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Gallant warns: Hezbollah may hit Israel harder than Iran
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Wednesday that Hezbollah may hit Israel harder than Iran, noting that it may misread and downplay how hard Israel will hit back If civilians are killed.
While at a military drill in the North, Gallant said, “As things stand, Nasrallah may drag Lebanon into paying extremely heavy prices. The heaviest there are. They do not realize what could happen” to them.
The defense minister added, “if they looked at the pictures of Gaza, I believe they would understand, but sometimes logic is overcome.” he told the 646th Paratroopers Brigade of reservists.
Further, he stated that the situation could “deteriorate into a full war. This is not theoretical, but very real.”Likewise, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi on Wednesday said that “we are at the high point of readiness” should Iran or Hezbollah attack, including ready to quickly go on the attack.
Moreover, Halevi said that Hamas’s decision to make Yahya Sinwar its overall political leader to replace Ismail Haniyeh will not give him any immunity from being killed for his masterminding of the October 7 mass slaughter of Israelis in the South.
Separately, IDF Arabic Spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned Gazan civilians in the Beit Hanoun area of Gaza, including those in the Manshiyya and Sheikh Zayed neighborhoods and those currently residing in shelters in the vicinity, to evacuate the area in a post to X, formerly Twitter, early Wednesday morning.
Beit Hanoun is a city located in the northern portion of the Gaza Strip.
Adraee noted that Hamas and other terrorist organizations were using the area to fire rockets at Israel, and the IDF was set to “act forcefully against them.”
The Arabic-language spokesperson added that those in the area should immediately evacuate to shelters in central Gaza City.
The IDF did not provide updates on its forces entering those areas, but every time recently that the military has evacuated such an area, around a brigade of soldiers invades not long after to take apart any attempt by Hamas to reconstitute itself.
There have been close to 10 such reinvasions to date since the IDF first gained control of northern Gaza in mid-January and then withdrew from the area.
Rockets in Israel’s South
All of this came after rocket alarms sounded in the southern Israeli localities of Ashkelon, Sderot, Ibim, Nir Am, and Zikim on Tuesday evening when Hamas fired three rockets from Beit Hanoun.
The military added that one of the rockets was intercepted by Israel’s aerial defense array, and the others fell in open areas. No injuries were reported, but the IDF did not explain why it did not shoot down the other rockets.
Also, Israel struck Hamas targets in southern Gaza after dozens of rockets were fired over the last week from nearby two humanitarian aid warehouses, including UNRWA, at Israel, the IDF said on Wednesday morning.
The IDF added that after the air force conducted the targeted strikes on the launch sites, secondary explosions were detected, indicating the presence of additional weapons at the site.
The military noted that Hamas continues to systematically use civilian, as well as humanitarian, infrastructure to conduct its activities.
In the North, the IDF announced Wednesday morning that Air Force fighter jets struck a Hezbollah military base where terrorists were located and operating on Tuesday in the area of the Yaroun village in Lebanon.
In addition, the fighter jets also struck a Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure site in the area of Kfarkela in southern Lebanon.
On Tuesday,19 Israelis were wounded by Hezbollah’s drone attacks, according to the Galilee Medical Center in Safed.
The strikes come as tension remains high between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah after Israel killed Hezbollah’s military commander, Fuad Shukr.
Israel’s strike on Shukr came following a Hezbollah rocket launch, which resulted in the deaths of 12 children from the Druze town of Majdal Shams.
In addition, Iran has vowed to attack Israel directly following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday last week.
Israel’s political echelon, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered the IDF to prepare for an “immediate” return to fighting in Gaza, KAN News reported on Friday evening.
The Jerusalem Post reported earlier this week that Israeli officials estimated that if no agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas, Israel would return to fighting in Gaza in about a week and a half.
“Hamas is currently rejecting [US Middle East envoy Steve] Witkoff’s proposal, so it is very difficult to make progress,” one official said.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Witkoff’s plan involves the release of half of the living hostages and the return of half of the bodies on the first day of the continued deal. The rest of the hostages and bodies would be returned on the 42nd day, which would be the final day of the ceasefire.However, some claim that the terrorist organization has not rejected the proposal. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, “Hamas has neither accepted nor rejected the Witkoff proposal.”
Eyal Zamir to Gaza border community heads: We’re preparing to fight
On his first day as the new IDF chief of staff on Thursday, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir told heads of local councils from the Gaza border communities that “we are preparing to return to fighting” in Gaza.
“We must defeat Hamas,” Zamir said. “We are also preparing to resume fighting. The hostages are our top priority.”
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
Negotiations over the continued release of hostages held in Gaza have stalled, and “right now there is nothing happening,” sources familiar with details of the talks admitted in conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
“Right now, there’s nothing happening,” an Israeli official told the Post, adding that “Hamas is currently rejecting the Witkoff proposal, so it is very difficult to make progress.”
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the Witkoff plan involves the release of half of the living hostages and the return of half of the bodies on the first day of the deal. The second half of the hostages and bodies would be returned on the 42nd day, which would be the final day of the ceasefire.
On the other hand, some claim that Hamas has not rejected the proposal. “Hamas has neither accepted nor rejected the Witkoff proposal,” said a source with knowledge of the negotiations with the Post.“Hamas has said it is willing to negotiate and has not rejected the plan. Since Israel currently states that this is the proposal on the table, from Israel’s perspective, Hamas has rejected it.”
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff not expected to visit Israel soon, source says
An Israeli source told the Post that there is no expectation for Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, to visit the region at the moment, adding, “He will only come to finalize a deal. And since there is no real progress right now, it is unclear when or if he will arrive.”
Without an agreement on the release of additional hostages in the coming days, Israeli sources say Israel is preparing to escalate its actions against Hamas. After the decision on Sunday to stop humanitarian aid, Israel is preparing to cut off water and electricity to the Gaza Strip, as well as resume fighting – some say this might happen, without a deal, as early as next week.
Israeli officials suggest that even without accepting the Witkoff initiative, Hamas might agree to release additional hostages in the near future in exchange for the release of terrorists from prison and the entry of caravans and humanitarian aid, but they add that this also depends on other issues.
“The Israeli government needs to decide what will be negotiated with Hamas and what they will receive in exchange for the release of hostages in the coming weeks,” said an Israeli source. “Hamas’s agreement to release more hostages depends on the answers to these questions.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that Israel responded to the mediators’ request to allow a few more days of negotiations. Katz added,d “If Hamas does not release the hostages soon, the gates of Gaza will be locked and the gates of hell will be opened – we will return to fighting, and they will face the IDF with forces and methods they have never encountered before.”
Israeli officials suggest that even without accepting the Witkoff initiative, Hamas might agree to release additional hostages in the near future in exchange for the release of terrorists from prison and the entry of caravans and humanitarian aid, but they add that this also depends on other issues. “The Israeli government needs to decide what will be negotiated with Hamas and what they will receive in exchange for the release of hostages in the coming weeks,” said an Israeli source. “Hamas’s agreement to release more hostages depends on the answers to these questions.”
No progress has been made in the ceasefire talks in Cairo, and Israel is reaching a dead end, a source familiar with the details of the negotiations told The Jerusalem Post Saturday.
There were lots of technical discussions but no results, the source added.
Israel and mediating countries believe that only the Trump administration can perhaps break the talks out of the impasse.
“When [US Middle East envoy Steve] Witkoff arrives, things may happen. Everyone is waiting for him,” the source said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a meeting on the hostage deal in the next several hours with senior officials and the negotiation team, an Israeli official told the Post.
Hamas refusing Israeli proposal to extend phase one of deal
Hamas is refusing the idea of extending the first phase of the deal, Israeli officials said.
The Israeli and Qatari delegations arrived in Cairo on Thursday. The delegation is led by Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Persons, Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, as well as “M,” an anonymous officer from the Shin Bet. M is the former deputy of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who is reportedly no longer part of the hostage deal negotiating team.
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