The Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Operation Iron Swords (Updated to 1 p.m., January 7, 2024)

The IDF forces continued their integrated ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip, focusing on Gaza City and Khan Yunis. According to reports, they completed the dismantling of Hamas' military-terrorist facilities in the northern Gaza Strip, although they continued confronting terrorist squads on the ground. The Palestinians reported battles and airstrikes throughout the Strip. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) claimed responsibility for launching rockets at the cities, towns and villages surrounding the Gaza Strip.Senior Hamas and PIJ terrorists stated that they were prepared to negotiate the issue of a hostage release deal while continuing to insist on a comprehensive ceasefire as a precondition. Hezbollah ramped up its attacks after launching several dozen rockets at the IDF base in Meron. An Israeli civilian was killed in a shooting attack northwest of Ramallah. A Border Police fighter was killed and three soldiers were wounded by an IED during a security force-operation in United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken began a tour of the Middle East, arriving in Jordan after a visit to Turkey.ISIS published a statement claiming responsibility for the January 4, 2024 attack near the grave of Qassem Soleimani in Kerman, which killed 91 people.
Read more...

Reactions to the killing of Saleh al-‘Arouri

On the evening of January 2, 2024, an explosion occurred in the Musharrafiya area of the Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut. The attack killed Saleh al-'Arouri, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau and responsible for the movement's terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria. Six other terrorists were killed with him, two of them senior commanders of Hamas' military-terrorist wing in Lebanon. Hamas, Hezbollah and other members of the Iranian-led "resistance axis"[1] accused Israel and published notices condemning the killing, attacking Israel and calling for revenge.. Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, warned Israel and said that if Israel wanted to wage war with Lebanon, Hezbollah's response would be "unlimited. Apparently, killing al-'Arouri in the heart of Hezbollah's stronghold embarrassed the organization, which sponsored the senior Hamas terrorist responsible for Hamas' ties with Hezbollah and Iran, and perhaps gave it reason to be concerned about the welfare of its senior terrorist operatives, who are also concentrated in the district.
Read more...

Operation Iron Swords (Updated to 1 p.m., January 4, 2024)

IDF forces continued the integrated ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip, focusing on the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip and the Daraj-Tufah neighborhoods east of Gaza City. The Palestinian reported attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, which focused on the area of the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. On the morning of January 4, 2024, rockets were fired at the cities, towns and villages surrounding the Gaza Strip, including Ashqelon. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an unusually large number of attacks (15). Nine Hezbollah operatives were killed in Israeli strikes in south Lebanon. Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, said in a speech that "Hezbollah's quick action and intervention in the conflict as early as October 8 were what prevented Israel from attacking them." Israeli security forces operated in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm for the second consecutive day.
Read more...

Evidence of the terrorist organizations’ use of civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip

Hamas, Hezbollah and many other terrorist organizations use civilian facilities and populations as shields to hide their military-terrorist activities. The use of civilian facilities and the civilian population was exposed and documented many times during the Second Lebanon War and in various IDF operations against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, and in a very extensive way during the most recent war in the Gaza Strip. The extensive use of civilian facilities, and of citizens as a "human shields" has many expressions. Since the beginning of the war (October 7, 2023), the IDF has exposed the full extent of Hamas' use of civilian facilities for military-terrorist purposes Following are examples revealed by the IDF forces during Operation Iron Swords showing the location of terrorist facilities in the heart of a civilian population.
Read more...

Operation Iron Swords (Updated to 1 p.m., January 3, 2024)

The IDF forces continued the integrated ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip, focusing on Gaza City in the north and the Khan Yunis area in the south. The Palestinian media reported that during the night intense attacks were carried out in the central Gaza Strip, in east and west Khan Yunis, and in north Rafah.The most prominent event was the targeted attack in Beirut which killed Saleh al-'Arouri, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, who was responsible for Hamas terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria.. The killing provoked many reactions among the Palestinians, Hezbollah, Iran and the pro-Iranian militias. Hezbollah expressed sorrow at Saleh al-'Arouri's death, calling it a dangerous development in the war between Israel and the "resistance axis." UNIFIL and the Lebanese government expressed concern about the expansion of the war. The prime minister of Lebanon called for a complaint to be submitted to the UN Security Council.Following the elimination of Saleh al-'Arouri, demonstrations and protest marches took place throughout Judea and Samaria, Iran and pro-Iranian militias responded to al-'Arouri's killing and said they fully supported the Palestinians.
Read more...

Operation Iron Swords (Updated to 1 p.m., January 2, 2024)

The IDF forces continued their integrated ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip focusing on the Daraj-Tufah neighborhoods in Gaza City and Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, while the fighting continued against terrorist centers in the northern and central Gaza Strip. Senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists continue to claim that they have the upper hand in the fighting with the IDF.Regarding the issue of the hostages, "Palestinian sources" reported that Hamas waived the condition of a permanent ceasefire and agreed to release about 40 Israeli hostages in exchange for a 40-day ceasefire: The Hamas-controlled crossings authority in the Gaza Strip reported that since October 21, 2023, 5,294 trucks bringing humanitarian aid had entered the Strip. Senior Hamas and PIJ terrorists, as well as senior figures in the Palestinian Authority (PA), expressed strong opposition to the idea of uprooting Palestinians from their places of residence as a solution for "the day after." Hezbollah continues attacking IDF posts and concentrations of forces on the northern border. Over the past day Hezbollah claimed responsibility for three attacks . The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for a relatively large number of attacks on American military bases in Syria and Iraq.
Read more...