Israel faces Hezbollah threats amid success on other fronts

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FDD's Long War Journal

Seth Frantzman

January 30, 2024

Hezbollah in Lebanon continued to carry out attacks against Israel, even as Israel has sought a diplomatic solution via mediation from countries including the US and France. The IDF said on Tuesday that a rocket launched from Lebanon targeted the community of Arab al-Aramshe. The IDF said it responded with fighter jets attacking a Hezbollah “command center.” There were other strikes by Israel in Lebanon during the day. Later in the evening of January 30, more sirens were heard in Arab al-Aramshe, indicating a new threat. This community is made up of members of the Arab beduin minority who live in northern Israel. Most of the residents who live along Israel’s northern border have been evacuated.

Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant went to Haifa on January 30 and warned about the threats faced by northern Israel. “The stage will come when our patience will run out, and a forceful action to enforce peace on the northern border will also affect the Haifa metropolis,” he said. On January 29, Israel’s Reshet Bet radio interviewed a security officer in the community of Margaliot who described how a Hezbollah journalist had threatened him personally by posting his photo online with a gunsight around the image. In addition, the pro-regime Iranian media outlet Fars News highlighted Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel, noting that Hezbollah was using heavier “Barkan” missiles.

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The IDF also released details on January 30 of its “Atlantis” program that uses water to erode and destroy Hamas tunnels in Gaza. The process of finding and destroying hundreds of miles of tunnels with thousands of potential entrances has proven to be incredibly complex and taken specialized forces. It has also taken time. The IDF has been working with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to develop tools and methods to “channel large volumes of water into Hamas’ terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip. This is part of a range of tools deployed by the IDF to neutralize the threat of Hamas’ subterranean network of tunnels,” the IDF said. The IDF said the flooding of the tunnels is done in such a way that does not damage groundwater, thus requiring analysis of local soil and water systems.

The tunnel operations occur as another Israeli unit, the Kiryati brigade, was withdrawn from Gaza after months of operations against Hamas.

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Undercover Israeli Commandos Kill Three Palestinian Militants in West Bank Hospital Raid

David Zimmermann

January 30, 2024

A group of roughly a dozen undercover Israeli commandos entered a hospital in the West Bank on Tuesday and killed three Palestinian militants.

The Israeli commandos, some of whom were disguised as nurses or women in hijabs, carried out the operation inside the Ibn Sina hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, according to surveillance footage posted to social media by Israeli officials.

Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir praised the raid while sharing the camera footage on social media.

“I congratulate and strengthen the naval commando forces of the Israeli police on their impressive operation last night in cooperation with the IDF and the Shin Bet in the Jenin refugee camp, which led to the elimination of three terrorists,” Ben-Gvir posted on X.

Hamas said the three militants who were killed belonged to the Jenin Brigades, an armed Palestinian faction in the West Bank city of the same name. The men were also terrorists closely associated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Israel Defense Forces said, and were identified as Mohammed Jalamneh, Mohammed Al-Ghazawi, and Basel Al-Ghazawi. The last two were brothers.

 

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