Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Israel’s political establishment has plunged into mourning after the son of the country’s former army chief, Gadi Eisenkot, a minister in the country’s war cabinet, was killed in Gaza.

Clashes broke out late Thursday in Jerusalem, where Israeli police rushed to stop a march demanding Jewish control over the entire ancient city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a threat to the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, warning that if hostilities along the Israeli-Lebanese border did not cease, Beirut would face consequences similar to Gaza.

In what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say is “additional proof” that the Hamas terror group uses its own Palestinian civilians as human shields, IDF soldiers on Tuesday recovered one of Hamas’ “largest stockpiles of weapons” they have found so far in the Gaza Strip, between a clinic and a school close in the center of of a residential neighborhood, Ynet News reports. The weapons were seized by the IDF.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday invoked a rarely used article in the UN Charter to call on the UN Security Council to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, UN News reports.

Senior officials in the Biden administration have said the US expects Israel’s high-intensity military offensive against the Hamas terror group in the southern Gaza Strip to last until January, Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reports.

Israeli forces have surrounded the Gaza home of the alleged architect of the October 7 attacks in which Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage, several sources confirmed Thursday.

Tensions were rising in Jerusalem, where several Jewish activist groups planned to march Thursday to demand that the entire ancient city – including the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa complex – be placed under Jewish control.

As he continues to prosecute Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated emphatically Tuesday that the coastal enclave must undergo demilitarization after the current fighting has ended, and that only the Israel Defense Forces can be trusted to oversee that process, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Thousands of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) infantry and engineering troops, accompanied by armored forces, are currently engaged in combat against Hamas militants in Jabaliya, Shijaiyah, and Khan Younis. The IDF characterizes this as “the most significant and intense combat period since the beginning of the war.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated Monday that IDF forces will stay and keep fighting in the Gaza Strip until Israel’s dual goals of the destruction of Hamas and the return of the Israeli hostages have been achieved, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

A recently released Israeli who was kidnapped to Gaza by Hamas on Oct. 7 has said that he was held captive in an attic for nearly 50 days by a teacher from UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at the weekend that the Palestinian Authority (PA) which governs part of the West Bank cannot take over leadership of Gaza once the war with Hamas is over because the PA itself rejects Israel’s right to exist, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Israel’s intelligence services are preparing to assassinate Hamas leaders globally after the war in the Gaza Strip has ended, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) restarted its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on Friday following a week-long ceasefire.  Hamas, a terrorist organization, violated the ceasefire by launching rockets into Israel and failing to submit a list of hostages intended for release by 7 a.m.

On Thursday, Hamas released eight Israeli hostages, constituting the seventh group of individuals freed by the terrorist organization as part of a ceasefire agreement with Israel.