Palestinian terrorists in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley have killed five civilians and wounded many others since Oct. 7.

(JNS)

As the Israel Defense Forces battles Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the country’s Judea, Samaria and Jordan Valley regions are experiencing a parallel rise in terror incidents, according to data published by Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) on Tuesday.

Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 15, Rescuers Without Borders first responders recorded more than 2,600 attacks targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers, including 760 cases of rock-throwing, 551 fire bombings, 12 attempted or successful stabbings and nine vehicular assaults.

Among the report’s findings was a sharp increase in the number of shootings, with 127 instances of gunfire reported over the past three months. By comparison, in all of 2022, Hatzalah recorded just under 100 shooting attacks.

The organization’s figures do not include the hundreds of violent attacks on security personnel occurring during counterterrorism operations in villages under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria have killed five Israelis and wounded many others since Oct. 7, according to Hatzalah.

Rescuers Without Borders was founded in 2000, at the beginning of the Second Intifada, with the goal of establishing a civilian emergency response infrastructure in remote parts of Judea and Samaria.

Last month, the IDF carried out a drill simulating an Oct. 7-style attack on Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, according to Hebrew reports.

The exercise was one of various scenarios the military is preparing for in Judea and Samaria following the invasion of southern Israel by Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip, in which 1,200 people were murdered, thousands more wounded and 240 kidnapped.

Meanwhile, in recent weeks, the IDF has been investigating possible infiltration tunnels Israeli forces discovered near Jewish communities in the Hebron Hills in Judea and Shiloh in Samaria’s Binyamin region.

Since Hamas launched its war against Israel, residents of the Binyamin region have reported an accumulation of artificial hills between Shiloh and Ofra, in a possible sign of heavy digging by Palestinians in the area.

The IDF has also been looking into complaints by residents of Bat Hefer, a village east of Netanya, of tunneling sounds coming from the direction of P.A.-controlled areas. Residents have reported heard tunneling originating from Shuweika, a satellite village of Tulkarm.

Image: An Israeli man was killed in a terrorist shooting along Route 465 in the Binyamin region of Samaria, Jan. 7, 2024. Credit: TPS.

The building where hostages Yossi Sharabi and Itai Svirsky were held was not attacked by Israel, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.

(JNS)

Israeli officials denounced a Hamas propaganda video, which claimed that two hostages whom the terror group holds captive in the Gaza Strip were killed in an Israeli Air Force strike, on Monday night as psychological terror.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israel Defense Forces spokesman, said during a press conference that Israel had not targeted nor attacked the building in which Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, were held.

“This is a lie of Hamas,” Hagari insisted. “We do not attack a place where we know there may be hostages.”

Israeli jets attacked terror infrastructure near where Sharabi and Svirsky were held, leading Jerusalem to launch an investigation into Hamas’s claims about the two hostages’ fate, Hagari said.

The Israeli military contacted the families of the hostages and expressed concerns about their safety in Hamas captivity, per Hagari.

In footage that Hamas released on Monday evening, Israeli hostage Noa Argamani, 26, appears on camera. “I was located in a building. It was bombed by an IDF airstrike, an F-16 fighter jet,” she appears to say in the recording. “Three rockets were fired. Two of the rockets exploded, and the other didn’t.”

“I was injured in my head. My head is full of shrapnel and I have injuries to my body. Itai Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi died because of our own IDF airstrikes,” Argamani seems to add.

The video concludes with what appear to be two bodies that Hamas claims belong to the hostages.

JNS is not publishing the propaganda video.

On Sunday, Hamas released a “teaser” video showing Argamani, Sharabi and Svirsky apparently alive. “Tomorrow we will inform you of their fate,” it stated.

The video was the first sign of life from the three hostages since Oct. 7, some 100 days ago. It was not clear when that footage was captured. The two appear to introduce themselves and plead for the Israeli government to do everything possible to ensure their freedom.

Argamani was filmed being taken into Gaza after her abduction from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im. “Don’t kill me! No, no, no,” she yells in the film, as she’s taken away on a motorcycle by Hamas terrorists, as terrorist gunmen push her boyfriend, Avi Nathan, around.

Hamas’s psychological warfare came on the 100th day of the war, which included a 24-hour rally in Tel Aviv organized by relatives of the hostages. Tens of thousands gathered with them at “Hostage Square” to demand their release.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated on Monday that only military pressure will secure the release of the hostages.

“If the fire stops, the fate of the hostages will be sealed for many years in the captivity of Hamas,” he said. “Without military pressure, no one will talk to us. Only from a position of strength can the hostages be freed.”

Gallant also announced an official end to heavy combat operations in northern Gaza. “The intensive maneuvering phase in the north of the Gaza Strip has ended, and in the south, it will also end soon,” the defense minister said.

Gallant’s statement came as the IDF’s largest regular-service armored division exited Gaza.

Soldiers of the 36th Armored Division, which includes the Golani Infantry Brigade and the 7th and 188th Armored Brigades, will be given a brief break from their service before they return for a period of training. The Israeli military will then decide whether and where to redeploy them.

Image: IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari briefs reporters in Tel Aviv, Oct. 16, 2023. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.

A three-man terror cell had infiltrated the Judea community of Adora; all three terrorists were killed by Israeli forces.

(JNS)

An Israel Defense Forces soldier was shot and moderately wounded on Friday in the Jewish community of Adora in Judea.

According to the military, a reservist guarding the community had responded to an alert in the community’s industrial zone.

“When the soldier arrived, he was hit by the terrorists’ gunfire,” the IDF said.

The victim, aged 34, sustained a bullet wound to the leg and was evacuated to the hospital fully conscious and in stable condition.

After a short manhunt, security forces tracked down and killed the three Palestinians, all of them teenagers with no prior security offenses.

Security forces found a M-16 rifle, several knives and fire bombs on the bodies of the terrorists.

“We have been warning about this scenario for several months already. Entire communities are located close to nests of terror, without sufficient security barriers,” said Yesha Council chairman and head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council Shlomo Ne’eman.

“There are unfenced communities without security elements, and we can’t always rely on miracles…. Therefore, the most important issue at the moment is to include the budget for security and reinforcement in Judea and Samaria in this year’s core budget,” he added.

Image: An Israel Defense Forces soldier was shot and moderately wounded during the infiltration by three Palestinian terrorists of the Jewish community of Adora, located in Judea, Jan. 12, 2024. Credit: TPS.

IDF intelligence: Hamas spent ‘tens of millions’ on Gaza terror tunnels

“We will never let the world forget the hostages being held by Hamas since Oct. 7,” the IDF spokesman said.

(JNS)

Hamas spent tens of millions of dollars, which was intended for the Gaza Strip, building underground terrorist infrastructure, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday evening, citing intelligence findings.

Hamas “opted to invest precious resources in building terrorist infrastructure used to harm Israeli civilians and IDF forces, while cynically exploiting the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” the military said.

An analysis of tunnel shafts discovered since the start of Israel’s ground operation in the coastal enclave last year shows that Hamas diverted at least 6,000 tons of concrete and 1,800 tons of metal to build “hundreds of kilometers” of underground infrastructure, added the statement.

The IDF’s search for terror tunnels is aided by a trove of intelligence seized by soldiers, including 65 million digital files and half a million physical documents, the IDF said late last year.

In some cases, soldiers found large sacks belonging to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The sacks were filled with sand, possibly intended to stabilize tunnels before concrete layers were added.

In a seven-minute video summary of the first three months of its military offensive, the IDF noted that “with the outbreak of the war, representatives from Israel, the United States, Egypt and the United Nations convened to create a large-scale humanitarian aid operation focused on maximizing the amount of aid transported into Gaza.”

“Israel is fully committed to facilitating and supporting all humanitarian efforts by the international community, while working to free the Israeli hostages and dismantle Hamas, and with it, bring hope for a better future for the people of the Middle East,” per the video.

Earlier on Thursday, the IDF said it expanded its operations in the southern Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis in the past 24 hours, exposing a vast tunnel network used by the terrorist group to hold hostages.

“The tunnel was connected to an extensive underground tunnel network beneath a civilian area in the city,” the army said. “Millions of shekels are estimated to have been invested in excavating the tunnel and equipping it with air ventilation systems, electrical supply and plumbing.”

Following an investigation, the IDF confirmed that some Israeli hostages had been held captive in the tunnel. They were held in cages, some 60 feet underground, per a CNN report that cited Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, commander of the IDF’s 98th Division.

During his daily press briefing on Thursday evening, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman, switched to English, as he addressed the plight of the 136 hostages still held by terrorist organizations in the Strip.

“We will never let the world forget the hostages being held by Hamas since Oct. 7. ‘Never again’ is our call to action. Because ‘Never again’ is now,” Hagari told reporters.

“It is important to remember that we are fighting a just war like no other—a war that the enemy started by choice and knowingly, during which he committed crimes against humanity and cruel acts that the Western world has not seen for decades,” he added.

Some 3,200 Israeli troops serving in Gaza have required treatment in the field by IDF Medical Corps soldiers, the army said on Thursday, noting that more than 400 nurses, 53 of whom are women, are participating in the ground operation, as of last week.

IDF medics applied at least 470 combat tourniquets, gave 60,150 units of blood and approximately 100 plasma transfusions, in addition to evacuating hundreds of soldiers, the IDF said.

Image: Israel Defense Forces soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, Jan. 9, 2024. Credit: IDF.

More than 300 tunnel shafts were located in the Hamas stronghold in southern Gaza.

(JNS)

The Israel Defense Forces expanded its operations in Khan Yunis both above and below ground in the past 24 hours, exposing a vast terror tunnel beneath the southern Gaza City used by Hamas to hold hostages.

“The tunnel was connected to an extensive underground tunnel network beneath a civilian area in the city. Millions of shekels are estimated to have been invested in excavating the tunnel and equipping it with air ventilation systems, electrical supply and plumbing. After investigating the tunnel, it can be confirmed that Israeli hostages had been inside the tunnel,” the IDF said on Thursday morning.

To date, the official number of hostages still being held by Hamas is 136, some of whom are believed to have been killed in captivity. The terror group abducted 240 people during the bloody Oct. 7 rampage across the northwestern Negev in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered and thousands more wounded. One hundred and ten hostages, mostly women and children, were released in November as part of a ceasefire agreement.

Hamas’s senior leader in the Strip, Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the Oct. 7 massacre, is believed to be hiding in the Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis, where he has reportedly surrounded himself with a large number of living hostages.

More than 300 tunnel shafts have been located in Khan Yunis since the start of the IDF’s ground operation on Oct. 27, some of which lead to significant tunnels, tactical shafts, weapons storage facilities and combat areas, according to the army.

“So far, more than 100 tunnels have been destroyed and put out of use, in which, among other things, terrorists were eliminated,” the army said.

After two weeks of intense fighting, IDF troops on Wednesday gained control over the southern Gaza town of Khirbat Ikhza’a, a strategic focal point of Hamas terrorist activity near Khan Yunis, the military said.

Located less than a mile from the border with Israel, Khirbat Ikhza’a served as the staging area from which Hamas terrorists attacked the communities of Nir Oz, Nirim and Ein Hashlosha on Oct. 7.

Soldiers of the IDF’s 5th Brigade combat team destroyed Hamas infrastructure and killed dozens of Hamas terrorists during “Operation Oz and Nir,” which was launched in late December. In addition, some 40 attack tunnels were discovered and destroyed, the IDF said.

Nir Oz, a once-thriving community of 400 people, was among the hardest hit on Oct. 7. One in every four residents was either killed or kidnapped.

Image: Israeli forces during Gaza ground operations, Jan. 11, 2024. Credit: IDF.