IAF strikes rocket launchers in Lebanon, PM to send Israeli delegation to Qatar

The Israeli air force struck medium-range rocket launchers belonging to the Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon, the IDF stated on Thursday evening. The air force also reportedly struck additional rocket launchers next to a military site in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon.

The IAF strike was conducted under the direction of the Military Intelligence Directorate.

According to the military, before the strikes were conducted, Israel asked the Lebanese Armed Forces to address the issue, as per the current ceasefire agreement. The Lebanese army did not do so, the IDF noted.

"The IDF continues to act to remove any threat to the State of Israel in accordance with the ceasefire understandings," the military stated.

A man who spoke Hebrew in a Persian accent and claimed to be a member of Hamas called Julie Kupershtein, the mother of hostage Bar Kupershtein, and threatened her, Kupershtein told Israeli public broadcaster KAN on Thursday.

“It was early in the morning," Kupershtein told KAN. "I got a phone call and someone on the other end asked, 'Bar's mother?' I was very offended.”

A day after reports that Hamas was making a come back through an intense recruitment push, Defense Minister Israel Katz held a meeting on Thursday with a ministerial group for talks on how best to destroy Hamas’s governing capacity in Gaza.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Missions Minister Orit Strock, Ze’ev Elkin, a minister within the Finance Ministry, and other senior officials in the defense establishment were in attendance.

According to Katz, the meeting presented all of the strategies employed to date to undermine Hamas’s political rule in Gaza.

Fifteen protesters who marched towards the Gaza border were arrested by Israel Police on Thursday evening, according to Israeli media.

Following a rally in support of Jewish settlement in Gaza at the Yad Mordechai junction, dozens of protesters headed towards the fence in violation of the Southern Command Major General's order, which designates areas adjacent to the fence as a closed military zone.

The police had previously warned them: "Do not march towards the intersection. Anyone who violates the conditions will be arrested." 

Dozens of other young people also clashed with IDF forces.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday evening congratulated the IDF troops who took part in the September 8 operation targeting an underground Iranian missile production facility near the city of Maysaf in Syria.

"I salute our heroic fighters for the bold and successful operation deep inside Syria," Netanyahu stated. "This is one of the important countermeasures we have taken against the Iranian axis's attempts to arm itself to harm us, and it is a testament to our determination and courage to act everywhere in order to defend ourselves."

Much has already been written about the IDF Shaldag special operation on September 8 against a uniquely threatening underground Iranian missile production facility near the city of Maysaf in Syria, but only on Thursday did the IDF disclose the full timeline behind the scenes leading to and during the operation, as well as some of the doubts and challenges which had to be overcome to actually make it happen.

According to the IDF, Iran started to consider the concept for building such a missile production facility in Syria and at Maysaf in September 2017 - all of which was part of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Chief Qassem Soleimani's Islamic Crescent and "ring of fire" for surrounding Israel.

While the IDF Shaldag special operation on September 8 against a uniquely threatening underground Iranian missile production facility near the city of Maysaf in Syria has been discussed many times recently, only on Thursday did the IDF reveal the play-by-play of the battle on the ground between Israeli and Syrian forces.

Shaldag is the special operations arm of the Air Force, so they are often the first option for operations in other countries, especially those using helicopters in complex landing areas.

A major unexplained aspect of the IDF Shaldag special operation on September 8 against an underground Iranian missile production facility near the city of Maysaf in Syria, which posed a profound threat,t has been how the air force penetrated Syria's air defenses, managed to transport so many troops 200 kilometers into Syria, and provided air support to prevent interference from other nearby Syrian forces.

On Thursday, the IDF revealed a wide variety of air force activities that facilitated the operation.

Such intelligence is generally only possible with air transport and support.

Hostage deal and Gaza ceasefire negotiations expected to take place in Cairo on Friday have a high chance of being successful, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook told London-based Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Thursday. 

"There is a great chance for the negotiations to succeed this time," he told the publication. 

According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, a Hamas delegation arrived in the Egyptian capital on Wednesday and is set to travel to Doha, Qatar, on Thursday for continued negotiations, reportedly scheduled to pick up on Friday.