Weekly Israeli Bites
Good afternoon, and welcome to Weekly Israeli Bites.
On Monday, the Israeli parliament (Knesset) voted 92-10 to sever ties with UNRWA, with even opposition members of the Knesset supporting the bill. For years, it was known that UNRWA's employees teach the most deplorable anti-Semitic content and glorify terrorism in schools, radicalizing generations of Palestinians. This has played a major role in perpetuating the bloody conflict between the sides and makes the possibility of a settlement a distant dream by dehumanizing and demonizing Israelis and Jews.
For years, UNRWA facilities provided shelters for Hamas's terror activities, including in schools and medical clinics. Even though it was known that UNRWA has been plagued by extremism, no real action has been taken by the UN or by donor states to bring meaningful reforms.
The very existence of UNRWA has helped to perpetuate the Palestinians' refugee status instead of assisting Palestinians in resettling, building a sustainable self-rule, and a functioning economy that would render the refugee agency obsolete. Israel recognizes the need for humanitarian assistance, but it wants this done through agencies whose ties to terrorism have not been compromised.
The Oct. 7 massacre and the war have exposed the depth of UNRWA's involvement in terrorism, and, as such, it should no longer have a mandate to exist. This is an opportunity to replace it with organizations that can provide relief without enabling terrorism and who could reform the educational system in ways that de-radicalize rather than incite.
Moreover, Israel provided video evidence that UNRWA food rations were found in a bunker in Khan Yunis used by the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Israel has long maintained that some of the food and healthcare distributed by UNRWA in Gaza is taken by Hamas.
Israel says that while refugees from other conflicts assimilate into their host countries, with support from UN agencies like the High Commissioner for Refugees, the presence of UNRWA in countries such as Lebanon encourages Palestinians to believe that they should be allowed to return to Israel and undo the establishment of Israel, which took place in 1948. UNRWA's presence also enables host governments to deny Palestinians full rights. In Lebanon, for example, they are barred from many jobs and are unlikely ever to gain citizenship.
Arena overview
Northern border
Commando Mission Reveals Israel's Deep Penetration into Hezbollah
Israeli authorities confirmed that a team of more than 25 naval commandos captured Emad Amhaz, a senior Hezbollah weapons expert in Batroun, northern Lebanon, who is currently being interrogated by military intelligence. Locals observed a military force conducting an amphibious landing on the beach. The force captured the Lebanese national, taking him to the shore and departing to the open sea on motorboats. One Israeli official remarked, "They just reached in and extracted someone from deep within Lebanon."
IDF Troops Detained an Iranian Terror Network Operative in a Special Operation
During an intelligence-based, special operation in Syrian territory that took place in recent months, soldiers of the Egoz Unit, together with field interrogators from Unit 504, detained an Iranian terror network operative in Syria.
Ali Soleiman al-Assi is a Syrian citizen living in the Saida area in southern Syria. His activities included gathering intelligence on IDF troops in the border area for future terror activity of the network. The operation by IDF troops to detain al-Assi prevented a future attack and led to the exposure of the operational methods of Iranian terror networks located near the Golan Heights. Al-Assi was transferred for further investigation to Unit 504 and other security forces.
Footage of a Hezbollah Combat Compound in Southern Lebanon
During the targeted ground raids by troops of Shayetet 13, the Yahalom Unit, and the Oketz Unit, a raid was conducted on a Hezbollah terrorist compound. Hezbollah intended to use this compound to plan and execute an infiltration into Israeli territory and attacks on IDF troops. Within the compound, the soldiers located underground infrastructure and hideouts equipped with logistical and medical supplies for prolonged stays, military tents, and pits stocked with weapons.
The troops also located and destroyed rocket launchers, high-powered explosives ready to be activated, anti-tank missiles, mortar shells, AK-47 rifles, surface-to-air missiles, and a launcher concealed in a mountain on a several-meter track aimed directly at civilian communities in northern Israel.
Southern border
An Underground Weapons Manufacturing Facility Was Located and Destroyed in the Central Gaza Strip
As part of the operations conducted by troops in the central Gaza Strip, soldiers from the 5th Brigade located an underground tunnel route containing a weapons manufacturing facility belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization, situated within the civilian population near the area of Zeitoun.
In the underground facility, workshops and hundreds of supplies for producing rockets, shells, and grenades, along with diving equipment intended for Hamas terrorists to infiltrate Israeli territory by sea, were found. Additionally, the tunnel route contained several long-term living areas equipped with an oven, stove, food supplies, beds, and offices used by the terrorists during the war.
Observations
Satellite Images Suggest Israel Struck a Major Iranian Missile Plant
New satellite photographs suggest that the Israeli military's attack on Iran on Saturday struck an array of sensitive military sites. One is the Shahroud Space Center in Semnan Province, a significant missile production facility that belongs to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who has been tracking that site since 2017, said it was used to build solid-propellant rocket motors that can be used in space technology but are also commonly used for ballistic missiles.
Hinz said he had "high confidence" that the Shahroud facility was used in the mass production of intermediate-range ballistic missiles that could be used to target Israel. Initial reports suggested that three of Iran's four factories for missile production had been hit.
Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, said Tuesday that if Iran struck again, "We will once again know how to reach Iran, with capabilities that we did not even use this time, and strike very, very hard at both their capabilities and locations. This is not over. We are still in the midst of it."