Weekly Israeli Bites
Good morning, and welcome to Weekly Israeli Bites.
This week, all news was reported from the Northern border in Lebanon.
The scene in Lebanon on Tuesday was like something out of a bizarre James Bond movie in what appeared to be an ingenious Israeli operation that combined cyberwar with sabotage. Thousands of Hezbollah pagers used by members of the terrorist group exploded in Lebanon and Syria, wounding at least 2,700 people and officially killing 40 Hezbollah terrorists and 19 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members. Among those injured was Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini.
At about 3:30 p.m. local time, as people shopped for groceries, sat in cafes, or drove cars and motorcycles in the afternoon traffic, the pagers in their hands or pockets started heating up and exploding — leaving blood-splattered scenes and panicking bystanders.
The explosions came hours after Israel’s internal security agency said it had foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to kill a former senior Israeli security official using a planted explosive device that could be remotely detonated.
Hezbollah acquired the pagers that blew up after the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah ordered members in February to stop using cellphones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.
Israel didn't take credit for Tuesday's attack, but any other nation could not have staged an attack of this sophistication and daring in Lebanon. U.S. officials contacted Iran through a back channel to convey that the U.S. did not have any role in the attack.
On Wednesday, hand-held walkie-talkies and other wireless communication devices used by Hezbollah were detonated across Lebanon, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 300. Explosions took place, including from hand-held radios, in southern Beirut, Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Hermel, and the Bekaa Valley, as well as in scattered villages and towns in the south, all areas with a heavy Hezbollah presence.
Images circulated on social media for the second day running, showing fire-damaged cars and motorbikes, homes and shops ablaze, and people being rushed to hospitals in ambulances.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the United States “was not aware of this incident in advance” and was not involved. Experts said the pager explosions pointed to a long-planned operation, possibly carried out by infiltrating the supply chain and rigging the devices with explosives before they were delivered to Lebanon.
Israel sent an unmistakable message to the Iranian-backed militia: We own you. We can penetrate every space in which you operate. "When Hezbollah considers how to respond, they should consider that Israel may have more surprises for them. And Israel does," said one source familiar with Israeli thinking
Arena overview
Northern Border
On Friday, the IDF conducted a precise strike on Beirut's southern Dahiya neighborhood, eliminating many of the top commanders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, including Ibrahim Aqil, the head of Hezbollah’s military operations. The United States had also wanted Aqil for his role in the 1983 bombings of the American Embassy in Lebanon and the US Marines barracks in Beirut.
Hezbollah acknowledged that the airstrike had killed two of its most senior commanders and 14 other members of the terror group who were meeting in the basement of a Beirut residential building. Ahmed Wahbi, identified by Hezbollah and the IDF as the head of the terror group’s training unit and a former commander of the Radwan Force, was also among the dead in the strike.
Overnight, more than 200 rockets were launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at the Haifa area in northern Israel, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jezreel Valley, the terror group’s most profound rocket fire into Israel since the beginning of the war in October. A teenager was killed when he crashed his vehicle as sirens sounded in the early hours of the morning, and at least three people were injured as a result of the rocket fire.
The Iran-backed terror group said the rockets were in response to the pager and walkie-talkie blasts in Lebanon.
Since Saturday afternoon, the IDF and IAF have struck approximately 290 targets, including thousands of launcher barrels, alongside additional terrorist infrastructure in multiple areas in southern Lebanon.
Southern Border
The IDF continues to eliminate terrorists and strike dozens of terror infrastructure sites in the central and southern Gaza Strip. The IAF conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command and control center in Gaza City. The command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Al Falah School, was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed in Tel al-Sultan, just north of Rafah in southern Gaza after a hidden explosive device detonated. Five other soldiers were wounded, three seriously. Staff Sergeant Agam Naim, 20, a paramedic, was the first female soldier to be killed in Gaza. Also killed were Captain Daniel Mimon Toaff, 23; Staff Sergeant Amit Bakri, 21; and Staff Sergeant Dotan Shimon, 21.
Observations
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday voted 124-14, with 43 abstentions, to support a nonbinding Palestinian resolution demanding that Israel end its presence in Gaza and Judea and Samaria within a year. The U.S. and Israel voted against the resolution, while Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK abstained.
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon slammed the vote as "a shameful decision that backs the Palestinian Authority's diplomatic terrorism. Instead of marking the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre by condemning Hamas and calling for the release of all 101 of the remaining hostages, the General Assembly continues to dance to the music of the Palestinian Authority, which backs the Hamas murderers."
The resolution demands the withdrawal of all Israeli forces and the evacuation of Israeli civilians from the territories and urges countries responsible for maintaining Israel's presence in the territories to impose sanctions and halt arms exports to Israel if they're suspected of being used in the territories. The resolution also calls for Israel to pay reparations to the Palestinians.