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“Both Hamas and Tehran want to spoil the Saudi-Israeli normalization process.”

Yaakov Lappin

(JNS)

Current and former Israeli defense officials suspect Iranian influence played an important role in Hamas’s decision to stage a series of mass murder and kidnap raids on the South on Saturday.

During a Zoom call with journalists organized by Media Central, Eyal Hulata, who was Israel’s national security adviser from August 2021 to January 2023, discussed “the Iranian fingerprints on both potential [Hamas] planning and motivation, in light of attempts to normalize [relations] with Saudi Arabia.”

Both Tehran and Hamas stand out for their desire to act as “spoilers” to the Saudi-Israeli normalization process, which would likely benefit the Palestinian Authority at Hamas’s expense, Hulata assessed.

“Hamas clearly wouldn’t have wanted this to go. If Iran needs a player to act, it’ll be more in Gaza than in Lebanon,” he added. “There are reasons for the spoilers of the region to put their heads up. Our enemies around us think Israel is weaker now. That is a concern of mine.

“All of this is now in the background. We need to fight back and do whatever we can to bring our people back,” Hulata said.

“This morning, Hamas embarked on the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history. They’ve been planning this for a long time, obviously. This is a very coordinated attack, and unfortunately they were able to surprise us tactically and cause devastating damage in casualties, people murdered in their beds and homes, and an unknown number of people taken back to Gaza. Civilians and soldiers have been abducted,” he continued.

“This is unprecedented. Hamas has never done something like this. We never encountered that. The fact that they felt they could or should do it is very alarming.”

The fact “that this happened 50 years after Yom Kippur War is on everyone’s mind,” Hulata said. “They were hoping to mimic this event. Clearly, everyone is thinking that and is worried about this failure, which is grave and devastating. The IDF spokesperson said it will be investigated. But at this point, the crucial issue is first how we end the fighting in Israel and then conduct fighting in Gaza.

“This will end with devastating results in Gaza and if Hezbollah gets involved it will end with devastation in Lebanon,” the former national security adviser said.

The large number of Israeli hostages taken to Gaza “complicates everything,” he added.

The Israeli Cabinet is likely weighing a range of options, Hulata said, including the option of conquering all of Gaza. “If I was national security adviser, I would want to hear that option and weigh it compared to other options,” he stated.

“Iran’s tentacles everywhere”

Lt. Col Richard Hecht, the IDF’s international spokesperson, said during his own comments to international media that “Iran has tentacles everywhere,” when asked about its likely role in the Hamas onslaught.

All military options “are on the table,” he added.

“Hamas has declared war, a combined offensive on Israel,” said Hecht, describing its attacks on Saturday as involving some 3,500 rockets fired including very heavy salvos on Tel Aviv, and a major ground invasion of Israel.

There were still 22 locations late in the day where we were engaging with terrorists who entered “Israel from the sea, the land and the air. Some of the locations we cleared, some of the locations, fighting still happen [there],” he said.

“We have a severe hostage situation in Be’eri and Ofakim, still ongoing. We’ve mobilized mainly special forces to deal with these events. There’s a very strong professionalism on how to deal with this kind of event in these elements of the military. I can confirm we have hostages and casualties. I don’t want to go into numbers but they are substantial,” he said.

“Right now we’re fighting; there will be lots of discussions about intelligence [failures] down the road,” said Hecht.

“Right now we are focused on two courses of action: returning security around Gaza and the planning by the prime minister and IDF General Staff on future steps in Gaza. There will be a severe response to this inhumane attack,” said Hecht.

Earlier on Saturday, Israel Air Force jets struck military infrastructure in two multi-story buildings in the Gaza Strip that senior Hamas operatives use for carrying out terrorist activity.

In one of the buildings, the IDF struck the military offices of a number of units and arrays of the Hamas terrorist organization, including the Hamas intelligence headquarters, its weapons production offices and other offices belonging to senior Hamas organization leaders.

The other building contained military offices used by Hamas’s General Security Service, the IDF said.

According to Hecht, “Hamas has a massive amount of projectiles. They’re going to fire as much as they can. It’s still early days. PIJ [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] is also probably involved.

“We’re moving and mobilizing forces right now. Mainly mobilizing reservists to the South and special operations intervention units for communities under attack,” he said.

The next 50 years in Gaza

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Saturday, “Today we saw the face of evil. Hamas has launched a brutal attack against the citizens of the State of Israel, attacking men, women, children and the elderly, indiscriminately. Hamas will understand very quickly that it has made a mistake—a grave mistake—and will pay a [heavy] price.

“Fifteen years ago, as head of the [IDF] Southern Command, I came close to ‘breaking the neck’ of Hamas. I was stopped by the political echelon. This phenomenon will not continue. We will change reality on the ground in Gaza for the next 50 years. What was before will be no more. We will operate at full force. I ask Israel’s citizens to remain determined and to support our security forces,” Gallant said.

Earlier, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said, “There are strikes by the air force in several locations. UAVs, scanners [sensors] and fighter jets are striking in the area of the [Gaza border] fence. Hundreds of such strikes were carried out—hundreds of deaths, including many terrorists.”

He continued, “In the [IDF] Northern Command we are on high alert, there are currently no events there but we are ready for any event and whoever attacks us in the entire northern arena will pay a very heavy price. Our focus is on Gaza but we are on high alert in case we encounter any incident, we currently do not have such information [about such enemy activity].”

Image: Firefighters battle flames a Gazan rocket started in a residential area of Rishon Letzion, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo by Yossi Aloni/Flash90.

The vehicle’s occupants—a man, his pregnant wife and their 18-month-old baby—emerged from the attack unscathed.

(JNS)

A Palestinian terrorist opened fire at an Israeli vehicle on Route 60 in Huwara, just outside Nablus (Shechem) in northern Samaria, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday night.

According to the Magen David Adom emergency medical service, the vehicle’s occupants—an Israeli man and his pregnant wife, both in their 20s, and their 18-month-old baby—emerged from the attack unscathed.

IDF troops found several bullet holes in the car, as well as a number of shell casings in the area. The back window of the car, which was reportedly en route to the Tapuach Junction, was shattered by gunshots.

Video footage from a nearby vehicle showed the terrorist shooting multiple times at the vehicle with a handgun before fleeing on foot.

Following a pursuit and fire exchange with the terrorist, IDF soldiers “neutralized” the gunman, the army announced.

Bypass road to be completed by year’s end

Four Israelis have been killed in Huwara in the past year—brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv in February; and father and son Shay Silas and Aviad Nir Nigrekar in August.

Dual Israeli-U.S. citizen David Stern, 41, narrowly survived a shooting on March 19 while driving through Huwara with his wife on their way to Jerusalem.

Two Israeli soldiers were also wounded in a drive-by shooting in the village on March 25. A few days later, dozens of Arabs stoned cars traveling through Huwara bearing Israeli license plates.

Route 60, the main north-south highway in Judea and Samaria, runs through the village. The main section of a road that bypasses the town is scheduled to open later this month.

Work on the road began approximately two years ago but was delayed. The construction received a boost in the form of an additional 50 million shekels ($13.2 million) following the murder of the Yaniv brothers and was initially planned to be completed by December.

Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev has lauded the project, saying that the bypass road “will save lives and give residents a sense of security.”

Image: An Israeli car was damaged when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire at the vehicle on Route 60 in Huwara, Oct. 5, 2023. Photo by Nadav Goldstein/TPS.

The rockets did not cross into Israeli territory, according to the IDF.

(JNS)

Terrorists in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday launched a volley of rockets towards the Mediterranean Sea.

While the rockets did not cross into Israeli territory, their launch triggered an alert on the IDF Home Front Command’s warning application.

Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement posted on Telegram that it fired the rockets as part of a drill “simulating raids on several Zionist military sites and fortifications.”

Last Thursday, Israeli authorities reopened the country’s sole pedestrian crossing with Gaza, after terrorist groups in the Palestinian enclave temporarily agreed to end weeks of rioting along the border.

Hamas staged violent riots along the frontier on a near-daily basis throughout September, targeting Israeli forces with explosive devices and gunfire, renewing the launch of incendiary balloons into Israeli territory and setting fire to tires in the Strip.

Following talks brokered by Egypt, Hamas told negotiators that it would put an end to the incessant rioting.

The riots and terror balloons are believed to be a form of Hamas pressure on Israel and Qatar. JNS previously reported that Doha notified Hamas in mid-September that it did not intend to renew its monthly aid package of $30 million.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Jerusalem was ready for a possible conflict.

“We don’t want an escalation and are not seeking a fight, but if we arrive at a point where we need to act, ‘Operation Shield and Arrow’ should be a reminder to all [Gaza-based] terror groups about the capabilities of [Israel’s] security apparatus,” Gallant said at a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war.

He was referring to the IDF’s five-day campaign in May in which the military assassinated several top Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders in Gaza. During the fighting, PIJ launched more than 1,250 rockets at Israel, to which the IDF responded by striking nearly 400 terror assets in the Strip.

“If Israeli civilians or soldiers are harmed, we will not hesitate to use all of our power to ensure the safety of citizens and return quiet to the border,” added Gallant.

Image: Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip fire rockets toward the sea, Sept. 12, 2023. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS.

Mahmoud Musa, Mohammed Othman and Mohammed Said Othman will be sentenced later this month for their assault on Joseph Borgen in May 2021.

(JNS)

On Wednesday in New York City, Mahmoud Musa and Mohammed Othman pleaded guilty to second-degree assault as a hate crime for their role in attacking Joseph Borgen on May 20, 2021. Neither received an offer from prosecutors regarding potential sentencing, so they each could face as few as three and a half years in prison or as much as 15.

Mohammed Said Othman received a lesser charge of attempted gang assault and an agreement of three years in prison.

A fourth assailant, Waseem Awawdeh, pleaded guilty in April to hitting Borgen four times with a crutch. He said, “If I could do it again, I would.”

He received an 18-month sentence, up from six after a public outcry.

“If you beat up a Jew in the streets, this is what’s going to happen. … You’re not going to get a slap on the wrist or a BS deal. You’re going to spend real time in jail,” said Borgen at the time.

Image: The on-camera anti-Semitic assault of Joseph Borgen in Times Square, N.Y., on May 21, 2021. Source: Screenshot.

Bullets struck several homes in Asa’el.

(JNS)

Palestinian terrorists shot at the Jewish community of Asa’el in the South Hebron Hills in Judea on Sunday night, with bullets striking several homes but causing no injuries.

The Israel Defense Forces opened a manhunt for the perpetrators.

Asa’el was among the nine Jewish communities beyond the Green Line whose legal status the government regulated earlier this year.

The attack came hours after several Israelis crossed into Samaria and entered the nearby Palestinian village of Jalbun, following a series of shootings targeting their homes in Kibbutz Meirav.

IDF troops spotted the Israelis crossing the security fence and intervened to return them to inside the pre-1967 line.

There were no reports of confrontations during the incident, which followed a meeting of residents who decided to set up a local operations team to immediately respond to the wave of shootings and draw public attention to them.

On Friday night, as Jews were marking the beginning of the Sukkot holiday, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on Meirav, located on the slopes of Mount Gilboa, close to Jenin but within the Green Line.

Image: The Israeli community of Asael in the South Hebron Hills, June 6, 2012. Photo by Moshe Shai/Flash90.

The arms were reportedly destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

(JNS)

The Israel Defense Forces reportedly struck overnight Saturday an Iranian weapons convoy close to Damascus destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The airstrikes targeted assets belonging to Tehran-backed groups in between the villages of Al-Assad and Al-Dimas, just west of the Syrian capital.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, and the extent of the damage remained unclear.

An unverified video circulating online appears to show Syrian anti-missile defense systems being activated.

Last month, two people died near Beit Jinn, west of Damascus, in an airstrike attributed to Israel. On the same day, the IDF announced its tanks had struck two buildings the Syrian army constructed in the security zone between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights.

Earlier in September, two Syrian soldiers were killed by Israeli airstrikes targeting a military site in the port of Tartus, where Russia maintains a naval base. Hours later, the Israel Air Force carried out strikes in Hama, Syria, reportedly in the vicinity of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (known by its French acronym, CERS), which is involved in the production of chemical weapons as well as Hezbollah’s precision missile project.

The Israel Air Force is believed to have attacked hundreds of targets in Syria in recent years as part of an effort to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in the country. However, Israel rarely acknowledges these incidents.

Iran recently threatened to avenge the strikes, with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian saying during a visit to Damscus, “The criminal practices by the Zionist entity in the region will not remain without retaliation.”

The Islamic Republic provided immense support to President Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s long civil war and continues to arm terrorist outfits such as Hezbollah.

Image: “Violent explosions” in Damascus destroy an arms depot belonging to Iranian-backed groups, Aug. 13, 2023. Credit: Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.