A Hamas tunnel discovered by IDF troops in northern Gaza’s Salatin, close to Jabaliya, December 7, 2023. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)
Published December 12, 2023
Wall Street Journal says tactic still at early stage and being evaluated; IDF chief has said it’s ‘a good idea,’ but environmentalists and some US officials have voiced concern
The IDF has started pumping seawater into Hamas’s underground tunnel system in Gaza, a move aimed at destroying the Palestinian terror group’s subterranean network of passages and hideaways and driving its operatives above ground, a report said Tuesday.
The development was reported by The Wall Street Journal, which earlier this month reported that the tactic was under “consideration” and that the Israel Defense Forces had set up five large water pumps near the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, capable of flooding the tunnels within weeks by pumping thousands of cubic meters of water per hour into them.
On Tuesday, citing US officials briefed on the Israeli military’s operations, the American outlet reported that the operation was at an early stage and that the utility of the tactic was still being considered.
It said the method is one out of a few others weighed to tackle the tunnels, including airstrikes, use of liquid explosives, and dispatching dogs, drones and robots into the network.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.timesofIsrael.com
RELATED: Netanyahu: “First We Will Win in the South and Then We Will Deal With the North”
Published December 11, 2023
Dozens of Hamas terrorists have been killed in Israel Air Force strikes over the past 24 hours, the IDF reported, including armed terrorists exiting a medical clinic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority will run Gaza when Operation “Swords of Iron” is completed.
IDF soldiers uncovered a room used for RPG training inside a mosque in Jabalya, Arutz Sheva reported. Nahal Brigade soldiers also found many weapons, including rifles, grenades, cartridges, etc. – some of them inside UNRWA bags.
The IDF revealed that overnight, the Jerusalem Brigade, in cooperation with intelligence, ground, and air forces, thwarted an attempted Hamas attack on IDF troops and destroyed a tunnel shaft. A Hamas attack on a location where IDF troops were taking cover was thwarted. IDF soldiers targeted terrorists who came out of the tunnel shaft and destroyed it.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: wwwthegatewaypundit.com
RELATED: When Hamas is dismantled, a second war looms
Gaza’s terrorist rulers predictably leverage the hostages to try to deepen division inside Israel * IDF makes vital progress at mounting cost * Hanegbi spells out the Hezbollah threat
Fighters from the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah carry out a training exercise in Aaramta village in the Jezzine District, southern Lebanon, May 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Published December 11, 2023
Hamas on Sunday revived its threat that none of the hostages it is holding will leave Gaza alive unless and until all of its demands are met.
Those demands include an end to the war, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the release of all Palestinian security prisoners, including those captured on and since October 7. Put another way, the price of the hostages’ freedom is for Hamas to live to carry out more and worse October 7 massacres — as it has said it fully intends to do — with the additional involvement of all of its currently jailed murderers.
This intolerable price runs up against the intolerable situation of the hostages, some of whom are known to be in immediate life-threatening peril, and whose families are understandably demanding that the government prioritize freeing the hostages over the other declared goal of the war, destroying Hamas. This is the internal Israel breach that Hamas, well aware of widespread Israeli lack of faith in the political leadership, is predictably and nauseatingly seeking to widen.
Set against that is the seemingly inexorable progress of the IDF’s ground offensive, gradually taking control of Hamas strongholds in northern Gaza and deepening its operations in Hamas’s southern stronghold, Khan Younis.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.timesofIsrael.com
RELATED: Israel’s hunt for the most-wanted person in Gaza
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar speaks in Gaza City in 2021. He’s now Israel’s most-wanted person in Gaza. Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Published December 10, 2023
Israel’s military operation against Hamas is now focused on capturing or killing the most wanted person in Gaza: Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Israeli officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: After more than two months of battering the terror group’s positions, Israeli officials believe that eliminating Sinwar and his close associates would accelerate Hamas’ military collapse and an end to the war that began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
State of play: During the past week, the Israeli Defense Forces expanded its ground operation into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, while continuing attacks on several areas in northern Gaza.
- Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the IDF’s chief of staff, said Saturday that many Hamas militants are surrendering in northern Gaza, which he described as a sign of the group’s military collapse.
- Also Saturday, a video aired on Israeli television channels purporting to show dozens of Palestinian men surrendering to IDF soldiers in northern Gaza. IDF officials claimed some of the men were Hamas militants, while others were civilians. Axios could not independently verify the video’s authenticity.
READ FULL ARTICLE
SOURCE: www.axios.com
