minutes. The average time to get from the field to a hospital by helicopter has been 66 minutes from Gaza and 84 minutes from Lebanon. By ambulance or land vehicle, the average time has been 91 minutes from Gaza and 111 minutes from Lebanon.

The IDF has said it is proud that 85% of its soldiers who experienced physical or emotional harm have been able to return to the battlefield. Moreover, there are over 850 new psychologists and therapists to handle increased emotional traumas from the war.

However, some experts and anecdotal evidence raised questions about whether the atmosphere among these therapists and the battle commanders is truly conducive to handling issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) properly, or whether there is undue pressure from key officials to send soldiers back into battle even if they are only just stable.

Others have criticized the IDF for offering therapy mainly to frontline combat soldiers while ignoring the trauma of other soldiers who are witnessing or experiencing a variety of traumatic experiences during their service, even if they are not combat fighters.

Meanwhile, the Israel Air Force (IAF) struck key aspects of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 in Beirut on Monday. This unit is responsible for Syria-Lebanon cross-border Iranian weapons smuggling to Hezbollah.

The IDF also revealed new details about the strikes, including that previous strikes destroyed cross-border tunnels between Syria and Lebanon, which Iran and Hezbollah were trying to use to smuggle weapons to the Lebanese terror group.

Further, the IAF conducted multiple rounds of intelligence-based strikes on several other Hezbollah command centers in Dahiyeh near Beirut on Monday evening, following IDF Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee’s evacuation warning to the residents of Al-Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik municipalities on X/Twitter. Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, is known as a Hezbollah stronghold.

The morning strikes followed earlier evacuation warnings issued to residents of southern Beirut neighborhoods, including Haret Hreik. Despite these attacks and talk of an imminent ceasefire, Hezbollah fired more than 30 rockets and some drones into the North, wounding at least one person in Nahariya.

The day before saw 250 rockets to the North.

Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he will intensively promote the construction of a fence on the Israel-Jordan border during a visit to the Central Command on Monday.

“We see a relentless and institutionalized Iranian effort to establish an eastern front against the State of Israel,” he said.

“I have decided to intensively promote the construction of the fence on the eastern border between Israel and Jordan,” he added, “We are going to do it very quickly. We cannot lose in this campaign against the establishment of the eastern front, and we will have to do root cause treatment in some places to prevent the West Bank and the refugee camps from becoming a model for Gaza.”

Despite Katz’s promise, this goal was also pursued by Katz’s predecessor Yoav Gallant, and by the previous central commander Yehuda Fuchs. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blocked it as too costly and not fully necessary.
In Gaza, the IAF, under the direction of IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) intelligence, killed Ahmad Abd el-Halim Abu Hussein, who was responsible for rocket fire in Hamas’s western Jabalya Battalion, and another terrorist who took part in the October 7 massacre, the military said on Monday.

Abu Hussein was reportedly responsible for several rocket and mortar fire attacks against Israeli citizens and IDF soldiers. In the same strike, which took place over the weekend, multiple other Hamas terrorists were eliminated, including the terrorist Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Zakout, who infiltrated Israeli territory and participated in the October 7 massacre, the IDF stated.

In another development, Lt.-Col. (res.) Yoav Yarom – the commander who allowed 70-year-old civilian Ze’ev ‘Jabo’ Hanoch Erlich to enter Lebanon last week – has requested to resign from his position on Monday.

When Erlich was killed in Lebanon on Wednesday, a soldier was killed and an officer was seriously wounded, along with Yarom himself.

The military said that Erlich, 70, from Ofra, served as a major in reserve and fell in combat in southern Lebanon.
“I share in the families’ grief, embrace them, and wish the wounded a swift recovery,” Yarom wrote in his letter to Golani Brigade commander Col. Adi Ganon.

“Given the values I was taught and my belief that ‘pride comes with responsibility,’ I believe I must take command responsibility for the incident,” Yarom wrote. “Therefore, I request to end my position as Support Company Commander.”

The Post understood that Erlich was brought into Lebanon unlawfully, though an investigation is still underway. The initial understanding was that his presence was related to a nearby archaeological site in southern Lebanon near which Israeli forces had been operating.

“Of course, I will fully cooperate with the incident investigation and review,” Yarom wrote.