After a brief cease-fire between Israel and Hamas expired on December 1, Israel started bombing Gaza again.
After Hamas released more than 100 of the more than 200 hostages that its fighters had taken during the surprise attack on Israel on October 7, the cease-fire was lifted. Israel freed more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli detention facilities in return.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff speaks about an impending meeting with Israeli leaders.
In meetings with senior Israeli political and military figures on Monday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. C.Q. Brown and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will talk about Israel’s standards for determining when to switch to stability operations in Gaza after its major military operations and making sure it’s “a smooth transition.”
While traveling to Israel on Sunday, Brown told reporters, “The objective here is to have better security than they had prior to the events on October 7.”
Although Austin and Brown often discuss the fight with Hamas and urge Israel to spare civilian lives as it conducts its operations with their Israeli counterparts, their trip will build on National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s same focus sessions last week in Israel.
“Part of this is us sharing our own experience and not building a plan for the Israelis, but actually talking through our own experiences and how we’ve gone through various conflicts in the past,” Brown said.
According to Brown, the following stage of Gaza’s stabilization operations must offer
“A certain degree of stability to support governance, security, and the ongoing provision of humanitarian aid.”
According to him, political leaders can benefit from the knowledge that senior U.S. military personnel possess regarding the resources required to execute stability operations and guarantee a seamless transition.
However, Brown added that he will also hear Israel’s side of the story.
“It’s more of a dialogue that goes both ways, and I’m trying to understand where they’re coming from and what they’re — how they see things,” he explained. “And I try to share based on my experience and the things that we see on how best to move forward.”
The IDF claims to have found one of Hamas’ largest tunnels beneath Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces declared on Sunday that they had found and intended to destroy one of Hamas’ largest tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip.
The IDF stated in a post on the social media platform X that the tunnel’s entrance, which was approximately 1,300 feet from the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel and was nearly 2 1/2 miles in length and large enough to drive a vehicle through, was situated.
The IDF claims that the shaft, which is made of reinforced concrete and is more than 160 feet deep, took years to construct and millions of dollars to finish. The IDF claims that the tunnel has tracks, electricity, and communication networks installed.
The IDF claims that Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, is the one who came up with the idea for the tunnel. Mohammed Sinwar is seen in the passenger seat of a Jeep that is traveling through a tunnel in a video that the IDF released that was taken from Hamas.
Reporters were informed by IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari that the tunnel would be demolished.
“Without demolishing the tunnel project of Hamas, we cannot demolish Hamas,” stated Hagari.
Since the start of the war, the IDF says it has destroyed over 800 tunnels in Gaza.
IDF chief: The shooting of three captives was “against the rules of engagement.”
The unintentional killing of three Israeli hostages in Gaza this week, according to the commander of the Israel Defense Forces, was “against the rules of engagement.”
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi stated in a video statement on Saturday that the three hostages “did everything possible so that we would understand — they moved around shirtless so that we wouldn’t suspect them of carrying explosives and they held a white cloth, but the tension overcame all of the above,”
Shooting someone who waves a white flag and tries to surrender, he said, “is forbidden.”
“However, this shooting was carried out during combat and under pressure,” Halevi said. “There may be additional cases in which hostages escape or are abandoned during combat, and we have the duty and responsibility to rescue them alive.”
According to Halevi, the incident was his fault and the IDF’s fault as well, and they “will do everything to prevent such incidents from recurring in future combat.”
Israel says the hostage taken at a music festival has been confirmed deceased.
According to Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy on Saturday, Inbar Hayman, an Israeli hostage taken during the Re’im music festival, died while being held captive by Hamas.
With two pals, Hayman, 27, fled the festival but was apprehended by “terrorists riding motorcycles,” according to a statement released on Saturday by the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum.
According to the IDF, the soldier who shot the hostages felt “threatened” before firing.
Information about their initial probe into the hostage-taking was made public by the Israel Defense Forces, who stated that the incident occurred in an area with “very intense fighting.”
The three prisoners emerged from a structure, just meters away from the soldiers, holding a stick covered in white cloth and without clothing. According to an IDF spokeswoman, a soldier opened fire after seeing them as a threat, instantly killing two captives.
After suffering an injury, the third person fled into the building from whence the other two had emerged, and someone called out “help” in Hebrew. The battalion commander then gave the order for his men to cease firing. However, an IDF spokesman claims that another burst was fired in defiance of the command, killing the third hostage.
The names of the three guys that were slain are Yotam Haim, 28, Alon Shamriz, 26, and Samer Talalka, 22,.
The three hostages were “mistakenly identified” as a threat, according to the IDF. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, described the event as a “unbearable tragedy.”
