Last weekend saw a great deal of events in all fronts – both military and diplomatic. We will start in the north, where at 1 a.m. this morning the air defense fighters intercepted a ‘suspicious aerial target’ over the sea in front of Acre – apparently belonging to Hezbollah. In response, the IDF carried out extensive air strikes along the border this morning, in several Lebanese villages.
On the Syrian front, a failed rocket was launched at the Golan Heights, which was met with artillery fire from IDF gunners. Later that night, the Israeli Air Force carried out an attack near Damascus, against Hezbollah and Syrian army’s arms depots; anti-aircraft fire was fired against the planes, and several Syrian soldiers were wounded.
On the front of Judea and Samaria, an attempted attack was carried out in Hebron during the Sabbath, when a local imam opened fire from the Muslim cemetery. The shooting failed, and the attacker was killed. In general, this was a relatively quiet Saturday compared to the last few months in general, and the month of Ramadan in particular.
On the Gaza front, IDF brigades that remained in the Gaza Strip continued their activities. Now, the intensity of the activity seems to be decreasing slightly, perhaps in preparation for invading Rafah or as a result of focusing on Judea and Samaria. In any case, dozens of terrorists were killed, including a senior Hamas police officer, whose assassination attempt had failed in the past. In addition, the intelligence indications are growing that Marwan Issa, one of the major members of the terrorist organization, was indeed killed in an attack carried out a week ago.
And on the farthest southern front – the Houthis in Yemen, an attack on a cargo ship occurred, and a Houthi drone was intercepted by American ships. In recent days, the Houthis have been threatening to expand their operations into the Indian Ocean, while Western intelligence estimates are increasing that the Houthis have used most of their fire power.
In the political arena, there have been two refreshing changes in the Palestinian Authority – first with the appointment of a new prime minister by President Mahmoud Abbas: Muhammad Mustafa. This is a man of technical and economic background, which may indicate a change of trend in the PA’s hawkish policy; at the same time, the Fatah movement issued an unprecedented statement of criticism against Hamas and its conduct toward and during the war, accusing it of the current Nakba (catastrophe) which is greater than the Nakba of 1948 (considering the number of fatalities and displaced persons, this is a correct accusation).
And in the diplomatic arena, Hamas published “new” conditions for the renewal of negotiations for the release of the hostages. The new proposal led to the meeting of the political-security cabinet and the sending of the Israeli delegation back to Qatar; according to Israeli officials, Hamas is still far from acceptable conditions, but the gaps have narrowed favourably.
To respond – rxpuyhi@gmail.com
